From The Washington Post

The sympathetic coverage of the devastation wrought by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami has overwhelmed the nasty little story of Rep. Peter King’s loyalty hearings aimed at American Muslims. Both news events, however, raise the compelling question of what it takes to turn a group perceived as alien and threatening–whether across the ocean or down the block–into people Americans see as neighbors, fellow…

Personal Narrative in Interfaith Dialogue

Featuring Rabbi Or Rose and Pastor Samir Selmanovic

Or Rose is an Associate Dean at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College and writer on Jewish mysticism, social justice, and inter-religious cooperation. Samir Selmanovic is author of the widely read book “It’s…

A while back I found out that my partner was a sex addict who had been leading a boozy secret life full of violence fetishes, endangerment of women, unprotected sex, compulsive pornographic email exchanges and Craigslist postings, and sociopathic lies to me, my family and my friends. To say the least, it was a difficult time. Friends in the Union Theological Seminary community and beyond nursed and nurtured me, fed me and put me to bed and went with me to doctor’s appointments. My body,…

 Congratulations to Brussels for hosting the Parliament of Worlds Religions event in 2014.

PRESS RELEASE

March 21, 2011, Dallas, Texas

We congratulate the Brussels team headed by Miguel Mesquita da Cunha, Chairman of the 2014 Bid Steering Committee for the tireless work they have put in behalf of Belgians and the Europeans to secure the 2014 bid to host the Parliament of the Worlds Religions.

In behalf of the Foundation for Pluralism and…

Brussels – the capital of the Belgians and of 500,000,000 Europeans – has been chosen as the host city of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 2014. The selection of Brussels was made by the Board of Trustees of the governing organization at its March 13, 2011 meeting in Chicago.

More than 10,000 people from diverse religious, spiritual and convictional traditions will participate in the 2014 Parliament, which will last for 7 days and will comprise more than 500…

The road needed replacing.

The road: a ramp between I-95N and 128N in Peabody, MA, perhaps one of the most used for commuters working in Boston but living north of the city.

On March 9, a UPS tractor-trailer rolled over on the ramp. Reports continue to fly around causes, none emerging as definitive: the driver lost control of the turn. He was cut off. He was...who knows?

After the rollover, the damage control shut down a major artery that shoots from the urban heart of…

I spent a lot of time at the Gyuto Monks’ mandala at the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia. The mandala is the traditional Tibetan Buddhist form of sandpainting, practiced by Native Americans in the Southwestern United States, by Indians, by Australian Aborigines, and by Latin Americans on certain Christian holy days. In modern day Mexico and the United States, sandpainting is most often practiced during Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Streets are…

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, may have said it best:

Ever since the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, hatred and discrimination against Muslim Americans has been growing. Over the past year, the rhetoric has only gotten louder and more violent. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the freedoms of religion, speech, and assembly. These are also essential…