Author: Janet Fillmore

Source: Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0109askamonk_filljan09,1,1919175.story

When the Ven. Shih Ying-Fa parks his 5-foot-10-inch frame before the computer in his home office, he never knows who will be seeking his help.

It could be a high school student in Baton Rouge, La., who asks the difference between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism for a class.
...

Source: India Post News Service

http://indiapost.com/article/communitypost/1787/

LOS ANGELES: The Sikh Youth Leadership Council (SYLC) is the joint vision of two high school students Japji J. Sethi and Gurbani M. Sethi. The organization was started last year to help young students in junior high, high school and college find mentors in specific careers that students personally identify.

"I reached a point when I had to decide which colleges I wanted to apply to and...

Author: Priscila Mosqueda

Source: San Antonio Express News

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/religion/stories/MYSA010608.05B.UJWRELIGION.293418f.html

A new law soon will require all Texas public school districts to offer a Bible as Literature course if 15 or more students express interest, but one San Antonio public school has been offering such a course for more than 30 years.

Churchill High School in...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: SikhNet

http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/news.nsf/NewsArchive/FBF6DFCC8AE323B0872573C9006A9FC6

A group of local residents gathered on November 17, 2007 to cook food and deliver it to the city's homeless. This effort occurred without any financial donations or support from government or NGO agencies.

This campaign began in Canada , where the Vancouver Sikhcessâ„¢ volunteers...

Author: NEIL MacFARQUHAR

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/us/06muslim.html

CHICAGO — After enduring seven years of beatings from her husband, a young Yemeni-American woman recently fled to a local shelter, only to find that the heavy black head scarf she wore as an observant Muslim provoked disapproval.

The shelter brought in a hairdresser, whose services she accepted without any misgivings. But once her...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: New York Times

Wire Service: Reuters

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/world/asia/06afghan.html

Afghanistan’s Islamic council has told President Hamid Karzai to stop foreign aid groups from converting local people to Christianity and has demanded the reintroduction of public executions.

The council, an influential group that lacks binding authority, is made up of the...

Source: JTA.org

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/106239.html

An interfaith group launched a series of ads urging presidential candidates to protect religious freedom.

First Freedom First is using the ads in New Hampshire and South Carolina to encourage voters to ask presidential candidates their positions on issues from end-of-life options to protecting the rights of Americans to worship or not worship as they choose.

Source: The Washington Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010403528.html

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Two state lawmakers have introduced similar measures designed to protect students from religious discrimination.

But critics say no such protections are needed.

Reps. Mike Reynolds and Sally Kern, Republicans from Oklahoma City, have introduced...

Author: STEPHANIE SANDOVAL

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/DN-silence_05met.ART0.North.Edition1.37cc71f.html

A Carrollton couple's court challenge to Texas' requirement that schoolchildren observe a minute of silence has failed.

David and Shannon Croft had sued Gov. Rick Perry and the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school...

Author: Alix Spiegel

Source: Chicago Public Radio

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=322

Alix Spiegel's story in this episode—"Act One. Which One of These Is Not Like the Others?"—won a 2008 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.

A Muslim woman persuades her husband that their family would be happier if they left the West Bank and moved to America. They do, and things are good...until...

Author: Ibrahim Hooper

Source: CAIR Press Release

Author: Adelle M. Banks

Source: Religion News Service

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14698

WASHINGTON (RNS) The national motto "In God We Trust" will move from the edge of new dollar coins honoring U.S. presidents to the front or back of the currency.

A provision in the $555 billion domestic spending bill for 2008, which President Bush signed into law on Dec. 26, calls for the change to take place "as soon as is practicable."...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Economist

http://economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10424406

IN 1938 Julius Schoeps's parents did what many German Jews who were prescient or lucky did at the time: they left. They went to Sweden, where Julius's father worked as an archivist. Julius was born there in 1942.

Then in 1947 Mr Schoeps did something few German Jews did at the time. He went back, followed by his...

Author: BOB ANDERSON

Source: The Advocate

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/12997792.html

SPRINGFIELD — A man who describes himself as a Wiccan priest has filed suit against Livingston Parish over its soothsaying ordinance.

Inspiration from the divine transmitted by a Wiccan should be treated legally the same way as a message from God transmitted by a Christian minister, Cliff Eakin said Wednesday.

“To dictate what you can...

Author: NICOLE WINFIELD

Source: The News...