Profile
Farewell to Bob Edgar—Congressman, Minister, Activist
B ob Edgar was in his element on April 18. He stood behind a podium in Washington, D.C., making the case that the United States’ current …
Elections
Report
What Ever Happened to the Common Ground on Abortion Reduction?
The temperature of abortion politics is usually at a steady boil. Over the past two years, it has been downright scorching. Last week, heated debates …
Essay
Declaration of Conscience
On June 1, 1950, Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), a Republican Senator from Maine, delivered her “Declaration of Conscience” speech to the U.S. Senate. Though she …
Essay
Theology Has Consequences: What Policies Will Pope Francis Champion?
Now that the smoke has cleared from St. Peter’s Square, the future of the Roman Catholic Church is on the minds of many. Catholics are …
The States Project
South Carolina: A Reporter Trails Nikki Haley and Mark Sanford
A Reporter Trails Nikki Haley and Mark Sanford.
Essay
Why We Wait for a Non-European Pope
As Pope Benedict steps down this week, speculation stirs that the next pontiff could be a man of color or from outside Europe. And while …
Essay
A Brief History of Papal Resignations
The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, announced for February 28, is an action virtually without precedent. No pope has resigned in modern times. No pope …
Review
The Father of Modern Political Cartoons
Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political CartoonsBy Fiona Deans HalloranUniversity of North Carolina Press, 2012 For those of us who work on American religion …
The Table
We Need Less Religion in our Politics and Less Politics in our Religion
A few weeks before last November’s election, a yard sign popped up in front of First Baptist Church of West Harwich, Massachusetts, not far from …
The Table
The Church’s Right to Religious Freedom (And its Place in the Public Square)
With the inauguration over, along with the 2012 election, it’s time to count casualties. The first, as in warfare, is truth. A second might be …
Writers tell us stories about where they discovered religion and politics in their states.
THE TABLE 
A setting to debate the issues of the day.
