Last Update: Monday, Jan. 11, 2011

Note: The Journalist's Toolbox does not promote any religion site over another, but provides any link it deems helpful to the media, regardless of belief.

Recent Additions to This Section
(This section features sites added to the page in the last few weeks.
Each link is cross-referenced on the page in its proper category.)

Christianity Forum - Thoughts.com
Christian forums and group discussions regarding personal perspectives on Christianity. Thoughts.com also offers one of the most lively blogging communities on the web covering just about every topic once could think of.

Islam Forum - Thoughts.com
Muslim discussion on Islam and the religion at the center of controversy. There are lots of interesting posts here, but just as it is with the Christianity forums, it is also a hot bed for debate.

MinistryWatch.com
Evaluates more than 500 religion-based charities.

Spirituality.com
Features quotes and study guides to ?Science and Health? by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science.

Religious Tolerance: Native American Religions

Religious Movements: Native American Religions

Paths In Judaism
Origins of Hannukah and other facts about Jewish history. Also offers a Web course on Judaism.

RELIGION AND 9/11

CNN's Mideast 101
Stories and video backgrounding the Mideast conflict. Great history and quick-reference resource that should come in handy for fact-checking. Includes a timeline, maps, refugee locator, list of key players, etc.

CNN.com: Israeli-Palestine Links
A list of about 20 key Web sites.

Religious Response to Terrorism
This site from the National Council of Churches has background and a statement opposing hatred that people are signing.

CrossCurrents
A global religion site that explores violence and faith. Some background on Islam-Christianity relationship.

Muslims Against Terrorism
Started by a group of young American Muslims

Islamic Law
Information and understanding of the basic tenets of Islamic law. It includes texts of books, articles and congressional testimony.

University of Michigan's Koran Browser

Brown University's Quran Browser
Search a database from the Scholarly Tech Group.

USC's Quran Search
Search in three different translations.

Islamic Supreme Council of America
A portal to historical background and community events.

Council on American-Islamic Relations
Dozens of resources and background, including polls on racial profiling since Sept. 11.

PBS's Islam: Empire of Faith
Features 1,000 years of history.

Council on American Islamic Relations

IslamiCity: Understanding Muslims
Some basic terms that are great for backgrounding.

Testimony Project
An outreach to college students post-terrorist attacks.

Columbia University: Understanding the Koran
A great explanatory site that includes history, interpretations, etc. of the Islamic faith

Koinonia House
Well-known Christian Bible teacher Chuck Misler analyzes the terror attacks from a prophetic viewpoint.

Muslims Online
A community page that offers some background, news updates, mailing lists and listservs.

CLERGY ABUSE CONTROVERSY

Poynter.org: Clergy Abuse Coverage -- What's Next?
An open discussion of how to handle the stories.

Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse: Clergy Abuse
A comprehensive set of articles, links, statistics and references.

Poynter.org: Covering Clergy Abuse
A huge collection of resources. Links to stories, organizations and statistics.

Time.com: Catholicism in Crisis

Clergy and Educator Abuse Survivors Empowered (CEASE)

ClergyAbuse.net
Resources, forums, expert sources, etc.

Newsthinking.com: Editor's Journal -- Church Abuse Scandal
A great chronology of how the LA Times reported the scandal.

The Vatican
You must pay for full text of stories.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Religion Writers.com: Clergy Abuse
Background, resources by region, stories, state laws on clergy abuse, etc.

LinkUp.com: Survivors of Clergy Abuse

Adherents.com: Statistics on Catholics

Community.Catholic: Statistics on Catholics

Catholic Religion Online

Catholic.net

Roman Catholic Religion Online

Time.com Archive: Clergy Abuse 1985-2002
You must pay for full text of stories.

Clergy Abuse: Basic References
Some textbooks, statistics and attributed facts regarding sexual abuse.

RELIGION NEWS

LA Times Religion Section

Ourfaiths.org Religion Communities
Great news updates on several religions.

Sharefaith.com
Religious news resources and some e-commerce.

Religion Journalism on the WWW: Newspapers and Links
Links to dozens of news sites, including newspaper religion sections. One of the best on the Web.

ChristianityToday.com News
Includes 10,000 free articles from the leading publisher of Christian publications.

Credenda Agenda Magazine
Explores all areas from a biblical and Protestant perspective. Comes out bi-monthly.

Beliefnet
News and trends in religion.

FaithandValues

PBS Frontline: Race and Religion

Bridging the Gap: Religion and the News Media

Freedom Forum: Deities & Deadlines

FACS Journalism, Religion and Public Life Program

Religion News Service
Good for quick-reference, this site posts headlines and short summaries from the services daily news service output, which includes news briefs,features and commentary. The full text of the daily and weekly service is available to subscribers only.

Finding God in Cyberspace
Great name for a guide to "the best Religious Studies resources on the Internet."

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
The online companion to the PBS series Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, hosted by Bob Abernethy.

Christian Daily News
A Washington-based team of academic and policy consultants.

Religion Today

Worldwide Faith News
A database of full-text official news releases and other documents, including policy statements, from the news offices of national and world faith groups. This collection indexes more than 14,000 documents, including posts in French, Spanish and Dutch.

Readings on Religion as News

Religious News Service

Religion News Today

Golden Compass
Links to religion news around the world.

Village Life Daily News

God.com
Time magazine's guide to religion and spirituality.

ELCA News

Christian Science Monitor

CBN
Home page of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

DENOMINATIONS

United Methodist Church

United Methodist Reporter Interactive
Undergoing some upgrades.

RNS Christian News

Christian Coalition

Crosswalk.com News Channel
Provides up to the minute news and comment with a Christian perspective.

Maranatha Christian Journal News

Faith and Values
Information about Christian and Jewish faiths, including doctrines, text of speeches, video and audio. The site was built by a coalition of 70 Jewish and Christian faith groups.

TEXTS, DATA AND RESEARCH

Harvard University: The Pluralism Project
A must-bookmark for anyone reporting on religion or ethics. Run by the Committee on the Study of Religion, this site offers current research, media resources, news stories and much, much more.

Rutgers University's Virtual Religion Index
Links to denominations, philosophy and psychology of religion sites. A must bookmark!

Rutgers University Journal of Law and Religion
Another must bookmark, this site features journal articles, links on the Nuremburg Project, an e-mail news update and a collection of related religion links.

StudyWeb's Religion Dictionaries

The American Religion Data Archive
Includes database of church membership, denomination studies, attitude surveys and polls.

Online Journalism Review: Religious Texts Online

Religion Academic Departments
Good for sourcing for stories.

Ethics and Public Policy Center
A Washington think-tank that puts together seminars and studies.

Poynter.org: Words Sting
Kay James of Lee Enterprises newspapers offers advice on covering grief. A must-read for all journalists!

Harvard's Pluralism Project

Hartford Institute of Religion Research

University of Virginia: Religious Movements
A searchable site bursting with news and resources. The site provides a foundation for understanding how religious groups emerge, grow, stagnate, reinvigorate themselves, and sometimes die.

Reports from Pew Center on Religion and Public Life
A survey of journalists in association with the Columbia Journalism Review.

Detroit Free Press: Covering Religion
Tips on how to cover religion for any beat at the newspaper.

Google's Religion History

The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion
A federation of learned societies in religion and the publisher of Religious Studies Review and the CSSR Bulletin.

American Academy of Religion

World Association for Christian Communications
A media watchdog organization from England that offers an alternative perspective than the mainstream media's view of values and religious issues. Has commentary on the coverage of the 9-11 tragedies.

Material History of American Religion Project

Adherents.com
Lists of the world's largest religions, religions of past presidents, and religion in literature.

Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
A non-denominational, independent society "working for a dynamic and positive relationship between science and religion since 1954."

BIOTN: Best Information on the Net
A search site for controversial issues compiled by Catholic university librarians (death penalty, gun control, human rights, censorship, etc.)

Psychology of Religion

World Journalism Institute

Religion and Philosophy Resources
A good site from the Boston University School of Theology.

Freedom From Religion Foundation
Protecting the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.

Religion in the News
The Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life's critique of the media's religion coverage. Supported by the Pew Foundation.

123World Religion
An online index/guide in the spirit of About.com.

American Theological Library Association

Religious Education Network

English Literature and Religion
This site features a deep index of religious research.

The Wall
Kimberly Blaker?s nationally syndicated column on church and state.

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES

Library of Congress: Religion and the Government
Takes effect October 2002.

Poynter.org: The Bummer Beat/Covering Grief
Site offers guidance, case studies and checklists. Our aim is to provoke thought and discussion and offer help to those journalists whose next story may put them on the doorstep of a grieving parent, at the scene of a horrific accident or amidst the pack behind the yellow crime scene tape.