Fear had pounced without warning back then. Powerless and trapped, it felt like a nightmare ... and I was afraid.

It's a vivid memory that stretches more than a few years back, a time when I was handed a long list of demands; an agenda that stretched from here to the nearest McD's. At the top were the words, "Ride a roller coaster."

Were the ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The White House plans to ask Congress to earmark money in the next stimulus bill for scholarship programs for private and religious schools, which the administration is promoting as a way to help families affected by COVID-19 pay their children's tuition this fall.

President Donald Trump will ask for a "one-time, emergency ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that states may not exclude religious schools from tuition grants that support other private schools.

The justices, by a 5-4 vote, decided that denying grants to students in church schools amounts to unconstitutional discrimination against religion.

The decision is a victory for advocates of school...Read more

My mama knew tough times.

Childhood poverty, the Great Depression, and World War II taught her as surely as my grandma's hand rocked the cradle. Together they formed her moral compass.

Even now, bits and pieces of her story are etched in my memory. How she swept their family's dirt floor, an end of day chore; how her feet ached in a big ...Read more

Do you ever get caught in an inward and endless loop of, "What if?" -- "What if my health ... What if my kids ... What if my parents ... What if my plans ... What if a robber breaks in and ... ?"

Same.

Since anxiety sneaks around in human hearts like a common thief seeking to steal joy, we need to guard against its intrusions. But how?

In ...Read more

It was hard to miss -- the terrific thunder and lightning storm that recently lit up the early morning skies and woke up sleepy heads. I arose and with steaming cup of coffee in hand, sat in my opened garage just out of reach of the occasional torrential rains, and watched with the requisite oohs and aahs.

All who viewed were treated to thick ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is seeking to invoke religion to bolster his law and order image during the civil unrest in an appeal to evangelical and Catholic conservatives, two groups he routinely turns to when he's facing strong criticism.

Trump, not a regular churchgoer, this week stood outside St. John's Episcopal Church across the ...Read more

This summer many of you are going to hear wedding bells.

The ringing might be for you as bride and groom, or simply as guest and bestie. Whatever your role on that happy day of hearing marriage vows, your merriment likely will get lifted by meaningful music.

Do you listen to the music? Closely?

As a minister who has officiated at such ...Read more

PARIS -- A French Catholic writer and lay activist is putting herself forward to be the first female archbishop in the Catholic Church.

Anne Soupa, 73, has declared her candidacy for the archbishopric of Lyon -- the most senior in the French Catholic Church.

The position has been vacant since March, when Pope Francis accepted the resignation ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court is set to decide on a religious freedom claim from a south San Diego County church that wants an exemption from California's COVID-19 rules, which limit large gatherings for services.

Lawyers for the South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista argue that the First Amendment's protection of the "free ...Read more

"It's not going to do you any good to paddle harder." This piece of advice stays with me as I think about how to go forward when the coronavirus has changed so much of the world I knew.

I'm urged to pause in my paddling, and pay attention to the reality unfolding before me with its new needs and opportunities.

Tod Bolsinger, a professor and ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Justice Department issued a letter Tuesday warning that California could be violating religious freedoms in its plan to reopen the state after the coronavirus stay-at-home order.

The letter from the Justice Department's civil rights division to Gov. Gavin Newsom listed several objections both to the original order and ...Read more

Americans love the idea of a superhero, someone possessed of supernatural powers used for the common good.

Joe Thomas, a professor studying this phenomenon, remarked, "They explain mystery. They model behavior. They inspire. They make mistakes ... and learn from them. They are life lessons. They give hope that no matter what the odds, even one ...Read more