It wouldn’t be a proper baptism rite without someone taking a photograph of the priest and the new members lined up for the service. Anyone who studies these images from Catholic life during the 1940s and ’50s will be struck by an obvious fact, said Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola, Fla. The center aisles in those urban churches were awfully full during baptisms, including rows of adult converts. Somebody was doing something right. “It was just expected of a... Read more

The following quotations come from modern leaders in the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Confucian traditions. Here’s the big question: Who said what? * “The family is the basic social unit in society, and marriage is the fundamental institution.” * “The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life.” * It is “the family, more than any other... Read more

Harry Potter had just triumphed in another face-to-face showdown with the forces of evil — represented, logically enough, by a gigantic serpent. But the young wizard also discovered darkness, as well as light, in his own soul. His ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets revealed that he truly was free to have embraced evil and the house of Salazar Slytherin, rather than the noble house of Godric Gryffindor. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far... Read more

It was the kind of proclamation that mayors sign all of the time – with a twist. “WHEREAS, Earth Religions are among the oldest spiritual systems on the planet; and WHEREAS, Followers of many earth-centered religions live and worship in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina.” Thus, Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick declared the last week of October “Earth Religions Awareness Week,” in a rite attended by local witches and scores of singing children, led by a priestess in a... Read more

As his helicopter turned toward the Denver skyline and the Rocky Mountains, Pope John Paul II fingered his rosary and gazed at the 500,000-plus worshippers gathered in Cherry Creek State Park for the closing Mass of World Youth Day in 1993. What the pope was thinking and feeling at that moment can be summed up in one English word, according to the American journalist and theologian who recently released “Witness to Hope,” a stunning 992-page biography of John Paul. And... Read more

Elizabeth Fiore didn’t expect Georgetown University’s freshman orientation program to include a condom demonstration. When the mandatory safe-sex session was over, the student leaders apologized because policies on the Catholic campus prevented them from handing out condoms to needy newcomers. But – wink, wink – they could leave a few on a nearby table. What was shocking was not the candid talk, but the assumption that students had already rejected Catholic teachings, said Fiore, at a conference backing efforts to... Read more

No matter where the young Billy Graham went, his evangelistic team always seemed to arrive a few days after Elmer Gantry left town. Finally, Graham huddled with his inner circle during a 1948 tent revival in California. A key biblical text for the day was St. Paul’s advice to his protegee Timothy: “Flee youthful lusts.” The team quickly agreed on a code to cover money, the media, clashes with other clergy and, of course, sex. “We all knew of evangelists... Read more

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Why not produce, thought conservative activist Paul Weyrich, a library of educational videotapes to help home-school parents? Perhaps even a cable-television channel that offered quality classroom materials mixed with a little wholesome entertainment? “It made sense to me,” said Weyrich, a veteran media entrepreneur and one of the founding fathers of the Religious Right. “But the idea didn’t get very far. I’ve been asking home-schoolers about this for several years and... Read more

ATLANTA — As so often happens during her risky flights into Southern Sudan, Baroness Caroline Cox returned to England with a photograph that spoke volumes – even if she could not remember precisely when and where she took it. It shows a naked, starving boy holding a tall cross, during an illegal rendezvous with older tribesmen. There are many demolished villages, since raiders serving the Khartoum regime keep trying to crush resistance in Christian and animist tribes. Cox and her... Read more

It’s hard to read any of the sermons that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached about death and heaven without hearing echoes of gunshots. “The minute you conquer the fear of death, at that moment you are free,” he said, in 1963. “I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” Decades later, these words still inspire faith and courage, said social activist Johann Christoph Arnold, who... Read more