It’s a message young people in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hear early and often: You should get married because marriage is wonderful and family life is at the heart of the faith. The problem is that church leaders haven’t grasped the power of cultural trends in technology, education and economics that Read more
For decades, viewers have enjoyed the Japanese reality TV series “Old Enough!” in which preschool children venture into the streets alone to run errands for their parents. What if American women asked their live-in boyfriends to stop playing video games, leave their couches and run errands? In the “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Old Enough! Longterm Read more
I love statistics! I know what you’re thinking…I’m a nerd. Possibly. But, the truth is there are more nerds than you realize when it comes to statistics. It isn’t that I know nothing of sports; I just haven’t kept up much. Even though I haven’t been that guy as a sports fan, Donna and I Read more
A survey of 1000 New Zealanders was carried out to find what impact, if any, the terror attack in Christchurch had on people’s trust levels. There is no evidence in the results of local anti-Semitism or Islamophobia in the form of a trust deficit displayed towards Jews or Muslims compared to mainstream Christian denominations. But Read more
Of Tonga’s 106,513 inhabitants, 64,156 are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Mormom) according to the Salt Lake City-based faith’s official statistics. That constitutes about 60 percent of the populace, independent Mormon demographer Matt Martinich told RNZ. But the number of “active” Latter-day Saints is much lower. “It’s more like about Read more
The number of baptized Catholics in Europe is growing, showed figures released by the Vatican this week. Data from the Vatican’s Central Office for Church Statistics show that the Church in Europe grew by two percent between 2005 and 2014. Although 40 percent of the continent is Catholic, that figure has not changed in nearly Read more
For the first time, Australia’s national census form is to have the “no religion” box at the top of the options for religious affiliation. In the previous census in 2011, “Catholic” was the top option, with “no religion” at the bottom of the list, below a large “other please specify” box. The change came after Read more
Statistics New Zealand has introduced the term ‘gender diverse’ as a category to encompass people who do not identify as either male or female. Family First national director Bob McCoskrie is questioning the reasoning behind the move to introduce a new gender category. He says it only fuelled gender-identity politics. “I’ve seen even trans advocate Read more
New Zealand is one of only three countries in which religiosity is predicted to decline between now and 2050. The other two are France and the Netherlands. These are some of the predictions made by Washington-based think-tank, Pew Research Centre, in a recently published report. The report predicted that by 2050 In the Asia Pacific Read more
John Cameron always had faith. It just took a brand-new suit for him to find it. It was an 18th birthday present, and he wanted to wear it straight away. But, as a teenager “mucking around … wasting potential” in west Auckland, he was dressed up with nowhere to go – but church. “I just Read more