Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
America's Incarcerated
Show title: Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
Video title: America's Incarcerated
Video duration: 9m 40sVideo description: The US has more people in prison than any other country in the world, but public policy professor Steven Raphael suggests that "instead of spending so much money on incarcerating very old inmates we could use that money to hire more police, have anti-violence interventions for youth, and be more proactive about having a society that is less violent and generates more productive citizens."
Eagle Pass Border Wall
A community of Americans and Mexicans is about to be bisected by the fence the government is building along the Rio Grande, and that fence has dramatized major questions about immigration policy.
Shlomo Carlebach
We remember the Holocaust today with a profile of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, a Jewish troubadour in the 1960s and '70s who preached love and peace and whose music has become a staple of religious observances in Jewish synagogues and homes.
Charlie and Sedar
Charlie and Sedar grew up together best friends -- one white, one black -- and then took different religious paths. One became an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, the other a Muslim. Today they argue, of course, but they've found their theological differences don't matter nearly as much as friendship.
Creative Seder
Each year at Passover, a couple in Roseland, New Jersey invent new ways to dramatize and sing about the traditional story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt. They've become so good at it and have so much fun there's now a waiting list of their friends who want to come.
Abraham Foxman: Catholics and Jews
The national director of the Anti-Defamation League is meeting in Washington with Pope Benedict XVI and a group of interfaith leaders. Foxman was born in Poland and saved from the Holocaust as an infant by his Polish Catholic nanny, who baptized and raised him as a Catholic during the war years. He recalls a conversation with Benedict about that experience.
Pope Benedict's Foreign Policy
Benedict XVI headed to the US for his first visit in April of 2002. His speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York was considered by many to be the most important part of the trip. Kim Lawton takes a look at the unique role the pope and the Vatican play on the world stage.
Krista Tippett Profile
Krista Tippett explores big life questions through her radio conversation "Speaking of Faith", now titled as "On Being". 600,000 people tune in each week to hear the personal stories of poets, scientists, and writers of all faiths. The show, recorded weekly in St. Paul, Minnesota, has been awarded two Webby awards as well as the Peabody award.
Continuing King's Legacy
If Martin Luther King Jr. was alive today, what social and economic causes would he support? African-American ministers across the political spectrum continue to invoke his legacy as they work in sometimes vastly different ways to change the world around them.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Remembered
Six prominent African American ministers remember the life and death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and describe his influence on their lives, their ministries, and society at large.
Easter Music
In the many special services and observances that take place during Holy Week, music plays a crucial role in setting the mood of the worship and in helping to convey the Easter message.
Easter East and West
Because of differing church calendars, Western and Eastern Christians usually celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on different dates. Over the centuries, distinct Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Holy Week practices have developed. However, both Orthodox and Western Christians say celebration of the Resurrection is the most important event on the church calendar.
Bangladesh Relief
People in Bangladesh are struggling to recover from a devastating cyclone, and this time global warming threatens to flood much of the country. As the land begins to disappear, climate refugees, as they are called, are learning to farm differently and to live and go to school afloat.
Tallit Making
Jewish prayer shawls are called tallit. The elaborately braided fringes, the tzitzit, on the four corners of the shawls, represent God's 613 commandments to the Jews. We discovered a synagogue with a class in which boys and girls preparing for their coming of age ceremonies, bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, make their own tallit.
Iraqi Orphan Adoption
Scott Southworth is National Guard officer who saw combat in Iraq but who also discovered a young Iraqi orphan crippled with cerebral palsy -- a 10-year-old boy who faced a life of loneliness and suffering. After his tour of duty, Captain Southworth returned home to Wisconsin but could not forget about the boy named Ala'a. Soon after, the young veteran adopted Ala'a.
The 5 Browns
They are a devout Mormon family of musical prodigies—all five children were accepted into New York's Julliard School—who say that playing music is an expression of their faith.
Rick Weiss on Stem Cell Research
In an extended conversation, Washington Post science writer Rick Weiss discusses the practical and ethical questions raised by recent embryonic stem cell research, including efforts in Britain to clone human embryos using eggs from other species. He talks about the limits of such experimentation, the buying and selling of DNA, and new efforts in the U.S. to make the first synthetic life form.
Bioethics Update
A series of significant developments have emerged in recent weeks in the field of stem cell science. Each adds exciting prospects for treating disease. Each adds vexing complexity. Watch our discussion with Rick Weiss, science writer for The Washington Post, as he explains some of the science and the ethical issues related to stem cell research.
Scott Neeson Update
Scott Neeson, an Australian, now an American citizen, gave up a rich life as a Hollywood movie executive to go live in Cambodia. There he helps poor children escape their lives as trash pickers and get an education. Since he first visited the country in 2003, his Cambodian Children’s Fund has done inspiringly well.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Heschel is widely considered to be one of the greatest American religious figures of the last century -- a rabbi, theologian, social activist and mystic admired by Christians as well as Jews.