Source: The Washington Post

On June 6, 2001, The Washington Post reported that "President Bush today struck back at critics of his plan to fund religious charities, saying that opponents 'don't understand the power of faith' and suggesting that they would cut off popular efforts such as the Habitat for Humanity home-building program...The targets of Bush's criticism reacted angrily...And Habitat for Humanity's founder and president...said...that his organization is thriving under current law," which allows the organization to use government funds to buy...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On June 6, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "ABC News signed an editorial partnership agreement with Beliefnet, an ecumenical Web site devoted to religion and spirituality, to conduct joint polling and co-produce reports, even as it said its religion beat reporter will leave the network...Executive Vice President Paul Friedman said ABC News isn't giving up its commitment to covering religion."

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On June 5, 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that "worn down by eight months of violence that shows no sign of easing, many Israelis and Palestinians [and Arab Christians] are packing their bags for the United States or Canada... Many of the people leaving are moderates who want peace... The Jews who are leaving [reportedly] feel guilty...that they are abandoning the country that was created to provide Jews a safe haven."

Source: The Plain Dealer

On June 4, 2001, The Plain Dealer reported that "Northeast Ohio Episcopal, Catholic and Lutheran bishops...put aside centuries of enmity to sign a historic covenant pledging to work together in matters of faith and public policy...The covenant does declare that the three churches here share belief in fundamental areas of Christian faith...The three groups pledge to...collaborate in educational and training programs, share liturgical practices and cooperate in social service, advocacy, community development and organizing and social-...

Source: The Washington Post

On June 4, 2001, The Washington Post reported that "in 1998, two Elkhart [Indiana] residents, aided by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU), filed a lawsuit demanding the removal of" a monument in front of city hall that lists the Ten Commandments, on the grounds that it violated the separation of church and state. "Mayor David Miller...led the petition drive and helped design bumper stickers to save the monument. The issue was constantly on the front page of the local paper...Miller, 44, has made it a personal crusade to...

Source: The Boston Globe

On June 3, 2001, The Boston Globe reported on Dave Bernier, a farmer in the Berkshires. "His goats, in accordance with Muslim religious law, pass their days without stress, feeding on grass, and when the time comes to slaughter them, Bernier sometimes accompanies them to the slaughterhouse to keep watch while Allah's name is pronounced and the animals' jugular veins are cut...his new habits are guided by business sense: At the end of the day, he's working for the imam." Bernier is one of 65 farmers who met in Blandford "to explore a...

Source: The New York Times

On June 2, 2001, The New York Times reported that a group of militant Hindus in Queens and Long Island and a group of radical Jews in Brooklyn "have discovered that sharing a distant enemy is sufficient basis for friendship. So tight is their anti-Muslim bond that some of the Hindus marched alongside the Jews in the annual Salute to Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue...Several of the Jews joined a protest outside the United Nations against the treatment of Hindus in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime."

Source: The Dallas Morning News

On June 2, 2001, The Dallas Morning News reported on Harvard University professor Diana Eck, founder of "the Pluralism Project, an effort to study and document the growing religious diversity of the United States. In a CD-ROM and on a Web site, Dr. Eck and her Harvard students have inventoried the spectrum of American religion and recorded stories of minority faiths in the United States...In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded her the National...

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On June 2, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that "St. Louis will host at least six major religious gatherings downtown between [June] and early October...Religious bodies gather to pray, elect their leaders, study Scripture and use their considerable influence to affect public policy." Roman Catholics will gather at the St. Louis Archdiocese Eucharistic Congress. The Women of Faith, a for-profit evangelistic group from Plano, Texas, will be meeting as well. Other cities will also host gatherings of religious groups...

Source: The Seattle Times

Source: Star Tribune

On June 2, 2001, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on Diana Eck's new book, A New Religious America (HarperSanFrancisco). "Eck describes a radical change in the religious landscape of America and the challenges that change presents to our history of religious tolerance...The fundamental question, according to Eck, is how far will our religious tolerance extend?...Much of Eck's well-researched, well-written and quite readable book presents a history of the growth of Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu religious practice in America."

Source: The National Journal

On June 2, 2001, The National Journal reported that "the German government-criticized in the past for not addressing the issues of racism and intolerance strongly enough, and alarmed about the spike in hate crimes-is moving ahead with a broad-based legal and educational campaign...designed to change people's behavior and attitudes...And they have asked for help from...American Jewish organizations and educational groups."

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

On June 1, 2001, The Columbus Dispatch reported that "some students and parents object to the singing of explicitly religious lyrics in public schools. These critics -- including the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, which filed a lawsuit against Columbus schools last month on behalf of three families -- think the practice violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause." The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Ohio chapter's president said he has no problem with the songs as long as they are initiated by students...

Source: Harvard Magazine

On June 1, 2001 the Harvard Magazine reported that "At 8:45 A.M. on February 20 a Wiccan priestess led the daily service of morning prayers in Memorial Church. 'Chapel has long afforded, since 1886 at least, a pulpit to non-Christians,' says the Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes, Pusey minister in the Memorial Church. Harris is 'the first Wiccan priestess of whom we are aware.'"

Source: The Jerusalem Post

On June 1, 2001, The Jerusalem Post reported that "lined up along the Holocaust Memorial Wall across from the United Nations headquarters, Jewish, Christian, and Hindu leaders wore yellow stickers and spoke out in solidarity with Afghan Hindus, who are being forced by the nation's ruling Taliban movement to wear saffron- colored garments...Jewish and Israeli leaders condemned the [Taliban's dress-code] ruling, declaring it reminiscent of the Nazi era and the Holocaust."