Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, right, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, gestures next to Rabbi Avichai Appel, left, a board member of the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference of Germany, during a news conference in Berlin, Germany on Thursday.
In Germany, the past few weeks have been marked by an intense debate over religious liberties.
Today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel jumped into the fray saying her administration would work to protect religious circumcision.
"It is absolutely clear to the federal government that we want Jewish, we want Muslim religious life in Germany. Circumcisions carried out in a responsible way must not be subject to prosecution in this country," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters.
The rings of Michael Johnson and Michael Roberts of New York City stood ready before their marriage ceremony at the Manhattan City Clerk's Office in July 2011.
Originally published on Wed July 11, 2012 10:54 am
With a vote Tuesday evening by its House of Deputies, the Episcopal Church became the largest U.S. denomination so far "to officially sanction same-sex relationships," as CNN's Belief blog writes.
From the America Abroad series: The Middle East is largely Muslim but it’s also the birthplace of Christianity, Judaism, and many other religions. Many non-Muslims have left in recent decades, leaving relatively small populations of non-Muslims and Muslim minority sects.
Now, the rise of Islamist political parties in the Mideast raises questions about the rights and protections such minorities can expect or whether they can expect them at all.
More than 150 evangelical leaders, from across the political spectrum, have come together to call for immigration reform. Host Michel Martin looks at the crusade for reform with Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
The Southern Baptist Convention will be under the leadership of its first African-American president. The country’s largest Protestant denomination is hoping to diminish its troubling racist past.
