Responsibility of a Majority
When any minority religion or community’s rights or dignity are being denied, it the responsibility of the majority to stand with and behind them.
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The Power of Your Pen
This spring I encourage us to use the power of our pen and write a letter to the editor of our local paper about how we respect and celebrate our religious diversity and the constitutional rights that support them.
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Strategic Love
I have been thinking about our founding fathers, Rabbi Levine and Father Treacy, a lot over the last few years. They didn’t just feel love as a feeling – although both of them brought a lot of heart to their interfaith work together. They worked hard to discern real-world strategies to make love and respect…
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Kids These Days
Friends, there is hope. Not hope that challenging times are here but that we can walk through the oceans deep together with the kids these days.
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Giving Orders to the Creator
The word “faith” in the Christian Scriptures really means “trust” in the One who is beyond our idea of God. Understanding this, exclusive in-grouping is actually the result of a lack of faith, a lack of trust that the Divine has agency to reach out to all the human family in a way that each needs.
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Not All that Glitters
About a year ago I had a conversation on the Paths to Understanding Podcast with Dr. Bill Clark of Peace Catalyst and a Uyghur who is living in the United States. In that episode, we heard about how the government of China has placed many Uyghurs into internment camps. According to the UN, China has…
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Soldiers of Slander
We are not powerless against the forces of dehumanization: our ancient traditions offer both warning and wisdom to help us stand together–empowered by our common humanity.
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From All Directions
I have been talking with lots of people over the last year. Many are experiencing dehumanization of their group coming from many directions. At PTU we use the term “dehumanization” to refer to a process that some scholars call “Dangerous Speech.” It is a process in which a group is referred to as an “other”,…
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Checking Our Sample Size
Our minds take in these sources of information and we often assume that they are statistically representative of the people around us. We can then be deceived by about the very neighbors we long to relate to, but find ourselves fearful of.
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