Some Jain friends at the 1993 Parliament of World Religions gave me a booklet with the title We Were There As Well. Too easily the starring role of Swami Vivekananda has obscured the significant contribution that other Asian participants made a hundred years earlier at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, participants who deserve to be remembered.
How a Native Elder & a Muslim Found Spiritual Friendship at a Christian Celebration
The invitation came from the Centre for Christian Studies to be a presenter at their 130th Anniversary celebrations in Winnipeg. The evening’s theme was Diversity, Transformation, and Hope. I was to substitute for Joy Kogawa, a fine poet who could not make it. How could I fill her shoes!? When I heard the theme, though, I said yes.
High Tea with Marcus and Mary
by Ruth Broyde Sharone
The English landscape rushed by the bus window, lush green hills alternating with roads that twisted and turned through leafy glens.
There Just May Not Be Time
Is there any hope for real change in the human condition? Kurt Johnson and David Ord certainly think so, and I am grateful to them for The Coming Interspiritual Age and its optimism. But I wonder…
What You Should Know about "Spirituality & Practice"
The pilgrim typing “spirituality” into an internet browser these days will receive 225,000,000 hits in the flash of a second. Buyers beware. Virtual religion/spirituality is an unchartered territory where anyone with the inclination can put up a “shingle” on the web. Knowing whom to trust is a major consideration for the spiritual seeker who turns to the web for resources and support.
Tectonic Shifts in American Religion and Spirituality
The Pew Forum’s October 9 report on religion in America was released in the midst of a presidential campaign in overdrive, daily doses of bad-news business stories, violence in Syria and the threat of violence in Iran. Nevertheless, on October 9 the New York Times noticed what looks to be the biggest religion story of 2012, as did the Washington Post, CNN, Huffington Post, and dozens of other news outlets.
The Coming Interspiritual Age Published this Month
This month marks the publication of The Coming Interspiritual Age (Namaste) by Kurt Johnson and David Ord. The vision they sketch delivers its insights from a multitude of sources and disciplines and comes to conclusions that will be applauded and criticized. Whether it resonates with you or not, it offers an affirmative, healing perspective of a world clearly in trouble on many fronts, so it deserves our attention.
The Light of Hope Renewed
I saw the world. A giant snake, enormously powerful, was coiling itself around the world. The globe seemed too weak to withstand the pressure. I could see the cracks in it. Then I saw a light at the centre of the world. Enter into this light I was told... That Light is the only hope - we, the poor and the rich, the oppressed and oppressors, the theists and atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews Buddhists, Hindus . We all must get to that light, for it is the light of love and life, the light of hope and future.
Interfaith Radio Takes Advantage of the Web
Radio is one of the oldest hi-tech tools of our time and one of the most durable. Today, coupled with websites and browsers, radio offers a local/global platform to anyone interested in doing the hard work of generating compelling programming that people listen to.
South Asian Peace Networks Established
More than 200 religious leaders, representatives of interreligious councils and peace scholars from the Association of South Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states convened in Bangkok and Pattani, Thailand on 17-19 September 2012, to address the role of religion and interreligious cooperation in resolving conflicts and building peace in the ASEAN region.
Mobilizing TIO – Outreach & Social Networking
Over the past year more than 120 writers have made contributions to The Interfaith Observer. Their essays are being sent out to 2,200 subscribers each month in the flash of an eye – no paper, no ink or postage, no waiting, but silently delivered to electronic mailboxes around the globe. Want to make movies? Searching for Sugar Man, a deeply satisfying intercultural film playing in theaters today, was shot on an iPhone and edited on a laptop!
Creating 20,000 Interfaith Dialogues
Sociologist Robert Putnam’s latest book, American Grace (2010), should be required reading for all Americans in the interfaith movement. As an interfaith activist I resonated with his finding that breaking down fear and prejudice towards ‘the other’ is best facilitated by promoting personal connections and relations across faiths.
Religion, Politics, Freedom, Faith & Making Movies in America
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.