Culture

Beyond Whiteness: New Web Resource for Understanding White Privilege and Racism

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One of the central tenets of my work has been to combine “spirituality” with more justice oriented work. Far too often in the new age meme there is a complete lack of acknowledgment of issues of oppression and racism. My newest website Beyond Whiteness is my latest attempt to provide more awareness around these crucial issues. It features dozens of videos, documentaries, articles and resources related to anti-racism and white privilege work. Enjoy!

Culture

Spirituality of Charlotte’s Web

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A woman probably has about 450 egg cells available in her lifetime; in the U.S., perhaps one or two of those become children. A man, of course, has millions and millions of sperm, but again, only a handful become children; even for overachievers, a couple hundred is high – and still a tiny percentage. Most of those potential lives go nowhere or at least nowhere we know of besides the clothes washer. So all of us here have won the big lottery. We held the winning ticket for a life on earth.

art

Windows into Transcendence: Lightning and Sophia in "Red Tails"

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In the movie “Red Tails”, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, we see how religious icons serve as “windows into the Kingdom of God.” The images that the fighter pilots take into combat with them help them to see a kind of divine transcendence that gives their lives meaning. The icons help them to come closer to God. One of the major characters in the movie is the skilled, fearless, self-confident, improvisational and independent-minded pilot nicknamed “Lightning.” He is a womanizer who falls in love at first sight with an Italian woman named Sophia.

Rethinking Religion

A Response to Frederick Sparks over "Reason and Racism in New Atheism"

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Frederick Sparks over at Black Skeptics penned a response to my article “Reason and Racism in the New Atheist Movement.” Here are a few of my comments on his analysis. His words are in bold. Yet if he bothered to read the rest of the book besides the passages criticizing new atheism, he’d see that Hutchinson hardly argues for walling off god belief and African-American religious institutions from criticism. I’ve never stated or even suggested that African American religion or religion at large should be walled off or shielded from criticism.

Culture

Create a Prayer Breakfast for the 99 Percent

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The local chapter of NSP in Washington, D.C. has been involved in creating an alternative to the standard conservative prayer breakfast that takes place each year, and we are inviting you to do the same in your community. We’ve been working with Occupy Faith D.C. to create “the People’s Prayer Breakfast.” You can do the same in your area of the country. It doesn’t have to be this week – take your time and make sure you do outreach to Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Ba’hai, Sikh, Wicca, Buddhist, Quaker, Unitarian, Religious Science, and all other possible communities of faith to get them involved in the planning. The breakfast can be a moment to affirm support for the 99 percent, opposition to all forms of oppression, and solidarity in the struggle for real human community based on the NSP’s “New Bottom Line.”

Culture

Santa and Holiday Myths

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Sara is at that age where the emerging presence of doubt and inquiry are grappling for predominance with the evocative fantasies which have largely colored her young mind for much of her blessed childhood. She was inspecting holiday decorations in my office when I asked her if she thought Santa would visit her this year.

General News

Houses for Change: Kids with Homes Helping Kids Without

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“Homelessness won’t disappear,” Rabbi Lerner said in his keynote speech at the national conference of Family Promise, an interfaith nonprofit helping homeless families, “until people collectively work to end homelessness.” Family Promise has created a national campaign, Houses for Change, to do just that. It is a grassroots educational crafts project to arrange at family gatherings, congregations, schools, scout troops and other organizations. Since its launch a year ago, more than 15,000 kids and parents have made their own unique Houses for Change collection boxes to raise awareness of homelessness and raise funds to help homeless families. Using arts supplies and their imagination, participants decorate pre-ordered boxes to look like houses, take their boxes home and in the following weeks fill them with loose change.