"If the criminals have guns, then we need to have them," says Pastor Russ Tenhoff of the Safe Harbor Ministry in Baltimore. But other religious leaders say they are working to prevent guns from getting into the hands of the wrong people.

We review some of the week's leading religion news stories, from deadly riots in Afghanistan over the burning of a Quran at a Florida church to the morality of the budget to a church-state decision from the Supreme Court.

Reformation historian, award-winning memoirist, and Cuban emigre Carlos Eire says reading the medieval devotional book "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis was "a conversion experience."

In the brave new world of social media, says communication professor Stephen O'Leary, church authorities from pastors to the heads of denominations "no longer have the kind of control they once did."

An acclaimed new movie shows that a monastery is "at once a refuge and a very integral part of the world," says Jesuit priest James Martin, and that "the life of faith is not without doubt."

The Morehouse College Glee Club turned 100 this year, and in a recent concert at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, DC they performed "Seek Ye First" by composer Marques Garrett. Produced by Janice Henderson.

We ask several Israelis and Palestinians about their reactions to the political upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa.

Doctors and patients make health care decisions, says Dr. Bruce Silva of the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center, "but then it has to be okay'd by someone else who puts their belief systems and their ethics on me and on my patients."

In Libya, fighting continued between Gaddafi loyalists and the rebels despite the international military intervention, and new concerns are now being raised about a potential humanitarian crisis in cities occupied by the rebels. Many other ethical and moral concerns remain. William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, discusses some of those issues with us.

The widespread crisis in Japan is marked by ongoing relief efforts and acknowledgment of the impermanence of life.

On the Jewish holiday of Purim, says Rabbi Gil Steinlauf, the more you can poke fun at the gravitas of life, the better.

The UN has demanded a cease-fire and authorized military action. What moral considerations underlie international interventon?

Shaun Casey talks about the risks of intervening in Libya and the moral implications of not doing so.

Rabbi Gil Steinlauf on Purim

On March 10, the House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing called "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response." After the hearing, a coalition of leaders from several faith traditions responded at a news conference.

The House Committee on Homeland Security this week held the first in a series of controversial hearings examining what it called "radicalization in the American Muslim community," and there was widespread religious reaction. The hearing was called by chair of the committee, New York Republican Peter King, who invoked the memory of the 9/11 attacks.

The seriousness of Ash Wednesday and Lent was preceded this week by frivolity and the traditional pancake race at Washington's National Cathedral.

In an Ash Wednesday interview at the National Press Club, at an event on faith and fighting poverty sponsored by Yale Divinity School and International Relief and Development, Senator Christopher Coons (D-Del.) spoke about poverty relief, development, security, and the role of communities of faith in addressing these issues.