Last week I attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions, a gathering in Salt Lake City of 10,000 people from 50 religions and 80 countries around the world. My first impression was amazement at the variety of headgear on display as I wandered the halls of the gargantuan Salt Palace convention center, located just a block from the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at Temple Square. Visible were turbans of all colors, skullcaps, various forms... Read more
The sides of his cheek, nose, and lips press against a sheet of glass. His fingers, some splayed, fasten onto its surface. One lens of his glasses appears to be fogged over by the steam of his breath. This shot of the hip-hop artist Andy Mineo dominates the album cover of his sophomore release, Uncomfortable. It addresses issues some may find uncomfortable and, dare I say it, sacrilegious. Can we die from being too comfortable? Can comfort deaden our faith... Read more
Fewer Americans are becoming parents. According to the New York Times, American birthrates are in sharp decline—in fact, they’ve been decreasing for years. The general U.S. fertility rate is at a record low, and data-collectors attribute this to women delaying pregnancy, often past their prime childbearing years. Anecdotally, this indicates a modern cultural shift of women—and men—being less interested, inclined, or called, to pursue traditional parenthood. I am one of those women. As early as age six, I baulked when... Read more
On October 3, the US Air Force bombed a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders in the Northern Afghanistan town of Kunduz. Many of us watched as the official response of US officials changed and evolved nearly every hour, at first distancing itself from any responsibility, then claiming the hospital was used by militants, then claiming it an accident. But it is clear that US officials knew the coordinates of the hospital, and even got a call during the attack,... Read more
From the Los Angeles Times, 10-8-15: Re: the Oregon mass shooting: “Harper-Mercer’s mother, Laurel Harper, shared her son’s passion for guns… In online postings, Harper talked about her love of guns and her son’s emotional troubles, but there were no hints of worry that he could become violent, the Associated Press has reported. “I keep two full mags in my Glock case. And the ARs & AKs all have loaded mags. No one will be ‘dropping’ by my house uninvited... Read more
A new kind of response to both natural and humanitarian disasters is taking shape—and it’s bringing together the latest technologies and faith-based initiatives. Read more
There is a sign at the entrance of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem that reads: We are hoping that: If you enter here as a tourist, you would exit as a pilgrim. If you enter here as a pilgrim, you would exit as a holier one. It’s a fitting and powerful reminder for the millions of people who come in and out of its church doors every year. So many of us travel so far to visit the... Read more
“Maybe one of the things that churches need to do is stop looking at themselves, and go outside the doors of the church and find God there. There are other things we really need to attend to. If there is no world, there will not be a church.” – Diana Butler Bass, author, Grounded: Finding God in the World Where is God? It’s a question humans have been asking throughout the ages. In her highly anticipated new book Grounded: Finding God in... Read more
Oprah Winfrey’s new series Belief, which premiers this month, offers a fresh glimpse of what it means to be a person of faith in an era in which people are increasingly spiritual but not religious and where anti-Muslim and immigrant sentiments permeate political debates. I got to preview the series at her home in Montecito, where she spoke to her motivation: “My faith always motivated me to to make a difference with my life.” As in so much of her... Read more
It has happened again. Dear God it has happened again. The reports coming out of Oregon are just horrifying and gut-wrenching. My heart has been in knots as various (and sometimes conflicting) stories of what happened there at Umpqua Community College. Thirty people have been shot. At least nine people have died. Countless lives have been shattered. A community is in tatters. It has happened again. Not long after reports of the shooting began to break, memes bearing the words, “Prayers... Read more
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