Chris "Comes with Clouds" White, of Cherokee descent, discovered a pre-historic stone circle near his home that carries a significant spiritual meaning for him. "We’re born, we have a youth, we get old, we die, but we believe that there’s something beyond that where our ancestors are, so ...

US Muslim leaders joined together to denounce extremism and terrorism. The brutality of the ISIS militant group “has no basis in the teachings of Islam,” says Azhar Azeez, president of the Islamic Society of North America.

Religious freedom activists are raising new concerns about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. “It is nothing less than ethnic cleansing, and we cannot continue to be silent,” says Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

An evangelical leader seeks to break the "code of silence" about heroin in the church; Rais Bhuiyan teaches others to forgive after forgiving a man for trying to kill him.

Reverend Toby Larson of Celebration Anglican Church felt like he failed as a pastor when a young man from his congregation suddenly died of a heroin overdose. "Unfortunately, we’re pretty good at pastoring families that have lost people. We’re pretty good at burying people. We’re pretty lousy ...

"Faith and faith leaders really play a pivotal role in not only preventing drug use, but supporting people with addiction in their recovery, in the process of really healing themselves from a tremendously stigmatized disease."

Days after 9/11, Rais Bhuiyan was shot in the head by Mark Stroman in a hate crime targeted at Arabs. Bhuiyan survived the attack, and Stroman was sentenced to death, but Bhuiyan felt compelled to not let the story end there. "I need to forgive him in public and do something to save the life," says ...

The ethics of charging the poor to stay out of jail; remembering Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson; the empathetic ministry of dogs who comfort the suffering.

"These are folks that in many cases couldn’t pay like a two hundred dollar fine or ticket. They’re put on probation. They have to pay interest on what they owe, and they have to pay that company for the privilege of being supervised by them," says Caroline Issacs, Arizona program director of the ...

“He was a master teacher," says Rabbi Chaim Schochet, recalling the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson—who led the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement until his death 20 years ago. Rabbi Schochet directs Jewish Summer Fellowship, a program of intensive training in sacred texts and mystical ...

"The Rebbe was as profoundly a religious and spiritual figure as you can imagine. He was of course scrupulous in his observance of Jewish law. He prayed with a sense of tremendous profundity, and you actually felt, when you were dealing with him, that you were with a person who was suffused with a ...

Dogs, says Tim Hetzner of Lutheran Church Charities, are “a very gifted part of God’s creation.” In disaster situations they sense when someone is hurting, and together with their handlers they minister compassionately to the needs of victims.

"Jesus matters so much because of the incarnation," says Edward Blum, a history professor at San Diego State University and co-author of The Color of Christ. "So if God takes a particular body with particular hair length and particular eye color, then perhaps that says something about the value of ...

Communities of faith and the moral issues raised by Ferguson; one American woman’s campaign to bring love into the lives of China’s neglected orphans.

"I’m particularly concerned when I see white people and African-American people not having conversations with one another about what’s happening in Ferguson," says Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. "I think that needs to ...

It was the campaign of one American woman, Jenny Bowen, in Berkeley, California, that brought loving care into the lives of millions of Chinese orphans, most of them girls. Bowen and her husband began by adopting one girl. Then another. Now Jenny Bowen leads Half the Sky, a foundation to deliver ...

Muslim minority experiences Buddhist persecution in the former Burma; a best-selling author of detective stories explores the idea of sin; Hindus celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna.

"There’s a fear among large segments of the Buddhist population in Myanmar," says Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, an independent organization to protect and defend human rights, "that the country is at risk of being taken over by Muslims. It’s a very unreasonable, irrational ...

“A Franciscan told me once, ‘Don’t keep track of the score. The score will take care of itself.’” Writer James Lee Burke’s best-selling crime novels are full of biblical imagery, messianic language, the influences of his Roman Catholic boyhood, and a longing for redemption. ...

On August 17, Hindus around the world will celebrate the birth of Krishna, a major Hindu deity usually depicted as a blue-skinned young man. Nidhi Singh was our guide at a Hindu temple in Chantilly, Virginia during the annual Krishna festival. Originally broadcast August 22, 2008.