The New Americans


Over six months, members of the Columbia News21 team (A Journalism Initiative of the Carnegie and Knight Foundations) traveled 525,000 miles across the United States, Canada, India and Iran in search of a better understanding of minority religions and the immigrants who practice them.

From the project's website: "American religion is now a festival of rituals, practices, behaviors and beliefs that once seemed like the province of faraway lands. Today, mosques and gurudwaras and temples sacred to Buddhists and Hindus dot the American landscape along with churches and synagogues. What is more, Catholics, Protestants and Jews -- having absorbed immigrant populations -- aren’t what they once were."

This is a comprehensive study of America's minority (and majority) religions and faiths presented through a combination of multimedia products and styles. Many, if not all, of us would benefit from giving this remarkably compelling project the time it richly deserves to absorb it, and learn from it.

The New Americans