Source: The Houston Chronicle

On August 19, 2000, The Houston Chronicle reported that in "Baltimore, a growing number of black churches are asking members to open accounts in area banks that have pledged to invest in the city's black community. The concept, called collective banking, has netted $ 1 billion in assets for 110 black churches and nonprofit organizations that have joined the program, ministers say. The Collective Banking Group of Baltimore and Vicinity recently renewed its three-year contract with four banks: Bank of America, First Union Corp.,...

Source: The Denver Post

On August 17, 2000, The Denver Post reported that "Catholic Masses are no longer announced over the public address system at Denver International Airport because a traveler complained that the reminders were a violation of the separation of church and state...No other religious group that shares the two-room chapel - Protestants, Jews or Muslims - has regular service," although Muslim "employees and passengers stop in to pray if they're at DIA at one of the five times a day they are required to pray." Denver Catholic Archbishop...

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

On August 17, 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that "'Catholic Schools -- Have Faith in Education' is the catch phrase of a four-year campaign intended to reverse 17 years of declining enrollment in the nation's largest private school system." The slogan "will be featured on billboards, in local radio ads and in local newsprint ads as part of a campaign that could reach 50 million people in the next 12 months."

"Essentially what we're doing is creating a brand image," said Michael Krivich, the Archdiocese of Chicago'...

Source: The New York Times

On August 15, 2000, The New York Times published an article by religious scholar Martin Marty, explaining why there exists an alliance at times between evangelical Christians and observant Jews, two groups that might not always be lumped together as theological and social partners. Marty explains that "most evangelicals see Mr. Lieberman's selection as enlarging the space for themselves in American culture. He is celebrated for being different from mainstream culture while they have been criticized for it. They mention God in...

Source: The Washington Post

On August 15, 2000, The Washington Post published an article entitled "Hymning Jesus And Lieberman; Some Evangelical Christian Groups Embrace Jewish Roots and Rituals." Sandy Grady, a member of the evangelical Glory Tabernacle in Washington exclaims, "We are so excited about Joe Lieberman. God is sending a message through him: Let the right man arise at this hour."

"Discussions of how evangelical Christians might respond to an Orthodox Jewish vice president tend to focus on the potential discomfort they may feel...

Source: The Washington Post

On August 14, 2000, The Washington Post reported that an "8-year-old girl was banned from singing the campfire favorite "Kum Ba Yah" at her day camp after talent show organizers said it violated their ban on religious songs because it repeats the word "Lord." Samantha Schultz had practiced the song for a week but was banned from singing it Friday at the North Port Boys...

Source: The Kansas City Star

On August 11, 2000, The Kansas City Star published an article entitled, "Vietnamese in America Gather for Marian Days Celebration." Read it here .

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

On August 10, 2000, The Columbus Dispatch reported that "the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the Columbus Jewish Federation are speaking out against choral performances at two Columbus high-school graduations that included Christian songs." Howard Brenner, a Jewish resident of the North Side, raised the issue with his son's school when Christian songs were performed at the graduation ceremony. Another school used Christian songs at their graduation ceremony later in the month.

Source: The Courier-Journal

On August 9, 2000, The Courier-Journal published an article entitled, "Fast-growing church meets in Indianapolis," in which it reported on the World Assemblies of God Conference.

Source: The Times-Picayune

On August 9, 2000, The Times-Picayune reported that as "jail and prison rolls grow, local and state governments are turning to faith-based prison ministries as an alternative to reform criminals and reduce recidivism. And that means an increase in the spiritual load for prison ministries, including the one at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center, which employs two full-time ministers for nearly 700 inmates...'The research is there that it can make a difference,' said Jannitta Antoine, deputy secretary for the Louisiana...

Source: The New York Times

On August 7, 2000, The New York Times reported that on a recent Sunday "hundreds of people, dressed from head to foot in white cotton dresses or slacks and shirts" were baptized by fire hose on 115th Street between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. "Each August since 1937, the United House of Prayer for All People, a nondenominational Pentecostal church with three million members in 28 states," has used a fire hose to baptize hundreds of people. "Baptism is a faith thing and has nothing to do with the actual water," explained Apostle H....

Source: Star Tribune

On August 7, 2000, the Star Tribune reported that St. Paul Archbishop Harry Flynn is asking "prospective priests to learn enough Spanish so that they can, at a minimum, celebrate the mass in that language... Only 30 of the 233 active priests in the archdiocese are bilingual, and 11 parishes celebrate weekly masses as well as other sacraments, such as marriage, in Spanish." While Hispanics were once believed to be "cradle to grave" Catholics, they are no longer being taken for granted by the American Catholic church. The national...

Source: The New York Times

On August 6, 2000, The New York Times reported that "[n]early 10 years after many educators had written them off for dead, Roman Catholic schools in America are in the midst of an extraordinary revival. Enrollment is up across the nation. Hundreds of new schools have opened. And more than 40 percent of all Catholic elementary and secondary schools have waiting lists for admission...More remarkably, Catholic schools, once staffed primarily by nuns, priests and brothers from various religious orders, are nearly devoid of clerics...

Source: The Times-Picayune

On August 6, 2000, The Times-Picayune reported that George W. Bush's religious views "could have an impact on all Americans if he is elected come November...For Bush, faith and politics are intertwined, and favorite phrases like "armies of compassion" are rooted in a Christian lexicon that comes easily to a man who talks more openly and fervently about his Christian faith than any other presidential nominee since Jimmy Carter...This "compassionate conservatism" that Bush repeats like a mantra is a catch-all phrase that is as much...

Source: The Washington Post

On August 5, 2000, The Washington Post published an article entitled, "GOP Reaches Out to Catholics; At Convention, Party's Drive for Diversity Includes Religion." It reported that Roman Catholic Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia closed the GOP convention with a final prayer. "In the same way Republicans spent four days showing they could be politically inclusive and diverse, GOP leaders showed religious diversity in selecting a cardinal for the closing prayer...On Sunday, before the convention...