Not Left or Right, But Deep: How People of Faith Can Help to Heal America's Divisions
Originally published in USA Today December 6, 2022
We must fan the flames of spiritual renewal within our religious traditions to help them overcome dogmatism and division and to become their best, most life-affirming selves.
Three ways to foster self- and collective care at work
Love is a pretty big part of our workplace vocabulary, but that’s probably what you would expect from a place with a mission to help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world! But truly, love can have a place in any workday and any type of workplace, no matter whom or what you’re working for: customers, patrons, patients, the public, students, a constituency, a mission.
Be the Change: Love and a Living Wage
What would it mean to have a compensation philosophy grounded in our organization’s values of love, trust, authenticity, and inclusion? In 2019, we set ourselves on a course to address this question by establishing the Pay Philosophy Project. The goal? To create a compensation structure that is equitable and transparent, that creates a deeper sense of community among staff, and that is aligned with our mission.
Expanding Welcome: Retreat Fund Creates New Pathways of Invitation and Access
“All are welcome!” From our unique corner of the hospitality world, retreat centers like to picture themselves throwing open our doors and our arms to all. Indeed, many of us have put special effort into expanding the reach of our welcome, with sliding scales or pay-what-you-can rates, representation from a wide range of spiritual experiences, and more.
Yet, the dominant demographic among retreat center leadership and guests remains relatively homogenous in many ways. What more can we do?
Fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in group retreats
“Please describe how you intend to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in your proposed group retreat.” In 2019, we added this invitation to our simple group retreat request form for GilChrist. We wanted to begin gathering information from our facilitators on how folks were thinking about the connection between contemplative retreats and DEI work. Responses have ranged from very thoughtful and detailed to (perhaps) a little put off or confused. All responses have been helpful for us to see where our community is and what the opportunities are.
Do Technology and Mindfulness...Mix?
Walking into Wisdom 2.0—a conference where the Silicon Valley tech scene converges with a deeply spiritual mindfulness scene—is like entering an alternative reality. One minute, you might be trying on a BrainTap wearable headset to build your “brain fitness,” and the next, you’re sitting on a meditation cushion listening to a 77-year-old Buddhist monk.
It left me with a question: Do tech and mindfulness truly mix? Or does the ubiquity of our modern technology actually prevent mindfulness, prevent religious integration, prevent spiritual growth?
No Sustainability without Spirituality
War, environmental degradation, racism—it appears that polarization has a death grip on every aspect of our world, including our democracy.
We Need Whole Child Development to Help Children Recover from the Pandemic
More than two years into a global pandemic we continue to witness the effects of the Coronavirus, and one of the groups that has suffered most is children.
Transformative Friendships Build Bridges
In the early 2000s, I ran ballot measure campaigns across the country to ensure that LGBTQ people couldn’t be fired or kicked out of their homes for being gay. In these campaigns, hundreds of us went door to door, telling neighbors and strangers our stories in hopes that they’d see us as human. These were hard conversations. Many of us had to confront our biggest fear: that we would be rejected because of who we knew ourselves to be.