Employing Spiritual Teachings in the Real World

This week on the Cosmic Citizen we will be interviewing Michael Gillespie (link to bio) on his work as a deeply peaceful and spiritual journalist who regularly covers volatile and violent world situations. Please join us for Michael's unique world view and insights.

Michael is a journalist who lives and works in central Iowa. He is a contributing editor at The Independent Monitor, the national newspaper of Arab Americans. He writes regularly for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, the nation's most widely read and respected magazine focusing on U.S. Middle East foreign policy and the politics and culture of the region. A 1999 graduate of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Iowa State University in Ames where he was inducted a member of Kappa Tau Alpha, the national honor society in journalism and mass communication, Michael has previously worked in radio as a reporter at WUOT-FM in Knoxville, TN, a university NPR-affiliate station, and as project director for community radio station WDVX-FM in Clinton, TN. His reportage has been broadcast internationally by Swiss Radio International.

Michael has been a student of the Urantia Papers since 1974. While living in Tennessee, where he co-founded the Knoxville Writers Guild and served as executive director of the Tennesse Writers Alliance, Michael was an active member of Urantia study groups in Knoxville and in Murfreesboro. He had earlier been a member of a study group in Austin, TX.

In Iowa since 1996, Michael served as a member of the cabinet of the Ames Interfaith Council for six years. He was vice-chair and chair of the city's lay interfaith organization in the years before and after September 11, 2001.

Michael writes regularly about interfaith relations and peace and social justice issues and events.