2012 Trends to Ponder

bradley wright

Sociologist Bradley Wright teaches at the University of Connecticut.  I have mentioned his work on several occasions, including reviews of his two most recent books: Upside: Surprising Good News About the State of Our World (2011 – my review here) and  Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media (2010 – my review here). Earlier this month he blogged about two trends to ponder in Read More …

A Political Explanation for Increased Religious Non-Affiliation

Religously-unaffiliated

Sociologist Bradley Wright teaches at the University of Connecticut.  His work has been mentioned on my blog on several occasions, including reviews of his two most recent books: Upside: Surprising Good News About the State of Our World (2011 - my review here) and  Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media (2010 - my review here). Wright recently wrote about the connection between the Read More …

How Important is Religion?

Religious importance since 1986

Bradley Wright is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut.  His two most recent books are Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media (included in my Top 10 Books of 2010) and Upside: Surprising Good News About the State of Our World (read my review here).  Recently he blogged about an important question:  "Is religion less important now than it used to Read More …

Review of Upside

wright

Meet the Author Bradley Wright is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut.  After keeping quiet about his Christian faith early in his career, Wright became more open after gaining tenure.   His specialties include religion, social psychology and crime.   Wright’s two most recent books are Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media (included in my Top 10 Read More …

The Most Popular “Church Blogs” or Are They?

Kent Shaffer

Kent Shaffer is the founder of ChurchRelevance.com, an online resource created to inspire and train ministers to be more relevant and effective, and a volunteer strategist for lifechurch.tv. He recently published his updated list of the "Top 200 "church blogs." His list intrigues me for several reasons, beginning with his methodology, which he describes as follows: Several hundred blogs are reviewed in a preliminary screening to determine if their statistics are competitive enough to be Read More …

The Missing Millennials

Missing Millenials

Many denominations and local congregations worry about the increasing age of their members.  Differing sources provide a variety of explanations for why fewer young people attend church or choose to affiliate with a religion.  According to the graphic below, provided by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life, the youngest generations have the highest level of  religious non-affiliation.  By generation the numbers for those who claim no religious affiliation climb from Read More …

Review of Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told

bradley wright

Wright, Bradley R. E.  Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You've Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media.  Bethany House, 2010.  ISBN: 9780764207464 Meet the Author Bradley Wright is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut.  After keeping quiet about his Christian faith early in his career, Wright became more open after gaining tenure.   His specialties include religion, social psychology and Read More …