“Whatever our faith tradition, we all should take the dangers of interfaith misunderstanding seriously because all of us — Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, agnostics, everyone — are affected.”
“Raised Roman Catholic, Lady Gaga now makes plenty of spiritual statements in her lyrics, at her concerts and in public appearances. While she certainly espouses her own brand of religion, the strength of her spiritual sway comes not from her originality as much from her ability to give voice to the rising chorus of Millennial spirituality.”
“The fact is that the Western idea of religion did not reach Asia until very recently. When it did, the concept was so foreign that many Asian languages had to invent a new word for it (specifically for making diplomatic treaties with the Western powers who insisted on a clause protecting “religious freedom”). This puts Asia’s own traditions into a strange bind. Even now, we face the problem in deciding just what to call the ideas of Confucius or the Buddha. Calling them “religions” clearly doesn’t work, because Asian traditions look and behave so differently from what we know in the West.”
“Atheism and Judaism are not contradictory, so to have an atheist in a Jewish congregation isn’t an issue or a challenge or a problem,” Shrogin said. “It is par for the course. That is what Judaism is. It is our tradition to question God from top to bottom.”
“But the concept of self determination in the 21st century calls for a revamping of the traditions that have driven diplomatic history in the past, where the focus was on the nation state. Today self determination is more and more linked to the idea of empowerment, of women, youth, and the economically downtrodden. That notion takes us well beyond the questions of borders and national identity.”
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