By Claire E. Sufrin. The Jewish holiday of Purim fell this year on Thursday, March 21. The holiday celebrates the survival of the Jews of Shushan long, long ago as told in the biblical book of Esther. The story centers on Esther, a young Jewish woman, whose uncle Mordecai encourages her to compete to become […]
By Karen Erlichman. There are so many ways to be, do and feel Jewish. I can attest to this over the course of my lifetime, as a young girl who felt called to become a rabbi before women were being ordained as rabbis, as a nascent feminist in high school and college, then coming out […]
By Karen Ross. As a Catholic adolescent girl, I received many messages both implicitly and explicitly about my body and my sexuality. I noticed from an early age that within my Catholic cultural environment, touching or even talking about your genitalia and reproductive organs as a young woman was inappropriate, and even dirty, especially outside […]
By Lauren D. Sawyer. For the past several months, I have been informally gathering stories from my friends about their experiences with evangelical purity culture, the world of abstinence pledges, purity rings, and kissing dating goodbye. I caught up with my friend Grace, who reminded me of the Spiritual Emphasis Week we attended at our […]
I have never quite believed Christians who declare that they’ve never thought of God as male but only as spirit. I suspect that this non-personal designation leaves a void that is too easily filled by Western art, biblical pronouns, and prayers to God as Father and Lord. The patriarchy must be lurking somewhere in their […]
This past summer my oldest son did his first internship in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was hard to have him away from home; he had been back for only a few days this summer after classes ended at college before he left for this internship. Now he has just returned and is gone again to […]
The roaring success of the Women’s March on Washington and the many related marches around the world signals a new spiritual vibrancy that supports action for social justice. As footsore marchers debrief, most people are singing the same song: huge numbers of diverse folks; overwhelming good will in sometimes crowded conditions; creative, constructive manifestations of […]
“Some of you have thanked me for not outing you as closet Buddhists,” said the pastor as he introduced me for my presentation on multiple religious belonging. I wondered: What work was the language of the closet doing in this space? I had the opportunity to think about this question again this October 24-26 at […]
By Rosemary Carbine. The Workgroup on Constructive Theology recently produced a video titled Fear Not!, which encourages Christians to respond in faith to the dangerous public discourse of the current U.S. political season, which has featured prominent public figures who endorse Islamophobia, racism, anti-immigration policies against refugees, and so forth on religious grounds. Inciting a […]
By Kristin Garrity Şekerci. This blog is in response to Tanisha Ramachandran’s piece “Racializing Religion.” In her blog, Ramachandran argues the importance of understanding the intersection of race and religion, and how power and privilege reinforces the othering and subordination of Muslims and those perceived to be. Ramachandran cites the work of contemporary scholar Leerom […]