Was Jesus black or white?  Megyn Kelly, a Fox news host, suggested that both Santa and Jesus were white on a recent broadcast (here’s the story from Poltico) and caused a big reaction in the social media. Was Jesus black or white?  Megyn Kelly, a Fox news host, suggested that both Santa and Jesus were white on a recent broadcast (here’s the story from Poltico) and caused a big reaction in the social media. Reza Aslan, author of “Zealot: The... Read more

Here are ten North American Muslim women that Samina Ali, curator of of the International Museum of Muslima, believes is noteworthy in the arts, or revolutionary in showing what Muslim women can accomplish, or a pioneer fighting for women’s rights.  Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is pictured above. She is an activist, a motivational speaker and the producer of the WAKE UP tour, a youth empowerment program. You can see all ten women, with a short biography for... Read more

Teaching Zoroastrianism? Here’s great short article that explains it’s basic beliefs and rituals and why the author thinks the religion might not survive. Zoroastrianism, the world’s oldest monotheistic religion, might be the least inclusive of all religions.  It numbers less than 150,000 and for every birth there are five deaths. For these reasons, Ariane Sherine suggests that “Zoroastrians need to widen their admission criteria fast, or go the way of the lesser Antillean macaw and the koala lemur.” Sherine, writing... Read more

Should the Hagia Sophia, built soon after the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, not long after the fall of Rome, and now a museum, be converted to a mosque? It became a mosque in 1453 when the Ottomans took over the Byzantine Empire. It remained a mosque until the Ottoman Empire broke apart after World War II and Attaturk created a secular and modern Turkey.  That is when the mosque became a museum. Now the Turkish government wants to turn... Read more

Here’s a great visual resource from the Washington Post on the real estate that includes, among other things, the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Solomon’s Stables, and the Western Wall.  It is possibly the most contested real estate in the world, according to the Post.  That’s because events critical to all three Abrahamic faiths happened in this 36 acre area. The graphic explains the significance of each structure and its importance and shows you where its located in... Read more

Here’s a great introduction to Shinto including shrines, deities, rites and festivals, beliefs and practices, concepts and doctrines, and text and sources, to name just a few.  The encyclopedia includes pages from all these categories.  You can even see a list of movies about Shinto. The encyclopedia would also be great for a web quest. My thanks to David  Korfhage for tweeting the link. Read more

Here’s an excellent BBC documentary about the significance of the turban to Sikhs and the controversy it creates today in western countries.  The 39 minute documentary traces Sikh history back to the Mughal Empire. And here is a link to a story today about the humiliation Sikhs face at airport security, by Arjun Sethi in an editorial for the Washington Post called, “To the TSA, a Sikh man is a target in a turban.“ Read more

Great Prezi introducing Sunni Shia Split Mighty Muslim and Marvel Comics Jews In Iraq: The Remnants of a Culture’s Heart and Soul NPR: Origins of the Sunni Shia Split Read more

Looking for a good documentary on Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalia Lama?  10 Questions is one of the best and most engaging.  Filmmaker Rick Ray gains an interview with the Dali Lama and must prepare ten questions for him. In the process, we learn a lot about the history of Buddhism, biographical details of the Dalai Lama, the invasion of Tibet, and much more. I show it to my religion class every year. Read more

Do you know the four most important  Buddhist pilgrimage sites?  Here’s s Four Places of  Buddhist Pilgrimage in India from Prabhat Tandon. Here’s a great slideshare about each site. And here’s a summary from the Victoria  and Albert Museum. Lumbini – the Buddha’s birthplace Bodhgaya – where the Buddha sat in deep meditation beneath a pipal (bodhi) tree until he achieved enlightenment Sarnath – a deer park where the Buddha gave his first sermon and set the wheel of law... Read more