

Julia Duin is the Times' religion editor. She has a master's degree in religion from Trinity School for Ministry (an Episcopal seminary) and has covered the beat for three decades. Before coming to The Washington Times, she worked for five newspapers, including a stint as a religion writer for the Houston Chronicle and a year as city editor at the Daily Times in Farmington, N.M. She has published four books. The latest, "Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do about it," was released Sept. 1. She has won many regional and national awards for her writing and has been nominated twice by the Times for a Pulitzer. She has covered events ranging from the election of Pope Benedict XVI in Rome and sex-selective abortions in India to the huge popularity of Christian colleges in the United States and a "new sanctuary" movement in mainline Protestant churches involving aid to illegal immigrants. She has learned seven foreign languages to aid in researching her stories.
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009
More than 150 leaders across a spectrum of conservative Christianity on Friday released a 4,700-word document vowing civil disobedience if they are forced to take part in "anti-life acts" or bless gay marriages.
Latest church to split over gays
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009
Conservative members of America's largest Lutheran denomination announced Wednesday that they are splitting from the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, making it the second mainline Protestant church to undergo a major schism over the issue of homosexuality and related matters of biblical authority.
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009
It was hard to miss the jubilation in the halls of the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel this week. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was taking a lot of the credit for getting more than 60 Democratic votes on Nov. 7 for a last-minute amendment to President Obama's health care bill that says no federally subsidized insurance plan can cover abortion.
Man-woman union in keeping with 'divine plan'
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
The nation's Catholic bishops approved a pastoral letter on marriage Tuesday as their pivotal effort in their battle to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Bishops to fight to keep abortion-funding ban
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009
Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, defended the bishops' decision to play an active role in shaping national health care legislation, saying Monday that the church must be the "leaven" in the country's political debate.
Monday, Nov. 16, 2009
Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, defended the bishops' involvement in national health care legislation Monday, saying the church must be "leaven" in the debate.
Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009
Although I am the granddaughter of a German immigrant, I don't see myself as ethnically German. Why, then, are Orthodox churches so intensely ethnic decades after their members have left the old country?
Now feels unwelcome among Episcopalians
Friday, Nov. 13, 2009
Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic director whose about-face on abortion prompted her to resign her job, says she's gotten flack for her decision from an unexpected quarter: her own church.
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
It was the mute appeal to President Obama that was so heart-rending. It came in the form of a photo -- placed in a prominent spot during the congressional hearing -- of a young Chinese woman on a hospital bed gazing down at what had been her baby. To her left, on a bright yellow plastic bag, was a 7-month-old aborted child.
Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009
Last Sunday, my daughter and I visited a gathering of Jews who don't believe in God, where the rabbi identifies himself as a bisexual atheist and the first 45 minutes are spent doing Israeli folk dances.