President Obama appears quite comfortable with religious language but clearly wants to defuse the strong, divisive rhetoric surrounding it. This was apparent in his inaugural address when he referred to the country as a “patchwork,” made up “of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.” More than just multi-religious diversity, the deeper, more contentious clashes between believers and non-believers...

Continuing my conversation with Bradley James and his time spent with Mother Teresa.  Bradley talks about a side of Mother that most people never saw. “People always ask me what she was like. “We know her as this Nobel Laureate, but what she did as a woman, a Western, European woman in Calcutta, India by creating that religious order in that...

Although faith is not an ethical value, its importance in driving ethical conduct should not be underestimated. In fact, the word faith comes from the Latin fidere meaning ‘to trust.’ According to the Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, “Faith is an attitude or belief which goes beyond the available evidence.” Bradley James is a composer, pianist, singer and public speaker.  In 1987, his...

Tenzin Gyatso is the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet. He is both head of state (in exile) and the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He is admired and esteemed worldwide as a man who has championed policies of nonviolence. His consistent compassionate nonviolence, even in the face of great aggression, led to his receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace in...

Continuing my conversation with Rabbi Rami Shapiro. How do you get people to look for the deeper, ethical insight in their beliefs? “I usually pull up all the stuff in the Bible that makes no sense, ethically. “A lot of people like to talk about Joshua at the battle of Jericho, where they knock the walls down, and there’s this great miracle...

Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya said: “To bring Truth to humankind, Reality creates Sages who carry it into the world. The Sages of Israel carry it as Torah. “To carry Torah into the world, The Sages ordain mitzvot: Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly…” Rabbi Rami Shapiro not only strives to live out this principle, but inspires others to do the...

Yesterday, Senator Barack Obama spoke out against the inflammatory remarks made by his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Last Friday, Wright gave a performance before the National Press Club in Washington that can politely be described as all show and no substance.  He blustered, he shouted, he postured and puffed, he drifted, he wandered and along the way he...

“The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security,” Pope Benedict XVI told the United Nations General Assembly in a speech Friday (April 18). “Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence… “…every...