Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Living Our Beliefs: Exploring Faith & Religion in Daily Life
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A Jewish Feminist Finds Modern Orthodoxy at College – Aviva Stein
12 Sep 2024
01:07:33
Episode 76. In part one, we talk about her Jewish practice at UMass Amherst, where she is now a senior. Part two will cover her engagement on campus in support of Israel and the need for bridge building. Given the tensions on many campuses last year around the Israel/Palestine situation, talking to some college students is timely. I am eager to also speak with a Muslim student who can share their experience, so if you or someone you know is interested, please get in touch. You can reach me through my website – www.talkingwithgodproject.org.
Bio: Aviva graduated from Gann Academy, the Jewish day school in Waltham MA, in 2021, and is now a senior at UMass Amherst, majoring in Food Science. At UMass, Aviva is involved in both the Food Science Department and in Hillel, the campus organization supporting Jewish students.
Aviva serves on various executive boards and committees related to both Food Science and Jewish life, and has earned numerous awards for her work. Most recently she received the 2023-2024 StandWithUs Movement Builder Award for Creativity and Impact, an award based on her deep understanding of the campus climate.
Highlights: 00:00 Modern Orthodox students need place to observe Shabbat.
05:53 Balancing Shabbat observance with secular relationships.
08:52 Disconnecting from phones fosters real-life community interactions.
10:25 Hillel supports Jewish college students' diverse needs.
14:28 Gender roles provide clear, valued community participation.
20:15 Finding other ways to feel valued, contributing
22:29 Valuing everyone fosters belonging across all identities.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Are Ancient Religions Relevant Today? – Meli Solomon, Sue Howard and Katrina Kincade
22 Aug 2024
00:25:43
Episode 75. In celebration of my 75th podcast episode, I am highlighting three different ways that people live their ancient religion today. I talk about keeping Kosher (Jewish dietary laws), Sue Howard shares her evangelical Christian tenet of the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit, and Katrina Kincade explains her conversion or reversion to Islam and starting to wear a hijab (Muslim veil) at work.
Highlights: · Daily practice makes abstract concepts real.
· We live into our religion over time. It evolves as we learn and change.
· Meli – Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) infuses daily life with holiness.
· Sue – Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit gifts.
· Sue – Pursuing spiritual life leads to bring peace and joy, blessing and love.
· Katrina – Finding balance and peace in Islam during tumultuous times.
· Katrina – Starting to wear a hijab at work.
References: Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit [Galatians 5:22-23] – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” NIV
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Honoring and Challenging Jewish Orthodoxy – Dr. Lindsay Simmonds
25 Apr 2024
00:45:54
Episode 66. Lindsay shares her experiences as an Orthodox Jewish woman, discussing her deep engagement with Orthodox Judaism, the challenges and frustrations she faces within her community, and her efforts in advocating for women's inclusion and agency in religious practices. This is a fitting conversation during the Jewish holiday of Passover, with its themes of journeys, change, and relationship with God. Also, one of the key elements of the Passover Seder just held around the world, is asking questions. Lindsey, in her ongoing Jewish study, teaching, and earlier doctoral work, is dedicated to asking questions and seeking the answers from within her British Orthodox perspective. Her lifelong passion for studying the Jewish sacred texts, as well as decades spent on increasing Orthodox women’s engagement with that material testify to the richness of these texts, and the value of using your knowledge to effect change, however long it takes.
Highlights: · Lindsay's diverse roles and influences · Women's agency in Orthodox Jewish communities · Fulfillment and commitment to faith through Torah study · Teaching and leading study groups · Evolution of Social Norms and Halakhic Decisions · Engagement with Orthodox learning, feminism, and at the London School of Jewish Studies · Struggles and frustrations faced by women in the Orthodox community
Social Media links for Lindsay: London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE), Religion & Global Society Unit (RGS) – https://www.lse.ac.uk/rgs
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Art, Judaism, and Cultural Understanding – Audrey Reich
11 Apr 2024
00:25:06
Episode 65. This is the second part of my conversation with Audrey Reich. In this second part, Audrey talks about how she incorporates her Jewish teachings and values into her art classes, creating a diverse and open environment for her students. Whether teaching in a Jewish school or a secular school in New York City, Audrey's experiences with students from various cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds have inspired her to foster open dialogue and appreciation for different perspectives. She also reflects on her personal art, and how her artworks have been influenced by her visits to Tarnów, Poland where her father’s family comes from.
Highlights:
· Teaching art in Jewish and secular K-12 schools with diverse student populations.
· Engaging discussions about international events like the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.
· Managing open discussions and differing opinions in the classroom.
· Personal experiences and connections related to Jewish history and heritage.
· Discovering personal connections and roots in Tarnów relating to her family history.
· Audrey's personal art and how it reflects her experiences.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Ramadan is a Capsule of Light for a Muslim – Nayma Tasnim Islam
28 Mar 2024
00:38:41
Episode 64. Since Muslims are currently celebrating Ramadan, Nayma has graciously returned to the podcast to share her experience of the annual holiday, what she does and why it is important to her. For Nayma, Ramadan is a capsule of light, a pause button releasing her from the hamster wheel of daily life. She takes us on a journey through the traditions of iftar, the unique aspects of Ramadan in Bangladesh and the U.S., as well as the profound impact of fasting on the mind, body, and spirit. She reveals the spiritual significance and explains the critical elements of the annual month-long holiday: fasting, breaking the fast in community, prayer, reading the Qur’an, and giving charity.
Highlights: · A celebration of strength and mindfulness. · Connection with God and engagement with the community. · Mindful practices and self-restraint. · Amplification of prayers and attention to God. · Detox for mind, body, and soul. · Variety of iftar meals in the US compared to Bangladesh.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. Learning about how Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith can prompt questions and exploration. Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 63. Audrey Reich is an artist and art teacher in New York and is also involved in Holocaust education. Audrey is a speaker and board member of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center. Daughter of two Holocaust survivors, she credits her parents with modeling awe and appreciation, openness and curiosity. Despite their trauma, deportations, and long paths to the U.S. they each managed to heal some and focus on building a new future. They neither dwelt in the past nor forgot it. Audrey has much to share, so I have made it into two parts. In this first part, we talk about her family, childhood, Poland, and begin exploring her teaching.
Highlights: · The evolution of Audrey's engagement with the Jewish community, from a conservative synagogue to an open modern orthodox community · Audrey’s parents are Holocaust survivors. The impact of their resilience and curiosity about life, is evident in their openness to different backgrounds and stories. · The importance of active remembrance of the past, coupled with a focus on reconciliation and moving forward rather than living in anger and resentment. · Audrey's exploration of Poland and China to document her family's story and her role as the family's storyteller. · Audrey's efforts to bridge cultural differences, particularly in relation to the Jewish community in Poland. · Audrey's approach to educating students about the Holocaust, emphasizing the role of active witnesses and the impact of carrying on the victims' stories. · Lessons learned from art history and Judaism, and how they intersect in the appreciation of nature, craftsmanship, and the ability to create something from nothing.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Bonus. Understanding the American Muslim Experience (Dr. Amir Hussain)
29 Feb 2024
00:45:28
Episode 62. Esteemed scholar Dr. Amir Hussain, Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), author of five books, and immediate past President of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) joins me for a lively discussion of the contemporary Muslim experience in North America. Despite the presence of Muslims arrived in the US in the first slave ships, the long history of participation in American society has gone unnoticed and unappreciated. Certainly, since the September 11 terrorist attack and now again with the war in Gaza, Muslims have been subject to harassment and Islamophobia. Many such acts of hate are motivated by inaccurate and misguided assumptions about Muslims, who they are and what they believe. The day-to-day life is not all bad nor is it the same in every place. Amir and I cover these and other topic in this engaging conversation.
Highlights: · Diversity within American Islam, including ethnic and sectarian differences · Cooperation and understanding between different religious groups in the U.S. · Stereotypes within the Muslim and Jewish communities · Coexistence, integration, and blending into society for minority communities · Misperceptions about Islam and Muslims · Importance of education in changing perceptions and the need for diverse Muslim representation
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Three Jews Explore Psalm 105 – R. Sally Shore-Wittenberg, Anastasia Solberg, Meli Solomon
22 Feb 2024
00:41:01
Episode 61. Rabba Sally Shore-Wittenberg and Anastasia Solberg join me for a compelling discussion about Psalm 105, one of Rabbi Nachman’s ten Psalms for General Remedy. Using different translations, we delve into its connection to the Passover story and the roles of Joseph and Moses. Themes include seeking divine intervention, the power of individuals in the face of challenges, and the symbolic implications of seeking God's presence.
Highlights: · Plagues struck Egypt, leading to Israel's exodus. · Role of key figures Joseph and Moses. · Desperate cry from the pit of despair. · Personal agency and divine intervention. · Meaning of "seeking God's face".
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. Hearing about how Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, offer new ideas and questions: Is your way similar or different? Is there a practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Jewish Torah Scribe and Potter – Rabbi Bec Richman
08 Feb 2024
00:40:41
Episode 60. Bec’s many strands of deep Jewish beliefs and practice in Reconstructionist Judaism are woven through her creative expressions. Inspired during her rabbinic school years, she has since become a soferet (Torah scribe) and potter. She has also become a mother. Contrary to many people’s complaints about stress and conflicts between differing aspects of their lives, for Bec her scribal arts, pottery, and parenting feed each other, adding much richness and creative outlets to her life. Tune in to learn about the inspiration and experience, and how that creativity is inherently accessible, healing, and liberatory.
Highlights: · Steeped in the Reconstructionist community since childhood. · Repairing Torah scrolls involves energy and intention. · Bringing Torah to life through hands-on experiences. · Living a life that is sacred, creative, connected to nature, and intertwined with others. · The impact of gender on Bec's work as a female scribe. · Integration of pottery, rabbinical studies, being a soferet, and motherhood. · Reconstructionist Judaism values tradition but welcomes evolution.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
The Interfaith Green Sabbath Project – Jonathan Schorsch
25 Jan 2024
00:47:16
Episode 59. The Green Sabbath Project, founded by Jonathan Schorsch in 2019, promotes the concept and ritual of a weekly earth day. Taking a day of rest for yourself and the environment is eminently reflective of the sabbath. Although Jonathan draws from his Jewish heritage, the Green Sabbath Project intentionally avoids promoting any particular religious beliefs or language. Jonathan sees potential learning between religious and non-religious people in connecting the values of a weekly day of rest and reducing the impact on the environment. Taking on this practice is both a simple action and a very flexible practice with deep benefits.
Highlights: · The Green Sabbath Project aims to promote sustainable living through practices inspired by the principles of Shabbat. · The project avoids religious language to appeal to a wider audience and promote ecological consciousness. · People need guidance, incentives to act sustainably and step off the hamster wheel. · The project has three parts: education, gatherings, and encouraging people to observe Green Sabbaths. · Promoting sustainable living and ecological thinking as complementary to religious and spiritual approaches. · We need to re-think how we eat, shop, work, and relate to the environment.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
A Christian on Dismantling Racism – Rev. Dr. Terrlyn Curry Avery
11 Jan 2024
00:44:34
Episode 58. Rev. Dr. Terrlyn Curry Avery, a pastologist (ordained minister and licensed psychologist), TEDx speaker, and author, joins me to talk about her second book Dismantling Racism: Healing Separation from the Inside Out. Packed with stories of anti-racism and ways to increase one’s sacred intelligence, Dismantling Racism proved a rich and engaging topic for our conversation. Terrlyn shares her ideas on the intersection of sacred motive, self-ish mindset and shared movement. We can each contribute something to this critical personal and communal work. Quoting the bible’s Scroll of Esther, she notes that “You were born for such a time as this.” Tune in for inspiration!
Highlights: · Sacred Motive, Self-ish Mindset and Shared Movement · Tear down harmful systems and increase racial equity · Focus on continual growth, incorporate small actions into your life. · BREATHE: Breathe, Reflect, Engage, Adjust, Heal · Breath as a connection to the Divine, to the sacred. · Acknowledge and use the anger of injustice and connect with others in a loving way. · Learn, ask questions, and listen for the wisdom.
References: Robin Diangelo – White Fragility: Why it’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 57. As an American Reform Rabbi who made Aliyah (moved to Israel) about a year ago with her family, she has found herself in an all-too-real Israel. Her lifelong liberal leaning into the Ruach (spirit) and not the war of the prayer she grew up with, has been shattered. Discovering that both spirit and war is necessary has been humbling. That said, joining the ranks of volunteers, in her case doing agricultural work near the Gaza border, has reconnected her with the original vision of Israel. Moreover, being swept up in the national spirit has been like nothing she’s ever experienced. On a spiritual level, she has found both yoga and the ancient words of the Shabbat service to be grounding.
Highlights: · Amidah prayer evokes unity and solidarity.
· Individual spirituality, synagogue community, and national spirit.
· National spirit and sense of togetherness and resilience.
· Finding light and hope in times of trauma.
· Intensified Jewishness and Israeliness since October 7th.
Social Media links for Tara: Website – https://talkingpeace.org.il
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Jewish Coaching with Text Study – David Levin-Kruss
08 Aug 2024
00:38:35
Episode 74. Rabbi David Levin-Kruss is a Jerusalem-based life coach, educator, and community organizer. David sees himself as a bridge between Jewish wisdom and those who want to utilize this wisdom to live more meaningful lives. In this conversation, we talk about his coaching practice often using a text to explore issues in the client’s life.
David has held educational and leadership positions at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Melitz Centers for Jewish Zionist Education and at Stanmore Synagogue in north-west London.
Highlights: · Basics of coaching: forward-looking, strength-based, and problem-solving approach
· Coaching as a mechanism and the client already having the answers within them
· Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ view on coaching and contemporary problems
· Technique of reframing negative texts or songs into positive messages
· Emphasis on peace over absolute truth or justice in a Jewish law court
· Differences between education and coaching, emphasizing the role of the teacher in drawing out understanding within the student
· Value of interreligious dialogue and listening to people teach their own faith's texts
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
The Scrolls of Deborah, a Jewish Biblical novel – Esther Goldenberg
14 Dec 2023
00:41:35
Episode 56. Ever since Esther picked up the Torah in high school, she has been curious about the missing bits of scripture which bridge decades of many men’s lives and most women altogether. Her love for stories led her to imagine possible stories to fill those gaps in Torah. With scripture as inspiration, Esther’s historical fiction writing is a process of wonder and discovery. Figures and narrative turns appear seemingly unbidden in her mind. Her newest novel, The Scrolls of Deborah, is the life-story of Deborah, the nurse maid of Rebekah. A large family network surrounds those two central figures, expanding our sense of Rebekah’s family and life. By filling in the narrative gaps, Esther brings these distant biblical figures alive, giving the contemporary reader an opportunity to imagine life in biblical times.
The Scrolls of Deborah is the first of a trilogy, and will be released in February 2024, though it is currently available for pre-order anywhere you buy your books.
Highlights: - Raised Conservative and now follows Traditional Jewish practices her own way.
- Imagination and creation of stories
- Connection between breath and faith
- Calls the Divine Ya, a shortened form of the Name – YHVH – normally pronounced Adonai
- Incorporates belief into daily life through breath practice
- The moon is an important celestial connection to divinity
- Daily life influenced by the Torah
References: Anita Diamond – The Red Tent
Sue Monk Kidd – The Book of Longings
Did Jesus Have a Baby Sister? – Dory Previn song covered by Sweet Honey in the Rock and others
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Bonus. Jewish and Palestinian Peacebuilding in Israel (Rabbi Tara Feldman)
30 Nov 2023
00:48:01
Episode 55. The Friends of Sia'h Shalom seeks to strengthen ties between Jerusalem-based Sia’h Shalom and the North American Jewish community. Sia’h Shalom Circles in North American cities bring together diverse and highly divided groups of Jews, both lay leaders and rabbis, creating spaces for listening and spiritual growth in the increasingly polarized North. American Jewish landscape.
As co-director of the Friends of Sia'h Shalom Rabbi Tara Feldman speaks from the heart and head about the vital importance of “conversing across polarities” in Israel. Though recorded prior to the current Israel/Hamas war, her message and that of Sia'h Shalom are always relevant and timely messages. Tara and her husband and co-director Meir believe that speaking and listening in peace is the root, the soil and sun, the water the light and air, that has the power to help solve even our most intractable challenges.
Highlights: · Sia’h Shalom fosters dialogue and healing through listening, encouraging dialogue and unity. · Diverse views within Jewish communities need understanding. · Dialogues empower leaders, raise issues, and build unity despite painful interactions and brokenness. · Tara would feel despair over inability to bridge political divides without the conversation circles “conversing across polarities”. · The program explores modalities, similarities, and cross-border dialogue.
Social Media links for Sia’h Shalom: Website – https://talkingpeace.org.il
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Reinterpreting Jewish Liturgy – Daniel Stein Kokin
23 Nov 2023
00:41:59
Episode 54. Since his childhood in Los Angeles, Daniel has lived in various parts of the U.S. as well as in Israel, Italy, and Germany. In each place, Daniel has enriched his Jewish practice by familiarizing himself with the local language and traditions, including trope (the melodies used to chant the Torah and other parts of the Bible in synagogue services). Another expression of his curiosity about histories and cultures is through writing liturgical texts and prayers. Daniel also taps into his lifelong fascination with the weather in order to get to know, and respond to, a place. For instance, upon moving to Arizona, he found a connection between that desert climate and Israel, inspiring him to write a new prayer for the Southwest’s summer rainy season, which he linked directly to a Torah portion read each year in June or July. In these and other ways, different aspects of his identity – including being an Ashkenazi Jew and American – reinforce one another.
Highlights: - For Daniel, Jewish identity is grounded through food, sounds, texts, and melodies, not a particular denomination. - Daniel values the use of different languages and melodies in synagogue services. - He writes liturgy and enjoys exploring new elements of holidays and other aspects of Jewish tradition. - Living in various countries has facilitated exposure to different forms of Jewish practice. - Learning about the weather in a new home prompted the composition of new Jewish liturgy, such as Daniel’s prayer for the Southwest Monsoon after moving to Arizona. - Exposure to different Jewish narratives in Berlin expanded Daniel’s knowledge of German-Jewish history beyond the Holocaust.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 53. Abdur-Rahman, a Muslim raised in Karachi Pakistan, he currently lives in three countries, carrying the richness of his interreligious extended family and early experience of adjusting to various cultural environments. Fortified by these formative years and his years in marketing, Abdur-Rahman is creating a book called Prophetic Persuasion. Using words of four prophets from the Abrahamic faiths, he stresses the value of common messages through which people can influence others and establish a moral compass. In conversation, we explore the challenges of bringing such sources into the workplace and how to balance uniqueness of vision and need to find common ground among other things.
A note from my guest, Abdur-Rahman: “Meli and I approached our conversation with caution given the backdrop of the escalating Israel-Palestine war. I fear I was too cautious in distancing myself from the conflict. While some things are complex, others are simple. We must continue to seek dialogue while also speaking for justice and for peace.”
Highlights:
· Prophetic Persuasion elements derived from biblical and Quranic prophets: Moses, Jesus, Joseph, and Mohammed
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 52. Rabbi Molly Karp was raised with both the message she could do anything, and the Orthodox Jewish day school's many restrictions for girls. Added to this was time in nature, on Israeli kibbutzim, and in Judaic Studies courses. Her passion and skills with Jewish education were apparent early on and she has dedicated most of her professional life to that work. She has also acquired rabbinic ordination and been a congregational rabbi. Doing things in her own way and not according to a denominational “party platform” is important to her. Teaching in her own program – SAJE: Senior Adult Jewish Education – allows for that. In her experience, adults know what they want to learn and her job is to teach them in the best way she can.
Highlights: 00:11:45 Historical realization, Jewish diversity, childcare on kibbutz 00:19:06 Reform religious school --> raising kids --> therapy --> Jewish mindfulness program --> embracing role as a rabbi. 00:21:20 Formed SAJE after the Jewish Federation ended WAJE. Jewish adult education, Montessori-inspired. 00:30:48 Diversity in Jewish beliefs and practices continues. 00:35:23 Center of Torah: Love others as yourself. 00:37:57 "Embrace Jewish roots, be the change." 00:40:29 Common reactions to my identity as a rabbi are the person's self-criticism and their grievances against Judaism.
Social Media links for Rabbi Molly Karp: Website – www.rabbimollykarp.com Email – rabbimollykarp@gmail.com
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
A Jewish American Flips the Script – Méli Solomon (with Beatriz Nour)
12 Oct 2023
00:38:20
Episode 51. My friend and fellow podcaster, Beatriz Nour, takes the helm for this special episode. Beatriz normally hosts her In-betweenish podcast, a wonderful show all about people, like herself, who inhabit multiple cultures. For this episode, we have switched roles, and talk about my personal faith path, sorting out my sexuality, choosing Judaism and deepening my practice. It was fascinating to be a guest on my own show and be asked questions I had never considered.
Highlights: 00:06:12 Didn't connect with Christianity, explored Jewish faith. 00:09:17 Multiple major life changes caused turmoil. 00:13:33 Parents saw lesbianism as hard but acceptable. 00:23:34 Religious freedom is important; misuse is common. 00:26:31 Talking with God Project started in Berlin, 2014. 00:30:12 Unique experience being part of German synagogue. 00:31:28 Active member of an egalitarian conservative synagogue with female rabbi; anchor for social life, learning, and Jewish practice.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Woman of Valor, an Orthodox Jewish tale – Lynne Golodner
28 Sep 2023
00:39:18
Episode 50. Woman of Valor is Lynne Golodner’s first published novel after six non-fiction books and two poetry collections. This engaging story lets us into the rewarding and complex life of Sally, who took on the Orthodox Judaism of her grandparents. Happily married to Barry and a mother to three young children, she leads a full and contented life, but trouble arrives unexpectedly. In this episode, Lynne talks about Woman of Valor, how the story draws on her own life experiences, authors that inspire her, and her writing in general.
Highlights: 00:05:15 Grew up as a Reform Jew, then became Orthodox, and now affiliates as a Conservative Jew. 00:07:16 Religion structures, spirituality personalizes; community versus individual. 00:10:14 Believe in yourself, accept criticism, revise. 00:20:15 Religious experiences and cooking shaped her life. 00:27:31 Normalize conversation about sexuality; remove stigma 00:32:23 Inspiring authors build series, endure and evolve.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 49. Mona grew up in Texas in the 1980s, the only veiled Muslim girl throughout her school years. Her faith and immigrant family was seen as strange and unknown, yet she was dedicated to her faith, even starting to veil by seven years old, which is earlier than required. Despite or perhaps because of this extreme minority experience, Mona has dedicated her life to education, most passionate about teaching youth about Islam, and helping them to develop good characters grounded in Islam. She takes pride in the long list of courses and books she has created, while acknowledging that future generations will approach life differently than her generation has, due to the increased social diversity, among other things.
Highlights: 00:06:26 Identity struggles as a young Muslim in Texas. 00:11:29 Courses for adolescents in Southeast Houston, including religious and secular subjects, taught for 20 years. 00:23:16 Youth work challenges and solutions during COVID. 00:30:02 Multicultural center helps refugee kids access programming. 00:34:46 Religion not welcome in public schools, diversity encouraged. 00:40:32 Young people navigate future with right decisions. 00:42:43 Focus on common ground, appreciate differences.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Bonus. Religion in Our Modern World, a Muslim View (Wajahat Ali)
31 Aug 2023
00:54:55
Episode 48. As a columnist (The New York Times, the Daily Beast and elsewhere), speaker, published author, recovering attorney and practicing Muslim, Wajahat Ali brings a sharp eye and thoughtful commentary to the issue of religion in our modern world, especially the USA. The current political dissension and aggressive efforts by the right wing and Christian nationalists to impose their values regarding education and health care on all Americans, as well as the ceding of religion by liberals, raises critical issues. In this lively discussion we address a few of the related challenges, including religious liberty and illiteracy, religion as a cocoon against modernity, how to bridge the divides, and the role of fear in driving antagonism and protectionism. Discussing these issue and how religion plays a role is timely.
Highlights: 00:04:00 Post-9/11, Muslims face discrimination and fear. 00:17:30 White Supremacy fuels bigotry against Jews, Muslims. 00:23:36 Traditions and identities shaping multicultural society. 00:28:28 Living in fear activates stress, impairs judgment, and turns people inward, selfish, and ignorant. Privileged individuals fear the gays and trans community, forgetting they face the same hate. Religion can act as a cocoon, but also as a sword against perceived enemies. 00:35:33 Take control of your actions and intentions. 00:41:06 Religious weakness of liberals and Democrats explained. 00:48:33 Intentionality in Islam leads to selfless love.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 47. David has traveled far, religiously speaking, from his upbringing in a largely secular Jewish home. Other than attending services at a Reform synagogue on Boston’s North Shore, there was minimal observance. Since then, he has gone through many phases, including flirting with atheism and participating in his college Hillel services, all the while maintaining the Jewish identity inherited from his parents. Over the past few years, he has found a mélange of communities. Participating in the local Chabad House and online learning with the Torah Studio satisfy his intellectual, service attendance and spiritual needs. While combining Orthodox and liberal communities is unusual, it suits David well. Besides his religious life, he is a practicing attorney in a non-profit firm and finds a meaningful connection between the law and Talmudic study, whereby both majority and minority opinions are preserved and honored. Additionally, he and his family spend as much time as possible in his wife’s native home of Mallorca, Spain, where he revels in the vibrant collection of Jews attending the one synagogue.
Highlights: 00:03:41 Rediscovering Jewish identity through college and beyond. 00:08:20 Comfortably exploring Jewish identity, politically liberal. Found fitting communities through happenstance. 00:13:22 "The bathroom thing: Strange but practical prayer" 00:23:21 Unexpected encounter leads to involvement with Chabad. 00:33:51 Supportive spouse from Spain integrates into Jewish life. 00:39:13 Judaism and law practice share connections.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
A Muslim Woman in Corporate America – Prianka Alam (rerelease)
25 Jul 2024
00:40:26
Episode 73. Prianka Alam has retained the dedication to helping her family and Muslim community in Maryland that she learned as a young immigrant child. The financial uncertainty growing up has prompted a craving for stability and security as an adult, in short a boring life. These desires drove Prianka to focus on her education, career path and a husband who would be Muslim and a good partner for future children. She has found all of that and more, though it brings the expected stress and demand to wear many hats – DEI professional, wife, mother, daughter, student of Islam and volunteer as a board member of Penny Appeal USA. COVID increased the need to juggle competing demands, while Ramadan offers her ease, more open time for studying the Qur’an, and guiding her children.
Highlights: · It is difficult to be a Muslim in the US, but she’s grateful for the struggle.
· Government policies and social attitudes affect how she lives as a Muslim. The family’s safety is always considered.
· She’s rarely seen colleagues who are also Muslim, a woman of color, or South Asian.
· Islam inspires her to work with purpose and help those in need.
· Ramadan is an opportunity to study the Qur’an and celebrate with her family and community.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Try My Jesus, a Christian Workbook – Carlton E. Smith
10 Aug 2023
00:45:12
Episode 46. Having traversed the spectrum of Christian denominations – from the middle (United Methodist) to the conservative (Pentecostal) then all the way to the liberal (Unitarian Universalist) – Carlton has derived a rich and appreciative perspective on living according to Jesus’ teachings. As he notes in the Introduction of Try My Jesus: “Anyone who invites you to try Jesus is inviting you to try their Jesus.” Structured as a year’s worth of daily reflections, Carlton quotes from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the four Evangelists who were contemporaries of Jesus. He then includes his own reflections and a prompt for the reader. These various parts for each day offer opportunities to reflect on Jesus’ teachings and how you are applying them as you take responsibility for your spiritual life. Guiding messages are to lead a life centered in love and compassion, and that you can be fully yourself and follow the teachings of Jesus. This is especially relevant to those on the margins of society and subject to discrimination and hate.
Highlights: 00:08:51 Unitarian Universalism accepts diverse beliefs, including atheism. 00:10:46 Jesus is a child of God, like us. 00:15:48 Love, civil rights, and justice shape beliefs. 00:20:24 Summary: Four gospels highlight Jesus' teachings, audience includes marginalized and those seeking love. 00:26:08 Gospels ordered, structure carefully maintained, consistent reading. 00:30:36 Relying on myself, not religious leaders. 00:40:42 Seek within, find integrity, embrace love.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Embodying the Christian Faith: Tattoos and Pilgrimage – Mookie Manalili
27 Jul 2023
00:42:09
Episode 45. In this second conversation with Mookie, we expanded the discussion of diversity and the ways he embodies his Catholic faith. The two main areas are his tattoos that manage to marry his Filipino and Catholic identities, and his pilgrimage in August 2022 on the Camino de Santiago.
Highlights: 00:04:39 Diversity and race in the US.
00:13:34 The guest’s tattoo and its symbolism, including references to his Christian faith and Filipino heritage. The tattoo represents creation, crucifixion, and the concept of redemption and healing.
00:21:53 Camino de Santiago: A meaningful, diverse pilgrimage.
00:36:48 The Camino reminded him of lost hopes and dreams and brought back a sense of purpose.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Embodying the Christian Faith: Healing the Whole Person – Mookie Manalili
13 Jul 2023
00:47:08
Episode 44. As a psychotherapist, professor and researcher, Mookie believes in attending to the whole person. For him, this care includes his Catholic practice. For his clients, faith or root beliefs might also be included. Mookie has arrived at his philosophy of therapy and groundedness in Catholicism through a circuitous route. Born in the Philippines, raised in California, followed by graduate studies and work over a multi-stage eastward journey across the US, he has landed at Boston College, a Jesuit institution where he has found a home. Each place has had its own Catholicism, from the pink-habited nuns in the Philippines to the Chicano inflection in California and the more stoic version in Boston, while remaining part of the same Church. Despite traversing many communities, he still lives by the values of his childhood – caring for the whole person, with special attention to those at the margins and those who have suffered injustices.
Highlights: 00:05:01 Catholicism shaped and challenged Mookie’s faith journey. 00:06:31 Catholicism's different expressions, faith, and justice. 00:10:43 Mookie’s journey of darkness and light. 00:24:31 Integration of culture, faith, and therapy in practice. 00:37:31 Embodied, sacramental nature of things: Catholic faith.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Bonus. Religion in the Public Sphere, a Christian View (Zachary Davis)
29 Jun 2023
00:30:07
Episode 43. Zachary Davis, a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormons), has been deeply involved in producing podcasts and other media about religion. In this Bonus episode, we discuss the role of religion in the public sphere. He talks about the importance of bringing your whole self into the community, and makes the distinction between scholarly work and devotional practice. Part of his own public expression of his faith is through the various podcasts and publications he produces and manages, including the Ministry of Ideas podcast and Faith Matters magazine.
Highlights: · Zach’s first HarvardX work with professors at Harvard Divinity School led to years of ‘swimming in religion’ and thinking more deeply about the role of faith.
· The Ministry of Ideas podcast and Faith Matters magazine are both vehicles for discussing religion in the public sphere.
· The separation of church and state really means not establishing a state religion.
· Scholarship on religion and religious devotional practice are two different things, and not at odds.
· The US is a unique country, given the diversity of religions. Living together peaceably and respectfully is important.
· Attending services and reading the holy scriptures of other religions are ways we can each learn about other paths.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Surviving a Christian Religious Cult – Peter Young
22 Jun 2023
00:50:51
Episode 42 Peter, author of Stop the Tall Man, Save the Tiger, describes his journey through a small Christian religious cult. Getting drawn in was not his intention, and he believes that no one knows they’re in a cult, just that they were in a cult. For Peter, the group was an unavoidable aspect of marrying the love of his life. Neither the cult nor his experience in the cult is what you would expect. The particularities of his faith story open the mysterious world of a cult, the common characteristics of the leader – narcissistic, charismatic, and manipulative – and the journey of survival. As Peter describes his long process regaining sanity and custody of his children, there is redemption in surviving, for which he is grateful.
Highlights: · Peter Young’s life, work, and faith · The danger of the leader’s slow deceit and twisting of biblical text · Understanding that salvation stories are unique to each individual · The leader, Uncle Robert, influenced Peter’s marriage and family · Distinguishing a cult from a strong culture · Importance of faith in getting through tough times and not putting identity solely in a profession
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 41. An award-winning reporter at WBZ/CBS Boston, the first Muslim Miss Massachusetts (2022), volunteer for the Special Olympics, convert (or revert) to Islam from Catholicism and a Black American – Katrina holds a complex identity. She channels her complexity and desire to be authentic into her passion for community, diversity, and equality. Impressively, she does so with grace, humor, and commitment.
Highlights: · Her religious journey – Catholic childhood, atheism, then Islam. · Islam brought Katrina peace. · Miss America Pageants – scholarship money, a platform for community service, and a sisterhood. · Volunteering at the Special Olympics and ‘Embracing Diversity’ platform as Miss Massachusetts. · Black Lives Matter protests prompted more interest in DEI training and employee diversity. · Katrina wears a hijab as a news reporter sometimes, and reports on underrepresented communities.
Social Media links for Katrina: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinakincade/ Instagram – @katrinakincade (https://instagram.com/katrinakincade) Twitter – @katrinaknews (https://twitter.com/katrinaknews?lang=en) TikTok – @katrinatheereporter (https://www.tiktok.com/@katrinatheereporter)
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 40. As a British coach, consultant, and public speaker, Sobiya helps people in different ways. The coaching is one:one support mostly around confidence and mindset to help the client reach her potential. As a consultant, she works with companies wanting to improve their diversity, equity and inclusion, and as a public speaker, Sobiya draws on both her personal experience as a Muslim woman-of-color in the UK, as well as her professional expertise. She believes that, as a public figure, her authenticity is paired with healthy boundaries. This balance allows her to handle difficult situations and continue to support her clients. Her faith in Sunni Islam and the Sufi teachings support her every day.
Highlights: · Being authentic is central to her sense of self and her work.
· Searching for answers led Sobiya to deepen her Islamic faith as a young adult.
· She has experienced discrimination as a visible Muslim woman-of-color, so she empathizes with clients struggling with that challenge.
· Coaching, consulting, and training are each valuable offerings and accomplish different things.
· You can be authentic and have boundaries. They are not at odds with each other.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
A Christian Coaching Leaders for Success – Sarah Vaughan Smith
11 May 2023
00:36:43
Episode 39. Sarah draws on her innate passion for helping others in her work as a coach, trainer, and speaker. Whether helping individuals or organizations, her drive to unlock potential and encourage people to achieve their dreams comes through. After years in leadership training for faith-based organizations, particularly within the Black community in Boston, Sarah launched Unlimited Success Services LLC, a leadership development company. The Christian principle that each person has unique skills and talents has led her during years of coaching on leadership. This is particularly relevant for the many clients who lack confidence that they can lead. Indeed, one of her favorite quotes is “Actually, I can!”
Highlights: · Helping others is central to her purpose.
· Continuous growth and serving others are foundational to the John Maxwell Leadership program.
· We can accomplish anything through Christ.
· Leadership involves being a team player, listening, empowering someone else, and connecting with people.
· The COVID pandemic provided a challenge that forced her to learn, grow and do new things.
· Sarah developed her new business, Unlimited Success Services LLC, while her mother received treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. They grew stronger together.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Interfaith Dialogue is the Foundation – Janet Penn
27 Apr 2023
00:34:10
Episode 38. Like many people of her generation, Janet was raised with little religious instruction, due to her parents’ desire to be American. After some exploration into other faiths, she decided in her 20s to learn about the Judaism of her roots. It has been a long journey. She considers herself a JewBu – incorporating elements of both Judaism and Buddhism, generally the ritual and holidays of the former and philosophy of the latter, along with some meditation practice when faced with a challenging situation. Besides her personal journey, Janet spent years developing and leading programs and dialogues bridging religious and other differences. Youth LEAD and the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom are two she speaks of.
Highlights: · The three Cs of dialogue: Curiosity, Courage, and Compassion.
· Even after years of training and experience, we make mistakes and react instinctively.
· Speaking with people who are different is challenging. Using a structure all agree to is critical.
· Dialogue is the foundation, letting us see each other’s humanity, but action is then necessary to improve the world.
· Jewish values of tikkun olam, repairing the world, and tzedakah, charity, inform her social justice work.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments or questions? Email Méli - info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 37. Prianka Alam has retained the dedication to helping her family and Muslim community in Maryland that she learned as a young immigrant child. The financial uncertainty growing up has prompted a craving for stability and security as an adult, in short a boring life. These desires drove Prianka to focus on her education, career path and a husband who would be Muslim and a good partner for future children. She has found all of that and more, though it brings the expected stress and demand to wear many hats – DEI professional, wife, mother, daughter, student of Islam and volunteer as a board member of Penny Appeal USA. COVID increased the need to juggle competing demands, while Ramadan offers her ease, more open time for studying the Qur’an, and guiding her children.
Highlights: · It is difficult to be a Muslim in the US, but she’s grateful for the struggle.
· Government policies and social attitudes affect how she lives as a Muslim. The family’s safety is always considered.
· She’s rarely seen colleagues who are also Muslim, a woman of color, or South Asian.
· Islam inspires her to work with purpose and help those in need.
· Ramadan is an opportunity to study the Qur’an and celebrate with her family and community.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 72. After two-and-a-half years of consistent podcast production, I am taking a short break. To ensure you have something to listen to, I am re-releasing episodes. You are also welcome to look through the back catalogue and listen to other episodes you might have missed. Thanks as always for your interest and support.
Today’s re-release is episode 53, featuring Abdur-Rahman Syed. Abdur-Rahman, a Muslim raised in Karachi Pakistan, he currently lives in three countries, carrying the richness of his interreligious extended family and early experience of adjusting to various cultural environments. Fortified by these formative years and his years in marketing, Abdur-Rahman is creating a book called Prophetic Persuasion. Using words of four prophets from the Abrahamic faiths, he stresses the value of common messages through which people can influence others and establish a moral compass. In conversation, we explore the challenges of bringing such sources into the workplace and how to balance uniqueness of vision and need to find common ground among other things.
A note from my guest, Abdur-Rahman: “Meli and I approached our conversation with caution given the backdrop of the escalating Israel-Palestine war. I fear I was too cautious in distancing myself from the conflict. While some things are complex, others are simple. We must continue to seek dialogue while also speaking for justice and for peace.”
Highlights:
· Prophetic Persuasion elements derived from biblical and Quranic prophets: Moses, Jesus, Joseph, and Mohammed
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 36. Jill Sarkozi, founder of the Safekeeping Stories program, talks about the mission and system of the work. Inspired by helping her father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor, write his story, Jill went on to develop the Storykeeping® method. Since founding the program in 2012, Jill and her team have helped many Jewish families capture their own family stories. The workshop provides a safe environment for these family members to explore the family’s Holocaust story, understand how it has been part of their own story, and then add their generational layer to the family story as they write observations about life with their survivor-family member.
Using a structured system of one-two page ‘slices’, children and grandchildren of survivors build up a 15-20 page history which they can use in many ways – in a slide show, as impetus for a heritage trip, and more. Helping people recover their family story and watch the reactions has often been a beautiful and moving experience.
Highlights: · Workshops are groups of ten – for personal attention and guidance. · The focus has mainly been Holocaust stories preserved by family members of survivors, and will remain so. · Besides workshops, Safekeeping Stories offers speakers, programs, and a self-paced method. · Learning one: People retain the family story from the child perspective and watching the shift to the adult view is surprising. · Learning two: A person’s response to incredible loss, and the impact on subsequent generations positively and negatively, takes many forms. · Learning three: A small kindness can place a tenderness in someone’s heart. It can stay with them for life and is important to honor.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 35. Julie Kinscheck, singer-songwriter, teacher, and group leader extraordinaire, is a woman of many musical talents. Whether singing sacred or secular music – hymns, Christmas carols, jazz, or folk music – she brings passion and a desire to share her God-given abilities with the audience. After years of performing and teaching, the Covid lock-down created time to produce a book, Vocal Training for Praise Singers. Intended mainly for Christian praise singers, it is a robust teaching tool replete with exercises, explanations of physiology, tips for worship team leaders and devotionals. Julie’s passion for the Lord and singing, combined with her life-time of experience singing and teaching, come through in this conversation.
Coming Soon! Julie Kinscheck and students present the “Berklee Worships” concert Wednesday, March 29th, 7pm. Berklee College of Music, 1140 Boylston St, Boston (Recital Hall 1A, Alma Berk Hall). The concert is free and open to the public.
Highlights: · Julie was baptized in her 20s after much wandering and disillusionment with Christianity.
· Performing and writing songs since her teens, she has produced four albums across several musical genres.
· Teaching at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, she guides a wide range of students.
· The musical selection at the various Boston Church of Christ congregations cater to the social make-up of their communities – Hispanic, Vietnamese and Blacks.
· It’s important to strike a balance between familiar hymns and newer material.
· Vocal Training for Praise Singers provides lessons on vocal technique with a Christian perspective, mainly for worship leaders, as well as seminary libraries and vocal programs.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Jewish Values of Do Good. Be Good. Bring Goodness – Elissa Felder
09 Mar 2023
00:53:42
Episode 34. As a traditional Jew attending an Orthodox synagogue, Elissa believes that the Torah provides a blueprint for living. God is an ever-present force in her life and she has an ongoing relationship with God. After the death of her first child, Elissa studied the Jewish beliefs of death and the afterlife. In addition to the studies, becoming involved in tahara, the Jewish practice of preparing a Jew for burial, has been meaningful. Elissa described several metaphors including the messy back of a tapestry as the details of life and the fetus in utero as creation unaware of the mother providing all its needs.
Highlights: · God informs her life, a pervasive force she is in relationship with daily.
· With the death of her first child, intense love became intense grief, and then a drive to understand the Jewish tradition’s view of death and the afterlife.
· Her child’s death was not in vain. Many lessons have come from the loss, and she feels blessed.
· Being present with someone’s grief and pain is a huge gift to the bereaved.
· To care for the dead is partnering with God. It is an honor to do this work.
· Life is a little bridge and is a finite span away from the world of souls.
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 33, Hamzah has traveled an unexpected path from his Episcopalian childhood. Befriending an Indian Muslim classmate in 10th grade, he became enamored of Islam and accepted the faith after months of study. It has remained his true path and he has spent most of his career in Islamic education. Despite the unusual conversion, Hamzah has not rejected his upbringing religiously or educationally, continuing to hold the values of learning and faith. He lives a model of steady progress towards big dreams, even if the path remains unclear.
Highlights: · Converting to Islam did not mean rejecting the Christianity of his childhood.
· Islam is the newest and final ‘operating system’ of the Abrahamic faiths, after Judaism and Christianity.
· Investing in the stock market is permitted, as there is risk involved, but the investor must avoid in forbidden products such as alcohol that counter Islamic principles.
· Dual enrollment programs allow students in high school to take college courses, helping students to grow beyond the high school’s curriculum.
· Islamic schools in New England are young but there is community interest in growth.
· Hamzah has a passion for teaching literature and poetry.
Quotes: “It's long been a dream of mine to have a Muslim boarding school similar to the ones that I was fortunate enough to attend.”
“Many of our students sort of sail through and actually change their college environments. They're very proud of their Muslim faith and heritage, and they practice it openly.”
“There are enormous resources within the Muslim community, so some of the challenges on the school side is to prove their product is great.”
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 32. William brings heart, head and soul together in his work as a pastoral therapist. The combination means being attuned to the spiritual values, history and trauma, along with where therapeutic techniques should be used. While he is Christian and works mostly with other Christians, he is open to helping anyone.
Highlights: · We have more in common than we think. · Praying together as a couple is a part of your communication. · Listen to understand not to respond. · LEARN: Listen, Empathize, Act, Resist, and Never quit. · Conflicting views of the Bible and how to live those precepts create challenges to be sorted out in pastoral therapy. · Understanding the pain, trauma and source of a value are important steps in therapy.
Quotes: “With my theological training, I can also listen to your story of faith and see how we can blend that in therapeutically to help you or to help bring healing.”
“Whatever it is, a lot of times there's pain that drives us. And so one of the things I like to say about therapeutic work is helping people understand the pain that's going on with them.”
“How do we treat people who are different from us, whatever that difference may be?”
“A lot of my work is also helping people be intentional about their decisions.”
“I believe that God designed us with a choice.”
“Some of the work I have sometimes is helping people to calm their triggers down, some so they can listen clearly and listen to understand.”
Social Media links for William: Website – https://www.faithandfamilyempowerment.com Book – Praying with Your Spouse: A Secret to Building Intimacy in Your Marriage (Amazon)
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 31. Saiyyidah brings her experience of Practical Theology to life in this engaging conversation. Landing in the field by accident, then choosing to remain, she views the staunchly white Christian British arena with an outsider’s eyes, while valuing the bridging of the Academy and religious leaders. Her perspective as a Muslim woman of color, prompted a deep exploration of her identity, for which she is grateful. Since completing her Doctorate in Practical Theology, Saiyyidah has combined that theory and use of conversation in her coaching and training on belonging.
Highlights: · Conversations are available to everyone, and when we are confident in our identity and curious about the other, a deep and rich conversation is possible. · We can affect each other in a brief exchange, without knowing it, and it doesn’t cost us anything. · Stephen Pattison’s term ‘wayfaring without a map’, describes a conversation as a journey. · Curiosity, acknowledgement and respect can be learned, but we need to work hard, be vulnerable, and be ready to shed some ideas.
Quotes: “Acknowledging and recognizing difference is important, but when we focus too much energy, time, attention on the difference, we forget our similarities.”
“Some people haven't outed themselves as non-Christian, but because I am so obviously not Christian and remain in that space [of Practical Theology], that gives them confidence and permission to do so as well.”
“What I'm trying to do, ... is keep one foot in research and one foot in practice, because I think that will make my approach in both areas a little bit more rounded.”
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 30. Coming from a multi-cultural and inter-religious home, finding his way into Jewish expression has been a process. This flowered after moving to Germany, soon after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and coinciding with a great hunger for German Jewish history there. Oliver has since found a home in traditional services. His individual prayer experience is the important element and the path towards being a better person.
Highlights: · There are many ways of being Jewish. Each person needs to find their own way.
· For Oliver, services provide either beauty with singing together or a personal connection to God, where the focus is individual. He prefers the latter.
· He likes traditional liturgy but doesn’t feel the rigid separation of genders in Orthodox synagogues is necessary, or that women always need to be in the back.
Quotes: “My real, let's say, coming out as a Jew was in Germany, and I think it had a lot to do with being in a country where my Jewish heritage has many generations of history.”
“I would say for me I'm Jewish by birth, I'm Jewish by choice, and I would say I'm also Jewish by my love of Jewish traditions and my love to live Jewish traditions.”
“If we're talking about our conversations with God, I'm finding that my best conversations with God are in those spaces where nobody really cares how you're speaking to God.”
“I do not know of any female rabbi in the Orthodox sphere who's going to conduct a service where men are present, but there are women who are conducting orthodox services for women.”
References: Jeffrey Herf, Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys Tefillot (Hebrew) – prayers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_prayer Kashrut – the Jewish dietary laws. https://www.britannica.com/topic/kashruth Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment (ca. 1770s-1880s) – https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-haskalah Yiddishe shul – a Yiddish (German-Hebrew) synagogue.
Social Media links for Oliver: Twitter – #oqbradley Twitter – #oliverbradley Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/PeriodicPeriodical.OQB European Jewish Association (EJA) – https://ejassociation.eu Twitter – #ejassociation
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Bonus – Authenticity in Spirituality (with Orneita Burton)
29 Dec 2022
00:46:11
Episode 29. Orneita Burton, a professor at Abilene Christian University in Abilene Texas, speaks about Authenticity in Spirituality. This intention to be genuine in our relationship with God involves reflection, reading scripture, and serving others. Authenticity is a challenge, as it calls for understanding ourselves and others. Part of the difficulty is from the spiritual warfare between God and the dark forces which can misdirect us. For Orneita, her authentic spirituality is through Christ, but any relationship with God can be authentic. Being open to people and experiences and removing preconceptions that limit learning and growth help us to improve the lives of others.
Highlights: · Authentic Spirituality is being real, being a vehicle for good in the world.
· Preconceptions limit your understanding and openness to a person and an experience.
· Spirituality is not defined by a religion or denomination.
· Spiritual warfare is between God and the dark forces, which may draw us off the path that God intended for us.
· We learn our purpose through reading scripture, reflection and seeking a relationship with God.
Quotes: “Being able to be the true person that that God intended for us to be, it takes effort, it takes time, takes quiet reflection and also being in communication with God enough so that He can speak life into us.”
“We truly need to consider how we walk spiritually on a day-to-day basis.”
“We are part of a spiritual warfare, and so we are created to be instrumental in creating a spiritual, a positively spiritual outcome for each and every one of us.”
“Am I here to serve self or am I here to serve the purpose for which I was made?”
“Basically, a person who lives authentically understands their need for Christ, and without that relationship it's a hopeless existence because we live in a fallen world.”
“We are here to serve and there are so many opportunities that occur on a regular basis that are not defined. They're not official, but they have to do with making other people’s lives better for today. It's defined as stewardship sometimes.”
Social Media links for Orneita Burton: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/orneitaburton/
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 28. Moishe Dov is a life-long and dedicated member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York. He speaks from the heart of his journey through addiction and subsequent sobriety. With regained health, taking up a daily practice of Jewish study has re-trained his definition of discipline into a positive and reliable force.
IMPORTANT: This episode includes discussion of addiction and suicide. Listener discretion advised.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction or suicidal ideation, seek help – Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (USA) – dial 988 AA – https://www.aa.org
Highlights: · Doing his best to follow the biblical commandments is fundamental to being part of Chabad-Lubavitch Judaism. · Connecting to God and fulfilling one’s purpose is paramount. · Believing and living in the way that God loves him, was the path to health. · Undoing harmful beliefs and creating healthy ones is a long and ongoing process.
Quotes: “Do acts of goodness and kindness and try to make the world a better place every day, in every way.”
“I can't afford to believe that God is unforgiving.”
“Physical health. Mental health. Spiritual health. In that order. Addiction is a deadly disease. It is a progressive and deadly disease.”
“No matter what state you're in if you're inspired to take action, great, take action. But if you're judging yourself, please consider the path of forgiveness.”
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
A Mormon Following in God's Footsteps – Margaret Agard
08 Dec 2022
00:42:43
Episode 27. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as LDS and the Mormon church, Margaret lives her faith deeply. In this lively conversation, she speaks openly about learning to hear the voice of God and some of the instructions she has been given. Sometimes they are prosaic directives to invite families to dinner or bring soup to a neighbor. Writing the In His Footsteps series about these conversations and her marriage are also seen as something God wants her to do. Besides describing her own faith path, she explains some important theological views of the LDS church, a valuable service to us all.
Highlights: · In morning quiet ‘me time’ she reads scripture, writes in her journal and asks questions of God.
· Evening quite meditation is His time. She meditates and leaves herself open to whatever God wants to say to her.
· The LDS Church believes that every religion has some truth, but none have it all.
· There are three levels of lightness and glory we reach after death, but we must accept Jesus to reach the highest level.
· Missionaries tell people to ask God if what they are saying is true.
Quotes: “From the time I was a child, I was taught that I had both the right and the responsibility to learn to hear that still small, quiet voice within us, that is God. And to take my questions to Him, to get direction from Him.”
“I have done enough Scripture study to feel as if I know when I'm in the presence of the Holy Spirit.”
“The gift we have to accept is that we can be forgiven of our sins and washed clean and go to live in heaven with the Father.”
“People often hear God, but they ignore Him. They don't want, they don't want to hear what He has to say.”
“People love purple. Like, blue skies and red painful things are what give you the purple. And so that's how I saw it, that he can turn anything to our good.”
“A standard Christian teaching [is] – all things work together for good for those who love God. But we have to turn to Him. We can either get stuck or we can take that healing.”
Social Media links for Margaret: Website – https://inhisfootsteps.com LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaretagard/
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Embracing Interfaith Dialogue from a Catholic Perspective – Kyle Desrosiers
27 Jun 2024
00:46:34
Episode 71. Kyle is a Master of Theological Studies student at The Gloria L. and Charles I. Clough School of Theology and Ministry of Boston College. He also works at the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership at Hebrew College. Originally from Texas, Kyle has long been involved with interfaith engagement. He has also worked as a freelance journalist, in college campus ministry, and in higher education.
In this conversation we talk about the joys and challenges of his interfaith work, which began in high school, as well as his experience in Israel while on a Fulbright scholarship. Kyle’s dedication and passion for his Catholic faith and engaging with people of other faiths comes through loud and clear.
Highlights: · Studies, interfaith work, faith, and Israel.
· Fulbright program in Israel supported conflict resolution degree.
· Changed worldview after studying in Israel.
· Vatican's theological papers and his beliefs as a Roman Catholic
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Comments? Questions? Email Méli at – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
Episode 26. Nayma speaks from the heart in describing the ups and downs of her journey – growing up in Bangladesh and moving to America with her family after university. Despite the challenges of immigrating, she has persevered. Internalizing the belief that it was God’s plan to continue her path in a new country, she set about building a new life. Graduate school and work, along with teaching children at local mosques and taking in the natural beauty of her adopted country have given her joy. She is grateful for all the opportunities.
Highlights: · Despite the difficulties of life in the USA, she believes that it was God’s plan to bring her to America. Things became easier once she internalized that belief. · Nayma’s skills and interests combine logic and creativity. · Nayma is uplifted by the dedication and joy of the children she teaches at the mosque. · There are many names of God, and she feels most connected to ‘the one who decrees’ and ‘trusted friend’. · Mohammed’s life experiences, such as being an immigrant, provide guidance for her. · Life is like a marathon, with stretches of varying difficulty – from easy to almost impossible. · The invisible hand of God helps pull her through difficult times.
Quotes: “Like every first-generation immigrant, the question that went along is where do I belong?”
“This understanding [that God is behind the decree for me to move to the US] made me see those relationships more, and actually I should say this is what is helping me to becoming a local, more a local, and it's an ongoing process.”
“The locals [in Medina] said, when [Mohammed] came, the city was lit up with the light, and when he was gone, [it was] as if that light was gone.”
“For me, God's will, this is what He decreed. How do I act upon it is my part.”
“I look at hijab as an honor.”
“We are in Massachusetts. It's a very welcoming community. But many parts of USA it's not. And to some parts, it's not just unwelcoming, it's alarmingly unwelcoming.”
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 25. The meaningless Judaism of his childhood Conservative synagogue, and the depressing results of chasing pop music fame, prompted a search for the ‘truth’ of Judaism. Since studying Talmud in Jerusalem in his 20s, David has felt a deep connection to the land of Israel and a spiritual home in the Orthodox community. Inspired by the Tanya, David has authored the Real You Project. In this conversation, we exchange differing experiences and views, without the need to agree.
Highlights: · Despite growing up Jewish in the USA, David has found a spiritual home in the Orthodox community in Israel.
· David sees the exploration of the self and soul as universal journeys and finds understanding from followers of other religions.
· Pictures of Your Soul brings the intangible soul down to a concrete level. Each chapter asks and answers questions about the soul based on the Tanya, written by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe of Chabad.
· David has used Torah and Tanya to help people deal with problems such as loneliness and low self-esteem.
· As an Orthodox Jew, David takes Torah literally, and lives by the understandable and mysterious commandments each day.
Quotes: “I feel so much more of who I am, regardless of my religious affiliation. I feel connected to my soul and connected to the land of Israel.”
“The soul is always rising, wanting to reconnect with God. But there's a mission to achieve in this world, and He wants us to be able to keep that soul within the physical body so that we can achieve something with the physical world.”
“I'm not trying to create a new religion I'm trying to help people connect to who they are and utilize the practice if they want to.”
“I went through that process of searching and I think that that's a very healthy thing for other people to do as well. And wherever they land, that's their choice.”
“God knows what's best for me and I will do what He tells me to do.”
“The Torah is the manual. It's the instruction manual of life.”
“In Judaism we that we believe that no two souls are the same and no two souls have the same purpose in this world.”
Social Media links for David: Real You Project – https://www.realyouproject.com/home
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
Episode 24. Halim’s faith is grounded in the Qur’an and its message of God’s existence and as guide for living. His research into Mohammed’s covenants, including those in the Qur’an, show their authenticity, predominantly accepted by people doing interfaith work. This conversation is a fascinating exploration of the diverse Australian community, Halim’s research and teaching about Islam, Islam-West relations, the Qur’an, and Mohammed’s covenants with non-Muslim groups.
Highlights: · As a professor, Halim studies the perception of covenants and their impact in interfaith work, pluralism and treatment of non-Muslims. · The core message of Islam is in the Qur’an – a manual for life and living with others. · Mohammed had covenants – pledges of protection – with non-Muslim groups. · As the Muslim population grows, increasing understanding between Muslims and others is critical.
Quotes: “The idea of the covenant is that every human being has the right to live on earth, because every human being has been given the gift of life from God. ”
“It wasn't Mohammed's obligation to compel people to believe a certain way. People are free to believe or disbelieve.”
“[Mohammed] had covenants with non-Muslims, with Christians, Jews with Polytheists as well.”
“Muslim political authorities, and you know rulers and so forth, did acknowledge the right to life and right to property and the protection of places of worship.”
“The covenants of the Prophet Muhammad, whether they were issued to Jews or Christians or Zoroastrians, all of them include a statement along the lines of: ‘This is not just for today, this is for all time’.”
References: · Rane, Halim. 2022. "Interfaith Actor Reception of Islamic Covenants: How ‘New’ Religious Knowledge Influences Views on Interreligious Relations in Islam" Religions 13, no. 9: 873. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090873
· Rane, Halim, Adis Duderija, Riyad H. Rahimullah, Paul Mitchell, Jessica Mamone, and Shane Satterley. 2020. "Islam in Australia: A National Survey of Muslim Australian Citizens and Permanent Residents" Religions 11, no. 8: 419. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080419
Social Media links for Halim: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/halim-rane-12721946/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/halim.rane
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
The Lord Will Provide, A Christian View – Allyson Hilliard
13 Oct 2022
00:42:09
Episode 23. A practicing Baptist Christian, Allyson brings her faith into all that she does. As a physician, co-founder of the apparel company Be Bougie, Deacon at her church and active volunteer in her sorority, not to mention time with family and friends, her sense of purpose derived from God guides her. Even in bad times, she retains her faith that God has a plan, knows what is best and is by her side. Experience has taught her that things will work out, even if she doesn’t know how or why. In this touching conversation, Allyson speaks from the heart, with tears and laughter, about her beliefs and how they support her each day.
Highlights: · Growing spiritually is a top priority.
· Believing in God, in something bigger is critical, and helps her even in bad times.
· The development and safe birth of a baby is a miracle, and she thanks God each time.
· God has a plan and purpose for each person.
· Faith is present in all that Allyson does – her work, volunteering, and social time.
Quotes: “We have a tagline that says: ‘Higher standards and unapologetic’, and the premise in the mission of Be Bougie is to uplift women to be who they are.”
“My faith is intertwined in my business in the sense that I believe God formed us all here for a reason and a purpose, and who you are is tied up into that purpose.”
“It is crucial that I have this grounding in my faith and in my spirituality, 'cause a lot of the things that I see and do as a physician, I can’t explain [by] being just me.”
“I've chosen to believe. That's my choice. And I've chosen to accept God's plan and purpose for my life. That's where my free will comes in.”
“I pray for comfort. I pray for understanding, I pray for strength, I pray for peace to get me through. And I believe that even in the midst of the dark place, God’s still with me.”
Follow the podcast! The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.