The reaction continues to roll in as the mainstream press surfs through the results of the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), the one that points to the rising wave of the post-denominational age in American religion. For background on the survey itself, click here to head over to ...

Earlier this week, the California Supreme Court heard arguments for and against Californians’ right to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. There are many reports about those oral arguments and almost every account says that the justices seemed inclined to uphold the votersR...

Here is an old, old story that has been bugging me for some time now, which is why it ended up in tmatt’s GetReligion Folder of Guilt. Then again, it’s an old, old story about and old, but very important news story. There is a good chance that the Washington Post team that worked on it d...

One part of Michael Kinsley’s legacy at Slate is an almost predictable fondness for contrarianism. This sometimes results in a bracing departure from pack journalism, such as Kinsley’s proposal that all parties in the debate about gay marriage would best be served by removing government ...

Let’s look at a few more Ash Wednesday stories. Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette explores the meaning of Lenten discipline by focusing on a group of Presbyterians who are fasting. The story features the Rev. Elizabeth McCormick of First Presbyterian Church of Frostburg, Md., who is e...

Today is Ash Wednesday. In the Western Christian calendar, it is the first day of Lent. It occurs 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter and begins the most sacred part of the Christian year. It’s probably known mostly for the imposition of ashes on the forehead, a custom that aims to re...

Yesterday we received a note in our story suggestion box from a pastor of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod: Titles like this drive me crazy! The title — or headline, rather — at the Argus Leader reads: Lutherans consider gay clergy Now, it’s true that the nation’s l...

Raise your hand if you think that religious conservatives play a major role in the power structure of the Republican Party today. Raise your hand if you think Rush Limbaugh is an important leader in the Republican Party. OK, raise your hand if you think that the combination of these two facts means ...

Perhaps this reveals too much about my sailor-like vocabulary, but you have to like a religion story that begins with the F-word. The Tennessean religion reporter Bob Smietana began his story on the National Religious Broadcasters Convention this week as follows: The three F’s were hot topics ...

Churches are such complicated things. If you look in the Associated Press Stylebook, the entry for the Churches of Christ starts like this: Approximately 18,000 independent congregations with a total U.S. membership of more than 2 million cooperate under this name. They sponsor numerous educational ...