Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-ed-religion8apr08,1,2718355.story

When the Supreme Court ruled 46 years ago that official prayers in public schools violated the 1st Amendment, it infuriated those who claimed that public institutions should reflect the fact that this is "one nation, under God" -- the God of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, that is.

...

Author: Frances Harrison

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7336855.stm

Sri Lankan rebels have asked Norwegian peace brokers to pressurise the government to end violence near the country's most revered Catholic shrine.

The rebels say the army has been shelling the church compound in Madhu in Tamil Tiger-controlled territory near the frontline in the fighting.

But the army blames the Tigers for taking up...

Author: Imad Shehadeh

Source: Christianity Today

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/aprilweb-only/115-22.0.html

The media in the East and West have recently been reporting the denunciation of evangelicals by the council of the Catholic and Orthodox bishops in Jordan. The bishops' denunciation was in support of the government's deportations of foreign missionaries, pastors, seminary students, and teachers. Some evangelical...

Author: Martin E. Marty

Source: The University of Chicago Martin Marty Center

http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/sightings/archive_2008/0407.shtml

Pope Benedict XVI's U.S. visit next week during an election year will find him cast, willy nilly, in a political role. The chiding of Catholic voters, bishops and priests, and politicians who do not make enough of churchly anti-abortion positions will occur, but most concur in the view that...

Author: Edmund Sanders

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-census7apr07,0,7968192.story

Census-takers will soon fan out across Sudan's vast and famously inhospitable terrain in the first nationwide head count in 25 years.

But the checklist of questions won't include two hot issues that lie at the heart of this nation's recent history of conflict: religion and...

Author: LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/us/04pope.html

At 80, Pope Benedict XVI has limited his coming trip to the United States to 13 public events, but the church made a surprise announcement on Thursday that he had added two brief meetings — both with Jewish leaders.

One is a quick stopover at the Park East Synagogue in New York on April 18. It will be the first time a pope has ever...

Author: Andrea Useem

Source: Religion News Service/The Pew Forum

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=15320

The first Muslim elected to Congress on Thursday (April 3) urged Sen. Barack Obama to show "transcendant leadership" by tackling issues of religion -- including allegations that Obama is a Muslim -- in the same way he addressed racial divisions.

"Religious pluralism is under threat," Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said at a forum...

Author: Mcphilips Nwachukwu

Source: All Africa/Vanguard

http://allafrica.com/stories/200804030448.html

In her continued effort to ensuring global understanding and appreciation of Black African arts, culture, history and civilization, Centre for Black African Arts and Civilization, CBAAC last week at the Banquet Hall of Excellence Hotels, Ogba, Ikeja held a very high profile lecture on the volatile subject of religion.

It came on the heel of...

Author: Qaiser Felix

Source: AsiaNews.it

Author: Staff Writer

Source: AP

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gMW-iUj5Lda9Ebab2CY32xy62K5QD8VQ23E80

The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism said Wednesday that synagogues in the movement shouldn't work with the Rev. John Hagee, a Christian Zionist, calling him an "extremist" on Israeli policy who disparages other faiths.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, said Hagee...

Author: David Haldane

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-morlims2apr02,1,2488142.story

The Mormon Church has to be among the most outgoing on earth; in recent years its leaders have reached out to, among others, Latinos, Koreans, Catholics and Jews.

One of the most enthusiastic responses, however, has come from what some might consider a surprising source: U.S. Muslims.

"We are...

Author: SEAN YOONG

Source: Lexington Herald-Leader

Wire Service: AP

http://www.kentucky.com/524/story/364029.html

A lawmaker from Malaysia's Islamic opposition party said Wednesday he made rare visits to a church and temples to help assure non-Muslim minorities about their religious rights.

Khalid Abdul Samad, a Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party lawmaker, said he wanted to ease suspicions among non-Muslims that his party...

Author: Henry L. Davis

Source: The Buffalo News

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/311868.html

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Buffalo Chapter took on a monumental task Sunday, conducting an interfaith conversation on the role of women in religion.

It’s a potentially controversial subject that one might spend years studying — as well as arguing over — and still not entirely grasp.
...

Author: LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/us/31papal.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

When Pope Benedict XVI makes his first papal trip to the United States in April, he will be guided by a seasoned Vatican ambassador who sees the visit as an opportunity to introduce a little-known pope to a complex set of audiences: American Catholics, Americans in general and global opinion leaders.

“...

Author: ALESSANDRA RIZZO

Source: ABC News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4553209

Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'...