Inter-Faith - Healthy Pages Forum

Choose love

Principled — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 18:35:44 +0000

With the horrific news from New Zealand today, my heart goes out to all the victims and their families and friends. What is the answer in a world increasingly polarised by hatred? Surely it's love? This is a remarkable account of a remarkable man. CHOOSE LOVE "Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life, whether it was a few days or many years, loving every person I came in contact with." Love and peace to all." Judy

Video really worth watching and learning from

Principled — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 10:43:03 +0000

Hi everyone, a friend just sent me this - and gosh, I would love all hate preachers (religious or not) to see this.And besides, it speaks to everyone - we all hold opinions of others, sometimes not very kind, putting them in boxes and this shows that unless we listen and communicate with respect and patience, you can end up with crossed wires and hurt feeling and intransigence on both sides. What a brave young woman! I don't know how to make a video just appear, but here's the link. https://www.ted.com/talks/megan_phelps_roper_i_grew_up_in_the_westboro_baptist_church_here_s_why_i_left Love and peace, Judy

The answer to the hatred in Charlottesville

Principled — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 21:53:38 +0000

Praying about the shocking hatred and bigotry in Charlottesville yesterday, with its terrible result, I was reminded of the inspirational story of the Weissers, a Jewish cantor and his wife and how they loved the hate out of a Klu Klux Klan member. This is the short version, but I'd recommend reading the full version on the second link: In her book, Not By the Sword, Kathryn Watterson tells the story of Michael Weisser, a Jewish cantor, and his wife Julie. They had just moved to their new home in Lincoln, Nebraska in June 1991, when their unpacking was interrupted by a threatening phone call. Shortly after, they received a package of racist flyers with a card announcing, "The KKK is watching you, scum." The Weissers called the police, who told them it looked like the work of one Larry Trapp, a self-described Nazi and Grand Dragon of the local Ku Klux Klan. Trapp, in fact, had been linked to fire bombings of African-American homes in the area and a center for Vietnamese refugees. Trapp was wheelchair bound, nearly blind and suffering from diabetes, yet was a leader of the white supremacist movement in the area. At the time, he was making plans to bomb B'nai Jeshuran, the synagogue where Weisser was cantor. Julie Weisser was frightened and infuriated by the hate mail, but also felt a spark of compassion for the man in the wheel chair who lived by himself in a one-room apartment. She decided to send Trapp a letter every day with passages from the Proverbs. When Michael saw that Trapp had launched a TV series spewing hatred on the local cable network, he called the Klan hotline and kept leaving messages: "Larry, why do you hate me? You don't even know me." At one point, Trapp actually answered the phone and Michael, after identifying himself asked him if he needed a hand in doing his shopping. Trapp refused politely but a process of rethinking began to stir in him. For a while he was two people -one still spewing hateful invective on TV, the other talking with Michael Weisser on the phone saying, "I can't help it. I've been talking like that all my life." One night, Michael Weisser asked his congregation to pray for someone who is "sick from the illness of bigotry and hatred." That night, Trapp did something he'd never done before. The swastika rings he wore o began to itch, so he took them off. The next day he called the Weissers and said, "I want to get out, but I don't know how." Michael suggested that he and Julie drive to Trapp's apartment so they could "break bread together." Trapp hesitated, then agreed. At the apartment, Trapp broke into tears and handed the Weissers his swastika rings. In November, 1991 he resigned from the Klan, and later wrote apologies to those groups he had wronged. On New Year's Eve, Larry Trapp found out he had less than a year to live and that night, the Weissers invited him to move in with them. Their living room became his bedroom and he told them, "You are doing for me what my parents should have done for me." Bedridden, Trapp began to read about Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and learn about Judaism. On June 5, 1992 he converted to Judaism -- at the very synagogue he had once planned to blow up. Julie quit her job to care for him in his last days, and when Larry Trapp died on September 6th of that year, it was with Michael and Julie holding his hands. https://lists.hampshire.edu/pipermail/antiracism/2008-February/000703.html There are further details here: http://www.beingjewish.net/the-cantor-and-the-klansman.html And this is an interview with Rabbi Weisser about prayer: http://www.shalomlc.org/index.php/resources/publications/shabbat-shalom-magazine/125-interviews/365-cantor-michael-weisser-prayer

Manchester's attack and the Inter Faith Network

amy green — Wed, 24 May 2017 13:09:40 +0000

https://www.gateway978.com/news/national/manchester-arena-attack-message-interfaith-communities

What happens when love takes a stand...

Principled — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 00:09:59 +0000

When love takes a stand Holocaust Memorial Day 2016 is themed �Don�t stand by!� so it seemed timely to post an article about some of those who didn�t stand by during World War II.This is by my friend Tony Lobl and is very moving. This is one video he links to - get your tissues out: Sir Nicholas Winton Love and peace, Judy

A Ring of Peace in Oslo

Principled — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 18:55:49 +0000

Last Saturday a brave and inspiring act took place in Oslo. Here is a report about it in the Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2015/0223/How-to-encircle-Islamic-State-video And here is the Editorial from the Daily News Briefing: Editorial: The Monitor's View How to encircle Islamic State The Monitor's Editorial Board The common response to Islamic State�s atrocities or recent jihadist attacks in Europe has been to be afraid, to fight back, or simply to flee to a safer place. Some people, however, have sought an alternative response, one that displaces the very hate that lies behind such attacks. Last Saturday, hundreds of Muslims held hands in a �ring of peace� around a Jewish synagogue in Norway. They wanted to display symbolic unity with all Jews in light of recent attacks on Jews in Europe. Such events or words are rarely top of the news. Their effects take place in thought and are not as visible as bombs, beheadings, or battles in Iraq or Syria. They may seem mushy or useless to many. Yet they still startle by their core message, such as the fact that religion can never justify terror. An even more startling message has been one of forgiveness. After Islamic State (IS) militants beheaded 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, for example, Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom said he forgave the killers. He called on others to pray for them �that the value of God�s creation and human life may become more evident to them.� Loving those who persecute you may still seem as radical today as when Jesus preached and practiced the idea two millenniums ago. Yet when Muslims, Jews, or Christians rise up and act on the idea in the face of today�s bigoted violence, it should not be ignored.

Brahma Kumari interview today

Principled — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 07:16:08 +0000

Hi everyone, just in case you are reading this today - Sunday 13th, Clare Balding will be interviewing a Brahma Kumari at about 8.20 on BBC Radio 2. I know that at least a few of you here will be interested! If you miss it, you can go to Listen again for a week. The Good Morning Sunday webpage is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0495l82 Love and peace, Judy PS Just listened to it and it's actually an interview with the son of a Brahma Kumari who has written a book about how his childhood world was turned upside down (but not in a bad way) when he was eight and his father had an epiphany (not quite the right word in this context!) Will Hodgkinson wrote a book "The House Is Full Of Yogis" about his experience. It was a very sympathetic interview.

Interfaith quotes

Principled — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 19:32:40 +0000

A friend just sent me this link and I enjoyed the slideshow, so thought I'd share it here. Interfaith Quotes From Religious Thinkers Despite their differences, all religions share a similar message of peace and tolerance. In the history of faith, there are so many beautiful and inspiring thoughts about interfaith cooperation and fellowship. Love and peace, Judy

'the truth' is out there...?

Crowan — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:02:01 +0000

This arose from a conversation last weekend with a friend who has been a very devout Christian before he found shamanism, when we were talking about differences between shamanism and other religions. We decided that one difference was that most religions say that their adherents have found 'the truth'. Basically, it's about maintenance after that - i.e. keeping the commandments of whatever the religion is. With shamanism we�re given the means to find out �the truth� for ourselves. Having thought about this a bit more since then, I'm not certain that this applies to other religions than the three common monotheistic ones (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). In some (I think Spiritualism is one of these) the adherents also come to conclusions about 'the truth' from experience. And the Chinese religion doesn't really have any rules, as such. So, I thought I'd put it on here to see what others have to say about this.

Why do we celebrate?

Crowan — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:45:14 +0000

At our local Shamanic Group meeting for Samhain we have a long and interesting discussion about why we celebrate (in our case, The Eight Festivals). No conclusions of course, and no right or wrong answers - although the most common answer was "haven't really thought about it..." So - I'd be really interested in what you celebrate and why you (both as a member of your religion and as an individual) celebrate the events/days etc. that you do.