Boston: Meeting Hatred With Love
It strikes me as something of a cliché to start a blog with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. but nonetheless, here I go. I was reading a book on Sunday evening which cites King as imploring, “We must meet hate with love.” This was King’s astonishing, compassionate response to the bombing of his [...]
Happy Birthday, Stella: When Children Die
April 18th, 2013 Today marks Stella Joy Bruner-Methven’s fourth birthday. She died last year, on October 22nd, just days after she turned 3 1/2. Although today is Stella’s birthday, she does not turn four. An egregious tumor, incurable and virtually untreatable, took this birthday from her. And before it did that, it took away almost [...]
Responding to Tragedy: Insights from Lutheran History
Lutherans have the unique distinction of being the only mainline Protestant denomination named after its founder. While other denominations take their name from their church structure (Presbyterians, Congregationalists), geography (Moravians), or reappropriated pejorative terms (Methodists), Lutherans take their name from a single theologian. This was not by Luther’s design, either. During his life, Luther vehemently [...]
Engaging Compassion: Boston and the interrelatedness of our own actions.
Boston. Baghdad. New York. Kabul. Tel Aviv. Gaza… Syria… Burma… Rwanda… Tibet… the sorrow of violent tragedies that I have learned in my generation seems to have crossed all the borders. The reality is that there are no borders, even if we try to build the walls and fences that separate us. Hurt, like love, [...]
Tragedy: A Quaker and an Anthropologist’s Response
How does your faith or ethical tradition inform your response to tragedies? In the wake of the devastating blasts in Boston, one Twitter user, Mike_FTW, has gained fame for stating: In times of tragedy Twitter should go into Quaker mode. Shut up or be meaningful. — Mike Monteiro (@Mike_FTW) April 15, 2013 The question, [...]
Grieve First, Tell Stories Later: Notes on Tragedy and Ideological Opportunism
On Monday, bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and today we’re tempted to tell stories when we ought to be grieving. The pundits have already started. (Apparently the first rule of punditry is that it would be irresponsible not to speculate irresponsibly.) Chris Matthews wondered whether far-right, anti-tax groups were [...]
“Give them hope, not hell:” A thing left undone
Conversations in the cafeteria are where much of the real theological work gets done at my seminary, where students hash out their thoughts on what was discussed in the class just ended or the readings for the class soon to begin. Throw in some pop culture references, season with puns, and you’ve got a party. [...]
Towards Acceptance, Holiness and Removing Stumbling Blocks
This week, we are once again reading Parashat Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1-20:27). Biblical scholars commonly refer to these two chapters of Leviticus as the holiness code due to the numerous interpersonal commandments (mitzvot) that are found within. These mitzvot form the foundation of Torah and are applicable to everyone. In addition to loving our neighbor as [...]
Five Lessons in Ecumenical, Interfaith, and Extrafaith Organizing
The Princeton New Jim Crow Project is a coalition of local organizations working for awareness and reform of injustices in the criminal justice system. The group takes its name from Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010). The book has sparked a conversation across the country on racial [...]
Social Futures: Tackling Poverty in Medicine
Today the nursing staff held a birthday party for a patient. The party was not to celebrate with her, but to cheer on her departure from the service. She had moved into a new age bracket, and as a result, would receive care on the far side of campus. Her details are important insofar as [...]
Contributing Scholars
Benjamin BarerBenjamin Barer is the Assistant Editor at Large for State of Formation at the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue. He has spent his young life studying Judaism and Jewish texts in exclusively Jewish environments. He is looking to take that intimate knowledge of the tradition and share it with wider communities, touching on the pressing issues facing the Jewish world, and the world as a whole. Towards that end, he has started work at Hebrew College as a research assistant splitting time between CIRCLE — the Centre for Inter-Religious and Communal Leadership Education, jointly hosted by Andover Newton Theological School and Hebrew College — and the Centre for Global Judiasm, at Hebrew College. Text study is the epicentre of his connection to Judaism, and he is keenly interested in widening the scope of that passion to include other scriptures. Benjamin blogs regularly at whatibelievein.wordpress.com
Yaira RobinsonYaira is Jewish, married, and mother to two boys who make her laugh every day. As Associate Director of the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy, she works with Texas religious communities to promote social and environmental justice. She recently completed her Master's of Theological Studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Yaira is fueled by gratitude, laughter, and sometimes unhealthy amounts of coffee.
Allana TaylorAllana Taylor completed her Masters degree in Divinity at the University of Chicago in 2012 and is currently living in Norman, Oklahoma with her wonderful husband Kyle and their one-year old gift, Isaac. She served as the Communications intern for the Council for a Parliament of the World's religions in 2010-2011. In the fall of 2012 she was a participant in the Middle Prairie Institute for Religion and Public Life's, a non-partisan think tank, annual session. Though her academic interests focus on Islamic Law and the modern state, she has also done research on the intersection of law and culture and questions of institutional justice versus morality. She identifies as an atheist, but is committed to inter-religious engagement and dialogue and is determined to be part of that conversation.