Tiffany Puett

Woody Guthrie wrote 'This Land Is Your Land' 75 years ago today. This song evokes something from my Oklahoma roots and has an affective pull on my heart. It encapsulates my views of pluralism-- critical, skeptical, and justice-oriented. Often, just the first few verses are played and it seems like a folksy patriotic tune. But the heart of the song comes in the later verses, one of which is rarely included: "As I went walking I saw a sign there And on the sign it said "No Trespassing" But on the other side it didn't say nothing That side was made for you and me In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people By the relief office I seen my people As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me? Nobody living can ever stop me As I go walking that freedom highway Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me"

Here's a post I wrote on State of Formation about Tennessee's efforts to legislate the teaching of creationism in public school science classrooms: http://www.stateofformation.org/2012/04/the-tennessee-monkey-bill-why-we-need-better-education-about-religion-in-public-schools/

Last fall, the Pew Research Center issued a report arguing that most Americans know very little about religions. Many scholars and journalists chimed in to call for the importance of education about religion. These claims aren’t new. They’ve been part of an ongoing discourse on religious literacy and interreligious understanding for years now. As I’ve spent the past decade plus involved in interfaith work and the academic study of religion, I share many of these sentiments.  For those of us who believe that the diversity of religions and cultures in our society ought to be acknowledged and respected as positive aspects of our society, the call for increased religious literacy seems like a no-brainer. How could increased knowledge about religions do anything but help build and strengthen a multicultural society? Yet, in his recently published essay “The Perils of Pluralism: Colonization and Decolonization in American Indian Religious History” (in After Pluralism...