"More important than Dead Sea Scrolls? Quest on for holy text"

This article was an investigative article, and must have taken a fair amount of time to research. It's not breaking news, but I still find it interesting. And while Christians may be interested in this article, it is an article about Jewish relics (very little focuses on Judiasm in USA Today, since they are a minority in the U.S., Christianity being the most dominant religion in the U.S. currently).

The importance of these missing pages was well explained from a Jewish viewpoint. As the article says, "Judaism sanctifies each tiny calligraphic flourish in the Bible as a way of ensuring that communities around the world use precisely the same version of the divine book. That's why the Codex is considered by some to be the most important Jewish text in existence, and why the missing pieces are so coveted."

While overall the piece is good, there seems to be some of the writer's own opinions present. "He divulged few details lest he compromise the effort." Is that really why he didn't say much, or was that a way to embellish the story? "There it was guarded as the Jews' most prized possession and talisman." Who said that it was their most prized possession and talisman? Is that just how the author viewed such close guarding?

The timeline on the side of the article is helpful so one doesn't have to go back and find past dates and what they mean. It helps for understanding of the article.

I really like the way the article ends, "'My guess is that there's a bigger piece somewhere else, waiting to be found,' he said." It just seems to end on a hopeful note, which I personally like.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-27-jewish-crown-aleppo_N.htm

"Analyst: View of heaven shows 'real level of religious tolerance'"

Once again, an interesting article. It talks about how religions are coming to more of a "middle ground," and that they feel this is a good thing. More people of one religion believe that people of another religion can go to heaven than was believed 50 years ago. It also gives some nice little facts about church attendance and tithing at the end as a nice ending. I feel that the reporting does not have very much depth, but that could be due to a certain word limit (only a certain amount of space in a paper).

And once again, it leaves me with some questions. When it says "researchers found that while 72% of respondents said at least half of Christians will make it into heaven, the figures were lower for other faiths: Jews (46 percent), Buddhists (37 percent) and Muslims (34 percent)," how were the religions represented? Were there 22% Christian, 22% Jews, 22% Buddhist, 22% Muslim, 11% no religion (no religion statistic was actually given), and 1% other? Were there trends among religions, such as Buddhists seeing more people from other religions making it to heaven?

Was heaven defined, and if so, how? Different religions have different views of heaven. Was it just will people of these religions make it to your view of heaven?

How do religious leaders feel about these things? This article shows an increase in numbers for tolerance, but are the fanatic becoming more fanatic?

What do other studies indicate? Are there other studies?

There are good statistics and reasonable sources in this story.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-18-baylor-heaven_N.htm

"With Wall Street in turmoil, some in suits turn to religion"

While overall this is a good article, there are a few critiques of it. Kearney tells about more suits going to church from the religious leaders' perspectives, but what about the individual's perspective? I think that the story would have benefited from an interview with someone who had just started attending services due to the finacial difficulties. There are more people attending overall, but has anyone stopped attending religious services because they feel God has not answered prayers concerning their job? How do those already in these congregations feel about people who didn't come before coming to them and asking for financial help?

The sources do have the credentials to be interviewed, but again, what about the individual people in the religious organizations? We are told that Lou Janicek, works as a financial adviser on Wall Street, but is his job in jeopardy? What does he have in common with those who are now attending the religious services?

I think it's a positive for the story that there are are comments from religious leaders from a Protestant church, a Catholic church, and a Jewish temple. They even mentioned that they tried to interview someone from the mosque, but got no response. It shows the diversity present at Wall Street, and that the turmoil is affecting everyone.

View the article at http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-22-wall-street-churches_N.htm