February 2011
55 posts
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Listening Past the Shrillness of Our Own Voices —...
by Krista Tippett, host
A man listens intently as he waits his turn to speak at a at a village meeting in Kule, Maharashtra, India. (photo: Daniel Bachhuber/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
There are some lines I love of the 20th-century German theologian and political martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They emerged in the clarity, and self-awareness, that arise on the edges of survival:
“Many people...
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Religion and Activism...in Wisconsin
by Shubha Bala, associate producer
Religious leaders have been joining the march against the Wisconsin government. Catholic, Episcopalian, ELCA, and Jewish voices were amongst those who have reached out to their congregations, and the governor, publicly stating their support for the workers. In her opinion piece for Religion Dispatches, Kim Bobo, the founder and executive director of...
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WatchRelearning What Our Elders Had Once Taught Us
by Krista Tippett, host
Many of my interviews are conducted over long distances, by way of a clear channel communications miracle called an ISDN line. People are often surprised to hear this because these weekly conversations about “meaning, religion, ethics, and ideas” are singularly intimate. But I have come to enjoy the discipline...
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The Primordial Silence of Light on Deer Isle
by Taline Voskeritchian, guest contributor
Luminous, mysterious. Trust me, such adjectives are not excessive nor maudlin. If anything, they capture only part of the mystery that’s Deer Isle, and the entire area which stretches from Bucksport to Stonington. For once you are Rt. 15 Hill, the drive takes a strange turn: In a moment of insight, you grasp something as you have never before —...
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A Force More Powerful
by Margaret Benefiel, guest contributor
Children watch fish in the reflection of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at a park in Thrissur, India on International Non-Violence Day. (photo: Ragesh Vasudevan/Flickr)
In the midst of the American discussions of violence and civility in public discourse, we would do well to remember a lesson that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. learned and taught: nonviolence is...
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Sharing Love with a Woman I Hardly Know
by Destiny Dorozan, guest contributor
“The Platform of Surrender” (photo: Anna Gay/Flickr, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
While going through the process of divorcing my husband, living as a single mother with my daughter, working full time in a classroom for severely physically and cognitively disabled children, and going to college full time in the evenings, I began to ponder...
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“I don’t practice as a Catholic anymore. It’s so hard to reconcile what the men...”
– —Marie Collins, a 64-year-old Dubliner who was abused by a hospital chaplain, Rev. Paul McGennis, when she was 13, as quoted in The New York Times Magazine article “The Irish Affliction.”
Two decades later, she confided in another parish priest about what happened. He suggested it was...
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An Israeli “Tribe” in Los Angeles
Israeli brothers fare well when it comes to immigration and employment
by Christin Davis, USC “Reporting on Israel” Journalism Student
Oz and Jonathan Zilberberg (photo: Christin Davis)
In a one-bedroom condo just off Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, friends and family of the four Zilberberg brothers — immigrants to Los Angeles from their home in Israel — began arriving around 9 p.m. on a Friday. The...
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The Consequence of Cohabitation
by Nancy Rosenbaum, producer
A participant writes on a “Why Are You Conservative?” poster at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, DC. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“The pro-life movement is definitely very appealing to younger evangelical Christians. … Definitely pushing the whole gay marriage thing,...
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WatchWhat Kind of Man and Thinker Is the Crown Prince of Bahrain? (video)
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Bahrain’s crown prince is navigating protesters’ demands for a democratically elected government by ordering troops to withdraw from Pearl Square and by saying he’ll meet with opposition leaders. If you’re wondering who Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa even is, he is the...
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“Love is brightest in the dark.”
– —Katara, a Waterbender, recites this inscription during “The Cave of Two Lovers” episode of The Last Airbender.
OK. I’ll admit it. My two sons have sucked me in to watching this absolutely riveting cartoon series from the Nickelodeon network. Netflix paired with AppleTV is a...
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“China’s biggest strategic resource is not oil, not rare earths, not even...”
– —Luo Tianhao, as quoted in Damien Ma’s recent blog post in The Atlantic.
A women looks at a bouquet of roses at a flower market in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. (photo: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
by Susan Leem, associate producer
I couldn’t help but swoon a little when...
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“We are not going to enter a dialogue as Shi’ites. They try to put the issue in...”
– —Ibrahim Mattar, member of the Bahraini Shi’a bloc Wefaq, in a statement published in today’s Guardian.
(afghanipoppy via thepoliticalnotebook)
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Palestinian-Lebanese Daughter Sings Despite...
by Jon Dillingham, guest contributor
Camellia Abou-Odah in studio. (photo: Jon Dillingham)
Camellia Abou-Odah was three months old the first time she ever sang: her mother says she belted out an impromptu tune to accompany her father, who casually filled the kitchen with Islamic melodies. Though it was her father’s extraordinary voice that first inspired her to sing, that few minutes in the...
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USC Journalism Students Look at Religion,...
by Diane Winston, special contributor
I teach at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Among my course offerings is religion coverage, an increasingly marginalized beat within a progressively problem-ridden industry.
Although religion is a key element in reporting on politics, culture, and society, cash-strapped news outlets are cutting back specialty beats to save money....
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A Source of Light in a Mechanic's Phrase: A Poem
by Christine Poreba, guest contributor
(photo: Eric Tastad/Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons)
Last summer, soon after returning from meeting my new niece, now nearly nine months old, the check engine light on my ’98 Honda hatchback came on. We brought it in to a mechanic’s shop that we hadn’t been to before. All the men who worked there were wearing these shirts that looked like bowling...
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WatchYou’ll Never Hear Kumbaya the Same Way Again
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
There are a few moments from behind the glass that stop me dead in my tracks — times during an interview when a wise voice creates a new opportunity to hear something differently. To challenge a conceit. To envelop the listener in the womb of silent storytelling and place one in a position of listening profundity....
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Pharaoh Has Left Town, Now the Hard Work Begins!
by Rose Aslan, guest contributor
Women hold an Egyptian flag with a sign that reads, “A Request from 80 million: Leave, Leave You Pharaoh.” (photo: Darkroom Productions/Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons)
Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, now the most famous square in the world, got its name after the revolution of 1919, when both Muslim and Christian Egyptians marched in the...
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My Life Goal: Save $600 Every Month →
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
I found this post from deafmuslimpunk so endearing that I couldn’t help but reblog it. Anybody have some suggestions for this girl who longs for her own plot of land for her and her ponies?
“My goal is to save $600 every month. I’d like to save up enough money to buy my own land (at least 3-4 acres) and a small house. I’m doing research on...
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WatchA Fundamental Rearranging of Societies, Hopes, and Dreams
by Krista Tippett, host
I love it when we can find a way into a story that is blanketing the news — and open it up in a revealing, humanizing way. I feel that listening to Scott Atran this week does just that.
I first heard him on the BBC in the middle of the night a few months ago. I wrote down his name in a kind of fog. He was ...
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“…but the truth of the 2010 Winter Olympics is that the Games did for this...”
– —Shelley Fralic, from her Vancouver Sun column “Olympics Changed B.C. Forever”
Canadians celebrate in Yonge-Dundas Square after their ice hockey team’s gold medal win over the United States in the 2010 Winter Olympics. (photo: Sam Javanrouh/Flickr, licensed under Creative...
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Immigration and the Indigenous Theology of Tupac...
by Colin Bossen, guest contributor
Tupac Enrique Acosta speaks at march to the Arizona State Capitol Building on Cinco de Mayo 2010. (photo: ©Charles Dee Rice Photography/Flickr )
I did not go to jail expecting to meet a theologian. But jail was where I met Tupac Enrique Acosta. Tupac, like me, was arrested in front of one of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s offices for protesting against ...
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Recommended: Johnstons' New Book on Religion and...
by Krista Tippett, host
As we pulled together this week’s show with Scott Atran, I was reminded of my conversation a few years ago with Douglas Johnston on “Diplomacy and Religion in the 21st Century.” He is a quintessential diplomatic and military strategist who, at 27, was also the youngest officer in the navy to quality for command of a nuclear submarine. And he is, in my mind, one...
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The Back Story Behind Titling "The Vitality of the...
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Raindrops pour down the statue of late U.S. author Gertrude Stein in New York’s Bryant Park. (photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
“You always have in your writing the resistance outside of you and inside of you, a shadow upon you, and the thing which you must express. In the beginning of your writing this struggle is so tremendous that the...
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“In the culture I come from, a saying is a magical thing. For my grandparents, a...”
– —Yahia Lababidi, the Pushcart-nominated poet and author from his Agni interview titled “The Prayer of Attention”
What are some of your favorite sayings that you use or have been passed on down to you?
I hold great admiration for people I’ve met on the way who can reel off any...
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How Do We Understand the Positions of Egypt's...
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
A delegation of Egyptian Coptic Christian supporters of President Hosni Mubarak march during a demonstration in Cairo’s Muhandisin district on February 2, 2011. (photo: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)
“He’s the best of the worst. Whoever comes after him might want to destroy us.” — Sameh Joseph, a Copt who works at the Patriarch of the...
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Lessons on Friendship from an Afghani Refugee...
by Heidi Naylor, guest contributor
Akbar, Rahima, and children two years after emigrating from Afghanistan. (photo courtesy of the author)
In 2001 my husband approached me about hosting an Afghan refugee family of four. I was hesitant. But my reservations — lice, tuberculosis, loss of solitude — seem petty and insulting now. In the end, they were outweighed by his enthusiasm.
So our family...
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Ringing in the Year of the Rabbit
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Parading in Puerta del Sol, Spain. (photo: PepeZoom/Flickr)
One of the most important Chinese holidays is Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year. Following the lunar calendar, this year the celebration fell on Thursday, February 3rd, which is also the year of the rabbit. The rabbit is the fourth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. Images of the rabbit...
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A Twitterscript with Terrorism Expert Scott Atran
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Krista first heard terrorism expert Scott Atran on the BBC and knew she wanted to book him as a guest. He interviews jihadis to understand what makes them want to live or die for a cause. Through the lens of psychology and culture, he also does extensive field work in both the Arab and Israeli Middle East. In fact, minutes before his interview with Krista, he had...
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Jitish Kallat's Art Installation Reminds Viewers...
by Anne Breckbill, associate web developer
“‘Public Notice 3’ explores the possibility of revisiting the historical speech as a site of contemplation, symbolically refracting it with threat codes devised by a government to deal with this terror-infected era of religious factionalism and fanaticism.” — from The Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibition website
The...
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Hibakusha: The Survivors of the Atomic Bomb
by Shubha Bala, associate producer
Hibakusha: a Japanese term describing survivors of atomic bombs.
Terry Tempest Williams’ use of this term during her interview with Krista came about quite unexpectedly. At the time, it seemed odd. But, it made more sense once she explained that nine women in her family have had mastectomies, the cause of which Williams attributes to an open-air nuclear...
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Ecotone: A Definition for Nature and Civility
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Desert foothills meet forested mountains. (photo: David McNew/Getty Images)
Krista’s most recent interview with Terry Tempest Williams is part of our series called “The Civil Conversations Project.” During the conversation, Ms. Williams introduces the word “ecotone” as an analogy from nature to describe a clash of cultures:
“As a...
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Listening to the Volunteer Drumbeat of Today's...
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Students volunteer to clean up a riverfront property in Hartford, Connecticut. (photo: Laura Ouimette/Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons)
Service and volunteerism by young adults is at an all-time high in U.S. history, according to a story in yesterday’s Boston Globe.
The children of the baby boomer generation are not only focusing on...
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“The Sinai boundary is the only one of Israel’s borders that hasn’t been fenced...”
– — Yossi Klein Halevi, from “Israel Alone, Again?” in yesterday’s New York Times.
Not all are cheered by the protests taking place in Egypt. The Israeli journalist shares a rather grim outlook about the future of Israel’s relations with Egypt and the security of the Jewish...
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Visions of Islam in Egypt: From the Muslim...
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Haroon Moghul’s recent articles in Religion Dispatches, particularly “4 Reasons Why Egypt’s Revolution is Not Islamic,” have been one of many perspectives that I’ve found of great help in trying to make sense of events happening in Egypt during this past week.
And, much to my delight, today he spends nearly an hour discussing the...
