Author: Steven Gray

Source: The Times

https://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1671984,00.html

In a small shop in one of this city's largest Mexican neighborhoods, Laura Martinez scans rows of candles bearing the images of Saint David,...

Author: TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND ELAINE DE VALLE

Source: The Miami Herald

[miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/203628.html]

Noriel Batista has had little peace since a swarm of Coral Gables police officers burst onto his property, disrupting a Santeria ritual intended to initiate him into a special order of his religion's priesthood.

''It has ruined my life,'' said Batista, a Cuban-born pharmacy owner who bought the home on Casilla Street nine years ago.

Business at his Coral Way...

Author: Jennifer Milne

Source: DowntownExpress.com

[downtownexpress.com/de_222/downtownprincipal.html]

A Soho high school principal was removed from her job Aug. 7, following allegations that she engaged in Santeria rituals in the school involving dripping chicken blood on the floors.

Maritza Tamayo, principal at The Unity Center for Urban Technologies, located at 121 Sixth Ave., has been under investigation by the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City...

Author: Elaine de Valle

Source: The Miami Herald

...

Author: Kevin Baxter

Source: Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/la-sp-santeria26jun26,1,1019023.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-majorbaseb

CHICAGO — On a shelf in the office of Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen, mixed in among the family photos, the Roberto Clemente bobblehead and the Napoleon Dynamite figurine, are four small but intimidating...

Source: CBS News Miami

[cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_159195322.html]

(CBS4) CORAL GABLES The sound of animals being hurt and loud noises coming from a home in a posh Coral Gables neighborhood led concerned neighbors to call the police Friday afternoon, and when police got there, what they found was gruesome.

Several animals were found beheaded as sacrifices in a Santeria ritual. Police stormed in without a warrant because they felt animals could be in imminent danger. However, there is nothing they can do because the...

Author: Robert C. Young

Source: Boston Herald

[theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=1002777]

Erol Josue is a Haitian vodou (voodoo) priest inspired by a higher power - yet he makes some of the earthiest Caribbean roots music you’ve ever heard.

The singer, who visits Johnny D’s tomorrow to mark the release of his new CD, “Regleman,” doesn’t want listeners to merely move to his “electro vodou.” Josue wants them to understand that his religion isn’t about black...

Author: Vianna Davila

Source: Express-News

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA042407.01B.animal_sacrifice.34ef4fd.html

In a West Side backyard, behind a bright yellow building that advertises the sale of amulets and healing herbs, police said they stumbled across what may have been the remnants of a very real religious ceremony: a pigeon missing its heart.

By the time it was all over,...

Author: Natalie Hope McDonald

Source: Philadelphia City Paper

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2007/03/29/the-spirits-move-them

The drums are already playing softly as members of Le Peristyle II Voodo sanctuary gather on the second floor of John Dowell and Roseanne O'Connor' home on North 15th Street, just a block away from Temple University. Th regular participants, usually no more than a dozen women and men, wearin regulation...

Source: First Amendment Center Press Release

Wire Service: AP

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=18342

EULESS, Texas — On many Sunday mornings Jose Merced watches police officers directing traffic into and from overflowing church parking lots and realizes his own religion doesn't evoke the same friendly treatment.

When police came to his home on a quiet cul-de-sac in this Fort Worth suburb last summer, it was to...

Author: Cate Lecuyer

Source: Salem News

http://www.salemnews.com/local/local_story_074094021

HAMILTON - As she prepared to decorate a small box with Haitian designs, Hamilton-Wenham High School junior Kelly Hendrickson turned to an art book rather than a stack of nearby paints.

"I'm actually hoping to pursue art in college, and a lot of my inspiration comes from different cultures and backgrounds," she said.

A youth crafts...

Author: Matthew Artz

Source: Inside Bay Area

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_5432609

FREMONT - Rep. Pete Stark believes in democracy and free speech - but not in God.

Stark, who says he's "a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being," is the first member of Congress - and the highest-ranking elected official in the country - to do so.

The 18-term Fremont Democrat's beliefs became public after the...

Author: Robin Marantz Henig

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/magazine/04evolution.t.html

God has always been a puzzle for Scott Atran. When he was 10 years old, he scrawled a plaintive message on the wall of his bedroom in Baltimore. “God exists,” he wrote in black and orange paint, “or if he doesn’t, we’re in trouble.” Atran has been struggling with questions about religion...

Author: Michael Grabell

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/living/religion/16658847.htm

DALLAS - The city of Euless, Texas, has asked a federal judge to dismiss a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by a Santeria priest who wants to sacrifice animals at his home.

The priest, JosŽ Merced, sued the city in December after police and permit officials told him he couldn't kill goats for an...

Author: Michael Grabell

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/16622742.htm

DALLAS - The city of Euless, Texas, has asked a federal judge to dismiss a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by a Santeria priest who wants to sacrifice animals at his home.

The priest, Jose Merced, sued the city in December after police and permit officials told him he couldn't kill goats for an...