An Explanation of Forgiveness

By Dr. Sulekh C. Jain

 

Every religion discusses the concept of forgiveness in some shape or form. The question arises, then, what is forgiveness? I believe that it is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense and lets go of negative emotions such as revenge, with an increased ability to wish the offender well.

Muslim Women's Dress: The New Sensationalism

By Saadia Faruqi
Source: Religion Dispatches

Muslim + women + dress. Just type the three words into Google Images and you’ll get a mosaic of scary images – women covered in black from head to toe, and screaming headlines of violence and hate. Despite the fact that a significant number of Muslim women around the world don’t cover themselves in that particular way, or don’t cover at all, we have become attuned by our media to consider those restrictive images as representative of more than a billion people. So when we put Muslim + women + dress together, we refuse to see anything other than what we want to see.  

Religious Freedom, Anyone?

By Saadia Faruqi

Today is religious freedom day in the United States, a day celebrating the anniversary of the passage of the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom by President Thomas Jefferson in 1786. This piece of legislation effectively accomplished two things: it prohibited taxing people to pay for the local clergy, and it protected the rights of the public to express their religious beliefs without suffering discrimination. While two centuries ago most Americans were of the same faith, mostly Christian, in today’s America this concept of freedom of religious speech on an individual level becomes even more important.

Eat, Pray, Love... and Wonder

By Felicia Woodard

Eat. Pray. Love. The 2010 movie starring Julia Roberts adapted from the best-selling book by author Elizabeth Gilbert became a high grossing movie based on the author’s life. She went on a quest to what many would call “find herself.” Or “find God". She went to Italy, Indonesia, & India and each place took her on a different journey.  To not spoil it for those who haven’t seen the movie, I won’t go into it. But I will say that the movie’s response raises questions for me.

A Concert Celebrating Devotional Music From Houston’s Diverse Faith Communities

Source: Houston Asia Society

 

Houston is a remarkably diverse city — and in no domain of city life is that diversity more apparent than in its faith communities. Many communities in the city have created a sense of home for themselves through membership in churches, mosques, temples and the like. It is not surprising, then, that most of these communities have fostered rich sacred music traditions.