Season 2: Interfaith America with Eboo Patel

[00:00:01] Eboo: Welcome to season two of Interfaith America with Eboo Patel, where we continue our exploration of religious diversity in America. This season, we sit with people from sectors outside of conventional faith leadership. Sectors like education, literature, television, and government, to explore how religious diversity plays an integral role in shaping our democracy and our lives. We’ll be talking to Harvard professor and Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Danielle Allen.

[00:00:34] Danielle: Democracy is the best political forum for securing that empowerment for people. We have been fortunate in this country to have a constitutional democracy of a kind operating for some time, but there are lots of ways in which it’s not working.

[00:00:47] Eboo: New York Times ethicist columnist and social philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah.

[00:00:52] Kwame: The point is that cosmopolitanism isn’t about sharing a single theory of how to get along. It’s just the commitment to getting along from our various positions, recognizing that no time soon, and I hope not ever, will everybody be all the same.

[00:01:09] Eboo: Professor of law and political philosophy and Christian civic leader, John Inazu.

[00:01:14] John: The notion of protest, which is built in also to the American experiment, reminds us that we exist and we live in this society where we don’t agree with everyone, where our differences are extremely deep and they matter, and we have to have the breeding space to try to work them out.

[00:01:31] Eboo: We also take a peek behind the fourth wall with biographer Jonathan Eig.

[00:01:36] Eig: I think being Jewish and being raised somewhat religious, but becoming more religious as I get older, makes me appreciate the spirituality of all religions and I’m drawn to people of faith. For sure. Ali’s faith was really what made him Muhammad Ali and not just a boxer. The reason he deserved a big biography was because of his faith, not because of his boxing. Christianity is absolutely the core ingredient in why Martin Luther King Jr. is Martin Luther King Jr. Without Christianity, without this deep faith that he’s got in God, there’s no way he does any of the things he does.

[00:02:11] Eboo: Author, actor, and star of The Office, Rainn Wilson.

[00:02:16] Rainn: For so many people, religion is the problem, not the solution, but there actually is a great deal of solutions to be found in a religion. I’m not proposing anyone go join any specific religion. That’s not what I’m talking about. When you look at community, purpose, service to the poor, transcendence, prayer, and meditation, a higher power, this is what contemporary Western society is losing. Those are the things, those universals are what we need as a species right now.

[00:02:51] Eboo: You can also expect to go behind the scenes with us for special episodes where we expand on how we can support our diverse democracy and build bridges with one another. Become part of the conversation. Subscribe and follow the Interfaith America Podcast with Eboo Patel on our website, interfaithamerica.org, and on Apple, Spotify, and all the places you find your podcasts.

[00:03:22] [END OF AUDIO]

[music]

Intro/outro music provided by Mysterylab Music and composed by Mott Jordan.

Credit music provided by Die Hard Productions.