Professor Omid Safi, director of Duke University's Islamic Studies Center, says the Paris terror attacks were a “harbinger” of more to come. He urges faith communities to build relationships of trust and begin a global conversation about religion so they can be ready to begin the healing process ...

Religious activists are trying to help vulnerable communities in south Louisiana already affected by climate change; a community developer challenges common conceptions about modern charitable work

Deep in the bayous of south Louisiana, faith-based activists are trying to help vulnerable groups threatened by the consequences of climate change.

“Sea level rises have been measured. They’re verifiable. Climate change is very well documented. The facts are there. You can deny them if you choose to, but we’re seeing the results every day here in south Louisiana, and whether you want to say that’s because of climate change or something ...

“As the climate changes, species are diminishing. We are seeing the extinction of so many different things, and they are part of us. They are part of the world. They are part of who we are. Are we going to become the next extinction? We need to care for what God has given us, and that is a moral ...

“Pope Francis is creating new kinds of conversations. This moral guidance, this moral obligation to our children and to future generations is really resonating with people, and he’s doing it with such hope.”

“Carbon-based energy development is the best friend for poor people and would give them the best chance at life.”

“Our ministry is different because we focus on development as opposed to just relief. We want to end poverty more than just relieve people from the pain of poverty. We want to change communities,” says Katie Delp, executive director of FCS (Focused Communities Strategies) Urban Ministries.

"If we can change the kids, we can have a better world. But it starts with the parents,” says Rev. Troy Lawrence Sr. of Reaping the Harvest, a Full Gospel Baptist Church in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. He spoke with R&E about gun violence at a peace festival last summer. “Let it be ...

Interfaith coalitions are taking a stand against ISIS in the wake of the Paris attacks; a Colombian city ruined by drugs and crime has transformed itself in recent years; and the author of “Between the World and Me” ponders race, … More →

"If ISIS is allowed to define the terms of this engagement then they’ve pretty much won the battle. We have to understand them and meet them where they’re coming from but not capitulate, not really surrender to the terror they’re trying to spread, because that’s the victory they are looking ...

"There still remains a profound level of inequality here and a lot of economic policies that exclude the poor," says architect Alejandro Echeverri. "But I’m optimistic, because Medellin does have this spirit of social commitment and trust."

"I didn't come out of the church. I don't have an intuitive understanding of what religion gives to people. I just don't. I didn't really grow up in a Christian household," says the author of Between the World and Me. "I'm very distanced from that. For both good and ill, it probably marks ...

Activists in China are successfully fighting industrial pollution in China and holding factories and their customers in the West accountable; and the first Native American Catholic saint has come to symbolize the Catholic Church's complicated historical relationship with indigenous people.

Climate change activist Ma Jun is successfully fighting factory pollution in China, but should the US pay for the cleanup?

"Native spirituality is taking deeper roots within the hearts of Christian people,” says Sister Kateri Mitchell, a member of Mohawk Nation and the Sisters of St. Anne who directs the annual National Tekakwitha Conference for Native American Catholics.

“We know that faith-rooted justice is what builds bridges. Faith-rooted justice takes care of all of our earth, takes care of our people, takes care of our politics," says Sister Simone Campbell, director of a national Catholic social justice lobby.

A growing coalition says reforming America’s criminal justice system is a matter of faith; Rabbi David Saperstein says religious freedom is central to the American identity; and writer Carla Power and Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi debated Islam’s holy book in search of interfaith understanding.

"We have to make sure that our men and women who are coming out of prison have welcoming and affirming communities to come to, where they can be judged by the content of their character and not one mistake that they made in their past," says Bishop Darren Ferguson, a former inmate and now pastor of ...

"I'm living on the fact that somebody cared for me when I got out. The guys who got out before me helped me when I got out. People who are doing this work helped me, so I'm bound to reciprocate."