Faith in Diversity Newsletter - 5.19.24 - Welcome!
Thanks for subscribing! I'm Matt Hartley, and I'll tell you what I have told my students every day for the last two decades: it's good to see you and I hope you're doing well.
Faith in Diversity is an independent publication launched in April 2024 featuring a weekly newsletter with analysis and discussion on the intersections of religion and diversity. This is the launch newsletter, to be followed by weekly newsletters for paid subscribers on Fridays starting this week, and monthly newsletters for free subscribers.
Topics range across themes like Interfaith, DEI, ecological diversity, cosmic diversity (Is that just jargon for me to include my nerdiness about space? You decide) pop culture, religion scholarship, all animated by a commitment to justice, peace and human rights for all.
For a more niche Christian audience (or for those who want to understand how Christians can make Interfaith connections), particularly Mainline Protestants who follow the Revised Common Lectionary, there will also be a monthly Interfaith Lectionary guide, with quotations from texts and people of different religions and commentary on Interfaith insights to the weekly readings. A preview post of this guide is available for May 19, 2024.
More generally, this website was born out of a desire to speak to the most burning, crucial topics with regard to diversity and religion, whether that is celebrating the beauty of religious diversity or exploring its hotter areas. If a topic is considered divisive or someone says we should not talk about something, that is what I want to talk about. I've become concerned that we censor talk of justice and peace, when we need to talk about it. Religious diversity is beautiful, and confusing, and difficult. We should talk about all of it and I'm willing to start the conversation. With jokes.
This is what I mean by Faith in Diversity - both the reality of diversity in our world, and the hope of what we can achieve together if we find ways of honoring difference and breaking down the unjust and violent ways which weaponize difference.
You'll find here a weekly newsletter with original writing, recommended reads and TV shows and movies, and the latest news at the intersections of religion and various forms of diversity. I'll host a monthly zoom conversation as well, on different topics. We may throw a book club and movie club in for good measure as we go!
And who is Matt Hartley to found this website, you may ask? I'm an Interfaith guy - for the last decade, I have professionally brought together people of different faiths and nonreligious people too, in Higher Education and in Jacksonville, Florida.
I'm also a social gospel, creation loving Christian, shaped by Liberation theologies and Celtic spirituality.
Finally, I am an adjunct faculty in religious studies, with M.A. in Religion from the University of Florida. I wrote a thesis on Muslim youth growing up in the American South.
I am writing from a place of experience, academically and professionally, in the field of religious diversity but also offering my moral perspective. This website is committed to justice, peace, and human rights. In a time of war, it feels especially important to point out that diversity itself can be weaponized for dehumanization and violence. I'll speak out against all forms of that and against war. I'll get specific when I need to - and I am ok with the controversy that will cause. If you are too, please consider subscribing and joining the conversation.
My hope is this website will help you feel more informed about how religion and diversity come together, in good ways and bad, and that you care about all your neighbors. My words are just a blip in human history, but if I can nudge things a little closer to a just world where all can have their human rights and even thrive, then I'll be happy. It's my way of living my religion - loving my neighbor as myself.
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Religious Diversity in the News
Fiona André
The Religion News Service is a great source to learn about religion in all its diverse forms and intersections with other forms of diversity. In this recent article, Fiona André introduces spiritualities proliferating in the African diaspora with roots in the continent and forged through the crucible of the middle passage to enslavement in the Americas. When I teach world religions, some students have heard of Santeria or Voodoo, but few have heard of the robust Brazilian tradition of Candomblé or the root tradition of Yoruba, with its superhuman, God-like Orishas.
This very family of traditions came up in the news this week as a music video released by Brazilian pop singer Anitta caused an uproar for featuring her religion, Candomblé: "Within two hours, she lost 200,000 followers, she said." This social media flood reflects a more harsh lived reality for practitioners of the religion Brazil. Anitta uses the common term "religious racism" to characterize how many see prejudice against Candomblé melded with anti-black racism. Rooted in African traditions, not just Yoruba but also Fon and Bantu, these practices remained underground for centuries, stigmatized as witchcraft by Catholic doctrine. Today, their chief religious opponents is Evangelical Christianity, which has proliferated in Brazil since the 1990s. Sometimes violence follows; last year a renowned priestess was murdered. Yet Anitta, like others, brings Candomblé out of the shadows, with its rhythmic dancing, divination beads, fortune telling, and many more images packed into her evocative video.
Faith in Diversity at the Movies: "Monkey Man"
A bruising action debut for first time Director but established star Dev Patel, Monkey Man is not for the faint of heart. Donning the mask of the Hindu god Hanuman, Patel’s lead pounds his way from a fighting ring to the exploitative bosses of his city. He is a poor man, with a tragic history, and he wants his revenge. Along the way, the sociopolitical message of the film critiques the supremacies and bigotries of India’s ruling party, known as Hindutva (which means “Hinduness”). Christians come in for abuse. Television broadcasts about the abuse of Transgender people turn out not to be merely background noise but offer a plot turn as surprising as it is religious. When our hero of this blockbuster enters his final, bloody battles, who expected he would do so having been ushered to his newfound crusade by Trans clergy?
For a deeper dive into the Hindu religious and political angles of Monkey Man, read Siddhant Adlakha’s review in Time.
Visit this newsletter on the website to add your comments! I am always interested to hear what you think and discuss further.
For general feedback, reach out to me at faithindiversityproject@gmail.com
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