Author: Julie Zauzmer

Serving as clergy where women never have, some call themselves rosh kehilah, meaning “head of the community.” Some go by maharat. Rabbanit. Rabba. And even rabbi. That’s right. Orthodox Judaism now has female rabbis. Not many, to be sure. Since Rabbi Avi Weiss privately ordained Rabba Sara Hurwitz in 2009 and declared her the first…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – More than half a million people have visited the Museum of the Bible since it opened near the National Mall six months ago, museum officials said. The museum, which opened with splashy attractions such as a walk-through Old Testament and a motion ride, was funded largely by the Green family, the evangelical…

In March, as royal wedding mania started heating toward the fever pitch it hit in the past few days, the Daily Mail broke a surprising story. Two months before her wedding, Meghan Markle, England’s new duchess-to-be, was baptized with holy water from the Jordan River in a very private ceremony conducted by the Archbishop of…

DISPUTANTA, Va. – Long before American independence, before the Pilgrims even landed at Plymouth Rock, there was Martin’s Brandon Church. And now, the Rev. Eve Butler-Gee looks at her flock at the same Martin’s Brandon Episcopal Church in amazement. “They’re faithful. Every single one of them is engaged and active,” she said. But it’s no…

ATLANTA – As he hands each person the Communion wafer, the priest watches his congregants walk back to their seats. They drop to their knees and bow their heads. Hands clasp. Around the church, a tear runs down a cheek, then another, then another. The priest knows the prayers behind the faces of these undocumented…

LYNCHBURG, Va. – What do you do when everyone around you thinks the media are “fake news” – and you want to work for the media? That’s the question professor Amy Bonebright needs to help her students answer. This is Liberty University, the world’s largest evangelical Christian school. Most students come from politically and religiously…

Sean Spicer got his chance to meet Pope Francis this week after once being denied the opportunity. Spicer, who is Catholic, was serving as President Trump’s press secretary when Trump traveled to the Vatican in May. But Trump didn’t include Spicer in the contingent that held a private audience with Francis — a group that…

Pradeep Reddy, a pediatrician in Carbondale, Ill., will eagerly await the sight of Monday’s solar eclipse, which he expects to be an awe-inspiring scientific spectacle. Then he’ll go inside and jump in the shower with all his clothes on. (Or at least he’ll run them through the washing machine.) That’s what his religion tells Hindus…

OMRO, Wis. – One by one, the Weiss family rounded up the nine grandchildren, who had been running circles around the barns. They gathered under a towering maple tree, around a table laden with barbecue meatballs and French silk pie, and grabbed one another’s hands. “We ask your blessing on the meal we’re about to…