Source: The Boston Globe

On January 27, 2000, The Boston Globe published an article on Beliefnet, a new Web site dedicated to a multifaith approach to understanding all of the world's principal religions and belief systems. The site was launch this month by Steven Waldman, former editor of US News & World Report, and Robert Nylen, founding publisher of the former New England Monthly, as a for-profit venture to offer people information on the world's religions. Waldman stated: "We're hoping that Beliefnet will be a place where adults and children alike can find answers to some of life's stickiest questions...or at least find other people similarly baffled, curious, or in awe." Waldman and Nylen hope to sell and advertise inspirational books, tapes, videos, CDs, as well as holistic health products and trips with religious themes. "Beliefnet's goal is to encourage tolerance and a wide-ranging, faith-based conversation about some of the vexing issues of modern life." The site has attracted more than $5 million of start-up capital and an impressive array of writers, including liberal Catholic sociologist and novelist Rev. Andrew Greeley, Harvard theologian Harvey Cox, rabbinical writer Joseph Telushkin, American Buddhist lama Surya Das, and National Public Radio correspondent and Wicca priestess Margot Adler.