April 7, 2008

POLYGAMY
219 children, women taken from sect's ranch
CNN (04/07/2008)
ELDORADO, Texas -- More than 200 women and children have been removed from a Texas ranch that's home to members of a polygamist sect, but authorities have not identified the girl who called them with allegations of abuse.

Authorities search for more kids at Texas ranch
Associated Press (04/07/2008: msnbc.msn.com)
SAN ANGELO, Texas - Authorities planned to search Monday for more children and documents at a polygamist compound after removing 220 women and children from the 1,700-acre West Texas ranch over the weekend.

POLLS
Research explores what 1.3 billion Muslims think
Reuters (04/07/2008)
LONDON - In the years since the September 11 attacks on the United States, much has been said about the Muslim world, but little, it is argued, has been gathered on what Muslims truly think of the West. Now Gallup, the global polling group, has conducted research in 35 Muslim countries, interviewing more than 50,000 people over a six-year period, to come up with what it is calling the first comprehensive survey of Muslim world opinion.

How Would Jesus Choose?
Lisa Miller/Newsweek (04/07/2008)
About a third of white evangelicals say that abortion should sometimes or always be legal, according to the Pew Research Center—a number that hasn't changed in a decade. In recent election seasons, however, these moderate voices have been drowned out by hard-line shouting on both sides.

DENOMINATIONS
The Episcopal Property War
David Van Biema/Time (04/07/2008)
In the slow-motion civil war of the Episcopal Church in the U.S., one very worldly question has arisen: who owns the real estate? If a congregation chooses to leave the U.S. Episcopal organization, do they have to vacate the property and the physical church building they have been occupying? That high-stakes question will surely take many more legal battles to resolve, but the first round has been won by the secessionists, in a high-profile fight involving a famous old church.

NONPROFITS
Civil Rights Groups Seeing Gradual End of Their Era
Darryl Fears/Washington Post (04/05/2008)
Forty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, the storied organizations that propelled the modern-day civil rights movement alongside him are either struggling to stay relevant or struggling to stay alive.

FAITH LEADERS
The story behind the Dalai Lama's visit to Seattle
John Iwasaki/Seattle Post-Intelligencer (04/03/2008)
The seed for Seeds of Compassion, a gathering in Seattle featuring the Dalai Lama, was sown in a central Idaho resort community on the fourth anniversary of an American tragedy.