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Often, we examine difficult issues on this program. The implications are challenging, often painful for all of us and the responses they demand are at the least uncomfortable. But there are also issues that can be inspiring-that’s true of the topic of this edition of Challenge 2.0. We’ll focus on children with great needs but little ability to express them, ones that have often resisted traditional therapies. We’ll meet a talented Seattle recording artist who has developed a program that harnesses the power of music to give these young people a voice and a future that once seemed impossible. Singing Away Silence. 

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org Although money spent on gifts during the holiday season increases yearly, one in five Americans now seeks to spend less. The founder of what is called The Church of Stop Shopping is hoping to expand that trend...and not just during the holiday season. This week on Challenge 2.0, we continue to explore the work of the man known as Reverend Billy...and why he believes our future is dependent on spending less, not more. 

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org Shopping malls have been called cathedrals of consumption...advertisers acolytes of excess. At no time is that more evident than during the Christmas season. Holiday spending drives 41% of Americans into debt. That behavior has many critics, but one man has made it his mission to convince us that the cost extends well beyond a single holiday season, well beyond our bank accounts. His work is the focus of this edition of Challenge 2.0-Reverend Billy, and the Church of Stop Shopping. 

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org In last week’s program, we examined the damage wrought by Colonialism…the exploitation of one people by another for profit. Some historians point to colonialism…and the exploitation that was part of it… as the springboard of capitalism. Yet some faith and political leaders suggest religion and capitalism are inseparable. That assertion is the subject of this edition of Challenge 2.0.

More than two thousand local newspapers have ceased operating since 2005. That has left half of all counties in the United States without any source of local news coverage. Even where local newspapers survive, the ability of journalists to cover key issues such as public safety, education and government suffers. What impact does that have on accountability…and stopping abuse of power. That’s the subject of this edition of Challenge 2.0. 

A popular social media post notes “The late CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkhite read the news and kept his opinions to himself”. This resonates with many at a time of polarization that rivals, if not exceeds that of the 1960’s…and information that conflicts with personal opinion is viewed as fake.  In reality, Cronkhite pointedly revealed the difference between government accounts and the reality of the war. Most Americans then obtained their information from news operations that were viewed as a public service, not a profit center and there was no ‘social media’. How changes in the news media is impacting what we hear as information, and how changes in our attitudes is impacting what we believe we hear. In this episode of Challenge 2.0, we visit with two veteran television news journalists. 

Muskwa Park is a place steeped in history and tragedy. Now a sacred meeting place for the Cree Nation in Alberta, Canada…it was once the site of a Catholic-run residential boarding school. Memories of the abuses committed there continue to haunt Indigenous Canadians. And it was clear those abuses haunt Pope Francis…who came to the park to meet with tribal leaders…and apologize for those abuses. They were one example of the sour fruit of colonialism…committed by many cultures, faiths and nations…and the subject of this edition of Challenge 2.0. 

In last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, we spoke with a documentary producer who explored the impact of our criminal justice system-not only on those imprisoned, but on their families and entire communities. We continue our exploration on the changes needed to keep prison from becoming a life sentence for entire generations, and also hear from  faith leaders who are seeking to end what they call the addiction to throwing away human lives and the gifts they carry. 

A prison sentence doesn’t impact just the person incarcerated…it affects entire families. This week we talk with a college professor and documentary producer who examines the impact of our justice system. She shares ideas on needed changes to keep prison from becoming a life sentence for entire generations, and how she’s enlisting others to make such changes reality.   

In last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, we examined a program that allows men and women to pursue education while still in prison; a program that enables them to build a new life and stay out of prison. This week, we examine a program called Underground Ministries, in which faith communities adopt a prisoner to ease their transition to life beyond bars.  

Find out more at pathstounderstanding.org   ‘They paid their debt to society’. That phrase is supposed to describe how someone convicted of a crime, and done their time, should be free to rebuild their life and that of their families. That’s not reality. But an imaginative program based in Seattle is aimed at transforming that situation. In this edition of Challenge 2.0; Emerging from the Prison Beyond Bars-The Prison Scholars program. 

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org In this episode of Wisdom from Our Neighborhood, Terry talk with Nina Fernando. Nina serves as the Executive Director of the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign (S2S). S2S is an interfaith organization that works across the nation to counter anti-Mulsim bigotry. Terry asks Nina about the work they do, why the work is needed, and how people can participate in this important work in their own community.

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org   http://chris-hoke.com/undergroundministries   Terry is joined by the executive director of Underground Ministries: Since 2015 I’ve found a level of friendship, electric spiritual reflection, and heartbending stories in relationship with the incarcerated. The local county jail was just the first portal to the rabbit hole—into the underground of polite society, the streets, the supermax prisons, the cycle between the two that function like the circles of hell, or Hades today. I am now the founding director of Underground Ministries. We want to pry open that underworld of our making, one relationship at a time. We are based in Skagit Valley, WA, but our models for churches and businesses to get in the game are resources of a wider movement. We want to make resurrection an ethic, a practice—for folks who thought they believed in it or not.

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org In last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, we joined the two thousand mile journey of a totem pole created by the Lummi Nation House of Tears carvers. We also joined a discussion of what that journey represents and what it calls for-a change in our relationship to the environment, a restoration of ancient Salmon runs that sustained life in the Pacific Northwest for millenia. Welcome to this edition of Challenge 2.0-Spirit of the Waters, Part Two.

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org The Spirit of the Waters Totem Pole Journey in May stretched over seventeen days and more than two thousand miles. But the journey of this sixteen foot pole, created by the Lummi Nation House of Tears carvers, extends much farther in time. It reviews the relationship between humans and the environment that sustained a rich and sustainable culture for centuries in the Pacific Northwest, examines how abandoning that wisdom now threatens the lives and prosperity of this region and it calls us to reclaim that wisdom on our journey into the future. That’s the subject of this edition of Challenge 2.0, Spirit of the Waters.

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org In last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, faith leaders from Judaism, Christianity and Islam looked at the environmental crisis and how it models a crisis within our lives-our faiths, our values. We continue and expand that conversation this week, looking at how solutions demand not only good science and careful application of technology…but also digging deeper into what we value and believe.

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org Last year brought the hottest month ever recorded on this planet, the longest drought ever recorded over the western United States and record rainfall and flooding over the eastern United States. Climate researchers agree it is a crisis demanding careful science and application of technology…but there’s an increasing sense that it also is a crisis of values and faith…that to successfully confront the challenges of the world we live in we must first confront the challenges of the world that lives in each of us. That’s the subject of this edition of Challenge 2.0.

The Christian church recently celebrated Pentecost, which observes the descent of the Holy Spirit upon people of all nations, ethnicity and races. As Deacon Joseph Connor noted in last week’s edition of Challenge 2.0, the reality is that no faith is truly color blind, offering equal welcome or opportunities for leadership to all. We continue that conversation this week.   

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org Seven years ago, a twenty one year old white man walked into a predominantly black church in South Carolina, opened fire and killed nine members of that faith community.  Most religious communities condemned the action and beliefs of Dylan Roof. But many  have also failed to see the contradiction between their expressed beliefs and their fears, resentments and discomfort focused on people of color. In this episode of Challenge 2.0, we examine Racism; Religion’s Blind Spot…what it’s like to be black in mostly white faith communities. 

Learn more about Paths to Understanding at https://www.PathsToUnderstanding.org Join the Paths Network at https://www.PathsNetwork.org In last weeks’ edition of Challenge 2.0, we began a conversation with two prominent atheists/humanists. What do those terms mean? Does their disbelief mean they don’t share common values with those who do profess a religious faith? Is there room for collaborative action and connection in a society that increasingly offers neither?