During the first week of November 2018, 12 graduates and current students of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto, Canada. The Parliament is a conference with a 125-year-old history that has grown… Read More ›
Interreligious dialogue
When “Interfaith” Started Losing its Luster for Me by Valentina Khan
Interfaith, a wonderful term that brings only happiness to my mind. So many days spent sitting and planning out events at the local coffee shop (shout out to The Lost Bean in Tustin, CA. which was one of the first… Read More ›
In This Fractured World, I Will Not Remain Silent by Karen Leslie Hernandez
The recent killing of 17 year old Nabra Hassanen is on my mind. Not only was she killed—brutally beaten with a baseball bat—but it is thought that she was raped, too. Twice. During Ramadan. By an undocumented Latino from El… Read More ›
On Difference by Ivy Helman.
There is no correlation between difference and danger. Yet, differences are regularly considered threatening. In fact, much of Western society’s patriarchal energy is spent categorizing, controlling, managing and fighting difference. Difference is so ingrained within the psyche that most differences… Read More ›
Today, I am 50. And I Know Jack-Diddly Squat by Karen Leslie Hernandez
You’d think after all these years I would know, right? I would be sure. I could walk comfortably, touting that I am certain, as so many others my age do. The reality is however, I still don’t know. I am… Read More ›
Declaring a Theological State of Emergency: Trump’s Ignorance Must Not Be Ours by Mary E. Hunt
On CNN’s State of the Union, Donald Trump reiterated his call to bar Muslim immigration to the U.S. and predicted that his fellow presidential candidates would soon come around to his position. This prompts me to declare a theological state of emergency…. Read More ›
Is There a Such Thing as a Code of Ethics in Academia? by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
One of things that has dismayed me since I began graduate school and started focusing my study on the Bible, is how much sensationalism exists. We are told in the academy not to use Wikipedia or watch the History Channel…. Read More ›
Putting Faith in Interfaith Dialogue by Esther Nelson
Why do it? Sit around a table with people who profess a faith tradition different from our own, drink coffee, nibble on snacks, and talk. What’s the point? No doubt the reasons vary depending on the particular people getting together…. Read More ›
Good Theology is Feminist Theology by Carol P. Christ
Judith Plaskow and I are just now completing the draft of the manuscript of the book we have been working on for the past 2 ½ years. It has a new title: Two Views of Goddess and God for Our… Read More ›
Sexism and “Jerusalem” by Ivy Helman
Three weeks ago, I played a video entitled “Kingdom of David: Rivers of Babylon” from the PBS Empires series. The series first aired in 2003. For the first time, and I’ve played the video in class for probably six semesters in… Read More ›
Theological Reflection: Outward, Not Inward by Kelly Brown Douglas
I was asked recently what frustrates me most about theology. I am a theologian, and love doing theology. Nevertheless, I do have my moments of frustration with the theological enterprise. I am most frustrated when theology loses its dynamic edge… Read More ›
Witch’s Night In by Kate Brunner
There is doctrine. There is tradition, liturgy, scripture, & exegesis. And then sometimes, there is simply real life. There is the precious gift of spending time engaged in deep communication with everyday women living spiritual lives the best they can… Read More ›
Heart of the Matter by Oxana Poberejnaia
My friend whom I teach frame drumming teaches us shamanic journeying. There was an episode in one of my journeys, when, unable to see the way forward, I put the palm of my hand on the ground and went down… Read More ›
“Never Again…” by Ivy Helman
Every year, the Greater Lowell Interfaith Leadership Alliance, GLILA, sponsors an interfaith service on genocide. During these services, the community gathers together to remember, to mourn, to heal, to honor and to work towards a world in which Elie Wiesel’s… Read More ›
Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Quests for Hope and Meaning by Gina Messina-Dysert
Rosemary Radford Ruether is one of the most brilliant theologians of our time and her newly released autobiography, My Quest for Hope and Meaning, is a gift to those of us who have been so touched by her work. In… Read More ›
An Interview with Lyz Liddell from the Secular Student Alliance by Kile Jones
In this post I interview Lyz Liddell, Director of Campus Organizing at the Secular Student Alliance. I first got in contact with Lyz about the idea of building a Humanist Center at my school, Claremont Lincoln University. She was very… Read More ›
Interview an Atheist at Church Day by Kile Jones
As some of you may know, I run a project called “Interview an Atheist at Church Day.” This project aims at bettering understanding and furthering dialogue between atheists and Church-going religious persons. So far we have had over a dozen… Read More ›
The Inter-Faith Youth Initiative and Feminism by Ivy Helman
From June 25th through July 2nd 2013, I participated, as one of three Jewish mentors, in IFYI (Inter-Faith Youth Initiative), an inter-faith immersion experience for high school and college-age youth sponsored by Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries (CMM). The mentors and the… Read More ›
Thanks for Coming (Out): Sexuality, Sports, and Spirituality by John Erickson
I have to be honest, Jason Collins’ admission that he was a homosexual, albeit brave, upset me. While coming out is an completely unique experience to every individual that does it, Jason Collins’ story was just another example of the rampant sexist and heteropatriarachal world that privileges male bodies and sexualities over women’s similar experiences. While I applaud Jason’s story and it’s timing, the first thing I asked to my colleagues was: Where was the hubbub over Sheryl Swoopes or Martina Navratilova?
And Thus God made a Covenant with Hagar in the Wilderness by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
We are familiar with the covenant God made with Abraham and Moses, but are you aware that God also made a covenant with Hagar? In the wilderness Hagar encounters a deity at the well named Beer-lahai-roi (Genesis 16). Water and… Read More ›
The Crime of Being a Girl Scout: The Sin of Raising Strong Female Leaders by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
Cradle Catholic and Woman Educated by the U. S. Vowed Religious Support the U. S. Catholic Sisters Support, Minister, and Live the Social Gospel Theologian, Feminist, and Critical Thinker Former Girl Scout Leader of Three Troops Former Girl Scout I… Read More ›
“If You Allow Gay Marriage…” by John Erickson
“We need to start examining the underlying questions of counter-cultural relationships that view one man marrying many women to be hip because we begin to see that although a polygamist idea of marriage may be sexy from a popular culture standpoint, the thought of legally recognized gay marriage always then gets likened to bestiality.”
A FEMINIST TAOIST VOICE PART 2: MY DIALOGUE WITH ELISA FON, ACUPUNCTURIST, TAOIST, FEMINIST AND FRIEND by Sara Frykenberg
Taoism is a philosophy that, for me, has been around so long because it is meant to move and change with society… Acupuncturist, healer and friend, Elisa Fon and I began a discussion of Taoism and feminism in Part 1… Read More ›
A FEMINIST TAOIST VOICE PART 1: MY DIALOGUE WITH ELISA FON, ACUPUNCTURIST, TAOIST, FEMINIST AND FRIEND by Sara Frykenberg
“So it all kind of depends… even in men compared to men, and women compared to women, you would have to have a counterpart to judge something as yin or yang—you are never statically just yin or just yang…” Elisa… Read More ›
A Church With No Walls By Sheila E. McGinn, Ph.D.
Last year about this time, I spent a month in Malaysia, at the invitation of Alpha Omega International College, a school in Petaling Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. I was rather surprised at the initial invitation, since AOIC is… Read More ›