Executive Assistant for Marketing and Events, Alexis Waggoner works closely with both Westar’s Marketing Committee and the Executive Director to advance the presence and value of Westar in our culture through social media and the use of digital media in public education. Alexis brings to Westar a unique blend of digital marketing and religious education experience. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary.
In a culture that increasingly equates the voice of a few on the “religious right” with the voices of all American Christians, Westar Institute finds it necessary to state unequivocally that the misappropriation of Biblical stories to support and defend oppressors and predators with little or no regard of context or historical learning is counter [...]
I had a great conversation with one of our scholars, Dr. Jarmo Tarkki, recently (you can watch the clip here) where we talked about the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and how Martin Luther paved the way for the church to keep re-imagining and re-inventing itself.
We're watching the fire in Wine Country closely, knowing that many people in that area have been affected. Westar's offices are no longer in Santa Rosa, nor are any of its employees. But we know of friends and fellows who have been affected, along with the residents of the towns through which the fire is [...]
Will there be no peace? Following the Las Vegas attacks last week, Diane Feinstein beseeched the American people in the fight for gun control: "Help us,” she said. "We know the power that is on the other side. You have to stand up for this.” And then the NRA also stood up in support of a ban on bump [...]
I taught a class on Prophetic Imagination in the Hebrew Scriptures this Sunday. When I teach on the prophets, I always ask: Are there prophets today? I point to people like Martin Luther King, Cornel West, Wendall Berry, Maya Angelou as those who performed or currently perform the task of truth-telling in our own time. Shortly after [...]
Westar Institute fosters collaborative, cumulative research in religious studies and communicates the results of the scholarship to a broad, non-specialist public.
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