Religion News

Maher, who has been picking on organized religion for years on his TV shows "Politically Incorrect" and "Real Time," zealously traveled the world for "Religulous," his documentary challenging the validity and ...

A FIRM HAND: Catholic Bishops Council of India vice-president Major Archbishop Baselios Clemis and Swami Chidanandapuri of Advaidashram greeting each KOCHI: In what seems to be a major milestone in the ...

Over 20 Lunch and Learn participants listened to Eibert Tigchelaar 's informative presentation on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Capital City Christian Church.

Three members of a West Texas polygamist group were released on bond today after surrendering to authorities on charges accusing them of sexual assault of a child.

There are 6 articles on this title. You are reading the article ranked and rated #1 by Helium's members.

French Muslims feel put upon. The degree to which they're justified is unclear, what with suburban Parisian riots and rampages of anti-Semitic violence signaling the French state unwillingness to acknowledge ...

A western Pennsylvania county has gone to court to prevent conservative Amish families from living in homes without sewage disposal permits.

Texas Faith, our weekly discussion of matters of religion, politics and culture takes on a matter of particular interest this election season: politicking from the pulpit. Jesus certainly had his encounters with tax collectors but apparently was never limited by tax law on what he could say in the Sermon on the Mount. A group called the Alliance Defense Fund encouraged pastors this past weekend to turn their sermons into partisan stump speeches. The ADF wants to establish a legal class to challenge the IRS restriction. Which prompts this week's question: Is the federal ban against partisan politics from the pulpit - including endorsing candidates - a good thing or should it be thrown out? Is the government violating the separation of church and state when it tells individual churches how it can or cannot practice politics? After the jump, what our distinguished panel had to say on the issue:

A second former altar boy has filed a lawsuit in Delaware alleging that he was abused in the 1950s by the late Reverend Walter Power.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani , who is still considered influential in Iranian politics, said the U.S., Britain and France back Israel - and this is dangerous.

Catholic school boards in Alberta that have decided to not take part in a program to vaccinate girls against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer are putting the health of the girls at risk, ...

Moroccan authorities have ordered the closure of dozens of schools and a website run by a Muslim religious leader who argued that girls as young as nine could marry, local media reported.

Caption: Colin Farrell and guest The 80th Annual Academy Awards - Arrivals Los Angeles, California .... Irish actor COLIN FARRELL is reportedly abandoning his Catholic faith to convert to Judaism for new ...

amie Soto, the coadjutor bishop of Sacramento, addressed the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries conference in Long Beach, California on September 18. While noting that marriage is not the "sole domain of love," he also reiterated the Church’s teaching that homosexual acts are sinful. During his talk, several audience members walked out while Bishop Soto received hostile responses from many in the audience afterward. "Sexuality has been reduced to a matter of personal preference and personal pleasure without responsibility and with little respect for others. We can lose sight of the profound dignity of the human person who shares in God’s love and creative work through the chaste expression of one’s sexuality proper to one’s calling in life. "

Read more of this story here.

Episcopal News Service] At the close of the September 25 "high-level event" at the United Nations aimed at gaining a recommitment to the Millennium Development Goals, the U.N. announced new contributions and commitments that it said could amount to $16 billion or more. That total included $4.5 billion to get 24 million more children in school by 2010 by way of the Education for All campaign, $1.6 billion to foster food security, $3 billion to launch the Malaria Action Plan, and almost half a billion dollars in new pledges to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, $2 billion related to child mortality and maternal health, and as well as pledges to support national health plans and access to clean water and sanitation, and education. The complete list of the pledges, which come from government, private sector, non-governmental organizations and other advocacy groups is available here.

[Lambeth Palace] On the eve of the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Millennium Development Goals in New York, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has underlined the commitment of the Anglican Church to continue to work for the eradication of poverty.

In a video message, the archbishop has backed calls for a renewal of the pledges made by the international community in 2000, and spoke of the need for the Anglican Church to work in harmony with governments and NGOs around the world in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

"[M]uch of the work that's being done by the Anglican Church covers very comprehensively the Millennium Development Goals. We want to anchor that work in worldwide cooperation. We want to do that work in synergy with those governments and NGOs who are working for the same end. And we want to let Governments and NGOs know that we are there and we are ready," he said. "Let this meeting in New York be an occasion where the consciences and the hearts of all are truly touched and changed, turned towards the needs of the poorest, turned towards the recognition that we have it in our hands to make a difference."

Read more of this story here.

The owners of a bookstore usually offer the public what they believe the public wants to read.

Purnea, Sep 26: Stung by a ban on their entry to the local mosque, Muslim men in a red light area of Bihar's Purnea district say they will build their own.

It is often said by religious Jews that the Second Temple's destruction by the Romans in the year 70 was a divine punishment, triggered by sinat chinam , or causeless hatred, between various Jewish sects of the ...

Setting the stage for a collision of religion and politics, Christian ministers from 22 states will use their pulpits Sunday to deliver political sermons or endorse presidential candidates - defying a federal ...