In Ethics in the Sanctuary, Margaret Battin argues that traditional evangelism, directed to promoting religious belief, practice, and affiliation, that is proselytizing, is morally questionable to the extent that it involves unwarranted paternalism in the interests of securing other-worldly benefits for potential converts. I argue that Christian evangelism is justified in order to make the this...

Symbols represent information we have previously learned or experienced, but they can also serve to encourage thoughts and behaviors that are consistent with this knowledge/experience in order to maintain social cohesion (Guthrie, 1996). Pictures (e.g., American Red Cross image) representing moral rules (e.g., ‘save lives’) have been shown to influence moral decisions (Broeders, van den Box, Mu...

Numerous authors have suggested that religious belief has a positive association, possibly causal, with prosocial behavior. This article critiques evidence regarding this "religious prosociality" hypothesis from several areas of the literature. The extant literature on religious prosociality is reviewed including domains of charity, volunteering, morality, personality, and well-being. The exper...

Understanding the beliefs and knowledge related to women's sexuality is important when working with unique religious groups in order to provide culturally appropriate care. An exploratory, descriptive qualitative study generated knowledge, beliefs, and practices related to menstruation, ovulation, and family planning among Low German-speaking (LGS) Mennonite women (n = 38). There is a pervasive...

Background – last sentence; I recommend replacing the words “role of.....in acceptance or refusal of vaccination” by “...views/attitudes and practices...of...related to vaccination...” In line with the change of the title the sentence was changed into ” role in promoting acceptance...” Since the attitudes of congregation members that appointed the religious leaders included in the study, I sugg...

Our theoretical assumption is that behind the dogmatism-religion positive but not systematic relation, a clearer one may exist between religion and need for closure (Webster & Kruglanski, 1994). A positive association of religiosity with need for closure was hypothesized (except with the decisiveness facet). Subjects (n = 239) were administered the Need for Closure Scale (NFCS), the Religious F...

The new order government policy about religious education in state schools gradually led to an accommodative policy. If the old made a facultative subject, then at beginning of strengthened position by removing provisions, even though they were not obligatory. Until finally, through Law number 2 (1989), required be taught all channels, types, and levels education. And right every student get le...

BACKGROUND Tobacco control effort should be first started in people that are looked upon as role models for the general population. We aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of religious officials towards smoking and the new tobacco law. METHOD The study group was comprised of 492 Imams and 149 Quran course instructors working in Kahramanmaras city of Turkey, 641 religious o...