Common Threads: An Interfaith Dialogue

Evangelical culture has in recent decades taken up the cause of maintaining the virginity of teenagers come hell or high water. How many of you can guess that the results have been, well, mixed. Like everything else, it's complicated. Oy, is it complicated. These episodes originally aired in 2019. It is important to note that our guest was accused of sexual misbehavior with a member of a church youth group in the previous year. We, of course, had no idea of this. Our exploration of this issue indicates that the allegations are credible. We regret that we had no knowledge of this before inviting him to join us.

But this does not in any way diminish the validity of what he says. As a matter of fact, it almost seems to verify the danger of purity culture. Theme music "Nigal."

For more than a half century the Indian state of Kashmir held a special status that allowed it to be semi-autonomous. This allowed, among other things, for it to be governed by sharia law. In 2019 the government ceased that, allowing Jammu & Kashmir to become wholly administered by Delhi.

Most news reports were about serious allegations of human rights abuses that took place in order to bring this change about. But missing from many conversations was the subject of the jihadist rebellion of the early 90s that chased Hindus from the area. Many died, and many more became displaced in their own country. These episodes include conversations with one who lived through it all. Chilling. But join us.

Sidarth Ambardar joins us to discuss the Partition of India and Pakistan, its history from the tribal invasion of Kashmir to the present as recounted in ‘Days of Destiny: A Memoir of Kashmir’ a book written by his father, Shanti Swarup Ambardar. Theme music "Nigal."

We speak with Julie and Tony Gessner about the marriage help program Retrouvaille.

Retrouvaille’s primary goal is to provide help for couples who live in the disappointment and pain of marriage problems. The Retrouvaille weekend provides a safe setting encouraging couples to learn communication in marriage in a respectful manner.

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From 2019

Our guest is Dr. Shadi Hamid, who joins us to talk about his essay, “The Difficulty with Diversity: Can American pluralism make room for an Islam that is truly different?”

Dr. Shadi Hamid is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. He is the author of ‘Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World,’and co-editor of ‘Rethinking Political Islam.’ His first book ‘Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East’ was named a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2014. An expert on Islam and politics, Hamid served as director of research at the Brookings Doha Center until January 2014. He received his B.S. and M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and his Ph.D. in political science from Oxford University.

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The Kaufman Interfaith Institute hosted a conversation between Nicholas Wolterstorff and Kelly James Clark on June 3, 2019. These 2 episodes contain the entirety of that event.

Nicholas Wolterstorff is an American philosopher and a liturgical theologian. A prolific writer with wide-ranging philosophical and theological interests, he has written books on aesthetics, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and philosophy of education. In Faith and Rationality, Wolterstorff, Alvin Plantinga, and William Alston developed and expanded upon a view of religious epistemology that has come to be known as Reformed epistemology. He also helped to establish the journal Faith and Philosophy and the Society of Christian Philosophers. Theme music "Nigal."

It never occurred to me that Archeology could be a lot like radio. That is, a lot of people think that all they need is a microphone in front of them & they'd be brilliant.

More often than not....not.

Over the decades it seems that a lot of people have thought that to be an archeologist all they needed was a shovel. In these episodes from '19 we talk with Prof. Mark Schwartz about people who thought the were making big discoveries (often in fields related to religion) that in reality were pretty fraudulent. Trust me, this is entertainment of a high order.

Mark received his PhD in Anthropology from Northwestern University. His research focused on trade between the early city-states of Mesopotamia and the emerging complex societies of Anatolia in the fourth millennium B.C. He has worked on various excavations in the Middle East. He is currently involved in inter-departmental collaborative work using ROVs to study shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. He teaches courses on the archaeology of the Near East as well as general courses concerning anthropology and archaeology. Theme music "Nigal."

If you are a person who is conflicted on the issue of abortion because of your Christian beliefs (even if you're not, this is quite thought provoking within any tradition) you need to hear these episodes from 2019.

Jonathan Dudley is the author of "Broken Words: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics." He is a graduate of Calvin College, Yale Divinity School, and holds an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His writing has been featured in The Huffington Post, on CNN, Salon.com, Religion Dispatches, AlterNet, and in the Yale Daily News. Theme music "Nigal."

John Morehead joins us for a couple of episodes to talk on the book he co-edited called, ‘The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape.’

John Morehead is a researcher, writer, and speaker in intercultural studies, new religious movements, the biocultural study of religion, intergroup emotions and social psychology in religious intergroup conflict, and multi-faith engagement, as well as theology and popular culture. He is also the Director of the Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy. John blogs on religion through the fantastic in popular culture at www.theofantastique.com. Theme music "Nigal."

OK, so we all know we need to have a little patience with those in our midst who are newly in love. They may get dewy eyed, drone on a bit long about their newfound happiness, and refer to this Gift from Heaven as their soulmate. So we must ask, is there such a thing? If so, why do so many "soulmates" part in anger years (or months...or weeks) later? Well, here are 2 episodes that explore the notion.

Our guest is Bradley Onishi, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Skidmore College. Dr. Onishi joins us to discuss his article ‘What’s Behind the Belief in a Soulmate’ on the website The Conversation.

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Reparative Therapy, which has been dismissed as fraudulent by many in the field of Psychology, attempts to "cure" gay men & women from their homosexuality. I've wanted for years to interview someone who went through the mill with it. Well, I found just the guy. Mike Hintz has a very powerful story to tell. I hope you listen.

Originally aired in 2019. Theme music "Nigal."