This summer, Shift has taken us all over. Read the rest of this entry »
In the name of Dios: Mormon missionaries bring urban Hispanics, Catholics into the church
Traditional greetings—“buenos dias” and smacking kisses, one on each cheek—sound out over the organ music 22-year-old missionary Charisse Horn plays at a Sunday morning service in Logan Square.
A year ago, she’d never spoken a word of Spanish. Now, as one of about 35 Spanish-speaking missionaries in Chicago, she worships, gives testimony and reads El Libro de Mormon, or the Book of Mormon, all in Spanish. Read the rest of this entry »
This Muslim-American life: young adults’ activist, artistic voices
Follow through this six-story series on the lives of second-generation American Muslims. Read the rest of this entry »
Food, faith and bacon (now there’s a holy trinity!)
There are Hindus who haven’t set foot in a temple in a decade, but still refuse to order a burger. And Muslims who smoke and drink, but won’t eat a pork chop. And Jews, like 25-year-old Stacey Banchek, who hasn’t attended synagogue services regularly since she moved to Washington D.C. a few years ago, but still picks bacon bits out of her Cobb salad, piece by piece. Read the rest of this entry »
This Muslim-American life: A virtual round table
No single voice or organization can speak for the colorful, diverse spectrum of Islam in America, so here we give you ten of them. Read the rest of this entry »
This Muslim-American life: Allah and the Arts
With bold, messages on contemporary religious, social and political issues, young Muslim-Americans are stepping onto the stage and into the studio. Read the rest of this entry »
This Muslim-American life: The numbers speak for themselves
The diverse, young-skewing population of an estimated 1.5 million Muslim-American adults is “middle-class and mostly mainstream,” according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center. (Full report available for download here.)
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This Muslim-American life: Meet Ahlam, a Chicago activist
Ahlam Said, a 23-year-old working for a Muslim community-organizing group in Chicago, talks about her take on race and religion.
This Muslim-American life: Sharing their stories
The Inner-City Muslim Action Network, a community organizing group based on Chicago’s South Side, brings together Muslims across races and backgrounds several times a year with Community Café, an event where Muslims (and non-Muslims, as well) are given a place to gather together and connect with one another.
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E-motions: How the Internet has changed the way a generation thinks, feels, expresses
It’s the 21st Century, and the indulgent world that Madonna sang about in her quintessentially ’80s hit “Material Girl” has all but given way to the World Wide Web. At 23, I’ll admit, we are living in a digital world, and I am a digital girl. Read the rest of this entry »
The art of salvation: Kirsten’s creative life and Christian call
Much like her hipster friends and fellow art majors, Kirsten Aho relied on Salvation Army stores for hand-me-downs: clothes, college furniture and craft supplies. But as a 23-year-old soldier in the Salvation Army, she has a much deeper, lifelong connection to the international church and charity organization. Read the rest of this entry »
Children of the 80s: Have you stopped believin’?
Either coming out as atheists or living in church limbo, many adults in their 20s (dare I make another rock reference? YES.) are “losing their religion.”
The Wesleyan world of social networking
Online ministries have become a must for churches trying to engage a generation living in the instant-gratification, constant-communication world of Twitter and Facebook.
But before the Internet, before computers… and well, even before electricity, Christian movements still relied on a kind of social networking. Read the rest of this entry »
Living in church limbo
Young adults are “the most spiritually independent and resistant age group,” and not-so-surprisingly, they’re more often sleeping in on Sunday mornings than going to church. Read the rest of this entry »
Coming out atheist: young nonbelievers build community in college and online
As teens, they start thinking that it just doesn’t make sense anymore, and for years, it’s their secret… then, in college, surrounded by more open-minded peers, they come out of the dark, still-stigmatized atheist closet. Read the rest of this entry »
