The entire world is aging! Clearly not a profound statement. We all teach that aging starts at birth, but few people want to acknowledge that until that are somewhere in their 80’s. I have been teaching Gerontology since 1978. Over the past 45 years Gerontology has been taught in a generic, one size fits all approach. Over the past about 10 years the general field has begun to correct this, paying more attention to the needs of the diversity of persons around the world. Unfortunately, within the sub-field of Religion, Spirituality and Aging, this has been less true. In the U. S., some of this can be attributed to the current culture wars. However, we owe it to our students to offer them a view of aging all around the world. This also involves understanding all of the world’s religious and spiritual traditions. This journal will never push one religion as being superior to another. Unfortunately, traditionally we have done so by default, as much of the material in this journal has come from the Christian religion.
In the United States, Christianity is the dominant religion. In a country with a dominante religion, it is often difficult to obtain a sample of sufficient size to be representative of other faith traditions, not to mention at times a lack of interest in finding it. As a researcher I have also collected many samples that included other faith traditions but have been unable to do the analysis due to the small sample size. Yet as a practitioner I am aware that I encounter people of other faiths often. As a hospital chaplain, the first time I encountered a family who practiced Hinduism, I was completely unable to support them in their grief, as I did not understand it. Even within the Christian community, there are some differences in beliefs between a person who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints when compared for example to the Methodist tradition. Understanding Religious diversity is critical within the various counseling, social science, and medical professionals. Doing research in a “Christian” country like the United States may not allow for sample sizes to do statistical analysis, but there are countries where these traditions are the majority.
While this journal since 1999 has invited persons of all the world’s traditions to submit articles, over the past 10 years, this journal has progressively been enhanced by authors and articles that reflect many different traditions. In this issue, the themes reflect Filial piety, Older African Americans, LGBTQ persons, mindfulness, and Hinduism. Several of these articles are written by scholars from a variety of countries. As I retire from editing this journal, it is my hope and understanding that this journal will continue to inspire persons, even those teaching a general gerontology course who can only include religion/spirituality as one module, can do so remembering the diversity of beliefs found around the world.