Challenges, Hopes, Vocations

2019 ◽  
pp. 62-82
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Fichter ◽  
Thomas P. Gaunt ◽  
Catherine Hoegeman ◽  
Paul M. Perl
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Ministry ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The Church ◽  
Broad Understanding

This chapter first looks at the challenges identified by the bishops: secularism, religious freedom, indifference, marriage, family, lack of priests, and relativism. Additionally, attention is given to the challenge of addressing clergy sexual abuse. Second, we examine their hopes for the future: young adults, laity, spirituality, vocations to Church ministry, Pope Francis, priests, Hispanics, and evangelization. Third, we look at how the bishops are encouraging vocations to priesthood and religious life. How are they promoting a new generation of priests, sisters and brothers to serve the Church? These three issues provide a broad understanding of where the bishops of the United States may be leading the Church.

Religious Freedom and the Churches: Contemporary Challenges in the United States Today1

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-204
Author(s):  
Richard W. Garnett
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
General Decline ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Constitutional Right

A crucial, but often overlooked, dimension of the human and constitutional right to religious freedom is the autonomy of religious institutions, associations and societies with respect to matters of governance, doctrine, formation and membership. Although the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed this autonomy in the context of American constitutional law, it is vulnerable, and even under threat, for a variety of reasons, including a general decline in the health of civil society and mediating associations and a crisis of confidence and authority caused by clerical sexual abuse and churches’ failure to respond to it.

Bridges, Not Walls

2019 ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Mary Johnson ◽  
Mary L. Gautier ◽  
Patricia Wittberg ◽  
Thu T. Do
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Ministry ◽  
The Church

This chapter focuses on the contributions that Catholic international sisters make to the United States—to religious life, the Church, and the nation. Sisters identified their contributions along two lines—the benefits of diversity and the benefits of evangelization. The sisters responded that their presence and their cultures added a beneficial diversity to a wide variety of settings—to community, ministry, the Church, and the society more broadly. The chapter concludes with the point that there is a disjuncture between the sisters’ acceptance of diversity in the society and, to a degree, in the Church, but their nonacceptance of diversity in the charisms and lifestyles of religious life.

The African American Denominational Tradition: The Rise of Black Denominations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Dickerson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Black People ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
African American Leadership ◽  
Black Freedom ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Church

From the formation of the first independent African American Protestant denomination in the 1810s and 1820s to the opening decades of the 21st century, independent African American denominations have stood at the center of black religious life in the United States. Their longevity and influence have made them central to the preservation of black beliefs, practices, and rituals; have provided venues to promote movements for black freedom; and have incubated African American leadership in both the church and civic spheres. They have intertwined with every aspect of American and African American life, whether cultural, political, or economic, and they engaged the international involvement of American society and the diasporic interests of black people. Parallel assemblies composed of black ministers pastoring black congregations that remained within white denominations also emerged within the traditional white denominations, including the white Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational Protestant groups, plus the Catholic Church. Although they eschewed withdrawing from the white denominations, their extramural bodies functioned as a virtual black ecclesia, or institutional bodies, even though they remained smaller than the growing independent black denominations. Together, the black preachers and parishioners in independent black denominations and inside traditional white denominations maintained churches characterized by proud histories and long records of frontline involvements in black freedom pursuits.

scholarly journals Teaching Celia in the Age of Black Lives Matter

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon R. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Black Resistance ◽  
Black Life ◽  
New Generation

The emergence of Black Lives Matter has introduced a language of black liberation to a new generation of students. In doing so, it has provided an opportunity for historical study. Teacher-scholars can and should take advantage of the renewed interest in systemic threats to black life in the United States when teaching about past victims of state-sanctioned violence including Celia, an enslaved teenager executed for killing her master after years of sexual abuse. In doing so, they can not only draw useful connections between the past and present but also lay the foundations for a more meaningful study of black radicalism and black resistance in the United States.

Observations on the Memorandum “The Crisis in Church-State Relationships in the U.S.A.”

1999 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 704-710
Author(s):  
Samuel Cardinal Stritch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church ◽  
Grave Danger

The presentation of what the author calls a “grave danger” which confronts the Church in the United States in my judgment is not comprehensive. All through our history, we Catholics in the United States have had to face this same attack upon the Church from non-Catholics. The point of the attack has been the same all through the years: namely, that Catholics cannot be loyal to the Constitution of the United States and at the same time loyal to their Church. The notion of religious freedom in the non-Catholic mind in the Englishspeaking world derives from the Protestant doctrine upholding the right of the individual to interpret for himself the Sacred Scriptures.

Minorities and Religious Freedom in the United States

2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-76
Author(s):  
David M. O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Orthodox Jews ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Church

The modem libertarian conception of religious freedom did not emerge in the United States until the early twentieth century. It was the result of the straggles of religious minorities like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodox Jews, the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, among others. It took decades and a series of (not always successful) lawsuits to persuade the Supreme Court and the country of the value of protecting individuals’ free exercise of religion.

Effectiveness of Programs for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amaia Del Campo ◽  
Marisalva Fávero
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Prevention Programs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse Prevention ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Methodological Considerations

Abstract. During the last decades, several studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of sexual abuse prevention programs implemented in different countries. In this article, we present a review of 70 studies (1981–2017) evaluating prevention programs, conducted mostly in the United States and Canada, although with a considerable presence also in other countries, such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The results of these studies, in general, are very promising and encourage us to continue this type of intervention, almost unanimously confirming its effectiveness. Prevention programs encourage children and adolescents to report the abuse experienced and they may help to reduce the trauma of sexual abuse if there are victims among the participants. We also found that some evaluations have not considered the possible negative effects of this type of programs in the event that they are applied inappropriately. Finally, we present some methodological considerations as critical analysis to this type of evaluations.

Pentecostalism and African diaspora : a case study of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), in North America

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Rotimi Williams Omotoye
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Of God ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

Pentecostalism as a new wave of Christianity became more pronounced in 1970's and beyond in Nigeria. Since then scholars of Religion, History, Sociology and Political Science have shown keen interest in the study of the Churches known as Pentecostals because of the impact they have made on the society. The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) was established by Pastor Josiah Akindayomi in Lagos,Nigeria in 1952. After his demise, he was succeeded by Pastor Adeboye Adejare Enock. The problem of study of this research was an examination of the expansion of the Redeemed Christian Church of God to North America, Caribbean and Canada. The missionary activities of the church could be regarded as a reversed mission in the propagation of Christianity by Africans in the Diaspora. The methodology adopted was historical. The primary and secondary sources of information were also germane in the research. The findings of the research indicated that the Redeemed Christian Church of God was founded in North America by Immigrants from Nigeria. Pastor Adeboye Enock Adejare had much influence on the Church within and outside the country because of his charisma. The Church has become a place of refuge for many immigrants. They are also contributing to the economy of the United States of America. However, the members of the Church were faced with some challenges, such as security scrutiny by the security agencies. In conclusion, the RCCGNA was a denomination that had been accepted and embraced by Nigerians and African immigrants in the United States of America.

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