Texas Evangelicals Reach Out to Local Muslims

'Every day for five years, youth pastor Rich Reaves has arrived to work in the shadow of a cross and a crescent moon. There, at his Houston church, he and senior pastor Elliott Scott discuss ways they can live out “true Christianity” by loving their neighbors–in this case, members of a mosque next door.

Meanwhile, across town, a dozen religious leaders from the Islamic and Christian communities meet to find common ground and discuss ways to educate Houstonians on “true Islam,” in order to address growing concerns over Islamophobia.

While recent news reports focus on the ISIS threat, and verbal attacks made by Christians against Muslims, a less reported story is going on behind the scenes: members of the two faiths coming together in the name of peace.

For Reaves at Lifepath church, the step in reaching out to his Muslim neighbors was to make contract.  "I couldn't figure out how to reach them," Reaves said, noting that there was no signage around the mosque's gated complex to even indicate what the name of the mosque was.  "I finally called the phone number posted for deliveries."

To read more click, “Most people aren’t afraid of Islam itself. They are afraid of the unknown.”



Covey Cowan, San Francisco, California

One World

'Two months ago, Brazilian graffiti artist Kobra, 40, who lives in Sao Paulo, began working on a mural which was recently determined to be the world's largest mural completed by a single man.

To create the masterpiece for the Rio Olympics Kobrda used 100 gallons of white paint, 400 gallons of colored paint, and 3,500 cans of spray paint to transform normal walls into visions of color and beauty.

The mural, titled Las Etnias (Ethnicities) depicts the cultural diversity of the games.  50 feet (15 meters) tall and 30,000 square feet (2,782 square meters) wide, it features five faces from five different continents that represent the Olympic rings.

"These are the indigenous people of the worl," says Kobra on the Rio 2016 official website.  "The idea behind it is that we are all one.  We're living through a very confusing time with a lot of conflict.  I wanted to show that everyone is united, we are all connected."

Too bad there isn't a medal for masterfully painting murals, for Kobra would undoubtedly receive the gold.' 

To see more beautiful photos of the mural click, 'We are all one.'



Covey Cowan, San Francisco, California

Six All Time Inspiring Olympic Events

‘The Olympics are a time for athletic greatness - and also a time for truly inspiring feats. Sit back and take a look at some of the most inspiring moments from the past 90 years of Olympic Games.

One of them was Jessie Owens.  He was an Afro-American and was competing in track and field in 1936 Berlin.  Because of the color of his skin, Hitler’s Germany viewed Owens as a lesser athlete.  Owens took the prejudice against him as motivation and would go on to win four gold medals (in the 100 meters, long jump, and 4x100 relay.)'

To see more click, 'These amazing athletes touched thousands of people.'

Covey Cowan, San Francisco, California

All Life is Sacred

‘John Malloy’s father was in Army Intelligence and assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Shanghai when Malloy was an infant. When Chiang Kai-shek fled China three years later, in 1949, Malloy’s family was the last one out of Shanghai on a plane. From there they went to the Philippines during the Huk rebellion. And then there was Java and Borneo and jungle living. By the time Malloy was seventeen, he had moved forty-four times. In his young life as a rolling stone, Malloy learned to rely on himself. Whatever allies and friends he might have begun to cultivate in one place were always torn away by his constant displacement. In schools in New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Oakland, as the new kid, he learned to fight. Every day was a trial. While living in San Francisco he ended up in juvenile hall. Later, he did time for assaulting the perpetrators of a rape. Being unprotected from bullies in school wasn’t so different from how it was in jail. The big eat the little. But Malloy was a warrior. It was during his time in jail that something crystallized for him. “I knew that I was going to clean up my mess and spend the rest of my life working in institutions to help take care of the people who no one else was taking care of.”

His resolve led to the creation of a school for young people who had been incarcerated, the Foundry School. Intuitively at first, and later in a more conscious way, he arrived at highly effective ways of helping young people whose lives had spiraled down into violence and crime. Word of Malloy’s integrity, courage, and effectiveness spread. It’s how he began to meet Native Americans who entrusted their at-risk children into his care. For Malloy, it was a pivotal event. In Native American spirituality he found a way of looking at the world that resonated most deeply with his own experience.’

To read more click, “I can’t make a bad decisionbecause I have those on either side of me [Native American wisdom and Buddhism.] I can’t go crooked because I have thisbelief system that makes it so easy to do the right thing. The right thing isto be inclusive. The right thing is to be of service.”

Covey Cowan, San Francisco, California

The Librarian Heroes of Timbuktu

'On Friday morning, January 25, 2013, 15 jihadis entered the restoration and conservation rooms on the ground floor of the Ahmed Baba Institute in Sankoré, a government library in Mali. The men swept 4,202 manuscripts off lab tables and shelves and carried them into the tiled courtyard. They doused the manuscripts—including 14th- and 15th-century works of physics, chemistry, and mathematics, their fragile pages covered with algebraic formulas, charts of the heavens, and molecular diagrams—in gasoline. Then they tossed in a lit match. The brittle pages and their dry leather covers ignited in a flash.

In minutes, the work of Timbuktu’s greatest savants and scientists, preserved for centuries, hidden from the 19th-century jihadis and French conquerors, survivors of floods, bacteria, water, and insects, were consumed by the inferno.

In the capital city of Bamako 800 miles away, the founder of Timbuktu’s Mamma Haidara Library, a scholar and community leader named Abdel Kader Haidara, saw the burning of the manuscripts as a tragedy—and a vindication of a remarkable plan he’d undertaken. Starting with no money besides the meager sum in his savings account, the librarian had recruited a loyal circle of volunteers, badgered and shamed the international community into funding the scheme, raised $1 million, and hired hundreds of amateur smugglers in Timbuktu and beyond. Their goal? Save books.' 

To read more click, 'They all made it.'



Covey Cowan, San Francisco, California

A Transgender God?

‘Religious arguments are often brought in to defend social prejudices – as in the discussion about transgender rights.  In fact, the Hebrew Bible, when read in its original language, offers a highly elastic view of gender.  The God of the three monotheistic, Abrahamic religions to which fully half the people on the planet today belong, was understood by its earliest worshippers to be a dual-gendered deity.’

To read more click, 'Not a matter of either/or'

Covey Cowan, San Francisco, California 

Wonderful Short Film of the Dalai Lama 'at Home:'

From Alive Mind Apr. 21,2016 - 'The daily life of the Dalai Lama is brought home with remarkable intimacy in Sunrise/Sunset. Granted total access to His Holiness for 24 hours, this is a day in the life of the Dalai Lama from when he wakes up at 3AM until his bedtime at dusk.'

To view click, 'Sunrise, Sunset'

Covey Cowan, San Francisco, California