For decades, the Indian government has encouraged pilgrims to come to one of India’s holiest locations, the ancient city of Bodh Gaya. Now there is an effort to revive the Buddhist university that once flourished there long before universities like Cambridge and Oxford were founded in the West.

“Roman Catholicism is the storehouse, the treasure house of the Christian tradition. It’s this whole notion of the blend of wisdom, of commitment, of knowledge, of holiness. That’s the church for me. That’s the church I’m waiting for.”

Many young Jains are finding that living in the modern world requires more flexibility than the anti-materialistic rules of their religion allow. "My grandparents said they don’t eat food at night. But going out with friends, having a social circle, we can’t be as strict as our grandparents," ...

Recent events such as the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent trial of George Zimmerman have highlighted racial divides that still exist in the U.S. 50 years after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In the wake of the shooting, local black and white pastors in ...

Religious leaders in North Carolina are being arrested in growing numbers to protest new laws they say adversely affect the poor, the aging, and children. “There is great biblical precedent for people being arrested,” says Rev. Richard Edens. “It’s a great heritage to be a part of.”

"You can not have a peace without justice. So we learned to defend not only ourselves, we were taught to defend the defenseless," says U.S. Army officer Major Kamal Kalsi.

"I think at the core of the anger, the root of it was sadness. The verdict really said to young African American males that you don’t matter and so that sadness and that continued rejection by society then led to the anger that then led to some of the behavior we saw in the communities," says Rev. ...

“This has energized the movement for marriage redefinition, and at the same time it’s energized those of us who believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman for the sake of their children,” said Kim Daniels, an attorney and a spokeswoman for the president of the US Conference of Catholic ...

Eating the week before Thanksgiving on a food stamp budget is an effort “to deepen our understanding about America,” says Rabbi Lenny Gordon.

"The tradition of the prophets said whatever you are doing is not really working as long as there are people who are hungry, who are without clothing, who are without shelter. That's how you judge a society."

More and more churches and faith-based groups are creating small farms to feed the urban poor, especially children, in places like the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

"Drought does not need to mean famine," according to Niger's president, who adds that the country is tired of needing help and not being able to feed its own people. "We need to escape from emergency aid. We need to help our population produce and provide for itself."

"How they relate to God and their fellow man, their diet, their exercise, their avoidance of tobacco and alcohol—all of that collectively contributes to longevity," says Loma Linda University public health professor Larry Beeson.

In the Orthodox Christian tradition fasting is not about deprivation or suffering, says Catherine Mandell, author of "When You Fast: Recipes for Lenten Seasons."

"When we’ve had that political will to reduce poverty, we’ve been able to do it in our country, and that’s what we need to mobilize now," says Reverend David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World.

There is a proposal on the ballot in Mississippi that would say human life begins at conception. If the measure passes, every fertilized human egg in Mississippi would be defined as a person, and that could make abortion, for any reason, murder.

“There is acute embarrassment that the second-fastest growing economy in the world has almost half of its children malnourished,” says Biraj Patnaik.

An interfaith coalition is launching a prayer and fasting campaign to protect federal funding for programs that help the poor.

Doctors and patients make health care decisions, says Dr. Bruce Silva of the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center, "but then it has to be okay'd by someone else who puts their belief systems and their ethics on me and on my patients."

The seriousness of Ash Wednesday and Lent was preceded this week by frivolity and the traditional pancake race at Washington's National Cathedral.