"The pope looks at the world in a different way. He looks at the world, he looks at economics, he looks at the environment, politics from the bottom up, from the outside in, and those aren't Washington's priorities or Washington's ways. So we've had an alternative vision and a great example, and my ...

"Jerusalem is a place historically if there is something different about us, let’s fight about it. That’s basically the vibe. And so we and the chorus are trying to create an alternate reality," says conductor Micah Hendler. He founded the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus, an ensemble of Israeli and ...

Pope Francis energized American Catholics and others with his message of peace, compassion, justice, and human dignity; and some Catholics hope that the Church under Pope Francis will be open to reform on divorce, contraceptives, and marriage

American Catholics, says Rev. Thomas Reese of National Catholic Reporter, live out their faith in the local parish, and "they want to meet somebody like Pope Francis. And if the clergy and the bishops and the people aren’t like Pope Francis, or namely like Jesus, more welcoming, ...

The Roman Catholic Church’s understanding of the permanent nature of marriage “is really meant to be a countercultural position,” says Professor Susan Ross of Loyola University Chicago’s theology department. “The Church’s challenge is to find a way to hold marriage as this sacred bond, ...

“The American post-Enlightenment contractual idea of marriage—that is, marriage is what we decide it is—is an incredibly powerful idea that haunts the minds of American Catholics…The under-65 crowd is much more into contractual understandings of marriage than covenantal understandings of … More →

Excitement builds for American Catholics ahead of the pope's arrival Tuesday for five busy days in Washington, New York and Philadelphia; and a coalition of demonstrators organized by the NAACP march from Selma, Alabama to Washington, DC to call for an end to discrimination and economic inequality.

Pope Francis arrives in the US on Tuesday, September 22nd, for five busy days in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia. Managing editor Kim Lawton asks American Catholics about the beliefs that shape the Pope's view of the world, and Stephen Schneck and Tom Roberts joins host Bob Abernethy in the ...

"We are trying to convey to the folks that the right to vote is a civic sacrament, and the voting booth is in fact the altar of our democracy. And for us to allow voter disenfranchisement and suppression to go on is a desecration of both," says NAACP president Cornell Brooks, who led the America's ...

The case of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis and same-sex marriage has raised questions about the limits of religious freedom; residents in San Juan County, Utah are fighting a proposal to create a national monument that protects Native American land; and Jews in the Reform movement begin using a new ...

"There are extraordinary circumstances under which people may be able to break the law and claim higher authority, but being an elected official is not one of them," says Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. But Roger Severino of the Heritage Foundation's DeVos Center ...

Twenty-five Indian tribes want the federal government to protect nearly two million acres of land sacred to Native Americans. But the proposal has created tension with local residents who want access to the land for recreation and development.

"We really wanted to create a prayer book that is inclusive of the full range of who is in our community today," says Rabbi Hara Person, executive editor of the Reform movement’s new holiday prayer book.

“We come every year. We sit in these pews, and yet every year our lives have changed, and we can really reflect on that change from year to year. Who is with us this year? Who was with us last year who’s not with us this year? Who’s going to be with us next year?”

Watch more of our interview with Rabbi Andrew Busch of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation about Reform Judaism’s new prayer book for the High Holy Days.

Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty provides world-class heart surgery that even India's poorest can afford; and a farming fellowship offers young Jewish adults the chance to "cultivate the soil and their soul"

"Judaism is very deeply rooted in agriculture, and I didn’t know that before,” says Molly Zimmerman, who had the support of a three-month fellowship from Hazon, a Jewish environmental group, to learn about organic farming. “Being able to learn things from the Torah related to the things that I ...

A small African-American town in Louisiana has been overrun by petrochemical plants and pollution; in Alabama, churches confront predatory short-term loans at exorbitant rates that target and trap the poor; and renowned jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard talks about Hurricane Katrina, music, ...

"They have created an environment that doesn’t look out for the welfare of the people, but looks out for the welfare of the company," says retired Army General Russel Honore, who is mobilizing an alliance of civic, community, and environmental groups in Louisiana called The Green Army.

"I’ve been a Buddhist for a number of years, and I chant every day, and one of the things that I strongly believe in is that moment of silence, of reflection, for everybody to sit down and be still for a second."