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In the five states where it’s legal, physician-assisted dying involves rigorous regulations, including how long a person has lived there, says Cathy Lynn Grossman, senior national correspondent for Religion News Service. “Brittany Maynard moved from California to Oregon, where it’s legal specifically to qualify for…a prescription for lethal drugs. The person takes the drugs themselves if and when they choose to, and not everyone who gets the prescription ever uses it.” More
“My goal is to be present,” says this writer and spiritual teacher, to the “emotional reality” of Native Americans and “put it in the voices and characters of real people. My job is to present a truth that you will embrace more fully if you believe it as you read it.” More
A delegation of top Yazidi spiritual leaders is seeking help for their ancient religious minority in Iraq, which has been particularly targeted by ISIS. “We became victims of one of the largest…atrocities of the modern world,” says Yazidi human rights advocate Murad Ismael. More
Faith groups help undocumented minors through the immigration courts; China looks to religion to revive environmental values; a church destroyed at Ground Zero prepares to rebuild. More
“The question for our government” says Lenni Benson, executive director and founder of the nonprofit Safe Passage Project, “will be, even if they have deportation orders, is it ethical and legal to remove a child to a country of origin if we aren’t assured that child will be safe upon return?” More
“Who will protect the environment? In the West and in China, it’s the government’s responsibility,” says Tashi Sange, a Tibetan Buddhist monk and conservationist. “This is not the Buddhist way. If you think that way you are not Buddhist. You are the protector. You have the responsibility.” More
The new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, set to be rebuilt at the World Trade Center, will be a national shrine and will include a nondenominational bereavement center. “Next to the place where the most tragic thing that has ever happened on American soil,” says Father Evagoras Constantinides of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, “it needs to be a place to offer, to welcome, to open, and to accept all sorts of people.” More
Ethical considerations and a threatening epidemic; churches ministering to and thinking theologically about transgender individuals; a Lutheran minister who feeds the hungry from a food truck church. More
“We should be thinking about how we can more vigorously and effectively help the people of West Africa and how we can protect health care workers in the United States. We can afford to do both quite well,” says bioethicist George Annas. More
“I love the Lutheran tradition, the Lutheran theology, the message of grace,” says Rev. Margaret Kelly, a Lutheran pastor in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her food-truck church offers meals, prayer services, and a feeling of community to the hungry and homeless. More