by Betsy Woodman
The news, 24 hours a day of it, is by turns heart-rending, enraging, and depressing. School shootings. Climate crisis. Senseless war. Divisive politics. “When will they ever learn,” went the…
An Unlikely Turnaround
Why We Sing
by Paul Andrews
Art and culture are the treasure houses of our deepest dreams - not the fleeting dreams of power and empire, which can never satisfy what is best in us, but our deep soul-dreams, from which generation…
Nukes and the Bigger Picture
by Kehkashan Basu
Kutupalong – a beautiful, lyrical name. It could possibly describe a flower, a river, or an exotic bird. In fact, it is none of these three. Its claim to fame or rather infamy comes from the fact that it is the world’s largest refugee camp.
An Open Letter to Women Running for Office
by Kay Lindahl and Kathe Schaaf
Like many of you, we are distressed to witness how the level of discourse in the U.S. has deteriorated in the past two years and become filled with divisiveness and fear.
California Interfaith Connections Growing
by Stephen Albert
Certain things in life are no-brainers. In Jim Croce’s 1972 song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim,” he told us: “You don't tug on superman's cape, You don't spit into the wind, You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger, And you don't mess around with Jim.”
An Artist's Journey Beyond the Walls of Division
by Andre van Zijl
We enter a completely darkened room which is set up with a foot-wide border of white muslin covered by unlit candles alternating with round black river stones.
Igniting the Sacred Power of the Arts for Social Change
Interview of Ahmane' Glover and Erik W. Martínez Resly by Eleanor Goldfield
Justice, at its roots, is painful. We are moving through an unjust world. And we have been moving through an unjust world for generations and generations. Now it’s just up, pulsing at the surface.
A Surprising Surge of Hope
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
On November 8, 2016 an already divided America was further fractured. For many of us who are working to make America a more welcoming, just, and inclusive nation – to make the America that never was, but that we pray must someday be...
A Plea for the Sake of Us All
from Voices for a World Free from Nuclear Weapons
This summer, two events of nuclear significance happened. First, North Korea successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that demonstrated greater reach and sophistication, signaling that, soon, it will have the capacity to drop nuclear weapons on the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia. Second, at the United Nations, 122 nations of the world voted “never under any circumstances to develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devises.”
Interfaith Activist Running for Congress
by Audri Scott Williams
Recently I decided to run for political office in 2018 for the state of Alabama. I will be a progressive Democratic candidate in Alabama’s Congressional District 2, for the U.S. House of Representatives. Friends who know me well have asked me, “Why are you running for a political office?”
What do Clothes Tell Us?
by Marcus Braybrooke
The vicar of the parish where I was a curate always wore a cassock. He said it was “the only classless garment.” He did not wish to be identified with either the wealthy or poorer members of the parish. I had not at the time realised how quickly people form an opinion of you by what you wear.
Interfaith is Political. Interfaith is Personal.
by Bud Heckman
My first memories of interfaith encounters were innocent and rather comical. I grew up in a bubble – an almost exclusively white, Christian, rural/suburban region of Ohio. Everyone that I knew went to church, or so it seemed.
Interfaith Activism – A Giant Awakening
by Ruth Broyde Sharone
We are witnessing an awakening in the interfaith movement across the United States unlike anything we have seen since Civil Rights marches 50 years ago. This awakening seems to have surfaced as a direct result of the presidential election and in response to new policies and measures initiated by President Trump in his first 30 days in office.
Religious Leaders Agree to Resistance Agenda
by Bud Heckman
It is an understatement to say that America is in a very tense political situation. The rabble rousing of the political cycle and unpredicted election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States have brought to the forefront very difficult public discussions and challenging situations.
The Challenge of Teaching Religious Diversity in America
by Kristen Looney
As protesters fill the streets across the country, clog airports, and march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, many other Americans – on both sides of the partisan divide – take to social media denouncing President Trump’s recent executive order on immigration and refugee policy as un-American. Religious leaders, civic leaders, and elected officials are calling for a reversal of the “Muslim ban"...
Ethics in the Swamp: the Rot of Corruption
by Katherine Marshall
Corruption is a live topic today. Since 2005, international anti-corruption day has been “celebrated” on December 9, in hopes that a visible day marking the topic can raise awareness about corruption and bolster a sense that something can be done to combat and prevent it.
"Policing in Today's Multi-Faith New York"
by Henry Goldschmidt
Imagine you’re an officer in the New York City Police Department. It’s Friday night, and you’re working on a block that’s closed for police activity. A young woman wearing a long, modest skirt and full-sleeved blouse says she lives on the block and needs to get past the police line. You ask for identification to check her address, and she tells you bluntly, “I can’t carry ID on Shabbos – it’s against the Torah.” Is she for real, or maybe up to something?
A Muslim Reminds Americans of their Birthright
by Ruth Broyde Sharone
Who could have predicted that a Muslim immigrant, Khizr Kahn, known by family and friends as a gentle, soft-spoken man, would make history on the fourth and final night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention or that he would become one of the most sought-after speakers in the country – especially on the Interfaith circuit?
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
Brexit and the Interfaith Community
by Marcus Braybrooke
Four weeks ago, as I write at the end of July, I turned on my radio at 2:00 a.m. and heard the prediction that Brexit had won. It was hard to go back to sleep! For those who do not understand what Brexit means – and no one in Britain seems to – it was the vote in the June referendum for Britain to leave the European Union.