Watch North Texas Imam Oman Suleiman, founder and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, visiting Syrian refugee camps on the Jordan-Syria border, and listen to him talk about the moral obligations and spiritual lessons he learned there.

Director Martin Scorsese’s epic new film “Silence” tells the story of two Jesuit priests in the 17the Century who are sent to Japan to investigate reports that their missionary mentor has renounced his faith. Rev. James Martin, S.J. of America magazine served as a consultant. Kim Lawton talks with Martin about the many religious themes in “Silence,” and Scorsese's Catholic background.

Host Bob Abernethy and R&E managing editor Kim Lawton and Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance talk about how many people of faith are responding to President Donald Trump's series of executive orders.

While the number of monks and nuns has declined dramatically in recent years, there has been a large increase in the number of lay people who want to associate with religious communities.  Correspondent Kate Olson visited New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine community in Big Sur, California, where people who live in the world affiliate with a monastic community.

In the early 1990s, Terry Waite, a lifelong Anglican and a hostage negotiator for the Archbishop of Canterbury, was himself captured by terrorists in Lebanon. He was freed after nearly five years of captivity. Since his return to England he has written about his ordeal. His latest book of poetry is "Out of the Silence", and he told Lucky Severson recently how he learned to be compassionate.

As Donald Trump takes office, faith-based groups continue speaking out. Host Bob Abernethy talks about religion and the new administration with R&E managing editor Kim Lawton, Religion News Service Editor-in-Chief Jerome Socolovsky, and Professor Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America.

“What defines you the most is what you do despite your fear,” says Katie Meyler, a 34-year-old American from suburban New Jersey who was working in Liberia in the midst of extreme poverty when Ebola struck. Now she runs a growing network of schools for girls and says, “Nobody chooses Liberia. Liberia chooses you. You can make a big difference here.”

Correspondent Dan Lothian interviews Rev. Eugene Rivers and Northeastern U. Professor Sarah Jackson in Boston about the attitudes of young people toward Martin Luther King Jr.. Among millennial activists, Jackson says, there is both an embrace and at the same time distance from King, admiration for King’s goals but with no wish for any new leader and seeking a movement driven from the ground up.

Every week, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, Jews around the world celebrate Shabbat, the Sabbath. A day of prayer, rest, and reflection, Shabbat provides the spiritual renewal, some say, needed for the rest of the week. We spoke with Rabbi Nissan Antine and his wife, Sarah, of Beth Sholom Congregation in Potomac, Maryland about the meaning and practice of Shabbat.

On January 1, 2017, Sean Callahan became president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, the international relief agency of the US Catholic Church. He replaces Carolyn Woo, who retired. Correspondent Kim Lawton traveled to Haiti with Callahan and spoke with him about his humanitarian mission, his concerns about the anti-refugee climate in America, and what he learned working with Mother Teresa.

Despite hate crimes, anti-immigrant speech and Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Sadiq Khan, a British-born Muslim of Pakistani descent, was elected mayor of London last summer. Recently, when he was visiting the U.S., David Tereshchuk talked with him about bigotry, extremism and the lessons of learning to box.

The annual special program looking ahead to the top religion and ethics stories we expect to be following in 2017. Host Bob Abernethy talks with Managing Editor Kim Lawton, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Jerome Socolovsky, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service.

In our final show before the New Year, we review the top religion and ethics stories of 2016. Host Bob Abernathy is joined by R&E managing editor Kim Lawton, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, and Jerome Socolovsky, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service.

The practice began in California and spread to 130 communities around the world. The mission of the Threshold Choir is to bring gentle a capella singing to people who are dying in hospitals and hospices, usually with three or four voices at a time. We accompanied the Washington, DC Threshold group as it comforted a patient during the last stages of his life. 

In this season of giving, correspondent Kim Lawton reports on the nondenominational Christian nonprofit called Mercy Chefs. During natural disasters and national emergencies, Mercy Chefs deploys mobile kitchens and teams of volunteer professional chefs to cook restaurant-quality meals for victims and first responders. The group says it tries to spread hope through good food.

In the midst of all the political and religious tensions in the city of Bethlehem, the Catholic Order of Malta oversees Holy Family Hospital, just up the hill from the Church of the Nativity. Members of the medical staff are primarily Christian, and most of the patients are Muslim, but the hospital serves everyone, especially mothers, their newborn babies, and all children who need special care. “

One hundred years ago, the US government oversaw the slaughter of millions of buffalo in its effort to settle the West. That meant separating Indian tribes from their historic dependence on the buffalo, or bison, for food, shelter, and also for their spirituality. Now, in cooperation with Canada, the US government has returned the buffaloes to the Blackfoot tribes.

Dr. Larry Brilliant first achieved notice as a young hippie doctor in San Francisco in 1969. As correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports, Brilliant became a disciple of an Indian guru, and worked on helping to eliminate smallpox which at the time was still killing millions of people every year. It became the first disease ever eradicated from the planet.

Why does the US have so many people in prison—2.3 million Americans at an estimated cost of $80 billion a year? Correspondent Tim O’Brien goes to Dearborn County, Indiana, which has one of the highest incarceration rates in the US, to see why the country leads the developed world in the number of people serving long prison terms.

In Boone, North Carolina, there is the FARM Café. FARM stands for Feed All Regardless of Means, which is precisely what it does. It feeds anyone who wants a meal—and asks in return for an hour of volunteer work, no money. It’s the ministry of Renee Boughman, a Christian who felt called five years ago to feed the hungry.