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Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
Making Room for Pagans and Muslims in Post-Holocaust Germany
We travel to Germany for the latest edition in our God and Government series. A largely Christian country, with a history of genocide against Jews and other minorities, Germany is now taking in thousands of Muslim migrants. Rolf Schieder, chair of Practical Theology and Religious Education at Humboldt University in Berlin and Esra Özyürek, chair for Contemporary Turkish Studies at the London School of Economics explain Germany’s approach to balancing “church and state” and how this relationship plays into the country’s changing demographic. But first, reporter Jacob Resneck introduces us to Germany’s pagans, as they seek to reclaim some of their symbols from their country’s Nazi past.
Gender Politics at Jerusalem’s Western Wall
Jerusalem’s Western Wall, or Kotel, is one of the holiest sites in Judaism, but recently it’s also been the site of a women’s rights dispute. Prayer at the Wall is regulated according to Orthodox tradition, meaning women are not allowed to read from the Torah, wear prayer shawls, or sing out loud. The Israeli government has now formalized a separate prayer space where women can pray as they choose– a compromise that some say amounts to separation, not equality. Featuring Debra Nussbaum Cohen, correspondent with Haaretz.
President Obama’s First Visit to a US Mosque
Obama’s recent speech at the Islamic Society of Baltimore marked his first presidential visit to an American mosque. Our own Maureen Fiedler reflects on Obama’s call to respect religious pluralism and to end Islamophobic rhetoric.
