With all the church news in the media these days, it’s important to know your prelates from your pontiffs. Here are some handy religion sites to help keep you from making any mistakes that will send you to confessional.
Stats and Facts:
Adherents.com is a collection that claims to have more than 41,000 statistics and citations for more than 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, and movements. Its aim is to help researchers answer a wide range of questions, from “Where is the highest concentration of Athiests?” and “How many Quakers live in Indiana?” to “What are the major religions of Nigeria?” and “What percentage of the world is Buddhist?” It also offers a bevy of fun, quirky stuff, such as lists of the religious affiliations of politicians and actors and movies about religion. The best part is that the site culls statistics from a wide range of sources and is diligent about citing the origin.
Sacred Texts Online:
Beliefnet is the best religion news site out there. In addition to offering great story ideas, journalists will find the directory of sacred texts available online particularly useful.
Concise Dictionary of Religion:
A searchable glossary of religious figures and terms from the University of Calgary’s Professor Irving Hexham.
American Religion Data Archive:
In addition to a directory of hundreds of religious surveys, including downloadable data, you can get detailed maps and figures for the number of churches and members of each denomination at both the state and county level.
The Pluralism Project at Harvard University:
Includes research, statistics and a searchable database of 4,500 religious centers in the United States.
If you take only one thing away from this tip, take this link. Rutgers’ University’s Virtual Religion Index is a wonderfully annotated directory of the best religion sites on the Web, with links on everything from Shinto to Sufism. Make this your holy portal.