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Video: When Politics are Sacralized: Comparative Perspectives on Religious Claims and Nationalism

September 28, 2021

Authors of the new edited book, "When Politics Are Sacralized" (Cambridge University Press, 2021), reflect on how religious claims undergird and obscure settler colonial realities and why and how religious and political claims are fused to produce and entrench state violence.

The panelists also discussed the contemporary manifestations of religion and political violence in Palestine/Israel within a deeper history and interrogation of Christian European modernity.... Read more about Video: When Politics are Sacralized: Comparative Perspectives on Religious Claims and Nationalism

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Video: Weather Reports: The Climate of Sacred Land Protection

September 27, 2021

This conversation is part of the series "Weather Reports: The Climate of Now." The featured speaker for this second installment was Gwich’in activist Bernadette Demientieff. 

Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, discussed why sacred land protection matters to indigenous communities. In this video, learn how her community in Alaska is standing strong to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—Coastal Plain from becoming an oil and gas reserve. “Our identity is non-negotiable,” she says. “We will never sell our culture and our traditional lifestyle for any amount of money.”... Read more about Video: Weather Reports: The Climate of Sacred Land Protection

Silwan

Video: Between the Sacred and the Profane in Contemporary Jerusalem: The case of Silwan

September 21, 2021

This panel of scholars and activists included Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Hebrew University, Nadav Weiman, Breaking the Silence, and Toufic Haddad, Kenyon Institute. They examined the case of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan and the plans to establish the City of David theme Park in its place. Panelists discussed the role of biblical landscapes and settlers’ theologies in contemporary entrenchment of violence. They focused on convergences of secular, settler, and Kahanist ideologies and their manifestations in the realities of displacement and erasure in East Jerusalem and beyond.... Read more about Video: Between the Sacred and the Profane in Contemporary Jerusalem: The case of Silwan

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Video: Weather Reports: A Burning Testament to Climate Collapse

September 20, 2021

This conversation is part of a ten-week series of online conversations with poets, writers, public servants, theologians, biologists, scholars, and activists who are engaged in the spiritual reckoning and awakening surrounding climate collapse, sacred land protection, and planetary health. 

The featured speaker for this first installment in the series was British filmmaker Lucy Walker.

Following the aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fire (the deadliest in California’s history), British filmmaker Lucy Walker directed “Bring Your Own Brigade” (2021). The film urgently asks: why are catastrophic wildfires increasing in number and severity around the world, and what can be done about it? Clips of the groundbreaking film were shown throughout the conversation, even as the American West continues to burn.... Read more about Video: Weather Reports: A Burning Testament to Climate Collapse

Boston Vaccine Day

Boston Vaccine Day Held In Roxbury

September 19, 2021

"Reverend Erica Williams with the Harvard Divinity School told people at the event that getting vaccinated is not just a public health issue, but a political one. She encouraged them to get others vaccinated and to stand up."

“Right here in Roxbury, you got over 48% of the folks living in poverty,” Williams said. “It’s not enough for you to talk about what’s going on.”

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Could the U.S. Government Take Nonviolence Seriously?

September 3, 2021

Susan Hayward, associate director of the religious literacy and the professions initiative at HDS, weighs in on what peacebuilding efforts look like and how religion comes into play in Sojourners article by Mitchell Atencio.

"After 20 years of war and violence under four different presidents — and the deaths of more than 172,000 people — the United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan on Monday.

For many, ending the war in Afghanistan seems like a step toward a more peaceful future. But even in the process of ending a war...

Read more about Could the U.S. Government Take Nonviolence Seriously?