Culture Shock: Crunchy or Creamy?
After two months of India’s lush cacophony, I return to Minnesota in mid-February. It is unseasonably warm: the temperature hovers around freezing. Coming from the tropics, this is unbearably cold. Attempts to leave the house result in a whimper of pain and a dash back indoors. I sleep a lot the first few days, play [...]
Flesh and Bone: Honoring Ancestors
When you see images of bones, do you shudder? One of the reasons people tell me they fear Vodou is “all the bones,” images of the skeletal Spirits of the Dead. Why do we fear the dead? Why is the idea of departed ones a source of horror? Vodou empowered me to confront and overcome [...]
A Week Without Music
I’ve been at school (Harvard, Summer Session) for just over a week, and feeling out of sorts. At first I thought I was just settling in, getting used to the new environment but tonight I realized that I haven’t listened to any music since I arrived. So I plugged in my headphones, turned off the [...]
Svaha: On Giving Up My Father
I am not this, consumed by flame; I am not that, washed in water; I am not that which drew air, nor am I that which walked upon the earth. I am the earth, I am the air and I am the water. I am the fire. All that which is impermanent, I leave behind. [...]
Crude Karma
Karma is a flexible word, yogic in its ability to twist into different meanings. People use it when something dramatic happens, to indicate luck, fate, destiny, justice, punishment or reward. None of those are quite right. Trying to understand karma through events is useful, but crude. I don’t mean crude in a crass sense, but [...]
Defamation and Debate: The Conversation Within
The conversation within a faith is painful and challenging because it can feel like a battle for the identity of the faith itself, and by extension, our own identity. It’s easy to think that different views are a dilution or distortion of one’s own views. But not everyone who disagrees with us is stupid or malevolent.
Saum
Saumya Arya Haas, Executive Director of Headwaters/Delta Interfaith, advises local, national and international interfaith and social equity organizations including The New Orleans Healing Center. She is a Manbo Asogwe (Priestess of Vodou) and hereditary Hindu Pujarin, writes and lectures about religion, and is a part-time ALB (undergraduate) candidate in Religious Studies at Harvard University School of Extension Studies.
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Contributing Scholars
Michael RambergMichael Ramberg will graduate from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College this June. He is committed to equally shared parenting, justice for immigrants and interfaith cooperation.
Matt HelmsMatt Helms is graduate of McCormick Theological Seminary and is currently working as a pastoral resident at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. He is an active blogger and a fan of all things writing.
Joi OrrA Womyn, Preacher, Scholar, and Director of Organizing for Faith for Change (www.faithforchange.org)