What's New
“What we have to do is make sure that we approach this in a comprehensive manner: socially, economically and with partners on the ground,” says Haris Tarin, Washington office director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. More
When there was violent unrest in Boston, members of the clergy learned to work both with the police and with potentially violent youth. They achieved much-publicized changes, but they also may have claimed success too soon. More
Chris “Comes with Clouds” White, of Cherokee descent, discovered a pre-historic stone circle near his home that carries a significant spiritual meaning for him. “We’re born, we have a youth, we get old, we die, but we believe that there’s something beyond that where our ancestors are, so that’s a circle.” More
US Muslim leaders joined together to denounce extremism and terrorism. The brutality of the ISIS militant group “has no basis in the teachings of Islam,” says Azhar Azeez, president of the Islamic Society of North America. More
Religious freedom activists are raising new concerns about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. “It is nothing less than ethnic cleansing, and we cannot continue to be silent,” says Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. More
An evangelical leader seeks to break the “code of silence” about heroin in the church; Rais Bhuiyan teaches others to forgive after forgiving a man for trying to kill him. More
Reverend Toby Larson of Celebration Anglican Church felt like he failed as a pastor when a young man from his congregation suddenly died of a heroin overdose. “Unfortunately, we’re pretty good at pastoring families that have lost people. We’re pretty good at burying people. We’re pretty lousy ten years earlier when problems started,” he says. More
“Faith and faith leaders really play a pivotal role in not only preventing drug use, but supporting people with addiction in their recovery, in the process of really healing themselves from a tremendously stigmatized disease.” More
Days after 9/11, Rais Bhuiyan was shot in the head by Mark Stroman in a hate crime targeted at Arabs. Bhuiyan survived the attack, and Stroman was sentenced to death, but Bhuiyan felt compelled to not let the story end there. “I need to forgive him in public and do something to save the life,” says Bhuiyan, “because if Mark Stroman was given the chance I had in my childhood, he would have become a different person. More
The ethics of charging the poor to stay out of jail; remembering Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson; the empathetic ministry of dogs who comfort the suffering. More