“It’s good to have wings, but you have to have roots too”: Cultivating your own faith while embracing religious pluralism

Click here for an episode transcript. This is the second of two episodes featuring excerpts from authors who speak on religious pluralism and interfaith relationships. In this episode, Avery reiterates how opening oneself to beliefs beyond one's own can enrich one's connection to divinity and to humanity - rather than posing a threat to one's own faith life. The passages Avery shares in this episode come from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' Making Space for Difference, Philip Vinod Peacock's "Some Insights on Imago Dei," Rev. Jonathan Thunderword's From Christendom to Freedom, and Eboo Patel's Acts of Faith. Talking Points: - (0:00 - 3:30) Announcement - this podcast is now part of the Rock Candy Podcast Network! - (3:31 - 9:01) Peering out from our own boxes to avoid stagnation - seeking knowledge is an act of faith, not fear - (9:02 - 11:31) Rabbi Sacks and Philip Vinod Peacock on no one person or group fully representing the Image of God  - (11:32 - 16:02) Introducing Rev. Jonathan Thunderword - a Black, trans, omni-faith, multi-spiritual practitioner and author of From Christendom to Freedom: Journeymaking with a Black Transgender Elder - (16:03 - 21:03) Engaging in multiple religions in his search for faith that nourishes rather than harms; looking to his ancestors and being shaped by every tradition he's explored - (21:04 - 22:50) Introducing Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core and author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation - (22:51 - 28:25) Choosing between religious totalitarianism and religious pluralism - active commitment  - (28:26 - 36:52) It's okay to personally prefer and maintain your own tradition as your "home" - but leave the windows open "so that the winds of other traditions can blow through and bring their unique oxygen." Blessed Are the Binary Breakers is part of the Rock Candy Podcast Network. Find more shows - such as Bible Bash - at www.rockcandyrecordings.com. The theme song is "Aetherium" by Leah Horn. The other music featured in this episode come from "Dreamer," "Mod 5," and "Mod 4" by Jeremy SH Griffith - find more at www.jeremyshgriffith.com/home.