BLESSINGS! BLESSINGS! BLESSINGS! An Invocation for the Peachtree Road Race, 4 July 2017 By The Very Reverend Sam G. Candler From all over America, from all over the world, we gather today for the blessings of running and rejoicing, for the blessings of diversity and freedom! We are different today! We are runners, we are […]
Often times, the non-profit that I work for, Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, is noted for its strong Christian roots in Americus, Georgia due to its founder, Millard Fuller. What people usually do not know of this is that Atlanta Habitat was founded south of Atlanta on Koinonia Farm— an intentionally mixed-race community that persisted during […]
What distinguishes humans from other living beings is not primarily our wisdom but rather our ability to look toward the future. According to a New York Times article by psychology professor Martin Seligman and science columnist John Tierney, we ought to call ourselves Homo prospectus instead of Homo sapiens because human wisdom arises from our […]
This time of year brings graduation celebrations across the many campuses of Atlanta’s higher education institutions. This year’s graduating class was born in either 1995 or 1996. The actual events on the fateful day of September 11, 2001 are well chiseled into their memory, but more than likely via replayed videos rather than through direct […]
The Atlanta Interfaith Manifesto calls on all religious people to exercise the best of their sacred traditions to bolster the best of our nation’s constitutional principles and heritage. This is a particularly meaningful commitment for me, as it marries my two of my greatest lifelong passions: political science and the church. The daughter of a […]
“O Humankind! We created you from a single male and female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may come to know one another. Surely the most honored among you in the sight of God is the most righteous of you.” -Qur’an 49:13 This verse is often cited by Muslims as a scriptural incentive […]
Those of us working to denounce religious bigotry, to speak up against disrespectful and inflammatory rhetoric, and to bring society together in love rather than allow us to be divided by fear and hate, find ourselves living in difficult, even dark times. From this perspective, the Atlanta Interfaith Manifesto is a rallying call to equity […]
Atlanta’s burgeoning population with flourishing faiths of all denominations are healthy signs for any city. Many interfaith groups in Atlanta are engaged in their own way to bring peoples of diverse faiths closer in order to understand and gain knowledge of their beliefs, practices, and rituals but not to denigrate or belittle them. The Atlanta […]
When our Steering Group of 35 Interfaith leaders from all across Atlanta re-discovered the Minister’s Manifesto, published on Sunday, November 3, 1957 in the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution, something significant happened. We realized that the 80 white ministers who signed that Manifesto sixty years ago were standing up and speaking out for racial justice […]
In a few weeks, the Jewish community around the world will celebrate Pesach, or Passover, a time for remembering the Lord’s mighty acts of liberation on behalf of the Hebrew people, who had endured the shackles of bondage for four hundred years. The Lord “passed over” the houses of the Jews, sparing their children during […]