St. John's University history professor John Rao, a traditionalist Roman Catholic, has made the three-day pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres Cathedral more than half a dozen times and says the experience is filled with ritual, ceremony, and spiritual fervor.

President Obama's Cairo speech set the framework for ongoing partnerships with the Muslim world in such areas as education, health, science, and interfaith dialogue, says Organization of the Islamic Conference special envoy Rashad Hussain.

In addition to confronting tough political issues in the Middle East, US agencies and departments across the government are targeting violent extremism, human rights, and civil rights at home and abroad, says the Obama administration's special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Patients at this hospital in Madurai, India are among the world's poorest people. It was founded by a pioneering eye surgeon who was a disciple of the spiritual teacher Sri Aurobindo, and its business success and social mission have long made it a model in public health textbooks.

"It is much easier for God to get through our defenses when we're in a wilderness," says John Lionberger. He leads kayak and canoe trips that he says "get to the transcendent through the physical."

Thomas Farr, associate professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University and former director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, assesses the progress that's been made in advancing religious freedom one year after President Obama's Cairo ...

Watch Farah Pandith, the US State Department’s Special Representative to Muslim Communities, discuss the status of relations between the US and the Muslim world.

Watch excerpts from remarks by Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan, who made his first visit to the US since the Obama administration lifted a six-year-old ban against him.

The fight is not over whether faith groups are subject to the law, says the president of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, "because they are subject to whatever the law is, which in many cases makes this exception for them. The question is should this exception be allowed to continue?"

"I don't see any special right in the Constitution or elsewhere that allows a church to take money and discriminate," says the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

A recent event at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC celebrated Native American spirituality and apologized to native peoples of the US for past wrongs.

Five Supreme Court justices have agreed that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment forbids sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for juveniles who commit crimes in which no one is killed.

"There are moments when we must challenge the laws of society," says Bishop Minerva Carcano of the United Methodist Church's Desert Southwest Conference.

Some have said the nomination of Elena Kagan marks the passing of American Protestantism. Others celebrate it as a measure of how far the country has come.

"When mass violence hits a country and tears it apart, it takes a long time for it to repair itself," says human rights activist Eric Stover.

Jean Sweeney is a spiritual director who says everyone has a story to tell about their spiritual life.

Watch religion scholar Stephen Prothero, author of the new book "God Is Not One," discuss why all religions are not different paths to the same God and why distinctions among religions matter.

Watch excerpts from an interfaith service at the United Nations where people from many religious traditions gathered to pray for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

"The church has to open itself to hear the wisdom of its laity" says Rev. Patrick Lee, who leads two Catholic parishes in Chicago.

"The concept is to take these children and make them the catalyst for change," says Scott Neeson.