Human Bridge: Two Worlds, One Nation
The most fulfilling and reassuring conversation I had in the days following the 2012 election was with someone whom I deeply disagree with. As a liberal Jew from the Northeast, my beliefs about American were dramatically reinforced by a phone call with a conservative evangelical friend in the South. Our country is extremely and increasingly [...]
The Minutemen and the Iceberg
I was walking through downtown Boston in late August, and passed a group of men dressed as Minutemen, as Revolutionary soldiers. This is a common sight during the tourist season, in the birthplace of the Revolutionary War. However, the most recent time I had seen someone dressed as a minuteman was in Tampa, FL – [...]
My Heart Is In Tumult: Reflections on Lamentations in the Age of Global Warming
Lamentations–the text traditionally read by Jews on Tisha b’Av– is not the first book that comes to mind when one is asked what the Tanakh has to say about the environment. But this text has some significant things to say about environmental ethics—specifically about the consequences of environmental destruction for humans. As we are forced to confront the reality and implications of unchecked climate change, Lamentations offers a prophetic and terrifying vision.
A Call to Care about the Environment
The world is in bad shape and not in a metaphorical sense. No I mean the earth – the giant rock that we all live on – is in really bad shape. As of May 31, 2012, carbon dioxide readings are above 400ppm, 50 ppm more than the generally accepted “safe levels” of carbon dioxide [...]
A Faith Pretended: the Path at UN Rio+20
Currently in Rio de Janeiro, over 50,000 people have congregated to take part in the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainability and Poverty Eradication. Over the past ten days since the conference began those in attendance have been working passionately and with diligence to create real and lasting policy change that will effect how governments, corporations, [...]
Home is Where the Start Is
At a time when many of the ways in which we are being told we can help curb climate change are “don’ts” these practices can be fun, celebratory, and can create community. Are we going to adequately address global climate change simply by making our own yogurt? No. But are we going to be able to generate a large-scale paradigm shift without shifting our own individual practices within our home? I don’t think so.
Role of the Rabbi in Climate Change
The role of the spiritual leader in the age of climate change: Re-imagining how to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. This is the title of the seven day Winter Seminar for faculty and students I helped to plan over the past five months have [...]
Contributing Scholars
Joshua EatonJoshua Eaton is a freelance editor, a Tibetan translator, and a writer on Buddhism, politics, ethics, and culture. His full bio and more of his writings can be found at his website.
Madison McClendonMadison McClendon grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, where he fell in love with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien at a young age. Growing up, he attended First Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, and continues to find his religious home in the Alliance of Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, though his Chicago context is encouraging him to make connections with the American Baptist Churches. He graduated magna cum laude from Furman University with a degree in Religion and Political Science in 2009, and continued his education by pursuing a Master of Divinity Degree at the University of Chicago. At the University of Chicago, Madison was a Schloerb Fellow and a Fund for Theological Education Congregational Fellow, and he graduated in 2012. Madison pursued academic work in religion and literature, specifically examining how fantasy texts and religious texts might illuminate each other. In addition to these studies, Madison also took classes on preaching and pastoral arts, and is interested in how the fruits of the academy can be applied carefully to the building of productive, healthy religious communities.
Bilal HassamBilal Hassam is a trainee Doctor at the University of Nottingham concurrently studying a Masters in Inter-Religious Relations at De Montfort University, Leicester. He spent a year as a Faiths Act Fellow for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Interfaith Youth Core (Chicago) serving as an Inter-Religious Ambassador for the UN Millennium Development Goals; mobilising faith communities to work together in the fight against global poverty. He continues to be involved in a plethora of charitable and community organisations and initiatives across the UK and Europe and can be followed at twitter.com/bilalhassam