Author: Linda Pressly

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/6150340.stm

Abandoning Islam for Christianity is such a sensitive issue in Malaysia that many converts find themselves leading a secret, double life.

"If people know that I've converted to Christianity, they might take the law into their own hands. If they are not broadminded, they might take a stone and throw it at me."
...

Author: Rebecca Rosen Lum

Source: Contra Costa Times

[contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/16000247.htm]

They prayed for the flocks, they got them, and now they're grappling with the reality: Houses of worship in Central and East Contra Costa are flexing with a demographic explosion that's forcing some to construct buildings, expand existing ones or add services.

Rapidly growing congregations are spurring some churches to hold as many as nine services on Sunday -- in...

Author: Frances D'Emilio

Source: The Detroit News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061112/LIFESTYLE04/611120336/1041/LIFESTYLE04

The pope's upcoming trip to Turkey will include a meeting with a Muslim cleric who was one of the first to denounce Benedict XVI for his remarks on Islam and violence, the Vatican said Saturday.

The...

Author: Brian Murphy

Source: The Washington Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111100600.html

The death threat came on simple white fliers blowing down the streets at dawn. A group calling itself "Friends of Muhammad" accused a local Palestinian Christian of selling mobile phones carrying offensive sketches of the Muslim prophet....

Author: Rauf Klasra

Source: The International News

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=3928

LONDON: One unusual meeting that Prince Charles is to have during his visit to Pakistan is with Bishop Alexander John Malik who, like a traditional loving father from the East, yielded to the wishes of his daughter Nadia to let her marry a Muslim of her own choice in a church despite opposition from followers of his faith.

The newly...

Source: The Detroit News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061104/LIFESTYLE04/611040422/1041

ATHENS, Greece -- The head of the powerful Orthodox Church of Greece will meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican next month, a historic journey marking the first official visit ever by a Greek church leader.

A statement by the Church of Greece's governing body, the Holy...

Author: Justin Juozapavicius

Original Source: Chicago Tribune

Wire Service: AP

...

Author: Alan Cooperman

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103071.html

The U.S. military is being buffeted by dueling legal claims over religion, with one set of plaintiffs contending that the Pentagon is suppressing evangelical Christianity and another set arguing just the opposite -- that the brass gives the most aggressive evangelicals free rein to...

Author: Peter Smith

Source: The Courier-Journal

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061030/NEWS01/610300343

Louisville's Jewish leaders are asking local Jews not to participate in this year's Community Hunger Walk for the first time since its founding in 1979 because some of the money raised will be handled by an agency they consider biased against Israel.

Instead, Jewish groups plan...

Author: Lara Jakes Jordan

Source: The Washington Times

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061027-112923-9536r.htm

A federal judge yesterday threw out a lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force that contended evangelical Christian values were illegally pushed on Air Force Academy cadets.

U.S. District Judge James A. Parker said the academy graduates who filed suit could not claim their...

Author: Jane Lampman

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1025/p15s02-uspo.html

Ever since George W. Bush named Jesus as his favorite philosopher and positioned himself as a strong man of faith, Republicans have increasingly been viewed as the party sympathetic to religion - with the Democrats found seriously wanting.

That may be changing.

With the Congressional election less than two weeks away,...

Author: KATHERINE M. GRAY

Source: The Harvard Crimson

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=515199

“Are you religious?” Christians like me often feel uncomfortable when asked this question, especially when it happens at Harvard. Perhaps they’re nervous that if they answer yes, the questioner will immediately think of them as a naive, sexually repressed, narrow-minded Bible-thumper.

At Harvard it’s considered...

Author: Martin Marty

Source: Martin Marty Center

http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/sightings/archive_2006/1023.shtml

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, a.k.a. Paracelsus, was challenged by authorities who called him the Luther of medicine. "Why do you call me a medical Luther?... I leave it to Luther to defend what he says, and I will be responsible for what I say." I thought about P.A.T.B.v.H. this week while...

Author: Michael Luo

Source: The New York Times

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6054152.stm

A Christian priest has been shot dead on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, where religious tensions are high after the execution of three Catholic militants.

The Rev Irianto Kongkoli was shot in the head while shopping in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province.

Relations between Christians and Muslims in Central Sulawesi have been fraught since the execution of the three militants...