That ever-shifting ocean can be frightening if you like all parts of your life defined for you. The implicate order (that’s all of us and everything else, too) is nothing if not dynamic; neat freaks will soon get pulled under by a rip tide and find themselves far downshore and out of air. Read more
How ironic, then, that in late mid-life I find myself mellowing, actually pondering an issue before leaping to a position without full information. How disconcerting, that life has taught me the nuances partly-hidden behind many of what I formerly viewed as forgone conclusions. Read more
Hospital chaplaincy is a challenging interfaith experience. Read more
We Pagans are not the only ones to experience judgment and condemnation for not being in line with the conservative branch of *any* religion. What it takes to make interfaith *work* is perseverance, compassion, and tolerance of ALL people. Read more
I've often said that if your religion isn't making you happy, you're doing it wrong. Religion, in my reckoning, should contribute to your happiness. Real, lasting happiness has, in my experience, stemmed from being in the world in a more skillful way, and my religion helps me do that. Read more
Why does a busy Pagan with a full life take time to go to a strange address to eat dinner with people I’ve never met and let them talk to me about their religion? Read more
Christine Hoff Kraemer, our own fearless leader here in the Pagan channel at Patheos, wrote a book and it's an excellent interfaith resource. It's short enough to be easily digested, its tone is light but but handles complex, heavy topics with grace, and it approaches theological concepts found within our community with a breadth of understanding lacking in many introductory books. Read more
As a pagan representative of the board, I was delighted when the facilitator of “Interfaith Journeys” asked if I would speak on my life journey of being a pagan in the Bible belt. I started my talk that morning with letting the crowd know that “being Pagan means that typically, on Sunday mornings, I’m still in bed.” That got a good laugh... Read more
For me, Justice isn't just a good idea. Her sisters are Order and Peace, daughters of Themis and Zeus. Perhaps Liberty is another sister and Columbia a young cousin. While my religious belief more than touches on the civic parts of life, reverence for Justice, Order, Peace, and Liberty means a government that is not led by the principles of a single religion-- not even mine. Read more
I came to interfaith work through self-interest and self-preservation. In the 1990s, my Wiccan spiritual community faced challenges that included direct threats of physical violence, protesters at public rituals who read Bible verses loudly enough to wake the Ancestors and shrines on private property desecrated by unknown perpetrators who were probably neighbors. Read more
Wild Garden
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