Source: The New York Times

On March 17, 2002, The New York Times reported that Rev. Billy Graham's "sterling reputation as a healer and bridge-builder" was shattered when the tape of a 1972 conversation with former President Nixon in the Oval Office was made public by the National Archives. "Three decades after it was recorded, the North Carolina preacher's famous drawl is tinny but unmistakable on the tape, denigrating Jews... Mr. Graham, who is now 83 and in poor health, quickly issued a four-sentence apology, but he did not acknowledge making the...

Source: The New York Times

On March 14, 2002, The New York Times featured an article on Carolyn Risher, the mayor of Inglis, Florida (population: 1,400), who "has made international news by banning Satan, by mayoral proclamation, from the Inglis city limits... She has drawn praise and condemnation and has become the butt of jokes. To some people, it is a most heinous violation of the separation of church and state. To others, there was too much separation there already, and it took Mrs. Risher, a 61-year-old from Florida's Gulf Coast, to pinch church...

Source: The Plain Dealer

On March 13, 2002, The Plain Dealer reported that Islamic scholar Abdulaziz Sachedina, famous for his "interfaith work and advocacy for the rights of women,... packed local [Cleveland] mosques with eager listeners and attracted about 300 clergy to his lectures yesterday at Hiram College... Sachedina travels the West Bank and Israel, working for curriculum reform in Islamic and Jewish schools...But Sachedina's central endeavor, as a scholar at the University of Virginia and an adviser to the Center for Strategic and...

Source: The Boston Globe

On March 13, 2002, The Boston Globe reported that "the scourge of clergy sexual abuse has afflicted virtually every religious denomination: In recent years rabbis, ministers, and gurus have all been charged with molesting children... But the Catholic Church has been hit with many more allegations of clergy sexual abuse than any other faith or denomination. Recent statistics on the Archdiocese of Boston show "at least 80 priests have been accused of child sexual abuse over the last 50 years, and scholars say as many as 2,000...

Source: Newsday

On March 10, 2002, Newsday featured an article on interfaith marriages in Long Island, New York. "For members of some faiths - particularly Catholics and Jews, whom clergy members say comprise the majority of Long Island's interfaith marriages - there are hard choices to be made... Msgr. Donald Beckmann, diocesan director of interreligious and ecumenical affairs for the Diocese of Rockville Centre... said, 'the most contentious issue becomes the issue of faith in raising the children.... These issues come up because they affect the wider...

Source: The Boston Globe

On March 9, 2002, The Boston Globe reported that the Orthodox Christian "Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said he sees signs of increased openness toward religious tolerance in the Muslim world... As the 'first among equals' of Orthodox patriarchs, Bartholomew claims to be the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians... Bartholomew called the terrorist acts of Sept. 11 'exploitation of religion' and said religion must be a unifying force in society... Bartholomew's visit to the United States, which included stops in...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 9, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that "Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, concluding a three-day visit to Washington, told Cardinals William Keeler of Baltimore and Theodore McCarrick of Washington that... persistent and historic theological differences must not harm relations between the Eastern and Western churches... Bartholomew made clear that he did not intend to try to bridge those differences... But he said both sides must make distinctions between 'essential and nonessential differences so that the...

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On March 9, 2002, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the First Unitarian Society in Milwaukee is marking International Women's History Month by hosting "Standing Before Us," a travelling exhibit of 72 display panels. The exhibit is on influential women in American history who "were Unitarians, Universalists or members of the association that was formed by consolidating the two denominations... Long known as one of the most liberal denominations in the United States, the Unitarian Universalist Association...

Source: The Denver Post

On March 7, 2002, The Denver Post reported that "a granite Ten Commandments tablet that has stood outside City Hall [in Grand Junction, CO] for 44 years will remain there after a legal challenge to the constitutionality of having the commandments on public property was dropped this week... The American Civil Liberties Union and five Grand Junction residents withdrew a lawsuit against the city of Grand Junction on Tuesday... Jeff Basinger, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, said they feared if they didn't drop the suit...

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0306/p11s02-lifo.html

On March 6, 2002, The Christian Science Monitor reported that "with heightened interest in the Arab-American community since Sept. 11, and with Middle Eastern immigrants more eager to tell their neighbors who they truly are, the time may be right for food to fulfill - once again - its role as the great door-opener between newcomers and mainstream America... In fact, by simply...

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...