In Good Faith

Steve talks with fellow podcasters from "3 Black Men" and "Mommying While Muslim" about how their different podcasts have created community for their listeners. Steve was able to host this week's guest in studio, because all of them attended the BYU Law School's "Annual Religious Freedom Review," where they spoke together on a panel about this topic. Look for those panel sessions in our extras.

Hosts of the podcast “3 Black Men”--Trey Ferguson, Samuel Gay, and Robert Monson–muse on theology and culture with a wide array of riveting guests. Trey Ferguson is a Miami-Dade County-based minister, writer, and podcaster whose passions include jokes, justice, and Jesus. Samuel Gay is a writer, theologian, and father, who uses music to strengthen others. Robert Monson is a writer, musician, creative, avid reader, and theologian who does work around the intersection of Black liberation and womanist theology.

Mommying While Muslim is hosted by second-generation friends Zaiba Hasan and Uzma Jaffri. Zaiba Hasan is an American Muslim, born and raised in Chicago, who grew up biracial and bicultural. Zaiba’s Irish/Pakistani heritage and interfaith upbringing gave her a head start navigating between identities. Born in Chicago, Uzma Jafri was raised in Huston, Texas. She is the daughter of Muslim immigrants from Pakistan and India. Uzma’s primary job is mothering her four children, but the one that pays is as a solo physician running her own medical practices.

Steve prepares for the 2023 Parliament of World Religions in Chicago by speaking with Bernie Newman, Shoaib Khadri, Barb Maloof, and Bruce Duffield about interfaith service projects in Chicagoland.

Bernie Newman is a Past-President of Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville, Illinois, where he has lived with his wife, Judi, for 39 years. He teaches the Introduction to Judaism course at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, and he is on the board of directors of the Naperville Interfaith Leaders Association. Bernie received his Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University in 1976 and his Master of Science Degree from Stanford University in 1977.

Shoaib Khadri is a member of the Islamic Center of Naperville and has led their Mosque’s interfaith involvement, including participation in the Naperville Interfaith Leaders Association for many years. ICN’s “Open Mosque Days” teach thousands about Islam, its traditions and practices. In addition to ICN, Shoaib serves as an officer of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, an umbrella organization for more than 60 Islamic organizations serving the more than 400,000 Muslims in the Chicago area.

Barb Maloof spent a career in public service management for the City of Chicago and Cook County government. Now retired, Barbara teaches English as a Second Language (ESL), as needed, after studying with Literacy Works in Chicago. Several decades ago, Barbara joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Currently living in Hyde Park, she has been called to be the Director of Communications for the Chicago Stake. She holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Maryland and a Master’s in Public Service from DePaul University.

Bruce Duffield has served as president of the Chicago Illinois Temple, public affairs specialist, a temple sealer, and a former bishop, stake presidency counselor and high councilor for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Senior Counsel for Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, he was born in Magrath, Alb

Steve discusses love and grief with Colin Campbell, author of Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose. Colin Campbell is a writer and director for theater and film. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Seraglio, a short film he wrote and directed with his wife, Gail Lerner. He has taught Theater and/or Filmmaking at Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, Cal Poly Pomona University, and to incarcerated youth through The Unusual Suspects. His one person show titled, Grief: A One Man S**tShow, premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival where it won a Best of Broadwater Award. He lives in Los Angeles and sometimes Joshua Tree.

In the second half of the hour, Steve chats with Daniela Lee, the priest-in-charge at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Provo, Utah. The Reverend Daniela Lee is originally from Romania and has traveled from the Baptist world through the Lutheran world and ended up in The Episcopal Church. With her husband and two kids, she likes to travel and stargaze. They currently live in Utah where they enjoy the two seasons, the dry air, and the beautiful landscape. Dani is passionate about evangelism and about how to live responsibly in the world.

00:00:00 - Colin Campbell

00:25:43 - Daniela Lee

Steve discusses how religious identity might get in the way of a more genuine faith life with Haroon Moghul, author of "Two Billion Caliphs: A Vision of a Muslim Future." Haroon Moghul is an Account Director at Unitas Communications, where he helps international clients tell their stories. An award-winning journalist and opinion columnist, Haroon's essays have been featured by The New York Times, NPR’s Fresh Air, CNN, NBC News, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, and The Guardian, among many others. He’s also appeared on all major US news networks as an expert commentator on Islam, the Muslim world, and U.S. foreign policy, has dedicated years to interfaith engagement, and has spoken at universities, conferences, think tanks, houses of worship, bookstores, and libraries on five continents.

Heather chats with Yelena Lembersky, an architect in Boston who immigrated from the USSR with her mother in 1987. Her memoir "Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour" discusses the dramatic events that lead up to their departure from the Soviet Union and Heather and Yelena pick up where the memoir ends--with Yelena's committment to raise her children within the Jewish tradition that Yelena herself was not allowed to explore as a youth. Yelena graduated with a double Bachelors in Art and Science from the University of Michigan. She moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to pursue her Masters of Architecture at MIT. Yelena has also published a monograph on her grandfather's art, "Felix Lembersky: Paintings and Drawings."

00:00:00 - Haroon Moghul

00:27:16 - Yelena Lembersky

Heather speaks with Dan Groody at the University of Notre Dame about his book "A Theology of Migration: The Bodies of Refugees and the Body of Christ" and how Christianity teaches an ethics of love for the refugee and migrant. Father Groody’s expertise in and passion for refugee and migration issues has also been applied as executive producer of One Border, One Body: Immigration and the Eucharist and Dying to Live: A Migrant’s Journey. He has also worked with the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the World Council of Churches, the Vatican, and the United Nations on issues of theology, globalization, migration, and refugees. In 2007-08 he was a visiting research fellow at Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre.

Steve chats with Yang Vang, a Hmong shaman, about making a home without a country. Yang also discusses Hmong beliefs about creation and sacrifice. Yang Vang who has just graduated from BYU's Master of Anthropology program. Photo Credit for Yang Vang: Bradley Slade

00:00:00 - Dan Groody

00:25:04 - Yang Vang

Steve chats with two historians about the importance of ancient Christianity today.

Elizabeth Schrader Polczer discusses how an answered prayer developed her interest in Mary Magdalene and led to a new career in biblical scholarship.

Dr. Schrader Polczer is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Villanova University, having recently defended her PhD in Early Christianity and New Testament at Duke University. Her studies focus on textual criticism, Mary Magdalene, and the Gospel of John.

Craig Evans maps out the ideas in his book "From Jesus to Church." Craig A. Evans is the John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins at Houston Baptist University in Texas. A graduate of Claremont McKenna College, he received his M.Div. from Western Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Claremont Graduate University in southern California. A well-known evangelical scholar, Evans is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. He also serves as the Director of the Christian Thinkers Society Fellows Program and Strategic Studies.

00:00:00 - Elizabeth Schrader Polczer

00:28:17 - Craig Evans

An in-person discussion on maintaining religiosity without isolating those of other faiths. Host Steven Kapp Perry talks with Dr. Trevan Hatch, Pritha Lal, Maysa Kergaye, and Luke Miller.

Dr. Trevan Hatch is the Anthropology, Ancient Near East, Middle East, and Religious Studies specialist at the Lee Library at Brigham Young University. He is also an adjunct instructor in the Department of Ancient Scripture. Trevan has a MA and two doctoral degrees (soon to complete the second PHD) in fields related to the Bible, Jewish studies, and religious studies. Trevan is the author of "A Stranger in Jerusalem: Seeing Jesus as a Jew", and he coedited with Leonard Greenspoon (Jewish studies chair at Creighton University) the volume, "The Learning of the Jews: What Latter-day Saints can Learn from Jewish Religious Experience".

Pritha Lal is first a mom. She is also a homemaker by choice, a systems thinker by profession, a writer out of habit, a podcaster out of the pandemic, and is currently pursuing a certification towards becoming a life coach. She has lived in Springville, Utah for over two decades. Even though she is a huge admirer of Rumi, and aspires to live her life following the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Philosophy of Vedanta, for all practical purposes, she follows these wise words of Piglet, from Winnie the Pooh: "The things that make me different are the things that make me, me."

Maysa Kergaye has been part of the Salt Lake community for the past 30 years. She is a mother of four, and grandma to two, and taught math at the Salt Lake Community College for 15 years. She discovered Zumba and has been teaching it for the past 12 years at many locations. She is well traveled and speaks many languages but most proficient is Arabic, French, and most of all English. She is active on the interfaith council as well as managing and running the Islamic Speakers bureau. She volunteers her time at the women's prison, Sunday school, and helping the local refugees. "I love teaching Zumba but I always have to warn people that it c

Steve speaks with Michael Schnabel and Jonathan Rose on faith-building experiences in revelation and healing.

Michael Schnabel is the author of "Daddy's Girl", a memoir about the challenges and struggles of parenting through a medical crisis. A graduate of Nothern State University, Michael developed his passion for writing and storytelling during his thirty-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Michael lives in Overland Park, Kansas, with his wife, and when not spending time with family, you can find him tending to his 26-acre tree farm.

Dr. Jonathan Rose is the series editor, and the translator, researcher, annotator, and fundraiser for The New Century, an ongoing project that incorporates the latest scholarship in modern, accessible English translations of Emanuel Swedenborg's theological works. Dr. Rose has focused his career and research on Swedenborg's life and works and developed an algorithm for analyzing Swedenborg's Latin. He was the curator of Swedenborgiana library and both a tenured professor of religion and sacred languages and chaplain at Bryn Athyn College before taking on his current position with the Swedenborg Foundation.

00:00:00 - Michael Schnabel

00:24:16 - Jonathan Rose

This week, conversations about emotions and music, and how both are necessary to bring us closer to God. Benjamin Perry, author of "Cry, Baby: Why Our Tears Matter" encourages us to rethink how we view crying.

Steve chats with Benjamin Perry about his new book "Cry, Baby: Why Our Tears Matter," published by Broadleaf Books, May 2023. Ben Perry's work focuses on the intersection of religion and politics. Their writing can be found in outlets like The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, The Huffington Post, Sojourners, Bustle and Motherboard and he has appeared on MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and NY1. They hold a degree in psychology from SUNY Geneseo and a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary.

In the second half of the show, Steve connects with Cantor Sharon Brown-Levy from Kol Ami, the Salt Lake-based Jewish Conservative and Reform Congregation. Cantor Brown-Levy discusses how she became a cantor and the importance influence of her parents in her religious and musical life.

00:00:00 - Benjamin Perry

00:30:51 - Cantor Shanon Levy-Brown

Steve speaks with professor Maeera Y Schreiber about her personal history and how that influences her work in poetry and interfaith literature. Dr. Schreiber is Associate Professor English and former Director of Religion Studies at the University Utah, where she teaches and writes about poetry, Jewish-American literature, ethnic American studies, religious studies, and interfaith relations. Her book "Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone" is what caught our attention recently.

Heather discusses the history of interfaith relations with Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard, drawn from his book "The Faiths of Others

A History of Interreligious Dialogue," published by Yale UP. Dr. Howard is Professor of Humanities and History and holder of the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics. He also serves as a Senior Fellow for the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts. He is currently working on two projects: "Modern Christian Theology: An Intellectual History" (Princeton University Press) and "Unholy Wars: Secularist Violence in Modern History."

00:00:00 - Maeera Y. Schreiber

00:29:02 - Thomas Albert Howard