Andrea Useem
Andrea Useem is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Andrea Useem
Parents’ advocates concerned over Texas polygamist case
By Andrea Useem — May 15, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When Texas authorities raided a polygamous community belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in early April and placed more than 400 children in state care, the event brought the long-simmering issues of polygamous communities to a boil. Following calls from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Utah, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By Andrea Useem — March 20, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) With Islam so much in the news today, experts and pundits are frequently called upon to explain the views of Muslims worldwide. But according to Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, Muslims should be able to speak for themselves. In the new book, “Who […]
SIDEBAR: Catholics lose more faithful than any other group
By Andrea Useem — February 26, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In a study that highlights the fluidity of religious affiliation in America today, Hindus stand out as the group with the most stable religious identity, while Buddhists struggle hardest to pass the faith from one generation to the next. Ninety percent of Hindus marry within their own faith, and […]
10 minutes with … Phil Vischer
By Andrea Useem — January 10, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) On Friday (Jan. 11), “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” _ the second feature-length film from the evangelical-inspired VeggieTales _ sails into theaters. Phil Vischer, co-creator of VeggieTales and the voice behind many of the movie’s characters, says the movie is like a biblical parable. It teaches about the […]
Book chronicles sect’s troubled past
By Andrea Useem — December 28, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Like the circumstances of his birth, nothing about Ricky Rodriguez’s life was normal. His death, in 2005 at the age of 29, would be no different. He was born to an American woman, Maria Zerby, who embraced the gospel of “flirty fishing” that used sex as a tool to […]
10 Minutes with … Clark Strand
By Andrea Useem — November 15, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In the fall issue of the American Buddhist magazine Tricycle, contributing editor and former Zen monk Clark Strand makes a provocative claim: American Buddhism must “change or die.” American converts have focused on spiritual practice rather than creating rituals or passing along the tradition to the next generation, argues […]
For polyamorists, three’s not a crowd; it’s just the start
By Andrea Useem — October 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) By day, he’s an Atlanta real estate investor, a self-described political conservative, a member of a Methodist church, the son of a Southern Baptist pastor. After hours, he’s known as “Mr. Big,” a columnist for PolyamoryOnline.org. His family _ a wife and five children _ lives with another couple, […]
10 Minutes With … Aidan Delgado
By Andrea Useem — August 30, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Nineteen-year-old Aidan Delgado had just signed the papers that made him an Army reservist when he heard the news that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. In 2003, he found himself deployed at Abu Ghraib, just as the notorious prison’s abuse scandal was erupting around the […]
10 Minutes with … Sally Quinn
By Andrea Useem — June 28, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Started by two leading journalists with little background in religion, On Faith, the multi-contributor blog at Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive, has rocketed to prominence since it launched last November, registering some of the highest traffic levels on the already popular washingtonpost.com Web site. Each week On Faith moderators Sally […]
10 Minutes with … Joe Mackall
By Andrea Useem — June 14, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Few outsiders have ever glimpsed inside the world of the Swartzentruber Amish _ the most insular sect of an already conservative religious group. But Joe Mackall, living just a mile away from Samuel and Mary Shetler and their 10 children in rural Ohio, forged a friendship with his neighbors […]
Muslim Volunteers Meet Death, Find Life, in Washing Bodies
By Andrea Useem — May 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service HERNDON, Va. _ Deidre “Nusaybah” Ritchie knelt down and gently braided the brown hair of the woman’s body lying in a cocoon of white sheets. After demonstrating to the women gathered around her how to wash the body with soap and sweet-smelling camphor, Ritchie finished wrapping the woman in several […]
10 Minutes With … Paul Barrett
By Andrea Useem — March 8, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) After experiencing Sept. 11, 2001, firsthand at the Wall Street Journal office in Lower Manhattan, Paul Barrett began writing a series of articles about Muslims in America for the paper. Those articles evolved into his new book, “American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion,” which profiles […]
Religion Is New Diversity Push in the Workplace
By Andrea Useem — March 7, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Employers, take this quiz: Did you know that Hindu, Sikh and Jain workers may want a three-day weekend this November to celebrate Diwali? Or that one co-worker urging another to accept Christ as a personal savior is a legally protected act? When it comes to recognizing diversity in the […]
For Many Americans, Religious Identity Is No Longer a Given
By Andrea Useem — February 13, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When Aurora Turk was growing up in Mexico City, being Catholic was a given. “It was taught to me by the nuns at school and my mother at home,” she recalled. “My whole world was Catholic.” But Turk’s adult life has been marked by religious exploration. Married to a […]
10 Minutes With … Ingrid Mattson
By Andrea Useem — October 5, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When Ingrid Mattson was elected head of the Islamic Society of North America in August, she became not only the first female leader in the organization’s 43-year history, but also its first North American-born president. Mattson, raised as a Catholic in Ontario, converted to Islam nearly 20 years ago […]
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