As the old saying goes, the fish is the last to see or even feel the water because it is so pervasive. By analogy, what many within our society consider "normal" and appropriate, upon critical reflection, may be perceived as (re)enforcements of mainline Christian standards.

Let there be no doubt: There is a lot of disagreement among scholars as to how the terms utilized above are best defined. And two of those scholars who really disagree are myself and Professor Phil Zuckerman.

"Argo" demonstrates how out of touch we are with crucial global realities and how disconnected we are from how we come across to the rest of the human family through these kinds of expressions.

The realities of health care in America make many of us wish we could make this call/page/text and that God would swoop in and makes things right. An all-powerful God might find lost paperwork, speed up slow health care systems and heal the conditions that led us to the hospita in the first place.

The number of Americans with no religious affiliation continues to rise. Fewer young people are going to church. And the effects of recession have placed greater burdens on religious institutions in a time of shrinking resources. Yet there are also more hopeful trends about the health and mission of houses of worship.

Quite a few of our countrymen believe America has declared war on Christianity. Sounds terrible. And deserving of further analysis. All true patriots concerned about this state of affairs will want to know more, will want to get to the bottom of what is happening in our country.

Although some scholars have used the label since at least the 1960s, the ongoing discussions about Nones have popularized this new identity out of nothing. And this has significant potential to influence society.

At least books and films such as "Harry Potter" and "Beautiful Creatures" have started to bring the popular image of the witch beyond the realm of the 16^th-century pointed hat. But now it's time to move forward still further into the 21^st century.

I wondered how life would be different if there were churches around that loved these kids for who God created them to be, instead of trying to change them from what church people fear they represent.

It could be the most important religious development of our time: SBNRs are as diverse and complex as any other spiritual cohort. They are here to stay, and their numbers will surely grow as pluralism evolves and access to the world's wisdom becomes even easier.

Only when partisan evangelicals earn a reputation for sincere regard for religious freedom -- for all people's religious freedom -- will complaints about non-evangelical presidents and their supposed assaults on liberty ring credible.

Talented rabbis are working in day schools, Jewish Community Centers, camping agencies, communal organizations, college campus institutions and philanthropic foundations. They are also cobbling together two and three part-time jobs in ways never imagined in previous generations.

CINCINNATI -- A portrait of Jesus that hangs prominently in an entranceway at a rural Ohio public school is in violation of the U.S. Constitution and ...

For his fifth year, President Barack Obama attended the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning in at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. Yet...

Time and again, while engaging with Muslim youth at schools, universities and community forums, a common anecdotal thread characterizing their ultimate educational experience is underreported bias-based bullying and otherwise discriminatory incidents at school. Hence, the need for dialogue.

Minding my own business. That's all I was doing when I came across an article about a pastor, Kevin Swanson, who warned on his radio show that inside of ten years, gay people will likely be burning Christians at the stake -- because, you know, that's how the gays do ... at least since Nero.

In the afterglow of Romney's respectable showing, one finds unease among some in the ranks of Mormons. They ask: Is distinctness or integration the greater burden?

Not only do lay Catholics need to better understand ther leaders' views, but their leaders must take heed of what is on the minds of their parishioners.

"Sacred Ground" is a slim volume that serious interfaith students or practitioners will read for the fascinating territory it surveys: the history of religious bigotry in American politics, the sociology of nonprofits in the United States, and the "science of interfaith cooperation."

What if part of the reason the "Nones" are so underwhelmed by organized religion isn't because they don't find Jesus interesting, but because it appears to them that Christians don't find him sufficiently interesting enough to take seriously?

If you're a reader of the New York Times, you'd have good reason to the conclusion that the United States -- and indeed the world -- is becoming less and less religious. And yet, this is misleading.

After all the fuss about who would be invited to do them, apparently nobody thought to suggest how long the inaugural invocation and benediction should be. There is such a thing as "too much of a good thing."

By David Gibson Religion News Service (RNS) A presidential inauguration is by tradition the grandest ritual of America's civil religion, but Presi...

The following forward, written by the Rev. Dr. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock, senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, is an excerpt from the book 'A ...