Academics looked at the place of religion in the health services with, for example, disagreements over the ethics of using certain vaccines; the changing relations with governments over closure of places of worship and helping vulnerable, isolated people; and digital innovation as groups communicated with each other online forging new relationships, while online worship and prayer transformed religious practices. (Bowring, Religion Media Centre)
Read MoreThe court on June 16 threw out a lower court's ruling that the regulation did not violate the rights of the employers to practice their religion and directed New York's top court to reconsider that decision in light of a related ruling the justices handed down in June. (Groppe, USA Today)
Read MoreWhile news headlines point to the decline of Christianity in Australia and the fact that Christians no longer constitute a majority, people over the age of 55 are increasingly converting to Christianity, and people ages 15 to 24 are more open to the faith. (Lewis, Christianity Today)
Read MoreWhile reporting relatively low levels of attendance at Mass, almost half of U.S. adults (47%) say they have a personal or family relationship to Catholicism, a new Pew Research Center survey finds. The survey found that 1 in 5 U.S. adults identify as Catholic, and another 9% say they don’t identify with Catholicism religiously but answered yes when asked “whether ‘aside from religion’ they consider themselves Catholic in any way.” (Hertzler-McCain, Religion News Servcie)
Read MoreThe US government is pressuring states to halt funding for puberty blockers for children and follow the UK’s Cass Review. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which provides health coverage to more than 160 million Americans, urged directors to adopt the findings of the report, which concluded children who think they are transgender should not be rushed into treatment they may regret. (Stringer, The Telegraph)
Read MoreToday, public opinion on whether abortion should be legal or illegal varies considerably from state to state, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. That survey, the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, was large enough to break out results in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, although the margins of error for the state-level estimates are much larger than for the survey’s national estimates. (Diamant & Alper, Pew Research Center)
Read More