Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

“The buffalo was always part of our daily life,” says Harry Barnes, chairman of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council. “It was in front of us, it was behind us, it was around us. It created our shelter, our clothing, and that was an integral part of us. And then after we lost it, it was a major shift in our spirituality.”

“There’s so much to learn about ethical behavior in the Bhagavad Gita, the Talmud, all of the Old Testament, the New Testament…Islam,” says physician, philanthropist, former hippie, and Silicon Valley guru Larry Brilliant. His memoir is called Sometimes Brilliant: The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst Disease in History.

The majority of patients are Muslim, and the majority of doctors and nurses are Christian at this hospital near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. “The aim is to help people—to help the poor, to help the sick, Muslim, Christian, or whatever… We don’t refuse anybody,” says Dr. Salim Kunkr of Holy Family Hospital.

“Refugees are not the ones harming this country,” says Aden Batar, director of immigration and refugee resettlement for Catholic Community Services of Utah. “Ever since the refugee resettlement program started back in the ’70s, we have more than 3 million successfully resettled in the US, and those refugees are contributing members of our society.”

"Carols and hymns are amazingly succinct theological statements,” says Eileen Guenther, professor of church history at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. “There is more theology in a few words of poetry than you can possibly imagine. You can have a whole sermon in four lines.”

"This world is filled with so many problems you almost don’t know where to start. When you gather a bunch of people together there’s strength, and there’s encouragement in that…Instead of hearing a sermon, they come here and be the sermon," says Grace Community Church senior pastor John Slye.

“We’ve got to protect our congregation and ourselves,” says David Lee, a Presbyterian church deacon. But “how do you really do that if someone enters our facility with intent to do harm? It’s not clear how do we go about doing things.”

“These are shaky times,” says Christian gospel, R&B, rap, pop, and hip-hop artist Kirk Franklin. “I’m praying and hoping maybe one thing that I’ve said, from somebody who came from nothing, could maybe still give just a little bit of hope that it can get better.”

“When it’s time for prayer we say, am I clean?” explains Imam Talib Shareef of the Masjid Muhammad Mosque in Washington, DC. The ritual ablution a Muslim performs before prayer, he says, starts with intentions: “I intend to make the ablution for preparation to stand in obedience before my Lord.”

“We do have a higher rate of violence—not crime, but a higher rate of violence—than other industrialized nations,” says Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project. "Some of that, our high murder rate, is related to the widespread availability of guns and illegal weapons."

“Many people have forgotten about the crisis that’s occurred here in Haiti. Because of the 65 million displaced people around the world and the US election, people had forgotten about it,” says Sean Callahan, chief operating officer for Catholic Relief Services. 

“Everybody feels that sense of coming to the table together, dining together, sharing the meal together,” says Renee Boughman, executive chef in North Carolina’s High Country.

“Donald Trump captured 81 percent of the white evangelical vote. That was key, because if you take away the evangelical share of the vote, which is about a quarter, Hillary Clinton would have won by a landslide. Now, 81 percent is slightly more than Mitt Romney got, but keep in mind that this time around there were some evangelical leaders who were telling their followers not to vote for Donald Trump,” says Jerome Socolovsky, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service.

“My hope is that every breath I take, every step is prayer,” says Nancy Bell, a Quaker who came to Three Rivers and began receiving spiritual direction from the Benedictine monks at St. Gregory’s Abbey. “Work can be a meditation, and so I try to do what seems to be the thing to do in the moment. Basically I just do simple, everyday things. I guess gratitude probably would be my major prayer. Just being thankful.”

“When you walk into the voting booth, I’ve compared it to the holy of holies in the ancient temple. A curtain is closed behind you. You are alone with your God and your vote. People will cast their votes listening to their hearts,” says Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance.