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  Faith Digest: Court rules Ground Zero cross can stay at museum

  A cross-shaped beam from the wreckage of the World Trade Center can remain on display in the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

  08/01/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Faith Digest: Sudan bans new church construction

  Christians in Sudan frequently face arrests, impromptu questioning and expulsion. But conditions worsened after the government announced a ban on the construction of new churches.

  07/24/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Faith Digest: New religious emojis on the way

  In addition to smiley faces, high heels and frogs, Unicode is rolling out a new batch of 250 emojis, among them a set of religious icons.

  07/18/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Faith Digest: Cross on Mount Soledad can stay for now

  The decades-long battle over a cross erected on public land in California will drag out even longer now that the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

  07/04/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Religious liberty under attack—or not

  An overreaching federal government threatens religious liberty, some Americans assert. A secular culture that values political correctness over truth imperils freedom of religion, others insist. Or maybe the perceived threat depends on perspective.

  06/28/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Do majority Baptists speak up for religious minorities?

  When the shoe is on the other foot, are Baptists willing to speak up for nonbelievers or followers of non-Christian religions who object to religious displays on government property?

  06/27/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Faith Digest: Atheists offer invocations at public gatherings

  An atheist “prayer” may sound like a contradiction in terms, but in municipalities around the country, atheists, humanists, agnostics and other freethinkers are giving invocations at local government meetings.

  06/27/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  How dying churches can find new life

  A small but growing number of struggling evangelical congregations have found new life by teaming up with a larger church. The mergers allow small churches to reinvent themselves and bigger ones to extend their reach.

  06/27/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Faith Digest: Religious giving down as philanthropy improves

  The new Giving USA report shows a slight downturn for churches and other religious organizations against an improving charity landscape.

  06/20/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Political polarization challenges U.S. churches

  A new study finds that Americans increasingly identify with political views on the far right or far left, and that the center is shrinking. That could have profound implications for churches.

  06/19/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Faith Digest: Evangelical support for immigration reform declines

  Majorities of every religious group except for white evangelical Protestants support a path toward citizenship for undocumented immigrants, according to a poll from the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.

  06/12/2014 - By John Rutledge

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  Faith Digest: Hot-button behaviors more acceptable

  Americans are showing more tolerance for a range of behaviors, with sex between unmarried adults, medical research on stem cells from human embryos, and doctor-assisted suicide all showing record highs and increases in “moral acceptability” from last year.

  06/05/2014 - By John Rutledge