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To Church or Not to Church 0
- September/October 2020
- September 1, 2020
Given the severe anticipated health risks of COVID-19, it should not have been a surprise when state and local governments began to impose significant restrictions. Millions of Americans were placed under orders to stay at home and avoid “nonessential” work and activities. The economy reacted immediately, with unemployment rates equaling or exceeding those occurring during
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Getting to Know the Nones 0
- September/October 2020
- September 1, 2020
The Nones–the religiously unaffiliated–represent a compromise between being an atheist or agnostic, and holding on to pure faith and traditional organized religion. The Nones are independent in their thinking, spiritual but not dogmatic, and they challenge organized religion on such issues as abortion, euthanasia, separation of church and state, women’s right to join the priesthood,
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Are Churches Essential Services?0
- July/August 2020
- July 1, 2020
The nation has been in lockdown, sheltering in place; yet a small number of pastors appear defiant, insisting on their First Amendment rights to conduct religious services in person. A dozen or more states have included churches as essential services and actually permit churches to meet, while the remaining states forbid religious gatherings, even small-group
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Religion and the Covid-19 Panic 0
- July/August 2020
- July 1, 2020
Because of the worldwide nature of COVID-19, religious practice everywhere has been affected. When a group of Greek Christians made the pilgrimage to Bethlehem and caught COVID-19, the Palestine Authority responded by declaring a “state of emergency,” closing all mosques and churches in the city of Christ’s birth. Israel, which, as of March, had had
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