=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. AUM guru may undergo mental tests

=== Falun Gong
2. falungong leader savages ''wicked'' Chinese leadership
3. China's crackdown on falungong sect rooted in fear and ignorance: members
4. China Jails 13 More Falun Gong Activists

=== Unification Church
5. Ministers upset by Moon visit
6. Rev. Moon's event raises local hackles
7. In Oakland, Moon Stresses Family
8. Rev. Moon delivers message in Oakland
9. The Reverend Moon's Comeback

=== Islam
10. 2 Bamyan Buddhas completely destroyed, reports AIP
11. Taliban vows to keep thumbing nose at the world
12. Taliban close BBC Kabul office
13. The anti-Buddhist fury in Afghanistan

=== Catholicism
14. Ranking Congressmen Support Suspect Religious Group

=== Mormonism
15. Skinhead Church
16. 'It Isn't A Sunday Religion. It's A Lifetime Change.'

=== Hate Groups
17. FindLaw Forum: Court should have heard KKK case
18. Haider the Rightist Is Firing Up Vienna's Election With Slurs

=== Other News
19. Novato 'Diploma Mill' Shut Down by State
20. Leader Of Religious Group, Son Charged With Molestation
21. Man charged with DUI and fired after drinking kava sues employer
22. Elementary may be closed due to polygamists withdrawal
23. 'Fairy' pictures fetch £6,000

=== Faith-Based Initiatives

24. Christian leaders pan Bush's faith plan
25. Cult fear hits Bush plan to fund by faith
26. Poll: Americans approve of Bush
27. Delay on Faith-Aid Plan Puts Time on Bush's Side
28. Senate To Introduce Religion Plan

=== Human Rights Violations

29. Amnesty International Condemns Sentencing of 14-year-old Boy to Life Imprisonment Without Possibility of Parole

=== Noted
30. Hearing From Dearly Departed Proves a Hit on Sci-Fi Channel

=== Trends
31. Claim of 'Post-Denominational Era' Defied
32. It's chic to be a Protestant in France


=== Trends

31. Claim of 'Post-Denominational Era' Defied
Washington Post, Mar. 14, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. congregations maintain strong ties to their religious denominations, debunking the widely held belief that affiliation with major religious groups has declined, according to the largest study ever of congregational behavior, which was released yesterday.

Such identification, the researchers said, defies the claim of many sociologists that American faith groups have entered a ''post-denominational era'' in which personal spirituality and needs have preempted loyalty to a single religious heritage.

''The [overall] vitality of these congregations is pretty stunning,'' said Carl S. Dudley, who with project co-director David A. Roozen determined that 62 percent of all congregations have strong denominational loyalties.

The interfaith survey, ''Faith Communities in the United States Today,'' involved 14,301 congregations in 41 denominations or faith groups. It was conducted by researchers at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut and released yesterday at Holy Trinity Cathedral Center in New York.

The survey confirms that the growth of less hierarchical, more charismatic congregations and smaller U.S. faiths such as Islam and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is ''rapidly putting a new face on American religion'' and diminishing the dominance of traditional churches, Dudley said.
(...)

The 68-page report verifies the rapid growth of evangelical Protestant congregations and the declining membership of Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and other mainline Protestant groups.
(...)

Newly organized Catholic parishes at mid-century represented about 10 percent of all new churches, Dudley said in an interview. That portion has dropped to 5 percent, while the combined percentage of new Baha'i, Muslim, Jewish and Mormon congregations has increased from about 3 percent to more than 20 percent, he said.

Evangelical Protestant congregations make up the largest portion, 58 percent, of new congregations.
(...)

Findings have been posted on the institute's Web site at
hirr.hartsem.edu

Individual churches, synagogues and mosques can plug in their own statistics and attitudes for comparison with other congregations and denominations.

''There's nothing comparable in the way of benchmark information on congregations,'' said James D. Davidson, a sociologist of religion at Purdue University. ''It's very unusual and very much needed.''

In an observation that could have a long-range impact on worship, the study found that many of the healthiest congregations -- measured by membership growth and financial stability -- offer alternative worship styles that appeal to younger worshipers, with electric guitars and keyboards rather than pipe organs and pianos.

Such congregations are likely to be evangelical Protestant, with authority based ''in the Holy Spirit'' rather than in creeds or reason.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

The report can be viewed here or here


An Executive Summary of the report is posted here
''Faith Communities in the United States Today reports on the largest survey of congregations ever conducted in the United States. It also is the most inclusive, denominationally sanctioned program of interfaith cooperation.''

A ''buyer beware'': the list of participating faith groups described the Mormon Church as follows: ''The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a theologically conservative, Christian religious group.''

That description is incorrect. The Mormon Church is not a Christian church, movement or denomination, but rather a cult of Christianity. It does not represent historical, biblical Christianity in any way. Nor is it ''theologically conservative.'' It's doctrines can and do change whenever the Mormon ''god'' changes his mind or discovers yet another contradiction in Mormon scriptures. See:

The Changing World of Mormonism

32. It's chic to be a Protestant in France
UPI, Mar. 13, 2001
http://www.vny.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
PARIS, Mar. 13 (UPI) - ''It's chic to declare yourself a Protestant in
France these days,'' Daniéle Hervieu-Léger, the country's leading sociologist
on religion, said in an interview.

''In intellectual circles, it is also chic to reveal yourself as a Jew. But
if you admit to being a Roman Catholic, you'll trigger howls of derisive
laughter,'' Hervieu-Léger, a Catholic herself, told United Press
International.
(...)

Today, there are a mere 900,000 Protestants of diverse persuasions left in
France, according to Jean-Luc Mouton, editorial director of Reforme, a
weekly newspaper. Of these, 400,000 belong to the Reformed Church of France
(ERF), a Calvinist denomination.
(...)

Alsace and Lorraine still have state-related churches because these
territories were under German control in 1908 when France broke the
Concordat Napoleon had concluded with the Vatican and Protestant
denominations in 1801.

Thus, the 170,000 Lutherans and 60,000 Calvinists in those Eastern regions
are ministered to by well-to-do clergy with government salaries comparable
to those of high school teachers.

''There are also 100,000 charismatic gypsies and an equal amount of other
Pentecostals, whose number is very much on the rise,'' Mouton said in an
interview. ''The rest are smaller groups.''

He added, ''The funny thing is that 1.7 million people in this country call
themselves Protestants, even though we know that only a little more than
half of those are members.''

In the postmodern or -- as French scholars prefer to say - ''ultramodern''
quest for spirituality, it's fashionable in some circles to identify with
anything that does not appear as ''old-fashioned'' as Catholicism,
sociologists of religions report almost unanimously.

Protestantism is by no means to sole beneficiary of this development.

In a 1999 survey commissioned by the monthly journal Psychologies, 8
percent declared themselves ''close to Judaism,'' although Jews represent less
than 1 percent of France's population and a much divided sect between North
African Sephardim, Eastern European Ashkenazim, and indigenous Israelites
who have been emancipated for centuries.
(...)

Buddhism enjoys even more sympathy among the French, including Christians
and Jews. Eleven percent said they were close to this East Asian faith. Yet
a mere 0.5 percent of the French population, chiefly native Vietnamese,
Cambodians and Laotians are confessing Buddhists.

However, the most astounding image in the French kaleidoscope of French
religiosity is affinity for a large chunk of this once uniformly Catholic
population that appears to entertain for Protestantism. According to
Psychologies, 19 percent do so. This represents more than 13 million people.

During a visit to the Atlantic seaport city of La Rochelle, the most
important bastion of French Protestantism before Louis XIV rescinded the
Edict of Nantes, this correspondent found that virtually everybody he spoke
to took pride in his or her Huguenot ancestry. Yet of La Rochelle's 100,000
burghers only 600 are members of the local Protestant parish.

Protestantism's popularity is all the more remarkable as the Reformed
Church has just emerged from what Mouton calls a particularly foolish flirt
with far-left ideologies, supporting radical and deadly revolutions in
places like Cambodia and Nicaragua.
(...)

The movement's death brought about a dramatic theological and aesthetic
turnaround. No longer is the Reformed Church the stark institution it was as
recently as a decade ago. ''It has become much more liturgical,'' said Mouton.

No longer do pastors sport sloppy attire when preaching, baptizing or
consecrating the Lord's Supper. ''The traditional black robe with preaching
tabs has replaced polo-neck sweaters and baggy cords,'' reported Mouton.

But the most dramatic change is theological, he continued: ''Cambodia and
Nicaragua have taught us that left-wing revolutions could not possibly be
the Kingdom of God on earth. This has led some of the younger theologians in
their mid-thirties to turn from Calvin to Luther.''

The two reformers differed over how God is working in the temporal realm.
According to Calvin, there is only one kingdom -- the Kingdom of Christ --
even though the Devil is still the prince in this world. Calvin considered
it essential for man to honor God. To this end, man must forge the world,
including its social, political and economic aspects.

Luther, whom Calvin considered his master, took a more dialectical and at
the same time pragmatic approach. Yes, he said, the reign of Christ had
already begun but so far only for the believer. It was present in the realm
of the Gospel, of grace, faith, and love, in other words, in the Church
where the Word is preached and the sacraments are administered.

But Luther also perceived the discrepancies between the radical demands of
the Sermon of the Mount and the structure of the world's orders. Hence he
devised his doctrine of two reigns complementing each other.
(...)

There is a flip side to this story. ''French Protestantism is popular among
urban professionals in their 30s, 40s and 50s. With the exception of the
burgeoning Pentecostal groups, however, French Protestantism does not
attract large crowds of young people,'' Mouton lamented.

Who gets those?

''Well, the Catholics. But unlike us, they are running out of clergy.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]
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