This post is the second in a series on new buzzwords influencing how we relate to religion. In the first post, I talk about Integral, an emerging worldview in the evolution of human consciousness — a process we each partake in every day, whether we realize it or not. Here, I talk about Interspiritual.
Continue reading Buzzword #2: INTERSPIRITUAL and Its Educational Purpose
PREVIEW. I’m sitting on the floor, a foot from the TV, turning channels. There is no remote, no recording device. An animated figure appears on the screen. The narrator explains it will experience eight significant crises in its lifetime. Each will occur around a major developmental issue such as trust, identity, intimacy, etc., according to psychologist, Erik Erikson. I SPRINT for pen and paper. AHA! The key to my future. If I study these stages of development, I’ll be prepared for Life. I am 14. And I want to know more.
What other life maps are out there to show what lies ahead?
Continue reading 3 New Buzzwords Changing Religion — Buzzword #1: INTEGRAL
Baton Rouge. Minneapolis. Dallas.
We need REAL social change now more than ever. But how?
Let me backtrack to a social change event where Cornel West, the prominent African American scholar, was the main speaker. There, he recalled these words of Paolo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed:
No social change movement is ever successful without the support of religious leaders and their communities.
If this is true, and we’re serious about social justice, then shouldn’t we help our spiritual leaders to be good at it? By good, I mean not only effective at motivating congregants to rise up for social change — since many do, but also effective at securing change in policy and law. Today, that is exactly what Auburn Seminary is up to. Continue reading A Seminary Stands Up, Out, and For All Faiths
What I know from fasting each year on the Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur (sunset to sunset) is that it’s always easier to fast when others are fasting too. This year’s Ramadan, when our Muslim community fasts for a month (sunrise to sunset), coincides with July 4th. I decided to show my support by fasting with them for one of those days. It was so wonderful that I encourage all of us to try this practice as a way to celebrate our American INTERdependence.
How can we all join in creating such new traditions?
Continue reading Ramadan and July 4th, Iftar and InterDependence
How do we become ourselves?
(and not who our parents, principals, preachers, or presidents tell us to be?)
The 18th century Rabbi Zusya of Anapoli, said he feared that when he died, the angels would ask not “Why weren’t you more like Moses?” but “Why weren’t you more like Zusya?”
Contemporary Quaker educator, Parker Palmer, gives this advice:
Continue reading Listen: Becoming a New Kind of Religion Teacher
Behind the hair, skin, gender, status, culture, class, language, fashion, and faith, who am I?
I am my message. I am the unique world-view I’m yearning to share. But — I’ve been scratching at its surface, poking around the edges, unwilling to fully embrace it. Why? Continue reading Why I’m Coming Out as a Religion Teacher Who Doesn’t Teach Religion