Author: Eric Lichtblau

Source: The Houston Chronicle/The New York Times

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6311899.html

The Air Force has begun an investigation into whether an e-mail message from an Air Force commander in Europe directing service members under her command to an “inspirational” story on a Catholic Web site violated the military’s official position of religious neutrality.

The...

Author: Carrick Mollenkamp and Jennifer Martinez

Source: The Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123699310634827165.html

On Friday, this village in the heart of Ulster buried a local constable, Stephen Carroll. Townspeople gathered under a gray sky to watch Mr. Carroll's funeral procession, as a lone bagpiper played. Four days earlier, the constable had been shot in the back of the head as he and other officers responded to a woman...

Author: Barbara Karkabi

Source: The Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6309815.html

Standing at the back of a crowded church, Nataliya Sergeeva combined prayer and work, watching her videographer tape the elaborate candle-lit service.

It was the last day of filming for Sergeeva, a producer with The Orthodox Encyclopedia, a Russian Orthodox TV program. The crew spent 10 days capturing footage for a...

Author: Christopher Landau

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7888193.stm

Maher al-Gohary has converted from Islam to Christianity. In spite of facing death threats, he's engaged in a legal battle to have his changed religion recognised on his official Egyptian documents.

We drive through the chaotic streets of Cairo to meet Mr Gohary's lawyer at a petrol station.

His client lives in hiding, and doesn't...

Author: Daniel Burke

Source: Religion News Service

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=17707

Friday afternoons find the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding at the Al-Islam Center in Seattle, reciting Muslim prayers.

Come Sunday, she heads about two miles south to kneel in the pews of St. Clement's of Rome Episcopal Church.

"My experience and my call is to continue to follow Jesus," said Redding, an Episcopal priest for the past 25...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Daily Democrat

Wire Service: AP

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Houston Chronicle

Wire Service: AP

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6304254.html

HBO on Tuesday defended its plans to depict a sacred Mormon temple ceremony in an upcoming episode of "Big Love."

The drama about a Utah polygamous family will show an endowment ceremony in the episode airing Sunday.

HBO said it did not intend to be...

Author: Niluksi Koswanage

Source: The Boston Globe

Wire Service: Reuters

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2009/03/11/malaysia_christians_battle_with_muslims_over_allah/

Reciting the Catholic Creed, the 1,800-strong congregation attending mass at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral on Borneo island intones in Malay: "We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ...

Author: P. Solomon Banda

Source: The Boston Globe

Wire Service: AP

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/03/10/judges_weigh_whether_utah_crosses_are_secular/

A federal appeals court is weighing Utah's use of crosses on roadside memorials honoring fallen highway patrol troopers, trying to decide if they are an endorsement of religion or a nonreligious, secular...

Author: Michelle Green

Source: Ecumenical News International

http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=2797

Leaders of Malaysia's minority religious groups have criticised the country's government for restricting the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims in Bibles, a Catholic newspaper and other texts.

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism said in a statement made available on 6 March that...

Author: Ruth Gledhill

Source: Times Online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5869562.ece

An Anglican clergyman elected as a bishop has defended his right to use the practices of Zen Buddhism to deepen his Christian faith.

Conservatives in The Episcopal Church of the US are demanding that Rev Kevin Thew Forrester, a priest in the diocese of Northern Michigan, be barred from the episcopate because he received...

Author: Andrew Higgins

Source: The Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638477632658147.html

Christians have lived in these parts since the dawn of their faith. But they have had a rough couple of millennia, preyed on by Persian, Arab, Mongol, Kurdish and Turkish armies. Each group tramped through the rocky highlands that now comprise Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq and Syria.

The current menace is less...

Author: Steve Doughty

Source: The Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1159863/Appeal-Court-set-rule-British-Airways-workers-crucifix.html

A British Airways check-in worker's fight to wear a crucifix is being taken to the Appeal Court in a test case for religious freedom.

Judges are to decide whether Nadia Eweida, 57, was treated unfairly when BA suspended her in 2006 for...

Author: Michelle Bearden

Source: Tampa Bay Online

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/06/na-bahai-faith-is-a-unifying-force/

When Hardy Roberts met the woman who would become his wife, he got a bonus: A new religion; something completely unexpected.

"When I met Leah, that was the first time I had even heard about the Baha'i faith," says Hardy.

Raised an Episcopalian, he was naturally somewhat wary....

Author: Taye Obateru

Source: All Africa

http://allafrica.com/stories/200903050017.html

The co-chairman of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), who is also the president of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rt. Rev. John Onaiyekan has advocated sanctions for religious leaders who preach inciting messages as a way of curtailing incessant religious crisis in the country.

Similarly, the Sultan of Sokoto and co-Chairman of the same council...