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In Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist, says American Christianity has gone astray, leading to an economic, social, and political crisis.

In Iraq, the Christian community continues to suffer from intimidation and threats of violence, and the number of Christians in the country has dropped drastically following the U.S. invasion nine years ago in 2003. Rami Ruhayem is a correspondent for our partner the BBC, who has found that even though the levels of violent attacks have dropped recently, there is still a climate of fear.

Award-winning investigative journalist Eliza Griswold talks about the tenth parallel—the line of latitude 700 miles north of the equator—the geographical and ideological front line where Christianity and Islam collide. In The Tenth Parallel Griswold looks at Nigeria, the Sudan, Somalia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines—places where religious conflicts are also conflicts about land, water, oil, and other natural resources, and where local and tribal issues are often shaped by religious ideas.

New York is a city of specialists from foodies to academics, laborers to shopkeepers. Every Wednesday, Niche Market takes a peek inside a different specialty store and showcases the city's purists who have made an art out of selling one commodity. Slideshow below.

Award-winning investigative journalist Eliza Griswold talks about the tenth parallel—the line of latitude 700 miles north of the equator—the geographical and ideological front line where Christianity and Islam collide. In The Tenth Parallel Griswold looks at Nigeria, the Sudan, Somalia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines—places where religious conflicts are also conflicts about land, water, oil, and other natural resources, and where local and tribal issues are often shaped by religious ideas.

The Quran burning by Florida Pastor Terry Jones' church group has incited deadly protests in Afghanistan. These events show the perils of religious extremism. Daisy Khan, from the American Society of Muslim Advancement and Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe of the World Evangelical Alliance both condemn the burning of the Quran and the subsequent violence.

Curators Bill Barcham and Catherine Puglisi discuss the exhibition “Passion in Venice: Crivelli to Tintoretto and Veronese,” on view at the Museum of Biblical Art. The show presents works on a central theme in Christian Art: Christ as Man of Sorrows. Drawn from national and international loans, "Passion in Venice" includes works in different media, including illuminated manuscripts, paintings, prints, sculpture, and liturgical objects.

Copts are native Egyptian Christians who make up about 10 percent of the Egyptian population. Their history in the country is deep, and as a religious minority, Copts have experienced discrimination and sometimes persecution under Mubarak. However, amidst the current unrest, Copts fear that an unstable government might give way for to powers even more unkind to Christians.

Earlier this month, seventy percent of voters in Oklahoma said yes to a controversial amendment to the state's constitution, which bans the use of Sharia law in Oklahoma's courts. On Monday, a U.S. District Judge extended a ban on the Sharia amendment. In a state that has only very few Muslims – between 15,000 and 30,000 – why did so many Oklahomans feel that Sharia law was a threat? 

"Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam" opens on Friday at the New York Public Library with some of the library’s most rare and beautiful spiritual texts.

America is the most religious industrialized country in the world, but a new survey finds that few Americans are well-informed when it comes to religion. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life called more than 3,4000 Americans and asked them to answer 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions and leaders. The study found that most Americans answered around half the questions incorrectly. The people that scored highest were agnostics and atheists, with Jews and Mormons following closely behind.

Take the Pew quiz »

133 C Street Southeast is a nondescript red-brick building in Washington DC. Behind the bricks, however, the building registered as a church and affiliated with a secretive Christian group known as “The Family.”

C Street friends and “Family” have included Strom Thurmond, Pat Robertson's father (Absalom Willis Robertson), John Ashcroft, and some of the biggest names in government.

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford shares ties with C Street. In fact, he disclosed the truth about his extra-marital affair with his friends there before the affair went public.

But Sanford’s isn’t the only sex scandal linked to C Street. And sex scandals are, in fact, only one of many questionable things linked to the brick structure on Capitol Hill.

Pastor Terry Jones announced last night that he cancelled his plans to hold a Quran-burning in Gainesville, Fla. Instead, he will fly to New York to meet with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is proposing to build an Islamic Cultural Center and mosque near ground zero.

Yesterday we spoke with another evangelical Christian minister from Gainesville — Dan Johnson, minister at Trinity United Methodist Church in Lower Manhattan — who was opposed to the burning. He said, "I think this country is more eager now than ever to hear moderate voices, and they're tired of... being taken hostage by people on the fringes so much.”

Few legal boundaries stood between Florida Pastor Terry Jones and his plans to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

While most of the world voiced dismay at Pastor Jones' political statement, fearing it would incite violence and radicalize religious extremists overseas, Jones argued that was demonstrating against what he calls the extremism of Islam. Yesterday, the pastor decided to call off his campaign to burn the sacred text after reaching what he said was an "agreement" to meet with the people planning an Islamic cultural center and mosque near ground zero.

Of all the commemorations of September 11th planned for this weekend, Pastor Terry Jones' "Burn A Quran Day" is almost certainly proving the most inflammatory. Jones has announced that with others, he will host a Koran-burning at the "Dove World Outreach Center" in Gainesville, Fla. this weekend. Jones has made international news with his planned action, drawing the ire of everyone from Muslims to Gen. David Petraeus, who says the Pastor's event will endanger U.S. troops abroad. The event has also brought out critics from within his own Evangelical Christian faith.

Archbishop Dolan takes questions from NewYork reporters