The problems in troubled regions like Somalia are long term and at least partially man-made. In the minds of donors, that's very different from sudden disasters like the earthquake in Haiti. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on how two Minnesota charities are dealing with so-called donor fatigue as they respond to the crisis in the Horn of Africa.

What will the the failure of the deficit super committee mean for those fighting hunger? Reverend David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, discusses how people in the US and abroad may be affected.

Dr. Brenda Williams and her doctor-husband Joe have started a project in South Carolina called Do Right for families, children, inmates and others. The program also has been buying houses for needy families who participate in the program by "doing right." To qualify, they must perform weekly community service and be active participants in religious organizations.

We are a wealthy nation, but should the best measure of a country be its material wealth or the happiness of its citizens?

"There's a fundamental misunderstanding that says religion needs to be serious all the time and gloomy and dour," says Rev. James Martin, S.J., author of "Between Heaven and Mirth." He believes humor is good for one's spiritual health.

The sex abuse scandal at Penn State "reopens a wound" for the church. Watch Kevin Eckstrom, editor of Religion News Service, and Kim Lawton, managing editor of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, compare what happened at Penn State and the long-running sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church.

Rev. James Martin, S.J., author of Between Heaven and Mirth and chaplain for comedian Stephen Colbert, tells some jokes during his interview with Kim Lawton and during his October 13, 2011 talk at Georgetown University.

To military chaplains, soldiers are like family. But the carnage they see often leads to combat trauma or compassion fatigue.

Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest who has become a widely popular author and lecturer with his message about the importance of spiritual experience. His new book is "Falling Upward," about moving beyond everyday self-interest into lives of prayer and contemplation.

On the ballot is a proposal that would say human life begins at conception. If the measure passes, every fertilized human egg in Mississippi would be defined as a person, and that could make abortion, for any reason, murder.

A faith-based social services agency in Brazil is helping poor people get out of poverty. The Catholic nun who founded the agency says education leads to jobs, especially if it's all done with love.

Virginia Raguin is a professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and the curator of a traveling exhibit on pilgrimages in Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. We spoke to her about pilgrimage in different religious traditions at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.

Seventeen-year-old pop superstar Justin Bieber is an evangelical Christian who has been outspoken about his faith. Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly Managing Editor Kim Lawton talked about the role of faith in Bieber's life with Cathleen Falsani, author of the new book, Belieber!: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber (Worthy, Sept. 2011).

Growing numbers of leaders from across the religious spectrum have been supporting Occupy Wall Street's protest against greed and economic inequity.

The first battle many seriously wounded soldiers face is whether they want to go on with their lives and then endure the long, painful process of healing, often alone. Doctors have learned that wounded soldiers heal faster and more completely when they have family around them. That's what happens here at the Warrior and Family Support Center in San Antonio.

Catholics in the US are making up their own minds about social and moral concerns. As one of the authors of the survey, William D'Antonio, said, American Catholics like being Catholic but they like to do it on their own terms.

Growing numbers of religious groups are offering spiritual and moral support to protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, 96 percent of all adults die with a completed advance directive. The directives are often based on end-of-life conversations that reflect a patient's spiritual and ethical values.

The Claremont School of Theology, the Islamic Center of Southern California, and the Academy for Jewish Religion California are partners in a new effort to educate leaders for churches, synagogues, and mosques in shared classes.

Advance directives respect familial relationships, spiritual values, and individual choices, says the president of the National Association of Evangelicals.