Blitzer, Vitsmun, and Authentic Interfaith Dialogue
Wolf Blitzer – prized journalist for CNN – made what some are affectionately referring to as a ‘teachable moment’ when he asked an atheist survivor (Rebecca Vitsmun) of the Moore, OK tornado: ‘You’ve gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?’ ‘I – I’m actually an atheist,’ Vitsmun replies. Noticeably tripped-up, Blitzer [...]
Home
Home is a concept that has little to do with a physical building, but everything to do with the emotional, psychological and spiritual space that we each occupy. We live in this space no matter where we are geographically, and no matter what dwelling we inhabit. Still, there is something to be said about the physical structure [...]
Wandering Through the Desert: Sifting Through Our Past on our Way to Revelation
During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we cast our sins in to the desert, freeing ourselves from their oppressive burden, unshackling our hearts and minds so that we can begin the year anew. Six months later another new year arrives (Exodus 12:12). After a period of enslavement we find ourselves once again loosening our chains and opening our souls, ready to reencounter that which we cast away.
A Spring Reflection on Potential, Expectations, and Possibly Oppressive Lifestyles
Our current topic is spring as rebirth and, being an earth spiritualist, I wasn’t quite sure what to say first. Around this time of year, I reflect on the holidays as a growth of personal initiative and potential, the symbolic quickening of sprouting seeds, the re-awakened earth that can be felt, smelled, tasted, breathed. This [...]
Boston Blooms
One week removed from the lockdown of my city, spring is reclaiming our streets. In the moments and days following the Boston Marathon bombings, I watched my hometown transform into a combination of tragedy and heroism. In the week since, I have seen us move forward stronger and prouder, ever more dedicated to the causes [...]
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 [...]
Living In and Through Tragedy
It has been a tough week to be in Boston. It is almost as hard to add anything to all that has been written about the tragedy, confusion, and sadness that the week brought to Boston and to the world as it looked on. Two seemingly contradictory themes stood out for me, first in my [...]
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, [...]
Contributing Scholars
Oliver GoodrichOliver Goodrich, 31, is currently pursuing an MEd in Religious Education at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry. Prior to his studies at BC, Oliver worked for a decade in music ministry and college student development in the Boston area.
Aidan McCormackAidan is a candidate for Unitarian Universalist Ministry and holds an M.Div. from Meadville Lombard Theological School. He is a chaplain, youth and community minister engaged in embodied theologies of queerness and liberation.
Alex WeissmanAlex Weissman is a community organizer, performer, and rabbinical student. In addition to his rabbinical studies, he works as a hospice chaplain and a mentor to teenagers involved in multifaith dialogue. He has worked with Jewish and queer communities over the last ten years around issues of HIV/AIDS, domestic workers' rights, substance use, partner abuse, and queer youth homelessness. He believes deeply in sacred listening as a practice for healing, building relationships, and pursuing justice. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Alex has returned after ten years away to attend the Reconstrucionist Rabbinical College.