There is a moral issue that is facing and dividing many families: what to do when someone you love is in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state. Is it best to withdraw the feeding tube, despite the objections of … More →

The debate over abortion and Catholic politicians affects all Catholic public officials who are pro-choice. Catholic politicians, both past and present, often face many challenges when it comes to questions of faith and politics.

Part four of a four-part series: evangelicals on their common commitment to spreading their faith. Tens of thousands do so through traditional career missionary efforts overseas, but the vast majority of evangelicals say they do it in their everyday lives.

U.S. mainline denominations are all deeply divided on gay issues. In 2003, the U.S. Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop. But the United Methodists have stood firm in their opposition to homosexuality. In a series of votes, United Methodist delegates reaffirmed their church’s ...

Part three of a four-part series: American evangelicals’ relationship with popular culture. In our national survey, conducted with U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, nearly three quarters of white evangelicals said the media are hostile to their values. Yet they have also created their own widely popular ...

Buddhist meditation techniques are widely popular, and one such method is called Shambhala meditation, a simplified version of Tibetan practice. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, author and meditation leader, told a group of beginners to relax, note their breathing, set aside their thoughts, and just be ...

Immigrants have been pouring into the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Minnesota is now home to many Muslims, East African Somalis, Indian Hindus and Laotian Hmong -- all of whom are trying to find a balance between their cultural traditions and U.S. customs.

Listen to perspectives about the president’s sense of mission from Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Robert Franklin, professor of social ethics at Emory University in Atlanta.

Part two of a four-part series: the politics of America’s evangelicals. An overwhelming number of all white evangelicals, 70 percent, are Republican or lean toward the political right. But not all evangelicals share the same views.

Watch Anna Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and John Green of the University of Akron discuss the results of a survey on America’s evangelicals conducted in conjunction with RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY.

In the Orthodox Christian tradition, icons are said to be written, not painted. The Orthodox consider making icons more a form of prayer than art, and they believe the iconographer's hand is guided by God.

Kim Lawton sat down with prominent author and Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge to reflect on the Easter story of crucifixion and resurrection.

"Every single food on the Passover Seder plate has a dual symbolism," says cookbook author Joan Nathan who explains the meaning behind some of the foods of the Seder.

For members of the clergy, providing spiritual care for their congregants is a role they are well prepared for. But providing spiritual care to the sick can be a different sort of challenge. In the nation's capital, the Washington Hospital Center offers clergy special training sessions for a special kind of sick person: the patient with cancer.

Deep in the West African nation of Mali, where the savannah grasslands meet the Sahara, lies Timbuktu. It’s an impoverished town of about 30,000, most of them nomadic traders or subsistence farmers. But Timbuktu is rich in history — long ago, it was a place of high Islamic scholarship, and ...

A 2003 survey indicates that 52 percent of Americans would favor a law that prohibits same-sex marriage. However, two Canadian provinces have now made same-sex marriages legal, and the highest court in Massachusetts may soon rule on the issue.

mel gibson, the passion of the christ, christianity, jews, jesus, crucifixion

The Jewish tradition of tahara, the washing and purifying of a dead body, is considered one of the greatest of all good deeds — mitzvot. Those who perform taharas are volunteer members of the burial society, chevra kadisha. Women attend to deceased women, men to men.

Do ancient ruins in Israel support or contradict the Bible’s depiction of King David and King Solomon? Archaeologists debate the matter as digging proceeds at Megiddo, where scholars are unearthing and dating the remains of cities, altars, and battlefields at one of civilization’s most ...

A growing black middle class and the lack of available land in cities are luring some African-American congregations to the suburbs, depriving their old neighborhoods of the ministries that had served them.