Though school-sponsored prayer in public schools was ruled unconstitutional more than 50 years ago and the Supreme Court decided more than 20 years ago that public schools cannot sponsor prayer at graduation ceremonies, the topic continues to be one of the country's most controversial.

The prayer debate echoed again across...

A new "atheist church?"

A wildly popular British atheist group that's become known as the "atheist church" is planning to give secular fellowship a shot in New York City. The Sunday Assembly, which draws about 600 people each week in London, plans a gathering Sunday at Tobacco Road, a dive...

The White House announced Friday that President Barack Obama will nominate Ken Hackett, the former president of Catholic Relief Services to be the United States' ambassador to the Vatican.

Hackett is currently a consultant for the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Global Development. He was Catholic Relief Services' president...

Surveys have repeatedly shown that religious objections are the most popular reason people cite when they say being gay is immoral or that they don't support legalizing same-sex marriage. But what do gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people think about religion?

Ahead of expected Supreme Court decisions on...

As his parents age, David Glitzer has begun to accept that the day will come when they are no longer alive. But until recently, Glitzer wasn't sure how to prepare for life without his loved ones. There were wills to be written, bank accounts to be tracked, advance directives to...

NEW YORK -- For today's high-powered, high-stressed professionals, short moments of "purposeful pause" can lead to a more balanced, healthier life, a panel of experts told the audience at "The Third Metric: Redefining Success Beyond Money & Power," conference Thursday.

Speaking during a discussion on the "mind/body connection"...

After years of pressure from civil rights groups and lawmakers who say attacks against religious and ethnic minorities are not adequately monitored by law enforcement, the FBI will begin formally tracking hate crimes against Sikhs, Hindus and Arabs.

Meeting in Portsmouth, Va., on Wednesday, an FBI advisory board voted to...

WASHINGTON -- Muslims in the United States have grappled with the consequences of extremism since Sept. 11, 2001, when the actions of 19 men affiliated with al Qaeda ushered in a new era, when fingers are invariably pointed at followers of Islam whenever a terrorist attack takes place.

Since...

A small city in heavily Christian northern Florida is about to become home to the first public monument in the United States dedicated to atheism.

Florida members of American Atheists, a national advocacy group, plan to erect a 1,500-pound granite display in front of the Bradford County Courthouse in Starke,...

A majority of Americans believe that religion's influence in the nation is waning, yet also think society would be better off if more Americans were religious, according to a new survey.

The results, released Wednesday by Gallup, represent some of the lowest ratings Americans have given to religious...

The ceremony itself was no more than 20 minutes long and took place nearly six years ago, but Ami Neiberger-Miller remembers it as if it happened yesterday.

It was Aug. 16, 2007, 10 days after her 22-year-old brother, Christopher, had died from an IED blast while on patrol in Baghdad....

Muslim leaders from across the globe paid tribute Holocaust victims this week during a visit to Auschwitz, the former Nazi concentration camp, where they prayed at the Wall of Death for those who were killed by genocide and suffered under violent anti-Semitism.

The imams, who hailed from Saudi Arabia, Jordan,...

To rebuild or not to rebuild?

As recovery slowly begins after deadly tornadoes flattened subdivisions in Moore, Okla., and tore through nearby areas, the complex question has come up again for the disaster-prone region that sits within Tornado Alley.

Moore, a 55,000-resident city south of Oklahoma City, is no stranger...

WASHINGTON -- Republican and Democrats sparred this week on where Jesus Christ would stand on food stamps, a federal program that supported 47 million Americans last year.

On Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee approved Republican legislation that would reform farm subsidies and trim the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by...

In his 36 years as a priest in the Church of England, the Rev. John Hall never thought he would become best-known for being part of a wedding.

But since officiating the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton two years ago, an event watched by hundreds of millions of...

The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the suspected Boston Marathon bomber whose burial was surrounded by controversy during the past week, was interred Thursday in an Islamic cemetery in central Virginia, an imam confirmed to The Huffington Post.

Imam Ammar Amonette of the Richmond-based Islamic Center of Virginia said Friday that...

When he heard Thursday that suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev had finally been interred 19 days after his death, Brad White was relieved but worried.

White, who runs the largest at-sea burial business in New England, had kept a close watch on the escalating controversy as cemeteries rejected burial...

After the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were revealed to be Muslims who investigators said were motivated in part by radical Islam, American Muslims were quick to condemn the bombings and plea for Americans to not retaliate against the peaceful majority.

Now, the results of a new...

Watching the news this week of cemeteries refusing to accept the body of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and protestors descending upon the Worcester, Mass., funeral home where it's been held, the Rev. Don Marxhausen was disgusted.

"Funerals are for the living, not the dead," said Marxhausen, pastor of...

WASHINGTON -- Always face the person in the chair. Sense their breath, the rising and falling of the lungs, the blood's flush on the cheeks. Watch the loosening and tightening of the muscles, the movement of the eyelids, how the hair on their arms straightens up. Don't stand out. Speak...