Editorial by Paul Chaffee
Last month’s TIO editorial suggested that the United States of America was at a critical interfaith juncture. Since then the choice has been made.
An New Kind of Interfaith World
Aśoka: Honour All Religions
by Marcus Braybrooke
“One should listen to and respect the religions of other people.” These words that Aśoka had engraved on rocks across his vast empire more than 2,000 years ago still need to be heard today. King Aśoka, the third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty, was largely forgotten until early in the 19th century when a large number of edicts, inscribed on rocks and pillars, were discovered.
Listening to Jesus' Words in a New Kind of Way
by David Parks-Ramage
What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully till she finds it? (Luke 15:8) Meditation is a choice to become intimate with your own life. In meditation, we are quiet and alert, open and available to what is happening now.
I Belong, Therefore I Am
by Jim Burklow
Religion can do a body good. And that’s not just a promise of good-pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die. There’s science behind the assertion that religion can benefit your physical and emotional health on this side of the Pearly Gates.
Review: Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding
by Kathe Schaaf and Kay Lindhal
We have been captivated by the subtitle of the anthology Women, Religion and, Peacebuilding, edited by Susan Hayward and Katherine Marshall – Illuminating the Unseen. So much about the contributions of women to our culture and history has been invisible – both unrecorded and unacknowledged.
Burkini Bans, Muslim 'Hygiene,' and the History of the Holocaust
by Anya Cordell
There are a lot of issues associated with swimsuits; ask any woman. But the newest is hysteria over what some Muslim women are wearing; too much fabric, beyond that required to barely cover genitals, buttocks, and bits of breasts. Teeny bikinis on women, (and speedos for men), are fine. On some beaches in the world, nudity is fine.
Interfaith Options for Christians at Advent
by Vicki Garlock
For Christians, another Advent season will soon be upon us. As one of the quintessential periods in the liturgical calendar, it might seem like the wrong time to be thinking about interfaith efforts. It’s a feeling further heightened by the encroachment of numerous secular obligations. Who has time for “the other” right now?
Changing the World Through Social Media
by Sari Heidenreich
“But people just use it to post pictures of their breakfast.” That’s a complaint I’ve heard over and over again about social media – that it has made us self-absorbed and selfish, that it has made us feel we have to create a picture-perfect life and put it on display for the world to see.But when we’re talking about interfaith organizing, social media is so much more.
Why We Create an "Us" and "Them" and How We Might Stop
by Bud Heckman
A leader of a well-known nonprofit made a highly unusual public admission. So out of character, in fact, that there was a long awkward pause in the packed meeting room after she said it. A knowing gasp. Her organization works in 30 countries helping people overcome differences of various stripes. So what did she admit?
Dr. Mehnaz Afridi: Defying All Stereotypes
by Ruth Broyde Sharone
In an age when Muslim-Jewish tensions are unusually high, when prominent Muslim leaders publicly deny that the Holocaust happened, and when UNESCO recently voted to declare that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is historically sacred only to Muslims, not Jews or Christians – it’s hard to imagine that a Muslim would have been selected to head a Holocaust center.
Monotheistic Mystic, or a Megalomaniac?
by Marcus Braybrooke
Should the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten be seen as an ancient forbearer of the interfaith movement? In one of his prayers he said of God, “You are the Lord of all, who takes care of all,” and he said “God created every person equal to each other.” He is, however, still today as in his own time, a controversial figure.
The Remarkable Interfaith Significance of Alexander the Great
by Henry Karlson
Interfaith dialogue is a constant element of any religious faith. Such dialogue, however, tends not to be on the level of the dogmatic teachings of the different faiths but on practical matters, such as questions concerning the morality or immorality of particular actions or on the way communities as a whole understand shared historical experiences.
A Report from The Tabernacle Experience
by Jonathan Homrighausen
I stood in front of the Ark of the Covenant, holding my incense while I gazed on the golden wings of the cherubim. No, I am not starring in a remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was inside The Tabernacle Experience, an interactive re-enactment of the Tabernacle which the Israelites built in the desert on their journey from Egypt to Canaan.
Koans, Parables, and the Realm of God
by David Parks-Ramage
Christian Koan Groups rely on a spiritual tool discovered in China through the development of Ch’an Buddhism. Koans are dialogs between Ch’an masters and their students, found helpful in leading students to a perception of life as it is rather than as it is imagined, hoped or wished to be. An example of a koan is Zhaozhou’s Dog:
Beating a Message of Peace in Uganda
by Vicki Garlock
In a country often known for unspeakable violence and political strife, Buyondo Micheal offers a beacon of hope to those desperately seeking peace. As founder of Faiths Together Uganda (FTU), Micheal uses dance, music, and art to unify and delight. Inspired by global interfaith initiatives, he provides the funding and the energy for events that cross religious, cultural, and tribal divides.
Skillsets to Overcome Religious Bigotry
by Ariella Amit
As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed a few years ago, I came across a post encouraging Los Angeles youth to apply for membership on an Interfaith Council. I followed the link to the website reluctantly and began reading about the goals of the council. By the end of my interfaith research, I realized that being a privileged, white Jew living in Los Angeles, I have little exposure to different religions at all.
Obama's Final Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge
by Ruth Broyde Sharone
Eboo Patel’s question rang out in Elstad Auditorium on the final day of the Sixth Annual President’s Interfaith Community Service Campus Challenge, held this year in September at Gallaudet University in Washington DC. Founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, and one of the principal architects of the Campus Challenge, Patel posed that key question to some 600 participants: students, professors, university presidents and interfaith activists
Review: The INTRAfaith Conversation (2016) by Susan Strouse
by Kay Lindahl
As a Christian who has been engaged in the interfaith movement for over 25 years, I found myself intrigued by The INTRAfaith Conversation: How Do Christians Talk Among Ourselves About INTERfaith Matters? (2016). Susan Strouse’s book explores the importance of intrafaith conversations as a path to deeper and more meaningful interfaith conversations.
Shadowing the China G20 Summit: An Interreligious Gathering
by Katherine Marshall
World leaders meeting in Hangzhou, China may be unaware that a few days earlier a shadow group of religious scholars met in Beijing. Their agenda was geared to the G20 and their meeting reflected a determined effort by Chinese scholars and counterparts from across the world to continue a tradition of gathering in parallel with the global encounters of national leaders
Following the Path of Transformation
by Weston Pew
On my path over this past year my work for The Sacred Door Trail has taken me to the melting glaciers of Greenland where gigantic ice walls fall into rivers every 20 minutes, shaking ground and bone as a warning call of the coming rising seas.