RUSSELL’S QUESTION: Since Donald Trump brought Ben Carson’s religion to the forefront, can you tell us more about the Seventh-day Adventist Church? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Presidential candidate Trump contrasted his own “middle of the road” Presbyterian Church (USA) with Carson’s Seventh-day Adventist Church as a religion “I don’t know about.”  That suggested the SDA denomination is not just lesser-known but on the cultural margins and possibly suspect. This born-in-America faith is indeed distinctive. It’s also a notable success story... Read more

GORDON’S QUESTION: What do various faiths say about cremation vs. burial of remains? I know in some places like the United Kingdom cremation has become very common, maybe even surpassing ground burial. THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Cremation (high-temperature burning that turns a corpse into ashes and bone fragments) is indeed by far the majority practice in the U.K. today. It’s also on the upswing in the U.S., where the National Funeral Directors Association posts these statistics: As recently as 2005,... Read more

LISA’S QUESTION: What does it mean to be agnostic?  Are there people who actually consider it to be a religion? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: In Pew Research’s much-mulled 2014 religion poll of 35,000 U.S. adults, 3.1 percent defined themselves as “atheists” (compared with 1.6 percent in a similar 2007 survey) while a somewhat larger faction of 4 percent called themselves “agnostics” (versus 2.4 percent in 2007). Pew grabbed headlines by combining them with the far larger numbers who said their... Read more

GENE’S QUESTION: How ought Christian believers conduct themselves as public office-holders? To what extent should they promote biblical principles in the context of a democratic society? What grounds should they cite? Are some biblical principles too idealistic for a secular society? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Gene posted this fourfold query before Kentucky county clerk Kimberly Davis won headlines by briefly going to jail rather than authorize same-sex marriage licenses that violate her Christian belief. As religious liberty advocates argued, the... Read more

EVA’S QUESTION: Are there any Christian denominations that accept the legality of abortion? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Yes.  To make things manageable the following discusses only Christianity in the U.S. in the era of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision to legalize abortion nationwide. Although some predominantly white “mainline” Protestant churches are officially neutral or opposed, five major denominations of this type provide significant support for abortion choice in various situations. Representative policy statements: Episcopal Church:  The 1976 General Convention opposed abortions... Read more

DALE’S QUESTION: I am no longer sure which Bible to use. I currently have the New American Standard Bible. How accurate is this? What are your thoughts on the New English Translation? [This is a direct response to our immediately preceding Religion Q and A for August 16, 2015, “Why were some verses removed from the New Testament?”] THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: There are so many different English translations in today’s alphabet soup of a marketplace that Dale’s dilemma is... Read more

CASSANDRA’S QUESTION: I’m just shocked by the information I just received about the N.I.V. Bible, that many verses of the Scriptures have been removed. So I’m searching for a reliable version of the Bible to study from. Any suggestions? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: The Guy reassures Cassandra, who’s been reading the Bible for 21 years, that well-qualified translators produced the many modern English editions on the market, and that includes her New International Version. Inevitably, translators will make different word... Read more

MADDIE’S QUESTION: What caused Judaism to break into branches? Are the branches even seen as a division? Does theology differ among them? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: The questioner has “a Christian background” so is familiar with a religion made up of separate groups. Christianity has long been divided into four main families, the so-called “Oriental Orthodox,” the Eastern Orthodox, Catholicism, and Protestantism. A fifth family of new, independent churches in the developing world developed in the 20th Century. Islam, too,... Read more

VALERIE’S QUESTION: Do God’s laws apply to Gentiles, including foods that should not be eaten, i.e. pigs, fish without scales? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Valerie raises a broad topic but focuses on the ritually prohibited foods in the Hebrew Bible (what Christians call the Old Testament) as listed in Leviticus 11 and  Deuteronomy 14. For traditional Jews, kosher observance involves both obedience to God and identity with their people and heritage across thousands of years. However, Judaism does not call... Read more

THE RELIGION GUY ASKS: With the U.S. Supreme Court’s mandate to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, what’s ahead for religious believers in traditional man-and-woman marriage alone? (The Guy poses this timely topic now in place of the usual question posted by an online reader.) THE ANSWER: The historic June 26 legalization, by a one-vote majority of a deeply divided Supreme Court, demonstrates with stark clarity religion’s declining influence and stature in American culture. The one aspect is obvious. Traditional marriage belief... Read more