Religion News Service

In deeply religious Africa, both Christianity and Islam are on the rise. But small groups of determined atheists have emerged, and are challenging Africa's grip on faith while seeking recognition and more followers.

Anti-abortion leaders have been thrilled with President Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war who embraced patriotism loudly and religion quietly, died Saturday (Aug. 25) at the age of 81.

In recent years, a number of mainline Protestant Christian denominations have passed resolutions repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery. Now they're considering how to act on those denunciations.

The Catholic Church could get its second Native American saint if a Vatican research trip to South Dakota this month leads to confirmation of two miracles performed by Nicholas Black Elk, a Lakota Sioux medicine man born in the Civil War era.

People are not satisfied that the Catholic Church has vigorously responded to the sex abuse crisis. After seeing the crisis covered in The Boston Globe and elsewhere since at least 2002, they are surprised to see reports once again in the media. What does the church need to do to get its house in order and satisfy its critics?

Pope Francis condemned the abuse as a crime and called the church to solidarity with its victims in a statement some following the Catholic Church's clergy sexual abuse crisis called "the boldest we have heard from the Vatican" and others, "too little, too late."

One is a Somali immigrant who came to the U.S. at age 12, knowing no English. The other is the eldest daughter of Palestinian immigrants who worked her way through college and law school. Both have a strong chance of serving in the 116th U.S. Congress.

Two days after Pennsylvania officials unveiled  a report detailing accusations that Catholic priests had sexually abused more than 1,000 children since the 1940s and that church officials shielded the abusers, Catholics are expressing dismay.

Aretha Franklin, a singer who began her career with gospel music and was later crowned the "Queen of Soul," died Thursday (Aug. 16) after battling a range of health issues. She was 76.

When forest rangers arrived at Mau Forest Complex in June to evict thousands of illegal settlers, frightened villagers started moving out.

Hundreds of Muslims are trapped on the grounds of a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern city of Bangassou, unable to leave the compound for fear of being attacked by a Christian militia.

Awful, disgusting, horrifying, sickening — one runs out of adjectives in describing the actions of abusive priests chronicled in the just-released Pennsylvania grand jury report.

The government has a duty to allow contractors to be excused from federal anti-discrimination laws if they cite a religious reason for doing so, according to a new directive from the U.S. Department of Labor.

When white supremacist groups announced plans to hold a demonstration in Washington, D.C., to mark the one-year anniversary of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., many feared a repeat of the violence in 2017.

For thousands of South Sudanese here in the world’s largest refugee camp, the search for healing from recent horrors involves a quest for God.  

United Methodist Church officials in Alabama have dismissed a complaint signed by more than 600 church members in July that chided Attorney General Jeff Sessions for implementing the family separation policy along the border and attempting to justify it with Scripture.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court has approved the release of a grand jury's report on sexual abuse of minors in six Catholic dioceses across the state.

Relationships between Russians and American evangelicals extend back more than three decades to Billy Graham’s well-publicized visit to Russia in the mid-1980s. 

Pope Francis has decided to change the catechism of the Catholic Church to make clear the church's opposition to the death penalty. By including it in the catechism, the pope ensures that the church's teaching against capital punishment will spread throughout the church.