religion

Pew Poll: A Growing Number Of Americans Don't Celebrate Christmas As A Religious Holiday

6:40pm December 24, 2017

A recent study by the Pew Research Center found a growing number of Americans view Christmas as a cultural holiday, rather than a religious tradition. NPR guest host Ray Suarez talks to religion professor Elizabeth Drescher about how millennials think about religious holidays and how religion plays into their identity.

Writer On Why Jesus Would Choose To Spend This Christmas Outside Of Bethlehem

8:24am December 24, 2017

Stephanie Saldana is a writer and says she found the real Bethlehem on the Greek island of Lesbos, amid refugees packed into a squalid camp. That's where she believes Jesus would spend this Christmas.

A new wave of Advent calendars offers adults a variety of foods and beverages, including Pringles, beef jerky, vodka and gin.

Advent Calendars Now Offer Treats For Grown-Ups

2:21pm December 23, 2017

by Tove Danovich

Food and beverage companies are trying to boost their holiday sales by tempting adults to buy versions of the Advent calendar that carry boozy, meaty and salty Christmastime treats.

Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of Boston, celebrates Mass in April 2005 inside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Fallen Kings: How Cardinal Law's Reign Cemented The Church's Fading Power

12:14pm December 23, 2017

by Tovia Smith

In the old days, the Catholic Church was almighty and the cardinal was closer to king. The sexual abuse scandal and church's rigidity on social issues changed that.

Caga Tiós, Catalan Christmas logs stacked up at a market in Girona, Spain.

A Catalan Log That Poops Nougats At Christmas

2:55pm December 22, 2017

by Lindsay Patterson

Catalan holiday tradition involves a log that's fed scraps of food for several weeks leading up to Christmas. Then, it's beaten with a stick and implored to poop out a Spanish nougat called turrón.

Reflecting On The Life Of Disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law

9:50pm December 20, 2017

After the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, host Ray Suarez speaks with Sacha Pfeiffer, whose reporting at the Boston Globe helped uncover the child sex abuse scandal that occurred under Law's watch.

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Cardinal Bernard Law (right) speaks with unidentified prelates as he attends Pope Benedict XVI's last general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican in 2013.

Bernard Law, Former Archbishop Of Boston, Dies In Rome At 86

12:47pm December 20, 2017

by Tovia Smith

Once considered among the most influential prelates in America, the archbishop was forced to resign amid the church's growing sex abuse scandal, which indelibly stained his reputation.

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Pop Culture Happy Hour: Our Hanukkah Special

6:01am December 20, 2017

by Linda Holmes

While you may have wrapped up your Hanukkah celebrations, we wanted to share a conversation about the role that Hanukkah plays for kids and adults, and some of the pop culture that surrounds it.

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Religion

How The Israeli Sufganiyah, Or Jelly Doughnut, Got Its Start As A Hanukkah Treat

5:39pm December 19, 2017

Why are jelly doughnuts served on Hanukkah? The practice has a history that goes back several centuries.

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How Battles Over Sex, Gender And Sexual Orientation 'Fractured American Politics'

1:39pm December 19, 2017

Moral Combat author R. Marie Griffith says the fight for women's suffrage and legal birth control in the early 20th century helped create a political divide in the U.S. that still exists today.

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