Source: USA TODAY

On March 4, 2002, USA TODAY reported that "parents in two California school districts have launched an effort to have a seventh-grade social studies textbook altered or removed, charging that it contains Islamic information that amounts to proselytizing... The Pacific Justice Institute, a non-profit legal defense organization specializing in religious issues and parental rights, filed two administrative complaints on behalf of parents in the San Luis Coastal Unified and Lemon Grove school districts. Complaints may be filed in at least...

Source: The Honululu Advertiser

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Mar/04/ln/ln06a.html

On March 4, 2002, The Honululu Advertiser featured an article on the "miniature temples, established a century ago by Japanese immigrants of the 1,300-year-old Shingon sect of Buddhism... in Lawa'i, Kaua'i... To many people it is a place of special power, a place of...

Source: The Portland Press Herald

http://www.portland.com/news/local/020304fatih.shtml

On March 4, 2002, The Portland Press Herald reported that on Sunday March 3, "200 people participated in an interfaith seminar called 'Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Search for a New Religious Pluralism in Maine and America'" at the University of Southern Maine. "The point of the...

Source: The Tampa Tribune

On March 3, 2002, The Tampa Tribune reported that "when leaders of Iglesia Roca de Esperanza began noticing more English speakers visiting the traditionally Spanish-speaking church, they knew they had two choices: ignore them or welcome them into the fold... So each Sunday, the church began providing interpretation devices for those who did not understand Pastor Jesus Romero's Spanish message. The electronic devices have an earpiece through which the user hears the service translated even as the pastor speaks... 'It's been...

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On March 3, 2002, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "a fire at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in El Cajon [CA] is being investigated as arson and a hate crime, fire and police officials said... Firefighters answered an alarm from the church [on March 2, 2002]... and found smoke coming from the sanctuary area, investigators said. The fire was extinguished in less than 10 minutes, but damage estimated at more than $100,000 included some burned pews and vandalism. Firefighters also noticed a...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 3, 2002, the Los Angeles Times featured an article on UCLA Medical Center's Spiritual Care Unit. The unit is "the hospital's chaplaincy training program... The full-time staff [at the hospital] includes a priest, a minister and a rabbi, with Muslims and Buddhists on call. Fifteen years ago, when the program was new, the full-time staff consisted of one Baptist minister... These days, religious diversity is redefining hospital chaplaincy work. While the patient directory at UCLA is usually about 65% Christian, the number...

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On March 2, 2002, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "about 60 Atlanta community leaders from across the religious spectrum met... to get to know each other's faiths... The assembly was an outgrowth of a group started by President Eisenhower in the 1950s. The national American Assembly... meets biannually to debate and form consensus around U.S. policy... The regional assembly is new. Its first topic was planned long before Sept. 11 --- back when leaders decided to tackle the increasing...

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

On March 1, 2002, The Columbus Dispatch reported that the local Armenian population "awaits the first Columbus visit of Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. Church emergencies in Armenia have forced Barsamian to cancel planned appearances here twice before... He is expected to perform the Divine Liturgy... [at] St. James Episcopal Church... where the parish holds monthly worship... Many in the 300-family local congregation, which draws members from Dayton and...

Source: Spirituality and Health

The Spring 2002 edition of Spirituality and Health featured a story on the "huge outpouring of support" from the community after a window at the Islamic Center of Toledo was shot on September 11 in an act of vandalism. Cherrefe Kadri, president of the large mosque, said "YES-FM, a Christian radio station in the Toledo area, had contacted me, wanting to do something... They called out on the airwaves for people to come together at our center to hold hands, to ring our mosque, to circle our mosque, holding hands, to pray for...

Source: The Chicago Tribune

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Source: The Washington Post

On February 28, 2002, The Washington Post reported that "bucking a decades-long trend in which the vast majority of new places of worship have been built in the suburbs, Our Lady of Lebanon, a 36-year-old congregation of Maronite Catholics, has begun building its first church on Alaska Avenue in Northwest Washington... The 18,000-square-foot limestone church... is intended to reflect the congregation's religious and architectural roots in Lebanon, the Middle Eastern homeland of most of its members... The high cost of...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On February 26, 2002, The Houston Chronicle reported that "for the second time in a year, the Supreme Court refused Monday to review a lower court's ban on displaying the Ten Commandments on government property, leaving states in confusion over whether such monuments are constitutional... Attorneys general in nine states, including Texas, had urged the court to hear the matter to resolve conflicting court opinions around the country. Judges in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin have forbidden Ten Commandments monuments on...

Source: The Washington Post

On February 25, 2002, The Washington Post reported that "tensions within the walls of Muslim day schools are in many ways emblematic of the U.S. Muslim community's political concerns, fears, biases and hopes, all brought into sharp focus since the events of Sept. 11... The fall attacks could serve as the catalyst in determining whether these schools and their students focus on the culture and politics of faraway Muslim lands or find within Islamic tradition those ideals consistent with U.S. democracy and religious liberty...

Source: The Times-Picayune

On February 24, 2002, The Times-Picayune reported that "more than just a declaration of faith, the hundreds of new Jesus signs [in Franklinton, LA] are in direct, if not defiant, response to a lawsuit filed last month by the American Civil Liberties Union, which forced the removal of some other religious signs that proclaimed 'Jesus is Lord Over Franklinton' at entrances to the city... The suit was initiated by New Orleans resident Linton Carney, who was driving through Franklinton last year and said he was offended by the...

Source: Newsday

On February 24, 2002, Newsday featured the editorial "Pat Robertson Is at It Again." It noted that "on Thursday night, Robertson showed a sharply slanted segment on Muslim immigrants in America, portraying many of them as apologists for terrorism." The article quoted the following dialogue: "co-host Lee Webb had a question for Robertson: 'As for the Muslim immigrants, Pat, it makes you wonder, if they have such contempt for our foreign policy why they'd even want to live here?' ... 'Well,' Robertson allowed, 'as missionaries possibly to...