News and Public Affairs

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

This acclaimed one-of-a-kind TV show examines religion's role and the ethical dimensions behind top news headlines. Hosted by veteran journalist Bob Abernethy.

Final Look Back

25m 50s

After 20 years of distinctive coverage of religion on mainstream television, this is the final episode of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. Correspondents Kim Lawton and Lucky Severson reflect on changing themes in religion over the past 20 years and memorable stories and interviews. Also, University of Virginia Professor Vanessa Ochs reflects on some of the rituals the series has spotlighted.

Episodes

Extras + Features

  • Jewish High Holidays Boot Camp: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Jewish High Holidays Boot Camp

    S20 E5 - 3m 43s

    Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, founder and leader of the Lab/Shul community in New York City, talks about the necessary spiritual and mental preparations to undertake in advance of the Jewish High Holy Days (October 2-12), from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. The rabbi holds a boot camp filled with workshops, food, and music to encourage introspection, repentance, and honesty.

  • Extended Interview: Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Extended Interview: Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

    S20 E5 - 3m 53s

    “There’s something about the shofar that is like the chatter of children. It’s the crying of babies. It’s the mother giving birth. It’s the grief wailing. It is a human, primitive voice.”

  • Hiring the Homeless: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Hiring the Homeless

    S20 E5 - 8m 36s

    While many cities in the U.S. have moved to criminalize homelessness, imposing fees for lying down, camping and begging, Albuquerque, New Mexico has taken a different approach. It has initiated a program it calls “There’s a Better Way,” picking up homeless individuals and transporting them to jobs that pay them in cash at the end of the work period. Correspondent Lucky Severson reports.

  • Shaun Casey on Religion and Diplomacy: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Shaun Casey on Religion and Diplomacy

    S20 E5 - 5m 1s

    This week, the US State Department sponsored a conference in Washington on the intersection of religion and diplomacy. Clergy, faith-based activists, academics, and diplomats attended. Critics have long charged that the US government has not done a good job in acknowledging the role of religion in foreign policy. Correspondent Kim Lawton talks with, US Special Representative Shaun Casey.

  • Project Mercy: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Project Mercy

    S20 E4 - 6m 56s

    Correspondent Lucky  Severson reports on Paula Claussen of San Diego, who decided to build houses for the poorest families in nearby Tijuana. She recruited volunteers, and together they have built nearly 1300 simple, sturdy homes—sometimes as many as 44 in one day. They call their work Project Mercy.

  • New African American Museum: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    New African American Museum

    S20 E4 - 8m 5s

    The Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on September 24th on the National Mall in Washington. Correspondent Kim Lawton reports on the many ways it portrays the role of faith and spirituality in the African-American experience. She also talks with religious leaders about the impact they hope the new museum will have.

  • One Extraordinary Church: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    One Extraordinary Church

    S20 E3 - 9m 11s

    We take you to The House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, a widely unconventional congregation led by Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. She told correspondent Lucky Severson her language, teaching, and tattoos symbolize her acceptance of everyone, and they of her. Their church is thriving.

  • Extended Interview: Dr. Christina Puchalski: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Extended Interview: Dr. Christina Puchalski

    S20 E3 - 5m 6s

    “Relationship is what matters,” says Dr. Christina Puchalski, director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health and professor of medicine at George Washington University. “My relationship with my patient—that’s where healing occurs. It’s within that relationship, and that’s what needs to be supported.”

  • The Amidah Prayer: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Amidah Prayer

    S20 E2 - 3m 26s

    “It is considered the time in the prayer service where we are most open spiritually, and we’re really ready to talk to God,” says Rabbi Shira Stutman, senior rabbi at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC.

  • Where Refugees Are Welcome: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Where Refugees Are Welcome

    S20 E2 - 8m 1s

    Much of the world is struggling to accommodate a record number of refugees. But in Uganda, in East Central Africa, refugees from 13 countries get land to farm, freedom to worship, schools for their children, and opportunities to go into business. Fred de Sam Lazaro explains that, despite many hardships, these new Ugandans are still doing well.

  • 9/11 Fifteenth Anniversary : asset-mezzanine-16x9

    9/11 Fifteenth Anniversary

    S20 E2 - 7m 45s

    New York University chaplains Imam Khalid Latif and Rabbi Yehuda Sarna were both students in New York on September 11, 2001. Both men say the events of that day profoundly shaped what would become their mission: interfaith engagement. Today, they help lead NYU’s Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life. Correspondent Kim Lawton talks with the chaplains and some of their students about interfa

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