Source: The Buffalo News

On May 4, 2002, The Buffalo News reported on the Easter celebration of the Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Buffalo, NY. "Because a fire last May inflicted heavy damage on their own church, members of the Greek Orthodox congregation will hold their Easter service in Westminster Presbyterian Church, about four blocks south of their own building."

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On May 3, 2002, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "backers of a bill that would give faith-based organizations access to federal funds rallied at Senate offices Wednesday, but... critics in the House criticized the measure, saying it would allow religious discrimination... The Charity Aid, Recovery and Empowerment Act has three main goals: creating tax incentives for charitable donations, giving low-income workers incentives to save money and allowing faith-based social service groups to...

Source: The Baltimore Sun

On May 2, 2002, The Baltimore Sun reported on the "Range of events planned for 'Day of Prayer.'" The article explained, "Organizers of the 51st annual event say it has taken on greater relevance and urgency since Sept. 11. They expect 'unprecedented' participation. ... But critics say the observance amounts to governmental promotion of religion. ... Others question the National Day of Prayer's inclusiveness. Although officially nonsectarian, the events tend to be heavily weighted toward Christianity. There is scarcely an...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 30, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that on the evening of the spring equinox, 50 local pagans gathered in Lancaster, CA. Their rituals were interrupted by "about 20 Christians [who] had driven up to pray for the pagans' souls, and two were walking around the circle reading Bible verses... A praying man, who turned out to be a sheriff's chaplain, was blaring Christian pop tunes through his SUV speakers... The pagans said they felt intimidated and called the Los Angeles County Sheriff's...

Source: The Chicago Tribune

On April 21, 2002, The Chicago Tribune reported that in Norman, Oklahoma, many Muslim students and residents have been questioned, detained, and arrested on various charges. "As federal investigators searched for terrorist cells across America last fall, they conducted an intense sweep in this college town... Joseph Meinhart, a Roman Catholic priest, read about the arrests... in the local newspapers. After learning that friends of the students were afraid to visit them in jail, fearing they, too, would be arrested, Meinhart...

Source: The Plain Dealer

On April 20, 2002, The Plain Dealer featured an article on Khenpo Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche, "a renowned scholar and a senior Tibetan Buddhist monk... [from] the Namdroling Monastery in southern India." Gyatso was in Cleveland, OH for a week of teaching sponsored by the Palyul Changchub Dargyeling Ohio, a center for Tibetan Buddhist studies in Chagrin Falls, of which he is the spiritual director. "About 35 local clergy joined... [Gyatso] Wednesday for a vegetarian kosher lunch at Epworth-Euclid United Methodist Church. Afterward...

Source: The Washington Post

On April 20, 2002, The Washington Post reported that in a speech "to about 300 people at the First Baptist Church of Pearland, Tex... House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) told evangelical Christians last week that only Christianity offers a reasonable answer to basic questions about the purpose of life... DeLay said that God is using him to promote 'a biblical worldview' in American politics... A recording of DeLay's speech was released by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy...

Source: The New York Times

On April 18, 2002, The New York Times reported that "Churches and other religious organization are receiving the first grants released through the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. The grants totaling more than $15 million are for employment training and came from the Labor Department. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao said the grants included 25 of up to $25,000 each to help small congregations and community groups provide job training and other employment programs. Another $5 million will help religious groups...

Source: The Hartford Courant

On April 15, 2002, The Hartford Courant featured an article on Reza Mansoor, a Muslim-American doctor from Connecticut, who recently gave a talk at an Evangelical Lutheran church which was co-sponsored by the New Britain Conversations on Race proje ct. Mansoor "has been spreading the word about his faith since September, not to gain new adherents to Islam but to overcome the fear and misunderstanding since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C... Despite the prevalence of misunderstandings about his faith,...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On April 13, 2002, The Houston Chronicle reported that, according to two recent studies, "the number of people who say they don't belong to a religion has doubled over the last decade... For personal reasons, 29.4 million people said last year that they skip church, mosque and synagogue - up from 14.3 million in 1990, a rise from 8 percent to 14 percent of the U.S. population... That's the word from the American Religious Identification Survey, conducted in 2001... by the Graduate Center of City University of New York......

Source: St. Petersburg Times

On April 12, 2002, The St. Petersburgh Times reported that "Metropolitan Ministries, the [St. Petersburgh, FL] area's best-known charity for the homeless and poor, will drop its requirement that professed Christians make up a majority of its board of directors... It also began recruiting 13 people from a 'rainbow coalition' of religious faiths to join the 22 Christians now on the board."

Source: Omaha World-Herald

On April 12, 2002, the Omaha World-Herald reported that "residents backing their school district in [Woodbine, IO] aren't going to let go of 'The Lord's Prayer' quietly... The Woodbine School Board voted 4-0 Thursday night, with one member abstaining, to defend the song and challenge a lawsuit filed by the Iowa Civil Liberties Union."

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On April 12, 2002, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "federal agents... said they believed arson was to blame for a... fire that gutted a Silicon Valley [CA] church with a large Arab American congregation... Search dogs found remnants of a flammable liquid inside the Antiochian Orthodox Church of the Redeemer, which burned to the ground early Sunday morning. Damage was estimated at $1 million. The church, 40 miles south of San Francisco, serves a mix of Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian...

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On April 12, 2002, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "San Diegans are responding with prayers and rallies to the violence in the Holy Land that continues to rip apart a territory held sacred by Christians, Jews and Muslims... [Recently] people gathered in downtown San Diego for interfaith prayers calling for peace... Among the participants were Rabbi Martin Lawson, of Temple Emanu-El, Imam Sharif Battikhi, president of the Islamic Services Foundation, and the Rev. Art Cribbs, president of the Ecumenical...

Source: The New York Times

On April 12, 2002, The New York Times reported that "President Bush urged the Senate... to pass a bill... that would give federal money to religious charities." The President also spoke to "a gathering of religious and charity leaders in the East Room, which the White House billed as a rallying call to pressure the Democratic-controlled Senate to act... The legislation, a compromise reached between the White House and Democrats that is a watered-down version of what the president originally wanted, is stuck in the Senate...