Larbi Megari, an Algerian journalist, scholar and leader in groundbreaking efforts to lift up international reporting on religion, will be inducted into the International Association of Religion Journalists Hall of Fame in March 2022.

In our fifth global discussion about religion and politics, IARJ members from North America discuss common misconceptions about the complex influence of religion in shaping community life and national policies.

Please, watch our IARJ dialogue about the role of religion in the turbulent U.S. election. Do you have suggestions for our planning team about future dialogues? Click on the “Contact” link in the upper-right corner of our front page and send us a note.

Members of the IARJ will discuss the relationship between religion and the U.S. 2020 election on December 9, 2020.

A new wave of research on religious leadership is finding that significant numbers of clergy show evidence of struggling with clinical signs of narcissism. The troubling discoveries cross liberal and conservative boundaries, and can be found among evangelical, mainline Protestant and Catholic religious leaders, as well as among rabbis and imams. This problem—and promising solutions through developing healthy forms of humility—are explored in this new Global Plus column by Dr. Steven J. Sandage, research director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Psychology, and David Briggs, who writes for the Association of Religion Data Archives.

Is there an inexorable trend toward secularization in the West as younger generations in nations from the U.S. to Switzerland are less likely to affiliate with organized religion? Or does longstanding evidence that people become more religious as they age indicate that secularization trends may reverse in rapidly aging societies of high-income countries? At least one group of researchers has come up with some preliminary indications.

This is a perilous period for religious freedom throughout the world. Most large countries officially proclaim religious freedom—but a growing body of research has found that the chasm between promise and practice is wide. In many cases, the promises of freedom are routinely denied. In this important Global Plus column, Roger Finke, director of the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), and the IARJ’s co-founder journalist David Briggs collaborated to offer a compelling, global overview of threats to religious freedom, today.

What happens when well-known speakers are brought together to fill an auditorium to discuss the compatibility of religion and science? Too often a circus in which performers with extremist views entertain an audience by affirming their prejudices, and widening a perilous gulf. What happens when you bring together respected social scientists who for many years have gathered significant data on the relationship between science and religion? A humble dialogue offering new pathways to cooperative efforts on issues from evolution and climate change to eradicating disease.

In this news-analysis, IARJ co-founder David Briggs explores the crucial issue of Islam and democracy—the global debate over whether these two traditions, one religious and one political, can co-exist peacefully and constructively in the world. In his overview, Briggs draws on expert voices raised at a panel discussion during the IARJ’s recent conference of Asian journalists in Jakarta, Indonesia. Then, he adds background (including some helpful web links), pointing toward related news events, research data and conclusions from other experts. This article includes links to video of the Jakarta panel discussion.

Peggy Fletcher Stack, religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune and a founding member of the International Association of Religion Journalists, was part of the investigative team at the Tribune that won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on rapes at Utah colleges. In this new IARJ@work column, Peggy writes about the challenges she faces—and the importance of reporting on religion in a fair and balanced way.