Source: Sightings

On July 25, 2001, Sightings reported that "the front page of the Chicago Tribune Metro section for July fifth shows two pictures of religion in America that capture well its ambivalence as a public force. The first story concerns [a] Hindu leader...A woman of humble Indian birth, Amritandandamayi now touches the lives of a worldwide community...[She] hugs follower after follower, at times for eighteen straight hours...Directly below this story of religious diversity and the power of shared affection is a picture of Richard Loy, leader of the National Church of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana...A few hours spent with a good American religious history text show that...the American response to religious diversity has been a mixture of embrace and assault." Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.