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It’s an Interfaith April! This month, at least nine faith traditions observe major festivals. As a program with a richly interfaith audience, we’re proud of the cultural and constitutional protections that have – for the most part – allowed diverse communities to flourish in the United States. As we celebrate this rare confluence of celebration and spirituality, we also acknowledge the ongoing struggle to ensure those protections remain in place. This week on State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, we’ll look back at some of our favorite conversations from past shows.
Folks from across the political and media worlds were shocked by the tragic death of press integrity activist Eric Boehlert earlier this month. Throughout his career, Eric recognized that a free and healthy press are fundamental toward preserving our democracy and enabling social progress. This week, we’ll revisit Eric’s elucidating conversation in 2016 with Rev. Welton Gaddy, host of State of Belief.
Few have left their mark on the fight for LGBTQ+ equality in the way that Donna Red Wing did across decades of courageous activism. A veteran of numerous civil and human rights organizations who was once called “the most dangerous woman in America” by the Christian Coalition, sadly Donna passed away after a fierce battle with cancer in 2018. In recognition of her powerful legacy, we’ll look back at her conversation with Welton on the show in 2016 as she was retiring from leading the influential OneIowa.
Ramadan is a demanding but rewarding month-long spiritual practice, occurring this year in April. A few years back Welton spoke about this holy month with the first Muslim Chaplain hired by an American University, Georgetown’s Imam Yahya Hendi.
This interfaith holiday season is as good a reminder as any that building understanding between diverse faith groups strengthens our communities and empowers us to overcome division. Dawn Kepler, director of Building Jewish Bridges, joined Welton in 2010 to discuss parenting in an interfaith context. We’ll revisit that conversation on this week’s show.
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