2:23 PM, 05/14/13
Wake Up! God Is Speaking
2:16 PM, 05/14/13
Sefirah Self
2:12 PM, 05/14/13
Look Inside
Violence against women is the most prevalent and the most hidden injustice in our world today. It's time for all people of faith to be outraged. It's time for our Christian leaders to stand up and say that women, made in the very image of God, deserve better.
This week, Jaweed Kaleem looks at threshold choirs, a growing movement using a capella song to soothe the dying. And Radley Balko puts the spotlight on Bisbee, Arizona, a town at the center of the state's debate over gay marriage.
We seem to be maybe, finally, oh so slowly going through a sea change on lesbian and gay rights. Cultural acceptance -- incomplete still, of course -- came first, and it seems like maybe political and religious acceptance may follow.
When I teach in the West, people talk about self-loathing and self-aggression. Imagine what could happen if we all began to feel that we are good and to have confidence in ourselves that way.
Fred was in serious trouble. He had cancer and kidney disease, was taking 12 different medicines a day on various prescriptions, suffered near sleeplessness and acknowledged he was suicidal. He called us in crisis.
We watch the stories of hoarders on television and feel sorry for them and we feel proud to not be one of them. But perhaps we have more in common than we realize.
True learning never stops; it pushes us out ever-farther into uncharted territory. As both space exploration and Torah study show us, each new discovery spurs new lines of inquiry.
In our increasingly scientific and pluralistic world, fundamentalist theology unravels at almost every seam.
Women will inherit 70 percent of the $41 trillion in the inter-generational wealth transfer expected over the next 40 years. That enormous potential philanthropic capital will propel women to the forefront of transformational giving. That gives me hope.
Right now, the Jewish community is finishing up its annual marking of days, as each night we count the Omer, the 49 days between the second night of Passover and the beginning of Shavuot. Immediately after, we'll mark another set of days, one with only despair and no celebration.
With the flourish of a signature, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton declared yesterday that, "Love is the law."
By excluding the Ahmadis from the elections, Pakistan's democracy is indeed missing something very important on the election day.
As a Pakistani-American, I have sadly become a bit numb to terrorist attacks in Pakistan itself which are an almost routine news story. However, the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon hit me far more acutely.
While international efforts establish legal protections for freedom of expression and other freedoms, it is important not to end the discussion there. We must promote engagement and dialogue that remains focused on matters of human dignity.
If community is like a beautiful quilt that binds all of us together, then marriage is one very important set of stitches that connect the fabric of humanity.
I feel more convinced than ever that interfaith efforts should include LGBTQ voices; if such work is intended to bring together people with different and sometimes contradicting convictions and identities, then it has to.
The genuine followers of Jesus -- those who bear His name and espouse His values -- have flooded the world with good deeds, and their altruism is an apologetic for their truth.
It's time to talk about complementarianism, the theological root of the demeaning, misogynistic evangelical fruit that I surveyed recently.
It is my fervent aspiration that our culture will pay more attention to well-being, will include strategies to promote well-being with our educational curricula and within the healthcare arena, and will include well-being within our definitions of health.
Richard W. Kropf, 2013.19.05
Morgan Guyton, 2013.19.05
David Briggs, 2013.18.05