Paths to Peace

Two positive stories: one about Islam the other about Judaism

2010-09-13T08:47:00.000-07:00

On September 12 NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday program carried two very interesting stories, one about folks who have visited 30 mosques in the US (and have amazing tales to share) the other about recordings of Jewish spiritual music by Black artists. Take a listen. These are amazing!

Ramadan Road Trip

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129809833&m=129809820

The secret musical history of “Black Sabbath”

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=129779902&m=129809827

Let's all take a deep breath and think about the language we use

2010-09-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

...and the symbolic actions we take.

It has been a hell of a week.

We have a "Christian" minister in Florida who has scheduled a Qur'an burning for September 11.

We have Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, who has compared to the Nazis the supporters of an Islamic Center near Ground Zero.

We have a University of Louisville student who in making a public presentation on his recent visit to the Palestinian territories has reportedly used the word Nazi and the term "Ethnic Cleansing" in referring to Israeli leaders.

I'd like to take a moment to try to douse the interfaith conflagration that is sparking right now in the world of inter-religious interaction.

First, the Qur'an burning.

As a lover of books (and an author) I find the idea of book burning unacceptable. I regard the burning of the sacred text of any religion as particularly repugnant. By my understanding, Muslims view the Qur'an as the Incarnate Word of God in a way that is similar to that in which Christians see Jesus Christ. Thus, burning a Qur'an may be viewed by Muslims with the same horror that Christians would see the burning of Jesus Christ himself.

Next, the use of the word Nazi and the term "Ethnic Cleansing".

Before any of us uses that word or that term loosely, let's keep in mind the reality of ALL that the Nazis represented and all that they did to poison and destroy our world. And let's consider what the term ethnic cleansing means in reality.

While I am not a survivor of the Holocaust myself, I know men and women who are. I won't presume to speak for them, but I imagine that they would find the use of "Nazi" and "Ethnic Cleansing" in this context extremely distasteful and very disturbing.

Engaging in thoughtless name-calling only incites our opponents and adds no useful information to any debate.

Let's agree to disagree. Let's engage in deep and sometimes painful discussions. But let's stop the name-calling. And the book burning.

As my friend Joe Phelps says, what we need is more light and less heat.

Louisville attorney reminds us how to really honor the "I have a dream" speech

2010-08-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

After all of the fuss this weekend about Glenn Beck's event in Washington, here is a story that I think reflects the real sense of honor that should be associated with the Lincoln Memorial and the "I have a dream" speech...and it has a Louisville connection.

Tom Williams, a Louisville attorney, member of the Board of Interfaith Paths to Peace (and a personal friend) was featured in a news story this weekend related to the 47th anniversary of the famous, "I have a dream" speech delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in August of 1963 by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Tom, it turns out, was personally responsible for there being a marker at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington honoring the exact location from which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his iconic, "I have a dream" speech.

Here is a link to the WHAS TV story

http://www.whas11.com/community/Louisville-mans-desire--101731703.html

and here's a written version of the story:

by Mike Colombo
WHAS11.com

Posted on August 28, 2010 at 10:52 PM

Updated Saturday, Aug 28 at 11:36 PM

(WHAS11) Forty-seven years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. For almost four decades, there was nothing at the memorial to commemorate Dr. King’s speech and place in American history; one Louisville man helped change that.

Centered 18 steps from the top of the marble chamber at the Lincoln Memorial lies a place in American history you’d probably miss, if you weren’t looking for it. With all the monuments and statues throughout the country, this small historical marker is humbly located at the very place one of America’s most influential speakers told us about his dream.

An inspiring dream to many, that one Louisville man helped immortalize. In a time where it seemed racial equality could only happen in a dream, Dr. King helped change that way of thinking.

For members of Louisville’s Green Street Baptist Church, Dr. King’s famous speech and visit to their place of worship four years after speaking those words energized them to follow their own dreams.

“Dr. Martin Luther King inspired me to do with what I had. Therefore, I did go to college and I did graduate,” said Rochelle Griffin.

“It reached everyone, everywhere. It wasn’t just about those people he was making the speech to in Washington, he was talking to everyone in the nation,” said Devoe Hale.

There’s a broad personal connection to the “I Have a Dream” speech; one Louisville lawyer, Tom Williams, hoped would come full circle during a 1997 trip to the Lincoln Memorial. My wife and I visited DC and she had never been to DC. I wanted to show her where King gave his dream speech, because I was sure there was something there. When we got there, there was nothing there,” said Williams.

The fact there was no historical marker bothered Williams so much he wrote Representative Anne Northrup requesting a marker be placed where Dr. King made that famous speech. “It seemed like an oversight. Like your favorite book has a typo and you want to correct it,” added Williams.

With Northrup’s help, Williams’ wish for a historical marker was granted. He and his family were invited for its unveiling; also attended by Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King. “It was just an amazing experience. It was clear to me that Mrs. King and John Lewis, who was the only person living who actually spoke at the march, were enjoying taking some time to look back and see how far they had come,” added Williams.

So now, in a place Dr. King himself called hallowed ground lies a reminder of a place, time and those revolutionary words.

While Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is certainly the most famous from that day at the Lincoln Memorial, King was just one of several other influential speakers; including Kentucky native Whitney Young.

Remembering Katrina Five Years Later

2010-08-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Five years ago today Hurricane Katrina was approaching the Gulf Coast.

It was a Sunday. I was at home that morning getting ready to go to Meeting for Worship at the Friends (Quaker) Meeting House in Louisville.

I had the TV on and I was watching the news. Suddenly there was live coverage of a news conference featuring the Mayor of New Orleans who was ordering a full-scale evacuation of the city.

When he paused to take questions, one of the reporters in the room asked him how his evacuation plan dealt with people who didn't have cars.

The Mayor said, in essence, that the city hoped that churches would use their buses to go around and pick up people who were homebound and didn't have cars.

As I listened to those words I said out loud to myself, "Oh my god, thousands of people are going to die tonight."

Sadly, I was right. The city didn't have a plan and nearly two thousand people died in New Orleans and other places on the Gulf Coast.

Hoping that churches (or other religious groups for that matter) would help with the evacuation was a pipe dream. Planning to include houses of worship and their transportation resources could have been helpful. But mere hopes proved disastrous.

As I look at the weather channel this morning, there may be one or more hurricanes headed our way.

I pray that no hurricane hits a populated area in the US or anywhere else. But I fear that neither New Orleans nor any other major metropolitan area has any serious plan for evacuating the homebound when a hurricane or some other disaster threatens.

I would like to see houses of worship be part of any evacuation plan and would like to help bring people of different religions together to respond to emergencies. I just don't know where to begin. If anyone has an idea, please share it with me. I'll pass it along to everyone else.

Become a Vampire Slayer

2010-08-27T10:35:00.001-07:00

Friends,

I am part of Leadership Louisville's Bingham Fellows program for 2010. Our focus for this year is "Positioning Louisville as a Green Leader."

I am also part of a sub-group that is focusing on the idea of "personal sustainability." In practice, personal sustainability means looking at your own lifestyle and finding ways of living that will decrease your overall carbon footprint and make you (and me) more responsible users of natural resources.

In particular, our group is focusing on an effort to encourage everyone living in the Greater Louisville area to do "One Green Thing" this year.

In an effort to take my own advice, I'm actually doing two green things. First, I have become an urban farmer (more about that in a later blog). Second I have become a "Vampire Slayer."

What vampires am I slaying? Energy vampires.

What are energy vampires? They are those devices around our homes and offices that suck energy from the circuit even when they are turned off (if they are left plugged in). These include stereos, computers, TVs, printers etc.

All you have to do to slay an energy vampire is unplug it when you aren't using it.

I started with my microwave oven. I'm a bachelor and I use this cooking device about once a month. I used to leave it plugged in and it was draining energy 24 hours a day. Now it only uses energy for a minute or two once a month when I need to heat something up.

More significantly, I have just started unplugging my TV, cable box, DVD player, computer and printer when they are not being used.

And I'm looking for more vampires to unplug.

Here's a link to a site that will help you become an energy vampire slayer while you also explore other ways to be more personally sustainable.

http://www.yousustain.com/solutions/recommendations

Hunger is an Interfaith Issue

2010-08-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Help us battle hunger in Louisville

Friends, most of us don't think of hunger as a religious or interfaith issue but it is. Lack of adequate food is a problem for Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Baha'is, Hindus and practitioners of all religions represented in our community

You can come together with people from other religions and help to eliminate hunger in Louisville and Southern Indiana by taking part in this year's interfaith Dare to Care Hunger Walk. Join us at 2:15 on Sunday, September 19 at Waterfront Park.

And here's a link that you can use to sign up to be a member of the Interfaith Paths to Peace team!
http://thehungerwalk.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=426634&lis=0&kntae426634=0C83CB44FB1B4A3780569278BAFE65C8&supId=0&team=3896178&cj=Y

Aug 14: Anniversary of the Last Public Execution in America

2010-08-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

The Last Public Execution in America

{Don} Everyone in Owensboro loved Lischia Rarick Edwards, 70 years wise in 1936.

On the last day she lived, she was brutally raped and murdered in her own home, in her own bed in Owensboro.

Before we begin today’s program let us pause to mourn her death and grieve for the generations of family and friends who have suffered so much pain as a result of her murder.

The man linked to this heinous crime by physical evidence and no less than five confessions in five separate venues, was brought to the jail house in Louisville right behind me to protect him from being lynched.

After his case was reviewed by the Federal court in Louisville and after he was baptized , he was taken from the jail we are standing in front of at 1:00 in the morning, driven to a parking lot in Owensboro where he was legally and publically hanged from a portable scaffold by an intoxicated headsman in front of 20,000 spectators.

The legal and political establishment and some decent people of goodwill thought they were doing the right thing.

Today, as we gather to reflect on the last public execution in America , three death warrants sit on Governor Beshear’s desk waiting for him to give the order to let the injections begin.

{Mitzi} It was the event that forever ended the spectacle of public executions in the United States. And it happened right here in Kentucky.

The date was August 14, 1936.

The scene was a parking lot in Owensboro.

There was a cast of thousands…

Newspapers from around the country sent writers and photographers to cover the event. Here is a sampling of what they had to say…

{Jill} The Boston Daily Record reported: “Cheering, booing, eating, joking, 20,000 persons witnessed
the public execution of Rainey Bethea, 22, frightened Negro boy, at Owensboro, KY, yesterday. In callous, carnival spirit, the mob charged the gallows after the trap was sprung, tore the executioner’s hood from the corpse, chipped the gallows for souvenirs. Mothers attended with babes in arms, hot dog venders hawked their wares and a woman across the street held a ‘necktie breakfast’ for relatives from surrounding towns. ..”

The New York Herald Tribune reported: “Town Gay for Public Hanging.” The Philadelphia Record wrote: “They Ate Hot Dogs While a Man Died on the Gallows.” One other Boston paper boasted a headline that read, “Children Picnic as Killer Pays.”

{Mitzi} But what really happened that summer morning in Kentucky? Let’s recount the last few hours of
the condemned man as best we know them.

First a few words about the characters in this drama and the events that led up to the hanging.

{Shiela} Lischia Rarick Edwards, the Victim of the Crime

Mrs. Edwards was a homemaker who was raped and murdered on June 7, 1936 in her residence in Owensboro, Kentucky. She was 69 years old at the time of her death. Lischia was the widow of farmer and cattleman Elza Edwards, who had died unexpectedly of apoplexy in 1915. A few years before her death, she rented three upstairs rooms in the home of Emmett Wells at 322 East Fifth Street where the crime later occurred. Although not wealthy, Mrs. Edwards did have an amount of money in the bank that allowed her to live comfortably, and enabled her to leave a modest estate of just under $10,000 to her only survivor: her son Dr. Philip R. Edwards.

{Ken} Rainey Bethea, the Man Executed for the Rape and Murder

A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Rainey Bethea was probably 22 or 23 years old at the time of the crime for which he was convicted and hanged. Bethea attended school for only three years. As an adult he attended a Baptist Church and its Sunday School. He stood five feet four-and-three-quarter inches tall and weighed 128 pounds. Bethea had lived for a time just a few feet from the residence of the murder victim, and in fact had been briefly employed by her. He was probably considered a petty criminal. Prior to the murder he had spent a portion of 1936 in prison for theft and was on probation at the time of the murder. While in prison he was treated for syphilis.

{Jill} Sheriff Florence Thompson

Mrs. Thompson was the widow of Daviess County Sheriff Everitt Thompson. Upon her husband’s sudden death on Good Friday, April 10, 1936, Florence was asked if she would consider filling out the remaining portion of her late husband’s term as Sheriff. Because she had small children and no other source of income she accepted the offer. Later, under a provision of a relatively new Kentucky law, Florence learned that she would have responsibility for conducting the hanging of convicted murderer Rainey Bethea. She was informed that she might be called upon to pull the hangman’s lever herself. The prospect that she would become the first American woman in history to hang a man was the fact that got the attention of the national news media and ultimately drew over 20,000 people to Owensboro for a 5:30 a.m. hanging on August 14, 1936.

{Don} Arthur L. Hash, the Hangman

On July 7, 1936, Arthur L. Hash, a former Louisville policeman, posted a letter to sheriff Florence Thompson, offering his services, free of charge, to serve as executioner in the forthcoming hanging. She accepted his offer. After the hanging the Louisville Courier-Journal revealed that Hash had resigned from Louisville’s police department on October 8, 1929, following complaints about his drunkenness and because he fired a revolver near his wife’s apartment. He had been arrested a total of 14 times, six for drunkenness and disorderly conduct; four for drunkenness, two for grand larceny, one for disorderly conduct, and one for mayhem. He showed up drunk for the hanging.

{Hannah} George Phillip Hanna, the Consultant for the Execution

Born in Epworth, Illinois, George Phillip Hanna witnessed his first hanging when he was only 22 years old. The execution was botched by the inexperienced hangman. Deeply troubled by what he had seen, Hanna learned all that he could about the proper manner to conduct a hanging and became a sought-after consultant in cities across the country. Although he never pulled the hangman’s lever himself, he would build the scaffold, which he transported from site to site. He advised the condemned on how to conduct himself to minimize suffering. Hanna even adjusted the knot of the hangman’s noose prior to the drop of the trap door. Although he never accepted cash payment for conducting the hangings, he did ask for and received the weapon that had been used to commit the crime. Hanna suffered from algophobia which is characterized by a morbid fear of pain. While he could supervise a hanging, he could not bear to watch someone slaughter a chicken. The execution of Rainey Bethea was Hanna’s seventh hanging.

{Terry} Rev. Herman L. Lammers

Roman Catholic priest Herman L. Lammers served as confessor to Rainey Bethea, before, during and after the trial. Fr. Lammers even stood beside Rainey Bethea on the gallows moments before the hanging and literally heard the condemned man’s final words. Lammers had been ordained a priest in 1932 and was assistant pastor of the Louisville’s Cathedral of the Assumption at the time of the incarceration of Bethea in the Louisville jail in the summer of 1936.

{Don} The Crime

According to the transcript of the trial, early in the morning of Sunday, June 7, 1936, Rainey Bethea entered Lischia Rarick Edwards’ residence on the second floor in Owensboro. His initial plan appeared to be to steal her jewels and leave without detection. He came in through a window only a few feet from where she was sleeping. She suddenly awakened, but before she could cry out for help, Bethea raped and strangled her. He partially covered her body with bedclothes, and then rummaged through her jewelry, taking some while accidentally leaving behind one of his own rings. That ring was subsequently used to connect him to the crime. Mrs. Edwards’ body was discovered by friends when she failed to appear at church on Sunday morning. Several days later Bethea was arrested and charged with rape but not murder. Conviction of rape would allow Bethea to be hanged in public in Daviess County where the crime occurred; conviction of murder would require his electrocution at the State penitentiary. On five separate occasions he confessed to the crime. Because of fear that he would be lynched in Owensboro, Bethea was transported to Louisville’s jail where he was imprisoned until just hours before his execution.

{Jill} Although the hanging took place in Owensboro, the story actually began in Louisville on the
afternoon of August 13…

{Don} As was traditional in the Jefferson County Jail, the jailers asked Bethea whether he would like anything special for his last meal. At 4:00 p.m., he ate fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, pickles, cornbread, lemon pie, and ice cream. Twelve hours later, he would be back in Owensboro. Jailer Connors remarked that Bethea had been a good prisoner while in Louisville.

{Terry} That evening, while waiting to die, Bethea wrote a final letter to his sister, which stated as follows:

Dear Sister

This is my last letter and I have told them to send you my body and I want you to put it beside my father and I am saved and dont [sic] you worry about me because i [sic] goin [sic] to meet my maker and you must pray to meet me some day in the outher [sic] world so you must pray heard [sic] sister that we will meet someday and don't you worry at all becuse [sic] I saved looking to meet you someday in the outher [sic] world So good by [sic] and pray that we will meet agin [sic] some day. Mrs. Ora Fladger, R.F.D. #3, Box 135, Nichols, S.C.
Father Lammers visited Bethea in his cell and told him that he would accompany him to Owensboro and stand beside him during the hanging.

{Don} Late on August 13, deputies drove a car to Louisville to pick up Bethea. A reporter with the Messenger snapped a photograph in the jail of Bethea standing handcuffed between the two deputies. They left the jail at about 1:00 a.m. As they drove toward Owensboro on U.S. Highway 60, Bethea commented, "I'll die happy. I have made my peace with God." They arrived back in Owensboro at about 4:00 a.m. Phil Hanna went to the jail to talk to Bethea and the officers. Pursuant to his regular protocal, he made sure Bethea would be handcuffed in front, and he told Bethea to stand on the "X" marked on the trap door.

{Jill} People in the crowds naturally became hungry because many of them stayed at the hanging site for several hours. Some enterprising youngsters erected concession stands in the vicinity of the gallows. Others sold hot dogs, pop corn, and soft drinks, unaware that photographers were taking pictures. Little did those selling and purchasing snacks realize the impact that this would have in the national press.

{Ken} Thousands of out-of-town people began to compress into Owensboro. People arrived by train, and several nonpaying passengers disembarked from a freight train. A school bus from Dixon unloaded twenty-two people. The streets were full of individuals who had traveled from surrounding counties as well as nearby states to witness the execution. With every hotel in the city full, hundreds of these folks stayed up all night, others brought cots and slept outside awaiting the morning's events. Residents of Owensboro were kept awake by the continuous murmur of talking and the relentless scuffle of people walking down the streets.
Many of the journalists arrived by airplane. The Chicago Times sent a special truck rigged with a developing room and a portable telephoto unit. The Associated Press and the Louisville newspapers prepared to airlift their photographs of the event to Louisville. The photographers thought they were about to photograph history taking place when the first woman in America hanged a man.

{Shiela} Fearful that onlookers might become drunk and disorderly, Mayor Fred Weir ordered the police to close at midnight all drinking establishments in Owensboro except those which sold beer. Before midnight, police arrested two drunks. After midnight, a woman was arrested for intoxication.

{Jill} Florence Thompson arose early on the morning of August 14, 1936. Realizing the number of people she might encounter, she dressed neatly, wearing a navy blue store-bought lace dress.

Arriving in town, she was again confronted by reporters who wanted to know whether she would drop the platform. All of the events had made her quite nervous. She told them, "I have made up my mind who will perform the execution, but I shall make no announcement. Nobody will know until the time comes. Why should I reveal my plans?"

{Don} The crowd grew so large that, at 4:20 a.m., officials at the foot of Locust Street opened a gate to a wire enclosure surrounding the lot in order to permit the horde to filter inside. The crowd grew until it reached Second Street. Phil Hanna tested his trap door, but the door stuck. At the time, some estimated that the crowd had grown to 15,000. Several spectators climbed onto the roofs of buildings in order to get a better view.

H. Lawrence Ott, a constable from Louisville, seated himself at a counter in an Owensboro restaurant. With his pistol in a shoulder holster, he accidentally banged the counter, causing the gun to discharge. The bullet punctured his trouser pocket and hit the metal rim of the seat. Although it plowed into the floor of the restaurant, Deputy Constable Louis Fowler as well as three bystanders were mildly injured by fragments.

{Jill} At 4:25 a.m., an F.B.I. agent drove Florence in a black car bearing Lee County license plates to within 150 feet north of the scaffold, where he and the Sheriff waited. She sat there, worrying. If, for any reason, Hash did not perform as promised, she would have to do it herself.

{Shiela} At 4:30 a.m., Leonard A. Peters, his wife, and another couple, were driving from Evansville to Owensboro to witness the hanging. In an attempt to overtake a truck, he ran into a ditch and was killed instantly. His wife and the couple in the car survived.

At 4:35 a.m., Hanna leaned a ladder against the middle crossbeam of the gallows. He climbed the ladder and wrapped the rope several times around the crossbeam. At 4:47 a.m., Hanna again tested the trap door on the scaffold to make sure it was working properly.

The sun rose at 5:12 a.m. and began to illuminate the city. Another hot summer morning, the sky was clear, and the dew remained fresh on the ground.

{Ken} Most of the huge crowd had been awake all night. The aura of the morning's forthcoming events had kept them awake, but underneath it all, most were weary. The Owensboro Messenger later reported that the crowd represented nine counties in Kentucky as well as five states. At first, no blacks appeared. Only sixteen minutes remained until the majority of the group would, for the first time, witness a man's death. More and more people began to compress into the streets of Owensboro. Everyone wanted a good view.

Arthur Hash mounted the scaffold, intoxicated. Hash was rather conspicuous, wearing a white suit and a white Panama hat. A reporter asked him who he was. Attempting to dodge the question, Hash responded, "I'm Daredevil Dick of Montana," but some of the Louisville policemen in the crowd as well as the Louisville reporters recognized him as a former Louisville policeman.

{Don} Bethea’s appeals and his fight to obtain a Writ of Habeas Corpus were both lost. Things were hopeless, and not even Gov. Chandler was willing to help him. Time was running out. A few other spectators climbed some of the light poles and clung there to see better.

At 5:21, a.m., Bethea walked out of the front door of the jail with Deputy Reisz holding his right arm and Deputy Dishman holding his left. Father Lammers walked close behind the three men. Bethea's hands were handcuffed in front of him. As he walked, he wore a tan-colored pair of trousers and a dark-colored shirt. He wanted to look good for the crowd, so he buttoned the top button of his shirt but wore no necktie. The jail was southeast of the scaffold, so Bethea walked between the officers toward the death site. The huge crowd parted as he was led to his death. No one shouted at him, no one remarked. They just gazed as he marched onward.

{Shiela} At 5:23 a.m., as Bethea reached the base of the steps, his guards stepped back. He sat down and said, "Let me take off these shoes. I want to put on this clean pair of socks." He removed his shoes and, with handcuffed hands, removed his dirty socks, replacing them with a brand new pair which he pulled from a side pocket. Wearing only the new socks, he left his shoes at the base and then hurriedly climbed the eight steps of the base and then the thirteen steps with the two deputies holding his arms. No one bothered the shoes he left behind.

Reaching the top, the condemned man tested the trap door with his left foot to make sure it was secure, then he stepped onto the doors, over the large "X" as Phil Hanna had instructed him. He turned and faced east, looking into the rising sun for the last time. Although given an opportunity to address the crowd, Bethea said nothing. The scaffold was crowded by twelve men, including Bethea, Deputy Sheriffs Dishman and Reisz; Father Lammers, of the Cathedral of the Assumption Church in Louisville; Sheriff Lester Pyle of White County, Illinois; G. Phil Hanna, the hangman; and Arthur Hash. Hash's hands were clenched to the lever which would trigger the trap door. The ladder which had been used to adjust the noose was propped up at an angle between two of the upright columns of the gallows.

{Terry} Father Lammers held up his hand to hush the crowd. Seeing the signal, the crowd quieted immediately. They just stood there, transfixed. From that moment forward, a nervous, grave silence fell upon the enormous assembly of witnesses. Bethea gave his last confession while Hash, intoxicated, embarrassed everyone by repeatedly asking Bethea to "say something." Bethea and the other men on the platform ignored Hash. No one demonstrated, and no one showed disrespect for the man's impending death, except some newspaper reporters who insisted that people who were blocking their view "get down." One asked, "What do you think we came here for?"

{Hannah} Hanna then placed a long, black hood over Bethea's head, which concealed Bethea's shoulders and his entire head. Bethea said that he wanted to talk to the priest again, but the request was ignored. Other assistants then began strapping three heavy leather straps around Bethea's body. The first strap was buckled around Bethea's ankles. The second was placed around his thighs, while Sheriff Lester Pyle, who had accompanied Hanna from White County, Illinois, buckled the third strap around Bethea's arms and chest. The three straps gave Bethea's clothes a rippled appearance.

{Jill} The hangman, Phil Hanna, stepped over to Bethea's left and placed the heavy hemp noose around Bethea's neck. The rope had been carefully oiled in order to permit the knot to slide into position and tighten with ease. Hash was still clutching the metal lever which operated the trap door. Hanna adjusted the noose to fit behind Bethea's left ear, while Bethea stood motionless, helpless. This was a standard procedure, which was followed in order to spare Bethea any suffering. So adjusted, the noose should break Bethea's neck when he fell, causing almost instant death.

Hash was waiting, still clasping the lever.

{Mitzi} Hanna stepped away, to Bethea's left. At 5:32 a.m., giving the prearranged signal, he nodded to Hash, but Hash, in his drunken stupor, did nothing. Hanna, growing impatient, then shouted, "Do it now." Hash fumbled, and one of the deputy sheriffs leaned onto the lever. The trap door dropped and Bethea fell about eight feet. The rope tightened, and Bethea swung only slightly at its end. His neck broken, Bethea's head was bent sharply almost touching his right shoulder.
Minutes later, as the man hung from the rope, Phil Hanna climbed down to the base of the scaffold and made a small slit in the hood so Father Lammers could anoint the body for the Last Sacraments. One of the physicians stepped onto the top of the railroad ties, near the base of the gallows, to feel Bethea's pulse. A staff of three physicians, including Dr. B. H. Sigler, Dr. W. L. Tyler, and Dr. John S. Oldham, felt Bethea's pulse several times before concluding that he was dead, some fourteen minutes after the trap door was sprung.

{Ken} Hash stumbled down the steps and said, "I'm drunk as hell. I am getting away from this town as soon as I can. Well anyhow it's over."
After Bethea finally expired, some of the guards lifted his lifeless, limber body, while the noose was removed from around his neck. The hangman cautioned them not to remove the hood from Bethea's head, for such an act would expose the face of death to the crowd.

Society was avenged.

{Don} Bethea's body was removed from the scaffold and placed in a reed basket, the type of coffin used for those who could not afford one. A hearse from the Andrew & Wheatley Funeral Home, a mortuary run by blacks, drove the body away to be prepared for burial. Later the body was taken to St. Stephens Catholic Church, where a requiem mass was said by Father Leo J. Denise at 8 a.m. Burial followed shortly thereafter, but Bethea's body was not sent to South Carolina as he requested. Instead, it was buried in a pauper's grave at the Owensboro Potter's Field. On the same day, Dr. Sigler and Dr. Tyler signed Bethea's death certificate, which stated "legal hanging" as the cause of death. They gave the official time of death at 5:45 a.m.

{Don} And so, society was avenged; and then horrified and then repulsed. Rainey Bethea was the last person to be publically executed in the United States.

Two more prisoners were subsequently hanged in Kentucky but the executions were private. By June, 1938 Kentucky abolished hanging and sixty years later the evolution from the noose to the needle was complete.

There have been three executions in Kentucky since 1957. The total will double if the governor signs the three death warrants now on his desk authorizing lethal injections. Can we be sure that multiple executions today will not one day be regarded with the same horror as the Rainey Bethea spectacle?

Are we willing to risk such a cost?

There was a cost in the Rainey Bethea execution. On August 17, 1936 A. L. Hash mailed a letter to Simon Smith, chief deputy sheriff of Daviess County. Apparently Deputy Smith asked Hash to send him a bill of costs:

{Ken} P.O. Box 502
Louisville, Ky.
August 17th, 36.

Mr. Simon Smith,
Chief Deputy Sheriff,
Daviess County
Owensboro, Kentucky
My Dear Mr. Smith:-
As per your request, I am sending you my expense account for trip to your city, and etc.
R. R. ticket $3.44c. Room in Planters Hotel $1.25c meals $1.00. and [sic taxi] Cab to and from Depot here 50c making a total of $6.19c. I am,

Your friend always,
A. L. Hash
{end}

Join Us! June 30 is New Date for "My Recipe for Peace"

2010-06-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

Friends,

Call in your reservation...then send your check ($25 per ticket) to

Interfaith Paths to Peace
425 South Second Street
Louisville, KY 40202

Here are the details:

Interfaith Paths to Peace Invites You to Attend

"My Recipe for Peace"

A Baker's Dozen of Louisville's
Outstanding Community Leaders
Sharing their personal "Recipes" for how they
go about Peacemaking in their daily lives

Wednesday, June 30th
6:30-8:30 p.m.

St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
330 N. Hubbards Lane, Louisville

This special fundraising dinner will feature delicious food prepared from recipes provided by the evening's presenters:

Christopher 2X ~ Louisville peace activist and youth leader, active in providing support to victims of violence and crime in our community

Morgan Atkinson ~ Filmmaker whose many credit's include: Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton and a forthcoming documentary about John Howard Griffin

Judge Angela Bisig ~ Jefferson Circuit Court Judge and President of the Board of Dare to Care Food Bank, deeply involved with a "Restorative Justice" project in Louisville

Gray Henry Blakemore ~ Publisher of Fons Vitae Press, the nation's premier scholarly interfaith press, who works closely with His Holiness The Dalai Lama and other international religious leaders

Rev. Jerry Cappel ~ Associate Rector for Justice Ministries at St. Matthews Episcopal Church and head of Kentuckiana Interfaith Community, involved with efforts to increase interfaith understanding

Rev. Susan EngPoole ~ Pastor of Unity Church of Louisville, active in interfaith education efforts

Cantor David Lipp ~ A leader of worship and transmitter of Jewish musical tradition at Congregation Adath Jeshurun

Camille Britt McManus ~ Publisher of Louisville's Natural Awakenings Magazine, active in promoting interfaith events in the community

Rev. Joe Mitchell, CP ~ Director of The Passionist Earth and Spirit Center, active in promoting an "ethics of life" recognizing the earth as a single sacred community

The Venerable Nanda ~ Theravadan Buddhist Monk and head of Bodhiraja Unity Temple, meditation teacher involved in relief work for refugees

Denise Vazquez Troutman ~ President and CEO of Louisville's Center for Women and Families, working to eliminate domestic violence and sexual assault

With a special "musical" recipe for peace provided by Zen teacher and Jazz master Richard Sisto

and a special guest presenter (to be announced!)

My final evening with peacemaker George Edwards

2010-06-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Saturday evening before our friend, longtime peacemaker George Edwards, died I had the pleasure of spending the evening with him and his lovely wife, Jean.

George and Jean led the discussion at the May 29th "Film and Food" event hosted by Interfaith Paths to Peace at St. Matthews Episcopal Church.

The film we screened that evening had been suggested by George and Jean. It's a documentary called "Soldiers of Conscience." The film concerns soldiers who decide to become conscience objectors in our war in Iraq. Since George was a conscientious objector in WW II it seemed wonderfully appropriate that he and Jean would lead the discussion following the screening.

Things got off to a rocky start that evening and foreshadowed George's death the following week.

The event was supposed to start at 6:15, and my partner, Fran, and I arrived about 5:45 with pizza, salad and other dinner items.

A few minutes later I was working with IPP Board member Rhody Streeter (a member of the Church) putting out the food when I noticed that Fran had disappeared. I went looking for her and found her near the front door of the church with George and Jean. George was sitting on a bench trying to get his breath.

Fran had helped him walk up the drive from where he and Jean had parked their car. As George sat on the bench, we learned that he had had a pacemaker inserted in his chest about 10 days before, and things were not going well for him. Fran and I asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital or just go home, but typical of George, he said, "No." He wanted to stay and watch the film, but more importantly he wanted to be part of the conversation after the screening.

About 15 of us gathered in the small chapel at the Church to watch "Soldiers of Conscience." We broke for a minute afterward and then put our chairs in a circle to discuss what we had seen.

Before anyone else could speak, George riveted all of us with the story of what it was like to be a conscientious objector in what some people call "the good war." It was extremely unpopular to be against war during that conflict, but George didn't mention any problems. He talked about work that he and others (mainly Quakers) had done to repair portions of the Appalachian Trail and to complete other tasks that required strenuous physical labor.

He also told us, in a matter of fact tone, that he was one of a group of objectors who volunteered to be infected with malaria as part of a medical experiment. By my understanding, there is no cure for malaria. I also understand that it can be fatal.

But George decided to volunteer anyway. It's the kind of man he was. George was not only willing to risk his career by standing up for peace when it wasn't popular to speak out. He was willing to risk his life if it meant helping others.

After George shared the story of volunteering for the malaria experiment I kind of lost track of everything else that was said that evening. I will for ever be blessed with hearing what may have been the final public words of one of Louisville's most significant peacemakers, a man that I was honored to count as my friend.

Here's a link to a story about George done by Peter Smith of the Courier-Journal

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20106020416

and here's a link to a reflection about George in the Courier Journal

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20106040305

Upcoming special event: "My Recipe for Peace"

2010-06-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Interfaith Paths to Peace Invites You to Attend

"My Recipe for Peace"

email interfaithterry@gmail.com to make your reservation!

A Baker's Dozen of Louisville's

Outstanding Community Leaders

Sharing their personal "Recipes" for how they

go about Peacemaking in their daily lives

Tuesday, June 15th
6:30-8:30 p.m.

St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
330 N. Hubbards Lane, Louisville

This special fundraising dinner will feature delicious food prepared from recipes provided by the evening's presenters:

Christopher 2X ~ Louisville peace activist and youth leader, active in providing support to victims of violence and crime in our community

Morgan Atkinson ~ Filmmaker whose many credit's include: Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton and a forthcoming documentary about John Howard Griffin

Dr. Muhammad Babar ~ Pakistani Physician, active in interfaith relief work and peacemaking

Judge Angela Bisig ~ Jefferson Circuit Court Judge and President of the Board of Dare to Care Food Bank, deeply involved with a "Restorative Justice" project in Louisville

Gray Henry Blakemore ~ Publisher of Fons Vitae Press, the nation's premier scholarly interfaith press, who works closely with His Holiness The Dalai Lama and other international religious leaders

Rev. Jerry Cappel ~ Associate Rector for Justice Ministries at St. Matthews Episcopal Church and head of Kentuckiana Interfaith Community, involved with efforts to increase interfaith understanding

Rev. Susan EngPoole ~ Pastor of Unity Church of Louisville, active in interfaith education efforts

Cantor David Lipp ~ A leader of worship and transmitter of Jewish musical tradition at Congregation Adath Jeshurun

Camille Britt McManus ~ Publisher of Louisville's Natural Awakenings Magazine, active in promoting interfaith events in the community

Rev. Joe Mitchell, CP ~ Director of The Passionist Earth and Spirit Center, active in promoting an "ethics of life" recognizing the earth as a single sacred community

The Venerable Nanda ~ Theravadan Buddhist Monk and head of Bodhiraja Unity Temple, meditation teacher involved in relief work for refugees

Denise Vazquez Troutman ~ President and CEO of Louisville's Center for Women and Families, working to eliminate domestic violence and sexual assault

With a special "musical" recipe for peace provided by Zen teacher and Jazz master Richard Sisto

Details about Monday's Memorial Day Service

2010-05-28T10:32:00.001-07:00

"Interfaith Paths to Peace in cooperation with a number of local groups will host a unique interfaith Memorial Day Service at 11 am on Monday May 31 at Christ Church Cathedral at 421 South Second Street in Louisville. What makes this Service unique is that it honors not only military dead but also civilian dead in all US wars."

This is the 26th annual Memorial Day Service and will include a special emphasis on youthful presenters (see list below).

This event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception at which those attending can meet and converse with the presenters.

Here are the program details:

Memorial Day Service

Reception Immediately Following in Bishops Hall

Prelude................................................................................... Micah and Nancy Harris

"American Trilogy"

Welcome and Opening Prayer.......................................... Elizabeth, Hannah and Sarah Bourlakas

Introduction......................................................................... Fiona Grant

Musical Reflection.............................................................. Desmond Anderson and Emanuel Potts

"Lift Every Voice and Sing"

Reading from the Baha'i Faith.......................................... Evan Mortazie

Prayers from Hinduism and Islam................................... Sepideh & Sharzaud Karimi and

Priya Matadar

Interpretive Dance.............................................................. Burmese, Caran and Thai Dancers

Reflection on International Peacemaking.................... Lyla Wasz-Piper

Litany of Battles................................................................. Mitzi Friedlander

Music by Nancy & Sam Harris

The Importance of Remembering the Holocaust......... Alyssa Fromeyer

Musical Reflection.............................................................. Andrea Davidson

"Natchez Trace"

The Importance of Non-violence Education................. Nathan Hagan

Candle Lighting for the Fallen........................................ Aaron Payne

Lighting of First Candle by Lee Thomas

"How Great Thou Art" performed by Anderson & Potts

Closing Remarks and Invitation...................................... Terry Taylor

Postlude................................................................................ The St. Clair String Quartet

Beethoven's Harp Quartet in E flat major

Please join us for a Reception in Bishops Hall

with music by Brendan Grant

Sponsors for the event includ:

Sponsors include:

The Kentucky Council of Churches

Baha'is of Louisville

Kentuckiana American Indian Advocates

Fellowship of Reconciliation, Louisville Chapter

Drepung Gomang Institute (Tibetan Buddhists)

U.S. Department of Peace Campaign

Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral

Friends Meeting (Quakers) of Louisville

Hindu Temple of Kentucky

Independent Muslims of Louisville

The Islamic Cultural Center of Louisville

St. William Catholic Church

St. Agnes Catholic Church

Speaker tomorrow at 11:30 am on resistance to war

2010-05-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

Bill Galvin, Counseling Coordinator at the Center on Conscience & War in Washington, DC, will be the featured speaker at the Third Thursday Lunch at 11:30 am on May 20, 2010 at the Rudyard Kipling.

Through his work over many years beginning with the Vietnam War, Bill has counseled many soldiers and draft resisters. He travels widely, holds workshops and supports conscientious objectors (COs) who are speaking out and standing up in the ongoing effort to move this country to the day when conscience is respected and wars end. He worked directly with most of the COs interviewed for the new award-winning documentary

Soldiers of Conscience which is to be shown in Louisville on May 29 at St. Matthews Episcopal Church, 330 N. Hubbards Lane, 6:00 pm.

Everyone is invited to the buffet lunch ($6) beginning at 11:30 am at the Rudyard Kipling Restaurant, 422 West Oak Street. For reservations, call Jean Edwards, 458-8056.

Sad milestone: 1,000 US dead in Afghanistan

2010-05-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

I just saw an article in the NY Times that says we have now reached 1,000 dead among US service men and women serving in the war in Afghanistan. I have yet to hear anyone explain how we would know if we have won (or lost) this war. How many more Americans and Afghanis will die before we take a deep breath and make the tough decision to end the war...not next year or the year after, but now.

Here's a link to the NY Times Story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/us/19dead.html?hp

Here's a link to images of the US service men and women who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadly, we have no images of the hundreds of thousands of of Afghanis and Iraqis who have died.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/faces-of-the-dead.html?ref=us#/rivers_thomas_e_jr

Dalai Lama, Rabbis, Klezmer, an Islamic Reformation and more

2010-05-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

It was quite a busy weekend for the executive director of Interfaith Paths to Peace.

I'm not often this busy, but the following items illustrate what a rich variety of interfaith opportunities there are in Louisville (or within a short drive).

On Friday, I drove to Indianapolis for a public presentation by the Dalai Lama at Conseco Fieldhouse. As I said to someone after the event, I have heard the Dalai Lama speak a number of times, and I rarely hear anything new, or anything I didn't already know. But I do hear from him reminders of important spiritual matters to which I should be paying attention. Here's a link to the Dalai Lama's official web site so that you can explore his ideas for yourself.

http://www.dalailama.com/

On Saturday, I drove over to Lexington for that city's annual Peace and Global Citizenship Fair, an outdoor exposition of groups and vendors associated with peace or spirituality. I meant many wonderful people, one of whom reminded me of the words of someone who is not often thought of as a spiritual master. A woman approached my table, saw a copy of my book, A Spirituality for Brokenness, and said to me, "We grow stronger at the broken places." I said to her, "You know who is credited with saying that, don't you?" She didn't. "It was Ernest Hemingway. I am the only person I know who uses that quote citing Hemingway as a Spiritual Master."

Later that evening I had the opportunity to lead a book discussion for a local Jewish group that gathers once a month. We discussed a book by a friend of mine, Rabbi Irwin Kula, who is the head of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. We explored his book called Yearnings: Exploring the Sacred Messiness of Life. In this powerful work Irwin shares an amazing array of stories, wise words, and interpretations that have really opened the eyes of my heart. In the book the Rabbi says that over the years his vision of the mission of his organization has evolved to the point where he now sees CLAL's major task as sharing Wisdom and Practice across religious lines. In many ways I see that as the mission of my own organization.

Here's a link to learn more about Rabbi Irwin and his book.

http://yearnings.irwinkula.com/index.html

The next morning I spoke to the Adult Sunday School Class at First Unitarian Church in Louisville. My topic was "An Emerging Velvet Reformation in Islam." That religion is beginning to undergo major changes that are reflective of a long hidden (or ignored) concern for values embraced by the mainstream of other world religions. A key figure in this Reformation is a Turkish spiritual leader named Fettulah Gulen who is like the Christian master Thomas Merton in that he embraces a deepening of spirituality, a concern for social justice, and a commitment to genuine interfaith dialogue. Here's a link to information about Gulen.

http://www.fethullahgulen.org/

Sunday afternoon I attended a wonderful "Klezmer Fest", a celebration of a Jewish style of music that has all of the liveliness of Dixieland Jazz. If you would like to hear a little, here's a link to a short performance by The Java Jews, one of the bands that performed on Sunday.

I finished my Sunday by attending a religious service at St. Agnes Catholic Church honoring the Louisville Association of Community Ministries on the occasion of their 40th anniversary. These ministries (that provide a wide array of social services in every area of Louisville) were the first in the nation and established a model that has been duplicated in cities across America.

http://www.louisvilleministries.org/

And then came Monday morning and a meeting with the visiting Abbot of the Drepung Gomang Monastery in India...

Gray Henry, Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists

2010-05-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

Our friend Peter Smith at the Courier Journal is at a program with the Dalai Lama in Bloomington, Indiana. He just blogged about IPP's friend and emerita Board member Gray Henry, her Fons Vitae Press and how the Muslims and the Tibetan Buddhists have leraned to cooperate over the Years...with Gray's help. Here's a link to Peter's story.

http://faith.courier-journal.com/2010/05/long-road-to-common-ground.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+courier-journal%2FDqbI+%28Faith+%26+Works%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail

Muslims DO denounce terrorist acts

2010-05-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

We frequently hear in the news media cries from folks who claim that Muslims do not denounce terrorist acts by their coreligionists in the US and other parts of the world. You should know that Muslims publicly and loudly denounce violence undertaken in their religion's name.

I don't know if you saw Peter Smith's article in the Courier Journal this week about a local Pakistani group condemning the May 1 attempted car bombing in New York and that group's efforts to support law enforcement. There is a link to the story below.

Please note that several US Muslim organizations have also condemned the attempt. Links to their statements appear after the link to the CJ article.

Here is a link to the Courier-Journal article about a local Pakistani Muslim group condemning the attempted car bombing in New York on May 1.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20105070365

Here is a pulbic condemnation from the Islamic Society of North America of the attempted New York terrorist attack.
http://www.isna.net/articles/News/ISNA-Commends-Efforts-of-Law-Enforcement-Condemns-Attempted-Bombing-at-Times-Square.aspx

Here is a public condemnation from the Council on American Islamic Relations of the attempted New York attack:
http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?mid1=777&&ArticleID=26384&&name=n&&currPage=1

Praying for an End to Nuclear Weapons

2010-05-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Friends, you can still be part of an interfaith service that was held on May 2 in New York at which those gathered prayed for an end to nuclear weapons.

You can be part of it by using this link to watch a brief video of the Service. Below is some text that explains what the service was about.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/by-topic/international/praying-for-an-end-to-nuclear-weapons/6263/

As you know from my recent blog, I was part of a conference ten days ago in New York focused on Nuclear Disarmament. The conference concluded with an interfaith service in a chapel across the street from the UN that also marked the begining of a month of nuclear disarmament activities.

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly recently covered the service and has posted a short video from the service on its web site.

Here's the Religion and Ethics Story:

The United Nations opened a month-long conference in New York this week to review ways to contain the spread of nuclear weapons. Prior to the conference, leaders from several religious traditions gathered at an interfaith chapel across from the UN to pray for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and others offered prayers, chants, songs, and special readings. Watch excerpts of the service, where some of the participants included Buddhist peace activists; Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, Japan, a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing, who brought a scorched piece of a statue of Mary from the cathedral that was destroyed in the attack; a Shinto chant leader; Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; a Native American prayer-song leader; Buddhist and Muslim readers; and Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

The US still has over 5,000 nuclear weapons...ready to use

2010-05-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I attended a conference in New York at the historic Riverside Church devoted to nuclear disarmament. Almost simultaneously the US for the first time in history announced the number of nuclear weapons it possesses: 5,113 (with thousands more awaiting "decommissioning).

I want to talk about the conference, but first, a word about why we should be concerned that in spite of moves toward disarmament, we still possess over 5,000 nukes. Keep in mind that Russia probably has an equal number, as do as many as 10 other nations...and possibly some terrorist groups.

What would be the result if an atomic bomb the size of the one that was dropped on Hiroshima was exploded in Louisville...on the Clark Memorial Bride, lets say.

The explosion would essentially destroy downtown Louisville and downtown Jeffersonville, taking out businesses, hospitals, government centers and the central police departments in both cities. If the bomb exploded during the week and in business hours, perhaps 25-50,000 people would be killed outright. Thousands more would be sickened and killed downwind by the resulting radioactive fallout.

But what if a one megaton bomb bomb were exploded in the same spot? This is, I believe, an average size for a weapon in the US and Russian arsenals.

The heat and blast effects would completely destroy or badly damage everything in the Metro Louisville area out to the Waterson Expressway. Hundreds of thousands of people would die instantly. The blast would wipe out everything we think of as civilization: nearly all of our schools, hospitals, police and fire stations, government offices, libraries, stores, restaurants. Most of the city would become what I have heard cynically referred to as a highly radioactive "self lighting parking lot" for a century or more. Jeffersonville, New Albany and Clarksville along with all of their citizens, would simply cease to exist.

Now some information about the conference I attended.

The conference was entitled "International Conference for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World.'

Over a thousand people attended, and large numbers of attendees came from outside the US: Japan, Australia, Scandinavia and over 200 from France.

The mood was powerful and engaging. There were workshops on a variety of topics that would help participants understand the impact of nuclear weapons, hear about initiatives currently underway to limit and even eliminate all nuclear weapons, and most importantly, discover ways that we as individuals can do something about the nuclear "Sword of Damocles" hanging over our heads.

There were discussions, film presentations, dances and music. The plenary sessions drew hundreds of conference participants and featured noted leaders from the anti-nuclear weapons movement.

The Saturday night plenary featured Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, and Tadatoshi Akiba, the Mayor of Hiroshima (who also heads the Mayors for Peace program).

The Secretary General received a standing ovation when he told the audience that the first item on his agenda the day he took office was nuclear disarmament. He went on to invoke the memory of the famous sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Riverside Church http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html delivered one year (to the day )before he was assassinated. In that speech Dr. King went against the wishes of other leaders in the Civil Rights Movement and announced his fervent opposition to the Viet Nam War.

Mayor Akiba affirmed the efforts of the thousands of Mayors for Peace http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.html to achieve total nuclear disarmament by the year 2020.

He invoked another sermon delivered by Dr. King.

This second sermon was delivered less than a week before Dr. King died. In that talk http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/remaining_awake_through_a_great_revolution/ Dr. King called for nuclear disarmament and stated unequivocally that the choice facing the world today is not between violence and nonviolence, but rather between nonviolence and nonexistence.

The impact of his words brought into focus for me what had touched me most deeply at the conference: the stories of human suffering related by hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) from a variety of different parts of the world.

There were the devastating stories of individuals who had experienced the very real holocaust of flames and radiation that took the lives of nearly a half-million people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and the years that followed.

I heard the tale of a poor Japanese fisherman who barely survived a black rain of nuclear fallout after a hydrogen bomb test on the Bikini atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

On the closing afternoon of the conference I listened to a woman my own age tell the crushing details of what it was like as a child to grow up in Utah, downwind from a site where the US tested atomic weapons in the atmosphere in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. She told of her own withering round of atomic-related illnesses and the premature deaths of close relatives who had eaten, drunk, and breathed the residue left behind by the atomic tests.

Then I read about our "disarmament." And I thought about what would happen in Louisville if we were the victims of an atomic attack. Here's the story. What do you think?

US says it has 5,113 nuclear warheads
By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer Anne Gearan, Ap National Security Writer
Tue May 4, 1:08 am ET

WASHINGTON – The United States has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile and "several thousand" more retired warheads awaiting the junkpile, the Pentagon said Monday in an unprecedented accounting of a secretive arsenal born in the Cold War and now shrinking rapidly.

The Obama administration disclosed the size of its atomic stockpile going back to 1962 as part of a campaign to get other nuclear nations to be more forthcoming, and to improve its bargaining position against the prospect of a nuclear Iran.

"We think it is in our national security interest to be as transparent as we can be about the nuclear program of the United States," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters at the United Nations, where she addressed a conference on containing the spread of atomic weapons.

The U.S. has previously regarded such details as top secret.

The figure includes both "strategic," or long-range weapons, and those intended for use at shorter range.

The Pentagon said the stockpile of 5,113 as of September 2009 represents a 75 percent reduction since 1989.

A rough count of deployed and reserve warheads has been known for years, so the Pentagon figures do not tell nuclear experts much they don't already know.

Hans Kristensen, director of Nuclear Information Project, Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said his organization had already put the number at around 5,100 by reviewing budget estimates and other documents.

The import of the announcement is the precedent it sets, Kristensen said.

"The important part is that the U.S. is no longer going to keep other countries in the dark," he said.

Clinton said the disclosure of numbers the general public has never seen "builds confidence" that the Obama administration is serious about stopping the spread of atomic weapons and reducing their numbers.

But the administration is not revealing everything.

The Pentagon figure released Monday includes deployed weapons, which are those more or less ready to launch, and reserve weapons. It does not include thousands of warheads that have been disabled or all but dismantled. Those weapons could, in theory, be reconstituted, or their nuclear material repurposed.

Estimates of the total U.S. arsenal range from slightly more than 8,000 to above 9,000, but the Pentagon will not give a precise number.

Whether to reveal the full total, including those thousands of nearly dead warheads, was debated within the Obama administration. Keeping those weapons out of the figure released Monday represented a partial concession to intelligence agency officials and others who argued national security could be harmed by laying the entire nuclear arsenal bare.

A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the overall total is still classified, did not dispute the rough estimates developed by independent analysts.

Exposure of once-classified totals for U.S. deployed and reserve nuclear weapons is intended to nudge nations such as China, which has revealed little about its nuclear stockpile.

"You can't get anywhere toward disarmament unless you're going to be transparent about how many weapons you have," said Sharon Squassoni, a nuclear policy analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Russia and the United States have previously disclosed the size of their stockpiles of deployed strategic weapons, and France and Britain have released similar information. All have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which is the subject of the U.N. review that began Monday.

The U.S. revelations are calculated to improve Washington's bargaining power with Iran's allies and friends for the drive to head off what the West charges is a covert Iranian program to build a bomb.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad spoke ahead of Clinton at the conference, denouncing U.S. efforts to pressure his regime to abandon its nuclear program.

The U.N. conference will try to close loopholes in the internationally recognized rules against the spread of weapons technology.

Independent analysts estimate the total world stockpile of nuclear warheads at more than 22,000.

The Federation of American Scientists estimates that nearly 8,000 of those warheads are operational, with about 2,000 U.S. and Russian warheads ready for use on short notice.

The United States and Russia burnished their credentials for insisting that other countries forgo atomic weapons by agreeing last month to a new strategic arms reduction treaty.

The New START treaty sets a limit of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads for each side, down from 2,200 under a 2002 deal. The pact re-establishes anti-cheating procedures that provide the most comprehensive and substantial arms control agreement since the original 1991 START treaty.

From the Tibetans: "The Eight Verse Attitude Training"

2010-03-10T05:53:00.000-08:00

On this Wednesday of the month IPP usually offers a noontime meditation program built around the Christian practice of Lectio Divina. Today will be different. Today (March 10) is the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising...a response by the Tibetans to the military occupation of their country by the Peoples Republic of China. In solidarity with our Tibetan brothers and sisters today we will offer a special meditation featuring two Tibetan monks who reside in Louisville along with Anne Walter who is the President of the the organization that supports the monks and their home monastery in India (see a link below to the web site for the local Tibetan organization).

The way the Tibetan religious community has responded to their difficult relationship with the Chinese may offer a model for us about how we can respond when we feel ourselves hurt or damaged by others. Below you will find "Eight Verses" that you may find helpful in facing your own hurt and anger as people, groups or organizations (or governments for that matter) do things that seem to harm you.

But I want to relate first one small story I heard about the Tibetan suffering. One Tibetan monk had been imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese for decades. When he was finally release he was asked how he felt about what his captors had done to him. After thinking quietly for a few moments, he said, "Well, I think they have made alot of bad Karma for themselves." For those not familiar with the concept, Karma is the moral equivalent of "You will reap what you sow"...except at a cosmological level. The monk in this story did not wish to seek revenge. For him, the actions of his captors would lead them down a path that would be its own punishment...or better yet, corrective. I am sure that the monk's response was informed in no small part by the concepts in "The Eight Verse Attitude Training."

Here are the Eight Verses:

Eight-Verse Attitude-Training
by Langri-tangpa

With determination to achieve the highest aim
For the benefit of all sentient beings,
Which surpasses even the wish-fulfilling gem,
May I hold them dear at all times

Whenever I interact with someone,
May I view myself as the lowest amongst all,
And, from the very depths of my heart,
Respectfully hold others as superior

In all my deeds may I probe into my mind,
And as soon as mental and emotional afflictions arise -
As they endanger myself and others -
May I strongly confront them and avert them

When I see beings of unpleasant character
Oppressed by strong negativity and suffering,
May I hold them dear - for they are rare to find -
As if I have discovered a jewel treasure!

When others, out of jealousy,
Treat me wrong with abuse, slander, and scorn,
May I take upon myself the defeat
And offer to others the victory

When someone whom I have helped,
Or in whom I have placed great hopes,
Mistreats me in extremely hurtful ways
May I regard them as my precious teacher

In brief, may I offer benefit and joy
To all my mothers, both directly and indirectly,
May I quietly take upon myself
All hurts and pains of my mothers

May all this remain undefiled
By the stains of the eight mundane concerns
And may I, recognizing all things as illusion,
Devoid of clinging, be released from bondage

Here is a link to the web page of the Louisville organization that supports the city's resident Tibetan monks and the Drepung Gomang Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in India:

www.drepunggomang.com/

Finally, Some good news about violence in Louisville

2010-03-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

Friends, I should probably knock on wood about what I am about to say. There were no homicides in Louisville during the month of February (and so far none in March, though it is still early).

Here is an article about that.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100301/NEWS01/3010328/Louisville+has+murder-free+February

It isn't clear yet why the rate of deadly violence evaporated in our second month, but for whatever reason I hope that trend continues. In fact, I hope that when we get to January 1, 2011, we will be able to celebrate a year in which there were no murders in February, March...and right on through to the end of the year.

That hope may be in vain, but I do hold onto a wish that the rate of homicides in Louisville Metro continues to be low.

This does have interfaith implications. Death (and especially its subcategory of homicide) is no respecter of persons or religions. All of us need to muscle as much information as we can to help people find non-violent ways to resolve their differences.

Some Lessons from the Pentagon Papers

2010-02-16T04:19:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I was running some Valentines Day errands. On the radio was the Bob Edwards Weekend program. Bob's focus for the first hour of his program was Daniel Ellsberg and the documents that came to be known as "The Pentagon Papers" as they The occassion for the interview was the debut of a new documentary film called "The Most Dangerous Man in America."

The program took me back to my college days and the satisfaction I felt when the world was introduced to the Pentagon Papers and learned the facts that folks inside the government already knew: the war was a disaster and essentially unwinable.

My satisfaction was tempered, however by some words from the Edwards interview with Ellsberg that are not included in the film. Those words concern the threats posed by our new national security state.

After Ellsberg released the Papers to the New York Times and a handful of other major US newspapers, the Nixon administration went after him with the aim of blackmailing him with the threat of revealing secrets that might be obtained by breaking into the office of Ellsber's psychiatrist (and via other dirty tricks).

The break in and the other smear efforts were of course illegal...at least at the time. When they came to light, criminal charges against Ellsberg were dropped.

But the interesting thing I learned only by listening to the interview was that the illegal actions taken agains Ellsberg nearly 40 years ago would be perfectly legal today after the passage of laws aimed at protecting us from terrorists.
Here's a link to the Edwards interview: http://www.bobedwardsradio.com/bob-edwards-weekend/

Take a listen...then go see the film. Decide for yourself what freedom means today. Think about whether it's time for a new version of "The Pentagon Papers."

Heres a brief description of the film from the imdb web site:

"The Most Dangerous Man in America" is the story of what happens when a former Pentagon insider, armed only with his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file cabinet full of classified documents, decides to challenge an "Imperial" Presidency-answerable to neither Congress, the press, nor the people-in order to help end the Vietnam War. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg shook America to its foundations when he smuggled a top-secret Pentagon study to the New York Times that showed how five Presidents consistently lied to the American people about the Vietnam War that was killing millions and tearing America apart. President Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger called Ellsberg "the most dangerous man in America," who "had to be stopped at all costs." But Ellsberg wasn't stopped. Facing 115 years in prison on espionage and conspiracy charges, he fought back. Ensuing events surrounding the so-called Pentagon Papers led directly to Watergate and the downfall of President Nixon, and hastened the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg's relentless telling of truth to power, which exposed the secret deeds of an "Imperial Presidency," inspired Americans of all walks of life to forever question the previously-unchallenged pronouncements of its leaders. "The Most Dangerous Man in America" tells the inside story, for the first time on film, of this pivotal event that changed history and transformed our nation's political discourse. It is told largely by the players of that dramatic episode-Ellsberg, his colleagues, family and critics; Pentagon Papers authors and government officials; Vietnam veterans and anti-war activists; Watergate principals, attorneys and the journalists who both covered the story and were an integral part of it; and finally-through White House audiotapes-President Nixon and his inner circle of advisors.

Here's a link to the web site for the documentary:

http://www.mostdangerousman.org/

A Brief Introduction to Buddhism

2010-02-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

My organization is currently embarked on a year-long exploration of world religions with monthly presentations about selected religions. For February, we are exploring Buddhism. Here is the text of a document that I prepared and distributed as a brief introduction to this great religion (or philosophy.

What if God Was One of Us?
Part 2: An Introduction to Buddhism

Part of a unique year-long series of programs
Introducing the public to the world's great religions
Sponsored by: Unity Church of Louisville, Interfaith Paths to Peace
and the Rainbow Spiritual Education Center

An Overview of Buddhism:

Buddhism was born in Nepal in the fifth Century BCE, when the historical Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment and became a Buddha, or “awakened one.”
Although Buddhism is often referred to as a religion, some people see it as less a religion and more a philosophy of living. Many Buddhists either do not have the concept of a Western-style “creator God” or practice a non-theistic style of spirituality. Many Buddhists also do not believe in an individual eternal soul.

At the heart of Buddhism and its practices are two key goals. One is the elimination of suffering for all sentient beings. The second is the cessation of the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth (Samsara) leading to Nirvana, the supreme state of being freed from suffering and individual existence.

According to some sources, there are two major branches in Buddhism: The Theravadan and the Mahayana. The Theravadan is the oldest of the Buddhist traditions and preserves the Pali Canon (original Buddhist canon). Mahayana Buddhism (the Great Vehicle) arose in the first Century CE and emphasizes the value of compassion and holds that all beings can achieve Buddhahood. The Mahayana tradition includes Zen Buddhism and the Nichiren (and Soka Gakkai) practices. A number of scholars see Tibetan Buddhism as a third major branch because of its distinctive beliefs and practices.

Estimates of the world population of Buddhists vary between 250 million and over one billion. Some sources put the international Buddhist population at about 350 million. The US Buddhist population is estimated at slightly more than one million. Although Buddhists are present in many countries around the world, they are highly concentrated in the Asian subcontinent (Tibet, Pakistan, and India), as well as East and Southeast Asia. There are now over 1,000 Buddhists in Louisville and Southern Indiana

A Few Words about Buddhism in Louisville. Louisville’s Buddhist population is served by spiritual communities and/or organizations including Zen, Tibetan, Soka Gakkai (Nichiren), Vietnamese, and Sri Lankan Buddhist traditions. For further information about The Venerable Nanda and his Bodhiraja Foundation (an organization for world peace, community welfare and volunteer work) please e-mail embilipitiye@yahoo.com. For information about Soka Gakkai International please visit http://www.sgi-usa.org/ , and for local information call the SGI-USA KY Buddhist Center at 454-6100. For information about Tibetan Buddhism and the Drepung Gomang Institute, please visit http://drepunggomang.com. For information about the Louisville-area Vietnamese Buddhist community visit www.sanghalou.org. For information about Zen teaching or meditation with Richard Sisto please contact Bellarmine Continuing Education or e-mail: tatduende2@yahoo.com.

Some Key Concepts in Buddhism Among the key concepts in Buddhism are The Three Jewels, The Four Noble Truths, The Noble Eightfold Path, The Five Precepts, and the ideas of Karma and Rebirth. Karma is the notion that our conscious actions have obvious positive or negative consequences which are not punished but rather lead us to places that will help or hinder our spiritual progress not only in this lifetime but in subsequent lives. For Buddhists, the notion of Rebirth does not mean reincarnation in the way many Westerners conceive of it (as an immortal soul being reborn in a different body). In Buddhism, there is no “me” (or ego) to be reborn.

Buddhists are said to take refuge in “The Three Jewels”: The Buddha (a figure to be revered and listened to), the Dharma (the body of teachings and practices about how to live), and the Sangha (the community of practitioners). As noted above, the problem of suffering is central to Buddhism.

The Four Noble Truths articulated by the Buddha are:

1. To live is to suffer.
2. Attachment is the cause of suffering.
3. Suffering can be brought to an end.
4. There is a particular path that leads to the end of suffering.

The Noble Eightfold Path offers a model for how we can end our suffering by:

1. Right View. Recognizing the truth of the Buddha’s teachings.
2. Right Resolve. People can and must change in order to end their suffering.
3. Right Speech. Recognizing and speaking the truth without distortion from ego and without embroidering it with our own interests.
4. Right Action. Striving to do no harm to other sentient beings.
5. Right Livelihood. Ruling out work that harms or takes advantage of others or that in other ways hampers our spiritual progress.
6. Right Effort. Learning to control our negative thoughts and encouraging and instilling positive thinking, especially loving-kindness, empathy and compassion.
7. Right Mindfulness. Being fully present to what is happening around us, being attentive.
8. Right Concentration. Using meditation techniques to calm our minds and be able to concentrate on a single object, subject, or theme.

The Five Precepts are not laws or vows made to God or another person; they are promises Buddhists make to themselves to help them diminish their attachment to harmful practices. The Five Precepts include:

1. To Refrain from Harming Living Beings.
2. To Refrain from Stealing.
3. To Refrain from Sexual Immorality.
4. To Refrain from Lying.
5. To Refrain from Intoxicants.

Buddhist Scriptures and Sources for Further Information. The number of key Buddhist texts is too large to include here, but worthy of mention in a limited space are The Pali Canon (The Buddha’s sayings compiled in the 1st century CE in Sri Lanka); The Dhammapada (a key gathering of the Buddha’s sayings in verse); Numerous Sanskrit Sutras, and The Tibetan Book of the Dead. A good introductory book is The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, by Thich Nhat Hanh. For more information about Buddhism and Buddhist texts please visit www.religioustolerance.org/buddhism3.htm.

Selected Buddhist Practices. There are a host of spiritual practices available to Buddhists in the many different traditions. Among these are a variety of different styles of meditation (including sitting and walking, and a number associated with ritualistic actions). Chanting is also central to a number of traditions, and plays a key role in the spiritual practices of the Soka Gakkais who chant “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo” (the title of the Lotus Sutra). Some other practices include weekly spiritual gatherings, ritual theatrical presentations, the creation of Sand Mandalas, the use of prayer flags and prayer wheels, creation of Zen gardens, fasting, study of Buddhist texts, Zen koans, and even spiritual debate.

For Further Information about World Religions: A few good sources of information about world religions for those interested in further inter-religious exploration are: the book The World Religions by Huston Smith and a two-volume work entitled, How to Be A Perfect Stranger. A good, general web site about world religions is www.religioustolerance.org. For further information about the sponsoring groups please visit

www.paths2peace.org,

www.unityoflouisville.org

,
www.paths2peace.org">, www.rainbowspiritualeducationcenter.org

Guest blog: A Homily on Compassion by Doanld Vish

2010-01-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday the President of Interfaith Paths to Peace delivered a stirring homily on the topic of compassion. His words were part of an interfaith service at the conclusion of the national convention in Louisville of The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP). The service was designed by IPP and was co-hosted by IPP and the NCADP.

We thought we would share Don's eloquence with you. Here is the text of his homily:

Compassion

How Do We Enlarge the Great Circle of Compassion?

A Homily Prepared for Delivery
January 17, 2010
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Annual Meeting
Louisville, KY

By: Donald Vish

***  

Thank you for staying for this part of the program--the homily. All the religions of the world agree on one thing for sure: there’s no thief worse than a bad sermon. So special thanks to each of you for your trust and your faith in remaining in this room.

When I was first asked to preach a homily on compassion I said "No. I am willing to preach to the choir but I'm not willing to preach to the pope. What can I possibly say about compassion to an audience that's got Sister Helen and my patron saint Bud Welsh in it? The only thing Sister Helen is going to like about me is that I don't talk with an accent." So, "No way" I said.

Have any of you every tried to tell Fr. Pat "No." (Patrick Delahanty is the chair of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and a lobbyist for the Catholic Conference). Well try it and you'll learn why he is such a successful lobbyist in Frankfort.

So, here I am.   My invitation to speak so to speak included specific instructions to answer the question:

  How Do We Enlarge the Great Circle of Compassion?

  I’m going to answer that question. I’m just not going to answer it very quickly. I wouldn’t be a very good preacher if I got to the point too soon.

  The Golden Rule: (Say it. You know the words): do unto others as you would have others do unto you.  

That’s a good rule of good sense. It’s valuable as a cornerstone of justice. It’s a solid metric for fairness. It’s true in the same way it’s true to say: whoever smiles will always have a reason to smile.

  But the Golden Rule is not an expression of compassion.  

First, it affirms otherness, thee and me that leads to thine and mine. Secondly, it is ever so slightly animated with self-interest expressing in Elizabethan language what the 3-card Monte dealer says more plainly about the arc of justice: what goes around comes around.  

Plato’s dictum comes closer to compassion: be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

  Plato’s sermon is built on empathy not compassion. Empathy is based on perception, understanding. Empathy is neither sympathy nor pity each of which relates to the adverse impact someone else’s suffering has on us!   Sympathy means ‘fellow feeling’ and requires a certain degree of equality. Pity, on the other hand, regards its object as weak and hence as inferior.   We have place in Kentucky we call down home. Everybody knows where it is. Down home they like to say pity don't cost nothing 'cause pity ain't worth nothing.

Compassion is the selfless disposition to relieve human suffering. It soars above empathy and sympathy and pity. Compassion is the noblest trait of human nature. Dante would call it caritas, pure love with no expectation of a quid pro quo.  

Make no mistake: many good works are built on the Golden Rule, on empathy, on sympathy, on pity and on lesser motives like fame and glory and vanity and self-interest. They all count. But compassion is in a class by itself.

When General Agamemnon was ready to launch 1000 ships to invade Troy, he had two problems: the first one is so typical of blood vengeance—no one knew how to get to Troy. They attacked the wrong country.

Blood vengeance is always ready to act before its ready to act. Vengeance never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It is ever and always aimless and misdirected even though its arc is predictable and certain: it comes around then goes around.   

Like Macbeth’s vaulting ambition, vengeance o’erleaps itself and then falls on itself.

  Agamemnon’s second problem was the lack of wind. The ships could not sail. The man had 1000 sai boats and no wind. So he made a bargain with the gods—he sacrificed his daughter for a favorable breeze. Then the ships sailed for Troy and war began.

Agamemnon’s murder of his daughter ensured that he would return home from war to more war.   Under the law of blood vengeance, his daughter’s mother was obligated to murder him—and she did; and under the law of blood vengeance her son was obligated to murder her—and he did; and under the law of blood vengeance, her daughter was obligated to murder her brother…and so it goes.

  The arc of vengeance is as sure and as certain as the laws of mathematics: a series ending where it begins, and repeating itself.   Those words are the dictionary definition of a circle—as well as a complete treatise on blood vengeance.

Like a pebble dropped into a pond, vengeance sends out ripple after ripple each extending its sphere until it runs out of space or spends itself.

Vengeance is a circle.   A circle delineates, it defines and separates the inside from the outside. The circle is closed. Any segment of a circle is a curved line.

  In architecture, a curved line is pretty but it’s weak. Leonardo reflected on the weakness of curved lines and made an astounding observation: two curved lines when propped up against each other form an arch: one of the strongest formations in architecture. So an arch is a strength created by two weaknesses.

  Here’s the answer to the question—enlarge the circle of compassion by never closing it.

  Keep the circle open. Reach out, join hands with one another in a tangible display of unity, solidarity and connectedness; but let those on each end extend an open hand to the world at-large as an invitation to others to join hands.  

Let the circle of compassion be like Leonardo’s arch, a strength comprised of many weaknesses.

The cascading emotional damage resulting from homicides.

2010-01-04T12:18:00.001-08:00

When a violent act occurs, the emotional devastation that results cascades out in all directions, like lava froma volcano, devastating everything in its path, harming not only the victim's family, but also the family of the perpatrator.

I have just been touched by such a cascade myself, though indirectly.

Because of a new initiative that Interfaith Paths to Peace plans to undertake with a local church, we plan to monitor and ritually mourn each homicide that happens in the Louisville metro area this year. On Sunday I learned that, sadly, Louisville's first homicide of 2010 had happened on on New Years Day. The victim was a woman in her twenties who was allegedly stabbed to death by her former boyfriend , a man who also happens to be the father of her infant child. The perpatrator also stabbed and critically wounded a man who happened to be with the young woman at the time of the crime.

Yesterday, I learned that the homicide victim is the niece of a friend of mine. When I heard that, I felt an extra twinge of pain and grief that this unnecessary violence had also emotionally wounded people that I hold dear.

As we consider the emotional cost of the violence in our community, we need to remember that the pain resulting from any violent act spreads in ever-increaing circles. Damaged forever are the friends and relatives of the victim. Also ruined are the family and friends of the troubled man who supposedly comitted this horrific crime. As I write, I am sure that phones are ringing and emails arriving in inboxes telling everyone who knew the victim and the perpatrator about the crime. More and more people over the days to come will share the sorrow.

There is little that we can do to ease this pain. There is, however work that we should all engage in to eliminate violence in our community and in our homes. I was reminded just this morning that even though the crime rate in Louisville has decreased over the last year, the rate of domestic violence has either remained the same or increased.

There are two groups in our city that are working diligently to help school age young people and the adults who work with them gain the skills that will enable them to solve serious differences with other people nonviolently. These are the Peace Education Program (http://www.peaceeducationprogram.org/ ) led by Eileen Blanton, and the SPAVA Program (http://www.spava.us/ ) pioneered by Dr. Timir Banerjee. Check out their web sites and learn what they do.

I just wish we could find a way to get the same information about non-violent conflict resolution to adults who seem to think that the best way to express their anger is with their fists, or with guns or with knives or with...

A Famous Christmas Song Born During the Cuban Missle Crisis

2009-12-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the deeper significance of the Christmas holiday gets lost in all of the comercial excess in December.

Here is the story of how one of the most popular Christmas songs was born at a time when the world was on the brink of nuclear war. The song is a reminder to stop war and embrace love.

"Do You Hear What I Hear" one of the world's most beloved Christmas songs was born during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 as an anti-war statement by a former French Resistance fighter from WWII who had personally suffered the ravages of war.

Noel Regney (1922-2002) was a Frenchman trained as a classical composer who was drafted into the German army in World War II. He deserted and joined the French Resistance. [During his work with the Resistance he suffered the horrors of war directly: he was shot, but survived.] After the war ended, Regney joined the French Overseas Radio Service and worked out of French Indochina until moving to Manhattan in 1952. He met Gloria Shayne while she was working as a pianist in a hotel dinning room and married her a month later.

Regney and Shayne wrote "Do You Hear What I Hear" in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Regney drew the image of Jesus as a newborn lamb from Matthew 2:9 and 2:11 and took his lyrics to his wife to set in the reverse of their usual practice. But while it is often taken for a Christmas carol, for Regney and Shayne "Do You Hear What I Hear" is a hymn to peace. "I am amazed that people can think they know the song," Regney later said, "and not know it was a prayer for peace." Although the song has been recorded by Bing Crosby and Perry Como and over 120 others, Regney and Shayne's favorite recording was Robert Goulet's 1963 recording for its dramatic delivery and his climatic "Pray for peace, people everywhere." ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide

Here's a link to the Bing Crosby version of "Do You Hear What I Hear"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWjzTAkWLBM

And here are the lyrics:

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Said the night wind to the little lamb,

do you see what I see

Way up in the sky, little lamb,

do you see what I see

A star, a star, dancing in the night

With a tail as big as a kite

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,

do you hear what I hear

Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy,

do you hear what I hear

A song, a song, high above the trees

With a voice as big as the sea

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king,

do you know what I know

In your palace warm, mighty king,

do you know what I know

A Child, a Child shivers in the cold

Let us bring Him silver and gold

Said the king to the people everywhere,

listen to what I say

Pray for peace, people everywhere!

listen to what I say

The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night

He will bring us goodness and light

Lessons We Can Learn from Peacemakers in the 5th Grade

2009-12-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

I am serving as a volunteer mentor this winter in a special program called SPAVA that allows me to share non-violent conflict resolution skills with 5th graders at Bates elementary school in Louisville. You can find details about SPAVA (and volunteer for the program) at http://www.spava.us/.

One young student in my class shared an idea with me last week that I found deeply moving and full of creativity well beyond the years of this young person.

I had given my 29 students a take home assignment. I asked them to think of a major problem in the world that they would like to solve and then describe a machine that they would create to address that problem.

Wonderful ideas were shared by these 5th graders about how to eliminate hunger, cure diseases, and provide housing for everyone in the world, but one idea in particular grabbed my attention. It related to anger.

Anger is one of the major problems for students in our public schools. Probably all students feel anger. In fact we tell them it's ok to feel angry. But these fifth graders (like the rest of us) get into trouble when they respond to their anger by acting impulsively, without thinking.

So we teach them how to use a method pioneered by SPAVA called STAR.

In the STAR method students take 4 key steps to solving their problems non-violently these are:

S STOP! Cool down so you don’t do something impulsive that you
may regret later. Take a deep breath and count to 5 or do something else that works for you.
T THINK! What is the real problem? What are your choices? Ask about each choice: Does it respect everyone? Will it work? Pick your best choice.
A ACT! Carry out your best choice.
R REVIEW! Ask yourself, “Did it work? If it did, great! If it didn't, try another choice.

The students hadn't yet learned the STAR method when I gave them the assignment to address a major problem in the world. In spite of that, one young woman came up with an idea that was a perfect reflection of what we hope for through STAR.

She shared with me and members of her class that destructive anger was the problem she wanted to eliminate. She "invented" a machine that would sense your anger and turn it into beautiful music that would soothe you and calm you down. I love that idea. And I wish we had more inventors like my young friend.

And again, here is a link to information about SPAVA. I hope you will become a mentor in this brilliant program.

http://www.spava.us/

Ashokan Farewell: Honoring the memory of dead friends and relatives

2009-12-10T08:09:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday was the 41st anniversary of the death of Thomas Merton. Interfaith Paths to Peace and St. William Church here in Louisville hosted a noontime vigil for peace in Afghanistan that day to mark the anniversary.

But as I look back, last week was one that was filled with death and the reminders of death.

Last Monday night I participated in the annual Memorial Service of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The service honors the memory of those killed in the last year by drivers who were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. That event was attended by about 120 survivors and family members of those being remembered. It also was attended by over 200 people who are part of a diversion program operated by our county prosecutor's office. This program directs offenders to attend the memorial service as a way of reminding them what the results of drunk driving can be. I found the service deeply compelling for two reasons: my Uncle Mac was killed by a drunk driver when I was 10; and though I have never been arrested for drunk driving, I am a recovering alcoholic .

Other things served as reminders too.

One was last Wednesday's noontime meditation. I lead a noontime meditation once a month built around the concept of "Lectio Divina" a meditation that can take people into a deeper understanding of scripture and sacred stories from the world's many religions. The story we meditated on this last Wednesday was very much concerned with how we deal with our memory of the dead. Here's what we read:

Many African societies divide humans into three categories: those still alive, the sasha, and the zamani. The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha., the living dead. They are not wholly dead, for they live in the memories of the living who can call them to mind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote.

When the last person to know an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the sasha for the zamani, the dead.

As generalized ancestors, the zamani are not forgotten but revered. Many can be recalled by name. But they are not living dead.

--the epigraph from the book, The Brief History of the
Dead

A final jolt came when I learned on Thursday afternoon that the 52 year old husband of a friend had died suddenly of a heart attack that morning. The weekend was filled with services and preparations for meals aimed at easing the grief of the widow and her sons.

To honor Merton and all of the dead I have been thinking about, I offer here a link to the song, Ashokan Farewell. The link contains not only the tune but also the composer telling the story of how the song came to be. I first heard it years ago whenI watched the Ken Burns documentary about the Civil War. In the documentary it was a repeated motif reflecting the grimness of war and violence. The tune is sad, and sounds like a longing for home, or a lament for a lost love, or the bittersweet memory of those we miss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx6dxrhqPZY

President Obama's New Plans for Afghanistan

2009-12-02T07:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Peter Smith, religion reporter for our local newspaper, the Louisville Courier-Journal. Peter had been given the task of contacting individuals representing local peace groups for reactions to the President's speech later that evening on his plans for sending more troops to Afghanistan.

My comments were included in the article which appeared this morning. Here is a link:

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20091201/NEWS01/912010362/Military+action+alone+won+t+solve+Afghanistan+s+problems++Louisville+residents+say

I said that I had hoped that with the coming of a new administration we would be looking for peaceful ways to solve our differences with other countries. I commended the President on having a clearly set out exit strategy (although I said I would have been happier if he were pulling our troops out sooner).

There is something I didn't say there that I would like to say here. I am generally opposed to wars and violence of all kinds. But for those who plan and execute wars, there is something that should be remembered. Undertaking a war without a clear understanding for leaders and the public alike of what would constitute winning (and loosing) leads to disaster. We saw that in Vietnam. We witnessed it again in Iraq. I fear that once again we find ourselves mired in a conflict that will hold onto us with a death grip because we can't clearly explain, simply explain what it would mean to win in Afghanistan.

I think the best strategy is to get out. Now.

The Often Unheard Voice of Muslims Denouncing Violence

2009-11-10T05:51:00.000-08:00

Last night I attended the second annual dinner of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Kentucky (CIOK). The dinner program (which was attended by hundreds of people, including Jews and Christians) began with a moment of silence honoring the victims of the massacre that occurred at Ft. Hood last week.

What is remarkable about that is that I often hear people say that Muslims don't acknowledge or denounce violence committed by members of their religion.

In fact they do, and they are speaking out more forcefully and more frequently.

There was an article in last Friday's Courier-Journal in which reporter Peter Smith asked local, regional and national Islamic leaders for comments about the horrifying shootings in Texas. Without exception they all denounced the violence and indicated that no true practitioner of Islam would undertake such a despicable act. Those interviewed included leaders of Louisville-area Mosques (among them, a member of my organization's board: Bashar Masri), the Council of Islamic Organizations of Kentucky, and the Islamic Society of North America (the major national affiliate group for Muslims) among others.

Here is a link to Peter Smith's article, so you can read for yourself.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009911060348

In the recent past the news media often seemed to report only negative things about Muslims. That is starting to change, and I congratulate Peter Smith and the Courier-Journal for seeking out articulate Muslim leaders to help us understand how Muslim Americans really feel. Moreover, the recent statements by mainstream American Muslims underscore for me the fact that our Muslim brothers and sisters each day are moving more deeply into the mainstream of American life and that they embrace the kind of peacemaking values all of us espouse. Or maybe it's just that we are finally beginning to hear about Muslim values and opinions that have been there all along. I suspect the latter is the case.

A Special Interfaith Blessing

2009-10-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I had the privilege of offering the opening blessing at the annual interfaith dinner in Louisville sponsored by Highlands Community Ministries. The dinner included presentations on the topic of "What is Happiness", delivered by representatives of the Baha'i faith, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

As I prepared this prayer, I apprached it by delving deeply into the core
of each of these religions not so much with my brain as with my heart. I humbly
share the result with you:

Friends,

The great interfaith leader Mathew Fox uses a wonderful metaphor to describe the relationship between God and the world’s great religions. He says that the Divine is like a great underground river and that each of the world’s religions digs its own well to tap into the beauty and power of the Divine.

Recognizing both the diversity and unity of
those of us gathered here
tonight, we call upon the Divine to bless this
gathering and the food we are
about to eat,

In the name of:

Our Baha’I friends who possess such a profound understanding of our
universal oneness,

Our Buddhist brothers and sisters with their great concern to end the
suffering of all beings,

Our Jewish companions and their invocation of the concept of Tikkun Olam to
mend our broken world,

Our Hindu comrades and their realization that the Transcendent has many
faces and can be approached in different ways,

Our Christian partners who so powerfully incarnate God’s love for the world
through the corporal acts of mercy,

Our Muslim neighbors who believe that submitting to God’s will means working
for peace and justice,

And the practitioners of other religions in the greater Louisville area who
so richly reflect the diversity of our world.

Amen

Jews are (sadly) a Ghostly Presence in the Arabic Middle East

2009-10-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

(As a result of a trip I made to Egypt and Syria in 2008, I was recently asked to write a chapter for a forthcoming book that will include the thoughts of a number of people who have made trips from the US to the Middle or from the Middle East to the US. What follows is a version of what will be appearing in the book)

Jews are a ghostly presence in the Arabic Middle East. That is a sad reality I experienced first-hand when I visited Egypt and Syria in June of 2008 as part of the Religion and Society Program as a guest of the Natioanl Peace Foundation and the Islamic Society of North America. My group included one American Muslim, two Jews (including a young Rabbi from Texas), and three Christians .

During our ten-day stay we had scores of meetings with groups, organizations and religious communities. Wherever we went we heard universal, unanimous affirmation of the idea of interfaith cooperation, especially among Muslims, Christians and Jews. In spite of that there was one event that focused me on what I think is the key problem in interfaith understanding among members of the three Abrahamic religions.

We had only been in Cairo for a couple of days when our group was taken to visit Shaar Hashamaim Grand Synagogue of Cairo in that great Egyptian city. The morning we arrived it wasn’t the Sabbath. We explored this beautiful spiritual facility as though it were a museum. There were many things I wanted to know about it, and I began to pepper our tour leader with questions. She smiled and pointed me toward an Egyptian gentleman who she told me was the caretaker for the building.

I walked over to him, and began asking what I thought was going to be a series of questions about the building’s history by saying, “I understand that you are the caretaker for this synagogue…” Before I could get to my first question, he said, “Actually, I am the caretaker for all of the synagogues in Egypt.”

That seemed pretty impressive to me, given that Egypt is a fairly large country geographically and it has a population of about 80 million. So I asked, “And how many synagogues are there in all of Egypt."

Without hesitating, he responded, “Eleven. Five of them here in Cairo.” Again, I was impressed but wanted to learn more, so I asked, “And how many Jews are there in Egypt?”
“One Hundred and Eighty,” he said.

I thought I had misunderstood him, and I said “One hundred and eighty thousand?”
“No,” he said, “only one hundred and eighty. And they are all women and they are all old.”
I was stunned. I had no idea that there were so few Jews in Egypt. A few days later when we visited Damascus, I discovered there was an equally tiny number of Jews remaining in all of Syria. After I returned to the U.S., I did a little Google searching about the Jews in Arab countries. I learned that with the exception of Morocco, and perhaps Algeria, there are virtually no Jews in the Arabic speaking Islamic world.

The tiny, spectral presence of the Jews around the Mediterranean represents a major problem that must be addressed if we are to establish a long lasting peace in the Middle East.
The problem is that when you don’t have daily, on going contact with “the other,” whether they are Jews or Muslims (or Buddhists for that matter), it is very easy to demonize those who aren’t present. Lack of contact often leads one party into beliefs and practices that escalate into violence. We see this over and over again, whether it is in Israel and the Occupied West Bank, Ireland, or in Louisville, Kentucky where I live in the US.

Shortly after I returned from the trip to Egypt and Syria I had lunch with my friend Sylvia Weinberg, an emerita member of my group’s Board of Directors. Sylvia is an accomplished poet and one of those rare people who can listen to a story or problem and put her finger right on the heart of the issue being discussed. Because of this I frequently seek her counsel.
Over lunch I told her about the trip I had made to the Middle East. I talked about all of the incredible people we had met and the extraordinary historical sites we had visited. I concluded my travelogue with the story of visiting the historical synagogue and I mentioned the tiny number of Jews in the Arab Middle East. I talked about the enormous obstacles this puts in place for those of us working to increase understanding.

When I had finished telling my story, Sylvia paused for a moment and said, “Does that make you despair of your work as an interfaith leader?”

Up to that moment I hadn’t really thought about the impact of what I had seen on my own work.
So then I paused and considered her question carefully. When I answered, what I told Sylvia surprised me. I said, “No, I don’t feel despair about the fact that there is little opportunity for interaction between Muslims and Jews in Arab countries. This fact just shows me that our work to improve interfaith interaction and understanding is a growth industry. I will be working at this for years to come.”

And that is true for me as well as for other interfaith entrepreneurs. It doesn’t make any difference, really, whether we are in Cairo, Egypt, or Cairo, Illinois. There is still a great gulf of misunderstanding, or more accurately, ignorance, that separates people of different religions, whether they are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Baha’is or Buddhists. The work of bringing people of different religions together is an incredibly important endeavor. Without daily interfaith encounters, the door is open to misunderstanding, mistrust, vilification and ultimately violence. That is why inter-cultural trips such as those undertaken by the National Peace Foundation and the Islamic Society of North America are so valuable not only for those who take the excursions, but also for those with whom we share our stories when we return home.

Restorative Justice: Peacemaking in the Streets

2009-10-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended a special program that Interfaith Paths to Peace co-sponsored with the Louisville Bar Association on the topic of "Restorative Justice." Things related to the justice system in the U.S. don't frequently get the attention of IPP, but I am especially glad we were part of this.

Restorative Justice is not a program but rather an approach to justice-making, that is very affirming, and helps to heal the damage done to a victim in a crime. The nature of this justice theory is right in line with the mission and stance of IPP, which I tell people is almost universally positive.

Efforts to use this theory in everyday work has seen great success not only in easing the pain of victims, but also in reducing the number of repeat offenders and decreasing the size of the prison population.

Here are some details shared with us about RJ by yesterday's presenter, Fania E. Davis, J.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder & Director, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth in Oakland California:

Restorative Justice is:

•Not a program, it is above all a theory of justice that is:
•Focused on
repairing harm
•Inclusive - Invites all affected to come together to figure
out how to do so
•Balanced - Gives equal attention to community safety,
victim’s needs, and offender accountability and growth

Restorative Justice involves:

•Encounter and Truth-Telling: Create opportunities for victims, offenders
and community members to dialogue about the wrongdoing and how to make it
better

•Amends: Create opportunities for offenders to empathize with
those they have harmed and to take steps to repair
harm

•Reintegration: Create opportunities for victims and offenders
to be reintegrated into the community as productive, contributing
citizens

•Self-Reliance: Promote greater self-reliance in
communities.
Here's a link to a great web site about restorative justice:

RJ's effectiveness has been demonstrated in a number of positive results:

•Positive Outcomes in Schools
•Victim Satisfaction
•True
Accountability
•Increased Family & Community Involvement
•Reduced
Incarceration and Recidivism
•Fiscal Benefits

Here's a link to a great web site about RJ:
http://www.restorativejustice.org/

Here's a link to some videos on YouTube about Restorative Justice

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=restorative+justice&search_type=&aq=f

The Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall: Touching the Names of those who Died

2009-10-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday morning I visited the traveling version of the Vietnam War Memorial with my friend Steve who was horribly wounded in that war and watched many of his friends die. The version of the Wall that we visited is one-third scale, but still contains the names of over 58,000 American men and women who lost their lives in that catastrophic conflict.

Steve shared a few details about his experiences in the war. Mostly there was silence. Steve had visited the original Vietnam Memorial in Washington a number of times. But as we walked along the muddy path in the park at Charlestown, Indiana, where the traveling Wall was set up, Steve looked for the names of a few friends. Each time he found a name he gently touched its etched surface with his finger tips.

As I followed along with him I tried to connect with the people whose deaths in the war had touched my life, but sadly I couldn't remember their names.

One was the husband of my cousin, Janice. She had married her high school sweetheart right after graduation. He enlisted in the army soon after that in order to avoid being drafted. His chosen occupation for the war was to be a helicopter pilot. The two of them traveled to Alabama for his pilot's training. Then he was shipped to Vietnam for combat service. Only a couple of weeks later he returned home in a body bag. His helicopter had flown into a mountain in the monsoon rains that deluge that war torn country.

I remember his funeral. Janice was so distraught I feared that she was going to die.

The other Vietnam death that touched me personally was that of the fiance of a girl I had dated briefly in high school. I don't remember her name either. It might have been Barbara, but I think it was Judy. In any case I don't remember her fiance's name either.

What I do remember is the minister of my church calling me about her. I had met her when we were in Youth Fellowship at the Methodist Church we attended. We only dated a couple of times.
My minister called me at college to ask if I was coming home for the Thanksgiving vacation. I said I was. Then he told me about the death of my friend's fiance and asked if I would try to console her.

Her fiance had been in the navy on a "tour" of Vietnam. The day before he was to fly back to the world (as Vietnam Vet's referred to the US), and three days before they were to be married, he was killed in a non-combat accident.

When I got home for the holiday I went to see her. I don't remember what I said, but she was inconsolable. What do you say to someone who has just lost her life partner before their lives together have even begun? To this day I am at a loss for words to try to console my friend or any of the other millions of men and women who have seen the lives of their loved ones destroyed by war. What do you say? You're sorry? That just doesn't cut it.

But on that day when Steve and I visited the Memorial, the name of one Vietnam casualty did come to mind. For some reason that morning I began thinking about the Vietnam moratorium that was held on the campus of my conservative little college back in the spring of 1970.

A group of students stayed up all night reading the names of the American war dead. I was assigned a group of names to read that included those that began with the letter "L." I hadn't read through the list beforehand, but as I was working my way down the list I came to "Liberty." It stopped me. When those around me heard that "Liberty" was among the casualties, they all stopped what they were doing and grew silent.

I looked him up on the web today. He was Ronald Liberty. Age 20. A Marine from Chicago. He was killed in combat on March 30, 1967.

Let's Observe Gandhi's 140th Birthday in a Special Way

2009-10-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

My group, Interfaith Paths to Peace is doing an event on Friday at noon in downtown Louisville asking people to stop using words as 'weapons of mass destruction."

We will mark the occasion from 12:10 p.m. o 1 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral (in Bishops Hall) 425 South Second Street in Louisville, by lighting candles and reflecting on non-violence and especially the need to stop using words as "weapons of mass destruction" as we have seen in the media so much lately. The event is free and open to the public.

Here are the details:

On Friday, October 2, 2009 (Mohandas Gandhi's birthday), Interfaith Paths to Peace in cooperation with a number of other local organizations will host a special noontime observance of International Day of Non-violence. This special ceremony will be held from 12:10 p.m. until 1 p.m. in Bishops Hall at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral at 425 South Second Street in Louisville.

The observance will consist of a lighting of candles and a silent reflection on the urgent need for each of us to disarm ourselves from the violent and hurtful language we often use in dealing with each other, especially in light of recent news about hate language and personally abusive words being used in the public arena.

Those present for the observance will be invited to take an annually renewable vow of non-violence that includes a pledge to disarm from the use of violent language in dealing with others. The event will conclude with a special Tibetan Chant for Non-Violence vocalized by the Venerable Geshe Sangay Gyatso, Louisville's resident Tibetan monk.

Event organizer Terry Taylor, Executive Director of Louisville-based Interfaith Paths to Peace, says, "

At a time when civility has seemingly disappeared from our public discourse on important issues, the need for a declaration of a verbal "cease fire" is imperative. And I can think of no better time to focus on that urgent need than Gandhi's birthday, the day that is observed around the world as the International Day of Non-Violence."

About the International Day of Non-Violence.

The International Day of Non-Violence is marked on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence.

According to General Assembly resolution A/RES/61/271 of 15 June 2007, which established the commemoration, the International Day is an occasion to "disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness." The resolution reaffirms "the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence" and the desire "to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence."

Introducing the resolution in the General Assembly on behalf of 140 co-sponsors, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Anand Sharma, said that the wide and diverse sponsorship of the resolution was a reflection of the universal respect for Mohandas Gandhi and of the enduring relevance of his philosophy. Quoting the late Mohandas Gandhi.

Clearing Up an Interfaith Misunderstanding

2009-09-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

People often misunderstand what interfaith interaction is about. I would like to tell you about a recent anonymous interfaith interaction that I had which illustrates this point.

About a week ago I had a breakfast meeting with some colleagues at a restaurant near where I live.

After breakfast, when I walked up to my truck, I found that someone had inserted a card in my driver's side window that had the word "coexist" on it. The word was made up of symbols, much like the one above. The other side of the card was filled with words that were in a type size so small that it made the writing almost unreadable.

I have the bumper sticker pictured above on the back of my pickup truck. I thought the person that left the card in my window was a friend who wanted to show that he or she agreed with the sentiment of the bumper sticker.

And in all honesty, I did not read the tiny words on the back of the card.

When I left the restaurant I stopped by the home of my partner Fran.

I showed her the card and started talking to her about something else. But she stopped me in mid-sentence and asked me if I had actually read the backside of the card. I shook my head. She told me that the card had not been left by a friend and supporter, but actually by someone who challenged the notion of interfaith co-existence.

But the person who wrote the text on the card misunderstood, I think, the goal of coexistence. The card implied that those in favor of coexistence wanted to blend all religions into just one. The text went on to say that there was only one way to heaven, and that was through Jesus Christ. I have two issues with this. I suspect those who produced the card feared that those in favor of coexistence are in favor of getting Christians to another religion. We're not. Let me take a moment to explain what coexistence means to me.

First, interfaith work that aims at peaceful coexistence, is to me, NOT about creating one religion. It instead focuses on celebrating what makes each religion distinct and actually unique. Of course it also celebrates what religions have in common, but I find that the different ideas about spirituality and religious practice that I discover in Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, the Baha'i faith and other religions enrich my experience. Still, I have no intention of converting to another religion, nor would I encourage anyone else to convert.

And finally, let me say something that may be surprising. I have no problem with the fact that some Christians believe that the only way to God and Heaven is through Jesus, anymore than I would challenge some Jews or Hindus or Muslims who may feel the same way. It is simply important that we learn to coexist in the sense of learning to live peacefully together side by side, recognizing our differences. And even for the most ardent fundamentalist (in any religion) I would say that you can hold that belief and still learn things from encounters with other religions that will improve your spiritual practices. There will be more about this later.

Let's not take ourselves (and our sins) too seriously

2009-09-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

At the New Year celebration of Rosh Hashanah our Jewish friends spend time reflecting on the past year, considering their sins great and small, and trying to find peace in their lives. This is often a very serious process. But sometimes we need to lighten up when we think about our misdeeds.

My friend Judi found the following on the internet and shared it with me and other friends last weekend. I think it is worth a look. Do you find any of your own sins (and breads) on the list?

On the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, there is a ceremony called Tashlich. Jews traditionally go to the ocean or a stream or river to pray and throw bread crumbs into the water. Symbolically, the fish devour their sins.

Occasionally, people ask what kind of bread crumbs should be thrown. Here are suggestions for breads which may be most appropriate for specific sins and misbehaviors:

For ordinary sins White Bread
For erotic sins French Bread
For particularly dark sins Pumpernickel
For complex sins Multi-Grain
For twisted sins Pretzels
For tasteless sins Rice Cakes
For sins of indecision Waffles
For sins committed in haste Matzoh
For sins of chutzpah Fresh Bread
For substance abuse Stoned Wheat
For use of heavy drugs Poppy Seed
For petty larceny Stollen
For committing auto theft Caraway
For timidity/cowardice Milk Toast
For ill-temperedness Sourdough
For silliness, eccentricity Nut Bread
For not giving full value Shortbread
For jingoism, chauvinism Yankee Doodles
For excessive irony Rye Bread
For unnecessary chances Hero Bread
For telling bad jokes/puns Corn Bread
For war-mongering Kaiser Rolls
For dressing immodestly Tarts
For causing injury to others Tortes
For lechery and promiscuity Hot Buns
For promiscuity with gentiles Hot Cross Buns
For racist attitudes Crackers
For sophisticated racism Ritz Crackers
For being holier than thou Bagels
For abrasiveness Grits
For dropping in without notice Popovers
For over-eating Stuffing
For impetuosity Quick Bread
For indecent photography Cheesecake
For raising your voice too often Challah
For pride and egotism Puff Pastry
For sycophancy, ass-kissing Brownies
For being overly smothering Angel Food Cake
For laziness Any long loaf
For trashing the environment Dumplings

Let's stop using words as weapons of mass destruction.

2009-09-22T11:42:00.001-07:00

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can and do hurt us.

So, let's stop using words as weapons of mass destruction.

On October 2, (International Day of Non-Violence) IPP and a number of local groups will call upon people to stop over the noon hour and reflect on the way we use our voices and our words to hurt other people. We will ask everyone to take a vow of non-violence that includes refraining from the violent use of language. (See description at the end of this document).

If you can't join us on October 2, I urge you to join me in taking time to confront the verbal violence in our own lives. Take an hour at noon to do this. If you can't reflect on this at noon, choose another time. But do take the time. It's very important.

The need for such reflection and such a vow is becoming clearer every day as our public discussions about important issues becomes more and more heated, filled with vitriol, hate speech and sadly even racism. This must stop on all sides. Whether hateful, violent speech is used against President Obama or former President George W. Bush, we urgently need to declare a ceasefire, and return our discussions to ideas rather than hatred.

The same is true in our personal lives. Many people who espouse non-violence and would never think of shooting or stabbing someone, let alone bombing them, won't hestitate to drop "the F bomb" in shouting matches with others, inclding people who are supposed to be our loved ones.

The Urgent Need for Verbal Non-Violence
Will be the Focus of an Oct 2 Noon-time Observance of
International Day of Non-Violence

On Friday, October 2, 2009 (Mahatma Gandhi's birthday), Interfaith Paths to Peace in cooperation with a number of other local organizations will host a special noontime observance of International Day of Non-violence. This special ceremony will be held from 12:10 p.m. until 1 p.m. in Bishops Hall at Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral at 425 South Second Street in Louisville.

The observance will consist of a lighting of candles and a silent reflection on the urgent need for each of us to disarm ourselves from the violent and hurtful language we often use in dealing with each other, especially in light of recent news about hate language and personally abusive words being used in the public arena. Those present for the observance will be invited to take an annually renewable vow of non-violence that includes a pledge to disarm from the use of violent language in dealing with others. The event will conclude with a special Tibetan Chant for Non-Violence vocalized by the Venerable Geshe Sangay Gyatso, Louisville's resident Tibetan monk.

Co-sponsors for the event include the United Nations Association of Louisville, St. William and St. Agnes Catholic Churches, Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral, Louisville's Drepung Gomang (Tibetan Buddhist) Institute, the Peace and Justice Division of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky, Iranians for Peace, Our1Planet, and the Louisville Chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation..

Event organizer Terry Taylor, Executive Director of Louisville-based Interfaith Paths to Peace, says, "At a time when civility has seemingly disappeared from our public discourse on important issues, the need for a declaration of a verbal "cease fire" is imperative. And I can think of no better time to focus on that urgent need than Gandhi's birthday, the day that is observed around the world as the International Day of Non-Violence."

About the International Day of Non-Violence.

The International Day of Non-Violence is marked on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence.

According to General Assembly resolution A/RES/61/271 of 15 June 2007, which established the commemoration, the International Day is an occasion to "disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness." The resolution reaffirms "the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence" and the desire "to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence."

Introducing the resolution in the General Assembly on behalf of 140 co-sponsors, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Anand Sharma, said that the wide and diverse sponsorship of the resolution was a reflection of the universal respect for Mahatma Gandhi and of the enduring relevance of his philosophy. Quoting the late leader’s own words, he said: "Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man."

Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life

2009-09-03T13:15:00.001-07:00

The table in my dining room is a mess. No matter how I try to clean it up and keep it that way, it's always covered with books, bills, receipts, flyers, newspapers and more.

I've always had an urgent desire to be more neat in my life. That urge goes at least as far back in my life as my days in college in the late 1960s and early 70s. Aesthetically, I've embraced in my heart the goal of making my space what I would call Japanese stark. Rooms that are devoid of clutter. Space that is neat, pristine, without distractions.

Well. it ain't gonna happen. I'm nearly 60, and try as I might to be neater, I think I need to just stop and accept the fact that I am always going to be messy. And that's not necessarily bad. Although that's a difficult idea for me to accept.
When I was a child my stepmother derided me for a whole range of things (inluding being fat and stupid), but one of the things she harrangued me mostabout was being messy. I was made to feel that my state of being was bad. My stepmother left my life when I was 15. But, as a therapist once pointed out to me, when my stepmother stopped abusing me verbally, I picked up right where she left off. My internal voice frequently chides me for being messy.

I'm beginning to see, though, that although messiness may create some problems for me from time to time, it's not a moral issue.

In fact, as Rabbi Irwin Kula points out, not only is life itself messy, but there is a sacredness to life's messiness. Those of us who are messy need to stop fighting messiness and embrace it.

Next Thursday Rabbi Irwin and I will make a presentation on this and related topics at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. Rabbi will base his presentation on his book, Yearnings: embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life; I will be talking about my new book, A Spirituality for Brokenness and how we can find tools to help us mend our sense of being shattered by life. To learn more about Rabbi Irwin and his book, visit http://yearnings.irwinkula.com/thebook.htm . To learn moe about my book, A Spirituality for Brokenness, please visit: http://helpforbrokenness.com .

Here's a description of the program we will be presenting in New York next week and in Louisville next month.

The Practice of Imperfection: Brokenness and the Sacred Messiness of Life

Featuring Rabbi Irwin Kula, President of CLAL and
Terry Taylor, Interfaith Paths to Peace

7 p.m. Thursday, September 10, 2009
Jewish Community Center in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10023
(646) 505-4444

Join Rabbi Irwin Kula, author of the award-winning book, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life, and Terry Taylor, author of the recently published book, A Spirituality for Brokenness: Discovering Your Deepest Self in Difficult Times, for a conversation about love, life and meaning in these challenging and fast-changing times as we approach the Jewish high holiday season.

About CLAL

The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership:
Brings Jewish wisdom to the American spiritual landscape and makes it a resource for all Builds bridges across communities to encourage pluralism and openness.

Promotes dynamic, inclusive Jewish communities in which all voices are heard.

Nurtures volunteer, professional and rabbinic leaders and helps people to re-imagine Jewish life.

Enhances Jewish participation in American civic and spiritual life.

Founded in 1974, Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership is a think tank, leadership training institute, and resource center. Bringing Jewish insights to a wide American audience, Clal makes Jewish wisdom an accessible public resource. A leader in religious pluralism, Clal builds bridges across communities to encourage diversity and openness. Linking Jewish texts and tradition with innovative scholarship, Clal promotes Jewish participation in American civic and spiritual life, reinvigorating communities and enhancing leadership development.

Clal's diverse faculty, with its reputation for excellence, provides cutting-edge teaching, lectures, programs, and consulting nationwide. Working with scholars, professionals, volunteer and religious leaders, Clal has earned a reputation for compelling programs that explore religious and American identity. Joining with experts from diverse fields, Clal offers new perspectives on contemporary issues, reaching influential leaders, thinkers, and practitioners. Clal's publications and resources offer thought-provoking ideas, tools, and techniques that enrich people, communities, and institutions. In all of Clal's work, it strives to build vibrant Jewish life that is engaged in the intellectual and ethical challenges of the world.

President hosts Ramadan dinner for Muslims, Jews and People from other religions

2009-09-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

I ran across a story recently as I was reading my e-mails. Its message of inclusiveness is very moving. As we approach the Jewish high Holy Days in the next few weeks, I hope to see similar outreach across religious lines. My fondest hope is that this inclusiveness is not simply a political gesture (I don't think it is) but will set an example that will be followed by future Presidents no matter what political party they represent.

And why don't we follow the President's example whatever our own religious affiliation? Let's invite Muslims to our homes for dinner to break their daily fast; let's ask if we can join our Jewish friends for Yom Kippur or Roshashona. And maybe we should check in with our Baha'i, Buddhist and Hindu friends to see how we can share their religious celebrations, too.

Here's the story. It's from an e-mail blast by Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, a Jewish peace group.

Last Tuesday night, President Obama hosted a Ramadan break the fast dinner, complete with greens from the White House garden. Seated alongside ambassadors from Arab and Muslim countries, members of Congress, and ordinary citizens representing the wide diversity of American Muslim life were some unlikely guests: Rabbi David Saperstein of the Reform Movement, Rabbi Nathan Diament of the Orthodox Union, and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.

President Obama’s guest list – perhaps a little uncomfortable for all – illustrates his push for mutual understanding and peace-making, literally an invitation for those in conflict to break bread together.

Which brings us to Gaza, where the affects of an Israeli-imposed economic blockade and last winter’s hostilities have led water and electricity shortages, severely limited access to adequate health care and unemployment consistently over 40%. Ongoing tensions between Hamas, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and the U.S. make the situation difficult to resolve, and ultimately, the civilian population of Gaza pays the price.

While sweeping, long-term change is still only a distant goal, the Obama administration has made significant efforts to improve the daily lives of Gazans. It matters that a sitting U.S. President has publicly acknowledged the suffering of the Palestinian people – suffering that also threatens Israel’s long-term security.

And it matters that quiet U.S. pressure has led to an easing of the blockade and expansion of the kinds of items Israel will allow into the Strip.

But these small changes aren’t enough. Deep mistrust and complications of even the simplest issues pose real obstacles to progress. The U.S. has been pushing to allow concrete into Gaza, for instance, to facilitate the repair and rebuilding of thousands of buildings, but Israeli officials fear that Hamas will seize the cement to rebuild its badly damaged military infrastructure.

Here's a link to Brit Tzedek v'Shalom's web site for more information about the group:

www.btvshalom.org

Eight Ramadan Lessons for All Spiritual Seekers

2009-08-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

Friends, I'm not the biggest fan of Beliefnet.com, but every once in a while they post something that is very useful. I'm going to share one of them with you now.

You may be aware that we are in the lunar month of Ramadan for Muslims throughout the world. This is a month during which from sunrise to sunset Muslims fast from food and beverage. It is a challenging time, but a cleansing time. Here a wise Muslim spiritual master shares with his fellow religionists some sound and compassion advice about how to benefit from this stark period of time. His column also contains advice that can be beneficial to those who practice other religions...or no religion. Perhaps the most challenging advice is to avoid a spiritual letdown. What do you think?

Eight Ramadan Lessons for All Spiritual Seekers
by Dilshad D. Ali, Islam Editor

Ramadan , the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, is special to Muslims as a holy period dedicated to fasting, self-purification, and spiritual attainment. Whether you're Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or just a spiritual seeker, you can probably appreciate the goals of Ramadan : a whole-body awareness of God and a humble thankfulness for whatever blessings He has granted.

Achieving those goals is a challenge for anyone. But after 20 years of fasting, I've learned some valuable lessons to simplify and spiritualize the Ramadan experience--and how to keep that special feeling alive throughout the year--lessons that can help anyone make their life a little more spiritual and uncomplicated. So check out these tips, whether you're a Muslim who's been fasting for years, or just someone looking for more depth in your spiritual life.

Take the Remembrance of God Inward

For Muslims:

Do dhikr (reciting short du'as, or supplications) silently while you're driving, waiting in line somewhere, or doing endless household tasks. Keep a thasbi (the equivalent of a Muslim rosary) in your purse or pocket and use it to count off du'as (prayers).

For all:

Spending whatever downtime you have to remember God or peacefully meditate is a great idea for everyone. Thousands of hours go by every year in our work commutes and in chauffeuring our kids around. Why not try to use that time to quiet our minds, remind ourselves of a higher being, and appreciate what we've been given?

Appreciate Technology, Then Tune It Out

For Muslims: In past Ramadans I always went on a sort of technology crash diet--television, music, inane web surfing, and movies were all self-banned for 30 days. All the extra time was designated for reading Qur'an, praying, and reconnecting with my family. Well, crash diets never work in the long term.

So the better thing to do is to use technology wisely: Use your email to stay in contact with friends and family, get the news from television and the Internet, and use your ipod to listen to Qur'anic prayers. And when basic needs have been met, turn the technology off and take the extra time to pray and reconnect.

For all:

Use the technology to do what you need to do for work and family. But then, instead of spending hours surfing the web or TV channels, fight the urge and tune out. Discover your family, and discover meditation and prayer. You can start slow--cut out an hour of web surfing (or one TV program) every week and build up.

Share Meals Together as a Family

For Muslims:

Having iftar (the fast-breaking meal at sunset) as a family should be easier this Ramadan. Muslims follow a lunar calendar, which moves Ramadan back 10 days earlier each year. This year most iftars will be after 7 p.m., late enough for the family to be home together. Breaking the fast with the family is a great opportunity to appreciate one another's holy efforts and discuss spiritual topics.

For all:

The family dinner is a concept hammered home by family and social organizations. Even some television stations, like Nickelodeon, show spots advising us to "Make time for the family table." A weekly or bi-weekly family dinner is a great time to reconnect, to learn about each other, and to discuss a designated list of topics that are of interest to your family.

Do New Types of Charity

For Muslims:

After becoming a parent, I used to get discouraged that I couldn't properly do those things recommended to Muslims during Ramadan: Go for tarawih prayers or read the entire Qur'an. But my mom and mother-in-law gave me sound insight: Everything you do for the comfort of your family is charity and a way of worshipping God.

That being said, Ramadan is a great time to try new acts of charity and goodness: Put aside a can of food a day and donate it all when the month is up. Cook a few dishes and take them to your mosque for those who come there to have iftar.

For all:

Recognizing the things you do for family and friends as acts of goodness that are acknowledged by God is a great step toward achieving inner spirituality. But do take a step out of your comfort zone to tackle one small charitable project each month, whether it's donating a little money each day to your favorite charity or taking charge of your office's annual volunteer project.

Get to Your House of Worship and Find Community

For Muslims:

About the only time most Muslim-Americans go to the mosque is for Friday prayers or for Sunday school. During Ramadan, why not make the mosque an integral part of worship? Go there for as many tarawih prayers as you can, especially the end ones when the Qur'an is being completed. Pick one day a week and go to your mosque for iftar. It's amazing how good we feel to see others fasting and striving as much as we are.

For all:

If you are religious, try visiting your church , synagogue , or temple outside of regular worship services. You may meet different people and take part in different experiences that can replenish your spiritual well. If you don't favor any particular house of worship, designate some spot--a park or your backyard at sunset--where you feel some calm, and visit it with family or friends, free of mental distractions, and with a focus on each other.

Realize That Faith and Worldly Life Go Hand-in-Hand

For Muslims:

During Ramadan some Muslims indulge in spiritual extremes--they may try to shutdown all "worldly" aspects of life, like watching TV or playing with kids, and replace it with all spiritually related activities. But man cannot exist on prayer alone. Yes, Ramadan is the month when Muslims are told that God stops the devil from harassing us, and our prayers are more powerful. But though we must ramp up our spiritual practices, we need to keep up our everyday routines.

For all:

Finding and maintaining a balance between spiritual pursuits and life practices is always a good idea. Resolving to remember God more or to be spiritual in other ways can be a soulful way to center ourselves. But I've found that only trained holy persons or gurus can be spiritual or religious-minded 100 percent of the time. The rest of us should make time for worldly and spiritual practices.

Don't Wait for Ramadan to Get More Spiritual

For Muslims:

Imam Zaid Shakir has a popular video about preparing for Ramadan as if you're training for a big race. You can't just stand at the starting line and then all of a sudden run the spiritual race. Start by fasting on Mondays and Thursdays in Shaban (the month preceding Ramadan) as prescribed by hadith (verified sayings of Prophet Muhammad). Want to read the entire Qur'an in Ramadan? Then before Ramadan, put aside 15 minutes each day to read the Qur'an.

For all:

If you want to become more spiritual, pray more, practice your religion more closely, or read religious scripture more, working up to it will help you attain your goal and maintain it in the long run. Starting any new practice (or giving something up in small increments) will help you gain a taste for it and work it into your regular routine. Going full blast or cold turkey is rarely the best way.

Avoid a Spiritual Letdown

For Muslims:

One of the biggest Ramadan problems is what happens immediately afterward. Muslims are consumed with fasting and prayer. Then Ramadan ends and we resume the mantle of our everyday flawed lives. What we should be doing is keeping some of our good Ramadan habits throughout the year.

So be sure to engage in a cool-down period afterwards with an eye toward maintaining some of your Ramadan practices. Try fasting one day a week. Resolve to keep up a charitable practice. Read the Qur'an for five minutes daily. A little bit goes a long way.

For all:

At some point you're probably going to work towards a big goal. Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds. Maybe you're going to kick smoking. So you'll go all-out to achieve that goal. But once it's done, avoid the letdown. It's so easy to go back to old habits once a goal is accomplished. Instead, focus on small ways to maintain that momentum. Making life-altering changes is great. But it's how we manage small, daily changes that make the real, long-term difference.

Whirling Dervishes: Dancing Our Way to Peace

2009-08-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

At the first of August I was in Istanbul as part of an interfaith excursion. On the last night of the trip I pulled my way loose from the group to attend a Sufi Music concert and Whiling Dervishes Ceremony in the old part of the city not far from the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.

That night I wasn't sure what I was going to encounter. I guess I thought I would witness frantic spinning (like the speedy motion of a top). Instead I witnessed an elegant turning that seemed in some ways to be as slow and elegant as the rotation of the earth on its axis.

The ceremony was deeply meaningful. Here is the text from that night's printed program. It explains the meaning of the ceremony I witnessed. But first, a word of caution. if you decide to try whiling, be very careful. The Mevlevis who whirl practice whirling for years under the guidance of a trained master. If you don't know how to whirl properly, you may find yourself crashing into something or falling.

The Mevlevi Sema Ceremony

Mevleviye are known for their famous practice of whirling dances. At their dancing ceremonies, or Sema, a particular musical repertoire called ayin is played. This is based on four sections of both vocal and instrumental compositions using contrasting rhythmic cycles and is performed by at least one singer, a flute-player (neyzen), a kettledrummer and a cymbal player. The oldest musical compositions stem from the mid-sixteenth century combining Persian and Turkish musical traditions. The repertoire was continuously broadened, and the first notations were made from the early twentieth century onwards.

Dancers would receive 1,001 days of reclusive training within the mevlevihane, a sort ofcloister, where they learnt about ethics, codes of behaviour and beliefs by living a practice of prayer, religious music, poetry and dance. After this training, they remained members of the order but went back to their work and families, combining spiritualism with civic life.

Following a recommended fast of several hours, the whirlers begin to rotate on their left feet in short twists, using the right foot to drive their bodies around the left foot. The body of the whirler is meant to be supple with eyes open, but unfocused so that images become blurred and flowing. The Sema takes place in a large circular-shaped room that is part of the mevlevihane building.

As a result of secularisation policies, all mevlevihane were closed in 1925. In the 1950s, the Turkish government, began allowing the Whirling Dervishes to perform annually in Konya on the Urs of Mevlana, December 17, the anniversary of Rumi's death. In 1974, they were allowed to come to the West. They performed in France, for Pope Paul VI, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and other venues in the United States and Canada - under the direction of the late Mevlevi Shaikh Suleyman Hayati Dede. Many practitioners kept their tradition alive in private gatherings, and thirty years later, the Turkish government began to allow performances again, though only in public. From the 1990s, restrictions were eased and private groups re-emerged who try to re-establish the original spiritual and intimate character of the Sema ceremony.

The Mevlevi Sema Ceremony is proclamated as an INTANGIBLE WORLD HERITAGE in Traditional performing art social practices themes by UNESCO in October 2005.

Sema: Human Being in the Universal Movement

Text by Dr. Celaleddin Celebi, illustrations by Ingrid Schaar «Dr. Celebi's other writings»
Sema is part of the inspiration of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi (1207- 1273) as well as of Turkish custom, history, beliefs and culture.
From a scientific viewpoint we witness that contemporary science definitely confirms that the fundamental condition of our existence is to revolve. There is no object, no being which does not revolve and the shared similarity among beings is the revolution of the electrons, protons and neutrons in the atoms, which constitute the structure of each of them. As a consequence of this similarity, everything revolves and man carries on his live, his very existence by means of the revolution in the atoms, structural stones of his body, by the revolution of his blood, by his coming from the earth and return to it, by his revolving with earth itself.

However, all of these are natural, unconscious revolutions. But man is the possessor of a mind and intelligence which distinguishes him from and makes him superior to other beings. Thus the "whirling dervish" or Semazen causes the mind to participate in the shared similarity and revolution of all other beings... Otherwise, the Sema ceremony represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to "Perfect." Turning towards the truth, his growth through love, desert his ego, find the truth and arrive to the "Perfect," then he return from this spiritual journey as a man who reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation, to all creatures without discrimination of believes, races, classes and nations.

Sema consists of seven parts:

The first part:

The dervish with his headdress (his ego's tombstone), his white skirt (his ego's shroud) is by removing his black cloak spiritually born to the truth, he journeys and advances there. At the onset and each stop of the Sema, holding his arms crosswise he represent the number one, and testifies to God's unity. While whirling his arms are open, his right hand directed to the skies ready to receive God's beneficence, looking to his left hand turned toward the earth, he turn from right to left around the heart. This is his way of conveying God's spiritual gift to the people upon whom he looks with the eyes of God. Revolving around the heart, from right to left, he embraces all the mankind, all the creation with affection and love... It starts with an eulogy "Nat-I Serif" to the Prophet, who represents love, and all Prophets before him. To praise them is praising God, who created all of them.

The second part

is a drum voice, symbolizing God order to the Creation: "Be."

The third part:

is an instrumental improvisation "taksim" with a reed "ney." It represents the first breath which gives life to everything. The Divine Breath.

The fourth part

is the "dervishes" greetings to each other and their thrice repeated circular walk "Devr-i Veled," with the accompaniment of a music called "peshrev." It symbolize the salutation of soul to soul concealed by shapes and bodies.

The fifth part

is the Sema (whirling). It consists of four salutes or "Selam"s. At the end of each as in the onset, the dervish testifies by his appearance to God's unity.

The first salute

is man's birth to truth by feeling and mind. His complete conception of the existence of God as Creator and his state of creature.

The second salute expresses the rapture of man witnessing the splendor of creation, in front of God's greatness and omnipotence.

The third salute

is the transformation of rapture into love and thereby the sacrifice of mind to love. It is a complete submission, it is annihilation of self with in the loved one, it is unity. This state of ecstasy is the highest grade in Buddhism, defined as "Nirvana" and in Islam "Fenafillah." However, the highest rank in Islam is the rank of the Prophet, he is called God's servant first and his messenger afterwards. The aim of Sema is not unbroken ecstasy and loss of conscious thought. At the termination of this salute, he approves again by his appearance, arms crosswise the Unity of God, consciously and feelingly.

The forth salute

Just as the Prophet ascends till the "Throne" and then returns to his task on earth, the whirling dervish reaching the state of "Fenafillah," return to his task in creation, to his state of subservience following the termination of his spiritual journey and his ascent. He is a servant of God, of his Books, of his Prophets and all his creation.

The sixth part

Sema ends with a reading of the Quran and specially of the verse from sura Bakara 2, verse 115, "Unto God belong the East and the West, and whither over ye turn, you are faced with Him. He is All-Embracing, All-Knowing."

The seventh part

is a prayer for the repose of the souls of all Prophets and all believers.
Posted by Terry Taylor at 12:47 PM 0 comments
Labels: mevlevi, rumi, sema ceremonty., whirling dervishes

What is dialogue?

2009-08-25T05:53:00.000-07:00

I returned from a week-long visit to Alaska yesterday and was handed an invitation to attend a conference in Qatar (on the Saudi pennisula) in October on the topic of "Interfaith Dialogue". In July I was part of a seven person delegation that visited Turkey to promote interfaith dialogue.

The word dialogue is bandied around a great deal, but I rarely am able to pin down those using this term to an exact definition of this word. For some it means just having conversation. For others it seems to mean interacting with people who are not regularly part of our social circle. And for still others it means bringing together for quiet conversation people who usually shout at each other.

I remember talking to someone who is an expert of dialogue some years ago and hearing a definition that I found very powerful.

The source might have been Michael Toms, the host of the Public Radio program called "New Dimensions," but I honestly don't remember.

In any case, the definition that I remember hearing contrasted dialgue with conversation. When we are engaged in a conversation or discussion with someone,more often than not we are not really listening to the other person. When the other person is taling we are forming in our mind the response to what is being said. In dialogue we learn to listen deeply, recognizing our own assumptions, allowing time to reflect, and using the interaction as an opportunity to learn and understand.

I found a web site for something called the dialogue group that contains some very useful information. Here's some of what the Group has to say about dialogue. (A link to the web site appears at the end of this post.)

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF DIALOGUE

Skill Building Blocks and Guidelines for Dialogue

The building blocks and behavioral guidelines outlined below are concepts that form a scaffolding for Dialogue. Like the scaffolding used in construction to aid in the initial stages of building, they are meant to help provide an environment conducive to unfolding the dialogical process.

Rather than a set of rules, you might think of them as reminders of the level of attention which lies at the core of Dialogue. Attention to our thinking, our feelings, our communication, assumptions and judgments. Attention to the unfolding meaning of the group, the spirit of inquiry and the pauses for reflection that lead to learning and understanding.

Held lightly, these guidelines and building blocks will help you enter into Dialogue. Held too firmly, they will trap you in just one more structure and limiting system. Dialogue is a living process and requires the willingness of all participants to be open to letting go of the known in order to discover new perspectives and understanding. As one writer so eloquently put it, "We must be prepared in each moment to give up (our ideas of) who we are to discover all we may become. "

So, by all means use these guidelines to help you begin your exploration of Dialogue, and in each moment, be prepared to release them and let your attention guide you to the next level of learning.

FOUR SKILL BUILDING BLOCKS

Suspension of Judgment

Of all the building blocks, suspension of judgment is the foundation for Dialogue, and perhaps, the most challenging. Our normal way of thinking divides, organizes and labels. Because our egos become identified with how we think things are we often find ourselves defending our positions against those of others. This makes it difficult for us to stay open to new and alternative views of reality. It is hard to listen when we are engaged in a heated battle about "who's right and who's wrong!"

When we learn to suspend judgment, to "hold our positions more lightly", we open the door to see others' points of view. It is not that we do away with our judgments and opinions - this would be impossible. We simply create a space between our judgment and our reaction, and thus open a door for listening.

Suspending judgment is also a key to building a climate of trust and safety. As we learn that we will not be "judged" wrong for our opinions, we feel freer to express ourselves. The atmosphere becomes more open and truthful.

Assumption Identification

Identify means "to recognize, to pick out from your surroundings, to feel one with." Assumptions are "those things which are assumed or thought to be". So to identify assumptions is to recognize, or identify, that which we think is so.

It is probably obvious to most of us that our assumptions play a large role in how we evaluate our environment, the decisions we make and how we behave. Yet, it is just this aspect of our thinking that we consistently overlook when we seek to solve problems, resolve conflicts, or create synergy among diverse people.

Why do we overlook the obvious? David Bohm would say because our "assumptions are transparent to us". They are such a built-in part of our seeing apparatus that we do not even know they are there. We look right through them.

Our failure to look at underlying belief systems can lead to disappointing results. When we examine the underlying assumptions behind our decisions and actions we reach to the causal level of problem solving. We are able to identify where there are disconnects in our strategies and take more effective actions.

By learning how to identify our assumptions, we can also explore differences with others, work to build common ground and consensus, and get to the bottom of core misunderstandings and differences.

Listening: Key to Perception

Take a minute, right now, to ask yourself for your personal definition of listening. Think about that activities you identify with listening? How do you know you are listening? Being listened to? What does listening feel like? How could your listening be enhanced?

The way we listen, has a lot to do with our capacity to learn and build quality relationships with others. When we are able to suspend judgment and listen to diverse perspectives we expand and deepen our world view. It is the act of listening that allows for integration and synthesis of new insights and possibilities. When we listen deeply we are willing to be influenced by and learn from others.

In Dialogue, listening also involves developing our ability to perceive the meaning arising both at the individual level and within the group. What assumptions are we hearing, which ones are shared? Listening for shared meaning informs us about the culture we live in, and presents us with the opportunity to make choices about our decisions and actions (rather than moving unconsciously, on auto-pilot).).

Inquiry and Reflection

Inquiry and refection are about learning how to ask questions with the intention of gaining additional insight and perspective. Through this process we dig deeply into matters that concern us and create breakthroughs in our ability to solve problems.

Inquiry elicits information. Reflection permits the inspection of information and the perception of relationships. The combination of reflection and inquiry enables us to learn, to think creatively, and to build on past experience (versus simply repeating the same patterns over and over again).

By learning how to ask questions that lead to new levels of understanding we accelerate our collective learning. Such questions often begin with "I wonder...", "what if....", "what does xxx mean to you?" As we ask these questions and listen, we gain greater awareness into our own and others' thinking processes and the issues that separate and unit us.

By creating pauses to reflect, we learn to work with silence and slow down the rate of conversation. We become able to identify assumptions and reactive patterns and open the door for new ideas and possibilities.

Interlocking Building Blocks: Weaving the Dialogue

Each of the building blocks is an integral part of the Dialogue. They are living parts, which, like the organs of our bodies, constantly work to support the form they are part of. In each moment, the building blocks weave both the context within which the Dialogue unfolds and act as catalysts to support the unfolding itself. The more consciously we use them, the more they help us to enter into and sustain the Dialogue.

And, all the skills are interrelated. For example, as we begin to draw aside the curtains of our judgments, we develop the capacity to speak and listen without the automatic coloring of past thought patterns. We become less reactive, more aware of the assumptions through which we filter our observations. Choosing to suspend these assumptions, we may experiment with expanding the horizons of our perceptions, increasing the number of points of view available to us. By creating space to reflect on what we are perceiving, seeking the next level of inquiry, opening up our senses and listening deeply, with the intention to discover and understand we enter into Dialogue.

BEHAVIORS THAT SUPPORT DIALOGUE

Suspension of judgement when listening and speaking. When we listen and suspend judgment we open the door to expanded understanding. When we speak without judgment we open the door for others to listen to us.

Respect for differences. Our respect is grounded in the belief that everyone has an essential contribution to make and is to be honored for the perspective which only they can bring.

Role and status suspension. Again, in dialogue, all participants and their contributions are absolutely essential to developing an integrated whole view. No one perspective is more important than any other Dialogue is about power with, versus power over or power under.

Balancing inquiry and advocacy. In dialogue we inquire to discover and understand others perspectives and ideas and we advocate to offer our own for consideration. The intention is to bring forth and make visible assumptions, relationships and gain new insight and understanding.

We often tend to advocate to convince others of our positions Therefore a good place to start with this guideline is to practice bringing more inquiry into the conversation.

Focus on learning. Our intention is to learn to from each other, to expand our view and understanding, versus evaluate and determine who has the "best" view.

When we are focused on learning we tend to ask more questions, try new things. We are willing to disclose our thinking so that we can see both what is working for us and what we might want to change. We want to hear from all parties so that we can gain the advantage of differing perspectives.

Here's a link to the web site for "The Dialogue Group"

http://www.thedialoguegrouponline.com/whatsdialogue.html

Struggling with culture vs. military might

2009-08-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

After visiting the Jewish Museum on Thursday we had a wonderful light lunch at a restaurant famous for its baklava, including types filled with meat and cheese, little socially acceptable White Castles (with flair).

The owner showed us a pan of baklava measuring 2 by 3 feet that had been doctored by chefs into a portrait of President Barack Obama. After lunch our van carried us to a famous military museum on the Golden Horn. At the museum we were to hear a concert by a military band dressed in Ottoman-style uniforms.

I wasn’t sure why this visit was on the agenda for a trip that extolled the virtues of peaceful coexistence.

Well, I had adopted a ‘wait and see’ attitude about this stop on our tour until I waited and saw.

We de-vaned in front of a huge cannon of WWI vintage that I am sure was designed to shoot a shell 15 or 20 miles. Our leaders hurried us along. We were running late and the concert was about to begin. The concert hall was at the opposite end of the museum from the entrance. We were told we could visit the museum’s exhibits after the concert. As we rushed along to see the band, we passed room after room of implements of destruction. Everything from arrows to massive machine guns. All designed for one purpose: killing human beings.

A day later I asked one of our leaders why we had been taken to this venue. He confirmed my suspicion that this was not an effort to celebrate the military but rather an attempt to make sure that we had a full experience of Turkish culture.

But as we arrived in the 1,000 seat concert hall I was deeply troubled by what it would mean for me (someone who self identifies as a Quaker) to be part of a tour of weapons on exhibit. I finally turned to Kenan and told him that I meant no disrespect, but that when the concert was over I would not be part of the tour; I would wait outside the museum’s entrance for the rest of the group.
So, an hour later when the music had stopped and the band had marched away, I marched myself to the entrance and sat outside in the sun, just a few feet from the Goliath sized cannon I mentioned above.

As I waited for the group I pondered the contrast between the museum and the tomb of the Sufi poet, Rumi that we had visited two days earlier. Rumi extolled the virtues of living together in peace. He knew no enemies.

As I compared the two venues I took heart in the fact that the military museum was visited on the day we were there by perhaps a few hundred people (including a couple of school groups).

The tomb of Rumi and the adjoining museum on the other hand were swarming with people the day we were there. Thousands of people. A constant stream of Muslims, Christians, and persons of many religions.

I think it would make Rumi smile to know that many more people looked at his resting place than gazed at machine guns and cannons that. I have a feeling Fetullah Gulen would smile a little too.

Back in Istanbul for a visit to the city’s Jewish Museum

2009-07-31T22:46:00.000-07:00

Our first day back in Istanbul was a day of contrasts and an ethical challenge for me.

We spent most of the morning window shopping in the high-end market district and square called Taksim. This was the area I had visited the week before. We stopped by a couple of churches, including a Catholic Church named for the Franciscan, St. Anthony of Padua.

A major highlight of the morning for me was our stop at the Karakoy Jewish Museum. We reached the museum by taking the Funicular tram down from the hilltop shopping area, and then walking to a major traffic and light rail intersection at the end of the Galata Bridge.

The museum was hidden away at the end of a side street with no exit.

The museum consisted of two floors, and contained two Torah scrolls and a number of other religious items, but more importantly, it present a series of elaborate posters explain the history of Jews in Turkey. As I believe I mentioned in an earlier blog, Turkey is 99% Muslim. There are only an estimated 100,000 non-Muslims in this large country with a population of 80 million. The 100,000 non-Muslims comprise 25,000 Jews and 75,000 persons who are Christians or me3mbers of other religions.

The most important piece of information I encountered was something I already knew, but of which I was glad to be reminded. In 1492 when the Catholic Church was burning Jews and non-believers at the stake, and when it expelled the Jews from Spain, the Sultan of what is now Turkey not only invited the Jewish expatriates from Spain to his own land, but actively worked to bring them to their new home, where, it seems they have lived happily, if anonymously for half a millennium and more.

As I was leaving the museum I encountered the guard at the front door. He didn’t speak English and my Turkish was too small to be of help, but through sign language I asked him if he was a Jew. He nodded. I then gave him one of our blue pins with the symbols of Judaism, Islam and Christianity sitting in the company of what we know as the peace sign. I pointed to that peace sign and said “barish” the Turkish word for peace. This man who a moment earlier was very quiet and reserved suddenly became animated. He put the pin on. I asked if I could take his photo and he again gave an affirmative sign, but motioned for me to wait. He rushed into his office and returned while putting on a tie. I took his picture and then he disappeared again returning with two other men associated with the museum. Soon Kenan arrived and served as interpreter for the four of us.

The men thanked us for coming, and thanked Kenan and the members of the Gulen movement for bring foreign visitors to view this important piece of world history. They encouraged the Gulens to continue to bring guests to the museum, in the same way that the Sultan had invited the homeless, no, country-less Jews to come to Turkey in the year that Columbus rediscovered America.

Then we departed for lunch and a visit to a museum celebrating weapons anD Turkish military might, a visit that raised serious questions for me about my stance toward even tacit endorsement of war.

Should I trust Allah or tie up my donkey?

2009-07-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

First a correction. In one of my earlier blogs I said that the Bosphorus Strait connects the Black Sea and the Aegean. that was not accurate. The Bosphorus connects an almost entirely enclosed body of water called the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea.

I also swhould say a word or two about the extraordinary group of people traveling with me.

We all met to begin our journey on Friday, July 24 at Hotel Anka in Istanbul. One of our two leaders, Kenan, picked me up at Hotel Eres. We gathered my luggage to take the train to the new hotel, but first went to lunch at Simit Serayi (as noted earlier, Turkish fast food). Kenan was anxious to make Friday prayers (Friday is the equivalent of Sunday for Christians)and he offered to leave me at the restaurant. I asked to go along. The mosque we went to was of the local neighborhood variety. Not historical. It was only about 200 meters from the waters of the Golden Horn.

Two interesting things happened at prayers. First, at one point I decided to get down on the carpeted floor with the men who were prostrating themselves as part of the prayer ritual. I got down, but discovered that my left wrist was still not strong enough to get me to my feet and it took several men to help me up. I felt really embarassed.

Second, there is always preaching by an Imam on Friday, and this time the Imam preached on a text i had heard before.

Kenan told me he had spoken about the end time (something that Christians and Muslims have in common as the Day of Judgement). But the text he chose to speak about is, I believe, a Hadith, or saying of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH). According to the tale, a follower of Islam asks Muhammad if he should tie up his donkey when he comes to prayers, or trust Allah. Muhammad looks at the man for a long time and say, You should trust Allah, of course...AND tie up your donkey!" As Christians say, God helps those who help themselves.

That evening we were driven to a lovely contemporary restaurant in the suburs of Istanbul for supper and the opportunity to introduce ourselves to each other.

I introduced myself and passed around to each participant a sheet of paper with information about Interfaith Paths to Peace, and about me. I also distributed the small blue pins I have that bear the symbols of the Abrahamic (including Sarah and Hagar)religions and the American/English peace symbol.

Then the others introduced themselves. Our group included Hasan Ozturk, a Ph.D. candidate in political science3 at UK, and my friend Kenan, who just received his masters in electrical engineering from the University of Louisville. Kenan hopes to move to Tennessee Tech this fall to begin work on his doctorate.

The other participants include:

Anthany Beatty – Assitant VP for Public Safety, University of Kentucky, Former Police Chief of Lexington

Eunice Beatty – Retired Professor, University of Kentucky's Bluegrass Community and Technical College

Carey Cavanaugh – Former U.S. Ambassador, Director of Patterson School of Diplomacy, University of Kentucky

Chase Cavanaugh – Senior at Notre Dame University, just back from a year of study abroad in Paris

Alan DeYoung – Educational Policy Chair, College of Education, University of Kentucky

Sakah Mahmud – Professor Political Science, Transylvania University in Lexington who is originally from Nigeria.

The Dormition of Mary and a Challenging Encounter with Muslim Men and Women

2009-07-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

We left Istanbul on Sunday morning on a flight to Izmir, a coastal city a one hour flight from Turkey’s second largest city. The Izmir airport is actually located closer to our first destination for that day than to the city itself where we would be spending the night.

Our first destination was the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus (known locally as Efes). These ruins stretch over nearly half a mile, and sidle down what was the main street of Ephesus and include a stadium shaped bowl where the city’s governing council met, a public restroom with still visible toilets, and the façade of what had been perhaps the second largest library in the world in the centuries before and immediately after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. And of course most of us know the name of this city because of a biblical letter written to the citizens of that city who practiced a new religion we now know as Christianity.

The day was blazingly sunny and blazingly hot: by our conversion from degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, we figured the temp topped out at just under 108 degrees.

Our next stop was an extra-Biblical legendary site, the home of the Virgin Mary. This small hut is located on a high hilltop, not easily accessible even by minivan. When we arrived after a half-hour drive from Ephesus, what I found was so obliquely plain that it struck me that this might really be the spot to which the Beloved Apostle, John ferried Mary after the crucifixion of her son. I was deeply moved by the fact that this place was swarming with people, not just Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians, but an equal number of Muslims, and many of them women.

The fact that by Catholic tradition Mary never died but rather fell asleep (in an act called the Dormition) came as a surprise to several members of our group. They were just as surprised to learn that as a matter of Catholic dogma, she was assumed body and soul into heaven. The Assumption was made an official item of Catholic dogma in the early 1950s. The great psychologist Carl Jung called this proclamation perhaps the greatest religious event of the Twentieth Century. Why? Because, in a sense, the Assumption of Mary into heaven restored the feminine to the Godhead.

Whether Mary actually died or was assumed into heaven was a matter of conversation at an outdoor dinner held for us later that night in a wooded locale about an hour and a half drive from our hotel in Izmir.

When I mentioned to one of our host’s the idea that Mary never died, he assured me that Fetullah Gulen could tell me where she was buried. I smiled and said I would write Gulen and ask him.

Our hosts included more than a half dozen men who support the Gulen movement, their wives and a good number of children. We had lots of barbequed food to eat. We munched on for a couple of hours until finally the men pulled their chairs into a half moon at one end of the table where we sat. Then we introduced ourselves and we began to talk about issues related to interfaith cooperation. At some point I became aware that our women hosts were gathered as a group in chairs behind the men, and very obviously were there as observers, not participants in our dialogue.

This bothered me. I felt they should be part of our interaction, but I also wanted to make sure I didn’t offend our male hosts.

So I grabbed a napkin and scrawled on it the words, “Is there some way we can RESPECTFULLY include our women friends in the conversation?” I passed the napkin to Kenan (one of our leaders) who read it and without pausing passed it back across the table to one of our male hosts who seemed to be in charge. He read what I had written, and immediately turned to the women and invited them to join the conversation circle. The men pushed their chairs apart and the women pulled their chairs forward. We asked them questions and they answered and asked us questions of their own. Especially about America and why the lone remaining superpower was not focusing on helping the world instead of engaging in wars.

But these women, who had seemed to be sad and silent, came to life and beamed. The men too seemed to relax and the conversation became both more animated and humorous. It certainly was friendly.

We concluded the evening with shared gifts and hugs.

As our group drove back to the hotel I felt we had made a powerful interfaith breakthrough, but I also was reminded later, that we need to think about why such a small change would be seen as a breakthrough. Why aren’t women full participants in the spirituality of most religions, including Christianity (in many forms), Judaism and Islam. And let’s throw in Buddhism and Hinduism to boot.

Ultimately this evening encounter made me think about all the things I take for granted in my own spirituality and religious practice. I need to be challenged, too.

The Turkey trip continues: Chruch to Mosque to Museum

2009-07-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

Later on Thursday I took myself on a walk up the hill in Istanbul from my hotel past Topkapei Palace along the light rail line to the area where the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia sit side by side. I had decided to try to find a mozaic museum I had seen the day before near the Blue Mosque. I visited the museum which contained dozens of Roman mozaics from the time of Constantine; they were dusty and faded. Looked unrestored. Typical Roman scenes from myhology and daily life.

Then I visited Hagia Sophia (pronounced eye-uh sof-yuh) which in some ways symbolizes what our trip is about. This Medevil church was later converted into a mosque, and most re3cently has been designated a museum by the government...and so belongs to everyone.

Later in the evening I had the opportunity to join a group of Rumanian tourist for a cruise on the Golden Horn and Bosphorus. This two our evening cruise afforde3d me my first major inter-cultural interfai8th encounter of the trip. I discoved tht only two of the Rumanian group spoke English. One was the tour director who sought me out for a conversation. Even though he identified himself as a non-believer, he said he thought it was funny6 and interesting that the Virgin Mary is mentioned more times in the Qur'an than in the Bible.

Perhaps more interesting was an encounter I had at the beginning of the water excursion when an elderly orientalo man sought me out for conversation. I learned that he is a citizen of China who normally lives in Beijing, but is spending five years as a Christian (Nazarene) missionary to the formerly (still?) communist nation. We had a pleasant conversation. His English is better than mine. As I sat at the bow of the boat on the upper deck with a cool ocean breeze bathing my face I watched the Chinese missionary make the rounds of the Rumanians, presumably asking these supposedly atheistist Eastern Europeans if they had yet given their lives to Jesus.

“Tea Sugar a Dream” and “Your Shoes”

2009-07-24T00:22:00.000-07:00

Turkish, according to my friend Kenen, who hosted me on my first day in Istanbul, is an almost unique language. The only other tongue on the planet that it is related to is Mongolian.

I am trying to pick up a few phrases and learned these two. When I asked the hotel concierge how to say thank you he told me that an easy way to remember the Turkish is to say the English words, “Tea Sugar a Dream.” And when I asked my friend Kenen how to say, “Wee you later, his reply sounded just like the American expression, “Your Shoes.”

After Kenen and Fatih picked me up at Istanbul Airport on Wednesday, I was given the opportunity to rest for a couple of hours at the place I have stayed the last two nights: Hotel Eris (pronounced air-esh). The hotel only costs about $35 per night, and it is Spartan (pun intended) with two single beds, a tiny bathroom, a TV and a phone. But is located in a wonderful locus within walking distance of the main cultural sites in the city. I am literally a five minute walk from the Topkapi Palace, and an additional five minutes from the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (pronounced eye-uh soaf-yuh). From my room, as I said before, I look out over a train station to the “Golden Horn” and to the old international center of the city across the water.

On Thursday, after a traditional breakfast (bread, cheese, olives, tomatoes, boiled eggs, frit etc) in the hotel’s top floor small dining room I spent time blogging in the hotel lobby before being joined by Kenen and Hasan, both of whom will be our leaders on the formal portion of the trip. I blogged in the hotel lobby because even though the hotel has free Wi-Fi, the signal isn’t strong enough to connect tom netbook when I’m in my room on the 4th floor.

Kenen and Hasan met me about 10:30 and we walked to a commercial area about five blocks from my hotel. Kenen hadn’t had breakfast so we stopped at a Turkish fast-food restaurant that specializes in a savory pastry called “simit.” Interestingly this Turkish place for eating on the run was nestled between a MacDonald’s and a Burger King.

We ate pastry and drank tea for about an hour, and then Kenen went off to finish the details for our upcoming trip while Hasan guided me3 via light rail train across the Golden Horn and to the top of a hill in a section of the city called
Beyoglu (pronounced bay-oh-lou). This area, especially the neighborhood at the t op of the hill, was for much of the 19th century the international quarter.

We took the funicular train through a tunnel to the top of the hill and then walked the streets window shopping on our way to the Galata Tower, an historically significant building that rise3s two hundred feet above the hilltop, affording a few of all of Istanbul, Asian and European from its top floor observation windows.

Modern Turkey: A Nation of Paradoxical Hope

2009-07-22T23:01:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Istanbul yesterday (Wednesday) at about 10 a.m. after taking flights from Louisville to Cincinnati, Cincy to New York’s JFK airport, and then a 9 ½ hour ride across the Atlantic and Europe to this Western-most city in Turkey.

Western-most is perhaps an apt, though somewhat misleading, word to use in describing this city. It is of course at the far western edge of Turkey, but more importantly, the city stands with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia. Literally. The modern suspension bridge that spans the Bosphorus links the two parts of the city and thus the two continents.

The Bosphorus is a narrow, river-like body of water that links the Aegean and the Black Sea.

The Bosphorus Bridge serves as a fitting symbol for modern Turkey, and for the man, Fetullah Gulen, whose ideas and work have directly and indirectly brought me to this 98% Muslim country for the first time.

Just as its largest city stands with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia, so this country stands with one foot in history and tradition and the other trying desperately to get a foothold in the modern West. Turkey holds many antiquities and there are signs up at the airport asking tourists not to carry these ancient treasures home with them when they leave.

But Turkey is a country embracing modernity and working diligently to gain admission to the European Union, a membership so far denied this nation. Turkey is so far the only Muslim nation that is a member of NATO, and even though its population is so overwhelmingly Muslim, it has a secular government that fervently strives to keep itself and its practices free of Islam or any other religion. In fact, in the not too distant past when an Islamic political party took legitimate control of the country politically and began a modest agenda of Islamic reforms, the military stepped in and forced the government to resign.

So what happens spiritually when a country and its people struggle with a divided identity that seems so paradoxically self-contradictory? The answer seems to come in a social movement that does something that the West so far has failed to do: moderate the excesses and poisons of modernity with a spiritually based ethical effort that embraces peace and justice.

The answer arrived in Turkey in the last several decades in the form of the Gulen Movement which strives to instill the deepest mystical values of Islam with the healthiest features of modernity.

In my next blog entry I will talk more not only about Gulen, but also about what I have seen in my first 24 hours on the ground.

Two “Thank Yous” to Rev. Ken Pagano

2009-07-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

You may remember that about two weeks ago Rev. Ken Pagan held a “wear your gun to church” event at his New Bethel Church in Valley Station, Kentucky, near Louisville.

My organization, Interfaith Paths to Peace (IPP), in cooperation with 19 other churches, peace groups and individuals, hosted an alternative event at Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church in Louisville on the same day and at the same time. We called our alternative, “Bring Your Peaceful Heart…Leave Your Gun at Home.”

Related to Rev. Pagano’s event, I want to offer him two thank you’s, one with a touch of humor, the other with real seriousness.

First, I plan to present Ken with a thank you gift, because he, more than any other person on the planet, has communicated to millions of people around the world IPP’s name and mission. How did that happen? Just about every time Pastor Ken’s gun event was mentioned in the news media, the story also contained information about our alternative event, and the fact that we found the idea of wearing guns to church very troubling. Stories about the two events appeared in the New York Times, USAToday, the Associated Press, the BBC and so on and so. These stories were read by literally millions of people. So, Pastor Ken, we thank you for helping us gain worldwide fame.

But now, a more serious thank you. I spoke to Ken a few days before his gun event to let him know that we would be hosting the alternative. I told him that we held no ill will toward him or his congregation. Our conversation was very friendly. At one point he asked me when and where our event would be taking place. I told him, and he responded by saying that he would announce our event at the one he was hosting. I must confess that I didn’t believe him.

But during our Peaceful heart event a reporter from one of our local TV stations who had just come from Pastor Ken’s event, interviewed me. As we were preparing to go on camera she told me that Ken had mentioned our event to his congregation at the gun event. She then added that he also told his congregation that if he didn’t have to be at his own event that night he would be at ours. I was deeply moved, and I shared Ken’s words with our picnic-ers. They responded with awe.

I was reminded of Gandhi’s admonition that we must never seek to destroy or vanquish our opponent or enemy. We should engage our opponent with respect and dignity. For whatever reason, Ken did that in dealing with us. And I hope we did that with him

And I am hoping in the days and weeks ahead, Ken and I (and his congregation and my friend), can continue a dialogue about guns and other topics in a spirit of dignity and friendship.

Please visit the new web site for Interfaith Paths to Peace at http://paths2peace.org/

What is a Religion?

2009-07-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

To further my interfaith work, I am enrolled in an intensive online course about the Baha’i faith. This course is offered by an educational arm of the Baha’is in the U..S called the Wilmette Institute.

One of the first assignments in the course asked the participants to read an article entitled, “The Concept of Religion” by Moojan Momen. Even though I deal with representatives of the world’s great religions on a daily basis, I don’t often stop to think about what constitutes a religion.

The article reminds us that the definition really depends on the religion that is practiced by the person answering the question.

For example, the article states, “For present day Christians, a religion is a set of beliefs. Christians are asked to subscribe to one of the various creeds that have been produced in the course of Church history.” The article asserts that, “Islam is a religion that is centered around a Holy law that lays down in great detail how one’s life should be lived.” Hinduism, as one of my Hindu friends has told me, is actually more of a culture or way of living than what other folks would define as a religion. Buddhists, by my understanding, are neutral about the idea of whether or not there is a God. We could go on and on in isolating the “distinctives” in defining what a religion means to the practitioners of the world’s great religions.

The author of the article I am writing attempts to find a working definition that can be used in a way that accounts for those distinctives. He sets out three interdependent aspects:

1. At the individual level, a religion is something that offers to a human an experience of the holy or sacred.

2. At the conceptual level, a religion asserts that “the most important activity for human beings is to establish and clarify their relationship with…” what the author refers to as an “Ultimate Reality.”

3. At the social level, religion aims at social cohesion and the healthy integration of individuals into society.

I have my own three-part definition of religion. Mine is based on something I learned in my study of Buddhism. Buddhists refer to “The Three Jewels” of their practice: The Buddha, The Dharma, and the Sangha. Put simply, the Buddha is the central figure and teacher in Buddhism. The Dharma is the set of laws and teachings about how to live a healthy, successful, and happy life. The Sangha is the Buddhist community. When I first read about the Three Jewels in a book by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, I realized that these three jewels are present in just about every religion. The way I would put it is that most (if not all) religions have:

1. A deity, person, or entity, to revere.

2. A set of principles or laws to guide the way people live.

3. A community of believers or practitioners.

While all three of these are important, the third is especially significant. Because without community, we don’t have a religion; we just have an individual spiritual practice.

There is much more that can be said about what constitutes a religion. I find my version of the Three Jewels very useful. But if we want to reduce a definition of religion down to one simple sentence, the author of the article does he good job when he writes:

“Religion is humanity’s response to what it experiences as holy.”

To learn more about the Wilmette Institute, click here:

http://www.wilmetteinstitute.us.bahai.org/

To learn more about the Baha’i faith, please visit:

http://www.bahai.org/

An Interfaith Prayer for an End to Torture

2009-06-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

Friends,

Last Thursday evening in cooperation with the the Ursuline Sisters and a number of other groups, we cohosted the presentation of a film documentary about torture and its impact on individual lives. The film was followed by a discussion and a brief interfaith spiritual service.

For the Service I composed an interfaith prayer for an end to torture. I thought I would share it with you. Here it is:

AN INTERFAITH PRAYER FOR AN END TO TORTURE

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE CHRISTIANS, who see that the Kingdom of God is literally among us, let us strive to open the eyes of those who torture so that they can see that their actions undercut God’s Kingdom.

Amen

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE BUDDHISTS who understand so well that the true meaning of the word “compassion,” is to “suffer with,” we ask God to help us all find our ways to bear the scars of those who have been tortured.

Amen

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE HINDUS, who know that God’s face is manifested in many different forms, we implore the Divine to enable us to see the face of God in the tortured and the torturer alike.

Amen

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE JEWS, who have great passion for justice, we invoke the name of God in bringing the darkness of torture to light wherever it exists.

Amen

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE BAHA’IS who believe that all persons throughout the world are connected by the love of God, we ask the Holy One to help us realize that connection by upholding the dignity of all humans through opposition to torture anywhere on our Earth.

Amen

IN THE SPIRIT OF MUSLIMS, the name of whose religion means submission to the will of God, we submit our will to the Divine who calls upon us to do all that we can to stop the use of torture by representatives of our own Government.

Amen

And in the spirit of the Quakers who speak to the fact that there is the Light of God in everyone, let us now carry into the evening the light of candles, each one representing a country in which the conflagration of torture remains to be snuffed out, in the hope that we can turn this symbolic action into reality in the days, weeks and months to come.

Amen

Fim and Food on Saturday: Michael Moore's "Sicko"

2009-05-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

Friends, please join us Saturday night at 6:15 for our monthly "Film and Food" event at St. Matthews Episocpal Church, 330 North Hubbards Lane. The evening will include supper, view of the film and time for discussion.

The event is free. Donations to cover the cost of food are appreciated.
This month's film is Michael Mooroe's "Sicko." (details about the film appear at the end of this e-maila film that draws attention to the failures of the American healthcare system, and points out the need for quality, accessible, affordable healthcare for all.

And prior to the film, please attend an amazing conference on healthcare on Saturday Morning at IUS. For details visit:

www.kyhealthcare.org

About Michael Moore's Sicko

Writer/producer Michael Moore interviews Americans who have been denied treatment by our health care insurance companies -- companies who sacrifice essential health services in order to maximize profits. The consequences for the individual subscribers range from bankruptcy to the unnecessary deaths of loved ones.Moore then looks at universal free health care systems in Canada, France, Britain, and Cuba, debunking all the fears (lower quality of care, poorer compensation for doctors, big-government bureaucracy) that have been used to dissuade Americans from establishing such a system here. The roots of those health care systems are explored, and our failure to establish free health here care is traced to a) President Richard Nixon's deceptive support of the then-emerging HMOs pursuing huge profits and b) subsequent pressures for Congress to sacrifice sound health care in favor of corporate profit.A group of Americans who became ill from volunteering at 911 Ground Zero, but were refused health coverage for their illnesses, are ferried by Moore to Cuba, where they receive the top-rate, free care one would hope they'd get here at home.In his interviews, historical reportage, and typical sarcastic wit, Moore soundly condemns American health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the politicians who have been paid millions to do their bidding. He makes the case that there is something wrong with Americans that we cannot learn from the successes of other countries in providing better quality-of-health than we enjoy in the USA.

Prepare for Shavuot and Pentecost with Muslim Call to Prayer

2009-05-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I shared Rabbi Arthur's thoughts about the Biblical Book of Ruth and ideas about the Jewish observance of Shavuot and the Christian observance of Pentecost, both of which occur this weekend.

Thinking about Rabbi Arthur's comments, and his deep devotion to interfaith understanding among the Children of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar (Christians, Jews and Muslims), I thought it would be appropriate to prepare for those holidays (and the Baha'i holiday that also occurs this weekend) by listening to the Muslim call to prayer.

Here is video I shot of a Muezzin delivering the Adhan, or "call to prayer" at Dar al Islam Mosque on a mountaintop above Abiquiu, New Mexico in July of 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiz2kw5fbw8

And what follows is a description of the Adhan taken from Beliefnet.com

It’s the first thing recited in the ears of a newborn babe; it's often the first thing recited in a new home. And it rings out in mosques, Islamic schools, homes, and on the street in Muslim communities five times a day.

The adhan, or Islamic call to prayer, is an integral part of the Muslim faith.The adhan is one of the most lyrical, inspiring prayers for Muslims. A hadith recounts that the Prophet’s companions one day were discussing how to gather everyone for prayer. Some suggested using a bell as Christians do, and others advised using a ram's horn, following an ancient Jewish practice.

Then Umar, one of the Prophet's companions, suggested having one person call others to prayer. The Prophet agreed, calling his ex-slave, Bilal, to recite the adhan, according to a hadith from the collection of al Bukhari.

The Arabic text of the adhan is similar for all five recitations (with a slight difference in the adhan recited for the pre-dawn prayer, which adds the line "Prayer is better than sleep").

Its compelling sound is amplified by the skill of the person who recites it: The more melodius and clear the voice, the more powerful the adhan is.

Call to Prayer (the Adhan)

Allah is Most Great.

Allah is Most Great. Allah is Most Great.

I bear witness that there is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.

I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah.

Come to prayer.

Come to Success.

Allah is Most Great.

There is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.

And here is an Arabic Transliteration:

Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.Ash-hadu an la ilaha ill-Allah.Ash-hadu an la ilaha ill-Allah.Ash-hadu anna Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah.Ash-hadu anna Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah.Hayya 'alas-Salah. Hayya 'alas-Salah.Hayya 'alal-falah. Hayya 'alal-falah.Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.La ilaha ill-Allah.

Thoughts on Shavuot and Pentacost by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

2009-05-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

What if the Bible's Ruth came to America today?
Celebrating Shavuot & Pentecost:
Can We Share Our Food? Can We Share Our Talk & Tongues?
Can We Relearn how to Share our Work & Rest?

Here's a link to Rabbi Waskow's Shalom Center: www.shalomctr.org

This coming Thursday evening, May 28, there begins the festival of Shavuot . --- In biblical times, it was seen as celebration time for the successful spring wheat and barley harvests. In Rabbinic Judaism, it has been seen as the celebration time for the harvesting of Torah at Mount Sinai, 50 days after the liberation from Egypt.The ancient rabbis assigned a special reading for Shavuot: the Book of Ruth, which focuses on harvesting, on tongues of native and of "foreign" speech, of wealth and poverty. What does Ruth mean to us today?

For Christians, that day became Pentecost, now counted 50 days after Easter (this year on Sunday, May 31), when the Holy Spirit came like the rush of a strong and driving wind, helping the early community of believers speak and understand all the languages of every nation under heaven. When do we ourselves experience the Holy Spirit, that rushing wind that intertwines all life? The Holy Breath that the trees breathe out for us to breathe in, that we breathe out for the trees to breathe in? The Holy Breath that now is in a planetary crisis? Both these festivals look beyond the narrow boundaries of nation, race, or class.

When and where we live -- In the midst of the Great Recession, when the super-wealthy have robbed the merely wealthy, when the middling classes have lost their savings and the poor their homes, when the issue of immigration is hot and the lives of immigrants are threatened -- the issues of poverty and wealth, of immigration and the homeborn, mean a great deal. And that is what Ruth is about.

In the biblical story, Ruth was a foreigner from the nation of Moab, which was despised by all patriotic and Godfearing Israelites. Yet when she came to Israel as a widow, companion to her widowed mother-in-law Naomi, she was welcomed onto the fields of Boaz, where she gleaned what the regular harvesters had left behind. Boaz made sure that even this despised foreigner had a decent job at decent pay. When she went one night to the barn where the barley crop was being threshed, he spent the night with her - and decided to marry her.But - if Ruth came to America today, what would happen?Would she be admitted at the border?Or would she be detained for months without a lawyer, ripped from Naomi's arms while Naomi's protest brought her too under suspicion - detained because she was, after all, a Canaanite who spoke some variety of Arabic, possibly a terrorist, for sure an idolator?Would she be deported as merely an "economic refugee," not a worthy candidate for asylum?Would she have to show a "green card" before she could get a job gleaning at any farm, restaurant, or hospital?Would she be sent to "workfare" with no protections for her dignity, her freedom, or her health?Would she face contempt because she and Naomi, traveling without a man, might be a lesbian couple?

Would she be water-boarded -- drowned again and again, revived at the point of death to be drowned yet again -- until she confessed that she had supplied a foreign enemy with mass-destruction weapons to attack America? When she boldly "uncovers the feet" of Boaz during the night they spend together on the threshing floor, has she violated the "family values" that some religious folk now proclaim? Or has she affirmed that love engages the body as well as the heart, the mind, and the spirit, and that sometimes a loving body comes before a wedding?Today in America, some of us are outcasts like Ruth; some are prosperous, like Boaz. He affirmed that in a decent society, everyone was entitled to decent work for a decent income.

Everyone --- yes EVERYONE! Even, or especially, a despised immigrant from a despised nation. Everyone --- not just 92% of the people. (The USA will soon be up to 10% unemployed, and that doesn't count two million prisoners, highest number in the world, most of whom are in prison for nonviolent crimes.) In ancient Israel, everyone had the right simply to walk onto a field and begin to work, begin to use the means-of-production of that era. And then to eat what they had gathered. And Boaz could not order his regular workers to be economically "efficient." They could not harvest everything: not what grew in the corners of the field, not what they missed on the first go-round. Social compassion was more important than efficiency.
No downsizing allowed.Although Boaz was generous-hearted, Ruth's right to glean did not depend upon his generosity. It was the law.Ruth was entitled not only to a job, but to respect.

No name-calling, no sexual harassment. And she, as well as Boaz, was entitled to Shabbat: time off for rest, reflection, celebration, love. She was entitled to "be" - as well as to "do."Because Ruth the outcast and Boaz the solid citizen got together, they could become the ancestors of King David. According to both Jewish and Christian legend, they could thus help bring Messiah into the world. Help bring the days of peace and justice.What do we learn from their story today?In America today, many of us live in the place of Boaz. Many others --- more than there were just a year ago --- live in the place of Ruth. Our society has dismantled many of the legal commitments to the poor that ancient Israelite society affirmed. What are our own religious obligations?

What are our obligations --- those of us who still have jobs, who have not lost our retirement funds to the machinations of the banks -- or even those who have! -- what are our obligations to those who are living in cardboard boxes on the streets or parks of our cities? What are our obligations to those who have been evicted from their homes, to those who have no jobs? Are we obligated only to toss a dollar bill or two into the empty hats of the homeless?Or are we obligated to write new laws for our own country like the ancient laws that protected Ruth? Are we obligated to create new communities --- local credit unions insteead of global banks, food coops and neighborhood clinics, groups of caring people who turn an involuntary "furlough" from their jobs into time to learn together, sing together, plan together to make new places of shared work?

Are we obligated to create a society that rubs away the barriers between the rich and poor, between those who speak one language from those who speak another? What can we do -- what must we do -- to help bring on the days of peace and justice?Shalom, salaam, peace ---- Arthur

Here's a Powerful Muslim Leader Who Condemns Terrorism

2009-05-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

I am frequently asked why Muslim leaders don't condemn Terrorism.

Actually they do.

A powerful example is a statement made by Fetullah Gulen to Foreign Policy Magazine after he was voted onto the list of the world's top public intellectuals.

Mr. Gulen is the central figure in a moderate Islamic movement in Turkey that bears his name. For many years he has been a highly respected preacher at mosques in his native land.

Mr. Gulen is a Sufi, a member of a form of Islam that is highly mystical and that embraces peace. In his interview in Foreign Policy he was asked directly about the problem of Islamic terrorism. Here are the question and his response.

Foreign Policy Magazine: You preach a moderate, tolerant Islam. What do you think causes terrorism?.

FG: Islam abhors and absolutely condemns terrorism and any terrorist activity. I have repeatedly declared that it is impossible for a true Muslim to be a terrorist, nor can a terrorist be regarded as a true Muslim. Terrorism is one of the cardinal sins that the Koran threatens with hellfire.

It is a fact that Muslims have lagged behind in science and technology for the last few centuries. The Muslim world suffers from internal divisions, antidemocratic practices, and the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms. But Muslims have never been and never can be so base as to expect any solutions to their problems through terror.

[Terrorism] is formed of certain fundamental problems, [including] ignorance, poverty, and fear of others. Some people take advantage of the young and foolish. They are manipulated, abused, and even drugged to such an extent that they can be used as murderers on the pretext of some crazy ideals or goals.

To defeat terrorism, we must acknowledge that we are all human beings. It is not our choice to belong to a particular race or family. We should be freed from fear of the other and enjoy diversity within democracy. I believe that dialogue and education are the most effective means to surpass our differences.

Here's a link to Mr. Gulen's web site:

en.fgulen.com/

Interfaith Paths to Peace Announces Expanded Mission

2009-05-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

Interfaith Paths to Peace Announces Expanded Mission,
Addition of New Associate Director
And Move to New, Larger Office Space

Contact: Terry Taylor 214-7322, 299-7591 e-mail tatduende2@yahoo.com

Interfaith Paths to Peace (IPP) will host an open house at its new office facility on the Lower Level of Diocesan House at Christ Church Cathedral on Wednesday, May 13th from 4 to 7 p.m.

The open house is free and open to the public and will feature light refreshments representing a variety of international cultures and religions. Christ Church Cathedral’s Diocesan House is located at 425 South Second Street.

During the open house, representatives of a number of the world’s great religions will visit the open house and offer words of blessing for IPP’s new space. A list of those leaders and the approximate time they will appear to offer their blessings will be made available late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Although the executive director and the new associate director will be present throughout the open house, time will be set aside at 4:30 for a formal announcement and for the two members of the professional staff to answer questions.

At the open house, IPP’s Executive Director, Terry Taylor, will:

discuss the organization’s newly expanded mission, with greater emphasis on interfaith education and international peacemaking;

introduce IPP’s newly appointed Associate Director for International Interfaith Education, Jan Arnow, and explain her role in the organization;

Explain how its new office space will be used.

For more information, please contact Terry Taylor at (502) 214-7322 or (502) 299-7591. He can be reached by e-mail at tatduende2@yahoo.com.

Learning to Listen on the National Day of Prayer

2009-05-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Today is the officially observed National Day of Prayer in the U.S.

I was raised in the Evangelical United Brethren Church in the 1950s and early 60s. I don't remember much about the efforts that were made to teach me and other children how to pray. But, what I do remember is that I was taught how to talk AT G!D [this is the way Jewish Renewal folks use the name of the Almighty]. No one taught me how to LISTEN.

Listening is a critically important part of prayer no matter what our religious affiliation.

But what does it mean to listen during prayer? It certainly means more than just using our ears to hear a voice out of thin air.

It seems clear to me that in Christian scriptures, the Jewish Bible and other sacred books, God "speaks" to people through dreams, coincidences, synchronicities, events, books, films, and a whole range of natural phenomena.

We just need to learn to pay attention and to try decipher (perhaps with the aid of a spiritual advisor) what G!D's expressions mean.

There will be good news and bad, invitations, jokes, and certainly warnings.

If nothing else, we need to pay attention to the warnings, to the "writing on the wall" about the need to eliminate nuclear weapons, get the homeless off our streets, feed the hungry and stop poisoning our environment.

As surfers say in their charmingly Quixotic language, "We don't need a swami to tell us we're about to go over a cliff."

Cinco de Mayo and its Broader Significance

2009-05-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

Today is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and other parts of the world as Cico de Mayo (the 5th of May). It is a holiday that has come to have two meanings. There is a link at the end of this e-mail to more information about Cinco de Mayo.

The original significance of this date was the observance of the anniversary of a day in the 1800s when a Mexican army defeated a French army of far superior numbers. In the US and other parts of the world (including Mexico) more and more people observe this holiday as a celebration of Mexican, and I would say Latin American, culture.

I wish we would do more of this, finding ways of associating holidays with spiritualy uplifting ideas.

A few years ago my peacemaker friend, Jim Douglass, reminded us that even though September 11th will forever be associated with the terrorist attacks on the US in 2001, there is another important event associated with that date.

On September 11th, 1906, Mahatma Gandhi launched his first non-violent campaign in South Africa.

I think a beautiful way of honoring those who died on September 11, 2001, is to remind ourselves of the Gandhi event and the call to find non-violent ways to resolve our differences.

Here's a link to more information about Cinco de Mayo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo

Shopping for Fatwahs

2009-05-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

The Grand Mufti of Egypt

The notion of Fatwahs caught my attention this morning as I was driving in to work. I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR.

I heard an interview with Neil MacFarquhar, long time Middle East Correspondent for The New York Times. He spent much time observing the customs Arabs and Israelis. He describes some of them in his new book, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday. A link to the interview appears below.

During the interview the author talks about the notion of "shopping for Fatwahs." On my trip to Egypt and Syria last year I learned the actual meaning of the word, Fatwah. It was explained to me by the Grand Mufti of Egypt who has responsibility for the religious/judicial system in his country.

Fatwahs are religious/judicial opinions offered in answer to questions raised by ordinary Muslims about daily problems they encounter, especially family and business issues. Most of us know the concept of Fatwah from the 1980s. Back then Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwah against author Salman Rushdie calling for him to be killed for writing the book, The Satanic Verses. Most Fatwahs are fairly mundane.

In the interview tells a humorous story about a young couple in the Middle East who were not married and were planning to drive to Mecca together for Hajj. General Islamic practice in the Middle East prohibits unmarried men and women from traveling together alone in the same car. The young man sought a Fatwah about this issue and was told that it was forbidden to travel together. His woman partner then pointed out that they had an agreement to travel together and split the cost of the journey, so that he should pay her to cover his half of their planned trip and then find his own way to Mecca. As the cost of this would be considerable, the young man sought other fatwas until he found a sheik who told him it was ok to travel together.

Not surprisingly, I know similar stories from Western religion: Catholics seeking out priests to hear their confessions who they know will give them easy penances; protestants who want an answer to a religious question who look around for clergy they know will be sympathetic.

I guess that this tendency to find a way to fit the rules to our needs is universal!

Here's the link to the interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103769811

America's Most Popular Poet:Rumi

2009-05-01T11:57:00.001-07:00

This last Sunday the public radio program called "Speaking of Faith" re-broadcast a program for which it won a national award. The program concerned the Medieval Sufi poetry of Rumi, a wonderful mystic who the American poet and translator, Coleman Barks, has managed to make the best-selling poet of any kind in the United States.

This particular radio program features an interview with scholar Fatemeh Keshavarz, who IPP brought to Louisville last fall for programs at The Temple and at Unity Church . Both events were made possible by Interfaith Paths to Peace board member Haleh Karimi.

The poetry of Rumi explores the relationship of humans to God (Allah, or G!d) with a love that approaches the intensity of romantic ardour in its devotion.

Fatemeh Keshavarz's insights are remarkable, and the poetry reciting during the program in its original Persian is truly beautiful

Here are a few words from "Speaking of Faith" about the program. A link to the program itself appears below.

The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi The 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet Rumi has long shaped Muslims around the world and has now become popular in the West. Rumi created a new language of love within the Islamic mystical tradition of Sufism. We hear his poetry as we delve into his world and listen for its echoes in our own.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/rumi/

Must See Interfaith Film: "Pray the Devil Back to Hell"

2009-04-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my friend John called to urge me to dash out and see a movie that he thought illustrated exactly what Interfaith Paths to Peace and its mission are about. So, I went to see it last night.

He was right.

The film is called "Pray the Devil Back to Hell." It's a documentary about how Muslim and Christian women in Liberia band together to stop a civil war ravaging that West African country during the middle part of this decade.

The women use every tool they can think of from withholding sex from their husbands to surrounding and barracading negotiators in a building at a stalled peacemaking conference until they bring peace to Liberia.

The film illustrates how seemingly powerless people can move mountains when they work together and show imagination, creativity and steadfastness of purpose.

The film is currently showing in Louisville at the Village 8 Theaters. It may only screen in Louisville for a few days. So, go see it if you can.

Here are details about the local screening. A link to the film's web site is at the end of this e-mail.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

No Rating
Length: 72 min
Plotline Summary
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell" is the gripping account of a group of brave women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-long civil war. The women's historic achievement finds its voice in a narrative that intersperses interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia together to recount the memories of a few of the women who were there. In 2003, Liberia was a country devastated by decades of political dislocation, humanitarian crisis, and street-to-street urban warfare. Charles Taylor, then President of Liberia, had emptied the country's pockets as creatively as any dictator in memory. His ascent to power led to the deaths of thousands of people and a nation in complete ruin. Out of the wreckage, more than 2000 Christian and Muslim women throughout the country began to organize and banded together in an effort to bring an end to the fighting. At great person risk, they protested creatively and persistently for peace in the worst days of brutal and protracted civil conflict.

MOVIE TIMES FOR:
Wed 29
Thu 30
Fri 1
Village 8 Cinema
(1:25 PM), (3:20), (5:35), 7:50 PM

Here's a link to more information about the film:

http://www.praythedevilbacktohell.com/v3/

What We Think of as a Religious Experience

2009-04-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

I was having lunch today with my friend Melissa Bernstrum when I was moved to ponder what we think of as a "religious" experience.

Since we hadn't talked in a long time, we were catching up on things. Melissa told me that other than news of family and work the thing that was most on her mind was Tai Chi (an ancient Chinese form of what I would call movement meditation). Melissa practices (and teaches) Tai Chi several times a week.

(if you live in Louisville and would like to experience Tai Chi, there is a free offering from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays featuring Tai Chi master, Baba Serikali, at the Public Health Building at Preston and Gray)

She waxed enthusiastic about this meditation and said, "For me it's almost a religious experience."

I looked at her for a moment and said, "Melissa, from the sound of joy in your voice, I would say tht it IS a religious experience for you.

That just draws my attention to the fact that for some odd reason we don't think of things that connect us most deeply to our spiritual selves as "religious experiences." But they are.

Easter is a time to be especially mindful of our Jewish friends

2009-04-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I took part in a Seder dinner marking the beginning of Passover for Jews.

Earlier in the day, I read an opinion piece in the Louisville Courier-Journal by Rev. Joe Phelps of Highland Baptist Church. In his article Joe talks about how some Christian groups are trying to surreptitiously present a Seder meal replete with Christian symbols as an authentic Jewish Seder.

This is unfortunate and dangerous.

Here's what Joe has to say:

. . . Healing in the holidays

By Joe Phelps
Special to The Courier-Journal
My friend Mark sent me an article last week describing a newly published book on Passover, innocuously titled Passover Family Pack: Everything You Need To Enjoy a Passover Seder Dinner. Problem is: it's a Christian book that "Christianizes" the various Passover symbols (the wine represents the blood of Jesus; the matzo represents his body; the three matzot represent the Christian Holy Trinity ... you get the idea). Unsuspecting Jews, beware.
Mark, who is Jewish, sends articles like this occasionally as a way to assure me that he's not a paranoid wack job when he speaks of being fearful of Christians targeting his faith tradition for takeover or annihilation, or when he says that the Easter season is his most dreaded time of year because "we'll get blamed for killing Christ all over again."
Mark is my soul brother. Though we come from different faiths, we share a faith nonetheless.
So I feel compelled at the outset of Christians' Holy Week to state the obvious: Using the death of Jesus to fuel anti-Semitism is flat wrong, perhaps even evil. "The Jews," as John's gospel calls Jesus' adversaries, refers to a certain segment of the religious leadership more worried about control than they were the ways of God. "The Jews" are not all Jews. Besides, Jesus (a Jew) made it clear that the mission of His followers was to love, forgive, reconcile. So to stir up anger against Jewish people today or to scapegoat all Jews in history is a bastardization of the central message of Christianity's leader.

Here's a link to the full article by Rev. Phelps.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904080448

My Jewish friends from time to time remind me that Judaism and Christianity are two separate religions. There is really no such thing as "Judeo-Christian." Jews have their own theology, beliefs and practices. Christians may see the roots of their beliefs in Judaism, but Christians should respect and honor our Jewish brothers and sisters for who they are.

So I call on all of my Christian friends to have a blessed Easter, but to at the same time honor our Jewish friends as they observe the powerful Jewish observance of Passover.

Native American/Catholic Spiritual Leader Jose Hobday deat at 80

2009-04-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

A news alert from National Catholic Reporter:

José Hobday, Native American spiritual author, dead at 80
Franciscan Sr. José Hobday, an influential spiritual lecturer, author and storyteller, died April 5 at age 80 at the Casa de la Luz Hospice in Tucson, Ariz.

Hobday, a Native American, thought that Christians have much to learn from the Native American tradition, including how to make prayer more creation-centered, how to have a greater appreciation of the connection between the living and the dead, how to love and respect silence and cherish solitude, and how to place a greater emphasis on celebration. Native Americans, she once said, have a tradition of creating sacred space within the natural environment and then "giving it back."

She also spoke of our need to cultivate a love for the land in order to stop the destruction of its beauty. She said she saw the Divine present in the people she met, ordinary people doing everyday things: an elderly woman with cancer, a supermarket worker, a truck driver, cowboys, policemen and especially the poor and downtrodden people of world.

Here's a link to the full National Catholic Reporter story:

http://ncronline.org/news/people/jos%C3%A9-hobday-native-american-spiritual-author-dead-80

We can do something about the genocide in Darfur

2009-04-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

Friends,

You might not know that there is an interfaith working group right here in Louisville addressing the human rights crisis in Darfur.

The group, called the Kentuckiana Interfaith Taskforce on Darfur (or KITOD) provides information about the Darfur crisis and also advocates for solutions.

Here's a message from our friends Bob Brousseau and Dave Robinson (leaders of KITOD).

The monthly meeting on Darfur is Thursday, April 9th at 7:00 p.m. in the Crescent Hill Public Library conference room (in the basement). The address is 2762 Frankfort Avenue.

Even more to talk about than usual (which is good and bad). By then we will have completed our Senate and House visits, and are planning our next initiatives as well as discussing options for moving forward given the recent developments.

We meet the 2nd Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. and sincerely look forward to seeing you there. Bring your ideas, enthusiasm and a friend! Contact one of us if you need directions to the library, etc. Feel free to forward this.

Thanks.
Dave Robinson
502-452-8197
Bob Brousseau
502-931-9371
Kentuckiana Interfaith Taskforce On Darfur (KITOD)
http://louisvilliansfordarfur.org

Thursday is Maundy Thursday...What does "maundy" mean?

2009-04-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my friend Chris Harmer the other day and mentioned that Thursday, April 9, is Maundy Thursday. Chris wondered what the word "maundy" means, and I was embarrassed that I couldn't tell him. So I looked it up on dictionary.com.

The word relates to a ceremony performed by some Christians on the Thursday of Holy Week (the Thursday before Easter). As part of the ceremony, the celebrant washes the feet of several selected members of the congregation that is present.

This ceremony mirrors the act recounted in the Christian Gospels of how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples in an effort to show them the importance of a leader actually humbling himself or herself, and serving those he or she leads. Following the foot washing, Jesus commanded (mandated) His followers to follow His example.

It is this word mandate that thus gives us the word "Maundy" via the Middle English. Here's the definition from dictionary.com

maundy

1. the ceremony of washing the feet of the poor, esp. commemorating Jesus' washing of His disciples' feet on Maundy Thursday.

2. Also called maundy money. money distributed as alms in conjunction with the ceremony of maundy or on Maundy Thursday.

Origin: 1250–1300; ME maunde ">mandātum command, mandate (from the opening phrase novum mandātum (Vulgate) of Jesus' words to the disciples after He had washed their feet).

Photo exhibit gives insight into the lives of monks

2009-04-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

There's a wonderful exhibit in Louisville that may be going unnoticed...unless you saw last Sunday's Courier-Journal.

Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO, a monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown is an accomplished art photographer and published poet.

A selection of his photographs, documenting life at the monastery, opened last Friday in an usual setting: Bishops Hall in Dicoesan House adjacent to Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Louisville. The photographs reveal the deftness of someone who is familiar with both the finer points of photography and the intricacies (and ironies) of Cistercian monastic life.

Here's the link to the full Courier-Journal storystory:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904050434

Exhibit of Brother Paul Quenon's photos

Where: Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral,

421 S. Second St.

When: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays,

9 a.m. to noon Fridays; through May 15.

Information: 587-1354

Louisville Prayer Gathering for Imprisoned Iranian Baha'i Leaders

2009-02-21T12:06:00.000-08:00

Friends,

As you can see in the news from CNN included below, the leadership of the Iran Baha'i community has been imprisoned for a year and is set to be tried on spying and other charges by the Iranian government.

In the wake of this disturing news, Louisville's Baha'is will host a prayer gathering on Sunday, February 22 at 7 p.m. to offer prayers for the release of the Iranian Baha'is. The public is invited to join them at their meeting house, located at 3808 Bardstown Rd. (in the Buechel business district).

For further information about the story and to learn more about the Baha'is, please contact Nancy Harris at

lsa@louisvillebaha.org .

Here is the story about the imprisoned Baha'i leaders

Religious leaders face spying charges in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Seven imprisoned leaders of the Baha'i faith in Iran have been accused of espionage and will face court hearings within a week, a judicial spokesman said Wednesday.

Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ali-Reza Jamshidi saying the charges related to acts including spying for "foreigners," a term regarded as a reference to Iran's archenemy, Israel.

"One of their accusations is that they had cooperated with Israel. Generally, the Bahai's are accused of this," said Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian rights activist who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. She says her team at the Center for Defenders of Human Rights in Iran has taken their case.

Iranian Baha'is have faced systematic persecution in Iran under the current government, which regards their faith as heretical.

The movement has been accused of espionage in the past, and many Baha'is believe the assertions result from the fact that Baha'i World Center is in the Israeli city of Haifa, a fact that predates the founding of the Jewish state.

Baha'is are caught in the middle of the antagonism between Israel and Iran. Iran does not recognize the existence of Israel and has backed anti-Israeli militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

Israel fears that Iran is intent on developing nuclear weaponry and using it against Israel. On Sunday, Iran's Prosecutor General Dorri-Najafabadi said "there is irrefutable evidence that adherents of the Baha'i sect are in close contact with the enemies of the Iranian nation," IRNA said.

The Baha'i movement quotes him as saying that "Baha'i organizations are illegal and their connections to Israel and their enmity toward Islam and the Islamic system are absolutely certain and their threat against national security is a proven fact."

Another Iranian official, deputy public prosecutor Hassan Haddad recently said the accusations would include "espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic republic," according to the Baha'i movement. The group denies all charges against the seven: Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naemi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm. Sabet was arrested in March and the others in May.

The group comprised an "ad hoc coordinating committee" who "helped tend to the needs of the 300,000 Baha'is in Iran. Of the seven, Kamalabadi and Sabet are women.

The arrests and charges have been deplored internationally.

The United States slammed the "Iranian government's decision to level baseless charges of espionage against seven leaders of the Iranian Baha'i community."

Amnesty International believes the charges are "politically motivated" and the seven are "prisoners of conscience, detained solely because of their conscientiously held beliefs or their peaceful activities on behalf of the Baha'i community. If convicted, they would face lengthy prison terms, or even the death penalty."

The Baha'i religion was founded in the 19th century. Its founder, Baha'u'llah, is regarded by Baha'is as "the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad."

CNN's Reza Sayah contributed to this report

Could there have been a way to prevent the Holocaust?

2009-02-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

The Louisville 2009 Jewish Film Festival is underway and last night I viewed a screening of the documentary "Constantine's Sword." The film concerns the life and work of author James Carrol, a former Catholic priest who has spent a decade trying to help Catholics and Christians of all denominations understand the long history of anti-Jewishness in their religion, and the role this moral virus played in setting the stage for the Holocaust.

Carrol detailed the 1,500+ year history of anti-Jewish actions by Christians in a book published nearly a decade ago. This book also bore the title"Constantine's Sword". It raised many troubling questions, but among the most painful is "Why did the Catholic Church, and more specifically, Pope Pius XII, stand silent in the face of compelling evidence that Jews throughout Europe were being systematically murdered by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s?"

We may never know the answer to that question, but a more compelling query might be "What would have happened if the Pope had spoken out?'

I think about this alot. This spring I spoke out at a luncheon where the speaker was uttering untrue, virulently anti-Islamic words. I had to bolster my courage to speak. Even when I did confront the speaker, my voice quavered and I stood shaking. I know that speaking up is frightening. We never no what will happen as a result of confronting even something or someone blatantly dangerous.

I wonder what would have happened if when he learned of the monstrous evil of the Holocaust, the Holy Father had stood publicly and said "If the Nazis come for the Jews, they will take me, too. And I urge all of the religious, priests, nuns, bishops, monastics, to also get in line to board the cattle cars whose destination is death."

If he had uttered those words, if he followed them up by joining the Jews, would the Holocaust have been prevented? We won't know. Can't know. History is a fixed place. The Holocaust, despite contemporary clerical deniers, was a reality.

Still, something within me wants to believe that the Nazis would have abandoned the Final Solution. And I must be honest. I wonder if I had been wearing the Shoes of the Fisherman back then would I have had the courage to challenge evil. I don't know. As I admitted earlier, last spring I trembled in the face of someone's evil words; could I have challenged murder? I will wrestle with that for a long time to come.

I invite you to explore the remaining films of the Festival. They are all compelling. Here are the details.

11th Annual Jewish Film Festival, FEBRUARY 14-24, 2009

THE DEBT Saturday, February 14 7:30 PM Village 8

In 1964 Rachel Brener is one of three Mossad agents, who capture the "Surgeon of Birkenau", a monstrous Nazi war criminal. In their safe house, at the outskirts of Berlin, the three agents wait for their return to Israel in order to deliver "the Surgeon" for public trial. Before this can happen "The Surgeon" manages to escape. Unable to face their horrible failure, Rachel and her friends decide to fabricate the Surgeon's death and return to Israel as "national heroes".In 1997, "The Surgeon suddenly" resurfaces in the Ukraine, determined to confess to his crimes against humanity. Now, the three ex Mossad agents need to protect their lie.

LOVE AND DANCE Sunday, February 15 2:00 PM Village 8

Chen, a young child, is battling a cultural conflict between his Russian born mother and Israeli father. She is cultured and used to the finer things in life. He is gruff on the outside but sweet on the inside; looking to make his young son a man rather than the wimp his mother is raising. One day, Chen stumbles upon a ballroom dance class for young people and sees Natalie, a stunning Russian young girl he immediately falls in love with. His interest in Natalie leads him to take ballroom dancing and ultimately to bridge the cultural divide of his own family.

CONSTANTINE'S SWORD Monday, February 16 7:00 PM UofL*

Sunday, February 22 7:00 PM Village 8

This is the story of James Carroll, the author of the book Constantine's Sword and a former Catholic priest, on a journey to confront his past and uncover the roots of religiously inspired violence and war. His search reveals a growing scandal involving religious infiltration of the U.S. Military and the terrible consequences of religion's influence on America's foreign policy. The film brings the history of religious intolerance to life, tracing it as a source of the fanaticism that threatens the world today.*University of Louisville screening is free of charge. Location: Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library, parking available in Speed Museum Parking Garage

THE SECRETS Tuesday, February 17 7:00 PM Village 8

Naomi postpones marriage to the prodigy of her orthodox father to study at the Jewish seminary for women in the ancient Kabalistic seat of Safed following her mother's death. Her quest for individuality takes a defiant turn when she befriends Michelle, a free-spirited, headstrong student. Their unlikely alliance is jeopardized by their relationship with a mysterious terminally ill tortured soul shunned by the community for her crime for passion. Together, they attempt topurge her sins through a series of secret rituals.Rated:

RUN SECRET Thursday, February 19 7:00 PM Village 8

This compelling story of passion and guilt and tells the tale of a long-hidden truth and the consequences that arise from trying to hide it. Francois, a Jewish boy living in post World War II Paris, pieces together his parents' past and discovers a secret within his family, as they are caught up in forces beyond their control. The film is the winner of 10 nominations and awarded the Grand Prize of the Americas at Montreal Film Festival. Rated: R

NOODLE Saturday, February 21 7:30 PM Village 8

Miri, a widowed 37 year old El Al flight attendant, is unexpectedly grounded when she finds herself saddled with an abandoned young Chinese boy. In attempting to return the boy to his migrant-worker mother who has been deported from Israel, she embarks upon a remarkable journey full of drama and humor that brings deep meaning to her life. The film was nominated for 9 Israeli Academy Awards and is the winner of Montreal World Film Festival Award.

PRAYING FOR LIOR Sunday, February 22 2:00 PM Village 8

This film introduces Lior Liebling, a boy with down syndrome, and who has spent his entire life praying with utter abandon. Lior lost his mother at age six, and her words and spirit hover over the film. While everyone agrees Lior is closer to god, he's also a burden, a best friend, an inspiration, and an embarrassment, depending on which family member you ask. As Lior approaches bar mitzvah, different characters provide a window into life spent "praying with lior." The movie poses difficult questions such as what is "disability" and who really talks to god? Told with intimacy and humor, the film is a family story, a triumph story, a grief story, a divinely-inspired story.

MAKING TROUBLE Tuesday, February 24 7:00 PM ComedyCaravan $15

This irresistible documentary profiles six great Jewish female comic entertainers: Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner and Wendy Wasserstein. Four of today's leading Jewish female comedians provide the commentary, schmoozing over lunch at Katz's Deli about what it means to be Jewish, female and funny. It includes archival footage from performances by the comedians, giving audiences a glimpse into their lives.

TICKETS $8.50 $6.00 Students · 459-0660 TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED IN ADVANCE OR ONE HOUR PRIOR TO THE SHOW AT THE THEATER.

The Good War that Wasn’t

2009-02-10T04:55:00.001-08:00

Book Review by Terry Taylor

Human Smoke: The Beginnings of WWII, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker, 565 pp. Simon and Shuster, $30.

“The Good War” it wasn’t. At least according to what has been uncovered by the novelist and armchair historian, Nicholson Baker. For this book, Baker went back to original sources: newspaper and magazine articles and diary entries from the days leading up to and spanning the first months of the second great war of the 20th Century. As you turn the pages, you will recognize the names of many of the hundreds of people whose stories are retold here.
Baker chronicles the slow murderous slide into a war that devoured tens of millions of human souls, and marked the beginning of the large scale bombing of cities for the sole purpose of terrorizing civilians.

What we learn from the one- or two-paragraph vignettes he shares with us is that much of what we have been taught, and what many of us still believe about WWII simply isn’t true. There aren’t good guys and bad guys. There is only murder conducted at a scale that would sicken even the most hardened soldier.

There are signs of failed hope. We learn that there were German generals who had begun plotting to remove Hitler even before he invaded Czechoslovakia . He tells us that there were diplomats and peacemakers who tried to prevent the war, and tried to stop it once the tanks had begun to roll.

We see Quakers and members of other peace groups trying to get relief supplies to women and children in occupied France , but being prevented by the U.S. and England .
We witness the anonymous heroism of people like the head of FOR in Germany who refused to fight and were executed.

Baker doesn’t shy away from the guilt that falls on the heads of allies. Hitler’s minions were evil, but in this book we discover something many of us had suspected: both Churchill and Roosevelt were anti-Semites who turned their backs on the Jews who were attempting to flee the onrush of the Holocaust machine.

And then there is the bombing, the indiscriminate incineration of non-combatants undertaken to push them to the point of suing their governments for peace. This bombing was conducted by all parties to this conflagration. One of the most breathtaking insights for me was learning that military strategists on both the Allied and Axis sides warned their leaders that strategic bombing was not only ineffective and a waste of munitions, it was in fact counter-productive, steeling the will of those who climbed out of the rubble after being bombed.

The title of the book, Human Smoke, is the way that one German military official referred to the ashes drifting down from the crematoria smokestacks at one of the death camps. But, I think that Baker chose these words for the title because ultimately they reflect our true legacy from WWII: a thirst for the ashes of civilians and an eerie ability to close our eyes to the price we pay for securing our political goals, no matter how lofty they seem.

The God of Ice Storms and the God of War

2009-01-30T09:17:00.000-08:00

It is Friday, January 30, 2009 and here in Louisville, we are still suffering through the aftermath of an ice storm that hit here earlier this week. Actually, to be accurate it wasn't an ice storm, it was a snowstormicestormsnowstorm.

The ferociousness of this storm lives on, and may continue through the weekend. There is something about this storm that makes it seem almost alive...and God-like.

I have been reading a book about Hinduism that deals in a most interesting way with the idea of a God-like presence in natural phenomena.

At the beginning of a chapter entitled "God" in The Essentials of Hinduism, Swami Bhaskarananda has this to say about how some early inhabitants of India dealt with the idea of Deity:

"At a very early stage of their civilization the ancestors of the Hindus are believed to have been polytheistic. Earth, water, fire, wind, sky, sun, dawn, night, thunderstorm---all were deified and adored as gods."

That theology is interesting in itself, but what Swami Bhaskarananda writes next is even more fascinating: "But while being praised by the Vedic hymns, each of these gods was addressed or referred to as the Supreme God, the Lord of all gods, and the Creator of the Universe. According to the famous German Indologist Max Muller, the earliest ancestors of the Hindus were, therefore, not polytheistic; they were henotheistic." *[the emphases here are mine, not the author's]

This ability that our primitive ancestors had to see each calamity or force they encountered in turn as the supreme God when they confronted it, shows a real sophistication in fear.

When devastated by an earthquake, they could sense the supreme power of what was happening to them. The same was true when their homes were reduced to ashes by a fire, or their communities washed away by a tsunami or a Typhoon.

I have felt that kind of power two times in the last few weeks.

Obviously the storm we are living through at the moment seems so overwhelming (at one point 690,000 homes in Kentucky were without power) that it feels like God at work.

The same thing is true of war. The ferociousness of the recent conflict in the Middle East seemed to me to be so powerful, so all-consuming that it elicited the kind of awe in me that was spoken of in the Bible as 'the fear of God' (as in, "that'll put the fear of God into you.")

Generals frequently point out that whoever we are, when we resort to war, we have failed. Failed to find a way to live together. Failed to find a way to peacefully resolve our differences.

When war begins anywhere, it is alive. It is God-like in its fury. Not the God I worship. But certainly one I fear.
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*According to Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, henotheism, means (1) a religious doctrine attributing supreme power to one of several divinities in turn..."

We Need a Cease Fire...in the E-mail Wars

2009-01-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

I get a lot of e-mails. Alot.

Actually I often receive as many as 100 e-mails a day. They come from all kinds of sources, and most of them are benign.

Lately, though, I have detected a disturbing new trend. I have begun receiving e-mails that are filled with hatred, misinformation and accusations about the fundamental badness of "the other".

Lately, most of these have concerned the brief but devastating war that flared recently in Gaza and southern Israel. I receive e-mails supporting the Israeli side that talk not only about the fundamental badness of the Palestinian political party called Hamas, but sadly about the fundamental wrongness of Palestinians...and Islam. On the other hand, I also get e-mails from people favoring the Palestinian side, or more particularly the Muslim side. Some of these are filled with words filled with hatred about Zionists and"The Jews." Ironically, the e-mails from both sides are at some level anti-semitic---in the broadest sense of that word. Meaning against people of semitic races (both Arabs and Jews).

To the people of both sides I ask, "What good does it do to spread hateful words?" I certainly understand the need to share factual information about the disasters unforlding in Southern Israel and certainly in Gaza. But resorting to name calling and epithets is just a sad attempt at beating our chests, pointing the finger of blame at the "other" and shouting "Hooray for our side!"

I would much prefer to see a thoughtful sharing of facts and a genuine dialogue in which both sides could air their often legitimate grievances.

Until that happens, whever I see an e-mail that is hate-filled I won't hit "forward." I will push "delete."

When Words Fail Us

2009-01-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

Israel and the Hamas led government in Gaza are embroiled in the latest military conflagration to consume the Middle East. Deep anger and hurt are being expressed by supporters of each side, both where the war is underway and right here in our own community. I suspect that the same feelings are being felt in communities across the United States and maybe around the world.

Sadly, it is literally impossible for supporters of Israel and supporters of the citizens in Gaza to talk to each other right now. This noon here in Louisville there were both demonstrations and counter demonstrations about the war.

When it is not possible to talk without shouting at each other, perhaps the best we can do is sit together in silence. It's what I call "sitting in the ashes." It's a term I started using after watching the Wim Wenders film, Until the End of the World. In that film, when the wife of one the main characters dies, the widower sits in a pile of ashes with an aboriginal friend. They both pour ashes on their heads and wail in their grief, a ritual used by aboriginals when words fail them.

A little over a week ago, Christians, Jews and Muslims came together here in Louisville to sit in the ashes. We intentionally met in a non-religious space in the early evening when darkness had already creeped in. Chairs were gathered in a circle and about 30 persons entered the darkened space, lit a candle and placed it on an altar-like table in the center of the room.

Then we just sat together in silence. The the sign posted at the door said, "Please enter, remain and depart in silence." There were no words of welcome or benediction. All we could do was grieve and pray for a just peace to come soon.

That's all you can do when actions and even words, fail you.

My first post

2009-01-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

A Zen Garden in Florida

Peace!

Looking for Peace in the blogospehere? I hope to help you find it here...and everywhere.