Having spent much of my recent professional life working to build bridges across theological and ideological divides to make progress on issues like climate change, torture, and immigration, I worried about what would become of those bridges when the topic turned to abortion. We had been able to find shared cause around caring for creation, loving our enemies and welcoming the stranger, but could we find common ground on abortion?

We felt it was important to try. Our work across the ideological spectrum is motivated by the belief that faith compels all of us to engage in respectful dialogue with those with whom we disagree, and that there is far more that unites us than divides us -- even on the most contentious issues.

A group of pastors urged state legislators to pass a bill that would allow defendants to challenge the application of the death penalty by citing statistical racial disparities in the overall use of capital punishment.

The bill, which was introduced by state Reps. Larry Womble and Earline Parmon of Forsyth County, is needed to provide a check on a criminal-justice system in which racial bias plays a major role in determining who ends up on death row and who doesn't, said the Rev. Carlton Eversley, the president of the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity.

For more than a century, congregants at North Avenue Presbyterian Church had little reason to think that anything other than worship was going on at their corner of North and Peachtree.

In 2005, they found out others had set up shop.

Teenage prostitutes, according to a mayor's report on child sex trafficking, had begun working within a few steps of the familiar inscription from Matthew on the church's wall: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Members of the congregation, appalled by the report, told the Rev. Scott Weimer they wanted to take action.

"I didn't know what to do," Weimer said, "but their response inspired me to move forward."

As the federal government in the USA considers comprehensive reform of the health care system, faith groups, civic organizations and labor unions are mobilizing for change. They want to see an end to the massive health divisions in American society arising from economic inequality.

Millions still have no effective health coverage, while the wealthy live longer and enjoy health treatment benefits the poor can only dream of. "It is no exaggeration to say that this summer might be the best opportunity in a generation to achieve any sort of comprehensive health care reform," says Robert Francis, director for domestic policy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Washington Office.

While Christians continue to be drawn in public and media circles as preoccupied with the politics of abortion and gay “marriage,” Christians have also proven passionate on causes that include concern for the environment, and most recently, fair trade. Many companies, recognizing the potential business in catering to faith-based, fair trade minded churches, have moved in to fill the void and meet market demand. Equal Exchange, a Massachusetts-based organic coffee company, is just one of the many companies that has capitalized on the growing concerns of Christians to support fair trade causes.

Catholics and Muslims united to help Buddhists on Wednesday, as South Florida religious leaders announced a joint collection to benefit cyclone victims in Myanmar. The collection is set to start this weekend at 18 mosques in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, plus the 120 parishes and missions in the Archdiocese of Miami. Their goal is raising funds for Myanmar, a mainly Buddhist nation hit May 3 by Cyclone Nargis. The United Nations expects the death toll to reach 100,000, and nearly 2 million people need emergency aid.

The potential repeal of a century-old Florida law barring state funding for religiously affiliated organizations is to be put before the voters there this fall, at the end of a lobbying battle that has attracted the attention of President Bush and has engaged a coalition of liberal or secular educational groups. The vote is widely considered the first of numerous state battles over the funding ban. It exists in 36 other states but has been targeted by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based law firm, and by activists in the states.

With the economy down and needs up for the homeless, the hungry and the elderly, donations to South Florida churches and other religious institutions are straining to keep up with soaring needs, leaders say. At the Miami Archdiocese, collection-plate revenues are steady, but assessments that individual parishes pay are slow in coming or are down, and needs are up sharply, resulting in the layoff of 49 of the 182 staff members at its Pastoral Center on Biscayne Boulevard, said spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta. In a letter to parishioners, Archbishop John C. Favalora said: "Each year, a greater number of parishes and programs are seeking our financial help, and, therefore, we must prioritize. We can only work with what we have."

This month marks the 75th anniversary of the Catholic Worker. Resolutely, it has been a lay pacifist and social justice movement, one as independent of the Catholic hierarchy as it is spiritually tied to Christ's call to serve the poor and combat Caesar with the moral force of nonviolence. Like Day, Washington's Catholic Workers are pacifists. Like her, they live in voluntary poverty and are loyal sacramental Catholics. And when the United States goes to war, they are often jailed on nonviolent protest, civil disobedience charges.

The rising prices for both fuel and food are hurting the delivery of social services both at the church level and at the diocesan level. Catholic Charities in Jacksonville, Fla., runs a food bank and sometimes gets food supplies delivered from Miami. But trucking companies have been turning down Catholic Charities requests to bring food north unless Catholic Charities can assure them of a return payload to Miami.