Source: Los Angeles Times

On May 25, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "plans for a $4.5-million interfaith chapel at Chapman University...suffered another setback this week when Orange planning commissioners rejected the project on aesthetic grounds...Chapman officials said they plan to appeal the decision to the City Council...The design for the 250-seat Wallace All Faiths Chapel uses universal religious themes of light, water and nature."

Source: The New York Times

On May 24, 2001, The New York Times reported that "a conviction of a Utah man on bigamy charges last week caused anxiety about the state's polygamists, many of whom have grown fearful that prosecutors may now be eager to bring them to trial on the same charges." The conviction may make polygamous families "more reluctant to seek outside help for child abuse, domestic violence, and emergencies." Some members of polygamous families contend that Tom Green presents a false image of polygamy because he has "wives and children in far...

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On May 24, 2001, The San Diego Union-Tribune published an op-ed article by Henry Mark Holzer, a First Amendment rights expert and a professor emeritus at Brooklyn Law School, in which he condemned the conviction of Tom Green for polygamy. Holzer wrote that "the First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion." The Supreme Court ruling in a similar nineteenth-century case, Reynolds vs. United States, "reeks with blatant racism." The justices in that case condemned polygamy because it was "almost exclusively a...

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On May 24, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that "when Wendy Hulsing of Dickinson, N.D., and Sanjaya Gupta of Chesterfield decided to marry, they wanted a two-ceremony wedding, Christian and Hindu, with all the trimmings, including" a horse for the groom to ride in the traditional Hindu barat. "The barat is the tumultuous, slow parade of the groom and his family to the home of the bride-to-be."

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On May 23, 2001, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that 1,000 people came to hear Rabbi Steven Lebow deliver his baccalaureate address to Walton High School's graduating seniors inside the Cobb County Civic Center. "Lebow's speech has been the talk around the lockers and lunchrooms of Walton High for weeks, said...a graduating senior...'I thought it was wonderful,' she said. 'Very appropriate and very well thought out.'"

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On May 23, 2001, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that 1,000 people came to hear Rabbi Steven Lebow deliver his baccalaureate address to Walton High School's graduating seniors inside the Cobb County Civic Center. "Lebow's speech has been the talk around the lockers and lunchrooms of Walton High for weeks, said...a graduating senior...'I thought it was wonderful,' she said. 'Very appropriate and very well thought out.'"

Source: Los Angeles Times

On May 23, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "congregants of the city's only Melkite Church welcomed Syria's new Catholic leader to Los Angeles, comparing the visit by black-robed Gregory III to an appearance by the Roman Catholic pope...The 67-year-old 'patriarch of Alexandria, Jerusalem and all the East,' stopped briefly in Los Angeles to greet parishioners and draw attention to unrest in the Middle East... One of the largest of the Eastern rite churches, the Melkite Church has been called a 'voice for the East within the...

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On May 23, 2001, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that "in a ruling yesterday afternoon from his courtroom in Johnstown [Pennsylvania], U.S. District Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith told the 1,000-student school district that it couldn't hold the May 31 baccalaureate service in the school auditorium, sponsor the service or conduct rehearsals for it. Doing otherwise would be a First Amendment violation, Smith ruled...Berlin Brothersvalley was [thus] ushered out of the dwindling minority of school districts still conducting...

Source: St. Petersburg Times

On May 23, 2001, St. Petersburg Times reported that School Board Chairwoman Patience Nave "asked a deputy at Tuesday's meeting to remove Charles Schrader, a Wiccan who has protested the board's decision to open meetings with Christian prayers. On several occasions, Schrader has said his prayer aloud as board members have said their prayers."

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On May 22, 2001, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "Walton High School's long-awaited and contentious baccalaureate ceremony will be at 7 tonight at the Cobb County Civic Center...The baccalaureate originally was slated to be held at Mount Bethel United Methodist Church in east Cobb. But...the Rev. Randy Mickler, pastor of Mount Bethel, vetoed [Rabbi Steven] Lebow making his speech from Mount Bethel's pulpit."

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On May 22, 2001, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "Walton High School's long-awaited and contentious baccalaureate ceremony will be at 7 tonight at the Cobb County Civic Center...The baccalaureate originally was slated to be held at Mount Bethel United Methodist Church in east Cobb. But...the Rev. Randy Mickler, pastor of Mount Bethel, vetoed [Rabbi Steven] Lebow making his speech from Mount Bethel's pulpit."

Source: The New York Times

On May 20, 2001, The New York Times reported that "a Utah man has been convicted on four counts of bigamy and one count of failing to pay child support...The man, Tom Green, 52,...has five wives and has fathered 30 children...Mr. Green...says his lifestyle is a God-given choice...Polygamy arrived in Utah in the 1840's, when members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled in the state...The church disavowed polygamy in 1890."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On May 19, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported that "Christian meditation is crossing denominational lines and attracting thousands of spiritual seekers, especially baby boomers." The article reported on two monks who "lead international movements that promote meditation not as new spiritual practice but as a return to a contemplative form of prayer developed in early Christianity...They were in Houston last week giving joint presentations on meditation."

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On May 19, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on three university scholars who spent two years researching churches that produced "life-changing results." They found that "excellent churches look at congregational needs with a fresh eye and try to solve needs creatively...These congregations are not afraid to try new projects, programs and liturgy." The study's findings are reported in two just-published books: "Excellent Catholic Parishes" (Paulist Press) and "Excellent Protestant Parishes" (Westminster John Knox)....

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

On May 19, 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on "a growing number of foreign-born men filling out the ranks of the Roman Catholic priesthood in the United States. Nearly a third of the men ordained in the United States this year were born elsewhere, according to a survey by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops."