Source: The Denver Post

On April 8, 2001, The Denver Post reported on the challenges that face couples of mixed religious faiths. "The bumping together of religion and tradition isn't as simple for couples of different faiths deciding how to raise their children, practice their beliefs and cope with their families...Christian ministers are mixed on whether they will co-officiate at [wedding] ceremonies...'There are [only] a couple hundred' rabbis across the country who will co-officiate with a minister, said one Denver rabbi."

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On April 8, 2001, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported on the difficulty businesses sometimes have satisfying Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employees to accommodate their employees' religious beliefs. "The employer must try to balance an employee's commitment to religious fidelity with workplace propriety and business needs," as well as with the need to avoid offending other employees.

Source: New York Daily News

On April 8, 2001, the New York Daily News reported on St. Benedict Joseph Labre School in Richmond Hill, in Queens. It is a Catholic school, but "about 20% of the students are Sikhs, 20% are Hindus and 5% are Muslim." Many of the Hindu and Sikh mothers "said they like the structure, morality and emphasis on education at St. Benedict Joseph Labre." Administrators and students report that everyone at the school respects differences in religion or racial background.

Source: The Times-Picayune

On April 7, 2001, The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that "the American Civil Liberties Union has formally protested a New Orleans public school field trip to a church where students were urged to give their lives to Jesus Christ...Teachers at six or more middle and high schools bused almost 1,000 students...[to a church] to see a play about classroom violence, the fragility of life and the importance of faith in Jesus Christ as the only key to salvation."

Source: New York Daily News

On April 7, 2001, the New York Daily News reported on two interfaith groups: the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and the National Conference for Community and Justice. "The growth in [other] organizations working specifically on togetherness among faiths frees their groups to expand their missions. The National Conference and the Tanenbaum Center have moved on to such matters as diversity in the workplace, religion's role in solving conflicts and development of leaders in institutions with histories of...

Source: The New York Times

On April 7, 2001, The New York Times reported on Rev. Eugene F. Rivers of Dorchester, Massachusetts, who "is getting national attention as he lauds the possibility that a conservative Republican administration may provide a vital tool for helping fellow blacks and criticizes those religious conservatives who appear to be resisting" Bush's faith-based initiative. Mr. Rivers said, "The faith-based initiative is really a new opportunity for communities serving the poor to develop new leadership and policy issues."

Source: The Tampa Tribune

On April 6, 2001, The Tampa Tribune reported that "a House panel approved a school-prayer bill...after a raw debate over whether it would encourage spirituality or engender intolerance among students. The bill would permit prayer at graduations and student gatherings at secondary schools if both school boards and students agree." The bill remains controversial among legislators, parents, educators, and community members.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On April 3, 2001, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that "controversy over the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's impending visit to Milwaukee has caused the event to be moved from a north side church to the Hilton Milwaukee City Center...The change was announced at a news conference where several pastors of black churches and a local spokesman for the Nation of Islam stood solidly behind stated efforts by the Korean-born Moon -- founder of the Unification Church -- to rebuild families, restore communities and renew the country...

Source: The Washington Post

On April 3, 2001, The Washington Post reported that "organizers of a religious service for graduating high school seniors in Prince William County were turned away from a Christian events chapel because they wanted to include a rabbi and a Muslim layperson in the service." The director of the chapel said that allowing speakers who were not from the orthodox Catholic tradition would violate the the chapel's charter.

Source: USA TODAY

On April 2, 2001, USA TODAY reported that the huge population increase from 1990 to 2000 reported by Census 2000 was caused in large part by increased immigration and higher birth rates among recent immigrants.

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 1, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "reaching across religious and cultural lines, a Greek Orthodox archbishop, a Roman Catholic cardinal and Protestant and Jewish leaders...celebrated a revitalized neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles as a showcase of civic cooperation in the midst of diversity." The interfaith cooperation has "led to a kind of urban resurrection" in an area that "has been dubbed the 'Byzantine-Latino Quarter.'"

Source: The Arizona Republic

On April 1, 2001, The Arizona Republic reported that "dissenting Lutherans voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new branch within the church as a backlash to the full communion agreement between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church U.S.A...About 160 of the 10,000 ELCA congregations have voted to join. Others...want to work within the ELCA to reverse the decision that gives bishops more power."

Source: The Denver Post

On April 1, 2001, The Denver Post reported that Bush's faith-based initiative "has unleashed intense argument and soul-searching among those who were presumed to be its prime supporters and beneficiaries - Christian activists and active Christians." In addition, "the Bush initiative has forced us to confront how little most of us, religious or not, actually do to help the poor. That debate may accomplish more in the long run than any of the programs Bush gets enacted."

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On March 31, 2001, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "one of the largest philanthropy organizations in the nation said this week it will devote $100 million to faith-based volunteer groups that serve the elderly, disabled and chronically ill people." The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will only disburse funds to "volunteer groups composed of people from a variety of faiths."

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On March 31, 2001, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that at a Sabbath service at Temple Ohav Shalom in Pennsylvania, Jews and Muslims were described as "close-knit cousins." Farooq Hussaini of the Islamic Center of Greater Pittsburgh said Islam "has more in common with the Judeo-Christian faith than with any of the world's other religions." The rabbi who led the service noted that both groups have experienced being "the other."