A collaboration of The Center for Spirituality & Practice
and the Fetzer Institute
April 10, 2020
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Content Update
Dear Colleagues,
It's sobering to read
in the news
that
"the Department of Homeland Security warned the faith-based community ahead of Passover and Easter about an 'increase in online hate speech intended to encourage violence' or use the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to spread hatred." Even as we keep a safe physical distance from each other, we need to be spiritually closer than ever, and our ability to understand, respect, and support each other across faith lines needs to grow by leaps and bounds.
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To help meet this need, we have put together ten ways of
Practicing Democracy through Multifaith Engagement in this new guide
. Some of them, like Take a Multifaith Road Trip (#4), can simply be hopes and dreams for now, since writing on this guide began long before the pandemic and its special social structures set in. But others, like Share What's Real (#8) and Practice Unity (#9) can happen any time. We encourage you to let the ideas in this guide spark your own creative means to reach out across boundaries and express solidarity with those of other faiths. We also offer this guide as
a free, downloadable pdf
.
We wish you every blessing in this Holy Week, whether you celebrate Passover, Easter, the resurgence of Spring, or other ways of affirming that, in the words of philosopher Paul Brunton, "life remains what it is, deathless and unbound."
Salaam, Shalom, Shanti, Peace,
The Practicing Democracy Project Team
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Upcoming in Democracy Mentors
John Muir
, the first modern environmentalist, devoted his life to exploration, celebration, and preservation of wilderness. He helped us stop and look at what we might otherwise walk by and overlook, and left a legacy instituted in The Sierra Club, our national parks, and his copious writings.
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Films on Practicing Democracy
Directed by Chris Durrance and Barak Goodman
What can citizens do to protect the fragile American democracy? This instructive and inspiring film shows how voters who object to gerrymandering are fighting to end this manipulation of the people's right to fair representation.
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Books on Practicing Democracy
By Ganesh Sitaraman
Political change does not come easily, but we greatly need a "revival of the ethic necessary for democratic citizenship and community solidarity." Sitaraman sees an opening toward a Great Democracy, but it will take a willingness to play hardball, finding leaders with courage, organizing and mobilizing the grassroots, and sequencing policy to build power.
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Children's Books on Practicing Democracy
By Nancy Churnin
Born in 1887 and undeterred by social standards of the time, Laura Wheeler Waring let her passion for chestnut, topaz, ebony, russet, and all the other nuances of color she could see in the eyes and skin of her family take her work all the way to the National Portrait Gallery.
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A democracy's health is best reflected in examples of how people practice it through their commitments to shared values and virtues. In this weekly blog, started last October, we present stories of democracy-in-practice. If you would like to submit a post for consideration,
please email us
.
Here are the most recent posts:
Posted by Aizaiah Yong
Posted by Aizaiah Yong
Posted by Lindsay McLaughlin
Posted by Donna Schaper
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By Julia Davis
Ceremony
by Leslie Marmon Silko looks at democracy through the lens of loss, discovery, and healing on a Laguna reservation in New Mexico as Tayo, a mixed race veteran, returns from combat and struggles to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder. This e-course is part of
the We the People Book Club
, which explores American values and visions in literature.
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by Various Presenters
To provide additional support for people at this time, we have selected some of our e-courses available on-demand that address needs arising in this unusual time. They cover handling difficulties, staying healthy, and developing your contemplative practice. All courses on this list are available at a 30 percent discount. As always, we also have
e-courses with Practice Circles
-- forums open 24/7 -- that allow you to be in touch with people throughout Spirituality & Practice's worldwide community. While we can't be physically close, we can surely share what's on our minds and hearts, in the spirit of democracy.
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