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Small Islamic mosque in unincorporated Lombard approved by DuPage County Board

A small mosque for an unincorporated site near Lombard has been approved by the DuPage County Board: Proclaim Truth Charitable Trust, which currently holds services in Villa Park, won approval to build...

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Possible issues with interstate megachurch sites

American megachurches have had multiple satellite sites for years. But now at least several have pursued satellite sites in other states: Pastor Mark Driscoll’s megachurch recently announced plans to...

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Quick Review: American Grace

I recently wrote about a small section of American Grace but I have had a chance to complete the full book. Here are my thoughts about this broad-ranging book about religion in America: 1. On one hand,...

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“World first” PhD in snowboarding really a sociology of religion PhD

I saw this story yesterday: the first man in the world to receive a PhD in snowboarding. But the story is actually a little more complicated: this was actually a PhD in the sociology of religion having...

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More educated people attend church more

One common idea is that people (or societies) that are more educated will move away from religious beliefs. However, several recent sociology studies suggest that more educated people are more likely...

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What journalists should know about religion

In the last week, several journalists have addressed the issue of how journalists should talk with politicians about religion. Ross Douthat followed up on his August 29th column with a blog post...

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Quick Review: Stellet Licht/Silent Light

(This is a guest post written by Robert Brenneman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. His book Homies and Hermanos: God and Gangs in Central America...

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Lombard mosque approved by DuPage County Board

I’ve been tracking this story in recent months (earlier stories here, here, and here) and it looks like we have a resolution: the DuPage County Board approved plans for a mosque in unincorporated...

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Tracking President Obama’s “God talk”

Decades after the sociologist Robert Bellah introduced the term “civil religion,” academics are continuing to track how politicians talk about religion in the public sphere. Here is an overview of how...

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When Naperville property switches from proposed church to proposed mosque,...

I’ve thought about this scenario before: in an American community, would a proposed church and proposed mosque of roughly the same sizes and impact on the neighborhood encounter the same amount of...

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The “functional religion” of Steve Jobs, Apple

After seeing the response to Steve Jobs’ death, a commentator at the Washington Post looks at some sociological research on Apple and concludes that Jobs was the leader of a religion-like movement: In...

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DuPage County Board votes 16-0 for new regulations for proposed religious...

Amidst a number of proposed mosques in DuPage County (see the latest example just south of Naperville), the DuPage County Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to institute new regulations for religious...

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Twentysomething: “What people in the past might have gotten from church, I...

In a small segment of a larger interesting article about “twentysomethings” (known in some academic circles as “emerging adults”), one twentysomething blogger talks about the role the Internet plays in...

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Evaluating self-immolation as a protest strategy

As the Arab Spring movements of this year began with an act of self-immolation in Tunisia, we might ask this question: is this an effective strategy for protest? Self-immolation as a form of political...

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Quick Review: The Better Angels of Our Nature

I hadn’t looked at much from psychologist Stephen Pinker for a while but I was intrigued by his latest book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Here are a few comments about...

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Sociologist Neil Gross counters Santorum’s charge about liberal colleges with...

Sociologist Neil Gross, whose work on this subject I have cited before, disagrees with Rick Santorum’s claim and argues that “college doesn’t make you liberal“: But contrary to conservative rhetoric,...

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Lots of sociological themes in Time’s “10 ideas that are changing your life”

I enjoy reading magazines and other media sources that are willing to consider the world of ideas and what new thinking we all need to know about. Thus, Time’s “10 ideas that are changing your life”...

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Post political content on Facebook and risk losing friends

Results from a new study show that 18% of adults on Facebook say they have responded to political posts by friends by dropping those friends or blocking their posts: Eighteen percent of the 2,253...

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Anti-urban hymn? “God, who stretched the spangled heavens”

Yesterday’s service featured #580 in the 1982 Episcopal hymnal, “God, who stretched the spangled heavens.” Beyond being a mid-20th century hymn (and they have some interesting quirks themselves), the...

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Atheists rally but still have a long way to go in the field of public opinion

Atheists may have held the “Reason Rally” last Saturday in Washington D.C. but data suggests they have a long way to go in countering negative public perceptions: Atheists remain an enigma for many...

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