To put that in context against other indigenous Christian movements, Ratana has more than 40,000, Ringatu has more than 10,000, and other individual Pentecostal Churches are far larger.

Twenty thousand people put Jedi as their religion, and more than 4,000 put Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The are almost as many Zoroastrian believers as followers of Brian Tamaki.

Source

• thespinoff

His voice is one a many that are calling for New Zealand schools to teach their students more about religion.

John Shaver, head of religious studies at the University of Otago, agrees.

"It's ridiculous to think one shouldn't teach religion, given its importance in human society.

Every society has a religion of some sort, so to not talk about what that is would be a huge disservice to the education of children - it would be equivalent to hiding politics from education."

Peter Donovan, a former associate professor of religious studies at Massey University, said New Zealand's religious diversity should be recognised within different curriculum areas.

Rather than any "heavy loadings of beliefs and doctrine", classrooms should be places where students can learn about different beliefs, gods, texts, rituals and customs, "so schools can share in the life of their wider communities and increase awareness of religious diversity".

"The mosque shootings [highlighted] the need for accepting that we have a lot of religions and opinions about religions in New Zealand," Donovan says.

In New Zealand, primary schools are permitted to close for one hour each week to allow religious instruction to take place.

There are a number of religious instruction providers and they all have different syllabuses.

However, they do not teach about religion, they instruct in Christian religious faith.

The main provider is the Churches Education Commission, now called Launchpad.

It operates in about 600 schools around the country.

Apart from a requirement for police vetting of all presenters, the Ministry of Education takes no role in overseeing course content.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• religiouseducation.co.nz
• noted.co.nz
• Image: walterhav.com

The same survey shows that the perceived change in personal trust in churches in the same period to be greater than the participants' answers actually indicate.

The results indicate a score of 7 for reduced net trust. The perceived net reduced trust was scored 23.

The Colmar Brunton survey asked people how much they trust key groups such as government ministers, police, medical practitioners, churches, charities, small businesses, the media and bloggers.

The 2018 survey also scored charities as significantly less trustworthy than they were in 2016.

But when compared with 2016, New Zealanders are significantly more trusting of police, judges and courts, local government, government ministers and members of parliament.

Medical practitioners and police are perceived to be the most trustworthy.

The media, bloggers and online commentators are least trustworthy.

These results were obtained by a random survey of 1,000 New Zealanders aged 18 years and over.

They were interviewed online from 26 February to 4 March 2018.

In total, 472 respondents completed both the 2016 and 2018 surveys. The remaining respondents were new to the survey in 2018 and were randomly sourced from Colmar Brunton's online panel and invited to take part.

The data also points to differences in overall trust levels across age groups, with older people being more trusting.

Of those aged 60 or older, 62 percent reported a high level of trust generally in people, compared with 38 percent high trust in the 18-29 year old group and 44 percent for those aged 30 to 59.

"It is unclear if we observe this pattern because people trust more as they age," says researcher Dr Chapple, "or whether younger people today are generally less trusting than young people a generation ago. But overseas evidence suggests that trust levels may be falling in younger generations."

The survey was commissioned by the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, and School of Government of Victoria University of Wellington.

Source

• victoria.ac.nz
• victoria.ac.nz
• Image: psychologytoday.com

This year Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 young refugees. Traditionally, Popes would wash the feet of 12 Catholic men, but Francis has broken with tradition. The first year of his papacy he outraged some conservatives by choosing to wash the feet of criminals, women, and Muslims.

The choice of refugees is deliberate. Francis is trying to make the point that we are called to serve the weakest members of society who, right now, are refugees. It's a commendable gesture that has made news but you may wonder: How did a spa treatment become first a religious ritual and then a political statement?

The basis for washing feet on Holy Thursday is the account of the Last Supper. According to the Gospels, Jesus washed the feet of the disciples before his final meal with them. At the time, the disciples were debating their relative position in the kingdom of heaven.

By taking on the role of a servant and washing the feet of his followers, Jesus was highlighting their pride. It was a subversive act that threw shade on the apostles' ambitions. It was absorbed into Christian ritual almost immediately, being incorporated into baptismal practice across the empire from the second century onwards.

And, in the 16th century, radical reforming Protestants tried to re-create the faith of the apostolic era by reintroducing foot washing into their daily lives. Continue reading

• Candida Moss is professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame and an award-winning author of five books. The article above is from The Daily Beast.

A Greek Chi-Rho symbol can be found "hidden" on the inside of his left arm where the arm bends. The tattoo represents a time before Christianity was accepted and followers had to keep their faith a secret.

Tanksley believes many still hesitate to express their faith..

A knotted Celtic cross on his forearm pays homage to his faith and his Irish heritage. A black cross the size of a quarter can be found on his shoulder.

For Tanksley, the tattoos are an expression of his faith, an encouragement in times of trouble and act as a reminder that there's a higher power watching over him.

Tattoo artist and owner of Midnight Iguana Ron Hendon said faith-inspired tattoos make up a significant portion of his business. At least one person a week comes in asking for a faith tattoo, he said.

In addition to common Christian tattoos like crosses, doves and Bible verses, clients also have requested tribal looking crosses, images of Buddha, Bali images, the Hindu goddess Kali and Hindu symbols.

Hendon said he enjoys creating faith tattoos because they tend to be long lasting. Continue reading.

Source: Online Athens

Image: AJ Reynolds/Online Athens

They highlighted the threat to conscience posed by the mandate requiring almost all employers to cover contraception, sterilisation and abortifacient drugs and devices in their health insurance plans.

The 100-plus leaders included representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Orthodox Christian and Jewish leaders

Continue reading

According to the last census, many Christchurch Christians were older, with 20.6 per cent being over 65.

Those who were non-religious in Christchurch seemed to be younger - 23.9 per cent were under 15 and only 4.2 per cent over 65.

However, she quotes Father John Adams of the St Joseph's Catholic Parish as saying the number of Catholics in the city had not dropped.

"The Roman Catholic population in New Zealand has stayed constant for the last 100 years. We are not diminishing."

Adams also said it was not just about numbers. He believed the number of Christians in the city was not as important as the strength of their belief.

"I think a small but ardent group of Christians is more effective than a larger group of less passionate Christians."

Adams also believed the earthquakes might have driven more people back to church: "In times of uncertainty, people are drawn to faith."

Source

• The Press
• Image: 3bp.blogspot.com

Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders spoke of the threat anti-Semitism poses to non-Jewish communities and even to democratic government.

The hearing was called by Republican Congressman Chris Smith, chairman of the global human rights subcommittee of the House of Representatives.

"When we fight anti-Semitism it is not only a matter of justice for Jewish fellow-citizens, but also of standing up for Christianity, and for Islam, and for the possibility of decent living itself," he said.

Speakers detailed examples of anti-Semitism in Eastern and Western Europe as well as the Middle East, including efforts to ban kosher slaughter and circumcision. State authorities were often slow to respond to anti-Semitic attacks, they said.

"Unfortunately," said Katrina Lantos Swett, chairwoman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, "anti-Semitism remains a phenomenon that knows no national boundaries."

Dr. M. Zuhudi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said the radical nature of militant Islamist extremism has fueled an exodus of not only Jews but also Christians and moderate Muslims from many areas of the Middle East, creating a "vacuum of religious diversity" and a stifling of intellectual freedom.

Rabbi David Myer, professor of rabbinic literature at the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome, described the character of legal anti-Semitism in Europe. Attacks on religious practices will lead to attacks on all religious expression, he warned, and this "inevitably ends with attacks against Jews".

John Garvey, president of Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., asserted that a "society that tolerates anti-Semitism cannot maintain a healthy democracy."

This issue is also of particular interest to Catholics, continued Garvey, because "we are one family in the Abrahamic tradition" and so anti-Semitism "is an attack on our family".

In Germany, circumcision has been called "a violation of individual rights and an outmoded and harmful religious practice", he said, observing a connection between this reasoning and the arguments used in the US "for requiring Catholic institutions to cover prescription contraceptives, early stage abortifacients, and sterilisations".

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Congressman Chris Smith

Image: Catholic News Agency

People in their late teens and early 20s were significantly less open to children born to parents from different religious backgrounds being brought up to understand both faiths than those in their 50s and 60s.

They were also less likely to be aware of the common origins of the three Abrahamic faiths despite citing religious misunderstanding as the major cause of conflict in the world, ahead of economic hardship, natural disasters, food shortages and environmental crises.

Less than a third of people polled, knew that Jesus is recognized as a major prophet in Islam with almost half believing this was untrue and the rest unsure. Continue reading

He warned that if respect for a wide range of opinions is abandoned, society will deteriorate into a situation where we become "either dominators or dominated", while the abandonment of Christian teachings puts us on "shifting sands".

Nichols made his comments in a lecture delivered on Wednesday evening at the Thomas More Institute in Hampstead.

Nichols says new opportunities for religious belief exist.

"Slowly a new place for religious belief in the public square is being marked out, not with a power or desire to impose religious beliefs or their consequences, but with the recognition that a mature and enlightened public square should reflect the beliefs of those who share its space, in dialogue with one another and with secular protagonists, to the enrichment of all," he said.

"The secular public square should not be faith-blind but faith-sensitive, welcoming and testing reasoned argument.

"Religious voices should not expect special privilege because they are religious, but nor should they be excluded either.

"And whilst public authorities will rightly seek to justify their actions by reference to reasons which all can accept, in contributing to public debate religious and faith voices should be free to speak from their traditions as well as to adduce reasons in their support.

"Encouraging their willing and full participation enriches democracy and at the same time facilitates the necessary dialogue between the world of secular rationality and the world of faith."

In a further reference to the risk of abandoning traditional religious teachings, he said: "The rejection of the wisdom and foundations of the past - as with the place of Christianity in Western culture - does not give us unrestricted freedom to do what we like now, but puts us in danger of building on shifting sands which have not been tested for their stability or their capacity to bear the weight of our culture."

The Archbishop went on to say that one of the most urgent tasks in the world today is "exploring the reality of the diversity of human living".

"Give up on respect for diversity, and we are impoverished and eventually become either dominators or dominated."

He described the importance of faith as a basis for community, and a defence against loneliness, pointing out that the church is one of the few places where "people from all different classes" sit next to each other "and assume both an equality and a mutual identity".

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Image: The Telegraph