Religion matters deeply to many Americans, shaping their views on numerous controversial issues, including abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, vouchers for parochial school students, and the importance of the faith of presidential candidates. Is it appropriate for religion to influence political discourse and affect public policy? Or is it inappropriate, evidence that America is too religious?

NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Brown moderates a conversation among four religious leaders and experts on the tolerance-or intolerance-of different religions and cultures in America, nine years after the September. 11, 2001, attacks. Origina?

Religious, moral, and spiritual themes are topping the bestseller lists these days, indicating a heightened degree of interest in religious topics. This program contrasts the many ways people are finding religious and spiritual fulfillment-from popular guides, through the traditional use of religious symbols, to contemporary experiences in the monastic life.

When contemporary social mores regarding marriage and divorce collide with religious traditions, the results can be messy. We encounter happy polygamist families in Utah, a Hindu matchmaker in Canada, and Israeli women who are challenging the notoriously restrictive Orthodox Jewish divorce laws upheld by their country's powerful and all-male rabbinic courts.

The Celtic Mass for the Sea has become a contemporary choral classic. Combining a chamber string orchestra and choir with a Celtic ensemble of harp, pipes, mandolin, fiddle and guitars, the Mass is an exuberant celebration of the teeming life in the waters covering our planet - and a warning of the dangers of abusing it. The libretto is based on ancient Celtic incantation and prayers that express startlingly-modern environmental concerns. Since its...

How could Bud Welch, whose daughter died in the Oklahoma City bombing, forgive Timothy McVeigh? How did the Reverend Walter Everett move beyond his desire for revenge against the man who murdered his son? In this program, these and other remarkable individuals-people who in picking up the pieces of their shattered lives have triumphed over hate-share the details of their long, painful, and deeply personal journeys from shock and the desire for retribution...

Atonement, penance, and absolution are beliefs that reside at the core of the world's major religions. Have the practices of contrition and restitution become relics of the past, or are they still viable today as opportunities for spiritual cleansing, healing, and rebirth? In this program, The God Squad's Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman; Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina, of the Organization for Islamic Learning; Sister Helen Prejean, author...

One-term Presidents are often overlooked – but what makes William Taft’s time in office memorable is the fact that it was defined by a series of unusual firsts.

Jan Hus lived from 1371-1415. In the Middle Ages, Hus openly opposed the power of the Catholic Church and became a National hero of the Czech Republic. In this Film Ideas video, explore Hus'early life, work at the University of Prague, his fight against the Catholic Church, and his work in exile.

St. Thomas Aquinas lived from 1225-1274. The monkdeveloped five proofs that god exists; the sixth proof was reasoned 500 years later. In this Film Ideas video, explore Aquinas' early life, education, philosophical papers, and Christian philosophy.