From The Huffington Post

The following is reprinted with permission from Religion Dispatches. You can sign up for their free daily newsletter here.

Just as in the case of Tunisia, we’ve been caught off guard by the rapid pace of events in Egypt. Commentators are having a difficult time understanding the dynamics of the Arab world and…

From The Huffington Post

Since founding Buddhism for Development 20 years ago, Heng Monychenda has trained hundreds of Cambodian monks, nuns and community members in conflict resolution and social change. Katherine Marshall talks to him about using Buddhist teaching to contribute to Cambodia’s reconciliation and development.

What are some of the key Buddhist teachings that you draw on as a motivation for social…

Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia in 1993

By David Agren, Catholic News Service

From the National Catholic Reporter

MEXICO CITY — Retired Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, known as the champion of the poor and indigenous in southern Mexico, died Jan. 24 of complications from long-standing illnesses.…

From The Huffington Post

Bill McKibben is a leading American environmental writer and activist. Over the last two decades he has helped to educate and mobilize untold numbers of people on issues of global warming, alternative energy sources and localized economies.In 2010, Time magazine described him as “the world’s best green journalist.” In 2009, his organization, 350.org, planned what Foreign Policy magazine described as “the…

From w#mce_temp_url#Post

Bill McKibben is a leading American environmental writer and activist. Over the last two decades he has helped to educate and mobilize untold numbers of people on issues of global warming, alternative energy sources and localized economies.In 2010, Time magazine described him as “the world’s best green journalist.” In 2009, his organization, 350.org, planned what Foreign Policy magazine described as “the…

From State of Formation

Socially and professionally, American Jews have often felt that they were being ‘put on the stand’ for their beliefs. Sometimes their beliefs even seemed to be on trial nationally – notably during the Red Scares leading up to and during the Cold War, when a disproportionate number of Jews were blacklisted.

But seldom has our religion actually been put on the stand. No organ of the federal government has, to my…

From The Huffington Post

In my great grandmother’s house in Thanjavur, a small town in Tamil Nadu, every meal represented an elaborate ritual. Each night, she washed a fresh set of clothes for the next morning (always a colorful nine yards sari and its blouse) and hung them atop the highest clothing line on the balcony, to prevent anyone from inadvertently dirtying them. The following morning, she rose at 4:00 AM, while the rest of the house still…

From Tibet.net

DHARAMSALA: Kalon Tripa Prof Samdhong said Thursday Tibetans living inside Tibet should not worry about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s retirement plan, saying “His Holiness had clearly said he would continue to work for the cause of Tibet”.

Kalon Tripa was speaking to a large gathering of over 1,800 Tibetans who have come from Tibet to receive His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Sarnath.

Kalon Tripa said His Holiness…

From The Huffington Post

I will love thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my stony rock, and my defense. — Psalm 18:1

When I was eight or nine, I was playing outside on a hillside near the sea in Rhode Island, where my family spent time during the summer. It was overcast. The air was heavily damp, opaque with mist at a distance of 150 yards. The sound of a foghorn bleated from an offshore buoy like a blind person groping in…

Egyptian Muslims hold vigil for Coptic Christian neighbors

from Ahram Online

Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as…

From Patheos

Religious readers may glance at the title and think it’s a riddle, or a play on words, like “Dogs can meow” and “Circles can be squares.” Many atheists, on the other hand, will see it and shake their heads in disappointment, knowing that any talk of spirituality among non-believers inevitably leads to misunderstandings and ripples of misrepresentations. Mentioning the S-word muddles the water between the atheist-theist divide, making matters…

From The Huffington Post

Violence like the weekend shooting in Arizona is scary. Random violence, like the death of 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time this weekend is particularly terrifying.

In the face of such terror, we seek reasons and explanations. We want to know who and what is to blame, hoping that if we could figure that out and make it go away, we would be free of such…

From The Huffington Post

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Driving through downtown Port-au-Prince, it can be difficult at first to see much change from a year ago, when a devastating 7.0 earthquake devastated this impoverished island nation.

The presidential palace is still in ruins, with thousands — among an estimated 1 million homeless Haitians — living in massive tent city across the street. Around the corner, a tent city remains on the grounds of…

Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, Chair, Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions

by Abdul Malik Mujahid

from the Huffington Post

I was horrified to read about the New Year’s Day bombing that killed 21 worshipers at the Coptic Christian Saints Church in…

From State of Formation

Judaism is an action-oriented religion. We have, according to the Talmud, 613 Commandments — not just a top-10 list. In rabbinic courts, your actions can be praised or punished. Faith is a means to achieve just ends, prayer as a way of connecting to the Source of Creation so that we can better play our part in…

From Reuters Africa

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) – Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir made his final trip to the southern capital Juba on Tuesday before a January 9 vote on secession, offering a hand of peace to the southerners he fought for so long.

Bashir seemed to accept that Sudan would split in two after the referendum and his visit was seen as allaying fears that the northern government would refuse to let go of the south — which has 70 percent…

From The Huffington Post

A mantra is a sound, syllable or group of words which, when recited, are regarded as capable of producing spiritual transformation (or so says Wiki). Actually, mantra is a word common in the eastern world and is itself made up of two words: man meaning “mind,” andtra meaning “instrument.” So, a mantra is “an instrument of the mind.”

In eastern religions, and to a lesser degree in the mystical…