Religion's role in US foreign policy, gays in the military, and Mennonites and the national anthem were all in the news this past week.

"Breathing is one of the most basic prayers," says Liz Ellmann, who heads Spiritual Directors International. "We are so close to God we're as near as our breath."

"Most of the countries that did get a lot of aid are not success stories," says New York University economics professor William Easterly.

Trinity Place is a shelter program for LGBT street youth operated by Pastor Heidi Neumark and Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan.

Jack Hinton says fasting involves "introspection and deep contemplation of your own spiritual state."

Listen to this week's show.

"For me Reiki is another form of prayer," says spiritual director Lauri Lumby Schmidt. But a member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops says this holistic Japanese healing technique is "not of God."

Burning palms and imposing ashes at the beginning of Lent reminds us of our human frailty, says Pastor Steve Buechler of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Watch scenes from an early-morning memorial service in Port-au-Prince to mark the one-month anniversary of Haiti's devastating earthquake.

Local church leaders in Haiti and the Dominican Republic are waging a joint campaign to make sure aid gets to where it needs to go.

Go on the ground and behind the scenes with our crew in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and watch them at work on this week's story about local ministers and faith-based relief workers.

Ten Southern Baptists from the US who tried to take 33 children out of Haiti have been charged with child abduction and will face legal proceedings.

Last year Pilgrim Church in Detroit celebrated the repair of its roof and the faith that makes its ministries possible.

Watch Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams discuss building an ethical economy.

A Lutheran minister who responded to the Haiti disaster says US religious communities must help, but "the strength of the future is in Haiti, not the United States."

How do religious leaders respond to questions about God's role in the face of human suffering and tragedy?

Watch more of Bob Abernethy's conversation with Rabbi Jack Moline about the theological questions raised by natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake.

At times of cataclysm, catastrophe, and natural disaster, people ask many questions about God and his purposes.

A Mennonite pastor in Fresno, California says "even the worst of the worst of the worst are human beings, and they can change."

"Everything is gone," says Rev. Caleb Deliard, a Haitian-American pastor. "It's all gone. It hurts us deep down. We are, as a people now, wounded souls."