Revolutionary Spirituality

December 21, 2012 is rapidly approaching. Does it mark the end of the world as some have claimed? Or has the Mayan calendar been misinterpreted? My guest was Charles Lightwalker and we discussed the 2012 predictions. Charles recently participated in a panel about the Mayan Calendar as a part of the Body, Mind Spirit Expo that was sponsored last month by the Spokane Holistic Chamber of Commerce. This program originally aired on 12/10/12. Charles Lightwalker currently serves as Executive Director at The Family of Light Healing Centre located in Spokane, WA. Before joining The Family of Light Healing Centre, Charles served as Chief Executive Officer at New Age Resources, a Business Consulting and Marketing Firm, and prior to that he served as Executive Director at Community Services of the North Coast. Charles serves on the boards of Washington State Holistic Chamber of Commerce, the Metis Medicine Society, the International Association of Medical Intuitives, the Vibrational Yoga Alliance, the Metaphysical Resea

Whew... the election is finally over, but what does it all mean? Is God happy? Disappointed? Angry? Indifferent? And how did religion play a role in the 2012 elections, if any? I had a post election wrap up with my guest, Tracy Simmons, the Editor and Community Manager of Spokane FAVS (Spokane Faith and Values), an online source for religion news in the Spokane area. Tracy holds a bachelor’s degree in print journalism, a master’s degrees in communication and has reported on religion for about a decade, writing for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas and Connecticut. Join us for this fascinating conversation. This program originally aired on 11/26/12. Contact Information: 509-240-1830 or tracy.simmons@religionnews.com or visit http://www.spokaneFAVS.com or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SpokaneFAVS

Is it possible to be an atheist and serve your country in the military? Some would say no. My guest was Jason Torpy the President of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF), a national non-profit building community for atheists and humanists in the military. Mr. Torpy also holds seats on the board of the Secular Coalition for America, the premier lobbying organization for secular issues, and the American Humanist Association, which fosters Humanist community and ethics. Since joining the military in 1994, Mr. Torpy has been active with the nontheist community, addressing issues of separation of church and state and equal opportunity for nontheistic service members in Army basic training, Army parachutist training, military academy programs, and in combat situations. His education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Management from West Point and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Ohio State University. After earning top graduate honors from two intelligence

Pat Dougherty is a chiropractor in Spokane, and the former vice-president of the Spokane Holistic Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Dougherty has been organizing fairs for the Holistic Chamber for the past 5 years, and in fact, KYRS radio sponsored the first 2 fairs in the Community Building located in downtown Spokane. Dr. Dougherty is also a member of the International Association of Medical Intuitives and has organized fairs for them as well. Dr. Dougherty's latest project is a Body, Mind, Spirit Fair which will be taking place on November 10, 2012 from 10am-4:30pm at Unity Church on Spokane's South Hill (2900 South Bernard Street). The fair, with over 40 exhibits, will be followed by a panel discussion entitled "2012 and Beyond", featuring several best-selling authors and other luminaries, including Eldon Taylor, Mona Delfino, Dr. Meg Blackburn, Charles Lightwalker and Jon Waldrup. This program originally aired on 10/29/12. For additional information visit the website for the Holistic Chamber of Commerce or contac

We experienced technical difficulties with sound both during this program and also at the end when we lost the last few minutes of this interview. I apologize in advance. Reverend Percy Happy Watkins was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 4, 1942. He graduated from Bronx Vocational High School in June of 1961 and entered the United States Air Force in August of that year. After basic training, he was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, arriving in Spokane on October 7, 1961. He served active duty at Fairchild Air Force Base and also in Okinawa, from August 1961 until he was discharged on July 25, 1965, and then served two additional years in the reserves. He married his wife Etta in 1963 and raised his four sons in Spokane where he became the pastor of New Hope Baptist in February of 1990, where he still proudly serves. Happy is also widely known for his powerful rendition of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech, which he delivers annually at Spokane's King Day Parade, as well as at other venu

My guest Brian McLaren is a bestselling author, activist, and public theologian. He has been called a “spiritual genius” by his fans, and a “heretic” by his critics, and he proposes an "end to the cosmic death match between religions". We will be discussing his latest book, "Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? - Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World", which tackles an issue that he feels is of particular importance in the world today, how Christians should treat members of other religions. This program originally aired on 10/8/12. Contact informaton: www.brianmclaren.net

My guest Rickard Packham says he is descended from a long line of faithful Mormons. All of his ancestors in every branch of his family, for four, five and six generations, were Mormons, and his family, almost all of them, including brothers and sisters, older children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews are still faithful Mormons. Yet Richard left the Mormon church in 1958, when he was 25 years old, and then in 2001 he founded the Ex Mormon Foundation, serving two terms as its president. We discussed Richard's journery from Mormonism to Atheism, why he left the Mormon church and where his life journey has taken him since his departure. This program originally aired on 9/10/12. Contact information: http://packham.n4m.org, http://exmormonfoundation.org, http://www.postmormon.org

Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington, the Assistant Pastor of Unity Fellowship Church of Baltimore, MD, has been in the church all of his life, starting in the United Methodist Church, and serving in Baptist, Church of God In Christ (COGIC), AME, and Non-Denominational Churches. This year marks 39 years of service in Music Ministry. Dr. Washington is also the Founder of the Washington Consulting Group and the Social Justice Training Institute, which has trained over 1000 Social Justice Educators and Change Agents from across the country.  A native Philadelphian, Dr. Washington earned his B.S. degree in Therapeutic Recreation and Music from Slippery Rock State College, and a double Masters' of Science degree from Indiana University/Bloomington in Higher Education Administration and Counseling, with a concentration in Human Sexuality. He holds a Ph.D. in College Student Development, with a concentration in Multicultural Education, from the University of Maryland College Park, and completed his Masters of Divinity program

Throughout the year of 2011 Andrew Bowen practiced a different religion each month—Hindu in January, Baha’i in February, Zoroastrian in March, and so on. Andrew's year-long immersion into 12 belief systems from around the world is called "Project Conversion." We discussed Project Conversion, Andrew's reason for starting the project, his experiences, how the project changed his life, and his current work with religious pluralism. This program originally aired on 6/11/12. Contact information: www.projectconversion.com, http://www.andrewbowen.info.

My guest was Kevin Decker, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Washington University. We discussed atheism, Richard Rorty, and whether or not compassion is possible without a belief in God? This program originally aired on 5/28/12. Contact Information: http://www.ewu.edu/CALE/Programs/Philosophy.xml  

In a return visit to Spokane, Venerable Geshe Thupten Phelgye, will be discussing the current situation in Tibet, and the work that he did on the new charter for the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, which no longer includes the Dalai Lama as the political head. Geshe Phelgye by was born in Tibet in 1956 and escaped to India with his family when he was three years old. He became a monk at the age of seventeen, completed the rigorous eighteen year course of traditional studies in Buddhist philosophy that earned him the title "Geshe" (PhD) from the Sera Monastic University in 1991, and followed that with Buddhist Tantryana studies at Gyumeh Tantric Monastry. In 1993 he dedicated five years to a meditation retreat in the mountains of Dharamsala. He was elected as a member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile in 2001 to represent the Gelug tradition of Buddhism. Geshe Phelgye is currently spending the year teaching at Gonzaga University as its first Global Scholar in Residence. This program originally aired on 5/14/12.

Tracy Simmons serves as the editor and community manager of SpokaneFAVS. She holds a bachelor’s degree in print journalism and master’s degrees in communication and has reported on religion for about a decade, writing for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas and Connecticut. Over the years Tracy has won several journalism awards including the 2009 American Academy of Religion’s first place award for best in-depth reporting on religion, and the 2011 Religion Newswriters Association’s Schachern Award for Online Religion Section of the Year. SpokaneFAVS bills itself as the online source for religion news in the Spokane area. It is the inaugural hub site for Religion News LLC's three-year community religion news project, funded through the Lilly Endowment. First debuting as a "construction blog" in August 2011, the site later officially launched in spring 2012 as a gathering place for non-sectarian coverage of faith and values news from the Spokane area. Religion News LLC is a nonprofit affiliated with the Religio

**Note: The interview that aired live was edited due to time constraints. This podcast contains the unedited interview. The Shower of Stoles- Listening to the Silence: LGBT People of Faith Twelve years ago Bethany Presbyterian Church and other churches in the Spokane area brought the Shower of Stoles to Spokane. The Shower of Stoles is a collection of over a thousand liturgical stoles and other sacred items from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons from twenty-six denominations in six countries. Each stole contains the story of an LGBT person who is active in the life and leadership of their faith community in some way: minister, elder, deacon, teacher, missionary, musician, administrator or active layperson. The collection celebrates the gifts of LGBT people of faith who serve God in countless ways, while also lifting up those who have been excluded from service or who have served in secret because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Spokane exhibit, representing 200 stoles,

My guest Leon Sproule is a Shamanic Practitioner and a member of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (http://shamanism.org). A student of anthropologist Michael Harner, founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Leon completed the Three Year Program in Advanced Shamanism from the Foundation in 2005. He is now an adjunct instructor at Gonzaga in the Civil Engineering Department and a member of the faculty for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. We will be discussing his spiritual journey, the program of study that he completed, and the work of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. This program originally aired on 4/9/12. Contact information: cartersproule@gmail.com or 509-238-6318 or visit http://shamanism.org.

What is the Hijab? Why do some muslim women wear the Hijab and others do not? Is the Hijab oppressive to women? Does it limit a woman's freedom? Can you be a modern woman and wear the Hijab at the same time? Join me for a women's history month conversation with my guest Hanane as we talk about the Hijab from her pespective, what wearing the Hijab means to her, and discuss the ban on wearing the Hijab that was instituted by France last year.

In honor of Black History Month, my guest was Dr. Cocoa Welton, founder of the Los Angeles based Moriah Institute. Dr. Welton is a Global Lecturer, teacher and experienced workshop facilitator who has been speaking locally and internationally for decades on topics as varied as socio-politics, human behavioral motivations, and the intersection of science, philosophy and religion. Dr. Welton was shaped by the Black Nationalist movement of the 1960s and influenced by the teachings of Marxism and Science of Mind, amongst other things. He has studied both Eastern and Western religions, in addition to the works of Dr. Albert Einstein, Dr. Stephen Hawking, Dr. Carl Sagan, and Dr. Michio Kaku, amongst many others. We discussed Dr. Welton's take on Black History Month, the black community and discussed his view that the foundation of the social protest that is currently taking place in the world is really a spiritual impulse moving through humanity and the planet. This program originally aired on 2/27/12. For more inf

In honor of Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signing marriage equality into law on Monday, 2/13, making Washington the 7th state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage, Revolutionary Spirituality discussed Marriage Equality with Rev. Dr. Todd Eklof of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane, and discussed his commitment to stop performing weddings until he could legally marry gays and lesbians. This program originally aired on 2/13/12. Contact information: www.uuspokane.org, (509) 325-6383 or minister@uuspokane.org.

My guest was Mary Stamp, the Publisher and Editor of the Fig Tree which was founded in 1984 as a monthly publication covering and connecting the faith and nonprofit communities in the Inland NW (Eastern WA and Northern Idaho). The Fig Tree is currently an independent, non-profit newspaper, directory and online news source. This program originally aired on 1/30/12. Contact information: www.thefigtree.org

In honor of the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday on January 16, I am airing a re-broadcast of Dr. King's speech entitled Beyond Vietnam. Though most of the focus on Dr. King at this time of year is on his "I have a Dream" speech, I feel this is Dr. King's most powerful and provacative speech, yet it is seldom heard. Why is that???? The speech was delivered on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York city, and ironically was given one year to the day before Dr. King was assasinated. He was 39 years old. The speech is even more important today as the parallel is strikingly similar between Vietnam and our current war on "Terror".

My guest Brenda Miller joined me to celebrate the 4th Anniversary of Revolutionary Spirituality. She turned the tables on me by asking the questions as I became the guest for the day. This is an anniversary tradition and it was in interesting conversation. I hope you enjoy it.