Religion

For many, the Gospel is more about the need for personal salvation than the duty to address societal ills.

Evangelical Christians have been traditionally focused on their personal relationship with Jesus. But some are now seeing a need to expand their attention to address the issue of racial justice.

"Most religious leaders loved it," the president said in a Fox News Radio interview, defending his visit Monday after protesters were forcibly cleared from the area.

"We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life," the pope said.

"He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving," says the bishop who oversees the church. Washington's mayor was more direct: "Shameful!"

"I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated," says Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.

President Trump has visited a Catholic shrine Tuesday to promote religious freedom. The D.C. Archbishop criticized this visit and another president's controversial church visit Monday.

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington about the president's visit to St. John's Church amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd.

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court's liberal bloc in a 5-4 decision issued late Friday. The lawsuit had argued that the state's limits on attendance discriminated against religion.

While UNESCO and the Vatican agree the site is in Jordan, a spot across the Jordan River, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, draws more visitors.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Imam Mohammad Altahir of the Islamic Center in Wyoming and Lane Moore of the Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association about pandemic's effects on religious practices.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Imam Mohammad Altahir of the Islamic Center in Wyoming and Lane Moore of the Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association about pandemic's effects on religious practices.