Multifaith Matters

A recent academic conference sparked controversy as it seemingly presented Hinduphobia rather than addressing Hindutva as its stated aim. In this episode Suhag Shukla helps us sort this out. Shukla is Executive Director and co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation. She holds a BA in Religion and JD from the University of Florida. Ms. Shukla has helped steer the Foundation to being recognized as a leading role for civil rights, human rights, and religious freedom. In the podcast we reference this essay by Shukla for  more on the topic. You can also follow some of her work here and Twitter @SuhagAShukla.

In this episode we speak with award-winning author Lilith Starr about modern nontheistic Satanism and personal Satanic practice. Her first book, The Happy Satanist: Finding Self-Empowerment, is part of The Satanic Temple's Recommended Reading list and has been featured by Satanic book clubs around the globe. Her second book, and the focus of this conversation, is Compassionate Satanism: An Introduction to Modern Satanic Practice, the first comprehensive guide to modern Satanism by a Satanic insider. In 2020, she was awarded The Satanic Temple's first Anatole France Literary Excellence Award. Starr holds a B.A. with honors in English from Harvard University and an M.A. in Journalism and Communications from Stanford University. 

This month is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The nation continues to wrestle with the traumatic effects these many years later. In this podcast we unpack the psychology with Tom Pyszczynski, co-author with Sheldon Solomon and Jeff Greenberg of In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror. In this book the authors analyze reactions to the attacks through the lens of terror management theory, an existential psychological model that explains why humans react the way they do to the threat of death and how this reaction influences their post-threat cognition and emotion. This is also manifest in evangelicals in the shift in their post-9/11 perspectives on Muslims, as well as in their reactions to those perceived as promoting syncretism, such as Rev. David Benke, and Larycia Hawkins. 

In this engaging discussion, Joseph Laycock, an assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University, delves into the fascinating intersections of vampirism, role-playing games, and societal fears. He highlights how modern vampire communities challenge stereotypes, revealing diverse beliefs. The conversation touches on the moral panic surrounding Dungeons & Dragons in the '80s and explores the cultural implications of exorcism and contemporary Satanism, showcasing how these subjects reshape our understanding of religion and society.

After Trump, QAnon, and the January 6 insurrection at the nation's capitol, a lot of analysis and commentary has ensued on how to understand them. Some have suggested they are cults and the followers brainwashed. In an article at Religion Dispatches, noted scholar of new religions and millennialism, Catherine Wessinger, took exception to such approaches. In this podcast we unpack her essay and discuss problems with the "cult" term and concept, and how to understand the Trump movement, QAnon, and January 6 as manifestations of Euro-American Nativist Millennialism. Catherine Wessinger is the Rev. H. James Yamauchi, S.J. Professor of the History of Religions at Loyola University New Orleans. She is co-director of the Loyola Himalaya Adventure: Summer Study in Dharamsala, India program. Her primary research and teaching areas are women in religions, new religious movements, and Tibetan and Indian religions. Her articles in journals and chapters in edited books include history of religions and theoretical treatments of women and religion, millennialism, new religious movements, and religion and violence. Since 2000 Dr. Wessinger has served as co-general editor of Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions published by University of California Press.

Many conservative Christians are deconstructing and reconstructing their faith. One of the areas in which this takes place is how to understand the Bible. Jared Byas is our guest who talks about this in relation to his book Love Matters More: How Fighting To Be Right Keeps Us From Loving Like Jesus. Along the way we discuss our respective faith journeys and how our understanding of the Bible has changed through the process Jared Byas is co-host of the popular podcast The Bible for Normal People and co-author of the book Genesis for Normal People. As a former teaching pastor and professor of Philosophy & Biblical Studies, he speaks regularly on the Bible, truth, creativity, wisdom, and the Christian faith. He and his wife, Sarah, live outside Philadelphia, PA with their four children, Augustine, Tov, Elletheia, and Exodus. Connect with Jared at jaredbyas.com.

As a part of our series in response to the Pentagon report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAPs/UFOs), the noted scholar of new religious movements, Benjamin Zeller, discusses UFO religions. Zeller is associate professor of religion at Lake Forest College. He is the author of a number of books including Heaven's Gate: America's UFO Religion, and editor of Brill's Handbook of UFO Religions.

Belief in the paranormal has remained high among Americans. What is the paranormal, what phenomena are involved, what can be said about the recent Pentagon UFO/UAP report, and why should religion scholars take the paranormal seriously? Darryl Caterine discusses this and more. Caterine is a professor of religious studies at LeMoyne College. He is a historian of religions whose research focuses on the intersections of religion, culture, and politics in the US and parts of Latin America. His areas of academic research include metaphysical/occult religions in America, and religion in popular culture. He is the author and co-editor of several books including an ethnography, Haunted Ground: Journeys Through a Paranormal America, and the volume we co-edited, The Paranormal in Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape.

In her book, Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists, Chenxing Han writes that, "more than two thirds of U.S. Buddhists are Asian American. But you’d never guess this from mainstream representations, which all too often whitewash the racial and cultural diversity of American Buddhist communities. "Be the Refuge is both critique and celebration, countering the erasure of Asian American Buddhists while uplifting their stories and experiences. The Oriental monk, the superstitious immigrant, the banana Buddhist: dissatisfied with these tired tropes, Han asks, Will the real Asian American Buddhists please stand up? Her journey to answer this question led to in-depth interviews with a pan-ethnic, pan-Buddhist group of eighty-nine young adults." Chenxing Han is a Bay Area-based writer whose publications have appeared in Buddhadharma, Journal of Global Buddhism, Lion's Roar, Pacific World, Tricycle, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from Stanford University and an MA in Buddhist studies from the Graduate Theological Union. After studying chaplaincy at the Institute of Buddhists Studies in Berkeley, California, she worked in spiritual care at a nearby hospital in Oakland.

Programs like The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy include a lot of humor related to religion. But what does it mean? David Feltmate discusses his book Drawn to the Gods where he examines how these animated comedies feature Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Native American religions, Hinduism, new religious movements, and atheism. Feltmate is Associate Professor of Sociology at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama.