Baptism is an important rite of initiation in the Christian tradition, but the baptism ceremony varies depending upon the denomination. Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and many in the Protestant denominations baptize infants. Baptists and Pentecostal Churches baptize only adults or children old ...

At the Passover feast, or Seder, Jews retell the story of their ancestors' exodus from slavery in Egypt. R&E was invited to sit in on that retelling by fifth graders at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland. They acted out the story for students from the Rockledge public school in Bowie, Maryland.

In some African coutries, more than a quarter of the adult population is infected with HIV/AIDS. But in Senegal, a largely Muslim country, the rate of infection is barely one percent.

Pope John Paul II “did not want a monument that was just dedicated to himself, but rather an institution that really focused in on our teaching role within the Church,” says Rev. G. Michael Bugarin, director of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.

Millions of spiritual seekers and New Age practitioners are drawn to the Red Rocks of Sedona, Arizona each year.

"I think that there is, in Celtic spirituality, a rhythm of seeing, which can alter the way that one approaches the world," says Irish poet and theologian John O'Donohue.

A century and a half ago, Brigham Young led 600 Mormon settlers to the Salt Lake Valley and predicted it would blossom as a rose. Today, the valley is headquarters to what may be the fastest-growing church in the U.S., blossoming so fast it is continuously redefining itself.

Thomas Dixon Tyler of the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, DC, talks about gospel music's significance to him.

Tenafly, New Jersey, is a suburb of 16,000 people, nearly half of them Jewish, just across the Hudson River from New York City. However, when a group of Orthodox Jewish newcomers put up a symbolic boundary called an eruv, Tenafly became one of the latest battlegrounds in an ongoing civil war in the American Jewish community.

Many moral questions are posed when adult justice is imposed on juveniles. Should a boy who has murdered someone be put into a prison with grown men? Advocates of mandatory sentencing caution that these kids must be taken off the street and kept off. Critics warn that a young person spending his formative years in an adult prison has much less of a chance of ever becoming a productive citizen.

Many houses of worship have worked hard to be more welcoming to people with disabilities. But the deaf prefer to worship within their own community, and to be ministered to by other deaf people.

In the second of our two-part series on religious conversion, R & E talks to Lauren Winner. The child of a mixed marriage, she was raised as a non-observant Jew, became an Orthodox Jew, and then converted to Christianity.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops have approved the first national guideline for church art and architecture. Titled “Built of Living Stones,” the document advises parishes, priests, and architects on appropriate church styles, which reflect solid theological foundations.

"It is the sense that I have promised almighty God that I’m not going to have sex until I get married. That’s where the teenagers really find the power and strength to keep that promise," says Richard Ross, founder of True Love Waits.

R & E discusses the 2000 religious vote with Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Tolerant attitudes toward faith-seeking have made religious conversions more common. Still, choosing a new religion is usually a major decision — for converts and their families. In the first of a two-part series, R & E looks at the experience of John Curry, principal of a school for at-risk ...

The candidates’ use of religion has been controversial throughout the campaign. In the last of our special election reports, R & E asked several leading political experts to evaluate the role of religion and religious rhetoric during the 2000 election season.

At its meeting in Corpus Christi, the huge Texas Baptist Convention — nearly one fifth of all Southern Baptists — sent a strong signal of discontent to the national SBC. Led by moderates, the Texans voted overwhelmingly to cut $5 million of the $25 million they send the national group ...

One of the greatest powers a president has is appointing new justices to the Supreme Court. In the next few years, the Court is expected to rule on a variety of closely-disputed and controversial issues, many of them of special interest to religious communities: school prayer, for instance, and ...

African tribal religions include diviners who are believed to communicate with the gods in the spirit world. Diviners discover and then relate what the gods want, and harness the gods’ powers to help followers overcome illness and other crises.