Transcript: Live Author Chat with Krista Tippett, March 29, 2007

In Chapter One, you open with this line: "What is faith? What is religion? What is spirituality?". I would respectfully submit that the reason for the turmoil caused by "religion" is that most people confuse faith, religion and spirituality as meaning one and the same thing. The reality is far different. I define faith as a personal communion between me and my maker: religion is mostly man-made and has been manipulated by the clergy down the ages: spirituality is mainly a state of mind. Would be interested in knowing your views on this.

I too was directed here by Jennifer Hodge - thank you. Faith is a big topic in my life right now. I am a Christian and am getting a divorce. I am just now going through the stage of telling people. My husband has moved to his own place this week, and I will be moving into a new place this week as well. I am coping with so much right now, and though I am both emotionally and physically drained, I feel my faith is stronger today than ever before.

My question for you is about divorce. In the Christian faith, the Bible is clear that divorce is okay in cases of adultery. Most modern day Christians interpret this as a two way street - if a man commits adultery, the wife has biblical cause for the dissolution of marriage and vice versa. The one committing adultery is an adulterer/adulteress and anyone who marries him/her thereby becomes an adulterer/adulteress also (of course there are always provisions for forgiveness since all people sin and can only through faith be saved).

I have explained how most modern day Christians biblically interpret divorce; however, I have heard that the original interpretation was that adultery is a sin committed only against a husband. In biblical times, the wife was considered the possession of the husband, and if another person had sexual relations with the man's wife, the wife was an adulteress and the husband was free to divorce her (not vice versa). Her partner would be considered an adulterer/adulteress also and anyone he/she marries would become an adulterer/adulteress as well. My question is whether this is accurate historically and I would be interested in your thoughts on the topic as well. If this is accurate historically, does that mean that contemporary Christians are inaccurately interpreting Jesus' words? What stigmas are attached to divorce in general contemporary faiths?

As an end note, for those who do pray, I certainly could use extra prayers for the coming weeks as I adjust to being single again and try to heal a broken heart. Please pray that I will have clarity, peace, healing, and wellness. I will be mainly offline for awhile as I get settled in my new place. Please also pray that the move goes smoothly and that I will sustain strength to do all I need to accomplish. Thank you!

And my definition of FAITH is different, as well. As a healer, I consider faith to be a kind of "spiritual muscle" which I use to strengthen my clients faith, which they need in order to activate their self-healing ability. This kind of faith is a love relationship with the core of one's beingness. It is NOT a religion, or a type of spirituality. It is simply a tool which we can develop and use to help ourselves, and help others help themselves.

As a more "progressive" Christian, I have seen how the Bible has been misinterpreted and used to justify prejudices by the religious right. This goes against the teachings of Jesus himself and is very hypocritical. This bothers me. I also believe in respecting the religious beliefs of others. There is an abundance of religious superiority now going on among Christian fundamentalists. There is no tolerance of other religions. You are either Christian or you are in a "cult".

Krista,
I enjoy your newsletter especially, and really liked the points in the recent conversation on Exodus about myth being something that happens again and time again. working as I do in music (and having lived in Ireland), that's a definiton of sources in the tradition also. would you talk about your favorite music, and how that informs your explorations of faith? and are you a musician yourself?

Krista, Welcome to Gather. We look forward to your insights about faith as you answer Gather member questions during this chat.

Hello - I'm ready...

Lei and Carolion ask about definitions of "religiion" "faith" "spirituality" - I've been very aware since we started this program that all of these words have different meanings - and are loaded in different ways for many of us. I tend to think of them together as describing the place in ourselves where we ask questions of meaning - including ultimate spiritual truth. Religions are containers of ritual, text, tradition, art and story that carry these insights forward in time, across generations. But they are crafted and carried by human beings and so are prone to our flaws; we can distort them and drop them and break them and have to begin again. My particular interest is in the variety and richness of langauge and practice that human beings put to this part of life. I suspect that only in taking that seriously may we be able to grasp whatever underlying truths our traditions, our spirituality, hold.

sorry that was Firoze not Lei who asked about those definitinos. But to Lei's question, about Islam. My conversationas with Muslims have been very meaningful for me these last years - heartbreaking and enriching in ways I would never have expected. I believe a few things. It should not have taken the catastrophic events of 9/11 for the western world to pay attention to this religion of 1.2 billion people. It is a faith of daily lived piety more than beliefs of pronouncements and yet it came to many people's consciousness by way of violence and pronouncements and we have all been on a difficult learning curve ever since. Whenever 1.2 billion people are involved, there is a tremendous amount of diversity of life and thought, and I've explored that these last years - although diversity wihtin Islam looks different and must be udnerstood differently than within Christianity's hierarchies and denominations for example. I would recommend a program we did on The Spirit of Islam, which you can find on our webiste at speakingoffaith.org. This is a momemnt of tremendous ferment within Islama nd because we live in a globale intercommented age it affects us all.

Monica - divorce is like a death. I am divorced myself and I write about thsi in my book. Yet it is an epidemic malady of our age. AGain I'd love to recommend a program you can find on our webiste - on Marraige and Divorce. The approach of Judaism across the ages has been far more pragmatic than in Christianity; and Christianity itself is in fact quite ambiguos about this. Jesus himself, and Paul and the early disciples turn their backs on family in a sense - and that doesn't line up with rhetoric in our culture about Christianity and the family. I think that taking the Bible seriously means acknowlegging and learning from its complexity and contradictions that can be sources of enlightenment as much as its certainties - which are rarely black and white...All best to you

Carla - that last comment speaks to your concern as well. One thing I write about in my book is the fact that all of our traditions have a sense of mystery at their heart - in fact they hold truth and certainties in tension with the notion that there are things we will never understand fully in this lifetime. For Christians the plurality of our world may be a form of modern mystery. But it is one that hte Bible and tradition themslevs ask us to stand before in awe rather than fear, not defensively or with hostility but with our deepest virtues in play - compassion, humility, hospitality.

Krista, Mary I. from Cleveland, OH asks: Krista, From all of your discussions, what are religious leaders around the world doing to help their congregations assimilate into an increasingly diverse world? And just an aside, I really look forward to your show each week. The topics are so timely and relevant and the discourse is intellectually challenging. My husband and I have launched into some great discussions stemming from your show.

Hi Krista. I enjoyed reading the chapters, but haven't listened to your program.

I guess as a fairly new US citizen, I've sometimes felt like Americans put their faith in human institutions - in democracy, in the constitution, in the rule of law, or even in a particular interpretation of Biblical passages, etc. - and confuse that with faith in God. Religion and politics then inevitably get confused also. I've begun to think that might be a cultural thing, coming out of the way modern America came to be historically. How hard to you think it is to separate culture from faith?

Mary - I love to hear that the program sparks conversation in families - I do believe that words matter and when we can speak of these things more vividly we can live them differently. Yours is a big question, it would have infinite answers. Some of the faiths are less "exclusive" by nature - Buddhism for examplke, which many people incorporate at least in part alongside other faiths. And so it is no surprise that the Dalai Lama or Thich Nhat Hanh (I had a remarkable interview with him) ahve become leaders in interfaith dialogue. But there is also tremendous leadership on this within Judaism and Christianity and Islam, which may seem less open from the outside. I think there is a growing sense of the "Mystery" of this as I wrote above. I also believe that the task of living faith in a plural world falls to all of us - less and less to religious leaders in this interconnected world we inhabit. That's just a partial answer but I hope it helps!

Debra - One of the most intriguing conversations I've had on this was with a Quaker cosmologist from South AFrica. He believes that there are "ethical and spirtiaul truths" built into the fabric of the universe just as physical laws are built into the fabric of the universe. We don't invent the laws of gravity, he says by analogy, we discover them; and he sees religious traditions and people in that sense as explorers and discoverers of spiritual truths. But again, what fascinates me is the variety of ways we have to express these things. And there is a mystery I am content to live with that they will probably never resolve themselves into single insights or proclamations.

Krista, Since 9/11, I have been very surprised (and disappointed) that Islamic leadership, from all corners of the world, are not decrying the cowardly actions of militant groups (e.g., al-Qaeda) or the blatant misrepresentation of the Koran by these groups (e.g., their interpretation of Jihad). Do you have thoughts as to why this would be?

Tony - I think you may like an upcoming interview I"ll have with Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of NOrth America. Our program is also a podcats if you can't get it locally on radio. She talks about the "slow patient work "of creating a North Aemrican Islamic community that can be a model and leader for the rest of the world. She and other Musilms I speak with are self-ciritcal along the lines you suggest; yet at the same time I must tell you that moderate Muslim voices are simply not reported and heard by my fellow journalists (and thus by the rest of us) as those Muslims who drop bombs. This is a time of tremendous ferment within Islam. I'd direct you to a program we did called Cartoons and Chasm at the time fo the Danish cartoon scandal last year - you'll find it in the archives at speakingoffaith.org.

Steve M. from NC asks: The race for the 2008 presidential election has the most diverse group of politicians that we have ever seen. Aside from gender, race, and political viewpoints, how important a role will religion play in the election in your opinion?

Thanks Krista. I look forward to the up coming broadcast and will check the achive you mention.

Krista - I suspect moderation is not newsworthy, be it Islam, Christian, whatever. Or at least, it doesn't sell.

Sheila - I just sent you a response but it doesn't seem to be coming up. I'll try to recreate my thoughts. I AGREE that Americans have often confused, conflated Christian ideas in particular with tenets of American democracy and patriotism. ONe of my favorite thinkers/writers is the 20th Century "public theologian" Reinhold NIebuhr who believed that this was intensified as this country's geographic isolation and natural bounty were interpreted by founders and early citizens as a mark of the affirmation of God on American institutions. Niebuhr's form of "Christian realism" was complicated but one of his most important messages was the humility mandated by Christian faith at its core - a realization that it is a complicated thing to be human, that we will fail, sin, overstretch even and espeically in our greatest loftiest accomplishments. I think this kind of theology has resonance for all Americans in our time.

When Reza Aslan was in Minneapolis he said exactly the same thing - that moderate Muslim voices are not reported. It's a tragedy but I look forward to your conversation with Ingrid Mattson.

My husband and I are great fans of your show and I highly recommend your wonderful book. Thanks for making a difference.

Is there a good way to frame a political issue like healthcare in a way that reflects "values" rather than partisanship? Especially in the wake of both a Democrat (Elizabeth Edwards) and a Republican (Tony Snow) currently dealing with cancer, I would like to hear something like this discussed on your program.

Do you think that the Christians today focus more on the teachings of Paul and less on the teachings of Jesus? That seems to be my observation. In the conservative Christian agenda politically, they focus more on the abortion, stem cells, gay marriages, etc. and less on the reaching out to the poor and disenfranchised. There is a lack of compassion.

Krista,
My wife and I are about to have a baby and are just beginning the conversation of how to raise him (I'm Jewish and she is Christian). Our religions didn't matter to us in terms of our marriage and neither of us attends services etc. but now that we are bringing a child into the world the subject has arisen. Do you have any advice for interfaith couples embarking on the journey of parenthood.

Steve - I think it is going to be absolutely fascinating to watch this election. This time religion is not going to be a "Republican" issue but all the candidates will be talking about it. I know that all the public religiosity among politicians has made many people nervous - understandably so - in recent years. But as it becomes more diverse and bipartisan I think it will show itself for what it is - a natural resurgence of something American culture tried to compartmnentalize in a way that was not sustainable in the late 20th Century. We stopped talking about our sources of ethical and moral and spiritaul discernment. YOunger people - who don't have some of the baggage that led to that develo0pment - would say we stopped being authentic, bringing our whole selves to work or medicine or politics. What I know from my interviews is that in every sector of society there is a new interest in human wholeness, and the fact that spirituality is often part of that. But in those other sectors it's creative and constructive, not as inflammatory as it becomes when it enters politics.

Diana - I don't have a lot of wisdom on this but I do think issues like healtcare and poverty are coming out of their partisan boxes in wonderful ways - within Evangelical Christianity as within other traditions. Thanks so much for listening - and for your wonderful review!!!

I'm curious. Do you believe in a personal God? Do you consider yourself a Christian or just "spiritual" in a general way.

Carla - my reseponse to this follows a bit on that last answer. In a few weeks I"m going to interview Shane Claiborne, a young evangelical who's part of a new movement called "the new monastics" - young Christians who are taking vows of poverty, seeing that as a core Christian moral value, living virtues of compassion and trying to live as much like Jesus did as they can. I'm fascinated by these kinds of develpments and will try to keep shedding light on them!

I am interested in the answer to John Williams' question, Krista. thank you.

Josh -I can highly highly recommend a program in our archives, the Spirituality of Parenting, with a wonderful rabbi, Sandy Sasso. My staff and I did this porgram for ourselves in a sense. IN our time so many parents come from different traditions, or one is religious and one is not, or there are a variety of faiths within families. One of the important opints Sandy Sasso made, for me, is that unlike previous generations, we don't need to have all the answers. We can give our children our questions as well as our answers - or dwell with them as they ask large existential and philosophicla questions as they do. Children are little theologians. It's good for you to be preparing this now. I would urge you to listen to that show. And blessings!

John - and Sue - I write about my faith in my book. I've always found this a tricky quetsion to answer in a soundbite and I don't ask my guests to do so. I am a person of faith, a Christian. I was raised with a narrow sense of faith and when I came back to being a religious pereson, to taking religion seriously, I needed to know I could reconcile that with my mind and all teh complexity I knew in the world. As a journalist I interview people across religious traditions and with no faith at all, yet I find that the fact that I have a life of faith, that I am theologically educated, compels me to be more curious, more attentive, more serious about these kinds of insights from every direction. I would urge you to read my book if you want to know more about this!

Pat M. from TX asks: I am a devoted listener of your show. How do you come up with the topics? They are incredibly creative and thought provoking. How far in advance do you have to plan a show?

I grew up Catholic and my husband grew up Church of England (and my mother is Methodist). Even within Christian traditions, the question of how to bring up the children can be a very difficult one. But children seem to be much better able to cope with competing ideas than we are led to believe, and much better sometimes than their parents at recognising a place of agreement. I will look for that program.

Pat - Thanks. At any given time we are in various stages of production on a few shows - right now a program on life, gardening and an Eastern Orthodox Easter; my interview with the Muslim leader Ingrid Mattson; and a great talk I had recently with Jimmy Carter. We are always juggling a few agendas: watching the news to see if there is some story in which religion has played a role in which we can flesh that out - or talk about the REAL religious issues at stake - reframe a polarized discussion. Then we have an ever-growing list of enduring topics - issues of health and mental health, environment, science, etc. Then I am regularly grabbed by a person - like the recent interview I did with the Quaker biologist who studies the sonds of whales and the calls of elephants. It is not scientific but it is great fun. Our program is pre-produced - finished by every Thursday and then aired all over the country at different times.

Krista, I was particularly touched by the part in your book with Ted, the little boy in the projects of Philadelphia who kept coming around asking when the summer camp would open. I loved how people in the community pulled together to make it happen. I think a little time and human interest goes so far.

We can give our children our questions as well as our answers
what a nice insight, and well phrased. thanks!

Ann - I have Ted's picture in front of me as I write this now. Thanks for writing.

I don't think we have to live as monastics to have compassion. And I'm certainly not going to take a vow of poverty. Jesus was not poor and he has been quoted incorrectly that "money is the root of all evil." It's the worship of money that is the root of all evil--greed. And that is a problem here in America. Corporate greed, specifically. Also, the money being paid to CEO's in this country is way out of line with what the average worker is being paid. Are you familiar with the term, "conscious capitalism"?

Hi Carla - I agree with all you say. It's just that to your first point, about people emphasizing the parts of the bible that deal with rules over those that deal with virtues, I'm intrigued when I see new kinds of Christians taking this on in different ways. One piece of Jesus' life that I find extremely relevant to our time is his absolute insistence on living with/dining with/loving "the other" "the sinner" - these were the people he spent time with, not those who followed teh rules. And yes I absoultely agree that the New Testament has a huge amount to say about "economics" that is challenging and countercultural - and potentially liberating as even religious people in our culture have made "idols" as the text would say of things commercial.

Hi Krista- What types of books do you enjoy reading on your spare time?

Seems like Christian society wants to legislate against and separate ourselves from the other, instead of dining with them. Thank you for emphasising Jesus' different take on that.

Antonia - I read a huge amount for my interviews - and those are often quite serious books of theology, history, science. STrangely enough in recent years I ahve taken to reading only fiction in my spare time - and have actually become quite hooked on literary British mysteries - P.D. James, Robert Goddard. I am a very fast reader and frequent libraries.

Sam Harris recently wrote, "Faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail." Care to comment on this or on his Letter to a Christian Nation?

I like a spirited debate just as much as the next person, but I find it continuously frustrating to have conversations that veer toward religion and then instantaneously turn into a defensive argument about each partie's beliefs. What tools are there to avoid this and have an intelligent and reasonable conversation?

N. T. Wright says Christianity claims there is a God whom we can know most clearly in Jesus. Would you agree with this characterization of Christianity? As a Christian, would you agree we see God most clearly in Jesus?

John - I'm disturbed by this new genre to which Sam Harris belongs. While he is a smart person with his own experience of religion/faith/spirituality, and while there is certainly much to criticize in religion in the way religion has been used in the world, I find it the height of arrogance and impracticality for anyone to dismiss the entire religoius enterprise - including religious moderates, as Harris does. Violence done in the name of Islam, for example, is firsta nd foremost a crisis within Islam, and critique and ferment inside that faith is the only possible corrective, not the intellectual attacks of pundits. One thing I write about is the need for all of us to attune our eyes and ears to the whole story of religion in the world. The extremes grab headlines, but beyond that there is a great deal of beauty and kindness done in the name of religion, often with humility, which keeps those kinds of religious people from throwing themsleves in front of microphones. Religion is an elemental fact of human existence and has been forever. We need to understand it better in our time, not arrogantly and futilely wish it away, while simply deepening the culture of polarization which damages us all.

Mark O. from WA asks: I was touched and awed by how the Amish reacted with such dignity to the school shootings that happened. How different they are from some other cultures where retaliation seems to be inherent within their religious realm. How can one who is non-Amish incorporate their value of community into his/her own life and the lives of others?

Francois - a method I use on my show, that is extremely effective at turning these kinds of conversations around is quite simple but profound - to require people to speak in the first person, not with abstractions but in terms of how religious ideas look, intersect with experience, real life. If I can limit myself to talking about MY truth, not THE truth, what I say will be listenable to people across a spectrum and yet I can speak from the depths of that. This has implications for some of our heated debates. For example, when I spoke with two evangelicals on both sides of the gay marriage debate, they proposed reframing the debate with a new beginning, rooted in people speaking from experience rather than positioning. They proposed we start with these human questions, addressed from both sides: What are the hopes and fears I bring to this issue? I don't know if this sounds simplisitic to you, but if we can humanize the way we talk with each other, we can at least have some fo these conversations that in our public life never get past screaming and standoffs.

Mark - community/relationship/forgiveness - these are values rooted in virtually every spiritual tradition I know. I"m not sure where you're planted but I would suggest that you read about the Amish spirituality that intrigues you and also look for its echoes in the worlds that form you.

John - I am very drawn to the incarnational impulse of Christianity - this deepens in me the longer I live. I believe we can find God in Jesus and the larger point here is that God is manifest in flesh and blood, echoed in the natural world and human life, reflected in creation, in reality that is to say - not ideals.

Krista,
My niece just got engaged to a wonderful man. She is Jewish and her fiancee is devout Catholic. Now that they are starting to plan the wedding, there is dissension on both sides of the family as to the "what" and "where" of the ceremony. Any suggestions as to how to remedy the situation?

Hi Krista. Thanks for chatting with us today!

It seems recent mainstream entertainment has afforded people a vehicle to oppose established religious beliefs in front of a vast audience, particularly with Christianity. Films released in the last decade or two like The Last Temptation of Christ, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, and blockbusters like The DaVinci Code present ideas about Jesus that can run contrary to traditional teaching. Do you feel that questioning established dogma is a healthy way to explore our own personal faith, or is such "entertainment" leading to unhealthy factions among the faithful?

Paul C. from NH asks: In your book, you talk about "working together across traditions." I found this a very compelling portion of the book. In your discussions, have you noticed any significant shifts in this direction or is it something that will take a long time and a lot of work?

Ann, I don't have a much expertise here. I know that Harvey Cox of Harvard wrote a book a few years ago about a Jewish-Christian marriage, that generated a lot of interest. There are so many people in this situation in our time, there must be lots of experience out there for all of you to consult and draw on. Good luck...

I like what a woman said after 9/11. When asked, "Where was God when this happened?" her reply was, "God was working through the fire fighters and other people who reached out and helped others. I believe in an indwelling presence that exists in all beings, but is often ignored. Many times it takes a crisis to bring out that nature within us that sees the oneness of all beings and reaches out to help, even risking their own lives.

I think you dodged the "most clearly" part of my question about Jesus and God. What do you think about politicians who speak vaguely about their religious beliefs? Are they entitled to their privacy and to their complex, nuanced views? Are they weasels just trying to appear religious while offending no one? What, if anything, do their religious views say about their judgment and their values?

Krista, I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your book. Do you have any plans for a follow up. I'm also wondering if you would ever make a foray into a television series or possibly a documentary?

Paul - there is so much happening across traditions, once you start looking for it. In the book I do make the analogy, as you know, between how divided and separated different kinds of Christians were, even in this country, just a few decades ago. Those divisions are hard even to imagine now. I suspesct that interreligious understanding will also intensify rapidly, as so many of us realize it may be essential to the world our children are growing up in.

A C - My interviews with scientists are some of the programs I love the most. I find science and religion to be mutually illuminating in fascinating ways, more so in our time if you can look beyond the high profile clashes that get all the publicity in our culture. I don't think religion can be frightened of the insights and learnings of science - to be so is contrary to the grandest claims of teh religious enterprise. If, for example, Jews and Christians and Muslims believe that God created the world, doesn't that make God the original evolutionary biologist, astronomer, physicist? The God gene research is fascinating and even its non-religious proponents admit that it leaves room for a religious interpretation - that if there is a creative force/mind behind the universe (Einstein)/God, wouldn't that creator instill a capacity for apprehension and communication within us? I follow all of this with great interest. You might like our program with Sherwin Nuland, The Biology of the Spirit, in our archive.

Hi Jeffrey - right now I'm just trying to get back into the rhythm of making my radio show, which is what I love. I am delighted you liked the book, it was also a labor of love. I think I will write again, but not too soon...!

Kate B. from MI asks: Much to the chagrin of our Midwestern conservative parents, both my husband and I renounced our Christian upbringing. I am an atheist and my husband is agnostic and it has caused much strife within both families. Despite these personal choices, we allow our children to satisfy their curiosity about religion by letting them go to church with their friends of different religions. Like my parents feared my rejection of their religion, I fear that my children will fully embrace religion, which is very hypocritical on my part. Is this a situation that you have come across in the past? How does one come to terms with a situation such as this? I'm really trying to be open minded.

A comment from the peanut gallery...but to me, Kate, it's people that are hypocritical, not religion. It is people who go to church and read the Bible and choose to misinterpret the scriptures to justify their own prejudices. There are worse things in life than your children becoming involved in a religion, don't you think?

Krista, I just recently started listening to your show. I'm wondering if you can recall a show or two on Buddhism that might be in your archives? I would be very interested in checking them out. Thanks.

Kate - I think you are right to let your children explore this aspect of the world, their friends' lives. There are many people alienated from religion for varied and understandable reasons, and this leads to a desire not to subject our children to the same bad experiences we may have had. But this leaves them without anything to work with - without anything, if you will, to reject or to embrace for themselves. Earlier I wrote about our program on teh spirituality of parenting, which is about much more than passing on religion to our children. One of the things Rabbi Sandy Sasso confirmed, and kind of redeemed, in my experience is that our children provoke us to rethink and rediscover our own spirituality in fascinating unexpected ways. She also said this - we don't have to let our understanding of our tradition be defined by the worst of it, by what we've rejected. I just offer this a sfood for thought. You are not alone with these questions and concerns.

Jeffrey -

I'd recommend, first of all, Brother Thay - A Radio Pilgrimage with Zen Master and Poet Thich Nhat Hanh. This program is very special to us and to many listeners. A The Buddha in the World is an intellectually provocative conversation with a fascinating thinker, Pankaj Mishra - a take on the world by way of the social philosophy of the Buddha. Midwife to the Dying is with a Buddhist teacher who accompanies people to the final boundary of life and as a Buddhist has a take on this quite different from our culture's resistance to mortality. Those come to mind most readily. I hope you enjoy them!

Kerry Dexter - sorry I must have missed you before - Music is extremely important to me though I am not an expert, I just enjoy it and a very eclectic variety - opera, folk, sacred, rock. I think that spiritaul and religoius impulses come from the same place in us that art comes from - no wonder then that these aspects of humna experience have so often expressed themselves in terms of music and art. We consider the musical elements of our show to be part of the content, not just an adjunct.

Krista,

Thanks so much for the thoughtful answer on raising a child in an interfaith marriage. I will definitely listen to the program you suggested. Are there any books on the topic that you would suggest as well?

Hi Krista!

I once heard a news piece about a study that was conducted on people's idea of "the perfect religion." Based on the responses of a focus group, the study found that what most people really wanted was spirituality, but not dogma or doctrine. In fact, what people wanted was basically a day spa experience, a church that made you feel good--centered, relaxed, clensed and at peace with the world.

Spa-culture and "wholesome living" has in some ways become an agnostic's religion. What are you thoughts on this type of spirituality? Can it be called spirituality?

It might be the last thing on your mind at the moment, but can you tell us if you plan to write more in the future?

Unfortunately, we will have to wrap up the chat at 3 p.m. Thank you Krista for joining us today. It was a real treat. And thank you to all the Gather members who sent in questions and joined us for the chat. Until next time.

Thank you for sharing your spiritual insights with us.

Jeff Cusson - I did respond to your question at length earlier but see that it's not showing up. We're haeding to the end so I"ll try to recap. I"m not so concerned about religiously-themed entertainment challenging dogma as I am that it presents a mix of fact and fiction that most people don't have the background to separate out. For example, it really wasn't possible to figure out what was really provoctaive in the Da Vinci Code without a sense of what happened in the first few centuries of Christianity. And I agree with Luke Timothy Johnson who was on the program that we did on the Da Vinci Code, that that real history is at once simpler and more interesting than cinematic conspiracy theories can convey. And TEh Church itself may be responsible for some of this confusion. Why did most of us learn in Sunday school that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Teh Bible does not say this. The up side of all this is it may encourage people to dig deeper and for churches to be places of a new kind of learning and discussion.

Thank you all! I have thoroughly enjoyed this! I'd love to hear your thoughts after reading my book!

Thanks, Krista. Good luck with your book!

Back online for a bit. I just wanted to get back to the practical-experience definition of faith I gave earlier.
I find it most helpful to use the word "faith" to describe an energetic helping PROCESS, because that's how it works.

When "faith" is used to describe one or more religious BELIEF SYSTEMS, that's not constructive, and it's also inaccurate.

Faith is something that can be increased through practical use, just as one can increase mental or muscle power.

Thanks for answering my question! I think you raise a really good point about how popular films, books, etc, whether they are accurate or tend to bend the truth in the interest of entertainment, at least open up a dialog and encourage conversations around faith. Too often people are willing to blindly accept what is told to them, rather than using it as a basis to explore truth on their own.

Great chat! Thanks again!

I, too, echo Liz I am sorry that I was unable to join in this discussion. I am ordering your book this evening. Looking forward to other discussions with you. I also would like to thank my friend Diana Raabe for letting me about your book. You certainly have a wonderful dialogue going. On a terribly important & timely matter. TY.

I'm very late getting here. What a great discussion. My eyes flew to the words Krista's use of the words "human wholeness," and remain optimistic that we can incorporate the concept in the issues that she rightly notes become so politicized, and polarized, though the latter word has become cliche.

Diana, Thanks for the referral here. You say: Is there a good way to frame a political issue like healthcare in a way that reflects "values" rather than partisanship? Especially in the wake of both a Democrat (Elizabeth Edwards) and a Republican (Tony Snow) currently dealing with cancer, I would like to hear something like this discussed on your program.

I, too would like to see such issues discussed from the perspective of "wholeness." Whatever happened to the simple concept of right and wrong. Not "black and white" and rigidly political and the expedience of doing what appears to be good for the constituency, right and wrong -- right and wrong from the most basic and ethical perspective of "what is the morally right thing to do" to resolve issues which fragment us from the "whole."

hey i'm new

u guys there???????????????

Missy and Diana, I too would love to see issues such as health care, environmental care, the poor/rich divide, use of military force, etc. discussed in a spiritual non-divisive dialogue. Is religion, faith and spiritualiy truly relevant if it does not call us to address these issues of our human existence?
It seems to me that right and wrong can be just as divisive as black and white; as personal moral judgment enters into each of our judgments of right and wrong. For me, I think it makes sense for me to have my judgment of right and wrong for my behavior, but I don't think I can make the judgment of another's right and wrong. There are powerful examples - gay marriage, stem cell research, abortion, etc. - which different people apply different moral judgments of right and wrong. For me, it comes down to simply caring, caring about my family, my friends, my neighbor, my community, my country, my planet - just caring without judging.

Hi Krista, thank-you so much for joining Intentional Christian Families. In keeping with "Speaking of the Faith," I hope is to learn more about my own religion in relation to the world. Religion has always been interesting to me and I look forward to reading your articles.

Thanks Krista:...What's your beliefs or comments on Jainism...And how many above are familiar with that religion?

Hello Krista,

I just wanted to say I am finally going through my currently over 6,000 pieces of gather new mail that is in my inbox on here. So with that in mind I have finally come to a piece of mail that was addressed to me in regards this article submission you have created to share with the gather community. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your piece with us here at gather. :o)