InterfaithNews.Net

The question "where are the youth?" is one I have often heard at
interfaith gatherings. As one who is still considered amongst the youth
(though well into my career), I often feel this myself. At
recent gatherings I have taken to looking around the room, wondering who
amongst the participants will still be around in 10, 20 years. The interfaith
movement only has as much potential as it has human resources. On the other
hand, how many of my distinguished older colleagues were involved in
interfaith work in their youth? They are there now, and I have faith that
left to their own devices, an equal number of today's young people will
turn to interfaith work once they get past the prime of their
career-building, courtship, and parenting years. Still, interfaith groups
need to be developing their young leadership today. In a recent edition of
his Sightings project, Martin E. Marty from the University of
Chicago Divinity School continues on this theme.

Introduction to the April 2006 edition of InterfaithNews.net, with editorial reflections on religious freedom and the importance of speaking out and sharing stories.

Eboo Patel, Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, weighs in on the apparent conflict of loyalties between western free speech and Islamic religious practices, refusing "to fall prey to" the black and white mindset that insists on choosing one side over the other.

Introduction to the February 2006 edition of InterfaithNews.net, with editorial reflections on “religiously- motivated” hate.

URI Executive Director Charles Gibbs offers his reflections on the recent victory of Hamas in Palestinian Parliament elections—beginning with despair and ending in hope.

The Archbishop of Canterbury warns that the price of our continued failure
to protect the earth will be violence and social collapse

While most pundits blame Islamic fundamentalism (or Jewish, or
Christian, etc.) for violence in the name of religion, Turkish author Harun
Yahya believes it is rather radicalism that drives the
supposedly-religious to violence. To achieve a mutual peace will require
sustained efforts at educating all believers about the truths in other
religions and downplaying radical ideologies.

Rev. Al Bloom of Hawai'i writes of the duty of all religious believers
to express the social, affirming implications of their religious beliefs when
engaged in social discourse, as well as the need to understand the meaning
and fact of "separation of church and state."

In his February "Executive Director's Letter", Charles Gibbs
urges URI Cooperation Circles to join in support for three major United
Nations' observances in 2005: World Environment Day, the 60th Anniversary
of the UN Charter (and 5th for the URI's), adn the International Day of
Peace