Religion

A woman drives a car in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are barred from driving, but activists have launched a renewed protest and are urging women to drive on Saturday.

Saudi Women Go For A Spin In Latest Challenge To Driving Ban

7:39pm October 24, 2013

by Deborah Amos

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that effectively bars women from driving. Women are making a renewed challenge to the ban by getting behind the wheel and posting videos in advance of a national drive-in set for Saturday.

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Jennifer Haselberger, former top canon lawyer for the archdiocese, found stored files detailing how some priests had histories of sexual abuse. She resigned in April.

Abuse Allegations Leave Twin Cities Archdiocese In Turmoil

6:25pm October 24, 2013

by Madeleine Baran

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis had claimed to be a national leader in handling clergy sex abuse cases. But after a whistle-blower revealed evidence of a cover-up, alleged victims are preparing lawsuits, and some parishioners are calling for the archbishop to resign.

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Religion

Vatican Challenges Church Of England ... To A Cricket Match

8:07am October 24, 2013

The Vatican has announced it will be engaging in "sporting diplomacy" with a new team. St. Peter's Cricket Club will be made up of priests and seminarians from cricket-loving countries. And the Vatican threw down a challenge to longtime rival the Church of England: Form a team and make it the Anglicans versus the Catholics at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.

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Religion

Heaven Is Waiting; Hell Is A Different Question, Nun Says

6:38pm October 11, 2013

by NPR Staff

The Catholic Church has long held that saints are in communion with God after death, says Mary Catherine Hilkert, a Catholic theologian and Dominican Sister of Peace. But, she says, "never has there been a statement about anyone definitively being in hell."

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Detail of the central compartment of The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, completed in 1432 by Jan van Eyck, where pilgrims gather to pay homage to the lamb of God. Many art historians interpret the painting's fountain as a symbol of eternal life.

Religion

To Pastor, Afterlife Is Where We 'Learn To Live Together'

4:39pm October 11, 2013

by NPR Staff

Humans have debated the concept of an afterlife for millennia. But ultimately, each individual's view on life after death is a personal one. For his part, the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, sees eternity as a place where people cast aside the differences that divided them on earth.

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Religion

Vatican Recalls Pope Medallions Because Of Typo

11:02am October 11, 2013

The Vatican minted thousands of medallions in gold, silver and bronze. A portrait of the pope was on one side and on the other, the Latin phrase that inspired Pope Francis to join the Jesuit order. The medals were promptly recalled after the Vatican discovered Jesus was misspelled as Lesus.

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Stones placed on a Jewish grave to show respect for the deceased. Orthodox Rabbi Joseph Telushkin says Jewish tradition holds that there is an afterlife but doesn't encourage speculation on what it might be like.

Religion

For Rabbi, A Just God Without An Afterlife Is 'Inconceivable'

8:33pm October 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

Orthodox Rabbi Joseph Telushkin says his belief in some form of life after death flows from the persistence of injustice on earth. If there were no afterlife, he says, "it would mean that Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank had the same fate."

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Woman prepare food for orixas in the kitchen of the Candomblé temple. The priest and the people dressed as the spirits pass through to enter the main room for the ceremony.

Brazilian Believers Of Hidden Religion Step Out Of Shadows

5:45pm October 09, 2013

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion, has been widely practiced by people of African descent in Brazil but mostly in secret — until now. After centuries of slavery and discrimination, Brazil's Afro-Brazilian community is proudly celebrating its African roots.

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A St. Louis-area imam spoke with NPR about what Muslims believe about life after death.

Religion

Imam: 'We Can't Imagine' The Beauty Of Paradise After Death

7:26am October 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

This week, All Things Considered is talking with leaders from different faiths about their perspectives on an afterlife. Mufti Asif Umar says Muslims believe that a person who enters paradise will find whatever he or she desires waiting there.

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Andrew Hamblin preaches while holding a snake above his head, LaFollette, Tenn.

Snake-Handling Preachers Open Up About 'Takin' Up Serpents'

5:35pm October 04, 2013

by John Burnett

Pastor Jamie Coots says his Pentecostal church is really not that different from other churches. "We sing, we preach, we testify, take up offerings, pray for the sick, everything like everybody else does. Just, every once in a while, snakes are handled," he says.

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