October 2008
36 posts
5 tags
8 tags
WatchOne Man Standing Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
On the social matrix of the Web, one meets all types of interesting people and finds interesting stories through these happenstance relationships. Take, for instance, Sinan İpek. In a random checkup on the status of SOF videos, I found this Turkish filmmaker had commented on two SOF videos with themes of women’s rights: one about Kenyan women...
3 tags
Getting Evolution Up to Speed →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
Over at Wired, an article about the accelerated speed at which humans are evolving.
“People like to think of modern human biology, and especially mental biology, as being the result of selections that took place 100,000 years ago,” said University of Chicago geneticist Bruce Lahn. “But our research shows that humans are still under selection,...
7 tags
3 tags
Fighting for Muslim Women's Rights →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
From the BBC: “Some of the world’s leading Islamic feminists have been gathered in Barcelona for the third International Congress on Islamic Feminism, to discuss the issues women face in the Muslim world. Some of the women taking part in the conference explained the problems in their home countries, and where they hoped to make progress.”
...
8 tags
The Final Cut: Omitting the Samaritan...
6 tags
5 tags
Top Rabbis and Orthodox Voices
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
Earlier this week, I wrote about a photograph of a Lubavitch assembly. In response to a comment in our Flickr community, I was doing some research and happened upon a couple of lists about the top 50 most influential rabbis and the top 25 rabbis from the pulpit. Sharon Brous, the Conservative rabbi of IKAR in Los Angeles, from our Days of Awe program was included in...
11 tags
Putting the Torah to Rhyming Verse
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
OK. I’ll admit it. I’m a lurker in the Jewish blogging community — my favorite being Rachel Barenblat’s smart and always provocative Velveteen Rabbi. In a recent post, she wrote about a friend, Seth Brown, who has translated the Torah into rhyming verse and is releasing one chapter a week on his blog From God to Verse.
For the past five years,...
4 tags
Giving Visual Life to Pew's Polls
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
USA Today has produced a nifty interactive feature in which they’ve taken data from the Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey and represented it graphically. The “topography of faith” section is a simple map that provides a breakdown of religious and denomination affiliations by state. I scrolled over my home state of North Dakota (yes,...
11 tags
6 tags
Hear Krista on KPCC's Patt Morrison Show
Colleen Scheck, Producer
As part of her trip to Los Angeles to participate in the 2008 Women’s Conference and lead a conversation of L.A. faith leaders at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, Krista was a guest on Tuesday’s Patt Morrison program on KPCC (a regional public affairs program for Southern California Public Radio). Here Krista is the interviewee, responding to questions from...
6 tags
Selecting Audio for "African American. Woman....
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
I’d like to talk about some of the journalistic, editorial, and aesthetic considerations that go into using audio clips in Speaking of Faith. We’re not a documentary program, so we use clips sparingly to keep the focus on the conversation. When we do use these elements, there are a number of reasons:
To illustrate or cap off a theme that was just...
5 tags
3 tags
6 tags
3 tags
The Battle for Pakistan →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
Some of the political dynamics in Pakistan as the neighboring Taliban grows stronger. The petition of 60 million people against terrorism is a promising sign, along with the large push in the past election toward moderate/centrist politics.
7 tags
5 tags
8 tags
“They are the ones who whispered it on the playground when nobody was looking. If...”
– — Ryan Wilson, referring to tribal elders who were listening to young girls singing in Arapaho.
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
Wilson, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and a board member of the National Indian Education Association, is working with the Northern Arapaho tribe to establish...
6 tags
3 tags
Poems for the Prophet in Zanzibar →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
From the BBC: “The ancient Islamic art form of Maulidi ya Homu is being reborn in Zanzibar, as part of moves to expand the island’s thriving cultural tourism.”
7 tags
7 tags
Memories of a Pro-Life Childhood
Mitch Hanley, Senior Producer
A few times when I was in elementary school, my mom took me out of school to go to the annual pro-life march at the Minnesota state capitol. I remember waiting for a shuttle from Colonial Square in Wayzata, standing in Rexall Drug’s entrance next to a woman with a sign that read, “Real Feminists are Pro-Life.” At that age, I didn’t know what a...
3 tags
6 tags
The Kosher Wars →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
An interesting article over in the New York Times Magazine this past weekend looks at the issue of ethical kashrut, expanding the definition of kosher to bring in 21st-century food ethics. I’m absolutely fascinated by this from the standpoint of both kosher and halal. In the article, the writer asks questions about “the very meaning of...
4 tags
These Politics Are Making Me Thirsty
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
This presidential election feels like it’s moving at gastropod’s pace. As subtle as a leviathan, this large body exerts an irresistable gravitational force on everything around it. We keep talking about it here in the office, but we’re also wondering how much politics we can all handle, and trying to balance relevance against saturation.
...
1 tag
Our Newest Intern - Amara
Amara Hark-Weber, Production Intern
Two weeks ag I began working with Speaking of Faith as a production intern, and I am excited to be both at SOF and in Minnesota. I grew up here in St. Paul, but have lived elsewhere for the past several years, most recently studying at the London School of Economics in the UK. Returning to Minnesota and starting at Speaking of Faith are both unexpected gifts...
6 tags
Faith, Politics, and Young Americans →
Andy Dayton, Associate Web Producer
Faith In Public Life has just released a new poll focusing on the faith and political views of young people in the 2008 American presidential election. From the poll’s lead analyst:
“Younger Americans, including younger Americans of faith, are not the culture war generation. On issues from gay and lesbian rights to the role of government at home...
8 tags
WatchA Soldier to His General Eboo Patel, Guest Contributor
You might be surprised by what our nation’s most famous Evangelical Christian has to say about Muslims.
I first met Rick Warren at the Aspen Ideas Festival a few years ago, where he was doing a talk on leadership. Somebody in the audience asked him — with no lack of scorn — if he thought everyone was going to heaven. That’s...
5 tags
deilogos →
Trent Gilliss, Online Editor
Mitch and I are currently attending a Web consultation in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Calvin College. Here, the Lilly Endowment convenes religion grantees to talk about advancing online tools and presence. It’s a diverse group of people from theological libraries, seminaries, PBS, educational funding, universities, etc. For a good share of the attendees,...
5 tags
"Starbucks Wastes Millions of Litres of Water a... →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
An interesting critical look at Starbucks’ relationship to water. You’ll recall a few months back our program The Business of Doing Good with Jonathan Greenblatt. He was a co-founder of Ethos Water, a bottled water brand he sold to Starbucks.
[Addendum: Starbucks’ reaction.]
9 tags
1 tag
Could Tithing Lead Some Americans to Lose Their... →
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
6 tags
During a Pause Between Feasts
Shiraz Janjua, Associate Producer
Well, Ramadan is officially over and I’ve spent the past few days at various parties celebrating by eating, eating, and, oh yeah, eating. What ends up happening on Eid (after the morning communal prayer at the mosque) is usually this circuit of house visits, going from family to family, eating, popping in and out, eating, seeing people, chatting, eating,...
6 tags
Two Benedictions
Rob McGinley Myers, Associate Producer
In working on our two new shows about faith — the Left and the Right — in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, we were struck by the fact that the 2008 Democratic National Convention was the first modern DNC that began each day with an invocation and ended each night with a benediction. Our guest Amy Sullivan said, “As I was watching it, what I felt...
