The Chautauquan Daily

Reporter

June 2020 - August 2020

The Chautauquan Daily is the official newspaper of Chautauqua Institution. My work at CHQ involved over 50 stories with my byline…


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Satpal Singh explores Sikhism creation and how to honor humans’ shared divine light on last Interfaith Friday

Satpal Singh gave the last Interfaith Friday lecture of the 2020 season on his perspective of creation and humanity as a Sikh at 2 p.m....

August 30, 2020
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Dr. Robert J. Wicks touches on burnout, resiliency and how to kindle self care

A computer screen separated clinical psychologist Dr. Robert J. Wicks and his audience, but it didn’t phase him. From his Pennsylvania home, he looked at...

August 29, 2020
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Jeremy Ben-Ami envisions a future with the political will for a two-state solution

Jeremy Ben-Ami founded J Street in 2008 with the mission to solve the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine with a two-state solution. As of...

August 27, 2020
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Jeremy Ben-Ami from J Street to describe two-state solution as path forward for future peace between Israel and Palestine

Jeremy Ben-Ami’s lecture, “Israel-Palestine 2020: One State Remains the Problem & Two States the Solution” follows the Rev. Mitri Raheb’s talk on the same subject...

August 26, 2020
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The Rev. Mitri Raheb looks to future with hope in spite of Israel and Palestine’s present

At 58 years old, the Rev. Mitri Raheb has lived through 11 wars and battles in Bethlehem, Palestine. “On average, every five years we go...

August 26, 2020
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Bishop Minerva Carcaño calls for community with the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bishop Minerva Carcaño said amidst U.S.-caused inequality in the country and abroad, reaching out to help vulnerable people to bring into communities is an antidote....

August 25, 2020
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Hazon’s Rabbi Sid Schwarz calls for humans to take up responsibility for creating a better world on Interfaith Friday

Before he began his Interfaith Friday lecture, Rabbi Sid Schwarz said his take on progressive Judaism was one of many. “No one should be so...

August 24, 2020
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The devil isn’t in the details, Fr. Richard Rohr says, but in the military-industrial complex and other institutions

The demonic kind of evil is any system that is above reproach and is too big to fail, Fr. Richard Rohr said in his final...

August 21, 2020
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Rabbi Sid Schwarz still relies on old history to describe creation within progressive Judaism on Interfaith Friday

When Rabbi Sid Schwarz relays progressive Judaism for Week Eight’s Interfaith Friday, he said that he will also be balancing a millennia of Rabbinic commentary....

August 21, 2020
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Fr. Richard Rohr says true evil in the flesh is really rooted in the ego, but it can still be killed

People sin at an unconscious level, said Fr. Richard Rohr, similar to Buddhism’s concept of delusion. The way that Christianity has centered sin on the...

August 20, 2020
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Fr. Richard Rohr describes how the world’s systems and communities put evil on autopilot

The world puts evil on autopilot. “Evil is an unconscious set of social agreements,” said Fr. Richard Rohr. In his second lecture of the Interfaith...

August 19, 2020
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Fr. Richard Rohr balances inherent good against equally inherent evil in his first lecture for the week

Fr. Richard Rohr said that most religions don’t know what to do with evil — and within Christianity, both God and humans are complicit in...

August 18, 2020
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In Sufism, humans bring the divine to Earth, said Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith

In Sufism, life began when Allah gave a deep sigh of compassion and poured heavenly qualities into Earth. “It’s said that the divine was pregnant...

August 17, 2020
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In keynote lecture, Fr. Richard Rohr to explore capacity for evil in humans

In 2019, people flooded the Hall of Philosophy to see Fr. Richard Rohr in person during his week as chaplain and speaker for the Interfaith...

August 17, 2020
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Ingrid Mattson said in Islam, life is a shared journey — so be a good traveler

“Be in this world as if you are a traveler” is a teaching from Islam prophet Muhammad. In her lecture of the same name, Ingrid...

August 16, 2020
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The divine on Earth: Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith describe Sufi perspective on creation

For 20 years, Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith have led Sufi meditations in Chautauqua’s Mystic Heart Program. But Aug. 14 marks their first...

August 14, 2020
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Author Kent Nerburn relays what he has learned and unlearned from telling the stories of Native Americans

Before Kent Nerburn became an author, he was a wood sculptor. He changed his career after being hired in northern Minnesota to help high school...

August 14, 2020
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Rabbi Naomi Levy says religious verses can uplift and unite the oppressed

Is religion the opiate of the masses, as Karl Marx said? Rabbi Naomi Levy doesn’t think so. “Religion can wake you up to your power,”...

August 13, 2020
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The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor said the “spirituality of us” includes all living things, including plants

Whether a person joins a 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program or a social movement, whether they start a family or a nonprofit, whether they speak to...

August 12, 2020
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UCLA’s Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller defines lessons from the story of creation, including shabbat, on Interfaith Friday

The story of creation in the first Book of Genesis is not science, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller said. That doesn’t mean it should be discounted. “It’s...

August 10, 2020
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From the news section to obituaries, Columbia University’s Ari Goldman calls for religious literacy and empathetic objectivity

Columbia University’s Ari Goldman thinks that without religious literacy, a journalist runs the risk of misinforming the public. “When done right, journalism can educate and...

August 8, 2020
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With more deaths come more religious reporting responsibilities, says Columbia University’s Ari L. Goldman in upcoming interfaith lecture

Reporters on any beat are going to write about death in a COVID-19 world, Columbia Journalism School’s Ari Goldman said, and he teaches his students...

August 6, 2020
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Freedom Forum Group’s Benjamin Marcus lays out need for religious literacy education in American landscape

With an Italian Roman Catholic mother and a humanist Jewish father, the sometimes-heated religious conversations Benjamin Marcus witnessed between his parents provided “productive tension” that...

August 6, 2020
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Judy Beals from Harvard’s Religious Literacy Project calls for past and present context in religious education

Judy Beals’ favorite quote from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is also an antithesis to Beals’ pitch for injecting religion into cultural context. “Diplomats...

August 5, 2020
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Michael Martin of the Haudenosaunees extends the story of Sky Woman on Interfaith Friday

Details in the story of creation depend on who is telling it among the Haudenosaunee people — comprised of the Senecas, Oneidas, Mohawks, Cuyahogas, Onondagas...

August 3, 2020
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Linda K Wertheimer digs into Jewish childhood and cross-country student interviews and finds clear need for religious literacy education

On the day of the Chabad of Poway synagogue shooting on April 27, 2019, the late Lori Gilbert Kaye was there to sing the mourner’s...

August 2, 2020
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Valerie Kaur believes “Revolutionary Love” found in today’s protest movement will allow for US rebirth

Valarie Kaur said George Floyd and 5-year-old Skylar Herbert, who was the first child to die from COVID-19 in Michigan, died of the same root...

August 1, 2020
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History in the making underpins Interfaith Lecture Series

Human rights. Public health. Climate change. The novel coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated and exposed these issues. “(The pandemic) shines a spotlight on important problems that...

June 27, 2020