Many people are very discouraged by the current climate of anti-Muslim and anti-“other” rhetoric that so fills the airwaves. However, the larger reality is that we are progressing as a nation towards a more positive appropriation of our rich religious diversity. It comes with fits and starts, albeit. But don’t be fooled to think otherwise. It is the way human social progress works.
What is Islamophobia?
The following essay is reprinted from the introduction to a new Islamophobia Guidebook in the making. You can download the whole Guidebook here today, but it is still being assembled, so a download next month might be even better. Here is what the book sets out to do:
Review: How’s Your Faith? by David Gregory
I don’t watch Meet the Press or television journalism, so I didn’t recognize David Gregory’s name when his memoir appeared on my desk. The title, however, caught my attention. How’s Your Faith? – An Unlikely Spiritual Journey is a courageous testimony by an adult child of intermarriage, whose own interfaith marriage sparks his spiritual journey. Raised with a Jewish identity, he marries a devout Christian only to realize that his relationship with religion, and ultimately, with himself, needs attention.
Winter Light
Bittersweet may be the best word for the final months of 2015. The international gathering of leaders in Paris took climate change more seriously than ever before, a major step forward in terms of what is required. But the climate agreements were punctuated by violent massacres in Paris and San Bernardino and by the ongoing chaos in the Middle East, which has never been more toxic.
The History of American Pluralism
This speech was delivered at a White House gathering celebrating and protecting “America’s Tradition of Religious Pluralism.” The speaker was Vanita Gupta, the head of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Local Communities Affirm Solidarity with Muslim Neighbors
Last month, December 2015, in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, with Donald Trump threatening to close American borders to Muslims, and increasing incidents of Islamophobic violence, the major media barely noticed one of the most important stories.
Sri Ramakrishna: A Profile
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.
Unpacking Pluralism
“Remember that words have usage, not meaning.” This off-the-cuff remark from Dr. Frank Stagg in a seminary classroom more than thirty years ago has repeatedly helped to clarify my thinking. I might modify the statement, saying that “words have usage, not inherent meaning” or “the meaning of a word is shaped by usage and context.” But the point is, nonetheless, well-taken. Words have usage, not meaning.
Ret. Lt. Colonel Shareda Hosein: Not Your Average Army Officer
What would propel an 18 year-old, 4’10” Muslim girl, born in Trinidad, the daughter of immigrants, to join the U.S. Army and serve for 35 years?
January 17, 2016 – World Religion Day: Celebrating Our Unity
BahÁ’i-Sponsored Celebration Invites Us All to the Table
“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until, its unity is firmly established.”– Bahá’i Writings
All or Nothing?
If there is anything new under the religious sun in the United States it is the changing patterns of how people are or are not religious. What this means for feminist studies in religion is of interest to me because it reshapes the backdrop of our work.