Marking the Freedom to Learn Day of Motion, this week’s episode of The State of Perception, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio program and podcast, options interviews with Qiana Johnson, Rev. Kim Coleman, and Rabba Rori Picker Neiss – influential leaders working on the intersection of religion and activism to fight censorship and guide bans. They be a part of host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush to debate the important function that spiritual communities can play in resisting guide bans, supporting weak teams like LGBTQI+ youth, and guaranteeing that libraries stay areas for studying and inclusion. Every explores how religion is usually a driving pressure for justice and community-building within the struggle in opposition to censorship.
Rabba Picker Neiss detailed how censorship works to suppress various viewpoints. “Anytime persons are uncomfortable with a guide as a result of it doesn’t replicate them, then it’s a silencing of anybody completely different. And essentially, we’re all completely different. And that’s the sweetness that we’ve on this nation. That’s the ethos that I feel each of our organizations are working off of. That’s the power that we will actually deliver.”
Qiana Johnson additionally emphasised how guide bans can be certain that members of our communities are harmfully marginalized, making our complete society worse off. “Elements of the human story are being weaponized, and components of the human story are being denigrated, and components of that human story and our magnificence are being hidden. And a part of the neighborhood is being advised that they aren’t really a part of the neighborhood, that they’re harmful components of the neighborhood…We be taught from issues which are difficult, however we’ve to do this.”
Rev. Kim captures the urgency of taking motion and being vigilant within the face of threats like guide ban: “Folks of religion are referred to as to be proactive, not reactive. Jesus advised us to go and make disciples. We’ve a customized of ready until one thing tragic occurs earlier than we awaken… however we don’t need to be on the defensive anymore.”
Qiana Johnson is the Affiliate Dean of Libraries, Collections, and Content material Methods at Dartmouth, specializing in acquisitions, discovery, entry, preservation, and administration of data assets. She’s additionally an ordained deacon within the Episcopal Church.
Rabba Rori Picker Neiss is the Senior Vice President for Group Relations on the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and beforehand the Govt Director of the Jewish Group Relations Council of St. Louis. She has additionally served on the clergy staff at a Fashionable Orthodox synagogue.
The Very Rev. Kim Coleman is the president of the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE) and the rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. She leads UBE in addressing racism and advocating for Black Episcopalians, elevating consciousness about guide bans throughout the Episcopal Church.
