Islam
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Date: 21 August 2008
A Purpose-Driven President?
Rev. Rick Warren was the amiable emcee at last Saturday’s Civil Forum on the Presidency, featuring presumptive presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain. He is the pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch, in a year when the evangelical vote is reportedly shifting. Since the 1980s, this voting bloc has focused on issues like abortion and gay marriage, but this year, the agenda has broadened to include issues like poverty and the environment. The Saddleback forum reflects that range of issues – and it foreshadows what is likely to be a faith-heavy campaign this election season.
Jacques Berlinerblau, author of Thumpin’ It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics, and the blog, The God Vote
Kim Lawton, managing editor of PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
Saddleback footage and commentary available at Religion and Ethics Newsweekly's blog, One Nation: Religion and Politics 2008
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Date: 5 June 2008
Turkey's Most Famous Preacher
Some 84 years ago, Turkey—a predominately Muslim country—became an officially secular state, sparking an emotional debate over the role of religion in government. Into that mix walks Fethullah Gulen, a controversial Muslim preacher and activist. To his followers, he is a prophet of peace and dialogue. To his secular critics, he is a trojan horse of an Islamic state. Jane Carroll, author of a recent book on Gulen, offers her take. Dr. B. Jill Carroll, Executive Director of the Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice University
Commentary: Peace in Lebanon
Begins at 18:34
When Maureen left for Turkey and Lebanon last month, it seemed unlikely she would be able to enter Lebanon. Tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims were at a boiling point, and gunfire had broken out in the streets of the capitol. But during her stay in Turkey, it happened—a compromise was finally reached. Maureen reflects on being among the Lebanese people when their prayers for peace were finally answered.Maureen Fiedler, Host
Commentary: Wright and the White Gaze
Begins at 22:52
Rev. Rob Hardies, Senior Pastor, All Souls Church, Unitarian, Washington, DC
Einstein's God
Begins at 27:21
Most people have assumed that Albert Einstein, the enigmatic genius of modern science, was an atheist. But according to Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson, Einstein was something of a man of faith—a faith stemming from his awe at the great order of the cosmos. For Einstein, the face of God was revealed in the smallest details of the universe, like the curve of a cosine and the absoluteness of a prime number. As he wrote in the summer of 1930,
"The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious… To sense that, behind anything that can be experienced, there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity teaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness."
Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe
Gay and Lesbian Muslims, On a "Jihad" For Love
Begins at 39:31
A short passage in the Koran, along with a handful of quotes attributed to the prophet Muhammed, condemn homosexuality as a crime in the eyes of many Islamic scholars. A new documentary called "A Jihad for Love" tells the stories of more than a dozen gay and lesbian Muslims from around the world—all of whom stay devoted to a faith that sometimes doesn't seem to want them. The film is playing in select theaters now. Laura Kwerel explains.
Parvez Sharma, director of "A Jihad for Love" and Muhsin Hendricks, a subject of the documentary and founder of Al Fitrah, the first queer Muslim organization in South Africa
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Date: 29 May 2008
How to Follow the Bible As Literally as Possible
Millions of Americans say they take the rules of the Bible literally. So one man tried--all 700 something of them. Turns out, there's quite a mixed bag of divine do's and don'ts: everything from growing out a full beard and turning the other cheek to stoning adulterers (he did--with a pebble). We caught up with AJ Jacobs, a Jewish agnostic best known for having read all 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica, to find out what it really takes to become God's overachiever.
Guest: A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
Christianity's Image Problem?
Begins at 22:50
The Barna Group, an evangelical opinion polling firm, recently asked American teens and twenty-somethings for their perceptions of Christians. The results? Young people see Christians as "insensitive," "hypocritical," and "judgmental," among other unflattering traits. David Kinnaman tells us why the world's largest religion has gotten such a bad rap.
David Kinnaman, co-author of unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and president of the Barna Group
A Guide For the Perplexed
Begins at 33:31
Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal, Executive Director of the National Council of Synagogues, author of What Can a Modern Jew Believe?
The Sound of Rumi
Begins at 44:07
The poetry of the mystic Rumi has long been set to music, using traditional instruments like the rubab, an ancient stringed instrument from Afghanistan, and the tabla, an Indian hand drum. Three Afghani musicians stopped by our studios to share their interpretation of “The Song of the Reed Flute,” one of Rumi’s most beloved poems.
Solaiman Daneshjo (vocals and harmonium)
Zee Farzana (on the tabla)
Mohammed Sadeq (on the rubab)
