Seminaries are welcoming students back to school this fall, but both the students and these institutions are facing pressures that are transforming the way clergy are trained. Schools are struggling financially, enrollment is declining, and many seminarians face increasing debts. Other factors, however, could make a seminary education more accessible.
After organized worship, athletic competition is perhaps the oldest communal impulse known to mankind, and today sports and religion mirror each other as never before, experts say. But that correlation has negative as well as positive aspects. This edition of ReligionLink provides a guide to these issues.
The suicide of a New Jersey college student whose intimate encounter with another man was broadcast on the Internet by two other students has cast a spotlight on the problem of bullying and its often brutal consequences. Religious groups condemn hateful behavior like bullying but can differ on the solutions.
Do sex education programs that emphasize abstinence really work? The issue is on the boil thanks to rising teen pregnancy rates and the high profile of Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, herself an unwed teenage mother. Now a pair of new studies reveals a complex answer to a flashpoint debate in the culture wars.
Homeschooling is booming, with religious and moral motivations pushing the trend. According to a National Household Education Surveys Program study, more than 1.5 million students were being homeschooled in 2007 — up from 850,000 in 1999 and 1.1 million in 2003. That accounts for nearly 3 percent of the country’s school-age population.
A jump in America’s teen birth rate – after 14 years of declines – is sharpening the debate over sex education in the nation’s schools. The increase, reported Dec. 5, 2007, renewed calls from some quarters to curtail federal funding for abstinence-only education programs, which have been strongly promoted by the Bush administration. Others, however, [...]
Public schools and universities across the country are considering Muslim students’ requests for religious accommodation during Ramadan, the holy month of prayer and fasting, which continues through Oct. 12. Accommodations can include separate rooms where fasting students can go during lunch; places for students to perform daily prayers; the consideration of requests to make Eid [...]
Public schools have emerged as a leading venue where divisions over sexual orientation are playing out. State legislation, lawsuits and school district policies are grappling with several areas of concern: The increasing formation of Gay-Straight Alliance chapters in schools. Bullying, discrimination and other forms of harassment that are based on perceived or actual sexual orientation [...]
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