Links & Resources
Related Speaking of Faith Programs
- The Spiritual Audacity of Abraham Joshua Heschel
- [http://speakingoffaith.org/programs/heschel/]
- Abraham Joshua Heschel insisted that the opposite of good is not evil, it is indifference. Born into an esteemed Hasidic family in Poland in 1907, he was a mystic who wrote transcendent, poetic words about God. At the same time, he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and organized religious leadership against the war in Vietnam, embodying the social activism of the biblical prophets he studied. We explore Heschel's teachings and his prophetic legacy — his "spiritual audacity" — for people in our time.
- A New Voice for Islam
- [http://speakingoffaith.org/programs/newvoice/]
- Ingrid Mattson, the first woman and first convert to lead the Islamic Society of North America, describes her experience of Islamic spirituality, which she discovered in her twenties after a Catholic upbringing. We probe her unusual perspective on a tumultuous age for Islam in the West and around the world.
- Living Reconcilliation: Two Ecumenical Pioneers
- [http://speakingoffaith.org/programs/livingreconciliation/]
- Two people with unique perspectives both discovered ecumenism — the movement to reconcile Christian churches — during the Civil Rights era. They'll describe what they've learned about grappling with vexing clashes of difference, and why reconciliation among different Christians still matters in a multi-religious, post-Katrina world.
General Information
- The 13th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
- [http://www.13thame.com/believe/]
- More information about Vashti McKenzie, her Episcopal district, and the AME Church.
- Religion in Black America
- [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11736914]
- A series of radio stories produced by National Public Radio exploring African American culture and religion.
- The Most Influential Black Spiritual Leaders
- [http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2005/02/Beliefnet-Whos-Whothe-Most-Influential-Black-Spiritual-Leaders.aspx]
- Beliefnet lists influential African American religious leaders, including Vashti McKenzie.
- The African American Lectionary
- [http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/main.asp]
- A Vanderbilt University online resource guide with tools for African American religious leaders. Vashti McKenzie says this new project is "sensitive to the seasons of congregational life of the African American worship experience. It is a 21st century electronic resource that will inspire, inform, and fertilize the spiritual ground from which effective preaching will grow."
- Newsweek article on the religious make-up of the US
- [http://www.newsweek.com/id/142538]
- "Black Americans are the most consistently religious — and religiously active — ethnic group in the country. More than 90 percent of black Americans surveyed reported having a religious affiliation, and more than six in 10 said they were members of historically black Protestant churches. Moreover, black Protestants are among the most religiously involved Americans — 85 percent say religion is very important in their lives, and more than half say they attend worship services at least once a week."