Author: Julie Zauzmer
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Officials: 17-year-old Muslim girl assaulted and killed after leaving Virginia mosque
Police found remains Sunday thought to be those of a missing teenager who they say was assaulted and disappeared overnight after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area, and a 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with the case. The mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, identified the…
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The first solar eclipse to cross America in 99 years is coming. To some, it’s an act of God.
On Aug. 21, in the middle of the day, the sky will go dark. The temperature suddenly will get several degrees colder. Birds will stop chirping and retreat to their nests. And tens of millions of people, crammed into a 60-mile-wide path that crosses from Oregon to the Carolinas, will stand in America looking up…
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March for Life: Thousands assemble at Washington Monument
Thousands of abortion opponents began gathering in cold, blustery weather at the Washington Monument Friday for the annual March for Life. Bundled against a stiff wind, marchers from around the country descended on the northeast grounds of the monument for a rally and march, which Vice President Mike Pence and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway were…
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The Smithsonian now has its first religion curator since the 1890s
Peter Manseau was born for this job. The son of a priest and a nun, Manseau was meant to be a scholar making sense of religion. Now his job, as the Smithsonian’s first curator of religion in more than a century, is to remind Americans of our nation’s religious history, in all its diversity, messiness,…
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After 50 years, Hare Krishnas are no longer berobed hippies who proselytize in airports
MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. – The Ramkumar family piled into their van early Saturday and drove five hours west from their home in the Washington suburbs into the American heartland. They passed cows and horses, church after church, Trump-Pence yard signs. And then they arrived at the Palace of Gold. They parked, took off their shoes and…
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How decades of divorce helped erode religion
Two widely recognized trends in American society might have something to do with each other. Divorce rates climbed to the highest levels ever in the 1980s, when about half of all marriages ended in divorce. And in the present day, Americans rapidly are becoming less religious. Since 1972, the share of Americans who say they…
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Study: Religion contributes more to the economy than many giant corporations
Religion is big business. How big? A study, published this month by a father-daughter researcher team, says religion is bigger than Facebook, Google and Apple – combined. The article in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion said that the annual revenues of faith-based enterprises – not only churches but hospitals, schools, charities and even…
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U.S. gets its first Hindu stamp
It took petitions by everyone from schoolchildren to members of Congress, and 12 years of waiting. Soon, a long-hoped-for goal will be a stickum-backed reality of less than a square inch: a new postage stamp recognizing the holiday of Diwali. The stamp will be the first stamp honoring the Hindu religion, joining U.S. postage that…
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Bono’s advice to Christian musicians: Get real
Years ago, Bono invited a Christian writer to meet him, and the writer turned him down. Eugene Peterson, whose translation of the Bible into contemporary language, “The Message,” has proven enormously popular, was hard at work on adapting the Old Testament. A flabbergasted interviewer heard that Peterson had said no to the lead singer of…