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 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 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...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On August 4, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that George W. Bush is all but certain to win the evangelical vote back that the GOP lost in 1996. While Bill Clinton won 37% of the evangelical vote four years ago, Bush is "using his own religious experience and the language of evangelicals to energize conservative Christian activists as well as to win the ear of more moderate evangelicals and open the door to African American evangelicals...In a survey of 4,000 Americans taken earlier this year by the Bliss Institute, Bush won...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On August 2, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that "A short pilgrimage through the downtown area honoring the Catholic and Latino icon Our Lady of Guadalupe will begin at 5 a.m. Sunday...Hundreds of people are expected to walk with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, singing traditional mananitas, or "morning" songs, to celebrate one of the most important figures in modern Catholicism. Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Orange said Our Lady of Guadalupe is an appropriate symbol of the ethnic diversity of Catholics in the area...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On July 31, 2000, The Houston Chronicle reported that an influential Houston black pastor, Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, was recently asked to make what is "among the most high-profile appearances on the [Republican] convention podium: introducing Texas Gov. George W. Bush to accept the GOP presidential nomination Thursday night. 'When they called back and said the governor wanted me to introduce him the night he accepts the nomination, I almost dropped the phone,' Caldwell said. 'In fact, I did.'" While Caldwell has what he...

Source: The Detroit News

On July 31, 2000, The Detroit News published an article entitled "Religious Calling May Come Online; Fewer Monks and Nuns Results in Bold Recruitment."

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On July 30, 2000, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that, "Women can become ordained ministers of the Church of God under a provision the governing body of the Pentecostal denomination adopted Saturday at the Trans World Dome...The change in church laws was approved by a show of hands of the majority of the 20,000 members" who recently attended the 68th General Assembly in St. Louis. "The general council of 3,000 ordained ministers had forwarded the measure, said Mary Ruth Stone, church spokeswoman. General Assembly...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On July 29, 2000, The Houston Chronicle reported that, "When a Mormon enters the temple, his faith's most sacred space, he is taught that he leaves the world behind and comes as close to God as is possible in this life. So the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon church's formal name, builds its temples according to the strictest standards. As the church prepares for the opening next month of the world's 96th Mormon temple - the Houston Texas Temple in Spring - the final touches are being made to an edifice...

Source: Star Tribune

On July 29, 2000, the Star Tribune published an article entitled "Christianity's Ancient Face; By Honoring and Preserving the Oldest and Most Mystical Elements of the Faith, Orthodox Christianity is Finding Converts Among People who Rebel Against Modern Trends that Seem Too Fluid." Allison Blomberg, grew up Lutheran and later attended an Evangelical Covenant church. Later, Blomberg was introduced to Orthodox Christianity, and found it was just what she had been looking for. "I wanted to find a church that stood the test of time,...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On July 28, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that a replica of El Salvador's "sacred image of Jesus Christ, Divine Savior of the World," the country's patron saint, arrived in Los Angeles. The original statue "resides in the Catholic cathedral of San Salvador and serves as a source of nationalism and religious devotion for Salvadorans." The 10-day journey of the statue ended when it arrived at its new home, the Dolores Mission Roman Catholic Church in Boyle Heights. "In El Salvador, this is one of our most important...

Source: St. Petersburg Times

On July 24, 2000, the St. Petersburg Times published an article about two Presbyterian churches in the area and their debate over whether same-sex unions should be blessed by the church. "Last year Northeast Presbyterian filed a formal complaint in the Tampa Bay Presbytery against Good Samaritan for performing same-sex union ceremonies. The motion eventually made its way to the 212th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which took place last month in Long Beach, Calif." By a narrow vote, the General Assembly voted to...

Source: The Washington Post

On July 24, 2000, The Washington Post published an article about the religious beliefs of presidential candidate George W. Bush and the remarkable change his 1985 conversion has made on his life. "To millions of evangelical Christians, the way Bush talks, especially about how finding Christ helped him stop drinking, is familiar, even endearing...Like many born-again baby boomers, he turned to religion as an antidote to his own waywardness during the 1960s. Yet ironically, what distinguishes this group's form of worship is some...

Source: The Courier-Journal

On July 24, 2000, The Courier Journal of Louisville, KY published an article about a collaboration between Buddhist and Catholic monks. The project is a result of the work of Louisville musician Michael Fitzpatrick, who was "so deeply moved by a 1996 gathering of Catholic and Buddhist monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani that he wanted to capture some of that feeling in music. The result is the CD "Compassion," released last month, which blends Tibetan and Western monastic chants, classic pieces of Western religious music and...

Source: The Times-Picayune

On July 23, 2000, The Times-Picayune published an article about the changing ways in which children are experiencing Bible camps throughout Louisiana. Instead of "sitting uncomfortably on wooden pews reading Bible verses," churches are "retooling their Bible school curricula to capture kids' attention by making faith fun. To do this, many churches are taking cues from child psychologists and professional educators to appeal to young minds." Many of the camps throughout Louisiana have built their programs around "prepackaged...