College-educated American women asked me at the dinner table, “But why would you want to do a film about Muslims?” “You know they’re out to get us.”
Interfaith in Cyberspace
It all began for me in the early 1990s with a simple posting on an e-mail group list – a list of holy days during the coming month observed by different religious groups from Adventists to Zoroastrians. That monthly listing brought together two great interests of mine, interreligious dialogue and the emerging power of electronic communication.
Jihad on the D Train
I’d like to say it’s been a quiet week in my hometown, as Garrison Keillor recites at the beginning of his monologues on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion. But I’m never able to say that, because I’m not from Lake Wobegon. I’m a New Yorker by birth and by attitude, though not by residence over the past nearly three decades.
A Holy Month in Maine
The shadow-side of media is steady fare these days. Take YouTube, for instance. Provide a gigantic platform for anyone with a computer and a videocamera and the disastrous possibilities emerge. Last month, YouTube posted a 14-minute clip from Innocence of Muslims, a “preposterously amateurish, nearly unwatchable hack-job of a film responsible for sparking a firestorm of violence and anti-U.S. protests in the Middle East,” according to Discovery News.
The Internet – A Spiritual Haven for Youth?
Nearly 20,000 spiritually minded readers this year engaged with youth-created content at KidSpirit, an ad-free online magazine and community for youth exploring life’s big questions. These readers come from India and Indonesia and Illinois and many places in between. Most read KidSpirit in English, though a few intrepid souls read it in Chinese, Filipino or Italian.
Interfaith Resources to End Bullying
According to the Sikh Coalition, one in ten young people who are repeatedly bullied drop out of school or change schools, and 85 percent of reported bullying cases go without intervention or response. Bullying has become an epidemic in the U.S. and globally, affecting communities regardless of faith. Cyber-bullying is another new phenomenon affecting youth with access to the internet and cellphones.
Seminarians Go Online to “Make Interfaith”
In Rabbinic Judaism, Torah is considered as much a process as a sacred text. By studying, analyzing, and debating the significance of its contents, rabbis and their disciples are said to make Torah.
Alliance of Religions and Conservation: Spirituality Holds the Key to Climate Change
The African Regional Director of the United Nations’ Environment Programme’s Office for Africa, Mr. Mounkaila Goumandakoye, confessed in Nairobi Tuesday that the global community has not succeeded in reversing some of the trends of the environmental degradation because the world has failed to look at the issues through the lenses of spirituality, morality, and faith.
How the Digital Revolution is Changing Who We Are
High technology’s new digital tools are a blessing for faith communities and the interfaith movement everywhere. At the local level, e-mail, websites, databases, and social media are quickly displacing the time and expense of poster production, paper newsletters, fliers, and snail-mail. At the national and international levels, new powers have been vested for those who have been voiceless in the public square, a clear opportunity for NGOs and communities of faith and practice. They have been scrambling to respond: surveys suggest that approximately 250,000 of the 335,000 religious congregations in the U.S. have websites today.
Interfaith Misunderstanding in America
There was a U.S. senator’s wild allegation about Islamic extremists infiltrating the American government.
“She Answers Abraham” Celebrates First Anniversary
Olympic Gold and Going for the Golden Rule
In ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were also a religious occasion and accompanied by a 100 days truce midst any warfare. Today some faith groups have observed 100 days of prayer for peace and that the Games would foster international friendship.
An Interfaith Response to Violence Near and Far
Why wait for disaster to strike? We can align during special times designated by the United Nations, including the International Day of Peace on September 21 and World Interfaith Harmony Week, February 1-7
Religion in U.S. Public Education
Religious Liberty, Public Education, and the Future of American Democracy: A Statement of Principles
Learning About Interfaith Every Which Way
As with so much mainstream media, stories about religious education usually shine a bright light on particular problems – science versus creationism in the classroom, lawsuits over textbooks, prayer in public schools, renting space to religious groups, upset atheists – so many problems, so many conflicts.
Seminaries Buzzing with Interfaith Studies
Most of the several hundred seminary campuses crisscrossing Canada and the United States were developed by individual religious traditions. They wanted to ensure a steady, dependable source of new leaders for their denomination’s congregations. Over the decades most of these seminaries developed similar curricula – ancient languages, scripture, history, theology, ethics, pastoral care, and the liturgy, policies, and history of each school’s particular tradition. This shared curriculum, though, did little to connect the different traditions to each other. In most of these schools, memory, vision, values, and institutional structures all come through the lens of a particular tradition.
NAIN Takes Interfaith Culture the Next Level
North American Interfaith Network’s (NAIN) annual conferences, held since 1988, are a family affair, a time to deepen old relationships and start new ones, a laboratory for innovative interfaith interaction, and a place to learn professional skill-sets you can’t find anywhere else. NAINConnects in recent years have been hosted by Vancouver, Richmond, San Francisco, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix. Each site comes with its own flavor and special gifts. Each introduces NAIN to vital, unique interfaith communities with multiple programs and collaborative interaction.
The Case for Multifaith Education
As a rabbi who directs a multifaith center in a Christian seminary, I often get asked about multifaith education. People ask me, “What curriculum should I use?” or “How can we teach our students about other religions?” Even more often I am asked, “Do you know a Muslim I can invite to speak at our program?” But rarely am I asked, “Why should we be doing interfaith education at all?” A rabbinic colleague of mine put it to me this way: “I just can’t articulate why interfaith is important to focus on,” he said. “Other than making sure we can all just get along, why does this matter?” he asked. Let’s be honest: most of us know precious little about our own religious traditions, so why should we spend our valuable time learning about other faiths?
Education that Really Means Something
I decided to be a teacher when still in high school. One could do the most good for people, I felt, when they are still children. As my own education progressed, I grew to feel a profound dissatisfaction with the conventions and expectations around me. Why were so many people obsessed with “making it” in a world that is so flawed and crazy?
Climbing a Holy Mountain for Peace
In response to world crises, spiritual pilgrims often ascend mountains, sacred heights, for prayer, fasting, discernment, and ceremony. For the past three years people from different faiths have joined in an interfaith peace ritual on Mount Baldy, in the San Gabriel Mountains of southern California, sponsored by the Aetherius Society. Rev. Paul Nugent, a director of the Society, describes it as "a unique event to draw together pilgrims of all ages and all walks of life. We walk together, climb together, sing together, and pray together for world peace."