Richard Ostling is an American author and journalist living in Ridgewood, New Jersey. [1] He and his wife, the late Joan K. Ostling, are the co-authors of Mormon America: The Power and the Promise (1999; revised ed. 2007). [2]
Richard N. Ostling (born July 14, 1940, in Endicott, New York [1] ) is a journalist who reports on religious topics. He was a senior correspondent for Time [1] and president of the Religion Newswriters Association. [1] Once a senior editor of The Michigan Daily , he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan and holds master's degrees in journalism (Northwestern University) and religion (George Washington University) along with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Gordon College.[ citation needed ] He is listed in Who's Who in America. He has conducted religious interviews on at least four continents.
Richard Ostling previously reported for the Morning News and Evening Journal and Christianity Today [1] as well as once being the chief religion writer for the Associated Press, where he spent eight years. [3]
In over 27 years at Time, he has written a number of cover stories. He has broadcast on CBS Radio. He has reported regularly for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. [1] Over the course of his career, he has interviewed several notable religious figures such as Billy Graham, the Dalai Lama, the late Mother Teresa and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI). [3] He authored many of the Time magazine stories on the rise of fundamentalist Christianity, including cover stories on Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jim Bakker, and Jimmy Swaggart. [4] Ostling was the co-author, with Bernard Nathanson, of Aborting America: A History of the Abortion Rights Movement in the United States. [5]
Richard Ostling and his wife had two children, Margaret and Elizabeth. [1]
The Center for Religious Inquiry has called Richard Ostling "one of the most distinguished and honored writers on religion in America." [6] A review in The New York Times called Mormon America: The Power and the Promise "eminently fair, well researched and exhaustive." [7] "His distinctions include a Pulitzer Prize nomination; the American Academy of Religion, Supple and Templeton prizes; and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Religion Newswriters Association." [3]
Joan K. Ostling (June 29, 1939 – January 11, 2009) was an assistant professor of English and journalism at Nyack College, [1] as well as having taught at several other evangelical colleges. [8] She also co-authored a comprehensive bibliography of books by and about C. S. Lewis. Joan Ostling earned master's degrees in English and political science, and was a writer and editor for the US Information Agency in Washington, DC. [2] [9]
Joan Ostling died of breast cancer on January 11, 2009 at her home in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Henotheism is the worship of a single, supreme god while not denying the existence or possible existence of other lower deities. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primitive monotheism among ancient Greeks.
Mormonism is the religious tradition and theology of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to various aspects of the Latter Day Saint movement, although there has been a recent push from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to distance themselves from this label. A historian, Sydney E. Ahlstrom, wrote in 1982, "One cannot even be sure, whether [Mormonism] is a sect, a mystery cult, a new religion, a church, a people, a nation, or an American subculture; indeed, at different times and places it is all of these". However, scholars and theologians within the Latter Day Saint movement, including Smith, have often used "Mormonism" to describe the unique teachings and doctrines of the movement.
Stephen Edward Robinson was a religious scholar and apologist, who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Brigham Henry Roberts was a historian, politician, and leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He edited the seven-volume History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and independently wrote the six-volume Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Roberts also wrote Studies of the Book of Mormon—published posthumously—which discussed the validity of the Book of Mormon as an ancient record. Roberts was denied a seat as a member of United States Congress because of his practice of polygamy.
Richard John Mouw is an American theologian and philosopher. He held the position of President at Fuller Theological Seminary for 20 years (1993–2013), and continues to hold the post of Professor of Faith and Public Life.
Anti-Mormonism is discrimination, persecution, hostility or prejudice directed against the Latter Day Saint movement, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The term is often used to describe people or literature that are critical of their adherents, institutions, or beliefs, or physical attacks against specific Saints or the Latter Day Saint movement as a whole.
The Christian Research Institute (CRI) is an evangelical Christian apologetics ministry. It was established in October 1960 in the state of New Jersey by Walter Martin (1928–1989). In 1974, Martin relocated the ministry to San Juan Capistrano, California. The ministry's office was relocated in the 1990s near Rancho Santa Margarita. In 2005, the organization moved to its present location in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Signature Books is an American press specializing in subjects related to Utah, Mormonism, and Western Americana. The company was founded in 1980 by George D. Smith and Scott Kenney and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is majority owned by the Smith-Pettit Foundation.
The Mormon religion is predicated on what are said to be historical events such as the First Vision of Joseph Smith and the historicity of the Book of Mormon, which describes a detailed pre-Columbian history of the Americas. Joseph Fielding Smith, the tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, declared that "Mormonism, as it is called, must stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith. He was either a prophet of God, divinely called, properly appointed and commissioned, or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground." As Jan Shipps has written, "Mormonism, unlike other modern religions, is a faith cast in the form of history," and until after World War II, Mormons did not critically examine the historical underpinnings of their faith; any "profane" investigation of the church's history was perceived "as trespassing on forbidden ground."
The God Makers is a book and film highlighting the inner workings and perceived negative aspects of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ed Decker and Dave Hunt co-authored the book and film.
Studies of the Book of Mormon is a collection of essays written at the beginning of the 20th century by B. H. Roberts (1857–1933), a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which examine the validity of the Book of Mormon as a translation of an ancient American source.
Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States. Estimates from 2017 suggest that between 65% and 75% of the US population is Christian. More recent estimates from 2021 suggest that 63% of the US population is Christian. The majority of Christian Americans are Protestant Christians, though there are also significant numbers of American Roman Catholics and other minority Christian denominations such as Mormons, Orthodox Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses. The United States has the largest Christian population in the world and, more specifically, the largest Protestant population in the world, with nearly 210 million Christians and, as of 2021, over 140 million people affiliated with Protestant churches, although other countries have higher percentages of Christians among their populations. The Public Religion Research Institute's "2020 Census of American Religion", carried out between 2014 and 2020, showed that 70% of Americans identified as Christian during this seven-year interval. In a 2020 survey by the Pew Research Center, 65% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians. They were 75% in 2015 70.6% in 2014, 78% in 2012, 81.6% in 2001, and 85% in 1990. About 62% of those polled claim to be members of a church congregation. The modern official motto of the United States of America, as established in a 1956 law signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, is "In God We Trust". The phrase first appeared on U.S. coins in 1864.
Diana Butler Bass is an American historian of Christianity and an advocate for progressive Christianity. She is the author of eleven books, many of which have won research or writing awards.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been subject to criticism and sometimes discrimination since its early years in New York and Pennsylvania. In the late 1820s, criticism centered around the claim by Joseph Smith to have been led to a set of golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was reputedly translated.
The Religion News Association (RNA) is an American non-profit professional association which seeks to promote better reporting on religion in the news media and to provide help and support to journalists who cover religion. It was founded in 1949 and in 2007 had 570 members and subscribers. Membership in the RNA is open to journalists who regularly report on religion in the secular print and broadcast media. Since 2006, the RNA has been associated with the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. In 2016, RNA members approved a proposal to change the name from the "Religion Newswriters Association" to the current name.
Mormonism and Nicene Christianity have a complex theological, historical, and sociological relationship. Mormons express their doctrines using standard biblical terminology and have similar views about the nature of Jesus Christ's atonement, bodily resurrection, and Second Coming as traditional Christianity. Nevertheless, most Mormons do not accept the Trinitarian doctrine of Nicene Christianity, codified in the Nicene and Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creeds of 325 and 381. Although Mormons consider the Protestant Bible as scripture, they do not believe in biblical inerrancy. They have also adopted additional scriptures that they believe to have been divinely revealed to Joseph Smith, including the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Mormons practice baptism and celebrate the sacrament, but they also participate in other religious rituals. Mormons self-identify as Christians.
Patheos is a non-denominational, non-partisan online media company providing information and commentary from various religious and nonreligious perspectives.
Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. She and five other jornalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. She also won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion Reporting—Mid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, and 2018.
Katherine Stewart is an American journalist and author who often writes about issues related to the separation of church and state. Her books include The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children (2012) and The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (2020).
Independent Network Charismatic (INC) Christianity is a movement within evangelical charismatic Christianity which is focused on the authority of charismatic apostles and seeks the wholesale transformation of society. The term was first used in 2017 by sociologists Brad Christerson and Richard Flory in their book The Rise of Network Christianity: How Independent Leaders are Changing the Religious Landscape to describe the rapid growth of a form of Protestant Christianity from 1970 to 2010, and has since been adopted by other commentators. The movement is distinguished from other forms of Christianity by its use of network governance, based on networks of charismatic apostles, rather than more traditional church structures and hierarchies. These networks are sustained by the use of new communications technologies such as social media, which both facilitates communication between leaders in the network and enables leaders to build a following which is not tied to a geographical area. It is characterised by belief in and encouragement of the use of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, along with a focus on the transformation of society according to Christian values through prayer and by Christians reaching positions of leadership in the areas of business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, family, and religion. INC Christianity tends to be politically conservative and, in the US, associated with support for Republican politicians.
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