Demographic Change: Casualties or Opportunities?
This post originally appeared on Patheos’ Black, White and Gray blog. At the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, we’ve been talking a lot lately about how different communities in the …
Southern California and the World
“Beach Children” Find Salvation through Pentecostal Preachers
In cities and towns around the world, countless numbers of people flock to beaches in search of sun, sea and sand. Yet a different picture emerges in Lagos, Nigeria, the second-largest city …
What’s Behind the Growth of Pentecostalism?
A recent Pew Research Center report on global Christianity provided comprehensive data to support a conclusion that many social scientists have drawn from piecemeal studies over the past decade: the Christian movements …
Social and Political Impact of Pentecostal Movements
An old axiom among social scientists who study renewalist movements goes: “Pentecostals and Charismatics don’t engage in civic projects; they are the projects.” While this odd pairing of spiritual dynamism and disengagement …
What Does the Demise of the Crystal Cathedral Mean For Our Megachurches?
This post originally appeared in Zócalo Public Square. If this year were like years past, the Crystal Cathedral, the Philip Johnson-designed Protestant megachurch in Garden Grove, would be abuzz with the “The …
Faith and Food Justice: Nourishing Body and Soul
Want to see interdisciplinary activism at its best? Look at food justice. Seeking to address the inequities in the food system from production to consumption, the movement creates ties together the concerns …
Lessons from Africa’s September 11th
by Danny McCain “There has been another bombing in Jos.” Those words from my neighbor interrupted CNN’s September 11th memorial activities I was watching. Our city of Jos in north-central Nigeria had …
Congregations and Community Project sheds light on Los Angeles neighborhoods
CRCC, the USC Office of Religious Life, Loyola Marymount University and the Magnolia Place Family Center partnered together for the Congregations and Community Project last month, a project that aimed at understanding …
LA Human Relations Commission’s Religious Pluralism Public Forum
CRCC Managing Director Brie Loskota moderated a panel at the Religious Pluralism Public Forum, sponsored by the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission last Wednesday at the Van Nuys City Hall …
Indigenous Pentecostal Churches in Quito, Ecuador
Donald Miller has observed Pentecostal and charismatic services around the globe. In May 2011, he visited indigenous Pentecostal churches in Quito, Ecuador, where he captured footage of prayer, worship, and dance. Miller, …