Trans People of Faith, Remembering John Bartram Rehm, and More

This week on Interfaith Voices:

Religion and LGBT, Emphasis on the ‘T’

Gay, lesbian and transgender people of faith have made enormous strides in recent weeks. This month, the Presbyterian Church voted to allow same-sex marriage, and Episcopal priest Cameron Partridge became the first openly transgender person to preach at the Washington National Cathedral. But the struggle for full acceptance continues, especially in the transgender community. For many people, especially in religious institutions, the transgender identity crosses a mental and spiritual line.

Savoring Faith Through the Senses

The cold touch of a stone; the musky smell of incense; the taste of bread. In his new book, Brent Plate puts aside questions of belief and explores the ways we experience faith through our senses, using our fingers, our eyes and our noses. In 5 1/2 Objects, the “half” is what we use to experience these objects, what Plate calls the “incomplete human body.”

John Rehm: Onward Journey

This week, we mourn the passing of John Bartram Rehm, lawyer, poet and husband of the public radio host, Diane Rehm. When he joined us in the studio in 2012, he described what can only be called a mystical experience some thirty years ago, when he found himself walking into a church on New York’s Fifth Avenue. He looked up to the altar, and then, he says, “it happened.” What happened was a profound spiritual epiphany, a “paroxysm of joy” that would change his life.

Featured speakers/guests:

Kevin Eckstrom, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service

Rev. Cameron Partridge, Episcopal chaplain at Boston University

Joy Ladin, professor of English at the Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University

S. Brent Plate, author of A History of Religion in 51/2 Objects: Bringing the Spiritual to Its Senses 

John Bartram Rehm, author of Onward Journey: Seeking the Divine

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