Spirituality & Religion

In this story from The Spiritual Edge, we meet Sarah Byrne-Martelli, a hospital chaplain who is caring for COVID-19 patients when their families can't visit because she believes no one should die alone.

From The Spiritual Edge, this is the story of how Malcolm X inspired an outspoken Christian girl from Alabama, and how she went on to inspire a national campaign and a fatwa — a religious legal opinion — aimed at persuading the men who control America’s mosques to share space and power. 

Oakland Poet Tureeda Mikell has many stories to tell. Her first book "Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine" is a collection of poetry that covers spirituality and Black culture, while also challenging organized religion and institutionalized racism.

For most of her life, Neets’aii Gwich’in leader Sarah James has worked to protect her homelands, including the coastal plain of the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But, now the U.S. government wants to lease some of the area for oil exploration and drilling. In this story from The Spiritual Edge we hear how the Gwich’in tribal government is challenging those plans, which threaten land that they call sacred. 

In this story from The Spiritual Edge, we meet a Palestinian man trying to navigate one of the thorniest conflicts imaginable — whether Palestinians and Israelis can exist peacefully on a landmass barely bigger than the nine-county Bay Area.

Most religions teach people to help those in need. But what happens when that mandate clashes with how the government views the law? In this story from The Spiritual Edge, we hear how federal prosecutors cracked down on volunteers providing aid on the border. 

Over the holiday weekend, there was a back and forth about whether or not places of worship should reopen right now. 

A group of pastors from around California gathered in East Oakland, an area hard hit by the coronavirus, calling for Gov. Newsom to allow churches to convene in Phase 2 of the state’s reopening.

The reality of COVID-19 means that instead of sharing meals, meditations or prayers in person, people of faith are connecting online. Since the beginning of this epidemic, Bay Area spiritual leaders have turned to online tools such as Zoom or YouTube to stay connected, and offer wisdom to their communities. 

In this story from The Spiritual Edge, we meet a Honduran Catholic priest who speaks up on behalf of his country’s most vulnerable people. His activism over the airwaves, in his writings and speeches places him in the crosshairs of a government that has killed its opponents, including this priest’s friends and colleagues.

In a new series from The Spiritual Edge, we hear from a former Israeli soldier who questions the violence he perpetrated towards Palestinians, and what it means to be Jewish if he’s no longer a Zionist.

At Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, it’s not the future that’s female, it’s the present. Reverend Dr. Jacqueline Thompson is the first female senior pastor in the church’s 100-year history. She talks about her vision for leadership and gender issues in the black church.

Fifty years ago today, indigenous people began a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island to protest broken treaties and reclaim Native American heritage. Last month, Native American tribes celebrated the anniversary early with a canoe trip to the island. They gathered to honor both the history of the earth, and elders who fought to defend their place in it.

Rev. Harry Williams, is an author, activist, and minister of compassionate care at Glide Memorial Church. He’s featured in the KALW documentary, "Where is East Oakland?"

Deondre Hudson always wanted to be like Superman. In prison, he got his wish. He leads a group of men who follow the teachings of Superman and the mythology of the planet Krypton.

Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral were teachers at San Francisco’s Opportunity 2 High School in the 70s. It’s the school Jim Jones chose for the teenagers of his People’s Temple.