Analysts agree Latinos will play a key role in the 2004 presidential election. In 2003, Latinos surpassed African Americans as the nation’s largest minority group. It’s a community that is still developing politically, and religion is an important part of that development.

We continue our special series on religious voting blocs. This week, Muslim voters. In recent years, Muslims have been trying to organize into a political body that can influence elections. But they’ve faced significant challenges, particularly since 9/11.

The yoga tradition goes back thousands of years, to ancient Indian philosophy and the Hindu religion. In this country, many Americans find the beginning exercises of yoga good ways to reduce stress. But lifelong practitioners also find it very much a spiritual discipline, using the most severe ...

The second of three discussions on the moral principles underlying the major issues of the 2004 presidential campaign. This week, R & E discusses surprisingly in-depth comments made by the candidates during a debate about what role faith plays in their policymaking.

The number of Muslims in the U.S. is variously estimated at between two and six million — or more. About half are immigrants, and most of the rest, African Americans. We have a profile today of two Caucasian converts who were attracted to Islam when they were living abroad.

With religion a significant factor in how people vote, we begin this week a three-part series on religious voting blocs. Today, one of the most important of those blocs: Catholic voters. Once loyal to the Democratic Party, Catholics are now as divided as the rest of the nation.

The first of three discussions on the moral principles underlying the major issues of the 2004 presidential campaign. This week, Bob Abernethy discusses the candidates’ views on foreign policy with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and Ethics and Public Policy Center vice president Michael ...

U.S. Episcopal bishops this week pledged to seek unity within their deeply divided denomination. Tensions have run high since the 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson, the Anglican Communion’s first openly gay bishop.

Should juveniles ever be executed? In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that states could execute offenders as young as 16 if they chose to. But attitudes appear to be shifting, and the case now coming before the court could end that practice for good.

Father Greg Boyle is giving former gang members a chance at a better future.

We talk about the Jewish High Holidays with a hazzan, also known as a cantor, who leads a congregation in sung prayer.

In Utah, people who get licenses to carry concealed weapons can carry them even in church. If a church does not want its worshippers armed, it can either post a "No Guns" notice at the door or register with a state agency as a no-guns site. That has provoked a battle between the gun lobby and the ...

Like other European nations, Holland’s reputation for tolerance is being tested as the country grapples with how to welcome and integrate its growing immigrant Muslim population -- a community of 900,000 people who are increasingly vocal in demanding equality in Dutch society.

The national debate over same-sex marriage has posed big challenges for many African-American clergy. Traditionally, black churches have stressed an interpretation of Scripture that opposes homosexuality. But those congregations also have long been at the forefront in fighting for civil rights. What ...

In India, in the city of Kalimpong, the poorest children have one place to go to school. It is called the Gandhi Ashram, and it's run by a Canadian Jesuit priest. Father Thomas McGuire seeks students out, feeds them, teaches them, and gives them confidence -- and violins.

In Anacostia, a notoriously poor and violent section of Washington, D.C., a new kind of school is changing hundreds of lives. It's called The SEED School. It's a public, charter, college preparatory boarding school, the first of it's kind. Students are chosen by lottery, not test scores. It's expensive, but it works, and its founders hope to start similar schools all around the country.

A doctor and a multimillionaire businessman are working together to give provide aid and medicine to people in need.

Father Joe Maier is a Catholic priest who, over 30 years, has set up schools that have educated thousands of poor Thai children in the slums of Bangkok. In the process, he has skirmished with all kinds of people from drug dealers to church hierarchy.

The arsenal of technology being used to fight crime has grown dramatically. One of the most powerful weapons is DNA evidence, which law enforcement officials can use to solve crimes that are years old. As DNA testing becomes more widespread, serious ethical questions are being raised about how it's used, and whether it violates civil rights. Lucky Severson reports.

We have a story about a gay Orthodox Jew struggling with that seemingly impossible choice between sexual orientation and religion. It's one of several such stories in a documentary feature film released three years ago and directed by Sandi Simcha Dubowski. The title of the film is TREMBLING BEFORE ...