September 2010
46 posts
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Those Wild Fes Sufi Nights Are Calling
by Hussein Rashid, guest contributor
Rumi ensemble from Iran performs at the Bab Makina Palace courtyard. (photo: Hussein Rashid)
Some people had Elvis. Others had The Beatles. My dream concert is the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. With a rotating list of performers, it does not matter who was there, but the idea of the festival is what counts.
Over ten years ago, I bought a CD called...
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WatchDylan, Just as You Want Him
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Meaning. Bob Dylan’s songs and lyrics are timeless, transcendent for so many. From Jann Wenner’s interview in Rolling Stone, the president’s hilarious reflection on the musician’s February performance at the White House Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement:
“Here’s what I love about...
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What's Your Religious Knowledge? Take the Survey... →
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
The hot topic of discussion at yesterday’s God in America National Symposium on Religious Literacy held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. were the results of the U.S. Religious Knowledge survey conducted by the Pew Forum. From Pew’s executive summary:
“Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new...
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WatchAfrica Looks Positive, Sweden Not So Much
by Shubha Bala, associate producer
Nicholas Kristof said during his interview with Krista that he worries about constantly painting Africa in a negative light and recognizes there is a lot of good work taking place too. In this video from the TEDxChange conference, Hans Rosling, professor and co-founder of GapMinder, presented numbers in a new way to...
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Transforming Journalism by Moving and Mobilizing...
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A Mind for All Seasons
by Kate Moos, managing producer
Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr teaches a class at Union Theological Seminary. (photo: Gjon Mili/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Richard Crouter’s elegant, concise book on Reinhold Niebuhr’s thought and legacy is a magnificent introduction to the life and work of this 20th-century theologian and public intellectual. I’ve been an armchair aficionado...
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Learning Through the Eyes of Others
by Ann Milliken Pederson, guest contributor
When I first lived in the upper Great Plains, I did so as a freshman at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. I still remember the day when my parents’ car pulled away and I was standing by my dorm wondering why I had decided to move almost 800 miles from my home in Montana. While I would miss my parents and friends, I began to miss the mountains...
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Live Video: Krista at the Clinton Global...
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 9-10 a.m.
We’re streaming live video of Krista leading a plenary session on enhanced access to modern technology at the Clinton Global Initiative. With all the new ways of leapfrogging over old models of infrastructure and bureaucracy, this is an era rife with possibility for deeper civic engagement and better ways of...
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Estranged on the High Holy Days
by Nancy Rosenbaum, producer
A 2008 Tashlikh ceremony is performed on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota. (photo: GSankary)
We’re now on the other side of the Days of Awe — the ten-day period starting with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur. This year I participated in a Tashlikh ceremony for the first time since my childhood Hebrew school days. Tashlikh (also...
Change Is Stressful
by Krista Tippett, host
Recently back from a vacation I needed — and with fresh eyes on the intensity of the present moment — I think the most surprising thing about our name change process is how big and dramatic it feels. Names matter, and as clear as I am that our content won’t change moving forward, we are in fact changing our identity. I feel that personally — a little off balance, a...
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Helping One Person Matters More than Saving...
by Shubha Bala, associate producer
“If I look at the mass I will never act.” —Mother Teresa
It’s hard for people to relate to statistics and big numbers when hearing about disasters and people suffering. The question for advocates, and journalists, is how big is too big? Paul Slovic says the magic number is two.
In a study from the Decision Science Research Institute, Slovic...
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The Art of Looking Sideways
by Cary Gibson, guest contributor
The view of the Greenbelt Festival grounds. (photo: Cary Gibson)
During the last week of August, 20,000 sojourners gathered at the 37thGreenbelt Festival in Cheltenham, England. Greenbelt’s identity as a social justice and arts festival has always been firmly rooted within a Christian tradition that is world-affirming, politically and culturally...
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“Faith is nothing else but a right understanding of our being — trusting and...”
– Thanks to listener Mark Atma from Bellevue, Wisconsin for this lovely definition of faith from Julian of Norwich.
by Krista Tippett, host
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A Listener Asks for Your Suggestions
by Nancy Rosenbaum, associate producer
Reem El Shafaki, an Egyptian now living in New Jersey, stands in front of the proposed site of the Park51 mosque and cultural center in lower Manhattan. (photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The news has been thick with polarized debates about proposed Qur’an burnings in Florida and the Park51 project. Tamara Lee, a listener from Hopewell, New Jersey,...
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Top 10 Posts on SOF Observed
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
While editing the site for this week’s retrospective show, I compiled a short list of the top 10 posts read on this blog, SOF Observed. It’s always interesting to see what readers really click through and what they share:
Rossini’s “Meow!” by “The Little Singers of Paris” (Trent Gilliss)
Maps of Sin (Trent Gilliss)
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Seeking Sanity - Regarding Islam, NYC, Florida,...
by Krista Tippett, host
Following on Trent’s thoughtful post a few days ago, I share two pieces of helpful thinking that have crossed my desk. These refresh my spirit over media-generated confusion, false symbolism, fear, and vitriol. They are by a Jew and a Muslim, people who have been on our program in the past. I like to think that the ethos of discourse towards which they strive and we...
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Martin Marty Swings and Connects
by Kate Moos, managing producer
A good one. Martin Marty rarely swings for the fences, but when he does he knocks it out of the park. In today’s Sightings column, he takes aim at the son of Billy Graham:
Franklin Graham on Islam and Violence by Martin E. Marty
Aestas horribilis, Queen Elizabeth might call the summer just past, or those who care about civility in religious discourse and...
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Spirituality in the Congregation: From the...
by Rabbi Dennis S. Ross, guest contributor
There’s spirituality thriving in our houses of worship, often unnoticed and unappreciated. It flourishes in the ordinary give-and-take of congregational life, in person-to-person exchanges that Jewish thinker Martin Buber called I-Thou. And we would do well to better recognize this very common and accessible spiritual opportunity.
Martin...
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Can Fear and Burning Unite?
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
“I am more scared than I’ve ever been — more scared than I was after Sept. 11.” —Eboo Patel
A flyer calling for an interfaith peace vigil on September 11 lies on a prayer mat at the Eid al-Fitr prayer at the Los Angeles Convention Center. (photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
Fear is very real for many Muslims in America today. I don’t think I...
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Sweetness to the Rotten Core
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Yesterday I posted this good morning message on our Facebook page: “Shana Tova! Special memories from New Years past?” Lauren Rosenfeld, an author and blogger living in Asheville, North Carolina, shared this wonderful memory:
“One Rosh Hashanah I came home from a busy day at work and brought out the apples to cut up and dip in the honey to...
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Catching a Carp on Rosh Hashanah
by Nancy Rosenbaum, associate producer
It’s now officially 5771. Last night’s sunset marked the beginning of Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year. The holiday typically falls in September (163 days after the first day of Passover). For me it always signals a shift from the light, fruity days of summer to a brisker and and more sober season.
It’s common for Jews to celebrate...
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Your Reflections on "Being"
by Shubha Bala, associate producer
Within a month of joining Speaking of Faith, I was told the program I work for was going to be changing its name. Since then, it’s been a hectic journey of learning how to produce while supporting the name change tasks. But it has also been a crash course in the thoughtfulness of our listening community.
Ever since Krista first announced the change, I...
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Change Is Stressful
by Krista Tippett, host
Recently back from a vacation I needed — and with fresh eyes on the intensity of the present moment — I think the most surprising thing about our name change process is how big and dramatic it feels. Names matter, and as clear as I am that our content won’t change moving forward, we are in fact changing our identity. I feel that personally — a little off balance, a...
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Philip Levine’s “What Work Is”
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“Gangs are the effect of ineffective communities. Somebody dropped the ball,...”
– —Juan Pacheco, a former gang member who leads Barrios Unidos, an alternative gang movement
This article from Discovery News does a good job of introducing gang alternative movements and touches on tattoo-removal as a “reverse baptism,” using smudging as part of ritual and ceremony, and...
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Paul Zak and the Neurology of Neighborly Exchange
by Nancy Rosenbaum, associate producer
A stoop sale in Brooklyn. (photo: click wrrr/Flickr)
Earlier this summer, I spent more money than I wanted to on camping equipment — hiking poles and other gear I won’t likely use off the trail. Maybe I should have asked a neighbor to borrow or rent their stuff instead. Not only would I have saved some dollar bills, but my brain might have gotten a...
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