BY CHARLES C. HAYNES Good riddance to the aughts, naughts or ohs. By whatever name, the first decade of the 21st century has been devastating for religious liberty in much of the world. According to a study released this month by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, nearly 70 percent of the world's 6.8 billion people now live in countries with high restrictions on religious beliefs and practices. ...more

January 6, 2010

Flaming menorahs? Hip-hop Hanukkah dancers? When it comes to glitzy holiday bashes, Hanukkah's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. ...more

December 11, 2009

It's hard to imagine the dinner conversation when the Pilgrims hosted members of the Wampanoag Tribe at a harvest celebration in 1621. ...more

November 26, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI sought to reach out to the heavily secular people of the Czech Republic on Saturday, decrying the "wounds" left by atheistic communism and urging them to rediscover their Christian roots. ...more

September 27, 2009

For one of his first foreign visits, President Barack Obama will call on NATO ally Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country viewed as critical to aiding the U.S. pullout from Iraq, turning around the Afghanistan war and blocking Iran's nuclear ambitions. ...more

March 8, 2009

The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI has told U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that Catholic politicians have a duty to protect life "at all stages of its development." Pelosi is a Catholic who supports abortion rights. ...more

February 18, 2009

Religious freedom in the United States was never planned by the colonial settlers; it was something that just happened. Nonetheless, said Rev. Charles Weaver, assistant to the bishop of the United Methodist Church's Florida conference, religious freedom is something for which we should be grateful. ...more

November 27, 2008

Why is it that we continue to pussy-foot around the real war we are trying to fight? ...more

November 12, 2008

Vladimir Putin still resembles what he once was: the head of the KGB. ...more

August 14, 2008

A Bush administration proposal aimed at protecting health care workers who object to abortion and birth control methods they consider tantamount to abortion has escalated a bitter debate over the balance between religious freedom and patients' rights. ...more

July 31, 2008