Interfaith-ish

Reflections on the past year and a storytelling Q&A with the interfaith-ishtronauts Jack, Miranda and Sue.

Read Sue's recent writings:

On This Pandemic Solstice (and Yalda Night) https://onbeingboth.wordpress.com/2021/12/21/on-this-pandemic-solstice-and-yalda-night/

Not all Jews hate Christmas. In fact, many of us celebrate it https://forward.com/opinion/478664/not-all-jews-hate-christmas-in-fact-many-of-us-celebrate-it/

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This week, I headed to downtown DC to visit the interfaith intentional living project, Abrahamic House. The project brings together young people of different religious traditions to live together for a year and provide a space to learn from one another about their traditions and also create public programming for others to do the same.

The project is the brainchild of Mohammed Al Samawi, an interfaith activist, Yemeni refugee, and the author of the best-selling memoir The Fox Hunt, which was published in 2018 and is now in development as a feature film with Steven Spielberg.

Mohamed invited me to join him at the Abrahamic House, to learn about the origins of this unique program and meet a couple of the fellows, Kelly Moltzen and Abby Shulman.

Together, Mohammed and current Abrahamic House fellows Kelly Moltzen and Abbie Shulman and I discussed how the TV show Friends inspired the project, what the biggest point of tension is between these new roommates, and how they are living out the house motto of gathering, not othering.

Learn more about:

Abrahamic House https://www.abrahamichouse.org/

The Fox Hunt https://www.harpercollinsspeakersbureau.com/speaker/mohammed-al-samawi/

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The messy intersections of religion, politics, and nationalism.

Guests Sarah Brammer-Shlay, a rabbinical student and co-founder of If Not Now, and Sravya Tadepalli, a board member with Hindus for Human Rights, discuss the stories they grew up with around Israel and India, respectively. They are both now working to organize their communities to stand up for justice for people of all backgrounds.

Learn more about:

If Not Now https://www.ifnotnowmovement.org/

Hindus for Human Rights https://www.hindusforhumanrights.org/

As we approach Halloween, we dare to look at the darker side of religious traditions with stories of demons and djinn, ghosts and golems.

My guests are Rabia Chaudry, an attorney, author, the producer of the popular criminal justice podcast Undisclosed and most recently, host of The Hidden Djinn and Nighty Night; and James E. Bowley, Chair and Professor of Religious Studies at Millsaps College.

Together, we explore complex narratives around Lilith and Satan, and ask whether one can separate a rational, modern faith from belief in the supernatural.

Learn more about:

Rabia Chaudry http://www.rabiachaudry.com/

James E. Bowley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Bowley

Undisclosed https://undisclosed-podcast.com/

The Hidden Djinn https://www.grimandmild.com/thehiddendjinn

Nighty Night https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nighty-night-with-rabia-chaudry/id1581854514

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Muslims and Mormons and Muad-dib oh my!

Guests Ali Karjoo-Ravary, professor of Islamic studies at Bucknell University, and Michael Haycock, Christian Life Coordinator at Georgetown University, dish out all the nerdy takes on the intersection of religion and sci fi / fantasy.

We discuss the Islamic influences in Frank Herbert's Dune, Christian themes in CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, and how religious minorities are represented in sci fi.

Learn more about:

Ali's Writing:

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/10/11/paul-atreides-led-a-jihad-not-a-crusade-heres-why-that-matters

https://ajammc.com/author/alikarjooravary/

Michael's Writing:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/peculiarpeople/2014/06/second-life-and-the-second-estate/

https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/the-earth-and-the-inhabitants-thereof-non-humans-in-the-divine-household/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/peculiarpeople/2018/08/sorry-to-bother-you-the-human-body-as-technology/

Further Reading:

Ali's Picks:

Arabian Nights and Days, Naguib Mahfouz

The City of Brass, S.A. Chakraborty (and the rest of the Daevabad Trilogy)

Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson

The Bird King, G. Willow Wilson

The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèli Clark

The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn, Usman Tanveer Malik

Frankenstein in Baghdad, Ahmed Saadawi

Michael's Picks:

The Folk of the Fringe, Orson Scott Card

Wandering Realities, Steven Peck

The Infinite Future, Tim Wirkus

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Finding interfaith allies on protest lines and in hair salons.

My guests are Taneeza Islam, Executive Director of South Dakota Voices for Peace and South Dakota Voices for Justice, and Leo WT, a queer non-binary Christian who organizes the dialogue project Conversations.

Taneeza is an immigration and human rights lawyer who has spent the last decade in South Dakota, advocating for vulnerable populations and most recently helping share vital public health information during the pandemic. (She's also running for mayor of Sioux Falls!)

Leo is creating spaces online - and in their hair salon - to engage neighbors in a pluralistic vision for their community based in the small town of Olean, New York.

Learn more about:

Taneeza Islam https://www.facebook.com/taneezaforsf

South Dakota Voices for Peace https://www.sdvfpeace.org/

South Dakota Voice for Justice https://www.southdakotavoicesforjustice.org/

Conversations https://conversationsofficial.com/

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What's it like to live in one of the most religiously diverse counties in America? And why does it not always lead to tolerance and pluralism?

This week, guests Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, and Ambereen Khan, host of the radio show 'Inspired,' discuss the recent 2020 Census of American Religion.

Plus, the death rattle of Christian nationalism and testing your religious literacy with Indiana Jones.

Learn more about:

Public Religion Research Institute https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/

Inspired https://interfaithradio.org/

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This week, we listen to two powerful young voices in the climate movement: Isha Clarke is co-founder of Youth Vs Apocalypse and Tori Goebel is National Coordinator for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action.

Although on opposite coasts and from different religious and cultural traditions, the two share in their drive to working tirelessly to bring attention and action to the existential threat of our time.

During our conversation, Isha and Tori reflect on why it is critical to create intergenerational cooperation rather than conflict, discuss the dual processes of dismantling corrupt systems and building better ones, and name the visionary young leaders that inspire them.

Learn more about:

Youth Vs Apocalypse https://www.youthvsapocalypse.org/

Young Evangelicals for Climate Action https://yecaction.org/

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One of the most challenging topics in interfaith settings is Israel/Palestine. How do we begin to address this subject, create space for meaningful dialogue, and take steps towards action? How can those outside of Palestine and Israel better inform ourselves? What is our role?

We explore some of these questions, acknowledging the difficulty of even agreeing on a shared view of history, language, and responsibilities.

Featuring Faisal Saleh, founder of the Palestine Museum US, and Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine.

Learn more about:

Palestine Museum https://www.palestinemuseum.us/

Tikkun https://www.tikkun.org/

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How can we create media to bring people together? How can we even begin a dialogue when we don't agree on the same facts?

Mohamed Amin Ahmed is a Muslim Somali immigrant and peace advocate based in Minneapolis who is founder of the platform Average Mohamed, which strives to provide educational narratives to counter extremist ideology.

Mandi Hart is a committed Christian, a filmmaker with More Productions and President of Cave Pictures Publishing, a self-described faith-adjacent production company that creates films, theater and comics that encourage pluralistic dialogue.

In this episode, Mandi and Mohamed talk about the motivation behind their work. And we also got into how each of them saw the current fractures in our public discourse from the perspective of their politically conservative communities.

Learn more about:

Average Mohamed https://averagemohamed.com/

More Productions https://www.moreproductions.co/

Cave Pictures Publishing https://www.cavepicturespublishing.com/

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