WEEK IN RELIGION
Last year, religious freedom decreased around the globe according the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's annual report. With such factors as the refugee crisis, political strife and economic dislocation, religious freedoms deteriorated in 2015 and "societal intolerance" increased. In the annual report, 17 countries were identified as having "Tier One" concerns. The "Tier One" concerns are "particularly sever religious violations of religious freedom that are systematic, ongoing, and egregious." Some countries included in the report were Myanmar, Tajikistan and Nigeria. Iran and India were singled out by the commission as countries where religious freedom conditions grew significantly worse in 2015. Although the commission was set up by Congress in 1998, the official designation of "Countries of Particular Concern" can only be made by the U.S. State Department. Once designated, the U.S. government is obligated to take action with those countries.
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SURVEY SAYS
Discussing religion with non-family members has become a taboo topic for Americans, according to a recently released survey by the Pew Research Center. In its survey on religion in everyday life, nearly half of people in the U.S. seldom (33 percent) or never (16 percent) talk about religion with people outside their family. The survey also found that people seldom (26 percent) or never (13 percent) discuss religion within their own families.
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GOOD BOOK?
"Be Light: Shining God's Beauty, Truth, and Hope into a Darkened World," by Samuel Rodriguez
In Be Light Samuel Rodriguez -- described by Fox News and CNN as "America's most influential Latino Evangelical leader" -- provides a blueprint for confronting darkness in every realm of our lives. He issues a clarion call for individual believers and the church to rise up and once again be that bright city on a hill, which doesn't simply expose the invading darkness, but overcomes it with God's blazing light.
-- WaterBrook
THE WORD
salat: The prescribed prayer that Muslims offer five times a day to fulfill the second of the Five Pillars of their faith.
-- ReligionStylebook.com
RELIGION AROUND THE WORLD
According to the CIA World Factbook, the religious make up of Tanzania is:
-- Christian: 61.4 percent
-- Muslim: 35.2 percent
-- Folk religion: 1.8 percent
-- Other: 0.2 percent
-- Unaffiliated: 1.4 percent
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