Religion News Service

Signs of the Times: Some Democrats in Congress who now make the rules in the House of Representatives have proposed dropping "so help me God" from the oath recited before someone testifies before a legislative committee.

Commentary: It's hard to imagine Joe Biden brushing off white Catholics at a time when two iconic institutions in their lives — the church and the factory — have been brought low by very different forces.

Signs of the Times: The new norms dealing with cover-ups are a good first step, but in civil society as in the church, good laws are not enough. Enforcement is also necessary if children are to be protected and survivors of abuse are to have justice.

Juana Luz Tobar Ortega spends her days at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church sewing pillow covers, sculpting clay cups and bowls and cooking pupusas and tamales.

Rachel Held Evans, a popular progressive Christian writer and speaker, died May 4 at age 37 after a brief illness.

Like most Americans, students at Taylor University have strong feelings about President Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, as well as the relationship between religion and politics.

Among the guests at a White House ceremony marking the National Day of Prayer was Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, leader of the California synagogue recently attacked by a gunman.

To Americans who drop coins into the collection plate, write a check or perhaps text in their Sunday donation, the idea that the state would charge an annual tax to support their church can seem strange.

If there is any truth to the leaks concerning the Vatican's forthcoming proposal to reform the Curia, it is going to be a disappointment and a disaster.

Spencer Cullom undertook the yearslong process to become ordained in the United Methodist Church. She hoped that her denomination would drop its restrictions against LGBTQ clergy and allow her to follow that call. But she knew that might not happen.

Democratic White House hopefuls — from Elizabeth Warren to Pete Buttigieg — are already talking a lot about God. Turns out both conservatives and progressives have been listening, and they want to hear more.

The United Methodist Church’s top court has upheld much of the Traditional Plan approved earlier this year, continuing the global denomination’s ban on the ordination and marriage of its LGBTQ members.

A Roman Catholic bishop in Sudan has charged that the largely Arab and Islamic country's ongoing popular revolution will be hollow if it does not also deliver freedom of worship for non-Muslim faiths.

While Syro-Malabar Catholics number just 5.1 million out of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics worldwide, in Kerala, Syro-Malabar Catholics make up the majority of Christians. "Despite low credibility of religious leaders, people continue going to church," said Michael Tharakan, a researcher at the Kerala Council for Historical Research specializing in St. Thomas Christians.

While many younger Americans today are spiritually unaffiliated, aka "nones" — a quarter of all adults under the age of 30 in the United States say they don't identify with any religion or spiritual tradition, according to the Pew Center for Religion and Public Life — millennials are increasingly finding contemplative spirituality appealing.

Losing a cathedral just as Holy Week begins would be the biggest logistical nightmare a bishop could imagine. Where to hold all those liturgies, how to accommodate all those people?

Signs of the Times: As fire devastates the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the building is as much a symbol of the recent history of the Catholic Church in Europe as it once was a symbol of the church's power and cultural supremacy. 

The 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of Paris appeared engulfed in smoke Monday evening (April 15).

Refugees fleeing Venezuela’s ongoing economic collapse are crossing the country’s borders to Colombia and Brazil, adding a new front in Latin America’s already critical migration situation, with thousands facing dangerous journeys to escape famine, poverty and political chaos.

State Sen. Charles Perry recently stood on the floor of the Texas Senate in Austin defending a bill that would let state license holders assert their religious beliefs when providing — or denying — certain services.