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Watch more of our interview about the meaning of Shavuot with the director of community engagement at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC. More
Three North Carolina universities have experienced growing hostility and violence toward Muslims; students and instructors at Yale Institute of Sacred Music speak artistically and spiritually about the power of experiencing religious music; and reality TV producer Mark Burnett describes a project to help refugees fleeing persecution and violence in Syria. More
“We have [Muslim] folks who worship here in Chapel Hill who refrain from publicizing and making it known where they worship, when they come together. They tell me it’s because they have concerns about their safety,” says Mark Kleinschmidt, mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina where three Muslim students were murdered in February. More
“There is something about the experience of a big group of people singing together, and really singing from the bottom of their hearts, and it does something to you that lifts us out of the intellectual pursuits we do all day long,” says Maggi Dawn, dean of Yale’s Marquand Chapel. More
“We have managed through our fund to help 72,000 Christians get through the harsh Syrian winter. Imagine surviving persecution and the threats of death, only to freeze to death.” More
Episcopal Bishop of Maryland Eugene Sutton discusses the moral voice of churches in response to Baltimore’s problems of race, poverty, and violence; the Supreme Court hears lawyers argue a case that could make same-sex marriage legal in every state; and Jewish converts talk about both the fulfillment and the challenges they have found in their new faith. More
“It took many parts of very many communities to make peace in Baltimore,” says Eugene Sutton, Episcopal Bishop of Maryland. “Religious leaders from all over the city—Christian mainly, Muslim and Jewish leaders—got out on the streets and congregations and really proclaimed a message of hope and of nonviolence and peace. City officials did the same.” More
John Bursch, the main lawyer arguing why the states should not be required to license same-sex marriages, summed the issue up this way: “You can love your neighbor no matter what their sexual orientation is—what choices they make about their life—and still have a disagreement about what marriage means. And the question is who gets to decide the meaning of marriage?” More
“For Judaism to survive in the 21st century and beyond, it needs to be broad, and to not accept converts in the most inclusive way possible challenges that breadth and potentially narrows who we are,” says Shmuly Yanklowitz, an Orthodox rabbi and himself a convert to Judaism. More
Growing social acceptance of gay marriage and an upcoming Supreme Court case cause some evangelicals to reexamine their views on sexuality and marriage; criminal justice reformers question the social and economic costs of extreme punishments, lengthy sentences, and a history … More