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The Book of Mormon is a sacred text in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Like many other aspects of my religion, as well as other faith traditions, it is often misunderstood and misrepresented. For example, the popular musical The Book of Mormon distorts and takes many teachings/beliefs from the Book of Mormon, …
“Non-believer”. Until very recently I thought this was just a semi-patronizing, yet endearing term my best friends used to describe me or other atheists. However, over Thanksgiving I decided to inquire about this and it turns out that when they say non-believer, it means everyone who doesn’t believe in the Christian God. In hindsight, this …
There’s nothing quite so touching as a passionate piece of writing that fervently expresses the innermost workings of the author’s soul. From a childhood lost in Narnia and Harry Potter to a college career devoted to hefty classics like War and Peace, I’ve always relied on literature to shape, challenge, and inform my views on …
I still continue to search for the perfect balance between my Hindu, Jain and Indian background and the American culture I have grown up in. Growing up consisted of a constant battle between these identities: I could never be too Indian for my friends at school or other westernized environments and I could never show …
Before reading this post, here are a few disclaimers/ caveats that I had in mind while writing. This post is about my experiences as a Jew in a Christianized/Christian-dominant society. My experiences may or may not align with those of other minoritized religions. I am not a religious scholar, so please correct me if I …
As you may or may not remember from my last blog post, I have a slight obsession with news programming. In the aftermath of the election, I was camped out on the couch, glued to the television, watching the news to ease my anxieties (though really maybe intensifying them). Simply put, that week was a …
As someone who was beginning to come of age four years ago, this year and this election in particular allow for an interesting time to reflect, both on myself and my country. Four years ago, in the fall of my junior year of high school, I was beginning to develop my first political ideologies and …
The four questions that religions aim to answer are “How did we get here? Why are we here? What do we do while we are here? And where do we go when we are no longer here?” Each religion answers the questions to varying degrees, with religions typically choosing to focus mostly on one or …
When I was a little kid, my mom would have to drag my sister and I to put on our itchy, uncomfortable, but beautiful Salwaar Kameez (traditional Indian wear) to go to the temple. I didn’t want to, but I was forced to. I never knew what to do there. Every time, we would go …
After circumambulating the Kaaba, we proceeded to the next part of our journey, fulfilling the ritual of Sai’. Sai’ is the commemoration of the long search Hajar (Hagar) took alone from Mount Safa to Mount Marwah in a frantic search for water for her and Prophet Abraham’s child, Ishmael. Ishmael is an ancestor of the …