Source: The Times-Picayune

On April 7, 2001, The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that "the American Civil Liberties Union has formally protested a New Orleans public school field trip to a church where students were urged to give their lives to Jesus Christ...Teachers at six or more middle and high schools bused almost 1,000 students...[to a church] to see a play about classroom violence, the fragility of life and the importance of faith in Jesus Christ as the only key to salvation."

Source: New York Daily News

On April 7, 2001, the New York Daily News reported on two interfaith groups: the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and the National Conference for Community and Justice. "The growth in [other] organizations working specifically on togetherness among faiths frees their groups to expand their missions. The National Conference and the Tanenbaum Center have moved on to such matters as diversity in the workplace, religion's role in solving conflicts and development of leaders in institutions with histories of...

Source: The Tampa Tribune

On April 6, 2001, The Tampa Tribune reported that "a House panel approved a school-prayer bill...after a raw debate over whether it would encourage spirituality or engender intolerance among students. The bill would permit prayer at graduations and student gatherings at secondary schools if both school boards and students agree." The bill remains controversial among legislators, parents, educators, and community members.

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On April 5, 2001, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on a hearing in Pasadena before a federal appeals court. It was "the latest legal skirmish in a nearly 12-year-old controversy over the" Mount Soledad cross. Atheist Philip Paulson claimed San Diego City "violated constitutional law when it sold the land to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association, a nonprofit veterans group that built the cross and maintained it for nearly 50 years." Before the veterans group bought the land, it was public property and the presence of...

Source: The Washington Post

On April 3, 2001, The Washington Post reported that "organizers of a religious service for graduating high school seniors in Prince William County were turned away from a Christian events chapel because they wanted to include a rabbi and a Muslim layperson in the service." The director of the chapel said that allowing speakers who were not from the orthodox Catholic tradition would violate the the chapel's charter.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On April 3, 2001, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that "controversy over the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's impending visit to Milwaukee has caused the event to be moved from a north side church to the Hilton Milwaukee City Center...The change was announced at a news conference where several pastors of black churches and a local spokesman for the Nation of Islam stood solidly behind stated efforts by the Korean-born Moon -- founder of the Unification Church -- to rebuild families, restore communities and renew the country...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 3, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported on the debate over the proposal of the nondenominational Self-Realization Fellowship to expand its headquarters in Mt. Washington, California. "Supporters say that the church is a good neighbor and that its expansion would not harm the community's character. Opponents say the expansion project would be too big for a hilltop area of only 8,000 residents."

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 1, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "reaching across religious and cultural lines, a Greek Orthodox archbishop, a Roman Catholic cardinal and Protestant and Jewish leaders...celebrated a revitalized neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles as a showcase of civic cooperation in the midst of diversity." The interfaith cooperation has "led to a kind of urban resurrection" in an area that "has been dubbed the 'Byzantine-Latino Quarter.'"

Source: The Tennessean

http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/04/03814884.shtml?Element_ID=3814884

On April 1, 2001, The Tennessean reported that the Bible Belt is now home to "Six Buddhist communities. Five Jewish congregations. Five Islamic mosques. A Baha'i center. A Hindu temple and a Hindu ashram, or teaching abode. Plus assorted Sikhs and Jains...Others exist, too." Tom Russell, a...

Source: The Arizona Republic

On April 1, 2001, The Arizona Republic reported that "dissenting Lutherans voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new branch within the church as a backlash to the full communion agreement between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church U.S.A...About 160 of the 10,000 ELCA congregations have voted to join. Others...want to work within the ELCA to reverse the decision that gives bishops more power."

Source: The Denver Post

On April 1, 2001, The Denver Post reported that Bush's faith-based initiative "has unleashed intense argument and soul-searching among those who were presumed to be its prime supporters and beneficiaries - Christian activists and active Christians." In addition, "the Bush initiative has forced us to confront how little most of us, religious or not, actually do to help the poor. That debate may accomplish more in the long run than any of the programs Bush gets enacted."

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On April 1, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that "a federal judge refused to jail officials of three Kentucky counties for posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings. She ordered both sides to try to settle the dispute."

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On March 27, 2001, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on "a court fight framing a [Pennsylvania] state traffic code provision as infringing on religious liberties of a small sliver of the state's Amish population." Members of the Swartzentruber Amish have been fined $100 for failing to put reflective orange triangles on their vehicles. They refuse to follow the traffic code because it violates their religious beliefs. In explanation of their stance, the Amish "quoted Biblical passages that said they should not put...

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On March 25, 2001, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported on the "New Church of Atlanta, a nondenominational Korean congregation that lost its church" in January in a fire. The congregation had been holding services in space borrowed from another church, but decided to "return to the only structure at New Church that survived the televised fire -- the fellowship hall," so that they could go back to the 11 a.m. service, which allowed them to eat lunch together afterward. At their big lunches, "Everybody...

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On March 25, 2001, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that "a survey conducted last year found that 92 percent of black churches offer youth programs and 86 percent provide cash assistance to needy people...The survey was part of the larger 'Faith Communities Today' study...76 percent of black congregations were involved in voter registration or voter education efforts. A total of 75 percent of the black churches had a food pantry or soup kitchen."