Podcast: What do Cats Have to do with Interfaith Work?
“Blood in the Soil: Liberating Space, Identity and Farm Workers in the United States” by Patrick Reyes
From the perspective of my parents’ union, I come from a long line of wealthy, middle-class, white Protestant Americans on my mother’s side, and Chicano Catholic farm and manual labor working-clas... Read More
Jesus, The Bible, and Foodstamps: Can a Christian Be Against The Welfare State?
Conservative and liberal Christians disagree about a lot of things, but I think the two camps are basically in agreement when it comes to the morality of social safety net programs like TANF (Temporar... Read More
Samhain: Celebrating Our Ancestors, Harvesting the Hope of New Light
Samhain, also known as Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve, is one of our society’s most controversial and least understood holy days. Unfortunately, I know this all too well from personal exper... Read More
Can a Hare Krishna Have A “Social Gospel?”
Continuing my series on being “A Yogi at Union,” I humbly try to explore how my tradition of bhakti-yoga, or the “Hare Krishna” tradition, acknowledges the struggle for justice... Read More
Malala Fever and the Challenge of Sustaining Belief by Junaid Sulahry
When 14-year-old Malala Yousufsai was tragically shot in the head earlier this month by the Taliban, it seemed that the entire world came down with “Malala fever.” The wounded Pakistani ... Read More
The Notion of Interfaith Understanding by Diane Johnson
It is quite intriguing to contemplate this question of whether or not Halloween is a holiday. Let’s put aside the mythical and overabundant images of happy children in skeleton costumes, disgrun... Read More
Has the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill Given Rise to Christian Guarantors of Global Gay Rights?
In 2009, Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati introduced an Anti-Homosexuality Bill that carried the death penalty for “serial offenders” of the “offense of homosexuality.” Under intense internationa... Read More
Invoking Buddhism at Election Time
Last week, I sat on a panel of eight students, faculty and religious leaders representing different faith traditions’ views on the subject of religion and politics. More specifically, we discussed h... Read More
Food Stamp Challenge: Great! And, Do I Have To?
Over the High Holidays, my rabbi asked our congregation to participate in a week-long Food Stamp Challenge—to limit our food spending to the equivalent of “food stamp” benefits, $31.50 per perso... Read More