Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

The morality of balancing national security and privacy rights; the new president of the SBC’s office of public policy issues; and bridging divides between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

We revisit our stories about popular Christian evangelical author and speaker Joni Eareckson Tada and the role of faith in her battle with breast cancer; mass incarcerations in the U.S. and the challenges facing prison ministries; and the origin and meaning of whirling dervishes in Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.

We revisit our stories on Catholic priest and scholar Andrew Greeley, who died earlier this week; the working conditions and labor standards in Cambodia's garment industry; and the work of The Mission Continues, a nonprofit organization that provides military veterans opportunities to serve their communities.

We talk with Grammy-Award-winning artist Bobby McFerrin about his Christian faith, his music, and his new album "spirityouall." We also travel to Thailand to ask if Buddhism is giving way to consumerism and materialism as the country modernizes and prospers.

The Boy Scouts of America vote on their longstanding gay ban; the city of Baltimore feels the effects of sequestration; a former White House press secretary graduates from a Methodist theological seminary and says he wants to fix Washington's broken politics; and a Sikh community in northern Virginia teaches parents and children how to wrap a turban.

We look at the challenges facing those who decide to leave the confines of the tight-knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, and we visit a program in San Quentin prison that helps inmates deal with the emotional pain at the root of their criminal behavior through meditation and contemplation.

Watch this week's show.