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The war in Iraq has forced millions to leave the country. Most refugees have stayed in the Middle East, but the country outside the region that’s taken in more Iraqis than any other is not the United States. It is Sweden, and as Fred de Sam Lazaro reports, the influx of refugees there is causing concern. More
There is no generally agreed figure on the human cost of the crackdown in Myanmar on Buddhist monks and others protesting dictatorial rule. The mass exodus from the country, formally and more widely known as Burma, continues. More
There has been a new development in the Reform movement of Judaism, the largest and most liberal branch of Judaism in the U.S. There’s a new prayer book out, and it has been designed to be useful to everyone, with more Hebrew for those who want that, and also more sensitivity to women and to contemporary values. More
As the presidential candidates step up their campaigns in the states with the first primaries and caucuses, a group called Faith in America is trying to make gay rights an election issue. Faith in America founder Jimmy Creech speaks of trying to end what he calls religion-based bigotry. This past week, the Faith in America group ended its campaign in South Carolina with a town hall debate in Greenville between Christian evangelicals and the campaign’s organizers. More
The conference of bishops overwhelmingly approved a statement on faithful citizenship, urging Catholics to rely on church teachings as they shape their political conscience. The document lists a host of issues Catholics should care about, including poverty, healthcare, immigration, and housing. But the bishops placed special priority on opposing abortion and euthanasia, which they called “intrinsic evils.” More
Several studies recently have addressed the religious interest, or lack of it, of young adults. We wondered how religion is faring on college campuses. Lucky Severson visited Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island to find out. More
Read more of Lucky Severson’s interview with the Rev. Janet Cooper Nelson, chaplain of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. More
The 280 U.S. Catholic bishops meet this coming week (November 12-15) in Baltimore, with a sharp debate likely over religion and politics, specifically on how much weight the issue of abortion should have in Catholic decisions on how to vote. Joining us to explore the arguments is Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center and a longtime authority on the U.S. bishops. More
Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize for peace. She is a conservationist whose movement has caused the planting of 30 million trees in Kenya and also helped lead to free elections. Recently, Maathai visited Chicago, as Judy Valente reports. More
To mark Veterans Day weekend, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly senior associate producer Patti Jette Hanley took pictures at Arlington National Cemetery and at St. James Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill in Washington, where on All Souls Day members of the parish read the names of Americans who died this year in Iraq, commemorating their sacrifice. More