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Social Justice, October 2024
Marium Mohiuddin
Where Social Justice Begins

by Marium Mohiuddin

“You have to come and help me right now!” he said. All I could think was “it’s 4 a.m., and there’s no way I can sneak out.” My parents would kill me. Despite being a senior in college...

Where Social Justice Begins
Social Justice, October 2024
Sparrow Etter Carlson
The Substance of Possibility

by Sparrow Etter Carlson

I write this now with my hand on my heart, and here it will remain. For what follows is about the precious people within our midst who are treated as ex-humans in our society and...

The Substance of Possibility
Social Justice, October 2024
Mohammed Jibriel
Living at the Crossroads: The Complex Realities ...

by Mohammed Jibriel

I recently learned about the concept of moral injury, which describes the profound psychological, behavioral, social, and spiritual distress that...

Living at the Crossroads: The Complex Realities of Queer Palestinians
Social Justice, October 2024
Zack Ritter
Moving Toward Collective Care, Healing, and ...

by Zack Ritter

“All 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza are terrorists,” she said as we were eating cookies, standing around the flickering flames at Shabbat services. I was...

Moving Toward Collective Care, Healing, and Action
Social Justice, Women , October 2024
Cassandra Lawrence & Wendy Goldberg
Uplifting Women’s Voices and Challenging Male ...

by Cassandra Lawrence & Wendy Goldberg

It is the first thread in our tapestry of connections. In August 2018, both of us—eager for a safe space to discuss how multifaith communities can cultivate...

Uplifting Women’s Voices and Challenging Male Misconduct

Pioneers & Leaders

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Monotheistic Mystic, or a Megalomaniac?

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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.

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An Instrument of Thy Peace

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An Instrument of Thy Peace

by Ruth Broyde Sharone

“I’m just an ordinary person,” says Patrick McCollum in all earnestness. But the 66-year-old former jewelry designer, leader in the Pagan community, interfaith minister, and now world peace-maker, has been at the epicenter of extraordinary events that continue to unfold as he is called to serve in the far-flung corners of the globe.

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Huston Smith and the Parliament of the World’s Religions

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All of us can look back over our lives and identify people who have been significant role models. One of those persons for me has been Huston Smith. Perhaps the most important American scholar of religions for five decades, Smith was born the son of Methodist missionaries in Dzang Dok, China, where he spent the first 17 years of his life. Now 96 and confined to a favorite chair in an assisted-living apartment in Berkeley, California, the old gentleman – eyes sparkling – still “banters in Chinese with his friend, Mr. Lin, the maintenance man” (Lisa Miller, “Huston Smith’s Wonderful Life,” The Daily Beast, 2009).

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“I’d Like to Help” – A Conversation with Charles Gibbs

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“I’d Like to Help” – A Conversation with Charles Gibbs
What can we learn from a pioneer who co-created the largest grassroots interfaith organization in the world? A conversation with Charles Gibbs gifted us with answers to this question.

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C. F. Andrews: Gandhi’s Friend

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Often the friendships made at a conference are remembered long after the keynote speeches are forgotten. In the ancient and mediaeval worlds, friendship was very highly valued. For Aristotle, friendship was the very fabric of a healthy society, and Cicero stressed the importance of friendship. The mediaeval monk Aelred even translated the Biblical verse “God is love” as “God is friendship.” (1 John 4: 8).

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Sri Ramakrishna: A Profile

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Except for students of Hinduism, Sri Ramakrishna is a largely unknown figure in the West. Yet his teaching and influence have helped shape the global interfaith movement. His vision, if not his name, came to Europe and America through his student and devotee, Swami Vivekananda, whose electrifying contributions at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions are invoked as the beginning of the interfaith movement. Marcus Braybrooke’s profile is so carefully researched that TIO is breaking its long habit of not using footnotes. For those who want to study Ramakrishna, they point the way.

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Interfaith Voices – Over the Air & Your Ipod Portal

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For all the increase in religious and interreligious news these days, and in spite of thousands of grassroots interfaith organizations dotting the globe, major media’s exploration of interreligious/ interfaith/ interspirituality has been timid. Exceptions like Religion News Service, Huffington Post Religion, and PBS’ Religion and Ethics Newsweekly may be turning the tide via the internet. Radio hasn’t done as well, with “Christian” radio still dominating the airwaves along with the likes of Rush Limbaugh’s vicious screed.

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Nina Meyerhof – Planting the Seeds of Spiritual Activism

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If there is to be a new leadership model for building a better global society it must have spirituality as its base.

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Climate Key to Sustainable Development

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Pope Francis told world leaders on Friday that in order to address poverty, hunger, war and inequality, they must first tackle climate change.

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Pope Francis & Rabbi Skorka: Forging a Deeper Relationship

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There may come a moment in long-standing interfaith friendships when individuals deeply devoted to their religious traditions notice how the differences that separate them from their dialogue partner begin to recede or even dissolve. While recognizing that philosophical and religious differences still exist, they begin to experience a form of familiarity and kinship that supersedes religion, dogma, tradition, and history.

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Ramakrishna and Vivekananda: Midwives of the Interfaith Movement

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Although no single person, group of persons, or religious tradition can be solely credited with the emergence of the interfaith movement – a vast and complex movement to which many hands and minds have contributed – it is certainly true that the interfaith movement as it exists today would be inconceivable without the contributions of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda.

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Rev. Jennifer Bailey – What Defines a Millennial Interfaith Leader?

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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.

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Duane Elgin – Profile of a Visionary

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Duane Elgin, who might be deemed the most important visionary alive if more people knew about him, is a man who defies attempts at ‘categorization.’ But if you are involved with multicultural, interfaith work and care about humankind’s future, you need to know about this joyfully complex thinker who is offering a vision and tools for achieving our highest goals.

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Len Swidler– the Quest for a Deeper Dialogue

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The indefatigable Leonard Swidler, now in his 87th year and best known for founding the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, is renewing two of his Interreligious Dialogue (IRD) initiatives. This good news coincides with the publication of a lively biography, There Must Be You (2014) by River Adams, and Swidler’s own Dialogue for Interreligious Understanding (2014), which summarises much of his thinking.

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Greg Harder and Mastery of Interfaith Social Media

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California-born Greg Harder invests three to five hours every day in front of his computer screen as a “cultural detective specializing in interfaith,” a phrase he coined to describe his internet social-media activities.

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The Dalai Lama’s Call for Compassion

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“West’s war with Islam to last 100 years” was the banner headline of a recent Australian newspaper. Admittedly, the text referred to ‘extreme Islam,’ but the headline reinforces a very dangerous over-simplification sadly too often voiced both by Christians and Muslims on the social media.

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Remembering B.K.S. Iyengar – The Light of Yoga

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Last fall, I had the honor of meeting with B.K.S. Iyengar, who died on August 20, at his yoga institute in Pune, India. Dressed in a crisp white kurta, a perfect match for his snowy hair and famously majestic eyebrows, he had graciously squeezed in a visit with me between institute business and his receipt of an award from the local government. At age 95, he had taught a yoga class that morning.

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Hal French, a Personal Reminiscence

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The sudden death of Hal French this past July 10, at the age of 84, was a shock and sadness to his many friends around the world. He was a gentle giant among the pioneers who have opened the doors to interfaith culture over the past half century. We express our deep sympathy to his wife Rannee and the family.

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A Personal Reminiscence of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

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Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, 89, died this past July 3. Ordained as an Orthodox rabbi in 1947, he went on to become the founder of Jewish Renewal and a champion of interfaith relations and collaboration. He was well known for his mystical perspective, liturgical innovations, and explorations of Hasidism. In over a dozen books he championed the practice of spiritual direction and supported the Gaia hypothesis, ecology, feminism, and the LGBTQ community. Greatly loved as a teacher, he held emeriti professorships at Naropa University and Temple University. His close friendships included the Dalai Lama, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Matthew Fox, Thomas Merton, Bernie Glassman, Swami Satchidananda, and Ram Dass.

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Bud Heckman – An Interfaith Frank Lloyd Wright

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Bud Heckman is an interfaith Frank Lloyd Wright. This pastor, scholar, and author is a global architect designing the structures we all will need – if we are to transform religious conflict into interfaith cooperation that can benefit communities worldwide.