A year ago last month, Karen Armstrong came to Tanenbaum’s office in New York with representatives of TED. She applauded our work and the work of hundreds of other organizations putting the Golden Rule into practice. As a winner of the TED prize, she explained, she wanted to help promote our efforts as part of a global conversation about compassion – an active, essential ingredient of every major religion.
Tomorrow, the Charter of Compassion will be launched Read the rest of this entry »
This week, the E.U. bans crosses in public schools and a U.K. court rules that a company is guilty of religious discrimination for violating an employee’s belief in climate change.
First: the crucifixes. In what remains one of Europe’s more religious countries (although still less so than the US), crosses can no longer be displayed in classrooms. The European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously Tuesday that the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and education freedoms (Associated Press reports). Read the rest of this entry »
From our EVP and CEO, Joyce Dubensky…
A program journal on a guest's seat.
Today I finally have a minute to catch my breath and to enjoy the memories of our annual Gala on Monday night. As always, it was so busy that I didn’t have time to really talk with all the friends who were there.
| Premiere and Panel Discussion
Inside Islam; What a Billion Muslims Really Think |
What you wear really does make a statement: a Home Depot employee in Florida and a student in Utah both get in hot water for their accessories, and at least one of these is ending up in court.
Meanwhile, fascinating health care debates go on – should health care reform cover faith healing, and is faith healing really healing?
That was the title of the seminar I presented at the Interfaith Youth Corps 6th Conference on Interfaith Youth Work this week. To an over-stuffed room of 19 students, professors and non-profit trainers, I presented the findings of our summer’s work: 22 interviews with 10 seminaries, one divinity school and one graduate department of religion.
I may have rushed through my PowerPoint, as I wanted to continue the survey – hearing from this group, how can and should peacemaking be incorporated into future religious leadership? Read the rest of this entry »
Use the #IFYC09 hashtag to read about all the action from the attendee’s perspectives, including great links to others writing about it.
Our own Assistant Director of the Religion and Conflict Resolution program, Heather DuBois, presented there, and IFYC posted a few questions that sprang from her presentation on their internal discussion site. I thought I’d share them with you here – what’s your take?
A few weeks ago we wrote about Obama’s Ramadan celebration at the White House. This week, President Obama continued his practice of publicly celebrating the world’s religious traditions with Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. Also, an atheist ad appears on New York subways. Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this month, I attended the Out & Equal Workplace Summit in Orlando, Florida where I conducted a 150 minute intensive workshop entitled “HR Innovations: A Practicum in Managing Religious Diversity and LGBT Issues”. Our presentation was designed to explore the tensions and misunderstandings that commonly emerge between religious and LBGT employees in the workplace and to introduce participants to some of the ways to recognize and resolve these conflicts.
In case you were preoccupied with the names Obama and Nobel this week, here are some interesting stories you might have missed.
Iranians around the US are demanding religious freedom in their home country. In Washington DC, 1400 people gathered to hear Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and Shohreh Aghdashloo, Academy Award-nominated actress for “House of Sand and Fog,” speak about the suffering of religious minorities in Iran. In Los Angeles, comedian Rainn Wilson hosted a concert with international artists and religious leaders to bring attention to human rights issues. Read the rest of this entry »
Tanenbaum
Heather, Conflict Res.
Michelle, Communications
Mark, Manager of Programs
Rachel, Workplace/Healthcare
