Sikhs marched in London this week to mark the anniversary of the storming of the Golden Temple in 1984. What happened 30 years ago and what exactly is the Golden Temple and what makes its golden? The Golden Temple is Sikhism’s holiest shrine. It’s located in Amristar in the state of Punjab in the northwestern part of India. Construction of the temple began in 1604. Much of the foundation is made of marble while the outside is plated in... Read more
Saw this on the Huffington Post . Read more
What’s the second largest religion in America outside of Christianity? According to this short article in the Gov-Beat section of the Washington Post, it all depends on the region of the country. West Coast: Buddhism Mid West & South: Islam Northeast: Judaism Arizona & Delaware: Hinduism South Carolina : more Baha’i Other maps in the Washington Post story include one that breaks down the different religions by county. At the beginning of the school year, I like to show my... Read more
Think church is boring? Irrelevant? Check out Carl Lentz’s Hillsong Pentecostal Church in Manhattan or Nadia Bolz-Weber’s All Saint’s Church in Denver, Colorado. There’s nothing boring or traditional about these pastors or their churches. According to the short CNN documentary above, over 6,000 people attend Carl Lentz’s Hillsong church on an average Sunday. That’s largely because of Lentz’s charisma. He is a basketball fanatic who many describe as “magnetic.” His services are filled with nontraditional music and he baptizes newcomers... Read more
Religious leaders and congregations grapple with LGBT issues everyday. Few leaders have evolved more in their thinking than the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist pastor in Pennsylvania. He was defrocked last year when he performed the wedding ceremony for his son’s marriage to another man. Schaefer talks to the Washington Post in the video above about his evolution in thinking about gay rights. He’s now a major voice for equality in the Methodist Church, but he was not always... Read more
Studying Hinduism? Want to understand the sacred culture of India? You might consider some of the excellent travel articles about India by William Dalyrmple, the prolific travel writer and historian. Dalrymple’s books about India are a terrific resource. I especially like his book, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. His chapter in that book about a Jain nun provides a great introduction to Jainism in an engaging way. Dalrymple’s travel articles about India for British newspapers... Read more
Studying Christianity? Mega churches are increasingly important in modern Christianity. According to James Wellman, a professor and author of Rob Bell and the New American Christianity, there are twelve national mega churches and they are “one way Americans are doing their religion.” He notes that 50% of Americans who go to church, go to the top ten largest churches in the nation. Wellman discusses his research on mega churches and charisma in the lecture above, which he delivered at Georgetown... Read more
Can India’s idea of nationalism, or Hindutva, include anyone who is not Hindu? That’s the question the Economist Magazine tries to explain in this short review of the origins of Hindu nationalism. Hindu nationalism began in the 19th century while India was a colony of England. A number of nationalist organizations came together under one umbrella called Sangh Parivar. Rashtriya Swayamsevak or RSS, is the most important organization of the Sangh and Narenda Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is... Read more
Did Aryans invade the Indus River Valley and impose a rigid social hierarchy based on occupation, called the caste system? Murali Balaji, Director of Education and Curriculum Reform for the Hindu American Foundation, argues that they did not. In an essay for the Huffington Post, Balaji says that these claims are false, and says “that they’ve become so entrenched in textbook depictions that it could take years to revise and rectify the overall narrative on Hinduism.” Balaji believes that social... Read more
World Religions
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In