Much has been written about the decline of mainline Protestantism in the United States. Between 1960 and 2000 the denominations grouped together as conservative Protestant grew dramatically (+158%) while those grouped together as liberal Protestant (also known as mainline) declined significantly (-49%). As a result, conservative Protestants are now the majority Protestant tradition. So What? In contrast to the significant changes within conservative and liberal Read More …
Review of Religion in Human Evolution (#0631)
Meet the Author Robert Bellah is "a sociologist and a sermonizer, a believer in God and in reason . . His books and essays over five decades have provoked the ire of the Christian right (for economic views some find heretical)." Bellah taught sociology at Harvard University for a decade, then for three decades at the University of California - Berkeley, where he has served as Elliott Professor of Sociology, Emeritus since retiring. Bellah's recent books Read More …
Mobile Phones & Super Bowl Watching (#0630)
A recent poll finds 60% of mobile phone users plan to look at their phone during today's Super Bowl Almost 1 in 3 viewers under age 45 will watch the game with their phone in hand Only 13% who plan to use their mobile device said they will do so during actual game action So What? The Super Bowl viewing experience is increasingly a multi-screen affair. It appears that mobile phone usage (primarily for activities involving data not speech) will peak during commercials and the Read More …
Helping the Poor (#0629)
Bruce Wydick, professor of economics at the University of San Francisco and visiting professor at the University of California - Berkeley, wrote the cover story for the February 2012 edition of Christianity Today. In this piece, he ranked the effectiveness of the most popular ways Christians seek to overcome global poverty. Rather than taking on the task himself, he recruited sixteen researchers to respond to a survey he developed. Each respondent ranked each option Read More …
Pastor, Bishop, or King? (#0628)
Eddie Long has served as pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta, GA since 1987. A few months ago he took a leave of absence after his wife filed for divorce and former members (all male) of his congregation accused him of sexual abuse. Bishop Long, as he is called now by his parishioners, is now back to shepherding his flock. Last Sunday he returned to the spotlight again when a guest speaker, Ralph Messer, proclaimed Eddie Long a "king" in an Read More …
Just How Small Are Most Congregations? (#0627)
Recently the Presbyterian Church (USA) released information about the distribution of its congregations by size. The chart below provides the data in a manner that clearly displays the prevalence of small congregations. Put differently, 51.9% have 100 or fewer members 83.7% have 300 or fewer members 3.6% have 800 or more members So What? Since completing my education I have served exclusively in mainline congregations with well over 800 members, including a PC Read More …
Imams, Pastors & Rabbis – Holy Compensation (#0626)
During the month of January, I read several articles outlining the differing average pay for clergy in the United States, including Brian Palmer's very direct approach: "What Type of Clergy get the Highest Salary". He lists the following average compensation: Rabbis - $140,000 Pastors - $40,000 Imams - $30,000 Other research suggests these numbers are most accurate: Rabbis - $80,000 Protestant Pastors - $40,000 Imams - $30,000 Roman Catholic Priests - Read More …
Less Religious Charitable Giving (#0625)
According to William G. Enright, Executive Director of the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, leaders in American congregations should be aware of a challenging trend in charitable giving: When we look at the data we have from our own center, if you look at about 1970 to about 1995 and if you look at all charitable giving, giving to religion was roughly half of all charitable dollars. Since 1995, what was one-half has Read More …
Review of Cathedral of the World (#0624)
Meet the Author Forrest Church (1948-2009) wrote or edited more than two dozen books and served for three decades as the minister of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, which grew to be among the largest congregations affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association. Church received the FDR Four Freedoms Award from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Foundation (2008) and the Art Buchwald Spirit Award from the National Hospice Foundation (2009). Read More …
Wisdom from the Analects (#0623)
Last semester I taught an undergraduate introductory course in world religions. While my students knew of Confucius, none had previously read his Analects. If you have never done so, I encourage you to take a few minutes to do so online (you can do so here thanks to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Whether or not you read the Analects in full, consider the following excerpt: Tsze-kung asked what constituted the superior man. The Master said,"He acts Read More …