Author: Genaro C. Armas

Source: Star Tribune

Wire Service: AP

[startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/19385369.html?location_refer=Faith%20+%20Values]

Amish farmer Andy Swartzentruber is determined to live the simple life of his forefathers, plowing his field with a horse-drawn tractor, getting around in a horse-drawn buggy and offering eggs for sale to help support his family.

But now he and a school elder in his Amish settlement are being compelled to defend...

Author: Diane Macedo

Source: Fox News

[foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360383,00.html]

A high school wrestling coach in a Michigan city known for its large Arab community says he’s being forced out of his job of 35 years on trumped up allegations he allowed his assistant, a local clergyman, to try converting students to Christianity.

The coach, Jerry Marszalek, told FOXNews.com he thinks the decision to not renew his contract with the school in Dearborn, Mich., just one year shy of his retirement is...

Author: Brad A. Greenberg

Source: Jewish Journal

[jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/article/interfaith_pep_rally_for_israel_rocks_the_forum_20080528/]

Karen Lyons kept smacking my leg and acting as if she was going to jump out of her seat. She's a church-going Christian from Pacific Palisades, married to a temple-attending Jew, and she's prone to such reactions when asked why she loves Israel and what she thinks of those who criticize its actions.

"It makes me physically ill, because that is not...

Author: Bess Twiston Davies

Source: Times Online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4023109.ece

Younger Muslims are radically altering the "climate" of interfaith dialogue, the head of the Vatican's Council for interreligious dialogue has said.

"There is a change of climate [in interreligious dialogue] now" said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue said on...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: News Blaze

[newsblaze.com/story/20080528150555tsop.nb/newsblaze/WORLDNEW/World-News.html]

As a remarkable interfaith gesture, Seventh-day Adventist Church has invited acclaimed Hindu leader Rajan Zed to its world headquarters in Maryland (USA) and meet its leaders.

Carol E. Rasmussen of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department of the Church, in a communique to Zed, wrote, "...we would welcome you to visit our world headquarters and meet with some of our...

Author: Tom Heneghan

Source: Reuters

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7417776.stm

US officials in Texas have appealed against a court ruling which said they had no right to seize 463 children from a polygamist sect last month.

Texan child welfare workers filed the appeal to the state's Supreme Court.

Thursday's ruling said the reasons given for the children's removal were "legally and factually insufficient".

In April...

Author: Joseph Chaney

Source: Washington Post

Wire Service: Reuters

[washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/24/AR2008052400552.html]

Bells clanged, children played and police kept watch as pilgrims clutching rosary beads flocked to one of China's most revered Catholic shrines on Saturday, the day Pope Benedict XVI designated World Day of Prayer for China.

"There are fewer people than last year," said a 30-year-old seminary student surnamed Wu as...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Catholic Information Service for Africa

[allafrica.com/stories/200805230982.html]

Religious leaders have backed a national campaign to improve the health of children under the age of five.

The Malezi Bora programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Health and the United Nations children's agency UNICEF. The services offered by the programme include immunization, provision of Vitamin A supplements, protection against malaria, advice on breastfeeding and nutrition...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Hindustan Times/Agence France-Presse

Author: Joseph Williams

Source: The Boston Globe/Political Intelligence

[boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/05/interfaith_grou.html]

After winning the backing of an influential Texas televangelist, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain today abruptly rejected the pastor's endorsement after more of his controversial remarks became public -- including a sermon in which he says the Nazis "operated on God's behalf" to drive Jews from Europe to Israel.

McCain had...

Author: S. Digal and M. M. Perera

Source: Asian News

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=12289&size=A

Asia’s Churches continue to mobilise in favour of the victims of cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. In some cases they are trying to get aid into the country via Catholic channels; in others, they are collaborating with the local Buddhist community.

In the Philippines Caritas Manila is shipping its first aid collected in Manila...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Independent Catholic News/Fides

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/shinto435.html

Japanese priest Fr Yuji Sugawara SJ, professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, outlined the relationship between Shintoism and Christianity in Japan, in an interview with Agenzia Fides.

Fr Yuji said that Shintoism is the oldest traditional religion in Japan, begun by the pre-historic peoples living in central Asia, and has been left...

Author: Christine Morente

Source: The Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/religion/ci_9308551

Her Holiness Shinso Ito was the picture of quiet dignity as her followers cheered - and gleefully took her picture at a respectful distance.

When she walked past, they bowed - a sign of reverence for Shinnyo-en's first female leader.

The 66-year-old's task Sunday morning was to consecrate the Japanese Buddhist order's new U.S. Head Temple...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7406419.stm

A care service manager who resigned from a charity in protest at an alleged "Christian-only" recruitment policy has won his constructive dismissal case.

Mark Sheridan, 56, from Conwy, north Wales left Prospects, which works with adults with learning disabilities, after eight years in January 2006.

After a tribunal held last December the...