(RNS) — A new Pew Research survey finds that one-third of Americans — both those who say they believe in God and those who say they don’t — trust in a higher power or spiritual force. This group has a looser interpretation of the transcendent. Some call it God; others don’t. The survey of 4,729 respondents conducted online in December offers some insight into the diversity of U.S. beliefs. And like other surveys over the past decade, it suggests the number of Americans who believe in God is slowly declining. “One of the key questions that motivated the study was to get more detail among those who say they don’t believe in God,” said Gregory Smith, associate director of research at Pew. “Among those people who say ‘no’ in a straightforward way when asked, ‘Do you believe in God?’ what are they rejecting? Are they rejecting belief in God or a higher power altogether?” In the survey, those who answered that they do not believe in God were asked a follow-up question, whether … [Read more...]

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Stephen Han’s sermon has the cadence of a TED Talk. Wearing jeans and a loose button-up shirt, he paces energetically across the stage, only stopping at a table every once in a while to glance at his notes. His soaring oratory echoes around the hall, and his audience — a mix of predominantly young adults and worshippers in their 40s — hangs on his every word as he lectures on the Book of Nehemiah. Occasionally, he drops a Super Bowl joke – after all, it’s the day of the game. “If you don’t know who Tom Brady is, get a life,” he says. Han is the lead pastor at Young Nak Celebration Church, a Korean church in Los Angeles that holds all of its services in English. Across the street, another house of God — with a nearly identical name — attracts hundreds to its Sunday services, but they are held in Korean. At Young Nak Church, a sermon comes with a more traditional touch, reminding its immigrant members of the standard church services they used to attend in … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON (RNS) — They began marching just after dawn from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, 50 years to the day after the civil rights leader was assassinated. They silenced their voices and, walking to the beat of a drum, traveled halfway down the National Mall. Some in sneakers and some in clerical stoles, they then prayed a spectrum of prayers — from Anglican to Zoroastrian — before they settled in for a set of speeches with a lofty subject: ending racism. The A.C.T. to End Racism Rally, seeking to “awaken, confront and transform” society about racism, drew thousands of people on Wednesday (April 4). It was one of the largest events ever planned by the National Council of Churches, an ecumenical network of 38 groups including mainline, Orthodox, black Protestant and Quaker churches. “It was Dr. King who talked about the three evils that stand in our way, and we can call them the three weapons of mass destruction,” said the Rev. Toussaint King Hill Jr., pastor of … [Read more...]

(RNS) — Our national game is in trouble. The Boys of Summer are back and another baseball season is underway, but the game is declining in popularity, losing ground to endless digital amusements and to other sports. The world of religion offers clues to the causes and consequences of the present troubles. It also suggests what it will take to revive the great American pastime. For baseball, the statistics are damning: The game’s fan base is simply too white and too old to have a future at the heart of American society. There are not enough young fans to replace the ones passing away, and though teams remain profitable and player salaries continue to increase, a day at the ballpark is a luxury more and more American families simply cannot afford. Even worse, there are fewer families to keep a baseball culture alive. When more people live in households of one, the atomization and estrangement of modern life make an afternoon or evening at a ballgame seem like a … [Read more...]

(RNS) — While working in the Muslim community the past few years, I’ve grown to question why, as a Christian, I don’t pray more often. For my Muslim friends, their five daily prayers, or salat, are about ritual and commitment, not about asking for specific things or finding comfort in difficult times. But for me, prayer is very often something I stumble into when I’m upset, happy, worried, aggravated or in need of a deep breath and regrounding. I certainly wouldn’t refer to it as a ritual, aside from when I’m in church or before meals growing up. The more time I’ve spent around my Muslim friends, the more I’ve considered being more deliberate about my prayer life. So for Lent this year, I took a page from their (holy) book and prayed five times each day. Is this Christian? I know what many of you are thinking: Doesn’t this blur the lines between Christian practice and Islamic tradition? As it turns out, Christians are supposed to pray multiple times a day anyway — at least … [Read more...]

(RNS) — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “was no armchair theologian.” “He was a theologian of action, an engaged theologian, actively seeking to transform the structures of oppression,” James H. Cone, a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, wrote in 1986. “His thinking emerged from his efforts to establish a just society.” Montgomery. Albany. Birmingham. Selma. Washington D.C. — Cone calls out the sites of King’s great confrontations with racism like a recitation of the Stations of the Cross. And, finally, there was Memphis, where King was assassinated 50 years ago this week (April 4). “In each of these crises, King refined his theology according to the needs of the people with whom and for whom he was struggling,” Cone continued. “His theology was not permanent or static but was dynamic, constantly emerging from the historical circumstances in which he was engaged.” King’s theology didn’t develop overnight or come from whole cloth through another source. … [Read more...]