Here is a story about hate in America after 9/11 in Phoenix Arizona where an Indian immigrant was gunned down, presumably because he wore a turban and beard, essential components of the Sikh faith. It chronicles the life of Rana Soda as he tries to makes sense of his brother’s murder and reconcile that crime with the American values of freedom. The video was produced for PBS and first aired on PBS in 2002. Read more

Studying Sikhism?  The University of California Library at Berkeley has an excellent online exhibit about the history of immigration from South Asia to California. That immigration begins, according to the exhibit, in 1899 when four Sikhs arrive in San Francisco. The exhibit covers immigration to 1965 when Congress signed the Immigration and Nationality Act. That act, also known as Hart-Celler Act, lifted the “national origins” quota beginning a period of greater immigration. The exhibit is divided into chapters and chronicles... Read more

Maureen Fiedler, host of Interfaith Radio, interviews the co-author of the book, the Color of Christ in this 28 minute broadcast. Edward Blum and his co-author, Paul Harvey, explain how the color of Christ became entangled with American race relations. Here is a link to Paul Harvey’s interesting web-page (thanks to my colleague, Jeff Feinstein for sending me the link). NPR also interviewed Edward Blum and you can listen to the interview here and read the story here. It’s much shorter than the Interfaith interview. Read more

 Read more

Tomorrow, Saturday, is Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birthday. So what? If you meditate or practice yoga, you might want to thank Swami Vivekananda who introduced Hinduism to the western world at the Parliament of Religions in 1893. He was born on Jan. 12, 1863 in India. Here’s a NY Times story from 2010 about Vivekananda called “How Yoga Won the West. And here is a link to his speech at the Chicago Parliament in 1893. Read more

If you are teaching Shinto and want to explore Japanese mythology and folklore, you should explore the Mukashiabanashi Library. It includes some of the important early Japanese myths. The sampling includes Izanagi and Izanami , and The Journey to Yomi among others. I might print out some of the myths and have the kids compare them and explain how they reflect Shinto beliefs. Update: The link to the Mukashiabanashi Library no longer seems to work. Fortunately, I copied some of the myths... Read more

In his blog, Dharma Dialog, Akasa Skye, notes that American Buddhists, unlike their counterparts in mainline religions like Christianity or Islam, rarely get involved in political issues like same-sex marriage or abortion. He argues in this rather long, but interesting post, that American Buddhists tend “to maintain a largely individualistic, self-help appearance in the U.S.”  Skye quotes Harvey Cox, the Harvard Divinity School professor, to explain: : “The problem is…that in a culture like ours, already steeped in the philosophy of ‘You... Read more

Medical News Today (MNT) reports that thoughts of mortality provide a common goal for both believers and non-believers–“Both groups seek a coherent world view to manage the fear of death and link themselves to a greater and immortal entity, such as a supreme being, scientific progress or a nation. If people were more aware of this psychological similarity, perhaps there might be more understanding and less conflict among groups with different beliefs.” However, this common view does not mean that... Read more

The widow of Medgar Evers and Atlanta pastor,Rev. Louie Giglio , will deliver the invocation and benediction at Obama’s inauguration on January 21th. You can read more at CNN here. Read more

In his blog, Informed Comment, Professor Juan Cole, reviews a recent protest in Egypt over the passage of the constitution. Just as the daughter of Pharaoh Akhnaton cut her hair to protest the persecution of her father, Egyptian women in late December cut their hair to protest a constitution they believed denied them liberty. They do not consider the constitution developed by the Muslim Brotherhood as legitimate. Read more