Accessibility links
Religion NPR's stories on U.S. and world religion, spirituality, ethics, and moral issues affecting society and culture. Subscribe to NPR Religion RSS feeds.

Religion

Faith Matters

Can Faith Alone Treat Mental Illness?

The suicide of a prominent pastor's son has many evangelicals talking about how best to treat mental illness. Guest host Celeste Headlee speaks with journalist and evangelical Christian Christine Scheller about how the church responds to mental illness. Scheller lost her son to suicide five years ago.

Can Faith Alone Treat Mental Illness?

Listen · 7:38
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/179240480/179240471" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Controversy Brews Over Church's Hallucinogenic Tea Ritual

Jeffrey Bronfman, UDV church national vice president; Solar Law, UDV church national president; and Tai Bixby, head pastor of the Santa Fe congregation. Churchgoers participate in a ceremony where hallucinogenic huasca tea is consumed, and some neighbors are trying to block the construction of a UDV temple. John Burnett /NPR hide caption

toggle caption
John Burnett /NPR

National

Controversy Brews Over Church's Hallucinogenic Tea Ritual

A U.S. transplant of a Brazilian sect drinks huasca tea and then finds spiritual exploration in the visions it induces. The Supreme Court has granted the group full rights as a church to sip all the tea it wants, but some neighbors in Santa Fe, N.M., are trying to block construction of a house of worship.

Controversy Brews Over Church's Hallucinogenic Tea Ritual

Listen · 7:15
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/177315132/179067415" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Muslim Family Values

Many Muslim people were hoping the Boston bombers didn't share their religion. However, the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is indeed Muslim, according to family members. Host Michel Martin speaks to Muslims from different ethnic backgrounds about the conversations they're having at dinner tables and in their neighborhoods.

Muslim Family Values

Listen · 12:30
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/178805803/178805794" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Boston Bombing Suspects Are Brothers Living In U.S. For Years

This combination of undated photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. AP hide caption

toggle caption
AP

The Two-Way

Boston Bombing Suspects Are Brothers Living In U.S. For Years

The two suspects in Monday's deadly Boston Marathon explosions and the Thursday night murder of a police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are brothers from a former Soviet republic who were in the United States legally for years and lived together in a Cambridge, Mass., apartment.

National

Boston: The Conversation In Arab-American And Muslim Communities

After the bombings in Boston, law professor Khaled Beydoun was gripped by the fear that the culprit would be found to be an Arab or Muslim American. Since Sept. 11, 2001, he says this anxiety has become quite familiar in Arab and Muslim communities, and that has transformed the grieving process.

Boston: The Conversation In Arab-American And Muslim Communities

Listen · 16:55
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/177788374/177788365" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Evangelicals Become Unlikely Supporters Of Immigration Reform

Long tied to the conservative, anti-immigrant wing of the Republican Party, a number of evangelical leaders are now coming out in favor of the immigration overhaul released by a bipartisan group of senators.

Evangelicals Become Unlikely Supporters Of Immigration Reform

Listen · 3:36
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/177650618/177650595" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Faith Community Comforts Bostonians

The city of Boston is coming together for prayer vigils and reflections following yesterday's explosions at the Boston Marathon. Host Michel Martin talks with Bishop Gayle Harris, of The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, about how Bostonians are handling the shock and the faith community's response.

Faith Community Comforts Bostonians

Listen · 4:42
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/177468611/177468600" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
How Evangelical Christians Are Preaching The New Gospel Of Adoption

Author Interviews

How Evangelical Christians Are Preaching The New Gospel Of Adoption

Fresh Air

In The Child Catchers, Kathryn Joyce explores the outsized influence of evangelical Christian groups on the overseas adoption industry. The adoption movement has orchestrated a boom-and-bust market that can exploit poor families in countries where regulations are weak and "orphans" may not actually be orphans.

How Evangelical Christians Are Preaching The New Gospel Of Adoption

Listen · 34:35
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/177350912/177469443" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Evangelicals Try To Soften Hearts On Overhauling Immigration

The evangelical movement, historically, has not been supportive of overhauling immigration. But that stance is changing. The Evangelical Immigration Table has united a diverse section of religious groups — from the social justice organization Sojourners to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Evangelicals Try To Soften Hearts On Overhauling Immigration

Listen · 4:52
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/177276881/177290776" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Pastor, Mentor And Social Activist: Remembering Gordon Cosby

The Rev. Gordon Cosby died March 20 at 95. Courtesy of Church of the Saviour hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of Church of the Saviour

Obituaries

Pastor, Mentor And Social Activist: Remembering Gordon Cosby

Gordon Cosby is perhaps the most influential pastor you've never heard of. His congregation in Washington, D.C., Church of the Saviour, launched more than 40 different nonprofit groups to help the poor and homeless. Cosby died last month at the age of 95.

Pastor, Mentor And Social Activist: Remembering Gordon Cosby

Listen · 4:10
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/177218091/177244412" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Faith Matters

Pastor Jim Wallis Back To Being Political

Evangelical pastor Jim Wallis was known for being outspoken on politics and faith. A year ago, his public profile soared to the highest it's ever been, but he decided to take a sabbatical. Now he's back, with a new book, On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned About Serving The Common Good.

Pastor Jim Wallis Back To Being Political

Listen · 11:38
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/177032267/177032258" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

'Til Faith Do Us Part': The Mixed Blessings Of Interfaith Marriage

In the 1950s, 20 percent of marriages in the U.S. were interfaith unions. By the first decade of the 21st century, the rate increased to 45 percent. While the decision is common, it comes with a unique set of challenges. In Til Faith Do Us Part, Naomi Schaefer Riley explains the risks and benefits.

'Til Faith Do Us Part': The Mixed Blessings Of Interfaith Marriage

Listen · 16:57
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/176802652/176802645" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript