Immigration reform used to unite US faith groups – not anymore, says survey
RNS Back in 2013, creating a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants in the US was the rare issue that virtually all major American religious groups could agree on. The cause was so unifying that conservative evangelicals joined liberal leaders from other faiths that year to muster an unsuccessful but vibrant faith-based campaign […]
Majority of Australians support freedom of religion, new poll shows
Sydney, Australia Almost two thirds of Australians support people’s legal right to choose and express their religious faith, a new poll shows. The survey also found a majority say health professionals and organisations of faith should not be forced to perform services which contravene their religious beliefs, while 60 per cent say religious schools should […]
Three-quarters of people in G20 nations see climate, nature near tipping points
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation Three in four people living in the world’s 20 major economies believe nature and the Earth’s climate are approaching potentially abrupt or irreversible changes due to human action, according to a survey released on Tuesday. The online poll of almost 20,000 people aged 16 to 75, living in G20 nations, […]
Top worry for young Africans? Jobs and corruption – but green anxieties grow
Johannesburg, South AfricaThomson Reuters Foundation Despite surging climate change threats, from worsening storms to growing water shortages, young Africans see unemployment, corruption and political instability as the most pressing issues facing them, according to a first-of-its-kind survey. But environmental and socioeconomic problems are often inter-related – with corruption and unemployment driving illegal logging, for instance, […]
#ShameOnWho campaign uses art to change Lebanese attitudes to rape
Beirut, LebanonThomson Reuters Foundation The hashtag #ShameOnWho? is being deployed as part of a new street art campaign in Lebanon to try to change attitudes to rape in a country where victim shaming remains common. The group behind the campaign, which launched this week, said it wanted to “shake” Lebanese society out of misconceptions about […]
More than a third of UK adults – and almost the same percentage of Christians – “don’t know” whether churches are making a positive difference, research finds
Thirty-six per cent of British adults “don’t know” whether Christian churches in the UK are making a positive difference in the world, according to new research from Barna Global. The study, which was conducted in partnership with World Vision UK, also found that just 49 per cent of British Christians agreed that the Christian churches […]
Americans see more jingle, less Jesus in Christmas celebrations
RNS If there ever was a “war on Christmas” in America, Santa may have won. Nine in 10 US adults celebrate the holiday, according to the Pew Research Center. However, that celebration is shifting in a secular direction. And a growing number of Christians discount key elements of the Biblical Nativity story. Just three years […]
ESSAY: WHAT IS WRONG WITH WHITE CHRISTIANS?
In an article first published by Religion News Service, JOHN GEHRING, US-based Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life and author of The Francis Effect: A Radical Pope’s Challenge to the American Catholic Church looks at what data tells us about attitudes within the church in the US…
Negative attitudes to Africa’s food crisis revealed on social media, report finds
Overpopulation is the cause of this year’s famine in South Sudan. Famine is always happening in Africa. Domestic issues are more important than providing aid to other countries. And why give money when people in the developing world should simply help themselves? Such are some of the common sentiments expressed on social media regarding the […]
HELP
Brené Brown, who has done some very popular TED talks, has some very challenging things to say about our attitudes to help. Helping hands? PICTURE: Cristian Newman/Unsplash If we struggle to ask for help, because we believe it shows some sort of weakness – disorganisation, lack of intelligence, irresponsibility – then whenever we offer […]