Category: Portico

Knowledge About Religions is Good—But Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy is Better

August 27, 2024 • Portico

In our world today we continue to see alarming degrees of religiously-motivated conflict, religious and political polarization, politicization of religion, politicization of irreligion, religious nationalism,…

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Forging Genuine Unity amidst Deep Conflict in Myanmar: Prospects and Challenges

June 6, 2024 • Portico

Shifts in the Strategic Landscape Three years have passed since the Burmese military seized power through the coup. The backlash from society has crossed ethnic,…

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Building Neighborly L.O.V.E. in Vietnam Through Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy

April 27, 2024 • Portico

Last summer I had the privilege of participating in a unique convening at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan on cross-cultural religious literacy (CCRL). I…

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On the Importance of Religious Minorities for Ukraine’s Present and Future

March 8, 2024 • Portico

Many have been taken aback by the verve with which Ukrainians have responded to the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022. The invasion triggered…

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What Can Chaplains Teach about Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy?

January 30, 2024 • Portico

In June of 2023, I gathered with some of the authors of The Routledge Handbook of Religious Literacy, Pluralism, and Global Engagement to talk about…

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The Nexus Between Human Dignity and Religious Freedom

January 22, 2024 • Portico

Peace is a fruit of justice. The core of justice is based on the respect of fundamental human rights. And the foundational principle of human…

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The Need for Trust-building in a Post-Coup Future Myanmar

January 17, 2024 • Portico

Achieving unity poses the greatest challenge for Myanmar, given the systemic division among diverse religious and ethnic groups that has persisted during seven decades of…

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The Grand Bargain of Religious Freedom and Religious Responsibility: The Mennonite Example

October 31, 2023 • Portico

As the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) has long argued, an environment of religious freedom will only become sustainable when there is a grand bargain…

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New Pathways to Positive Engagement in Afghanistan

September 5, 2023 • Portico

The tenor of American engagement with the Taliban remains uncertain at the second anniversary of the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. I was in…

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Fighting the Good Fight: Then and Now

March 18, 2016 • Portico

“The enemy is of two kinds: the tyrant dictator, and the religious fanatic. To act against the first is feasible…but to act against the second…

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The Last Gasp of the Cradle Christians?

June 9, 2015 • Portico

Next Step Re Iraq & ISIS: Declare & Defend the Nineveh Plain as Safe Haven for Sunnis, Christians, and Yazidis It seems that the situation…

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5 principles for a post-ISIS plan in the Middle East

April 14, 2015 • Portico

In the words of Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan Regional Government-Iraq representative to the United States (as told to me last month), “We are all…

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