“There’s a fear among large segments of the Buddhist population in Myanmar,” says Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, an independent organization to protect and defend human rights, “that the country is at risk of being taken over by Muslims. It’s a very unreasonable, irrational fear.” Originally broadcast April 18, 2014 More
“A Franciscan told me once, ‘Don’t keep track of the score. The score will take care of itself.’” Writer James Lee Burke’s best-selling crime novels are full of biblical imagery, messianic language, the influences of his Roman Catholic boyhood, and a longing for redemption. Originally broadcast October 11, 2013 More
On August 17, Hindus around the world will celebrate the birth of Krishna, a major Hindu deity usually depicted as a blue-skinned young man. Nidhi Singh was our guide at a Hindu temple in Chantilly, Virginia during the annual Krishna festival. Originally broadcast August 22, 2008. More
A visit to the Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees; a writer and rabbi collaborate on a book about facing the mystery of mortality. More
“Behind each of these wonderful people is a life that is completely disrupted. We see God in all of these people. We see that these are brothers and sisters like us,” says Catholic Relief Services president Carolyn Woo. More
Best-selling writer and journalist Sara Davidson felt completely unprepared for the reality of dying. Then she met Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. Their weekly conversations about mortality led to their book “The December Project.” “When you feel you’re coming to the end of your tour of duty, what is the spiritual work of that time,” asked Reb Zalman, “and how do we prepare for the mystery?” More
“Africa is finding, just as it found its political and economic voice it’s also finding its theological voice, which oftentimes may be different in perspective,” says J. Peter Pham of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, “because of background, because of history, and because of the way they have interpreted revelation as different from what those in the West, in Europe, or North America, are used to or are necessarily comfortable with.” More
Patients seek the right to try experimental drug treatments; a woman becomes a humanitarian after surviving torture in Somalia. More
“I’ve seen it more than once where it’s the family members simply can’t let go or decide we can leave no stone unturned,” says Richard Klein of the FDA patient liaison program, “whether or not it’s what the patient really wants.” But do families and patients have a right to try unapproved drugs without going through the FDA? More
“Of course I was angry for everything that was happening to me, but as time went on in captivity, I just realized for my own self, for self-preservation, that I couldn’t stay trapped in that emotion, that I had to try to find ways to let it out, and that’s when I started developing practices like choosing forgiveness in captivity.” More