Source: The Chicago Tribune

On April 21, 2002, The Chicago Tribune reported that in Norman, Oklahoma, many Muslim students and residents have been questioned, detained, and arrested on various charges. "As federal investigators searched for terrorist cells across America last fall, they conducted an intense sweep in this college town... Joseph Meinhart, a Roman Catholic priest, read about the arrests... in the local newspapers. After learning that friends of the students were afraid to visit them in jail, fearing they, too, would be arrested, Meinhart...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 21, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that one of South Korea's most famous shamans, Kim Kumhwa,...travels the world with a group of performers to re-create selected rituals known as kut (pronounced coot)... [These] rituals are part of the country's folk religion and central to its music and dance traditions... Kim was initiated at the age of 17 into her role as a mudang, or shaman, by her grandmother, also a mudang. Her path to shamanism began, she says, when she was 11 and came down with a serious illness that she...

Source: The Plain Dealer

On April 20, 2002, The Plain Dealer featured an article on Khenpo Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche, "a renowned scholar and a senior Tibetan Buddhist monk... [from] the Namdroling Monastery in southern India." Gyatso was in Cleveland, OH for a week of teaching sponsored by the Palyul Changchub Dargyeling Ohio, a center for Tibetan Buddhist studies in Chagrin Falls, of which he is the spiritual director. "About 35 local clergy joined... [Gyatso] Wednesday for a vegetarian kosher lunch at Epworth-Euclid United Methodist Church. Afterward...

Source: The Washington Post

On April 20, 2002, The Washington Post reported that in a speech "to about 300 people at the First Baptist Church of Pearland, Tex... House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) told evangelical Christians last week that only Christianity offers a reasonable answer to basic questions about the purpose of life... DeLay said that God is using him to promote 'a biblical worldview' in American politics... A recording of DeLay's speech was released by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On April 20, 2002, The Houston Chronicle reported that "Beliefnet.com, an Internet site aimed at feeding Americans' interest in religion and spirituality, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection... Steve Waldman, Beliefnet.com's chairman and chief executive, said the company, which began operation in December 1999, asked for bankruptcy protection last week... Each month, Beliefnet.com logs 15 million 'page views' from 1 million people, and sends out 150 million e-mail newsletters to subscribers on various topics,...

Source: The New York Times

On April 18, 2002, The New York Times reported that "Churches and other religious organization are receiving the first grants released through the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. The grants totaling more than $15 million are for employment training and came from the Labor Department. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao said the grants included 25 of up to $25,000 each to help small congregations and community groups provide job training and other employment programs. Another $5 million will help religious groups...

Source: The Hartford Courant

On April 15, 2002, The Hartford Courant featured an article on Reza Mansoor, a Muslim-American doctor from Connecticut, who recently gave a talk at an Evangelical Lutheran church which was co-sponsored by the New Britain Conversations on Race proje ct. Mansoor "has been spreading the word about his faith since September, not to gain new adherents to Islam but to overcome the fear and misunderstanding since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C... Despite the prevalence of misunderstandings about his faith,...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On April 13, 2002, The Houston Chronicle reported that, according to two recent studies, "the number of people who say they don't belong to a religion has doubled over the last decade... For personal reasons, 29.4 million people said last year that they skip church, mosque and synagogue - up from 14.3 million in 1990, a rise from 8 percent to 14 percent of the U.S. population... That's the word from the American Religious Identification Survey, conducted in 2001... by the Graduate Center of City University of New York......

Source: The Buffalo News

On April 13, 2002, The Buffalo News reported that "an estimated 33 million Americans... have changed their religious preference, or dropped any religious allegiance, according to the American Religious Identification Survey 2001, a random telephone poll of 50,281 households... Perhaps, the authors suggest, 'religion switching' reflects a deeper cultural phenomenon in contemporary America, related to what one sociologist terms baby boomers -- 'a generation of seekers'... Reasons for leaving a church are legion -- a poor...

Source: St. Petersburg Times

On April 12, 2002, The St. Petersburgh Times reported that "Metropolitan Ministries, the [St. Petersburgh, FL] area's best-known charity for the homeless and poor, will drop its requirement that professed Christians make up a majority of its board of directors... It also began recruiting 13 people from a 'rainbow coalition' of religious faiths to join the 22 Christians now on the board."

Source: The New York Times

On April 12, 2002, The New York Times reported that "President Bush urged the Senate... to pass a bill... that would give federal money to religious charities." The President also spoke to "a gathering of religious and charity leaders in the East Room, which the White House billed as a rallying call to pressure the Democratic-controlled Senate to act... The legislation, a compromise reached between the White House and Democrats that is a watered-down version of what the president originally wanted, is stuck in the Senate...

Source: Star Tribune

http://www.lcppm.org

On April 12, 2002, the Star Tribune reported that "Twin Cities religious activists are seeking ways to teach residents about how faith organizations can best improve the lives of the area's burgeoning immigrant populations... An all-day seminar, Stand With Africa, will be held... at Central Lutheran Church... What this seminar hopes to do is encourage Minnesotans to work on issues involving Africa, as well as helping local immigrant communities. Experts...

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On April 12, 2002, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "San Diegans are responding with prayers and rallies to the violence in the Holy Land that continues to rip apart a territory held sacred by Christians, Jews and Muslims... [Recently] people gathered in downtown San Diego for interfaith prayers calling for peace... Among the participants were Rabbi Martin Lawson, of Temple Emanu-El, Imam Sharif Battikhi, president of the Islamic Services Foundation, and the Rev. Art Cribbs, president of the Ecumenical...

Source: The North Jersey News

Source: The Tampa Tribune

On April 6, 2002, The Tampa Tribune reported that Florida State leaders recently "told fellow lawmakers that the 'basic religious freedoms' section of the proposed school code bill was adopted directly from a document developed by civil libertarians and religious groups... But the bill omitted one key provision on religious harassment recommended by that group." The omitted provision reads in part "'school officials should intercede to stop student religious speech if it turns into religious harassment aimed at a student...