BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: In this country, debate about the death penalty has been revived and sharpened, on all sides, by last weekend’s dramatic actions in Illinois. The outgoing Republican governor, George Ryan, pardoned four death row inmates and commuted the … More →

January 17, 2003

Somali immigrants fleeing civil war first settled in Georgia and Tennessee. But they were alarmed at what they felt was an environment too promiscuous and too violent for their children. So they went on a search for a smaller, safer place to raise their families, and about a thousand ended up in Lewiston, Maine. More →

November 15, 2002

Read excerpts from R&E’s interview about health care ethics with Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, a pediatrician at the Upper Cardozo Community Health Center in Washington, D.C., clinical professor of pediatrics and public health at George Washington University, editor of the health policy journal HEALTH AFFAIRS, and author of BIG DOCTORING IN AMERICA. More →

November 8, 2002

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: The boardroom scandals of the past year have cost billions of dollars, ruined some companies, hurt employees and shareholders, and shaken public confidence in corporate America. But that’s not the whole picture. Lucky Severson reports on companies … More →

October 25, 2002

In the aftermath of 9/11, as many Americans tried to learn more about Islam, much was said about “madrasahs.” They are the Islamic schools, some of which, in Pakistan, taught young men not just the Qur’an but terrorism. Madrasahs, it turns out, have a long and distinguished history in the Islamic world and may hold the key to whether Muslim scholars can once again welcome the ideas of others. More →

June 21, 2002

As American Catholics have reeled from the disclosures of past sexual abuses by priests, and evidence they were covered up, one of the questions raised has concerned priestly celibacy — abstinence from sex. Was that requirement a cause of the abuses? Is it necessary for dedicated ministry? Should it be made optional? More →

April 12, 2002

A special report on the sexual pressures on pre-teenage girls. Parents, social critics, and many young girls themselves deplore it, but sex sells, so advertisers and entertainers use it to attract audiences. More →

April 12, 2002

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now, the messages and fallout from the Enron bankruptcy. The United States has become a nation of shareholders. Directly or indirectly, through pension funds, 84 million Americans own corporate stock. This week, as congressional committees in Washington … More →

February 8, 2002

As Congress worked on the antiterrorism bill, proponents argued that the FBI and police need new tools to keep up with modern technology, while others expressed concern about violating privacy and other rights. Lucky Severson reports on the new search for the right balance between national security and civil liberties. More →

October 12, 2001

In conjunction with our profile on Diana Eck, RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY invited several scholars to comment on religious pluralism in America. More →

June 22, 2001