When I was ten years old, a man who owned a small record label wanted to sign me after hearing me sing at a talent show where I went to school with his daughter. My Pentecostal Christian stepmother, bless her heart, was adamant that a gift like mine should only be “used for The Lord, not for the world.” My family moved shortly thereafter, alleviating me from facing the theological dilemma she’d imposed.
Finding Light in the Darkness
The best of music and theater transport us somewhere outside our own particular time and place, even beyond our own cultural and religious coordinates. By allowing us outside our own boundaries, they offer a chance for fresh insight and inspiration. Susan Stein’s one-woman play “Etty,” directed by Austin Pendleton, does just that. In this Amnesty International Award nominated play, actress Stein introduces us to a most remarkable and spiritually inquisitive young Dutch Jewish woman of the early 1940s. Drawn entirely from the dairies and letters of Etty Hillesum, we experience a remarkable kind of theater-as-time-travel.
Finding Funding for Your Interfaith Film
The art of compelling storytelling is the core focus of the Hartley Film Foundation’s mission. Storytelling in documentary film is the foundation’s tool for connecting audiences to new experiences and ideas about real people, places, and events. The foundation supports filmmakers proposing narratives about world religions and spirituality. Implicitly, a primary Hartley goal is to strengthen interfaith understanding through these films.
"Top 10 Things You Must Know About ..."
During the month of February, Religions for Peace USA (RfPUSA) is releasing a series of short educational videos inspired by World Interfaith Harmony Week (WIHW). The videos are viewable here.
In 2014, RfPUSA and the El-Hibri Foundation (EHF) co-sponsored a “Best of Interfaith Webinar Series” for WIHW, featuring leading experts in the field. A short summary video of the highlights from that series is available here and the whole series is viewable here.
Beyond the Doctrine of Discovery
The Doctrine of Discovery which emerged from the Papal Bulls of 1452-1493 may be the most destructive ‘doctrine’ ever promoted by a religious institution, though few know about it today. For much of the 15th century the pope was the most powerful man in Europe, and these papal documents “provided legal sanction and promoted Christian conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian territories and peoples the world over,” as a report in this issue of TIO puts it.
“Indigenous Knowledge” Helping Mend the Nature-Culture Divide
An extraordinary global solidarity movement is happening today, providing a place for all to contribute. The movement represents a confluence of the indigenous and environmental movements (the “red” and the “green”). Joining forces, they are addressing the dire ecological issues humanity faces – food and water scarcity, climate disruption, droughts and flooding, species extinction, increased toxicity and health problems, and social division, to name a few.
An Indigenous Call for Restoring the Sacred
The spiritual foundation of the reunion of the Condor and the Eagle is based in the understanding of the fundamental oneness and unity of all life. All members of the Human Family are part of the ancient Sacred Circle of Life. Since we are all part of the Sacred Circle of Life we are all Indigenous Peoples of our Mother Earth. This makes every Human Being responsible for the well-being of one another and for all living things upon Mother Earth.
Drop by Drop, until the Cup is Full
My friend Jeremy Sher is a brilliant up-and-coming leader of the Reform rabbinical movement. He is working to create a vision of Judaism that is both inclusive and yet deeply spiritually fulfilling, a Judaism which rejects gender discrimination and insularity while embracing and upholding the primacy of the holy texts in Jewish life. Jeremy lives in Jaffa, the mostly Arab city that abuts Tel Aviv, genially going about the daily business of preparing for ordination, learning Hebrew, and completing a research fellowship while saying “shukran” (“thank you”) to his Arab neighbors and “toda” (“thank you”) to his Jewish neighbors. Jeremy is what it looks like when you have a smart, compassionate, religiously Jewish man who rejects parochial attitudes in favor of an open-minded and open-hearted commitment to tikkun olam, healing the world. You could probably say he’s my religious role model.
Helping Kids Connect to the Earth
The best way to minister for the Earth is to help kids feel connected to the Earth. We have found the same thing to be true for adults. When you connect to the Earth, you connect with your ancestors. You connect with others and with the deepest part of yourself. You connect with all of life. That’s why we regularly celebrate the Pagan wheel of the year in our Sunday school program at Jubilee! Community Church in Asheville, North Carolina.
Rev. Jennifer Bailey – What Defines a Millennial Interfaith Leader?
Often in the interfaith movement, we speak about the changes in the religious landscape and the impact these sociological, religious and political shifts have on the movement. Rarely, however, do we get the chance to hear from young leaders of the movement who spend time thinking about and challenging our expectations of what it means to be a leader in the interfaith movement today.
First All-Women Mosque in America Launched
Gold and green balloons strained to be released and soar into the sky at midday on Friday, January 30, at the entrance to the Pico Union Synagogue in Los Angeles, one of the oldest synagogues in LA, now an interfaith and multicultural arts center that regularly hosts multiple religious communities. This house of worship, with its huge multicolored stained-glass Star of David, was about to become the weekly home of the first all-women’s mosque in America and the site of the first jummah prayer in LA led exclusively by women.
Neuropeace: Putting Science to Work for Peace
Imagine this elephant picture as the human brain. The rider on top – he represents conscious processes. Out of all of the brain’s activity, he seemingly directs everything, allowing us to “know” what we are doing. The rest of the elephant? It represents the unconscious aspects of our brain, the parts that we don’t have so much information about. Surprising, isn’t it? Here we thought that we lived in a rational age where cognitive science had at least figured out much of what there is to know about the brain. Actually, it’s quite the opposite.
The Finer Points of Getting to Know You
As an interfaith-active Wiccan who has developed strong relationships with indigenous leaders, I’m familiar with the uncomfortable silences that can jar relationships between indigenous practitioners and institutional religionists. Something is missing. You’re in the same room but don’t know how to talk to each other. Here are some suggestions to bridging that spiritual gap.
Doctrine, Ritual, and Spiritual Development
Doctrine – the codification of beliefs, teachings, and practices – is an important element for established institutional religions. It clarifies what a religion expects of its followers, how to behave toward one another and…
When Nature Talks Back
Several years ago, I attended a North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) “Connect” in Las Vegas. The program was organized in three tracks, including one called “Caring for Creation.” As might be expected, all of the Pagans and indigenous people gravitated towards that track.
What Is Indigeneity?
Can indigenous peoples not practice indigenous religions? What if a non-indigenous person claims to practice their religion? Can people normally not considered indigenous have an indigenous religion? What if they claim they are reconstructing a tradition that died out? What does “indigenous” actually mean, and how does it relate to both people and religion? While I will offer some general suggestions of my own, the most important part of this essay explains why these apparently simple questions are so complicated.
Struggling to Keep the Cosmovisión Alive
Every town, every culture has a concept of reality which accords with their life experience. The Aztecs, Mayan and Incas, peoples indigenous to Central and South America, created their own cosmovisión, as a way of conceiving the universe.
Renouncing the Doctrine of Discovery/Reclaiming Mother Earth
Hidden Seeds of Natural Healing & Curing was held last July, a gathering of 33 indigenous representatives from six continents, including two youth, ages 13 and 14, a council of leaders gathered to reflect on the global situation they and their peoples face. Hosted by United Religions Initiative’s Global Indigenous Initiative, participants met for three days near Napa Valley in Northern California.
The Invisibility and Inevitability of Polytheism
The books you read can often illuminate patterns within the culture and society that you may not have noticed, or re-contextualize thoughts you’ve already had. Such is the case with A Million and One Gods: The Persistence of Polytheism (2014, Harvard University Press) by Page duBois, a Distinguished Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego. For the well-read Pagan or polytheist, much of what duBois says regarding the worship of multiple gods and powers won’t be all that new, but the cumulative goal to advocate for a course-correction within academia regarding the concept of polytheism underlines just how pervasive monotheism is within Western culture’s assumptions and thinking, even from the scholars who are supposed to be dispassionate observers and analysts.
Saving Pagan Lives
Serving on the global council of the United Religions Initiative (URI) for 15 years has given me a new perspective on my own spiritual family. URI has grown to become the largest grassroots interfaith organization in the world, with more than 650 local groups in over 85 countries. Through URI, I have seen the power that comes with the “indigenous, tribal, polytheistic, Nature-based, Earth-centered, and/or Pagan religions” being understood as a single group. One story makes the point.