When I first started this blog + podcast, I thought I was going to concentrate primarily on the podcast and the blog would just serve as a simple way to announce new podcasts. The podcast was a learning podcast, but the blog was not really a learning blog.

Recently I’ve started thinking that this way of doing things isn’t serving my readers. Some readers have told me that they don’t have time to listen to the podcast just yet for various reasons but will do so when they have some more time. Well, that time may never come and so they may not get the opportunity to hear the content.

So I started asking myself: instead of having to wait for a chunk of time to open up in their lives to listen to the podcast, why am I not providing them self-contained pastries of information right in a blog post? Why am I saving all the content for the podcast? Why don’t I start sharing the content in bite-sized blog posts as well? Wouldn’t it be valuable to read a few sentences or a few paragraphs during our busy day and enjoy a moment of reflection and learning? Wouldn’t that be worthwhile?

So I’ve decided to post more of the content inside the blog posts themselves so that the podcasts won’t be the only source for that information. Does that mean I’m going to repeat myself? You bet. Repetition is a key to learning. When was the last time you learned something by doing it just once?

Yes, the ideas I share with you in the blog posts will mirror the ideas I talk about on the podcasts and vice versa. But sometimes I may go into more detail in a blog post and sometimes I may do it in the podcast. My goal is to have the blog and the podcast reinforce and cross-fertilize each other. That way you get exposed multiple times to the same content and then you have a better chance of learning it: by reading it *and* listening to it.

Some people like to listen, so for them I have podcasts. Some people like to read blogs, so for them I’ll have the blog posts. Some like a book in their hand, so for them I’m working on a couple of books. Some people like to be taught in person, so for them I’m preparing some talks and workshops. This has all been a reminder to me that no matter how useful the content might be, it must be delivered to people in multiple ways so that they can take full advantage of it based on their moods and styles of learning.

But ultimately your learning will take place when you take these ideas and use them in your own life and adapt them to your own unique needs, far beyond anything I might have imagined about them initially. One of the greatest joys in my life is to help spark that process in you.

Are there other ways I can serve you better?

I’m all ears.

Summary
In this episode, I peel off the bandage so we can look at the ways religion has hurt us and how we can truly begin to heal. The moment we make the decision to forgive our religious upbringing is the moment we begin to see its gifts. Only then can we work creatively to heal the religions of the world and ourselves in the process.

Duration: 32 min 21 sec

Your Listening Options

1. Listen through your browser: click the play icon above
2. Listen through iTunes: click the iTunes icon on the right
3. Listen on your computer or your mp3 player: right-click the download link above and then choose “save link as” to download the mp3 file

Excerpt
“Many of us remember quite well how our religious upbringing failed us. The memory of those failures is vivid. If words like God, scripture, heaven, faith, church, prayer leave a bad taste in your mouth or just make you want to tune out—that’s a strong sign that your relationship to religion carries unhappy memories.

And the effects of those memories not only burden us throughout our lives but also block our ability to talk about religion gracefully, to see any meaning or value in it, and especially to work creatively with it.

So when I talk about religion in a positive light or try to share some ideas on how religion can be upgraded with some new words and new ideas and new perspectives, since your teacup is already full of those painful unhappy memories, some of the ideas I’ll be sharing won’t have a chance of getting into your teacup. You’ll block those new ideas or you’ll tune out because on some level you have a deep belief that religion is just out to hurt you and nothing good can come of it.

From my perspective, that I shared with you in the first episode, it doesn’t have to be that way. Religion can become a force for good, but it needs our help. When we remain unforgiving, religion remains unforgiving. When we become forgiving, religion becomes forgiving. We’re linked, you see. So that’s why we want to look at our religious upbringing and start to identify those things that disappointed us or hurt us and we want to start to forgive them. And one way to start the process of forgiving is with an apology.”

Summary
In this first episode, I introduce my vision for raising our religious intelligence through religious education and how you can help, regardless of whether you’re a theist, a nontheist, an atheist, or something else altogether.

Duration: 29 min 48 sec

Your Listening Options

1. Listen through your browser: click the play icon above
2. Listen through iTunes: click the iTunes icon on the right
3. Listen on your computer or your mp3 player: right-click the download link above and then choose “save link as” to download the mp3 file

Excerpt
“Can I come up with a way to creatively and critically engage religion? Can I come up with a way to participate wholeheartedly in the religious life so that it feeds my body and mind and heart and everything?

Can it be emotionally satisfying as well as intellectually honest? Can I enrich myself even further by bringing even more intelligence, compassion, and creativity into the mix?

Can I bring in science, art, philosophy, psychology, all areas of research and study under the sun? In other words, does my religious life flourish when I add deep honest heartfelt questioning into the mix?

Can it help me come closer to understanding myself, all the people around me, and the world? Can my heart, like Ibn Arabi said in the poem I recited at the beginning, become capable of all forms and become inclusive of all things, all beliefs, all perspectives?

Finally, can I create new words, new perspectives, new models, new images of understanding that will help other people in their own lives?”

If you want to be important—wonderful.
If you want to be recognized—wonderful.
If you want to be great—wonderful.
But recognize that he who is greatest
among you shall be your servant.

That’s a new definition of greatness.
And this morning, the thing that I like about it:
by giving that definition of greatness,
it means that everybody can be great,
because everybody can serve.

You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.
You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve.
You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.

And you can be that servant.

(excerpt from his last sermon, “The Drum Major Instinct,” delivered on February 4, 1968. Text copyright © The King Center)

I celebrate with all people today the memory, work, and spirit of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968).
Read the rest of this entry »