Latest Articles
Unwelcome messages
Perhaps December in your house is like it is in mine: more guests coming more often, which means more preparation....
Working hard? Or working hard at making hand turkeys?
Faith-based editors, like preachers, approach holidays with ambivalence: there are so many meaningful things to say, yet so few that seem remotely fresh....
The worst kind of middle ground
The Democrats have built their majority by expanding their tent; as a
result there is now a sizable group of antiabortion Democrats in...
The melody of hope
Many of us who enjoy the novels of Kurt Vonnegut were surprised to read these words among his last public utterances b...
Century Marks
Our common lot: Ethicist Daniel Callahan asks why it is that the U.S. is the only developed country that doesn't provide universal health-care insurance. One reason is that Americans don't have a strong tradition of thinking about the common good. "Suffering, disease, and death are our common lot," argues Callahan. "They ought to be dealt with as our common problem . . . in the recognition that we all have bodies that go awry and fail" (Commonweal, October 9).
New Jersey governor donated large sums to influential pastor: Corzine then received endorsement
A politically connected New Jersey pastor received almost $90,000 in donations last year from incumbent governor Jon Corzine, who is running for re election....
Report finds 1 billion hungry people in world: 100 million more than last year
Failure to act by governments and international institutions has left more than 1 billion around the world undernourished, according to a coalition of religious, human rights and development groups...
Few share Muslims' concerns about FBI surveillance program: Undercover informants
When a local Muslim activist told Chuck Warpehoski that the FBI was using undercover informants to collect information on people attending mosques, he knew that the issue could not be ignored....
Petition to UN seeks repeal of Pakistan's blasphemy laws: Law allegedly used to settle scores
A petition calling for the repeal of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which impose the death sentence on a person found desecrating the Qur’an, has been delivered to the UN High Commissioner for Human Ri...
Canadian Muslim group urges public ban on burqa: "The burqa marginalizes women"
A Muslim group that opposes the introduction of Shari‘a, or Islamic law, in Canada, is urging the federal government to ban the wearing of the burqa in public, saying it “marginalizes women.”...
Activists rap Vietnam over religious persecution: Thich Nhat Hanh's followers expelled
Human rights activists are criticizing Vietnam for expelling followers of a renowned Buddhist monk from a monastery, calling it part of a pattern of religious persecution by the communist governmen...
Pope names NIH head to Vatican science academy: Geneticist Francis Collins
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, to the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences....
Report says access to contraception led to decrease in abortions: A Guttmacher Institute study
A rise in contraceptive use has led to a decline in unwanted pregnancies and consequently a decline in abortions worldwide—from 45.5 million procedures in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003, according to...
Mennonite health-care plan sets January launch: The Corinthian Plan
With “a flood of enrollments and inquiries” in late September, a mutual aid health-care project in the Mennonite Church USA is expected to start on January 1....
Calls to boycott census split Protestant Latinos: A tough decision for undocumented immigrants
With less than six months to go before the start of the 2010 census, immigration reform activists—divided over whether undocumented immigrants should volunteer to be counted—are escalating rhetoric...
Smithsonian will open evolution hall and engage in dialogue with religion: An effort to bridge the gap
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History will open a new permanent exhibit on the “discovery and understanding of human origins” in March and convene a panel of experts in an effort to ...
Papal invite unlikely to lure many U.S. defectors: Celibate priesthood is one obstacle
Although many ex-Episcopalians in the U.S....