Scientology is what sociologists classify as a New Religious Movement, or NRM. But for many people it is a buzzword for “fringe religion,” or a “Hollywood” faith for celebrities whose propensity to make news guarantees that Scientology has a profile out of proportion to its membership numbers.
The world’s youngest monotheistic religion is the Bahá’í Faith. It’s small – around 5 million-plus believers – but global and growing. The Bahá’í Faith has spread widely since its origin in Iran, then known as Persia, in 1844, and is today the world’s second most widely dispersed religion (after Christianity), practiced in more than 200 [...]
Judaism is among the world’s oldest religions, emerging in the Middle East more than 4,000 years ago. Like most world religions, it is not frozen in form but is constantly affected by the times in which its followers live.
Today, Jews in America and elsewhere are redefining what it means to be Jewish and the ways [...]
Muslims’ engagement with government and politics is becoming more prominent in the United States and abroad on issues ranging from immigration and terrorism to charities and civil rights. This guide lists research centers, organizations and scholars with expertise on the growing role of Muslims’ interactions with government and politics.
Buddha, from the Sanskrit language, means “awakened” — and in the United States today, Buddhism has come wide awake. Originally spread from Asia, Buddhism is now considered the fourth-largest religion in the United States. The ever-growing number of U.S. practitioners is estimated at 1.5 million or more. That growth is bringing awareness, influence and some [...]
Fifty-eight percent of Americans say they know little or nothing about Islam’s practices. And what they know is sometimes wrong. Meanwhile, 32 percent of Americans say the media are the biggest influence on their perception of Muslims. This edition of ReligionLink is a journalist’s guide to covering Muslims and Islam in America.
The primary season — even through Super Tuesday — posed a particular challenge to evangelicals. From Ronald Reagan’s campaign in 1980 through George W. Bush’s in 2004, evangelicals usually found a champion they could rally around. But the wide-open field this year, and the presence of Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher, [...]
The “fundamentalist” label has become common in everyday conversation, with Americans applying it with equal frequency to Islamic radicals, Christian conservatives, or even political ideologues of every stripe. Yet as use of the term has grown, its meaning has been obscured. That has important implications for understanding the turbulent dynamics of today’s religious and political [...]
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