Church leaders nationwide should consider a New York Times front-page report about unwed mothers a wakeup call to rethink so-called church-growth strategies. The Times report by Jason DeParle and Sabrina Tavernise now is echoing through the wire services to other major news outlets from Kansas City to London, where a...

In 35 years as a journalist covering religion in America, I've rarely seen such an emotional response to four words about faith: "Christians should love Twilight." That phrase places the Bible squarely in the realm of vampires and werewolves.

Since leaving newspapers four years ago, I am now the founding...

Norway's worst armed attack since World War II is grim news in the week before Ramadan, which starts August 1 for more than 1 billion Muslims around the world. Investigators' statements and news reports circling the globe claim that accused Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is a Christian terrorist...

Millions today are saying bye bye to Brenda Starr and recalling the 10-year anniversary of Charles Schulz's last new daily strip. It might seem that comics themselves are dying, but the truth is that comics are alive and well. In fact, they are conquering global culture. What's more: Comics increasingly...

After 100 years, an old photo of Santa Claus on a busy Chicago street still packs the wallop of a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past! This Santa isn't fat; he's thin as a rail and he's holding up a sign begging people to "Help ... Send Santa Claus...

International religious heavyweights Karen Armstrong, Huston Smith and Rabbi David Rosen converged on Dearborn, Michigan, for three days of work with grassroots activists to combat bigotry and push toward peace in the face of rising fear and conflict. While many appeals at the conference were grand and global in scope,...

Here's a puzzle: how does an author of history textbooks convince American kids that traditional Jewish folklore is cool?

Historian Steve Sheinkin solved the problem this way: he's created comic books featuring an original character, Rabbi Harvey of the Wild West. His graphic novels contain real-life Jewish wisdom embodied in...

I committed the ultimate faux pas in a Jewish home: I lit myself on fire.

Thrilled to be a guest with a Jewish family in Jerusalem, I was entirely in awe -- just as many other non-Jewish guests will be in coming days by the ancient traditions of Passover and...