Archive
RNS: Gajaweera on Buddhism and Sri Lanka’s Recent Protest Movement
Protests that led to Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resignation have raised questions about the role of Buddhism in the country’s politics. Religion News Service interviewed CRCC’s Nalika Gajaweera about the Buddhist …
Sri Lanka’s Dual Crisis: Ethnic Conflict & the Debt Economy
This article was originally published by Jamhoor. “Except for the home crowd cheering for our national team at an international cricket match, it was the first time I was seeing Sri Lankans …
Media on the 30 Years after LA’s 1992 Civil Unrest
As the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture reflected on the 1992 Civil Unrest, the words and efforts of the Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray following the unrest continued to be highlighted …
Thirty Years Later: Remembering LA’s 1992 Civil Unrest and Reimagining Social Action
Like the tectonic fault lines that can suddenly release pent-up geological pressures, shaking the literal bedrock of Southern California, the cultural fault lines between groups with unequal political and economic power periodically …
Community Storytelling for Policy Change: 30th anniversary of LA Civil Unrest
In times of turmoil, storytelling can be a catalyst for policy change as well as a symbol for healing and resistance. As we recognize the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles Uprising, …
Pandemic Year 3 Predictions: Adjusting to New “Normals” in 2022
Since 2016, CRCC has shared the trends in religion and society that we see shaping the coming year. What started as light-hearted predictions has grown more ominous over the years. Anybody surprised …
Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard on Chauvin Trial
Religious leaders anticipated and responded to the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard, program manager for the USC Cecil Murray Center …
In Wake of Chauvin Trial, What Can Faith Leaders Learn From the Rodney King LA Civil Unrest?
This article was originally published in Religion News Service and The Washington Post. As the U.S. reacts to the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, many are wary of violence …
Sojourners Magazine: Can Churches Earn the Trust of Young Racial Justice Activists?
Religious adherence may be on the decline among young people, but activists in the racial justice movement remain animated by spiritual practices, Sojourners magazine reported. The article quotes CRCC’s Hebah Farrag and …
White Christian nationalism and the next wave of political violence
This article was originally published by The Hill. There was a brief period when Republicans appeared to reject Trumpism. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) condemned the insurrectionists as “terrorists, not patriots,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the seditionists were …
Predictions 2021: An Uphill Struggle
As we do around this time each new year, we at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC) are going to make some predictions for 2021. Even though the world …
Sunita Viswanath: A New Kind of Allyship with Black Lives Matter
This article was originally published in The Juggernaut, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. When restaurant owner Ruhel Islam said “let my building burn” last month in Minneapolis, he instantly …
Spiritual Protest: The Role of Faith in the Fight for Racial Justice
Hebah Farrag, assistant director of research at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, discusses the intersection of religion and Black Lives Matter. Panelists: Kim Jackson, entrepreneur, co-owner “We Be Grubbin” …
Far from Being Anti-Religious, Faith and Spirituality Run Deep in Black Lives Matter
This article was originally published on The Conversation, and was written with Ann Gleig. Black Lives Matters (BLM) has been portrayed by its detractors as many things: Marxist, radical, anti-American. Added to …
KCRW: Farrag on the Role of Spirituality and Prayer in the Black Lives Matter Movement
Is Black Lives Matter a spiritual movement? In KCRW’s weekly podcast, Life Examined, Jonathan Bastian talked with Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and Professor of Pan-African Studies at …
The Fight for Black Lives is a Spiritual Movement
This article was originally published in the Berkley Forum as an editorial response to “Religion and Racial Justice: The George Floyd Protests.” A circle of flowers forms a sanctuary honoring the space …
KCET on Rev. Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray: The Reverend Who Led the Rebuilding of South L.A. After the 1992 Riots
In the wake of George Floyd’s death, the United States has been gripped by fury over the nation’s persistent racism and police brutality. The unrest is reminiscent of the 1992 Los Angeles …
Critical Conversations on Activism, Online and Off
With so many Americans across the country seeking to get their voices heard both in the streets and on social media this week, CRCC is hosting a conversation about what it means …
Faith and the #MeToo Movement
KPCC, in partnership with the USC Annenberg Knight Program in Media and Religion, hosted a panel discussion on faith communities and the #MeToo movement that included CRCC’s executive director Brie Loskota and …
Transitions: New Spiritual Community in Black Radical Organizing
Abstract: Competing voices within spiritual groups help to create boundaries of belonging within and beyond the group by articulating notions of identity and meaning that are based in history, myth and gender, …