Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Pocono Record

Wire Service: AP

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101201/NEWS90/101209965/-1/NEWSMAP

Philadelphia's Christmas Village has become nothing but a holiday hassle.

A day after discussions of religious diversity led officials to remove the word "Christmas" from signs at the Christmas Village...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: National Public Radio

Wire Service: AP

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/30/131708313/smithsonian-removes-video-after-catholics-complain

The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery quickly removed a video Tuesday that was part of an exhibit after complaints from a Catholic group that the images were sacrilegious.

Catholic League...

Author: Sandra Bookman

Source: WABC-TV

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=7817315

There are now dueling billboards at the Lincoln Tunnel in the battle over Christmas by Atheist Americans and The Catholic League.

American Atheists fired the proverbial first shot with this billboard along the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey.

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11854429

Former UK PM Tony Blair has defended the role of religion in global affairs, in a televised debate in Canada with atheist columnist Christopher Hitchens

Mr Blair, a Catholic convert, said faith was a force for good and it was futile to attempt to drive it out.

Author: John Grant Emeigh

Source: The Missoulian/The Montana Standard

Wire Service: AP

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_f5a44b32-f462-11df-a6b7-001cc4c002e0.html

The Montana Supreme Court of Friday sided with a Butte High School valedictorian who was barred from speaking at her 2008 graduation because she made references to God or Jesus in her speech....

Author: Staff Writer

Source: AZ Central

http://www.azcentral.com/video/#/Church+building+causes+uproar/673616933001

A new Phoenix church under construction is being mistaken for a Muslim mosque.

Author: Sam Hodges

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/111710dnmethitchens.40dba40.html

If you're a Christian school bent on bringing in an atheist to test students' faith, why not shoot for the stars?

That was the thinking at Prestonwood Christian Academy, which landed Christopher Hitchens, a celebrity skeptic and author of...

Author: Barney Zwartz

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/national/melbourne-life/a-focus-on-faith-20101115-17ugo.html

A scrubby bush in the desert may seem an odd candidate for a sacred space, but so it was - according to the biblical account - when Moses approached the burning bush that fire did not consume. ''Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground,'' he was...

Author: Laurie Goodstein

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/us/17bishops.html?ref=us

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops elected Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York to be its president on Tuesday in a surprise move that reaffirmed the conservative direction of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

The vote makes Archbishop Dolan the most visible face of the church in the United...

Author: Tom Heneghan

Source: Reuters Blog

http://in.reuters.com/article/idINTRE6AE3K520101115

Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans debating Muslim integration to stand up more for Christian values, saying Monday the country suffered not from “too much Islam” but “too little Christianity.”

Addressing her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, she said she took the current public debate in Germany on...

Author: Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan

Source: The Herald Sun

http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/10243262/article-Forging-friendships-between-Muslims--Jews-and-Christians?instance=homesixthleft

Rabbi John Friedman said that Judaism can be broken down into two basic camps. One builds high walls, the other opens doors. Friedman, senior rabbi at Judea Reform...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The National Council of Churches

http://www.ncccusa.org/witnesses2010/ga2010.110810.htm

The Centennial Gathering of the National Council of Churches and Church World Service opens today with a crowded schedule that begins with greetings from Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson and concludes tonight with a sermon by Archbishop Gregory Michael Aymond of New Orleans.

The...

Author: Jim Muir

Source: BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11707281

A week after the worst single disaster to afflict Iraq's Christians in modern times, the Catholic cathedral in central Baghdad where the killing took place was back in business.

With its windows still smashed and walls scarred and pocked by blasts and bullets, the building had been quickly cleaned up in time for a service at exactly the same hour as the...

Author: Rachel Donadio

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/world/europe/05cordoba.html?ref=religion_and_belief

The great mosque of Córdoba was begun by the Muslim caliphs in the eighth century, its forest of pillars and red-and-white striped arches meant to convey a powerful sense of the infinite. With the Christian reconquest of Spain in the 13th century, it was consecrated as a...

Source: The Buddhist Channel/CDN

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=40,9652,0,0,1,0

For the first time in Bhutan’s history, the Buddhist nation’s government seems ready to grant much-awaited official recognition and accompanying rights to a miniscule Christian population that has remained largely underground.

The authority that regulates religious organizations will discuss in its next meeting – to be held by the end of December...