Will Work for Meaning
On a recent, overcast Thursday evening, I co-led a presentation in San Marcos, Texas, about creating a local, interfaith environmental network. I didn’t know what to expect; in retrospect, I guess I didn’t expect much. San Marcos is a small town compared to the other cities in which I’ve offered this presentation. I wondered whether [...]
Project Conversion: Rebuilding the Shattered Mirror
A few months ago when the request came on the State of Formation email group for reviewers for a book called ‘Project Conversion’, my literary greed took the better of me as I rushed to get hold of yet another book to add to my collection. I have to say that right from the word [...]
What’s the Big Deal About Interfaith Marriage?
I attended the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia. I was amazed by the preponderance of sacred fashion statements (the hats!), the number of New Age practitioners from the North American West Coast, and the ubiquity of the phrase “interfaith dialogue.” As former chair of the Union Theological Seminary Interfaith Caucus, a [...]
Black, White, East, West
Article first published as Black, White, East, West on Blogcritics. On April 23, 1912, a religious leader from the Middle East addressed a multiracial audience at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. He praised the promise embodied in that multicolored assemblage, an American dream not measured in money. He spent most of [...]
The Beginning of Men
Article first published as The Beginning of Men on Blogcritics. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin In the spirit of the apocalyptic zeitgeist of our time, we have been put on [...]
“I Don’t See Race.”
Article first published as “I Don’t See Race” on Blogcritics. Once upon a time there was a man on a quest to solve the world’s problems. He heard that there was a person who could solve even the thorniest dilemmas and sought him out. He finally found this Great Problem Solver and the conversation went [...]
What is the Face of Racism?
“White supremacy is the greatest danger we as Americans face as a source of domestic terrorism, and one of the least recognized,” writes Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite at the Washington Post’s On Faith Blog. Since Wade Michael Page massacred Sikhs and tried to murder a police officer in Wisconcin, you’ve probably learned more than you care [...]
Faith, Race, and Terror
Article first published as Faith, Race, and Terror on Blogcritics. It’s mourning in America again. Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that the blood of the innocent cries forever. We join our cries with the blood spilt in a Sikh sanctuary last Sunday. As a Black American, I cannot contemplate this tragedy without contemplating the legacy of [...]
Brown Like Her
Article first published as Brown Like Her on Blogcritics “More,” said my son as I listed as many “brown” people as I could think of. Grammy, Pappa, Aunties (including one adopted from India), his day care provider, a boy he likes to play with on our street. His thirst for knowing who in his world [...]
Faith in Space
When it comes to believing that Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi-horror classic Alien is one of the best movies of its kind ever, I have discovered that I am not alone in the universe. I have also discovered that finding his new, not-quite-a-prequel Prometheus really annoying is also a shared experience. Among its most annoying attributes [...]
Contributing Scholars
Tom PeteetTom Peteet is a 5th year UMASS Medical Student pursuing residency in primary care medicine. His interests include humanism in medicine, yoga, mindfulness, and urban education.
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.
Celie KatovitchCelie Katovitch, 22, is a first year Master of Divinity Student at Harvard Divinity School, where she is preparing for ordination as a parish minister in the Unitarian Universalist tradition. She is originally from Syracuse, New York.