Faith Rift

Monotheism vs. Polytheism

In the multi-faith home I grew up in, dinner-table conversations could jump from the Shema to stories of Krishna, from church hymns to questions about ancestors and the spirits of place. I learned early that the way people speak about the divine is rarely just a “how many gods” question. It is also...

Starting a Spiritual Journaling Routine

There is a particular kind of honesty that shows up on paper. Not the polished honesty we offer in conversation, but the unguarded kind that arrives when you give your thoughts somewhere safe to land. Spiritual journaling is not about writing beautifully or having profound insights on schedule. It...

Mindfulness vs. Transcendental Meditation

In my early twenties, I spent a season in a quiet monastery where the morning bell meant one thing: sit down, notice your breath, and keep returning. A few years later, in a city apartment with thin walls and a loud radiator, I met someone who swore by a very different approach: repeating a mantra...

Creating a Sacred Space at Home

There is a quiet kind of courage in choosing a corner of your home and saying: Here, I will return to what matters. A sacred space does not need to be large, expensive, or aesthetically perfect. It only needs to be sincere. It can live on a windowsill, a shelf, the end of a kitchen table, or a...

Starting a Daily Meditation Practice

When people tell me they “can’t meditate,” what they usually mean is: I sat down, my mind did mind things, and I assumed I was doing it wrong. If that is you, let me offer a kinder reframe. Meditation is not the absence of thought. It is the practice of returning, again and again, to what is real...

Hosting a Respectful Interfaith Dialogue

In my early twenties, I learned something important in a crowded community center where shoes lined the wall like a patchwork of lives. We were there to talk about God, yes, but also grief, parenting, injustice, and the quiet question beneath them all: Can I be safe and honest here? A respectful...

10 Sacred Texts and How to Read Them Today

In my childhood home, scripture showed up in more than one language and more than one rhythm. A Psalm might be read at the kitchen table, while a verse from the Bhagavad Gita was quoted during a hard week, and a Buddhist chant floated softly through the hallway like a steadying hand. If you are...

7 Misconceptions About Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism

In a multi-faith home, you learn early that people can use the same word and mean completely different things. “Prayer.” “God.” “Liberation.” “Devotion.” Sometimes our misunderstandings are innocent, picked up from headlines, movies, or a single loud voice claiming to speak for millions. Other...

How to Study World Religions: 7 Tips for Objective Learning

I grew up hearing more than one name for the Holy. At our dinner table, prayer could sound like a Psalm one night and a simple gratitude practice the next. That early mixture did not confuse me as much as it trained me to listen. Studying world religions well is, at its heart, a practice of...

Theravada vs. Mahayana Buddhism

When people say “Buddhism,” they often mean a single, unified tradition. But Buddhism is more like a great river system, fed by many streams that share a common source. Two of the largest streams are Theravada and Mahayana , though that is a simplification: Theravada is one surviving Nikaya school,...

Fasting Across Faiths

In my multi-faith childhood, the word fast meant different things depending on whose kitchen you were standing in. In one home it meant no food from dawn to sunset. In another it meant a simpler plate, given with gratitude. In another it meant an entire day set apart, held with prayer and quiet....

The 5 Major World Religions Explained

When I was growing up in a multi-faith home, dinner conversations could move from the Bhagavad Gita to the Gospels to questions about prayer rugs and Sabbath candles, sometimes in the span of ten minutes. What stayed with me was not a sense of competition between traditions, but a quieter...

Karma and Reincarnation Across Eastern Religions

When I was a teenager, my family used the word karma in at least three different ways in the same week. One relative meant it like cosmic payback. Another meant it like moral cause and effect. And a family friend, raised Buddhist, smiled and said something like, “It is not punishment. It is...

The Shared Roots of Abrahamic Religions

When people talk about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the conversation can quickly drift toward difference. And yes, the differences matter. But there is another story, quieter and just as true: these faiths are related, like branches grown from a shared root system. They argue at times like...

About Lydia Vance

Welcome. I’m Lydia Vance, the writer behind Religion & Spirituality here at FaithRift. If you have ever felt deeply curious about the sacred and also a little unsure where you belong, you are in good company. My work is for the tender in-between spaces: the places where doubt and devotion sit at...

Visiting a Hindu Temple for the First Time

The first time I visited a Hindu temple, I worried about doing something wrong: standing at the wrong time, wearing the wrong thing, not knowing where to look. What I found instead was a rhythm that gently carries you. A temple, or mandir , is a living space of devotion, community, and beauty, and...