Author: Solomon Moore

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/us/18prison.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

A broad swath of religious organizations and civil liberties groups — often on opposite sides of contentious issues — have joined together to condemn a proposed rule that they say would prohibit some religious texts in federal penitentiary libraries.

The Bureau of Prisons in January...

Author: Laura Oleniacz

Source: The Winchester Star

http://www.winchesterstar.com/showarticle_new.php?sID=6&foldername=20090316&file=pray_article.html

Believers of different faiths gathered Sunday afternoon to pray for seven Baha’i leaders who have been in prison in Iran for nearly a year for their religious beliefs.

Local followers of the Christian, Muslim and Baha’i faiths...

Author: Ivy Farguheson

Source: The Star Press

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20090315/NEWS01/90314010/1002

Every once in a while Khalid Sajjid’s Christian friends in Muncie ask him why he doesn’t drink alcohol at parties or why he prays five times a day.

But those questions don’t stop him from practicing his Muslim faith.

In fact, they strengthen it.

“I am happy with my faith...

Author: Victoria Gray

Source: The Citizen of Laconia

http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090315/GJNEWS02/703159979/-1/CITNEWS

Those interested in learning about world religions don't need to go to Harvard Divinity School, or even a closer university or college. They only have to go as far as West Main Street, where a series of interfaith dialogues begins today at Franklin Congregational Christian...

Author: Richard C. Dujardin

Source: The Providence Journal

http://www.projo.com/news/content/priest_03-15-09_QMDMFI7_v3.1dc7473.html

Even as a Brown University student, Ann Holmes Redding was never far away from controversy.

She was barely into her freshman year in 1968 when she joined a black student walkout to get the university to admit more blacks — a move that resulted in a near quadrupling of the number of...

Author: Leslie Boyd

Source: Citizen-Times

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903150312

Death is one thing all humans share and most also believe something happens to the spirit after death.

Faith can comfort those left grieving, no matter what form that belief takes.

The North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement and Mountain Area Interfaith Forum present a panel discussion, “...

Author: Dayna Harpster

Source: News-Press

http://www.news-press.com/article/20090314/LIFESTYLES/903140330/1013

If you say grace for your food, why not blessings for your home?

Increasingly, people of varying faiths are embracing an old spiritual tradition and inventing versions of their own.

For centuries, Catholic blessings have ranged from the simple practice of placing crosses in doorways to a prayer procedure...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Obama-believes-in-power-of-prayers/articleshow/4258625.cms

President Barack Obama, who has acknowledged Mahatma Gandhi as one of his inspirations, prefers to have interfaith prayers at rallies, and has thus opened "a new frontier of religious politics".

Prayer has become more common at presidential...

Author: Christopher Landau

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7888193.stm

Maher al-Gohary has converted from Islam to Christianity. In spite of facing death threats, he's engaged in a legal battle to have his changed religion recognised on his official Egyptian documents.

We drive through the chaotic streets of Cairo to meet Mr Gohary's lawyer at a petrol station.

His client lives in hiding, and doesn't...

Author: Marta Hepler Drahos

Source: Traverse City Record-Eagle

http://www.record-eagle.com/faith/local_story_072221617.html

Bonnie Smith came from a Catholic background and wanted to be a nun until she discovered boys.

Now she's a deacon in the Episcopal church -- and a founding member of a new area faith diversity council called Area Council on Religious Diversity, or ACORD. The group also includes representatives of the Unitarian...

Author: Ashfaque Swapan

Source: New America Media/India West

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=5dbb57b1707ee3b07cb20c2abc5994e4

Despite virtually unanimous support in the scientific community, there is considerable public skepticism in the U.S. about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, with 39 percent believing in the theory, according to a Gallup poll.

...

Author: Kathy Nance

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/civil-religion/nance/2009/12/local-artist-sends-prayer-for-unity-to-parliament-of-world-religions/

On this first full day of the Parliament of World Religions (PWR) in Melbourne, Australia, a group of Pagans met to give blessings to four rattles created by St. Louis artist...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Daily Democrat

Wire Service: AP

Author: Colleen Walsh

Source: Harvard University Gazette

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/03.12/11-fremont.html

Can a diverse religious community unite and heal after a brutal murder in broad daylight, one possibly motivated by religious hatred?

That profound question and others like it, questions of religious diversity and tolerance, are at the heart of the new documentary “Fremont, U.S.A.,” which was...

Author: Daniel Burke

Source: Religion News Service

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=17707

Friday afternoons find the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding at the Al-Islam Center in Seattle, reciting Muslim prayers.

Come Sunday, she heads about two miles south to kneel in the pews of St. Clement's of Rome Episcopal Church.

"My experience and my call is to continue to follow Jesus," said Redding, an Episcopal priest for the past 25...