religion

A new independent study sponsored by the Church of England rates the wellbeing of British and American children as worst among the world's wealthiest nations.
More than 35,000 people contributed to the study, which concludes that rampant individualism and social irresponsibility have damaged the children of both societies.

Welcome to the church-state battlefield, President Obama.
Consider this hypothetical landmine: Would it be discrimination for a Christian AIDS hospice to refuse to hire a worker who believes AIDS is a sign of God's wrath?

Whenever I can, I leave the security of my computer keyboard and talk to church groups about the subjects of my books and columns. A writer's world can become a dream world. Better to test one's faith against the reality of other people's experience.

Times were hard for the single mother and her 4-year-old son, so she did what hurting people often do -- she joined a church seeking solace and support.
But there was a problem, one that drove her right back out of the pews.
"Everyone told me what to do as a parent," she told pollster David Kinnaman, "but no one bothered to help."

After being summoned by inquisitors and shown the instruments of torture, the scientist Galileo consented to keep to himself his disquieting discovery that the Earth is not at the center of God's universe.
Charles Darwin, born 200 years ago, preached a more disturbing theory -- that the physical universe had evolved by chance, with no need for a creator.

Only two days after the inauguration of Barack Obama as president, Washington welcomed yet another assembly of citizens, protesting the new chief executive's lifting of restrictions on public funding for abortion.

Phyllis Tickle tried to pay close attention to the prayers at the inauguration of President Obama, which isn't surprising since she has written a whole shelf of books on rites of public and private prayer.

A new national survey reveals that churchgoing Protestants are more loyal to their preferred brand of toothpaste and bathroom tissue than to their denomination. Although two-thirds admit to preferring one denomination over all others, only 16 percent of Protestants are exclusively loyal to it.

As Aretha Franklin finished singing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," the Queen of Soul did what she has done for decades -- she improvised.
The result was a soaring bridge between the inauguration of President Barack Obama and a sermon 45 years ago at the Lincoln Memorial.

When it comes to abortion, the vast majority of Americans know what they want -- and what they want isn't going to please Planned Parenthood or the Vatican.
What they want is compromise. What they want are shades of gray.