Research + News | Topic: Religion

Woke Totemism

Multiculturalism has the characteristics of a primitive religion, albeit a confused one. Read the article here.

Should All Colleges Teach Religion?

AtlanticA provocative article in The Atlantic argues that teaching religion and offering spiritual guidance to college students can help them when they are adrift. In the article “Colleges Should Teach Religion to Their Students,” historian Marshal Poe suggests:

“I think religion should be taught in college. I’m not talking about ‘religious studies,’ that is, the study of the phenomenon of religion. I’m talking about having imams, priests, pastors, rabbis, and other clerics teach the practice of their faiths. In college classrooms. To college students. For credit. I think religion should be taught in college because I believe it can help save floundering undergraduates. I’m not talking about ‘saving’ them in Christian sense. I’m talking about teaching them how to live so they do not have to suffer an endless stream of miseries.”

Read the full article here.

Growth of the Nonreligious: Bad for American Society?

A nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life asked Americans whether having “more people who are not religious” is a good thing, a bad thing, or doesn’t matter for American society.

According to the study “Many more say it is bad than good (48% versus 11%). But about four-in-ten (39%) say it does not make much difference. Even among adults who do not identify with any religion, only about a quarter (24%) say the trend is good, while nearly as many say it is bad (19%); a majority (55%) of the unaffiliated say it does not make much difference for society.”

Read the full report here.

Read a report from Christianity Today here.

 

Is America Losing Faith with Religion?

The Washington Post columnist, Michael Gerson, offers his thoughts on the rise of the “nones,” the growing number of people who have no religious affiliation (as in “none of the above”).

Gerson writes, “According to Pew, 74 percent of the nones grew up in a religious tradition of some sort. Yet while conversion has increased the ranks of the nones, retention is not particularly good. Protestantism, for example, loses about 20 percent of those raised Protestants.”

Read the full article here.