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...

This controversial program highlights the political initiatives taken by Brazil's top two religious entities: Catholics and evangelical Protestants. It argues that the Roman Catholic Church has always been fused with the nation's identity, from statues of Christ in Rio de Janeiro to mark the first centenary of Brazil's independence to the thousands of Brazilian flags waved during morning mass at the Cathedral of Aparecida. Yet the Church has seemed...

Until recently, Brazil was the world's most populous Catholic nation-until the Pentecostal Protestants began a televangelical campaign that has resulted in a national identity crisis. This program examines the TV ratings war between the Pentecostals and the Catholics, whose Charismatics are countering with television programming of their own. Additional insights are offered by Liberation theologian Leonardo Boff.

It is no irony that Victor Zorkaltsev, a Communist, is also the head of the religious committee of the Russian parliament, the Duma. It is also not an accident that the Russian government paid for an extraordinary replica of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour that is maintained by local businessmen. And if more than 80 percent of Russians describe themselves as Orthodox Christians, why do only 5 percent go to church regularly? These are three of...

The fourth documentary in the collection focuses on the omnipresence of spirituality in the Greater Mekong. The values of prosperity, as they are enhanced by the Western World, are in complete opposition with the values of renouncement of material wealth commended by Buddhist philosophy. As a matter of fact, over 90 % of the population of the Greater Mekong is Buddhist. The region is full of temples and pagodas because the spirits, the gods and the...

In the words of Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century, French mathematician and Christian philosopher, "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction." Does religion breed intolerance, violence, and ignorance? Or does it promote peace, morality, and ethical behavior? Has religion been more a source for good or evil in human history?

Is the new genetics running ahead of society's ability to supervise it, or does genetic science bring huge benefits that humanity should willingly embrace? In this thought-provoking program, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams asserts the need for religious belief in the modern world to Sir John Sulston, Nobel Prize winner and the guiding spirit behind the Human Genome Project, and to Shahana Hashmi, who recently won a legal battle to create...

The separation of church and state represents one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy. While some contend that the United States needs to return to its roots as a "Christian nation," others point out that the Founding Fathers crafted a system specifically designed to guard against any form of state-sanctioned religion. After reviewing the substance of the debates that took place during the Constitutional conventions, this program...

In this untold chapter in the struggle for American Civil Rights, learn how committed and fearless American churches played a pivotal role in the American Civil Rights Movement.