Progressive Spirit

How should religion be taught in public schools and what resources are available for teachers?  Two professors at Appalachian State University have taken on those questions.  They researched various religious groups in the United States and decided to present these various traditions through the use of children's literature.    Dr. Connie Green and Dr. Sandra Oldendorf are professors of education at Appalachian State University.    They have co-authored Religious Diversity and Children's Literature:  Strategies and Resources.   They speak about the book and the challenge of teaching religion in public school on Religion For Life. (Connie Green, left and Sandra Oldendorf co-authors of Religious Diversity and Children's Literature)

This week on Religion For Life I speak with Dr. Joseph Fitsanakis about the connection between the American far right and Christian ideology. We discuss the Aryan Nations, National Alliance, the Creativity Movement, the Klan, and various skinhead and neoconfederate groups.  We also discuss Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing in light of homegrown ideological terrorism.Dr. Fitsanakis coordinates the Security and Intelligence Studies program at King College in Bristol, Tennessee, where he teaches classes on intelligence and international terrorism, among other subjects.

This week on Religion For Life my guest is Marina Munjal one of "the founding mothers" of the Appalachian Dharma and Meditation Center in Johnson City. She talks about the activities at the center, Buddhism, and the joy of meditation."Marina grew up in Ohio with a statue of the Buddha in the study and a church home at a Unitarian Fellowship. She is one of the “founding mothers” of the ADMC and began building Buddhist community in the Tri-cities when she helped initiate the Holston Valley Sangha in July of 2001. She has been active in the Buddhist prison ministry since 2003 at Lee County, Virginia Federal Prison, which has continued to the present time and has helped develop an extensive library of Buddhist books, recordings, and movies, now housed at ADMC. She also offers community outreach on the subject of Buddhism, and has presented to the Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and Kingsport high school history classes."

Fifty million Americans do not have health insurance. Is health care a human right? Is health care a social justice issue?  My two guests, Dr. Garrett Adams and Dr. Arthur Sutherland of Physicians for a National Health Program, were in the Tri-Cities this Spring making the case for Medicare for all.  I visited with them on Religion For Life.   Here is an article from TriCities.com.(Dr. Garrett Adams left and Dr. Arthur Sutherland right speaking in Bristol, Tennessee.  Photo David Crigger/Bristol Herald Courier)

Many books are written by clergy about their experiences. Usually these books are written after long careers. Here is a twist. Rev. Andrew Taylor-Troutman is a Presbyterian Minister in New Dublin, Virginia. He is brand new at it. He wrote a book about his first year as a minister. It is called Take My Hand: A Theological Memoir.  Join us for a unique perspective on church, life, and ministry from an energetic minister just out of the gate!

From May 17th through June 18th on Religion For Life I am broadcasting a four-part series on the historical Jesus. It is called “Will the Real Jesus Please Rise?” For four weeks, I interview four of the most prolific and provocative scholars in the United States, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Dr. Bart Ehrman, Dr. Robert M. Price, and Dr. John Dominic Crossan.My final guest in this series is Dr. John Dominic Crossan. He is the current president of the Society of Biblical Literature. He along with Robert Funk founded the Jesus Seminar and he has written over 20 books on early Christian origins. He believes that Jesus did exist. He was not an apocalyptic prophet, however. He believes the parables are the key to understanding Jesus and his message about the kingdom of God, that comes gradually as we participate in it. Dr. Crossan speaks about his new book, The Power of Parable: How Fiction By Jesus Became Fiction About Jesus. Here is my review.

From May 17th through June 18th on Religion For Life I am broadcasting a four-part series on the historical Jesus.  It is called “Will the Real Jesus Please Rise?” For four weeks, I interview four of the most prolific and provocative scholars in the United States, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Dr. Bart Ehrman, Dr. Robert M. Price, and Dr. John Dominic Crossan.Dr. Robert M. Price is my third guest. He is a fellow of the Jesus Seminar, a scholarly think tank that during the 1980s and 1990s evaluated all the traditions regarding Jesus to extricate his words and deeds from later fictional elements attributed to him. Even though the Seminar determined that less than 20% of the material attributed to Jesus went back to an historical person, Dr. Price thinks that was too conservative. Dr. Price is the author of The Christ Myth Theory and Its Problems. Here is my review. He makes the case that when you try to separate the mythical elements from Jesus, you are left with myth and no remainder. He thinks that ev

From May 17th through June 18th on Religion For Life I am broadcasting a four-part series on the historical Jesus.  It is called “Will the Real Jesus Please Rise?” For four weeks, I interview four of the most prolific and provocative scholars in the United States, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Dr. Bart Ehrman, Dr. Robert M. Price, and Dr. John Dominic Crossan.The second interview in the series is with Dr. Bart Ehrman.  Dr. Ehrman teaches religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has written over 25 books on early Christianity. His latest is called Did Jesus Exist? The Case for the Historical Jesus. Here is my review. He is responding to the “mythicist” movement that says Jesus is a fictional character from beginning to end.  Erhman says that Jesus did exist, even though he is not the Jesus we learned in Sunday School.  He thinks Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet who predicted God’s dramatic intervention that never came.

This week on Religion For Life I begin my four-part series on the historical Jesus, “Will the Real Jesus Please Rise?”  For four weeks, I will interview four of the most prolific and provocative scholars in the United States, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Dr. Bart Ehrman, Dr. Robert M. Price, and Dr. John Dominic Crossan.The series begins with Bishop John Shelby Spong.  The retired Episcopal Bishop who has written over twenty books on religion, with such titles as Why Christianity Must Change Or Die, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, and Jesus for the Non-Religious talks about his new book, Reclaiming the Bible for the Non-Religious World.  Bishop Spong explains the concept of midrash in understanding how the stories about Jesus came to be written.

I continue my conversation with Rabbi Rob Cabelli of Congregation Beth Israel in Asheville, NC.  We discuss afterlife, Jesus, and justice in the Jewish tradition. 

This is the first of a two part conversation with Rabbi Rob Cabelli of Congregation Beth Israel in Asheville, North Carolina.  Rabbi Cabelli made the drive over the mountain to speak with me about Judaism in general, science and faith, Torah, and being Jewish in Appalachia.

My guests on Religion For Life are Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel Primack, authors of a new book, The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World.  Dr. Primack is professor of physics at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Nancy Ellen Abrams is a cultural philosopher. Together they find a way of integrating our cosmology with meaning and offer a hopeful vision for our human future on Earth.

In 2008, during that period of time when same-gender marriage was legal in California, Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, officiated at 16 same-gender weddings.  She was taken to church court and accused of violating her ordination vows.  The case finally ended up before the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the "supreme court" of the PC(USA).   By an 8-6 vote she was found guilty.  Marriage is officially one man and one woman in the PC(USA) regardless of state law.    She is my guest.  She talks about the case, what it means for clergy and the church, and her ministry to LGBT people.“To turn my back on the love and lifelong commitments of these wonderful couples would have gone against my faith, the ministry where I was called, and most of all, against God’s amazing hospitality and welcome where love and justice meet together.” --Rev. Jane Adams SpahrHere are some posts of mine about her work.

Singer, songwriter, guitar player, and poet, Andrew McKnight is my guest.  He performed a benefit concert for us a few months ago to raise awareness against mountain top removal mining.   He sings about the people, places, and passions of Appalachia:Since permanently leaving his corporate environmental engineering career in 1996, award-winning folk and Americana artist Andrew McKnight's musical journey has traced over half a million miles of blue highways, and earned him a wealth of critical acclaim and enthusiastic fans for his captivating performances and five CDs.While he was in the neighborhood, he stopped by the studio, talked with me and sang a few of his songs.  I have the interview and the songs he sung just for you this week on Religion For Life!

Rev. Landon Whitsitt is the Vice Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)   He is the author of Open Source Church:  Making Room for the Wisdom of All.  Drawing his metaphor from open source software, he suggests the church of the future would do well to consider being "open source" regarding welcoming new people and new ideas.  He was the Theologian In Residence at Tusculum College in February 2012.  He graciously agreed to visit the WETS studio and talk with me on Religion For Life.He blogs at landon whitsitt (dot) com

Cultural anthropologist, Carol Delaney, returns to Religion For Life to discuss her latest book, Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem.  We know the children's rhyme:  "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue."  But why?  Because he wanted to find gold in order to start a crusade to conquer Jerusalem for the Christians so that Christ would return.   Professor Delaney takes us into the medieval mindset and helps us understand Columbus in his time and place.   I discussed her book in a recent sermon and you can hear her provocative thesis on Religion For Life.

Professor Thomas Hill is clinical assistant professor at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He is a peacebuilding practitioner and researcher with a decade of experience focusing on Iraq. Since 2003, he has made more than 20 visits to Iraq and has overseen the design, development, and implementation of a series of interrelated research and educational projects focused on the development of sustainable peace in Iraq. We discuss the crucial work of peacebuilding on Religion For Life.

On the next Religion For Life, I speak with Dr. Carol Landis, the president of the board of directors of the Green Interfaith Network.   The Green Interfaith Network (GINI) seeks to "build a network of cool congregations" in our area.   Carol speaks with me about the work of GINI including its advocacy for Tennessee's mountains. 

Cultural anthropologist, Dr. Carol Delaney, talks about her book, Abraham On Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth, on the next Religion For Life.  Dr. Delaney explores the roots of patriarchy by asking the question, what gave Abraham the right to sacrifice (murder) Isaac?  What is the legacy of this myth on the way we regard children today?

Sandy Westin served as the North American Regional Coordinator of the The United Religions Initiative or URI from July 2009 through December 2011. The United Religions Initiative seeks"to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings."A chapter or cooperation circle of URI is active in the Tri-Cities.  Ms. Westin talks with me about the United Religion Initiative's work around the world and in our neighborhood.