Author: CLIFFORD J. LEVY

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/world/europe/23russia.html

One of the most discordant debates in Russian society is playing out in public schools like those in this city not far from Moscow, where the other day a teacher named Irina Donshina set aside her textbooks, strode before her second graders and, as if speaking from a pulpit, posed a simple question:

“Whom should we...

Author: Ann Belser

Source: Pittsburg Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07266/819566-85.stm

Over the last two years, thousands of fugitives in four states have lined up outside of churches, waiting for a chance to turn themselves in.

The program is called Fugitive Safe Surrender. For four days, a local church is turned into a full-fledged court, complete with judges, public defenders, prosecutors and identification equipment such as...

Author: WARREN ST. JOHN

Source: NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/22church.html

When the Rev. Phil Kitchin steps into the pulpit of the Clarkston International Bible Church on Sunday mornings, he stands eye to eye with the changing face of America. In the pews before him, alongside white-haired Southern women in their Sunday best, sit immigrants from the Philippines and Togo, refugees from war-scarred Liberia, Ethiopia and Sudan, even a...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6996112.stm

Prince Charles should not become defender of all faiths rather than just Christianity when he becomes King, the Archbishop of Canterbury has insisted.

Dr Rowan Williams also said his coronation should be a Christian rather than a multi-faith service.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Daily Telegraph he described Britain as a "broken society" and said urgent...

Author: Andrea Stone

Source: USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-11-amendment_N.htm?csp=34

Most Americans believe the nation's founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution, and people are less likely to say freedom to worship covers religious groups they consider extreme, a poll out today finds.

The survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and the press found that 55% believe...

Author: JEFF HEINRICH

Source: The Gazette

Author: Lisa Anderson

Source: Chicago Tribune

...

Author: Michael Paulson

Source: Globe Staff

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/08/31/consecration_in_kenya_widens_a_religious_rift/

NAIROBI - Delivering a blistering rebuke to the Episcopal Church for its support of gay and lesbian rights, spiritual leaders representing tens of millions of Anglican Christians from around the world gathered here yesterday to consecrate two conservative...

Author: Amir Shah

Source: Boston Globe

Wire Service: AP

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/08/31/taliban_free_last_7_church_workers/

JANDA, Afghanistan - Taliban militants released the last seven South Korean hostages yesterday under a deal with the government in Seoul, ending a six-week drama that the insurgents claimed as a "great victory for our holy warriors."
...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6963391.stm

Malaysia has shut down a newspaper for a month after it published a picture of Jesus holding a cigarette and what appears to be a can of beer.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi himself stepped in to admonish the editors of Makkal Osai, a Tamil-language paper.

The country's publishing laws allow politicians to close any publication...

Author: LOUIS MEDINA

Source: The Californian

http://www.bakersfield.com/138/story/220523.html

Bakersfield has a rare collective living treasure that is both religious and cultural: The Gathering of First Nations Sacred Circle, a monthly intertribal, Christian service that honors the Bible as much as it does age-old American Indian worship traditions.

“There are only a few sacred gatherings like this around the U.S.,” said the Rev....

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Middle East Online

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/opinion/?id=21839

Some churches and denominations in the United States have direct partner ties with Palestinian churches and to churches in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Israel. All feel a strong attachment to the Holy Land and long for peace and reconciliation with all members of the Abrahamic family of faiths - Jews, Christians and Muslims, says...

Author: Jane Lampman

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0823/p14s01-lire.html

Should citizens' tax dollars be spent to renovate houses of worship?

The answer to that question used to be a resounding "No, it's unconstitutional." But Aug. 8, a federal judge broke new ground. He ruled that the city of Detroit could partially reimburse three churches for renovations they made to their buildings to make the...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BosNewsLife News Center

http://www.worthynews.com/christian/india-hindu-militants-threaten-to-burn-pastor-and-family/

NEW DELHI, INDIA (BosNewsLife) -- Hindu militants have threatened to burn to death an Indian evangelical pastor and his family if they don't close their Pentecostal church and leave a suburb of Bangalore, India's third largest city, Christian supporters said Monday...

Source: The Kansas City Star

Wire Service: AP

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/241060.html

ST. LOUIS | A federal appeals court today upheld a lower court ruling that prohibited the distribution of Bibles to grade school students in a southern Missouri school district.

At issue was a long-held practice at South Iron Elementary School in Annapolis, 120 miles southwest of St. Louis, in which Gideons...