Author: Isabel Kershner

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/world/middleeast/20scrolls.html?ref=religion_and_belief

The scribes who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls could not have imagined their texts’ one day being Googled.

But the Israel Antiquities Authority, the custodian of the scrolls, the 2,000-year-old biblical and apocryphal texts discovered last century in...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: CBS 4 Wyoming/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Wire Service: AP

http://cbs4denver.com/wireapnewswy/Wyo.man.wants.2.1965775.html

A Cheyenne resident is proposing a charter school that would teach courses on the Bible, including a mandatory class on the Old Testament.

Laramie County School District 1 officials are reviewing an application for the charter school...

Author: Sharon LaFraniere

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/world/asia/16china.html?_r=4

More than 100 Chinese Christians seeking to attend an international evangelical conference in South Africa have been barred from leaving the country, some in the group said, because their churches are not sanctioned by the state.

Organizers say that more than 4,000 Christians from around the world will...

Author: Jessica Seaman

Source: The Daily Tar Heel

http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2010/10/removal_of_christian_ag_sparks_controversy

The removal of a Christian flag from a veteran war memorial has caused a clash in a North Carolina city.

In King, a small city less than two hours west of Chapel Hill, protests have erupted following the city council’s decision to...

Author: David Abel

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/10/13/clergy_join_to_fight_housing_law_repeal/

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clergy gathered yesterday at Trinity Church in Copley Square to urge Massachusetts residents to vote no on Question 2, which would repeal the state’s affordable housing law.

They said...

Author: Peggy Fletcher Stack

Source: The Pew Forum/The Salt Lake Tribune

Wire Service: RNS

http://pewforum.org/Religion-News/RNS-Utah-meeting-seeks-to-unify-Orthodox-Christians.aspx

If a group of Orthodox Christians meeting in Salt Lake City this week (Oct. 14-16) has its way, future generations of Greek, Serbian, Russian and other ethnic faithful all will worship together in a...

Author: Whitney Jones

Source: Beliefnet News

Wire Service: RNS

https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/news/2010/10/courts-uphold-teens-piercing-r

Two federal...

Author: Nick Miroff

Source: NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130108154&sc=17&f=1001

When Cuban President Raul Castro met with the country's Catholic Church leaders this summer and agreed to free dozens of political prisoners, it was a major boost to an institution facing increased competition for Cuban worshippers.

The island has undergone a spiritual revival since the communist...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Baha'i World News Service

http://news.bahai.org/story/795

Britain's most prominent heads of religion have called for the release of the seven Baha'i leaders serving prison sentences in Iran.

A statement by the United Kingdom's religious leaders – describing the sentencing of the seven as a "gross violation of the fundamental human right to freedom of religion" – was signed by, among others, the...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130409561

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a South Carolina jail over a policy that prohibits inmates from having any reading materials other than the Bible.

The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn the policy on behalf of Prison Legal News, a monthly journal on prison law. Since 2008, the magazine's...

Author: Paul Vitello

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/nyregion/08zero.html?ref=religion_and_belief

Many New Yorkers were suspicious of the newcomers’ plans to build a house of worship in Manhattan. Some feared the project was being underwritten by foreigners. Others said the strangers’ beliefs were incompatible with democratic principles.

Concerned residents staged...

Author: Mary Fitzgerald

Source: The Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1006/1224280471825.html

Inside the imposing five-storey meditation hall shaped like a lotus and covered with more than 1,000 marble petals, there are representations of several Hindu deities, but none as prominent as that of Lakshmi, a goddess of wealth and prosperity.

Every year, millions come here to the sprawling...

Author: Jeanette Rundquist

Source: Beliefnet News

Wire Service: Religion News Service

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2010/10/ban-on-school-christmas-carols.php

"Silent Night" and other religious songs will remain off the program at holiday concerts in one New Jersey school district -- and possibly others across the country -- after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a school...

Author: Bob Unruh

Source: World Net Daily

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=210073

A court decision in Wisconsin has turned back an attack on the inclusion of the national motto "In God We Trust" and the Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, a $600 million-plus facility that highlights the heritage of the United States.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge William M. Conley...

Author: Christi Parsons and Peter Nicholas

Source: The Los Angeles Times