Religious Trends

Congregation of The Falls Church must begin again

By Jay Mon, 05/14/2012 - 11:00am

In 2006, The Falls Church and six sister congregations in Northern Virginia voted (overwhelmingly) to pull out of the Episcopal Church because, in our view, it had drifted so far from orthodox Christianity that we could not remain in good conscience.read more

Religion Census: Independent evangelical churches now third largest religious segment in US

By SharperIron Wed, 05/02/2012 - 2:40pm

“Counted together, independent evangelical congregations comprise one of the largest religious groups in the nation, after Roman Catholics and their evangelical counterparts in the Southern Baptist Convention.” Religion Census charts congregations: 2010 survey is first to list independent evangelical bodiesread more

"Spirituality is an expression of bottom-up faith and does not always fit into accepted patterns of theology or practice."

By SharperIron Wed, 04/18/2012 - 6:55am

“For centuries, faith was top-down: Spiritual power flowed from pope to the faithful, archbishop to Anglicans, priest to the pious, pastor to congregation.read more

Top Saudi Cleric Issues Fatwa: Destroy Churches

By sifilings Mon, 03/26/2012 - 11:10am

Those efforts recently received a dramatic setback when the top religious official in Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa earlier this month calling on the faithful to destroy all churches in the Arabian peninsula.read more

Calif. Court Declares Proposition 8 Unconstitutional

By sifilings Tue, 02/07/2012 - 3:27pm

A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California’s same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, putting the bitterly contested, voter-approved law on track for likely consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court. read more