This newsletter focuses on the relationship between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and religious broadcasters. It traces the history of that relationship and discusses some of the pressures put on both. It includes a discussion of a recent avalanche of mail at the FCC supporting the church on the airways. It also summarizes some of…

Discusses recruitment to religious cults and sects from the point of view of social science research and a more recent approach which argues that interpersonal bonds between members and potential recruits are the essential element. (Author/DB)

In the final decades of the twentieth century there was a considerable increase in the scale of religious education in Russia. Inasmuch as the targets of influence of religious institutions are citizens of Russia who profess a particular religion, the activities of the institutions have to be carried out on the basis of laws in force in Russia, in…

Though the government only regulates religious broadcasting directly by issuing licenses for stations owned by religious groups or operated for religious purposes, it indirectly affects a large number of religious programers who do not own stations. Also, the courts and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have seldom dealt with cases as…

Religious organizations have played an important part in the national movement to combat sex and violence in television programing. Attempts by religious organizations to exercise some control of the visual media began in 1907 with a concern for movies and has continued to the present. Although many churches and church organizations have expressed…

Reports on the results of the dissemination of an empirically based, premarital education program within religious organizations. Results reveal that clergy and lay leaders were as effective in the short run as university staff. Couples reported that the communication skills components of premarital education were the most helpful. (Contains 48…

Throughout our nation?s history, faith communities have played an essential role in educating children. Churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious organizations have supported and extended the work of local schools by offering tutoring, reading instruction, mentoring, after-school programs and a wide range of other services. Faith…

The Moral Majority has been more successful in mobilizing conservative Christians than three other evangelical groups--Third Century Publishers, Christian Voice, and the Religious Roundtable. According to the literature on social movements, four possible explanations for the success of such groups are that they have access to financial resources,…

This paper examines the question of whether the religious broadcasting industry has indirectly received unconstitutional aid from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It reviews individual FCC cases involving religious programing and religious broadcasters, the constitutional meaning of the establishment clause, and the limits the courts…

Discusses the impact of the Equal Access Act (1984) on the secondary school. Examines those court cases which served as the precursors of this act. Notes that the extent of participation by religious groups in an open forum remains to be seen. (KO)

Presents evidence that spiritual development is an integral part of students' overall development and argues that it is too often ignored on college campuses. Offers strategies to improve cooperation between student affairs administrators and representatives of religion on campus to acknowledge this aspect of students' lives more fully. (Contains…

Traces the progress of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge's (England) charity school movement in the early eighteenth century and its shift from promotion of catechistical instruction to putting children to work in workhouses that served to banish idleness and beggary. (GEA)

In an effort to better understand the attitudes and behaviors of young people in America around volunteering, service-learning and other forms of community involvement, the Corporation for National and Community Service, in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and Independent Sector, conducted the Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement…

this paper uses an interdisciplinary research methodology to engage the resources provided by the humanities and the liberal arts in a discourse analysis of Unitarian Universalism. The paper describes Unitarian Universalism as a contemporary religious-rhetorical movement and distinctive persuasion which nurtures an evolving, enriching religious…

Numerous studies that used the Chicago Attitudes Inventory in the late 1940s and early 1950s found that various indicators of religion were related to good personal adjustment in old age. This article reports findings of a 1988 study that replicated Moberg's 1951 in-depth research on the subject. Based on this earlier research, interview schedules…