Compassion for difficulties / 22 Jul 2021

Reflecting On The Mental Health Of Immigrant Children Like Myself

Immigrant children face unique challenges which can often affect their mental health.

Compassion and Empathy, Longform, Relationships & Family, Turning The Mundane Into The Sacred, Uncategorized / 16 Jul 2021

Grief, Loss, Communal Mourning, and Tisha b’Av

Grief is something we do well…

Breaking False Dichotomies, Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, Hold Dualities Together, Longform, Longform, News & Politics, Spirituality & Faith, Uncategorized / 15 Jul 2021

Bully Pulpits and Pulpit Bullies

When President Teddy Roosevelt coined the term “Bully Pulpit,” the term “bully” meant “outstanding” or “optimal,” not a pulpit from which one could use their office to bully their audience. New data from Pew Research indicates that a rather high percentage of American Christian religious leaders could take a lesson from the former president when it comes to how they use their own pulpits when addressing political issues. Pastors Often Discussed Election, Pandemic and Racism in Fall of 2020 The polling results, based on the content of sermons offered from the pulpits of US congregations, indicates that a large number of pastors use the bully pulpits in which they stand, to become “Pulpit Bullies,” narrowing the mind or will of an infinite God, to partisan politics and specific policies. And based upon my own personal experience, and gathering broad, if admittedly often anecdotal, evidence, the same can be said for American rabbis. More than two-thirds (67%) of those attending US churches across the denominational spectrum, heard one or more sermons about the 2020 elections. But what they heard, varied significantly depending upon where in that denominational spectrum they found themselves, and whether or not they were in a traditionally Black church or not. People hearing about politics from the pulpit is not only fair but it should also be expected, given that for most people of deep faith, their religious beliefs and the ways in which those beliefs inform their lives, do not stop at the Church/Synagogue/Mosque/Temple door. If anything, people attend these institutions to be recharged so that they can take their faith with them into the wider world. This story is important, not because it speaks to a dangerous mingling of religion and politics per se, but because of how that mingling is happening. There is a vast…

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Book Club / 13 Jul 2021

A Summer Reading List… From Whimsy To Weighty

Your summer reading list.

Another Way Of Looking At Things, Breaking False Dichotomies, Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Compassion and Empathy, Inspiring Story, Longform, Longform, Spirituality & Faith, Uncategorized / 09 Jul 2021

Leadership Lessons and Serving the Servers in The Holy Land

Also by Rabbi Joshua Stanton You are standing in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, the Church of the Nativity looms before you, and you feel like the kid in the Disneyland commercial who says, “I’ve been waiting my whole life to see you.”   You are a Christian leader standing in the Western Wall Plaza and discover that you now understand more fully how and why so many Jews attach so deeply to this one spot in particular and to Israel in general, even as you also discover that you, as a Christian, may still feel fully welcomed and at home in that same place. That is the reported experience of so many of the Divinity Students and Ministers who just completed an eight-day Stand and See digital pilgrimage to Israel/The Holy Land. Despite the physical distance, they kept explaining that they were really there and that this was what they really needed, both personally and professionally, both spiritually and intellectually.  What did they mean? These rising Christian leaders shared openly of their exhaustion after nearly a year-and-a-half of leading communities amid a global pandemic and political upheaval. They shed tears and praised God for the first experience in months or even years, that had centered them, widened their perspective, given them hope, and provided tools they need to serve and lead with greater passion and openness. Even journeying online from home, they felt far from their day-to-day responsibilities and the recurrent stress of their callings, and yet they were readily able to connect their experiences to the biggest challenges and opportunities of this moment in American religious leadership.  They felt the warmth of fellowship that transcended denominations and ideologies.  They felt intellectually stretched even as they felt built up in their faith. With support, they opened wide their eyes to see the myriad links between the…

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