Religion News Service

Fifty years ago, Pope Paul VI issued an encyclical that shook the Catholic Church to its core by declaring that every use of artificial contraceptives is immoral.

In the wee hours of Thursday July 19, Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a controversial nation-state law that explicitly defines Israel as the "national home of the Jewish people."

A new poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic shows that when it comes to politics, white evangelical Christians stand apart from every other religious group.

The unsealing of an affidavit this week charging 29-year-old Mariia Butina with "conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation" was yet another bombshell in the investigation into what U.S. intelligence agencies describe as Russian attempts to influence American elections and politics throughout 2016.

Documents filed with the United Methodist Church's top court are shedding first light on specifics of long-awaited proposals to avoid schism in the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

It may be a law of nature: President Trump tweets something about Islam. Anti-Muslim hate crimes follow. That's according to a working paper by two researchers from the University of Warwick.

Some organizations are urging religious groups to consider more controversial ways to avert climate catastrophe.  One possible climate change solution in particular is getting more attention now: geoengineering.

Signs of the Times: There is universal agreement that those who have sex with minors should be prosecuted as criminals and expelled from the priesthood. But what about violations with adults? Are there other sexual violations that should be treated by the church with zero tolerance?

Same-sex couples will now be able to marry in their home parish even if their local bishop has moral objections to gay marriage, Episcopal Church leaders decided July 13.

If you're a Protestant married to a Catholic in Germany, you might be able to receive Communion along with your spouse in the Catholic Church. Then again, you may not be welcome to do so.

Two days after he was nominated by President Trump to the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh ladled mac and cheese into takeout trays outside Catholic Charities in Washington, D.C.

After closing more than 700 churches and some mosques in March, Rwandan government officials have moved to institute guidelines for how faith groups operate in the majority-Christian East African country.

For some watching (and blogging and tweeting) the debate on the floor of the Episcopal Church's triennial General Convention this week, it sounded as if someone were trying to give God a sex change.

A new study takes a novel approach to studying radicalization. The findings suggest that it may be the outgrowth of ethnic, racial or religious discrimination.

Offering Communion outside, says Stephen Blackmer, an Episcopal priest, "helps us remember that the physical and spiritual worlds are completely bound up together. It becomes easy to see how everything grows, lives, dies and is returned into the earth where it takes on a new form. Its spark of life is transformed."

President Trump has nominated U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, setting the stage for a heated confirmation battle that will likely focus on his views regarding both law and religion.

President Trump announced on Monday (July 9) that Brett Kavanaugh, 53, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement late last month.

Spirituality, whether Christian or Muslim, frequently uses the language of battle, so it is not surprising that Pope Francis promotes the Christian equivalent of a spiritual jihad. 

Nativity statues of the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, which usually mark Christmas, were incarcerated Tuesday behind a barbed-wired-topped, chain-link fence on the lawn of the cathedral of the Episcopal Church’s Indianapolis Diocese.

As the summer heat waxes and state legislative sessions wane, the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation has scored a few small but significant victories.