The Mubarak trial might be symbolic, but what a symbol!

The sight of former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, and other members of his regime in white prison fatigues, behind bars, in a cage in Cairo is the most significant event in the Arab Spring since his...

For 15 years I traveled across the Middle East, retracing the Bible through the desert, for a series of books and television shows, including "Walking the Bible" and "Abraham." Then I stopped. As my wife said, "You've had your time as a war correspondent."

But...

Three years ago this month I was diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening form of bone cancer in my left leg. I was the 'walking guy' who might never walk again. I endured a "lost year" involving nine months of chemotherapy and a 15-hour surgery in which doctors removed...

As the crisis in Egypt reached its climax this week, commentators struggled to find historical parallels, from the fall of the Berlin Wall, to Tiananmen Square, to the revolution in Iran. But one parallel that's been mostly overlooked is the remarkable similarities between current events and the story in the...

Hollywood is rediscovering the Bible.

Two rival films about Moses, both by established producers, are vying to become the next chapter of the century-long love affair between the merchants of sin in Tinsletown and the prophet of hope in Israel. But no matter how far the filmmakers...

The headlines this week were bold: "Americans Don't Know Much About Religion"; "Atheists Know More About Religion Than Believers"; "Basic Religious Test Stumps Most Americans."

Eh? Did these writers read the survey these articles were based on? The Pew Forum survey on religious knowledge in America contained a...

He may not have been faster than a speeding bullet. He wasn't more powerful than a locomotive. But he did split the Red Sea!

And in America, he became an inspiration for the country's leading superhero and the star of the Hollywood's fifth-highest-grossing movie.

This month proved pivotal to the...

In 1860, in the midst of tensions surrounding the Civil War, it was widely believed in the United States that Abraham Lincoln was Catholic. Coming on the heels of decades of anti-Catholic sentiment, the rumors seem to have had two roots: The first was the ambiguous nature of Lincoln's upbringing...

The 400-year love affair between America and Moses began this week in 1620. On August 15, the Mayflower set sail set from Southampton with 102 passengers on board. The pilgrims' leader described them as the chosen people, casting off the yoke of their pharaoh, King James. Their governor proclaimed their...

One of the secrets of parenting is that it's often a very lonely sport. Especially for dads. Our children expect us to be the Answer Man, Mr. Fix It, the Know-it-All. And the truth is we often expect this of ourselves. Maybe our dads played this role for us. Maybe...

Are men abandoning God?

Religion is increasingly a woman's domain in America. Two-thirds of church and synagogue attendees are women, studies show, with young men fleeing the pews even faster. On any given weekend, 13 million more women than men will attend religious institutions.

Home is...

In the worst week of my life, I came up with the most hopeful idea I've ever had.

In July 2008, I learned that I had a seven-inch cancerous tumor in my left femur. I instantly worried about my three-year-old twin daughters and what life might be like for them....

When my wife and I had identical twin daughters five years ago, we thought our friends would consider it "All Hands on Deck." Instead it was "Run the Other Way!" When I got cancer, we thought it would be "Run the Other Way." Instead we experienced the greatest act of...

This Saturday, millions of Americans will tune into the annual Passover/Easter tradition of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. If the past is any example, the fifth-highest grossing movie of all time will be the most watched show on television that night. But the three-hour, thirty-nine minute epic -- the...

Passover is the national holiday of my in-laws. Every spring, my mother-in-law hosts 35 people on one night, and a different 35 people the second night for a ritualized retelling of the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt.

But the centrality of this occasion also creates problems for me....

Just in time for holiday deadlines, Israeli archaeologists announced Monday they had uncovered remains of the first dwelling in the city of Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus.

Digging not far from Basilica of the Annunciation, where tradition says the angel Gabriel visited Mary,...

The real story of Thanksgiving reads like a Dan Brown novel. It involves a little-known web of secret societies, biblical imagery, presidential power, and lost books. A few years ago, I set out on a 10,000-mile journey through the hidden symbols of American life that became the basis for my...

On July 4, 1776, immediately after passing the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress asked Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams to design a seal for the new United States. Six weeks later they made their recommendation: Moses, leading the Israelites across the Red Sea.

Three of the...

Christianity is plummeting in America, while the number of non-believers is skyrocketing.

A shocking new study of Americans' religious beliefs shows the beginnings of a major realignment in Americans' relationship with God. The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) reveals that Protestants now represent half of all Americans, down...

In Ted Kennedy's new memoir, being published today, the Senator describes his first meeting with Bill Clinton in the White House. The new president had stumbled into a firestorm about gays in the military and invited the Democratic members of the Armed Services Committee to a meeting. All of the...