The Lord sustains the fatherless and the widow and gives food to the hungry, the psalmist informs us Sunday. Unemployment benefits serve a similar purpose for many . . .

“Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak,” urges the reading from the Book of Isaiah this Sunday. Enfeebled by her six-year battle with incurable cancer, Elizabeth Edwards died Tuesday. . . .

The Lord secures justice for the oppressed, the psalmist assures us, while the reading from Isaiah promises that God “comes to save you.” By the time firefighters entered a woefully overcrowded Chilean prison Wednesday morning, . . .

“Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me,” Jesus says in this Sunday’s gospel, fully aware that his witness, as well as that of the imprisoned John the Baptist, has aroused the hostility of religious elites. Troubling reports out of predominantly Muslim Pakistan . . .

In the gospel this Sunday Jesus challenges the crowds on the reason for their curiosity about John the Baptist. “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?” A famed naturalist headed into the American wilderness . . .

"I have, I think, somewhat of an odd version of God. I do not have an intervening God. I don't think I can pray to him--or her--to cure me of cancer."

Fifty-nine percent of Americans favor cutting services over raising taxes to lower the federal deficit, against 30 percent who are opposed. Eighty-five percent worry that this debt will harm future generations.