Many scientists say the most promise for curing various diseases is to clone human embryos to cure the sick. Therapeutic cloning is sharply controversial because it destroys the original human embryo. Anchor Bob Abernethy's first cousin, Reverend William Abernethy, suffers from Parkinson's disease and is one of the many hoping to receive medical help through the therapeutic cloning process.

Madrasahs, it turns out, have a long and distinguished history in the Islamic world and may hold the key to whether Muslim scholars can once again welcome the ideas of others.

Concluding RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY’s five-part series “Exploring Religious America,” Bob Abernethy speaks with experts John Green, Robert Franklin, and Peter Steinfels about the findings of the survey. Topics include scandal in the Catholic church, spirituality versus tradition, America’s increasing religious diversity, and whether true interfaith understanding is possible.

India, which is mostly Hindu, and Pakistan, which is mostly Muslim, are once again on the brink of war over the disputed region of Kashmir. Both nations have nuclear weapons. Hindu-Muslim tensions extend beyond Kashmir, though. Within India, where Hindus make up 80% of the population and Muslims make up 14%, violent outbreaks that began in February may already have taken thousands of lives.

According to the Gallup organization, between 1984 and 1998 there was a phenomenal jump in the number of people who said they felt a need for greater spiritual growth — from 56 percent to 82 percent, in just 14 years. Many Americans, both religious and nonreligious, have turned to alternative practices to facilitate this spiritual growth.

There are more than 60 million U.S. Catholics, making them 40 percent of all the Christians in the country and the largest single group of American Christians. Although many Catholics ignore some Church teachings and are angry about the recent sex abuse scandal, at the same time they remain loyal to their tradition and deeply devout.

On Protestant influence on the United States and its people, one observer has noted, “We are all Protestants now.” Today, just over half of all Americans are Protestants, worshipping in 300,000 congregations, in many hundreds of denominations — and, often, apart from any denomination. We report on the experiences of being a mainline Protestant, an evangelical, and part of the black Church.

Twelve U.S. cardinals and two bishops joined Pope John Paul II and other Vatican officials for two days of discussions about the sexual abuse crisis in the American Catholic church and possible solutions. John Paul told the group there is no place in the priesthood for those who harm the young.

In partnership with U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY conducted a national poll on religion and spirituality in American life. Eighty-seven percent say religion is important in their lives. The country now also boasts unprecedented religious diversity. In part one of our new series, we look at diversity’s challenges and consequences.

Technology has been developed that enables us to view people's most private personal information, track their whereabouts, invade their space. Then what had been made possible by such advances, terrorism made inevitable. Surveillance is becoming more and more pervasive, so where does the acceptable line between protection of the public and invasion of individual privacy fall?

In COMMONWEAL Magazine, an independent Catholic journal, writer and scholar Peter Steinfels, a Catholic, takes a thoughtful look at the crisis in the Church and calls for changes to overcome it. Steinfels also writes the “Belief” column for THE NEW YORK TIMES. Watch his interview with Bob Abernethy on the scandal and how the Church can move forward.

As American Catholics have reeled from the disclosures of past sexual abuses by priests, and evidence they were covered up, one of the questions raised has concerned priestly celibacy — abstinence from sex. Was that requirement a cause of the abuses? Is it necessary for dedicated ministry? Should it be made optional?

A special report on the sexual pressures on pre-teenage girls. Parents, social critics, and many young girls themselves deplore it, but sex sells, so advertisers and entertainers use it to attract audiences. And they use it without the regulation or social pressures that once were restraining forces, although most Americans oppose outright censorship.

The scandals in the Catholic church have prompted wide-ranging questions about sexual orientation and practice. Experts insist that pedophilia has no connection to homosexuality, but the crisis has renewed attention to the issue of gays in the priesthood.

Mattie Stepanek is the brilliant, wheelchair-bound Maryland boy who has become a best-selling inspirational poet. Both he and his mother, Jeni Stepanek, suffer from rare but different forms of muscular dystrophy. Mattie and Jeni join R&E this week for an Easter story of faith and hope.

The earliest known written Haggadah, the story of the Jewish redemption from slavery in Egypt, dates from the mid-10th or 11th century. Today there are more than 5,000 Haggadahs. We spoke with David Wachtel of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York about the significance of Haggadahs through the centuries.

During Holy Week, Western Christians remember Jesus' crucifixion, and the days leading up to it. One of the most moving observances, especially for Catholics, is walking the 14 Stations of the Cross, each one representing an event as Jesus carried his cross to Calvary, where he was put to death.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement formed decades ago with the intention to reach out to the Jewish people, regardless of background, to teach them about their faith.

The John Templeton Foundation's Templeton Prize honors any living individual, regardless of profession or background, who has made significant strides in the study of science and religion. In 2002, distinguished mathematical physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne was the recipient of the prize, nearly a million dollars, that he contributed towards further spiritual research and work.

A conversation on Enron ethics. R & E discusses the fallout from the energy giant’s bankruptcy with Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine, Larry Zicklin of the brokerage firm Neuberger Berman and New York University, and Kirk Hanson of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.