More on: faith based organizations
San Francisco Interfaith Council, Guest Speaker
Jan 13, 2011
» Engagements, Reflections
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco, CA
I was invited by the San Francisco Interfaith Council’s (SFIC) Executive Director Michael Pappas as a guest speaker with Reentry Policy Director Jessica Flintoff at its monthly breakfast.
About 80 people from different faith based groups were present at the St. Mark’s Lutheran Church Heritage Hall. I shared my poem “Autobiography @ 33” with them as an introduction. I spoke briefly about the importance of all communities coming together to help those who are incarcerated. I drew the parallel on how the prisoners are being treated like lepers in the leper colony of Prison Industrial Complex. Many of the community members reached out to me when I was in prison just as Jesus reach out to the lepers in the leper colony. Without the compassion demonstrated by people from the community, I would not have become who I am.
Members of SFIC are doing many great things helping people who are in need in our community. I want to encourage the interfaith council to play an active role in changing the policy that can steer California away from being number 1 in incarceration and number 50 in education.
Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, Guest Speaker
Nov 08, 2009
» Engagements
Milpitas, CA
Spoke with approximately 150 students and 50 adults
About the Organization
Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental, humanitarian organization with four major missions: charity, medicine, education, and humanistic culture. The foundation also engages in international disaster relief, bone marrow donation, community volunteerism, and environmental protection. “Tzu Chi” means “compassion and relief.”
The goal of Tzu Chi is to help the poor and sick with “love, compassion, joy, and giving”. The spirit of Tzu Chi is “sincerity, integrity, trust and honesty” and all members invite everyone to come and cultivate Tzu Chi’s field of blessings and together create a world where ten thousand lotus hearts of compassion create the world of Tzu Chi.
