For most of her life, Neets’aii Gwich’in leader Sarah James has worked to protect her homelands, including the coastal plain of the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The United States government wants to lease some of the area for oil exploration and drilling. To the region's longtime inhabitants, those plans threaten land they call sacred. *** Gwichʼin Alaska Native Sarah James … [Read more...]
SACRED STEPS: A Palestinian Man Changes How He Resists
In this story from The Spiritual Edge and our series Sacred Steps, we meet a Palestinian man trying to navigate one of the thorniest conflicts imaginable — whether Palestinians and Israelis can co-exist peacefully on a landmass barely bigger than the nine-county Bay Area. *** In the Palestinian town of Jericho, customers cycled in and out of a cell phone shop to buy new SIM cards. … [Read more...]
SACRED STEPS: They Wanted to Save Lives. The Government Accused Them of Crimes.
Most religions teach people to help those in need. But what happens when that mandate clashes with how the government views the law? After federal prosecutors cracked down on volunteers providing aid on the border, Scott Warren faced decades in prison for following his conscience. *** The desert near the Arizona-Mexico border can get brutally hot, and the August day I … [Read more...]
Sacred Steps: A Buddhist Lay Minister Asks ‘What Is A Good Death?’
Caroline Yongue (in orange cap) talks with colleagues as they use GIS to map the location of graves throughout the Sanctuary. Photo Credit: Jess Engebretson In the latest installment of Sacred Action from KALW’s The Spiritual Edge, we meet a Buddhist lay minister who runs a small green burial cemetery in Western North Carolina. The goal is to give North Carolinians an … [Read more...]
SACRED STEPS: How Two Mennonite Musicians Turn Street Ministry Into Song
Al and Andi Tauber met in the 1980s, when they were students at Illinois Wesleyan University. After trying different denominations, they settled on the urban Mennonite Church, and for the past 20 years they've worked with male sex workers in Chicago. Photo Credit: Jules Wecker The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century was never really one movement. Lots of reformations … [Read more...]
SACRED STEPS: Two Fearless Nuns Are Determined To Help Detained Immigrants
In the latest installment of SACRED STEPS from KALW’s The Spiritual Edge, we’ll meet two Catholic nuns who, after decades of work with immigrant detainees, aren’t slowing down. Sisters JoAnn Persch and Pat Murphy say their age — one is in her 80s, the other in her 90s — is irrelevant when there is so much need. They attend rallies and prayer vigils, meet with … [Read more...]
SACRED STEPS: Risking his life to be a voice of opposition in Honduras
In the latest installment of Sacred Action from KALW’s The Spiritual Edge, we’ll meet a Honduran Catholic priest who risks his life to speak up on behalf of his country’s most vulnerable people. His activism over the airwaves, in his writings and speeches places him in the crosshairs of a government that has killed its opponents, including this priest’s friends … [Read more...]
SACRED STEPS: A Former Israeli Soldier Questions His Country And Faith
In a new series from The Spiritual Edge, we hear from a former Israeli soldier who questions violence towards Palestinians, and what it means to be Jewish if he’s no longer a Zionist. *** Tel Aviv, ISRAEL — Dean Issacharoff wears small round glasses. He has bushy brown hair and bright eyes. The night I visited his Tel Aviv apartment, he opened the door for me barefoot, in cutoff denim shorts … [Read more...]
PREVIEW: Land, Salmon, Ceremony and a Dam
Land, Salmon, Ceremony and a Dam will tell the story of the Winnemem Wintu tribe of Northern California. At its heart, it is the story of a clash between two cultures: that of California’s Native peoples and those of the settlers, and state and federal bureaucracies that took over their lands. It’s a clash that has pushed the Winnemem Wintu to the edge of extinction. The Spiritual Edge … [Read more...]
Zohar translation revives poetry and nuance of Jewish mystical text
SEPT. 19, 2016—Western literature’s most important books have been translated, not once, but many times. The book at the top of the charts is the Bible: more than 100 translations, and that’s just in English. Why so many? It’s hard to capture all the nuances of meaning and style from the original. Which is why a recently completed translation of the Zohar—the book at the bedrock of the Jewish … [Read more...]
Muslim converts wrestle with isolation, seek support
About 20% of American Muslims are converts — people who didn’t grow up with the religion and often don’t have any cultural ties. In some faiths, there’s a clear path for prospective converts. Catholicism, for example, has an official course of rites, rituals, and classes for those entering the Church. Islam doesn’t have a formal conversion process like that. To become a Muslim, you declare your … [Read more...]
After-school Satan club tests the limits of church and state
Portrayed through much of history as the evil nemesis of humanity, a new movement sees Satan more as a literary symbol of rebellion than the scriptural Prince of Darkness. These modern-day Satanists say they are trying to fight what they see as the encroachment of evangelical Christianity in places they say it doesn’t belong — such as public schools. Last year, they ignited a debate about who … [Read more...]
Interview: He broke with his Buddhist tradition to meditate, Rev. Koshin Ogui
Reverend Koshin Ogui is a rebel. He’s dedicated to the Buddhist school in which he is ordained. But in the 1970s, he broke with tradition to begin teaching meditation. Meditation, while commonly associated with Buddhism is not part of Jodo Shinshu, Japan's most popular school of Buddhism. While teaching meditation may not sound like a big deal, Ogui says it forced him to think a lot about what is … [Read more...]
For one artist, Russian Orthodox icons offer the perfect blend of art and spirit
In the Russian Orthodox Church, art is much more than just decoration. Small, elaborate paintings known as icons portray Christianity’s most famous persons, and are used as tools for prayer. Today, a number of artists who are neither Russian nor Russian Orthodox are nonetheless pushing the boundaries of this religious art form. Sean Kramer is one. He stands in front of a whiteboard in a … [Read more...]
Interview: UC San Francisco doctor seeks to heal medicine’s mind-body split
Western medicine once shunned alternative treatments like acupuncture, acupressure or the Indian system of Ayurveda. But the field of medicine is now taking them more seriously. Proof can be found in the emerging field of integrative medicine. Its approach is to combine modern medicine with alternative and complementary approaches, to take into account the whole person. Dr. Sudha Prathikanti … [Read more...]
Created in prison: a new way of thinking about evolution and spirituality
Gary Shepherd has spent more than half of his 45 years incarcerated — his entire adult life. In that time he’s become a self-taught scholar and a self-described spirit warrior, putting into action a deeply-held belief in the power of altruism and cooperation. All of this springs from Shepherd’s study of evolution. It’s made him what he calls an “evolutionary.” “It doesn’t mean just evolution,” … [Read more...]
This Sudanese American life
Spiritual Edge contributor Hana Baba remembers what it was like to grow up black, African and Muslim in this piece published in Patheos. My parents must have felt this confusion, because that’s when they decided we would be going to Sudan a LOT more frequently. That a Sudanese identity would blend all these parts of me, of my world. That knowing my family, my … [Read more...]
Turning the tables on church homophobia: an interview with Pastor Yvette Flunder
At the Pentecostal Church where Yvette Flunder grew up in, she recalls pastors and church leaders who were tender and kind and understanding. That is, until one topic came up — that of homosexuality. Flunder herself was, as she calls it, “a same-gender-loving-woman,” and the prejudice drove her out of her church. But she didn't leave her religion. Instead, she went on to become a pastor — today, … [Read more...]
TSE survey results: What you said about being religious, spiritual or ‘none’
A big part of our mission at the Spiritual Edge is to understand: What does it mean to be religious or spiritual in America today? … [Read more...]
Interview: A San Francisco author’s surf toward enlightenment
May 2, 2017 — Jaimal Yogis is a San Francisco author who lives at Ocean Beach with his wife and three sons. He spent many years traveling the world seeking spiritual enlightenment. That time is captured in his upcoming book All Our Waves Are Water: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment and the Perfect Ride. Jaimal sat down with a fellow surfer, KALW’s Ben Trefny, to talk about it. YOGIS: All that … [Read more...]
