John Pinna
Co-Host of Crossing Faiths
John Thomas Pinna is Director of Strategic Partnerships and Development for Religion News Foundation. Over his 20-year career, Pinna has personally secured and managed $600 million dollars and $12.7 billion dollars as a leader of a team across 43 projects, with engagement in 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa and Asia.
After leaving an international career in industry in 2009 to focus on positioning the Muslim community positively with other faiths, Pinna joined the American Islamic Congress (AIC) as their Director of Government and International Relations. After AIC, he continued for three years to develop multi-faith events while executing international programming as the executive director at the Development Organization for Societies in Transition (DOST), culminating in events with Muslim leaders and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
In 2016, Pinna was named the Vice President of Development for the USAID-funded American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) where he managed the non-academic departments and established several functional departments. Pinna also managed two USG funded projects: the Business Innovation Hub and the International Center for Afghan Women's Economic Development, and USG and non-USG funded projects. Pinna also drafted parts of the U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) and supported the logistics of the first DOS Ministerial. He advises the National Security Council Directorates on Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tunisia, and international religious freedom (IRF), as well as DOS bureaus on Afghanistan, Libya, Tunisia, and the Ukraine, and on countering radical ideology.
John Pinna has hosted 115 Episodes.
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7: Headline edition: Self-flagellation, Hindu-Muslim joint prayer, and more
September 17th, 2019 | Season 1 | 1 hr 6 mins
Matt and John talk religion headlines including self-flagellation commemorating Ashura, joint Hindus & Muslims prayers, and U.S. Senate passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.
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6: John tells of his American Muslim life after 9-11
September 11th, 2019 | Season 1 | 1 hr 16 mins
Matt asks John to share his experiences as an American Muslim following 9-11-01.
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5: Netflix's The Family
September 3rd, 2019 | Season 1 | 58 mins 10 secs
Matt and John review the Netflix series "The Family."
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4: Messiah Complex?
August 27th, 2019 | Season 1 | 44 mins 20 secs
evangelicals, presidents, trump
Is president trump Messianic? Matt and John analyze the apocalyptic news cycle.
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3: Halal pork and military parades (Pilot)
July 3rd, 2019 | Season 0 | 57 mins 40 secs
But will John eat the halal pork?
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2: Jesus' nails? (Pilot)
June 13th, 2019 | Season 0 | 59 mins
Matt and John talk religious artifacts located in Israel and Turkey.
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1: An evangelical walks into a wudu space (Pilot)
June 5th, 2019 | Season 0 | 27 mins 15 secs
How not to do multifaith engagement. Matt and John swap awkward multifaith experiences.