Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

This week, the US State Department sponsored a conference in Washington on the intersection of religion and diplomacy. Clergy, faith-based activists, academics, and diplomats attended. Critics have long charged that the US government has not done a good job in acknowledging the role of religion in foreign policy. Correspondent Kim Lawton talks with, US Special Representative Shaun Casey.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, founder and leader of the Lab/Shul community in New York City, talks about the necessary spiritual and mental preparations to undertake in advance of the Jewish High Holy Days (October 2-12), from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. The rabbi holds a boot camp filled with workshops, food, and music to encourage introspection, repentance, and honesty.

“There’s something about the shofar that is like the chatter of children. It’s the crying of babies. It’s the mother giving birth. It’s the grief wailing. It is a human, primitive voice.”

While many cities in the U.S. have moved to criminalize homelessness, imposing fees for lying down, camping and begging, Albuquerque, New Mexico has taken a different approach. It has initiated a program it calls “There’s a Better Way,” picking up homeless individuals and transporting them to jobs that pay them in cash at the end of the work period. Correspondent Lucky Severson reports.

Correspondent Lucky  Severson reports on Paula Claussen of San Diego, who decided to build houses for the poorest families in nearby Tijuana. She recruited volunteers, and together they have built nearly 1300 simple, sturdy homes—sometimes as many as 44 in one day. They call their work Project Mercy.

The Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on September 24th on the National Mall in Washington. Correspondent Kim Lawton reports on the many ways it portrays the role of faith and spirituality in the African-American experience. She also talks with religious leaders about the impact they hope the new museum will have.

“Relationship is what matters,” says Dr. Christina Puchalski, director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health and professor of medicine at George Washington University. “My relationship with my patient—that’s where healing occurs. It’s within that relationship, and that’s what needs to be supported.”

We take you to The House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, a widely unconventional congregation led by Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. She told correspondent Lucky Severson her language, teaching, and tattoos symbolize her acceptance of everyone, and they of her. Their church is thriving.

Senior Rabbi Shira Stutman of Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC explains the meaning of the Amidah, “the central prayer in the Jewish tradition.”

New York University chaplains Imam Khalid Latif and Rabbi Yehuda Sarna were both students in New York on September 11, 2001. Both men say the events of that day profoundly shaped what would become their mission: interfaith engagement. Today, they help lead NYU’s Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life. Correspondent Kim Lawton talks with the chaplains and some of their students about interfa

“It is considered the time in the prayer service where we are most open spiritually, and we’re really ready to talk to God,” says Rabbi Shira Stutman, senior rabbi at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC.

Much of the world is struggling to accommodate a record number of refugees. But in Uganda, in East Central Africa, refugees from 13 countries get land to farm, freedom to worship, schools for their children, and opportunities to go into business. Fred de Sam Lazaro explains that, despite many hardships, these new Ugandans are still doing well.