Recently in Interfaith Category

Update: A Philadelphia judge acquitted 12 religious activists of trespass and disorderly conduct in protests at an allegedly rogue Philadelphia gun store, according to the AP.

One by one, defendants in the daylong trial testified about what led them toward the path of civil disobedience.

Melissa DeLong, 28, spoke of children in her after-school program who "fervently pray to get home safely." She tearfully described a Camden teenager killed in crossfire a week before her high school graduation.

"I had to do something to make it OK for a child to play outside," DeLong testified.

Update.

Religious leaders and other activists from the interfaith group Heeding God's Call go on trial today in Philadelphia for their part in demonstrations at a gun store. The charges include conspiracy, obstruction and disorderly conduct.

The activists were arrested in January for blocking the entrance to Colosimo's Gun Center in Philly. They want the owner to pledge to sell firearms responsibly. Heeding God's Call has partnered with more than three dozen Philadelphia-area congregations -- including Jews, Muslims, Quakers, Catholics and Protestants -- to work against gun violence, according to the AP.

Members say they want to add a different religious voice to the national gun-control debate -- one they say has been dominated for too long by conservative Christians opposed to firearms regulation. (AP photo)

Episcopal Bishop Nathan Baxter of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania and Samia Malik, a member of the regional chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, are among the panelists for an interfaith discussion called "Faith, Politics & Society:
Muslims in America" at 7 p.m. tonight on WITF television.

The keynote speaker is Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University. Other panelists include Homer C. Floyd, executive director of the state Human Relations Commission; and Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, director of the Religious Studies Department at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.

Last Thursday, groups of 10 strangers met in private homes around central Pennsylvania to take part in the Amazing Faiths Dinner Dialogues.

They shared a meal and discussed the role of faith or spirituality in their lives. During dinner, they listened quietly as each person answered a question -- all different -- on the card he or she received when they arrived.

I don't usually comment on things such as news releases about campaign committees.

But something landed in my inbox today that says a United Methodist pastor from York has joined the Obama-Biden campaign's Interfaith Steering Committee in Pennsylvania.

The Rev. Drue Sherman, who served Aldersgate UMC in York Township from 1993-2000, is a recently retired pastor with the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Read the entire release at the jump.

The Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University is the keynote speaker at a "Muslims in America" forum Wednesday evening at the WITF Public Media Center in Harrisburg.

Billed as an "interfaith discussion of challenges facing Muslims in America," Imam Yahya Hendi will be joined by panelists Samia Malik of the Central PA Chapter of Council of American-Islamic Relations, Bishop Nathan Baxter of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, Homer C. Floyd of the state Human Relations Commission and Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, the director of religious studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College near Philadelphia.

Doors open at 5:45 p.m., and the event starts at 6:30 p.m.

Check back later in the month for the launch of our new religion and ethics blog.

In the meantime, you can find coverage of faith-related news here.