Tolerance February 10, 2019 A Glimpse of Peace in the Middle East I spent three days living as though in the future—where we can live our own faith, and respectfully allow others the same... READ MORE
Tolerance January 22, 2019 Religious Tolerance: How You Can Earn Peace A society worth living in is one in which religious tolerance is alive and well. Let us then make conscious efforts to be... READ MORE
Tolerance January 22, 2019 Shape-Shifting Lizards From Outer Space! Astounding but true! According to multiple studies, upwards of 12 million Americans, or 4 percent of the population, believe... READ MORE
Tolerance January 18, 2019 What’s the Magic Word? There’s a beautiful word that represents a concept, a viewpoint, a way of looking at things. I’ve been growing grey waiting... READ MORE
Tolerance January 7, 2019 How the Right to Education Can Answer Our Troubles Why do we still see war, poverty, religious intolerance, persecution, political upheaval, civil conflict, human trafficking,... READ MORE
Tolerance January 1, 2019 Miscast as a Cult Member One would think, in this new epoch of hyper-sensitivity, that casual slurs about a stranger’s religion would be “so last... READ MORE
Tolerance December 27, 2018 Galileo’s Middle Finger In the Galileo museum in Florence, Italy, carefully and lovingly preserved by his admirers in an ornate and gilded glass bubble,... READ MORE
Tolerance December 22, 2018 Our Florida Winter Wonderland For me, this is the spirit of Christmas. It was how I was raised. Giving help to those less fortunate. Brightening the days... READ MORE
Tolerance December 21, 2018 Christmas and Our Common Humanity The Winter Solstice itself is something that nearly all humanity and all life on this planet has in common. The point of renewal.... READ MORE
Tolerance December 20, 2018 The Meaning of Christmas In my world, Christmas is a time for communication, for acceptance, for understanding, for reconciliation; a time for saying... READ MORE
Tolerance December 7, 2018 Human Rights: There Is No “Them,” Only “Us” Enough people got so tired of living in a country that treated them like prisoners, and the system became so unworkable, that... READ MORE
Tolerance November 28, 2018 And That is Respect We would have dinner and spend the rest of the night talking till the wee hours about religion—he from his perspective and... READ MORE
Tolerance November 27, 2018 The “Church” of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its Debt to the Quakers Imagine yourself at your local DMV office renewing your driver’s license. You’ve spent several hours filling out forms,... READ MORE
Tolerance November 21, 2018 Thanksgiving—And Why I’m Grateful for the Chance to Help When we care for and nurture others, when we know that life is about what we DO not what we own, and when we can care more... READ MORE
Tolerance November 18, 2018 The Space Between Us So you were right all along. All that “no man is an island” stuff is true, after all. You bother me or yell at me or snub... READ MORE
Tolerance October 29, 2018 Men of Goodwill The world can be very cruel. Certainly if you sit back and let mass media and pop culture swamp you, it can seem that way.... READ MORE
Tolerance October 29, 2018 How Hateful Lies Can Destroy Others’ Lives We must all be vigilant for the fabricated, evil and false accusations that can hurt both individuals and communities. READ MORE
Tolerance October 25, 2018 Carpool of DEATH!! In truth, you have FAR more reason to be terrified of death by carpool. The odds are way higher that you’ll be a carpool... READ MORE
Tolerance September 29, 2018 Desensitizing Hate: A Scientologist’s Perspective But rather than focusing on what we don’t like about others, we should look for ways to accept—even admire—our differences. READ MORE
Tolerance September 21, 2018 How Young Is Too Young to Learn About Bigotry? I was moved by a recent articulate, thoughtful article about how to prepare your children for the evil that exists in the... READ MORE
Tolerance September 20, 2018 Why Tolerance Is Not Enough. #respectfaith When I was a child in France, the word “culte” just meant “worship.” Still does. In fact, when intolerant types there... READ MORE
Tolerance September 20, 2018 Race, Religion & Bridges to Understanding A group of almost 600 people, mostly African-Americans, gather on a road leading east out of a small southern town. They begin... READ MORE
Tolerance September 13, 2018 The Definition of Hate Just as the only thing we need to fear is Fear itself, so the only thing truly worth hating is Hate. And since Hate equals... READ MORE
Tolerance September 12, 2018 Finding Solace in the Tajikistan Bicycle Attack While this world has a history of vicious intolerance—one it sometimes appears may continue forever—I see signs that there... READ MORE
Tolerance September 12, 2018 Religious Tolerance and Growing up in Brooklyn The question becomes: how can we maintain and express our deep-seated religious beliefs and practices without becoming intolerant... READ MORE
Tolerance September 10, 2018 Our Outraged Society We are supposed to be living in an enlightened age, but instead we seem to be devolving into a society of bullies who, ironically,... READ MORE
Tolerance September 3, 2018 What Do You Mean by “God?” Man’s entire history has, to a large degree, centered on the question of God. Wars have been fought, families torn apart,... READ MORE
Tolerance August 26, 2018 What a Catholic Taught Me About Civil Discourse Sometimes YOU (not the other guy) are the one who has to change. I’ve learned that many times in my life. READ MORE
Tolerance August 7, 2018 Religion: The Price of Being “Different” What are these people so afraid of? That Jehovah’s Witnesses are personally attacking them by handing them copies of The... READ MORE
Tolerance July 25, 2018 How to See People for Who They Really Are This lawyer wanted my friend to make a generalization about two groups of people rather than allow her to judge the case by... READ MORE
Tolerance July 17, 2018 God Has a Name and It Is “Peace” One cannot, in fact, be a devout Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu or Buddhist and still wish to do harm to those who believe... READ MORE
Tolerance July 1, 2018 Discrimination Is Not Native I gained some of the most valuable lessons of my life. I learned that people are decent. They are friendly. They care about... READ MORE
Tolerance June 18, 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop and The Need For Tolerance and Respect I believe that the Masterpiece opinion will make such bodies more aware of the need to produce decisions, however they rule,... READ MORE
Tolerance May 16, 2018 In Memory of Chris Cornell, July 20, 1964—May 18, 2017 When my brother and I were kids, we were driving in the car with my dad one day and “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin... READ MORE
Tolerance March 28, 2018 Being Different: A Sensational Analogy Its controversial and high-profile members are in the news almost daily, their alleged transgressions the subject of public... READ MORE
Tolerance March 20, 2018 Religious Persecution Is As Old As… I have discovered through the school of hard knocks that the louder the false accuser the bigger their crime. READ MORE
Tolerance March 20, 2018 Why a Scientologist Wished She’d Gone to South Africa Sooner Like these words from the late Nelson Mandela: “We can change the world and make it a better place. It is in your hands... READ MORE
Tolerance March 15, 2018 Peace On Earth By the Weekend! (Tuesday at the Latest) An African-American man put this to the test recently when he joined a white supremacist group. After the initial cold shoulder... READ MORE
Tolerance March 11, 2018 The Food Bigot I am a food bigot. This was brought to my attention by my wife some years ago when she first served me eggplant. “I hate... READ MORE
Tolerance February 28, 2018 BEEEEP!!!!! "Prejudice" is actually a hyphenate: "Pre-Judge." Or, to put a further spin on it, “premature judging.” It’s not a new... READ MORE
Tolerance February 28, 2018 Scientologists and Responsibility The concept of responsibility is at the core of personal freedom. For centuries and across cultures it has been believed that... READ MORE
Tolerance February 7, 2018 Nike Starts Catering For Muslims Nike’s decision to launch a lightweight hijab for athletes, accompanied by the tagline “Sports is for everyone,” may... READ MORE
Tolerance January 30, 2018 From Hate to Tolerance Recently, I saw the movie “Darkest Hour”, a film about Winston Churchill’s rise to become Prime Minister of the United... READ MORE
Tolerance January 27, 2018 My Father’s Journey from Darkness to Love My father was raised as an Orthodox Jew in the early part of the last century, in the same Southwest Washington, D.C., neighborhood... READ MORE
Tolerance January 10, 2018 People Who “Discriminate” Can’t Discriminate Real, careful discrimination takes accurate observation, knowledge of the subject at hand, and fine judgment. That takes some... READ MORE
Tolerance January 10, 2018 What is “Reality” Anyway? I took a university philosophy class one time and the part about the nature of reality almost killed me. Aristotle wrote 12... READ MORE
Tolerance December 27, 2017 How to Get Others to Change Their Minds How many times have you tried to change someone’s mind about something by indicating where they were wrong? Did that work... READ MORE
Tolerance December 26, 2017 Can Plastic Reindeer Ensure Separation of Church and State? In my last post, I made the point that the Founders’ purpose in providing for free exercise of religion and prohibiting... READ MORE
Tolerance December 25, 2017 Why I Love Christmas I enjoy the lights, the decorations, the carolers, the smell of Christmas trees everywhere and most of all I love that people,... READ MORE
Tolerance December 19, 2017 Do Scientologists Believe in Aliens? For the record, I’ve been a Scientologist for over thirty years, and so far no one in the church has ever inquired about... READ MORE
Tolerance December 17, 2017 Taking a STAND Against Discrimination: Nelson Mandela His English name was Nelson Mandela, but at birth his mother had named him Rolihlahla, which meant “troublemaker” in his... READ MORE
Tolerance December 13, 2017 What Human Rights Day Means to Me I’m about to board a flight back to the U.S. after spending two weeks delivering human rights lectures and musical performances... READ MORE
Tolerance December 11, 2017 A Brief Analysis of the Free Speech vs. Hate Speech Debate In one of his many letters stressing the importance of education, Thomas Jefferson wrote that, “as long as we may think... READ MORE
Tolerance December 10, 2017 On Respecting Religion, Church and State We’re living at a time when it seems that to believe in something means you have to do whatever you can to force everyone... READ MORE
Tolerance December 5, 2017 Is Technology the Greatest Hope for Humanity? In 1997, a computer defeated Garry Kasparov, the greatest chess champion that ever lived. Deep Blue was a $10-million-dollar... READ MORE
Tolerance December 3, 2017 Increased Tolerance: The Apple Pie Method One day when I was a kid, my mom brought an apple pie home from the bakery. This was a rare occurrence in our sugar-rationed... READ MORE
Tolerance November 29, 2017 Too Much Evil in the World? Look Again. As I continued on the last leg of my trip, I mulled over my encounters with these two men from very different demographics—two... READ MORE
Tolerance November 28, 2017 What Does it Take to Maintain Freedom of Religion Against Hatred and Intolerance? I was 28 when I met Gunnar and Lois and their son Anders. When they asked me what I thought about Nixon and Watergate, I had... READ MORE
Tolerance November 28, 2017 Why It’s Cool to Be “Uncool” I was never one of the “cool” crowd. I had lots of friends from every one of the defined social groups in high school,... READ MORE
Tolerance November 20, 2017 Ending Nuclear War—A Small Group With a Big Idea Last month, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a Geneva-based coalition... READ MORE
Tolerance November 17, 2017 What My Trip to Idaho for the Eclipse Taught Me About Prejudice We were either going to see a magnificent astronomical event or—more likely—we were going to end up as bloody roadkill... READ MORE
Tolerance November 4, 2017 “LGBTQ vs. Religious Freedom”—No One Has a Monopoly on Right and Wrong How do we reconcile the fact that religious freedom for one person could violate the basic human rights of another? If someone... READ MORE
Tolerance November 3, 2017 “Innocents Abroad” and What Mark Twain Can Teach Us About Faith Faith is spiritual, not physical. Faith exists in the minds, hearts and souls of those who embrace it. So physical proof of... READ MORE
Tolerance October 20, 2017 Malaysia: A Step Toward Tolerance In Malaysia this week the heads of its different states (collectively called “the Rulers”) issued a joint statement calling... READ MORE
Tolerance October 19, 2017 The Things I Care About I don’t really care what you think of my husband. Although he has passed on, I loved him. We got along great and laughed... READ MORE
Tolerance October 11, 2017 Passion Without Compassion is Oppression If you make an enemy of those whose ideas are not the same as yours, they will do everything they can to stop you. I can guarantee... READ MORE
Tolerance October 9, 2017 Why I’m a Scientologist Every so often, I experience something odd. Someone will come along and insist that I defend my beliefs. They usually have... READ MORE
Tolerance October 8, 2017 “We Stand Together” Manchester The message was not one of anger or hatred, nor did it call for vengeance or retribution. The message did not exclude or label... READ MORE
Tolerance October 5, 2017 The Rohingya and Ethnic Cleansing—What Do They Say About Us? The sad truth is that racial, religious and ethnic hatreds are alive and well in the 21st century and many new crimes are... READ MORE
Tolerance October 1, 2017 Hate Speech: Why More Communication—Not Less—Is the Answer I agree that hate speech has no place in civil discourse, but when people are afraid to communicate at all about entire subjects... READ MORE
Tolerance September 30, 2017 Why “Sticks and Stones” Should Be the New College Creed “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” has fallen on hard times in American... READ MORE
Tolerance September 28, 2017 How One Spiritual Outlook Could Solve the Planet’s Worst Problems Even if it’s not true—and I believe it is—wouldn’t it make a better world? READ MORE
Tolerance September 25, 2017 Bigotry—I Just Won’t Do That Anymore That’s the importance of religion, to me. And I know it’s true because I experienced it at that interfaith meeting. And... READ MORE
Tolerance September 22, 2017 Why Religious Freedom and Equality Aren’t Mutually Exclusive The Justice Department has waded into a Supreme Court case involving a Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake... READ MORE
Tolerance September 21, 2017 Religious Unity in the Wake of Disaster—Will it Prevail? Religious freedom is quite literally the bedrock value on which the United States was founded and I argue it is in no small... READ MORE
Tolerance September 20, 2017 Cassini—How a Mission to Saturn Became a Triumph Over Evil On October 15, 1997, NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency together launched the Cassini-Huygens probe... READ MORE
Tolerance September 17, 2017 Whatever Makes You Happy I’ve gotten that response several times over the past year when I tell people I’m a Scientologist after they’ve spewed... READ MORE
Tolerance September 16, 2017 Overcoming Discrimination—the ’69 World Series and Hurricanes Today In the late summer and fall of 1969 there was a great deal of hostility and discrimination between the Black and White communities... READ MORE
Tolerance August 2, 2017 Scientologist’s Commencement Advice: How to Make This the Best of Times It was the best of times. I was on YouTube the other day and began watching some great commencement speeches, including one... READ MORE
Tolerance July 5, 2017 A Solution to Jellyfish Stings I was on vacation on the East Coast of Spain at the age of 21 when I went swimming with a friend in a secluded cove. An idyllic... READ MORE
Tolerance July 4, 2017 Don’t Tell Me. SHOW Me. My father was a brilliant man. He held a doctorate in law, was literate in both Spanish and English and, after 20 years as... READ MORE
Tolerance July 4, 2017 Lessons in Tolerance from South Africa I guess there is bigotry everywhere, but—oddly enough—I don’t experience too much of that here in South Africa. If you... READ MORE
Tolerance July 1, 2017 The Truth (Not the Press) about Religion I’ve heard plenty of people ask, “If Islam is a religion of peace, why aren’t they speaking out against terrorism?”... READ MORE
Tolerance June 25, 2017 One Senator’s “Religious Test” and the Antidote to Our Side-Taking Culture At the beginning of June, a U.S. senator grilled an appointee to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The... READ MORE
Tolerance June 23, 2017 A Town in New Jersey is Getting a New Mosque—and Why it Matters The story of how a new mosque was approved for construction in Bernard Township, New Jersey is a classic case of good news... READ MORE
Tolerance June 20, 2017 On Religion & Politics, or What Not to Discuss at a Dinner Party “Nothing ruins a dinner party faster than religion or politics.” It’s the unspoken agreement of a polite dinner host... READ MORE
Tolerance May 16, 2017 Why Tolerance Works When I was in my teens I could cruise any major street in Southern California and stop for a hamburger. Now I can stop for... READ MORE
Tolerance May 15, 2017 If Religion is All Greek to You I was raised Jewish, and I remember going to temple and reading from the Torah when I was 11. Unfortunately, I could read... READ MORE
Tolerance March 24, 2017 ‘Agree to Disagree’—A Cliché or a Path to Tolerance? When I was a child and frustrated my mom, she would express her impatience with a slight increase in her genteel Southern... READ MORE
