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Criticism

Effort to increase trans visibility have been criticized by Black abolitionists, who believe facile inclusion of trans persons in popular culture "leads to flattened understandings of Black trans life" and may endanger Black trans people. As abolitionist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy stated in 2019, "I don't really understand why we need a day of visibility, when for most of us, especially us Black girls, we are as visible as we need to be. Our visibility is getting us killed." Likewise, a trans South Asian collaborative, known as Darkmatter, expressed concern in 2015 that Black, indigenous, and other people of color lack the resources to safely be visible, so "instead of valorizing one type of trans visibility, let's challenge the standards of visibility themselves..."

Similarly, some scholars argue that over-exposure of trans people can result in erasure, by virtue of perpetuating stereotypes or reducing people to statistical measures. Besides the paradox of visibility as a physical risk, others question whether TDOV is offering a "sanitized image of transgender people" that reinstantiates socioeconomic and racial exclusions.

Jex Blackmore
Jex Blackmore (born 1986) is an American pro-choice activist and former spokesperson for The Satanic Temple. She is a Satanist and performance artist, born in Southfield, MI and based in Detroit.

Satanism
She was a prominent member of the The Satanic Temple and organized, among other things, the first public showing of the Statue of Baphomet in 2015. At the time, this was reported as the "largest public satanic ceremony in history."

The national TST removed the leader of the Detroit TST chapter, Jex Blackmore, for statements deemed too extreme. In a 2020 interview, she criticized TST as corrupt and stated, "The organization badly yearns to be deemed legitimate in the eyes of those in power but they will never achieve this aim, even if their litigious activities are successful. Our work, whatever it is, must come from a place of authenticity."

Abortion rights
In 2015, Blackmore wrote a series of detailed blog posts leading up to her abortion on November 26th. She called it the Unmother Project and used it as an opportunity to oppose abortion restrictions in her home state of Michigan. The abortion was performed with Misoprostol. At the time. Blackmore was uninsured and she began her project only 12 days before the abortion.

In January 2022, Blackmore apparently took an abortion medication on live television, channel WJBK in Detroit. She was in the process of explaining to the host, Charlie Langton, her view of the Food and Drug Administration's position on mailing medical abortion pills, mifepristone. The show was held on the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. In an email to the The Washington Post, Blackmore confirmed that this was her third medical abortion and stated: "Abortion is a common and safe medical procedure surrounded by stigma. Stigma keeps people silent about their personal experiences and creates space for harmful, inaccurate narratives. My action was intended to dispel some of those myths, misinformation, and stigma."

Film and performance art
In February 2016, Blackmore conducted three ritual performances in Austin, Hollywood, and New York City, titled the Sabbat cycle. In March 2021, the Ann Arbor Film Festival showed her film, An Undue Burden, described as "an endurance work that follows the experience of a pregnant woman as she awaits her abortion procedure in a hotel room over the course of twenty-four hours."

Interreligious studies
Interreligious studies or interfaith studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to examining interfaith dialogue and other interreligious encounters, while often involving scholars in interfaith activism. The field originated in the 19xxs, emerging partly from efforts by theologians and interfaith practitioners and partly from scholars, during a period of interfaith activism, especially in the North America. The field emerged with institutions, including academic journals, scholarly associations, and programs within colleges and universities.

The academic field of interreligious studies emerged from pioneering scholarship on religious diversity, such as by Diana L. Eck, who started student-engaged research in 1991 that became The Pluralism Project at Harvard University. Other religious studies scholars of diversity included Robert Wuthnow and Robert D. Putnam. McCarthy, Kate. "(Inter)Religious studies: Making a Home in the Secular Academy" (3) In addition, there was influence from scholars working on the interreligious aspects of various social sciences. In 2013, several steps moved the field forward, including the founding of the Interfaith and Interreligious Studies Group at the American Academy of Religion, the establishment of an Office of Religion and Global Affairs at the United States Department of State, and a call for an interfaith studies field was published by Eboo Patel, who founded Interfaith Youth Core, which subsequently helped the funding of academic programs at U.S. universities. (McCarthy 3-4. "Introduction" by the editors footnote 4 on funding) Academic journals were started, including the Journal of Interreligious Studies and Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology.

Academic institutions
According to Patel et al., the field of interreligious studies covers (as of 2018):


 * Twenty undergraduate programs have majors, minors, or certificates;
 * Four universities or seminaries have tenure track faculty positions;
 * Twenty-two centers with an interfaith focus have been set up.

.Definitions
In Patel et al., Kate McCarthy composes a definition that has become well-recognized:

Interreligious studies is a subdiscipline of religious studies that engages in the scholarly and religiously neutral description, multidisciplinary analysis, and theoretical framing of the interactions of religiously different people and groups, including the intersection of religion and secularity. It examines these interactions in historical and contemporary contexts, and in relation to other social systems and forces. Like other disciplines with applied dimensions, it serves the public good by bringing its analysis to bear on practical approaches to issues in religioiusly diverse societies.

McCarthy refers to the beginning of the definition for its scholarly and intellectual character, while the ending refers to the applied, civic, activist mission (12-14).

Historical precursors
Interreligious studies was grounded on a century long shift in theology and religious activities. As a prelude to pluralism, for example, Christian missionaries formulated a belief that Christianity could help "fulfill" Islamic and this led, in turn, to a broader ecumenical approach. (Womack 21) Another step was the multifaith dialogues in such events as the Parliament of the World's Religions, first held in 1893. (Womack 21)

Clooney, Francis X. “Comparative Theology and Inter-Religious Dialogue.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Inter-religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. 51-63.

Cornille, Catherine, “Conditions for Inter-Religious Dialogue,” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Inter-religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. 20-33.

Howard, Thomas Albert. The Faiths of Others. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021. Intro, Chap. 1.

Leirvik, Oddbjørn. “Interreligious Studies: a Relational Approach to the Study of Religion.” The Journal of Interreligious Studies 13 (2014):15-19.

Melnik, Sergey. “Types of Interreligious Dialogue.” The Journal of Interreligious Studies 31 (2020): 1-26.

Mendes-Flohr, Paul. “Reflections on the Promise and Limitations of Interfaith Dialogue.” European Judaism 46, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 4-14.

Mikva, Rachel S. “Six Issues that Complicate Interreligious Studies and Engagement,” Interreligious/Interfaith Studies, 124-136.

Kevin Minister, “Transforming Introductory Courses in Religion: From World Religions to Interreligious Studies,” Interreligious/Interfaith Studies, 60-71.

Moyaert, Marianne. “Scriptural Reasoning as Inter-Religious Dialogue.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Inter-religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. 64-86.

C. Phan, Peter. “The Mutual Shaping of Cultures and Religions through Interreligious Dialogue.” In Interreligious Dialogue and Cultural Change, edited by Catherine Cornille and Stephanie Corigliano. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2012. 13-39.

Ochs, Peter, Essam Fahim, and Paola Pinzon. “Read the Signs: Detecting Early Warning Signals of Interreligious Conflict,” Religions 13 (2022): 2-20.

Swidler, Leonard. “The History of Inter-Religious Dialogue.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Inter-religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. 3-19.

Fletcher, Jeannine Hill. “The Promising Practices of Antiracist Approaches to Interfaith Studies,” Interreligious/Interfaith Studies, 137-146.

Fletcher, Jeannine Hill. “Women in Inter-Religious Dialogue.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Inter-religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. 168-183.

Radford, Ruether Rosemary. “Women and Interfaith Relations: Toward a Transnational Feminism.” In Women and Interreligious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille and Jillian Maxey. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2013. 11-26.

Knitter, Paul. “Inter-Religious Dialogue and Social Action.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Inter-religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 133-148.

Mitchell, Beverly Eileen. “The Persistent Challenge to Human Dignity,” The Journal of Interreligious Studies 14 (2014): 19-24.

Fletcher, Jeannine Hill. “Constructing Religious Identity in a Cosmopolitan World: The Theo-Politics of Interfaith Work.” The Journal of Interreligious Studies 15 (2014): 47-54.

Kim, Seung Chul. “How Could We Get Over the Monotheistic Paradigm for Interreligious Dialogue?” The Journal of Interreligious Studies 13 (2014): 20-32.

Hong, Christine. Decolonial Futures: Intercultural and Interreligious Intelligence for Theological Education. New York: Lexington Books, 2021. Chaps. 1-4.

Kadayific-Orellana, S. Ayse “Inter-Religious Dialogue and Peacebuilding.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Inter-religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. 149-167.

Dzyubanskyy, Taras. “Interfaith Leadership and Typologies of Religious Plurality.” The Journal of Interreligious Studies 30 (2020): 1-10.

Rubens, Heather Miller, Homayra Ziad, and Benjamin E. Sax, “Toward an Interreligious City: A Case Study,” Interreligious/Interfaith Studies, 209-219.