In Good Faith

An in-person discussion on maintaining religiosity without isolating those of other faiths. Host Steven Kapp Perry talks with Dr. Trevan Hatch, Pritha Lal, Maysa Kergaye, and Luke Miller. Dr. Trevan Hatch is the Anthropology, Ancient Near East, Middle East, and Religious Studies specialist at the Lee Library at Brigham Young University. He is also an adjunct instructor in the Department of Ancient Scripture. Trevan has a MA and two doctoral degrees (soon to complete the second PHD) in fields related to the Bible, Jewish studies, and religious studies. Trevan is the author of "A Stranger in Jerusalem: Seeing Jesus as a Jew", and he coedited with Leonard Greenspoon (Jewish studies chair at Creighton University) the volume, "The Learning of the Jews: What Latter-day Saints can Learn from Jewish Religious Experience". Pritha Lal is first a mom. She is also a homemaker by choice, a systems thinker by profession, a writer out of habit, a podcaster out of the pandemic, and is currently pursuing a certification towards becoming a life coach. She has lived in Springville, Utah for over two decades. Even though she is a huge admirer of Rumi, and aspires to live her life following the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Philosophy of Vedanta, for all practical purposes, she follows these wise words of Piglet, from Winnie the Pooh: "The things that make me different are the things that make me, me." Maysa Kergaye has been part of the Salt Lake community for the past 30 years. She is a mother of four, and grandma to two, and taught math at the Salt Lake Community College for 15 years. She discovered Zumba and has been teaching it for the past 12 years at many locations. She is well traveled and speaks many languages but most proficient is Arabic, French, and most of all English. She is active on the interfaith council as well as managing and running the Islamic Speakers bureau. She volunteers her time at the women's prison, Sunday school, and helping the local refugees. "I love teaching Zumba but I always have to warn people that it c

Steve speaks with Michael Schnabel and Jonathan Rose on faith-building experiences in revelation and healing. Michael Schnabel is the author of "Daddy's Girl", a memoir about the challenges and struggles of parenting through a medical crisis. A graduate of Nothern State University, Michael developed his passion for writing and storytelling during his thirty-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Michael lives in Overland Park, Kansas, with his wife, and when not spending time with family, you can find him tending to his 26-acre tree farm. Dr. Jonathan Rose is the series editor, and the translator, researcher, annotator, and fundraiser for The New Century, an ongoing project that incorporates the latest scholarship in modern, accessible English translations of Emanuel Swedenborg's theological works. Dr. Rose has focused his career and research on Swedenborg's life and works and developed an algorithm for analyzing Swedenborg's Latin. He was the curator of Swedenborgiana library and both a tenured professor of religion and sacred languages and chaplain at Bryn Athyn College before taking on his current position with the Swedenborg Foundation.

This week, conversations about emotions and music, and how both are necessary to bring us closer to God. Benjamin Perry, author of "Cry, Baby: Why Our Tears Matter" encourages us to rethink how we view crying. Steve chats with Benjamin Perry about his new book "Cry, Baby: Why Our Tears Matter," published by Broadleaf Books, May 2023. Ben Perry's work focuses on the intersection of religion and politics. Their writing can be found in outlets like The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, The Huffington Post, Sojourners, Bustle and Motherboard and he has appeared on MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and NY1. They hold a degree in psychology from SUNY Geneseo and a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary. In the second half of the show, Steve connects with Cantor Sharon Brown-Levy from Kol Ami, the Salt Lake-based Jewish Conservative and Reform Congregation. Cantor Brown-Levy discusses how she became a cantor and the importance influence of her parents in her religious and musical life.

Steve speaks with professor Maeera Y Schreiber about her personal history and how that influences her work in poetry and interfaith literature. Dr. Schreiber is Associate Professor English and former Director of Religion Studies at the University Utah, where she teaches and writes about poetry, Jewish-American literature, ethnic American studies, religious studies, and interfaith relations. Her book "Holy Envy: Writing in the Jewish Christian Borderzone" is what caught our attention recently. Heather discusses the history of interfaith relations with Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard, drawn from his book "The Faiths of Others A History of Interreligious Dialogue," published by Yale UP. Dr. Howard is Professor of Humanities and History and holder of the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics. He also serves as a Senior Fellow for the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts. He is currently working on two projects: "Modern Christian Theology: An Intellectual History" (Princeton University Press) and "Unholy Wars: Secularist Violence in Modern History."

In this book club episode, Steve talks with guests Steven Nordstrom and Sydney Ballif about Richard Rohr's book, "The Universal Christ." The book explores Christ's influence across time. Rohr implores readers to see Christ in their everyday lives, including the mundane. Steven Nordstrom is a fellow pilgrim on the Way, a student of the vast expanse of human experience who strives to build up communities centered upon love and care. He works as a financial analyst supporting hospitals in Utah County, but previously spent seven years as a librarian. Steven has made his spiritual home with the congregation of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Provo for the past 10 years. Sydney is a native Southern Californian, a graduate from BYU in interdisciplinary humanities, and number five of the children. Currently, she hopes to get a PhD in philosophy, with a special emphasis on the philosophy of love and forgiveness.

Our guests this week, Rainn Wilson and Brent Plate, discuss the need for spirituality and how to bring it into our lives. Steve and Rainn discuss Rainn's experience finding religion again and his hopes for his son's experience with the sacred. Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor, writer, and producer. Wilson's book, "Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution," explores the benefits spirituality gives us in creating solutions for an increasingly challenging world. Wilson co-founded SoulPancake, a digital media company designed to celebrate humanity and champion creativity. Heather chats with Brent about the physical objects that create spiritual experiences. Professor Rodriguez-Plate has traveled the world studying ways that people practice and/or fight against religious traditions. Convinced that religion has less to do with belief than with bodies, Rodriguez-Plate investigates the ways people connect with physical objects through sense perception: the things we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch are what gives us our spiritual dimension, ideas captured in "A History of Religion in 5½ Objects: Bringing the Spiritual to Its Senses".

Steve discusses The Stewardship Principle with author and podcast host Ganel-lyn Condie in the first half of the show. Her recent book examines how people can face challenges and thrive, without taking ownership, but instead turning to God. In the second half of the show, Steve interviews Marian Edmonds-Allen, who worked with Utah legislators to protect homeless LGBTQ teens and shares how she's learned to solve issues facing our community.

Steve discusses homeland, holocaust, and humanity in the first half of the show with Americanish podcast hosts Adela Cojab & Mariam Wahba, learning about their experiences finding friendship with each other. Both women are from the Middle East: Mariam is a Coptic Christian and Adela a Syrian Jew; both are working to foreground faith in America. In the second half of the show, Steve chats with his dear friend Asker Ashkenazi, who discusses the Israeli high school tradition of a field trip to Auschwitz. When these field trips were canceled during the global COVID-19 shutdowns, Asher made sure to take his son on his own.

Before going off-air for the month of April, the In Good Faith podcast is foreshadowing their future episode format. With two guests per episode and an intermediate producers chat, you can expect great things! In this episode, Steve talks with Lucy Bregman and Howard Wettstein. Intermittent thoughts are offered by senior producer Heather Bigley and student producer Lia King. Lucy Bregman received her B.A. from Brown University, her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School and taught at Temple University’s Religion Department in Philadelphia PA until her retirement in 2019. She taught a course on “Death and Dying” for undergraduates, and mentored graduate students to teach in this area. Howard Wettstein holds a B.A from Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. from City University of New York. He is currently a Professor of Philosophy at UC Riverside. His main research areas are the philosophy of language and the philosophy of religion.

Steve talks to Mathew Schmalz about the different ways suffering enters our lives and how God's presence can heal and teach us. Mathew Schmalz is a professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, and founder of the "Journal of Global Catholicism". His publications engage global Catholicism (particularly in South Asia), Catholic theology and spirituality, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He has written a personal spiritual memoir, "Mercy Matters: Opening Yourself to the Life Changing Gift". He is also co-author with Alonzo Gaskill (BYU) of the forthcoming "Understanding our Catholic Neighbors: A Guide for Latter-Day Saints". He lives in Worcester, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.