Source: Los Angeles Times

On June 1, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "an international religious group has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, alleging the group's leading minister was wrongfully deported after seven years in the United States." The Wu-Wei Tien Tao Association's spiritual leader, Kwai Fun Wong, was arrested in June 1999 and deported to Hong Kong without a hearing.

Source: The Boston Globe

On May 27, 2001, The Boston Globe reported that opponents of the Catholic Church's ban on the ordination of women protested outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, where seven men were recently ordained as priests.

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On May 24, 2001, The San Diego Union-Tribune published an op-ed article by Henry Mark Holzer, a First Amendment rights expert and a professor emeritus at Brooklyn Law School, in which he condemned the conviction of Tom Green for polygamy. Holzer wrote that "the First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion." The Supreme Court ruling in a similar nineteenth-century case, Reynolds vs. United States, "reeks with blatant racism." The justices in that case condemned polygamy because it was "almost exclusively a...

Source: The New York Times

On May 24, 2001, The New York Times reported that "a conviction of a Utah man on bigamy charges last week caused anxiety about the state's polygamists, many of whom have grown fearful that prosecutors may now be eager to bring them to trial on the same charges." The conviction may make polygamous families "more reluctant to seek outside help for child abuse, domestic violence, and emergencies." Some members of polygamous families contend that Tom Green presents a false image of polygamy because he has "wives and children in far...

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On May 24, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that "when Wendy Hulsing of Dickinson, N.D., and Sanjaya Gupta of Chesterfield decided to marry, they wanted a two-ceremony wedding, Christian and Hindu, with all the trimmings, including" a horse for the groom to ride in the traditional Hindu barat. "The barat is the tumultuous, slow parade of the groom and his family to the home of the bride-to-be."

Source: The New York Times

On May 20, 2001, The New York Times published an article about polygamy. "As the conviction of a Utah polygamist...reminds us, monogamy is not the only way to procreate. It's just a theme 'round which nature has designed many variations...Men are just 15 percent larger than women, suggesting [to some biologists] that 'mild polygyny' is the natural condition of the human species." Biologists also believe that a certain degree of polyandry may also be natural for the human species. "We have inherited our own version of the primate...

Source: The New York Times

On May 20, 2001, The New York Times reported that "a Utah man has been convicted on four counts of bigamy and one count of failing to pay child support...The man, Tom Green, 52,...has five wives and has fathered 30 children...Mr. Green...says his lifestyle is a God-given choice...Polygamy arrived in Utah in the 1840's, when members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled in the state...The church disavowed polygamy in 1890."

Source: The Boston Globe

On May 13, 2001, The Boston Globe reported on "a growing number of women embracing Islam in Greater Boston, and in one mosque, the Islamic Society of Boston in Cambridge, they outnumber new Muslim men by as much as 2 to 1." These women insist that, contrary to popular belief in America "in fact Islam is more forward-thinking about gender than many Western traditions...In modelling a more egalitarian form of Islamic culture in the United States than in some parts of the world, these women also say they may influence Muslims worldwide...

Source: Star Tribune

On April 21, 2001, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on Thasneem Ahmed, who "developed 'Race to the Kabah,' a colorful, fast-paced board game for Muslim children and their families...The concept is based on the 99 names for Allah (God). People who aren't familiar with the religion can play it, and, Ahmed hopes, learn about Islam in the process...Ahmed considers herself a bridge between" the Indian and American cultures.

Source: Zap2it.com

http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?17199

On April 16, 2001, Zap2it.com reported on "new CBS mini series titled 'Innocent Blood: The True Story of the Salem Witch Trials.'... Co-executive producer Ed Gernon emphasizes, 'This is not about witchcraft; this is about the suspicion of witchcraft and, on some deep, deep level, about men's inherent fear of women and women's instincts.'"

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 1, 2001, Los Angeles Times reported on a shelter for battered women in Garden Grove that is "one of the few in Southern California that serves Muslims who, for complex religious and cultural reasons, think they cannot go anywhere else." The creator of the shelter said "it would be extreme humiliation" to a Muslim woman to go to any other shelter.

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On April 1, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported that "growing numbers of South Asians these days" are posting personal ad on matrimonial Web sites geared specifically toward their culture," in which arranged marriage is still common...Scores of such Internet venues...have sprung up in recent years" in America as elsewhere.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

On March 21, 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that "a suburban rabbi will become the first woman to head a major board of rabbis in the United States when she takes over as president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis in May." Rabbi Ellen Dreyfus "was the first woman rabbi in Illinois when she was ordained in 1979."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On March 17, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported on Sister Carletta LaCour, who teaches Tai Chi at the Christian Renewal Center in Dickinson, Texas. "Though part of the benefit of practicing the moves is physical, LaCour also emphasizes the spiritual." She sees no incongruence between Catholicism and Tai Chi.