Religion
In a message at the beginning of the 2025 fall semester, the University of Wisconsin urged students to review their class schedule and “note with your instructors any need for academic flexibility due to religious or cultural observances.” The note added that relief from an exam or assignment should be requested within the first two weeks of classes. The university and other state schools have a religious observance policy as mandated by state statute. The UW policy states: “A student’s claim of a religious conflict, which may include travel time, should be accepted at face value. A great variety of…
Charles Yu, a pastor on the staff of Madison’s Blackhawk Church, is among a broadly diverse group of Christian leaders featured by the National Association of Evangelicals in a video which explains that evangelical is a religious term and not a political term. An email from NAE explains: Political, social and cultural trends have changed the public perception of evangelicalism, particularly in the United States. Many people now assume that evangelicals are white, American and Republican. While some evangelicals are those things, millions of self-identified evangelicals are not. This new video from the National Association of Evangelicals addresses what it…
By Dean Robbins – Photo by Bryce Richter – ON WISCONSIN magazine – UW–Madison launched the Center for Interfaith Dialogue last year — and not a minute too soon, given the onset of the Israel–Hamas war. Though it had been in the works for a while, the center opened just as the university urgently needed a place where students from different religious backgrounds could get to know one another and engage in civil dialogue. Interim director Ulrich Rosenhagen envisioned a program in which undergraduates serve as “interfaith fellows,” educating themselves about religious traditions while fostering a spirit of understanding in…
Have you ever wondered why American religion seems so caustic and polarized? Using five decades of social science survey data, Dr. Ryan Burge charts how and why the American religious landscape has changed. The discussion will focus on the collapse of the mainline, the perpetual strength of American evangelicalism, and the dramatic rise of the nones. Additionally, Dr. Burge will help attendees think about ways to make their own congregations less polarized and homogeneous as a means to transform not only their congregation but also their community. Dr. Ryan Burge is an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. He is the author…