TruthBook Religious News Blog

Vatican looks to heavens for signs of alien life

By ARIEL DAVID (AP) – Nov 10, 2009

VATICAN CITY — E.T. phone Rome. Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.

"The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.

Funes, a Jesuit priest, presented the results Tuesday of a five-day conference that gathered astronomers, physicists, biologists and other experts to discuss the budding field of astrobiology — the study of the origin of life and its existence elsewhere in the cosmos.

Funes said the possibility of alien life raises "many philosophical and theological implications" but added that the gathering was mainly focused on the scientific perspective and how different disciplines can be used to explore the issue.

Chris Impey, an astronomy professor at the University of Arizona, said it was appropriate that the Vatican would host such a meeting.

"Both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe," he told a news conference Tuesday. "There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe."

Thirty scientists, including non-Catholics, from the U.S., France, Britain, Switzerland, Italy and Chile attended the conference, called to explore among other issues "whether sentient life forms exist on other worlds."

Funes set the stage for the conference a year ago when he discussed the possibility of alien life in an interview given prominence in the Vatican's daily newspaper.

The Church of Rome's views have shifted radically through the centuries since Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 for speculating, among other ideas, that other worlds could be inhabited.

Scientists have discovered hundreds of planets outside our solar system — including 32 new ones announced recently by the European Space Agency. Impey said the discovery of alien life may be only a few years away.

"If biology is not unique to the Earth, or life elsewhere differs bio-chemically from our version, or we ever make contact with an intelligent species in the vastness of space, the implications for our self-image will be profound," he said.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: Ariel David, Catholic, extraterrestrials, Vatican

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In-Depth: Motivated to Meditate

Thursday, 19 Nov 2009
Trish VanPilsum

MINNEAPOLIS - You've seen me do some extreme things for stories. Go through the ice, ride a motorcycle, but now something on the extreme opposite end of the spectrum. I take an eight week class of meditation. Can a person find peace in eight weeks? Let's see.

From my early morning workout, to my late night combination of meal prep and teen study sessions, my life is a study in escalation and juggling. To survive is to multi-task. To multi-task is to develop what is sometimes called monkey mind.

“Our minds are just racing with thoughts that just whip right out right after another," Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, Director of the Center for Spirituality and Healing said.

Or, maybe your mind feels something like my teacher, Terry Pearson calls: thought, thought, thought.

"There comes a time where we say this is not the way I want to live my life," Pearson said. "I'm not as happy. I don't feel at peace or at ease. This is too hard. So our life has to change."

Change is coming for anyone who walks into the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing. The class is a mindfulness based stress reduction class. Science speak for meditation. Among those taking the class are several doctors:

"I think the doctors are coming because there is so much research now that shows meditation does actually calm the brain." Pearson said.

There is also a nurse, the director of a poverty program and me. Terry Pearson has been teaching at the U’s program for six years.

"It's just so interesting and exciting to see people change," Pearson said.

We'll measure change in a couple of ways.

Meet Jesus Vega. His mom is the director of the poverty program. I ask him why his mom took the class.

"She said it would calm her down." he said.

And if this class makes a difference he'll notice it. In my case we will actually try to document whether any real change happens. I take two surveys, one a quality of life questionnaire that asks if I tend to overreact. I say yes. It asks if I tend to be judgmental of my own flaws and inadequacies? Yes, I answer who isn’t?

And it asks if I fixate on what's wrong. Again, the answer is yes. The other is a mindfulness survey to see how well my mind focuses on one thing at a time. I'll retake these tests at the end of the eight week course. Which of course, has me wondering: what does breathing possibly have to do with all these things?

Breathing, it seems is just the beginning.

This is page one of a two-page article. Please click on "external source" for the entire article; and on Page two, there are some links to meditation videos.

Labels: meditation, mindfulness, Trish VanPilsum

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Giving Thanks Helps Depression, Study

Submitted by Tyler Woods Ph.D.
Nov 20th, 2009

Depression is the opposite of a state of thankfulness and being thankful and grateful could help symptoms of depression. Research that appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology confirmed that those individuals who kept a weekly gratitude journal were more optimistic about life, more likely to exercise regularly, and felt better physically compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events.

More and more studies just like this are coming to light about the powers of gratitude and healing depression. There have been many studies and surveys on the power of gratitude and depression. In a survey commissioned by spirituality.com, 84% of Americans said expressing gratitude reduces stress and depression and fosters better health and optimism.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: depression, gratitude, health, spirituality, Tyler Woods

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Oh My God: Peter Rodger Talks Religion

Oh My God: Peter Rodger Talks Religion

by Tom Allen | Published November 13, 2009

There is one universal question that never fails to stir up passion, curiosity, self-reflection and often wild controversy: “What is God?” Peter Rodger’s film, Oh My God, opening in a dozen cities nationwide this month, asks the question in 23 countries around the world and in the process weaves a tapestry that is both breathtaking and hopeful.

By every measure a skeptical Hollywood artist, Rodger sets out to confirm his suspicion that the world’s intractable conflicts are caused by religion and religious people. He poses the question “What is God?” with a bluntness that steels some viewers for a Religulous-type neo-atheist assault. But as the film unspools we are disarmed by Rodger’s intellectual honesty. He confounds expectations by allowing the warmth of his interviews with people of faith to emerge without the derision that we’ve come to expect in an age of mocking skepticism (with one or two entertaining exceptions). The result is a non-fiction feature that affirms faith despite the moviemaker’s lingering ambivalence, and offers the best Hollywood-driven opportunity for fruitful dialogue about transcendent issues in recent memory.

With wars indeed raging over religious differences, and evil and extremism garnering all the media’s attention, it is fair game to wonder whether the religious are causing much of the world’s strife. But to push beyond that toward reconciliation after discovering that people of faith are just like everybody else, well, that requires courage, especially in Hollywood. This is the landscape Oh My God navigates.

Rodger’s quest serves as both travelogue and mini-course in world religions, spanning the United States, Africa, the Middle East and Far East and covering a stunning array of human faith expressions. Through his revealing lens we meet everyday people, spiritual leaders and celebrities, believers, fanatics and atheists. In this personal, visceral and brutally honest non-fiction feature, Rodger—and the rest of us—are moved by the light and the truths his subjects reveal. We are invited closer and come away changed, enriched, and better for the experience.

Tom Allen (MM): What was your inspiration for making your epic documentary film, Oh My God?

Peter Rodger (PR): I was frustrated with the childish schoolyard mentality that permeates this world—I call it the “My God Is Greater Than Your God” syndrome—where you have grown men flying airplanes into buildings shouting “God is Great"—where you have the leader of the free world telling the BBC in 2003 that he invaded Iraq because God told him to—where you have the constitution of a country (Iran) that dictates that its supreme leader is God’s representative on earth—where you have young men and women blowing themselves up (and innocent others) to buy a place into heaven. None of these concepts made any sense to me. Does it matter what I believe? Does it matter what you believe? And what is this entity that goes by the name of God, which seems to bring about so much friction, hurt and pain? I decided to go around the world and ask people what they think.

MM: Why did you ask, ‘What is God?’ versus ‘Who is God?,’ since most of us personalize God in some form or another?

PR: I wanted to look at God as a concept and be as objective as possible. Referring to God as “who” is already putting the concept into the image of Man and therefore the objectivity becomes lost. I wanted to get as far away from preconceived ideas as possible to see what I would find. I felt that phrasing the question as “what is...” instead of “who is...” would make the interviewee immediately look at God from the outside-in rather than the inside-out, and thereby help quench preconceptions. I wanted the film to have a wide application and ultimately get to the question, “Did God create man, or did man create God?”

PR: MM: Did you set out with a goal in mind? Did you find a common theme in the answers you received?

PR: My goal was to find out what “God” means to people, and to determine whether religion and religious people were causing all the world’s problems. There was such commonality in all the responses that at one point I didn’t even think I had a film. It was frustrating because all the answers seemed to be the same from all over the world. “God is everything...” “God is the creator...” “God is in the birds and the bees in the trees...” “God is the energy that binds us all together....” etc., etc. And then it occurred to me that if there are all these placid descriptions, why is there so much turmoil, upheaval and war in the name of God? I realized that the problem in the world may be what Man does with “God”—how he uses it to control other men, how he twists the preaching of its prophets to create politicized clubs that serve his narrow ends. When I realized that it was Man creating God in his own image, I knew I had a film.

PR: MM: What criterion were set in place for which countries you visited and interviewees you sought? Did you try to interview leaders such as the Dalai Lama or the Pope?

PR: I had to have representation from as many diverse places as possible in order to capture as wide a spectrum of faith expressions as possible. You can’t, of course, make a film about who or what people think God is without going to the Holy Land. Indigenous cultures are also important, so Australia, the United States and Tribal Africa were a must. I wanted celebrities in the film to help navigate us through, so their geographical locations and schedules became a factor. Then Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims had to be represented somewhere, so that dictated India, Bali, Rome, Mexico, Morocco, Turkey, the Palestinian Territories, UK. I wanted the Mayans in there too, so Guatemala… Put all of that in a melting pot and I passed the buck over to American Express Platinum Travel and that’s how we made the schedule!

Most religious leaders turned us down—and I am very thankful that they did, because they are all “professional God people,” so all I would have gotten was politicized rhetoric and theology. The film is not about religion and its leaders. The film is about who or what people think God is. If I had the Dalai Lama in the film, I would’ve had to have the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and then Ali Khamenei and other religious people and my film would be really, really boring.?

MM: Is that why you decided to include so many everyday people and ‘man on the street’ insights?

PR: Yes, that is precisely the intent of the film—to find out what God means to the common man—not just professional God people, politicians and celebrities, but “normal” people.

MM: How were you able to capture such personal insights about God and religion from so many notable celebrities?

PR: I asked them one simple question: “What is God?” They did the rest. Then, based upon their answers, I would take it to the next level until we were yapping away. All of them were colorful and gracious and I am very grateful for the time and effort they contributed to the film.

MM: Is it true you that encountered some difficulties when you first set out to make this film and almost gave it up?

PR: My first trip in 2006 was to Morocco and I chose the same day to fly that the British terrorist plot to blow up planes with liquid explosives was foiled by Scotland Yard. I was flying out of LAX to Tangiers via Heathrow with all my camera equipment. Normally you take the important stuff as hand luggage—phone, camera, notes, lenses, computer, stock, etc., but this was the first day in aviation history that hand luggage was completely banned. We had to check everything into the hold and needless to say, I never saw my equipment, notes, or toothbrush again. Because of the delay, however, I hit on a succession of events in which I was in the right place at the right time, something that would never have happened if I had started shooting two months earlier. In over 227 shooting days, I didn’t have a single weather problem. So I’ve come to believe that out of every negative there is a positive of exactly the same magnitude—maybe not exactly at the same time, but there always is one.

MM: What moved or surprised you the most on your moviemaking journey?

PR: How very small the world is. How similar all of us are and how blind most of us are to that fact. The similarities in belief-systems transcend time and geographical boundaries and this was the case long before the birth of the telephone, the airplane and the internet. I was also moved by the enormous desire for peace on the part of both the Palestinians and the Israelis. It is very clear to me that it is the politicians who are messing that situation up. It doesn’t seem to be a conflict of religion at all. It is a conflict of land, politics and emotion.?

This is the first of a two-page article. Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: God, movies, Peter Rodger, religion, Tom Allen

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Stewardship investing - putting money where your morals are

Dan Ehl
11/19/2009

"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Matthew 16:26

"The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure."
BC Forbes

The American public has been bombarded for the past several years with news accounts of massive Ponzi schemes, predatory lending, unfair labor practices, industrial poisoning of water and air, excessive bonuses, corporate greed, Wall Street manipulations and toxic loans.

All these, along with the cost of the Iraqi War, have been blamed for the meltdown of the American economy. And all of these, says Jeff Swartzentruber, vice president of the MMA Trust Company in Kalona, are inconsistent with Christian principles. What is consistent with these standards, he added, is "stewardship investment."
The concept of stewardship investment is not new. The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) founded an insurance fund in 1832 to provide life assurance to its members - and excluded investments in "sin" stocks. That insurance fund, now the FTSE 100 company, Friends Provident, celebrated its 175th anniversary.

Through the years, its exclusion of unethical companies expanded to include issues such as climate change, biodiversity and labor.

Swartzentruber says MMA's origins began in the 1930s when the Mennonite Church leaders identified some financial needs of its members, such as assistance with housing loans and sharing resources among Mennonite churches. It eventually morphed into Mennonite Mutual Aid (MMA) - incorporated in 1945. Its services expanded, along with the members its represents. These now include a number of churches that have Anabaptist ("rebaptize") roots and historic ties to the 16th Century religious reformers, among this list are the Religious Society of Friends, Old Order Amish and Church of the Brethren.

MMA's stewardship investing examines both the financial and social records of hundreds of companies, Swartzentruber says, and uses these six guidelines for investments:

* Respect the dignity and value of all
* Build a world at peace and free from violence
* Demonstrate a concern for justice in a global economy
* Exhibit responsible management
* Support and involve communities
* Practice environmental stewardship

Please click on "external source" for the complete article. And for a Urantia Book/Jesusonian view of wealth, please see Jesus' Discourse on "Dividing the Inheritance" HERE.

Labels: Amish, Dan Ehl, finance, Jeff Swartzentruber, MMA Trust, stewardship, wealth

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Survey: Childhood religious involvement often sparks adult faith

November 17, 2009
Survey: Childhood religious involvement often sparks adult faith

Survey data released by the Christian study organization The Barna Group reveals a strong correlation between childhood exposure to faith and church and the continuation of that faith into adulthood.

A sample of 1,000 American adults in July revealed that 78 percent of adults who regularly attended religious services and functions as young children did not have significant changes in their faith outlook as adults. Similarly, 79 percent of adults who continued with exposure to church into their teenage years reported little variance from the faith taught them growing up.

The survey identifies that 69 percent of adults recall having regular exposure to religion as young children or adolescents.

Among the most active as children were Catholics (86%), upscale adults (78%), Midwesterners (76%), notional Christians (75%), college graduates (75%), women (73%), political conservatives (73%), and those ages 65-plus (73%).

Please click on "external source" to access links to the entire study

Labels: children, faith

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Friday, October 02, 2009

At Czech Mass, Pope Says Societies Must Have God

At Czech Mass, Pope Says Societies Must Have God
Joe Klamar
September 27, 2009

BRNO, Czech Republic — Pope Benedict XVI warned some 120,000 worshipers at a Mass here on Sunday of the dangers of a society without God, forging ahead with his fight against secularism on the second day of a three-day trip to the Czech Republic.

Later, in an address to Czech academics in Prague, the pope inveighed against the perils of relativism. He also underlined the need to mend "the breach between science and religion."

Celebrating Mass in this southern city in the country’s Catholic heartland, the 82-year-old, German-born pope said that "history had demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices and actions." He added: "Your country, like other nations, is experiencing cultural conditions that often present a radical challenge to faith and therefore also to hope."

While the pope received a warm and enthusiastic reception from the crowd — a large number of whom appeared to come from neighboring Poland, Germany and Slovakia — religious observers lamented that the Czech nation as a whole seemed unmoved.

Czech secularism was conditioned during decades of Communism, when the Roman Catholic Church was suppressed. In a recent survey by Stem, a research group, nearly half of respondents professed not to believe in God.

“We are a calm nation that drinks beer and eats dumplings, and we have strong antibodies to any kind of religious persuasion because of our history,” said the Rev. Ales Opatrny, a lecturer at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. "I believe that after the pope’s visit most Czechs will act like nothing happened."

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: God, Pope Benedict XVI

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Health: The healing power of prayer

By Pamela Fayerman,
VANCOUVER SUN September 26, 2009

Bending down to place flowers at the graves of his parents, 87-year old Marcelo Carr lost his balance, hitting his head on the tombstone at Ocean View cemetery.

The trauma caused paralysis in his upper and lower limbs. Three months into his stay at Vancouver General Hospital, he says doctors told him to resign himself to his limitations and accept life in a wheelchair.

For Carr's 84-year old brother, Stan, the accident was just as traumatic and life-changing. As his brother’s primary caregiver, Stan is at Marcelo’s side 12 hours a day. Now, a little more than a year since the fall, Marcelo is able to walk with his brother’s assistance and his arms have also regained some function.

The men don’t discount the assistance from physiotherapists and other health professionals in Marcelo’s gradual recovery. But nothing would be possible, they say, without the healing power of prayer. It helped lift Stan’s depression after the accident. And it has given them both the physical and emotional strength to endure.

Chris Bernard, a Providence Health Care pastoral care worker at St. Vincent’s Hospital (Langara site), the long-term care residence where Marcelo now resides, is an integral force in their journey. Such workers offer emotional and spiritual support, companionship and compassion to people of all faiths, spiritualities and belief systems. Providence Health Care is believed to have the largest number of hospital chaplains in the province, in accordance with the founding legacy of the nuns who laid out its spiritual underpinnings, according to Liz Macdonald, coordinator of pastoral care services at St. Paul's Hospital.

Although Catholic icons abound in the many hospitals and facilities throughout the Providence organization, Bernard and Macdonald help facilitate multifaith prayer or non-religious reflection and meditation.

"As care providers, we take a holistic view of the patient/resident ... to ensure all the facets of their being receive attention — social, physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. In this context, healing means the return to wholeness and integration of the person. Even if the patient/resident cannot be physically cured per se, they can attain healing in other dimensions of their humanity," Bernard says.

When she visits patients in hospital who are open to praying, Macdonald, a former nurse, says “we may pray for restoration or a cure if we think there is one, but if not, we pray for strength to accept suffering, to be at peace, to accept that in life, there is suffering. We thank God for the medical technology and the skills of doctors, nurses and other health professionals and ask that God give strength.”

Bernard adds prayer brings about insight, connectedness, understanding, tranquility, reconciliation and peaceful acceptance.

Skeptics may doubt the power of prayer, but in a recent article, Jeff Levin, a leading researcher in the area of faith and healing, noted that a review of over 1,200 studies of religion and health found a positive effect of some sort (hope, optimism, physical and emotional strength and recovery) in the vast majority.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article. And for a Urantia Book perspective on prayer and health, please consider the following:

91:4.5 Remember, even if prayer does not change God, it very often effects great and lasting changes in the one who prays in faith and confident expectation. Prayer has been the ancestor of much peace of mind, cheerfulness, calmness, courage, self-mastery, and fair-mindedness in the men and women of the evolving races.

Labels: faith, health, hospital, Pamela Fayerman, prayer, spirituality

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American's losing their religion & Catholics are moving

September 24,
by Vanessa Barnes

According to a study entitled "American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population," released Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 15% of Americans do not associate with a religious denomination.

The study was conducted by lead researcher Barry Kosmin and professor Ariela Keysar of Trinity College of Hartford and assisted by Professor Ryan Cragun of the University of Tampa and Juhem Navarro-Rivera of the University of Connecticut.

Researchers studied the results of the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) which questioned 54,461 adults in English or Spanish.

The category of "NONES", those who answered "None" when asked their religious identity, grew greatly in the 1990's according to the study. The NONES were the only group to have increased in every state and region of the country during the past 18 years.

About 59% is agnostic or deist, while a small minority is atheist. About 27% profess belief in a personal God. Some in the survey participate occasionally in religious rituals, whiles others say they never would.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article, including an informative video.

Labels: ARIS, Nones, religion, Vanessa Barnes, video

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Juanes: this Concert is the Greatest Dream of Love and Peace

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 20 "This concert is the greatest dream of peace and love I have experienced after the birth of my children," affirmed on Sunday Colombian singer Juanes before over one million Cubans enjoying the Peace without Borders presentation in this city.

With his songs, Juanes raised the temperature of the concert, which was broadcast live from Havana.

Undoubtedly, the appearance on stage of Juanes, with his songs “Tengo la camisa negra” (I Have a Black Shirt) and “A Dios le pido” (I Ask God), was the greatest attraction of this peace and fraternity meeting that opened the doors to the world for cultural exchange among the peoples.

Juanes was very pleased by the presence of so many people, especially youngsters, and said that despite all differences “we are all brothers and sisters”.

In addition, the main promoter of the initiative sent his best wishes of peace to the whole world, and added that music should fly everywhere freely, despite differences of religion, ideology or race.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: Cuba, culture, Juanes, music, peace

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Survey: Number of female senior pastors doubles in 10 years

Posted 9/17/2009
By Daniel Burke, Religion News Service

One in 10 U.S. churches employs a woman as senior pastor, double the percentage from a decade ago, according to a new survey by the Barna Group.

Most of the women — 58% — work in mainline Protestant churches, such as the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Episcopal Church; only 23% of male senior pastors are affiliated with mainline churches, the survey said.

The UMC and its forerunner has ordained women for five decades; the ELCA and its predecessor has for almost 40 years, and the Episcopal Church has ordained women since 1976.

Barna's survey found that female pastors tend to be more highly educated than their male counterparts, with 77% earning a seminary degree, compared to less than two-thirds of male pastors (63 percent).

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: Barna Group, pastors

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The '2009 Parents of the Year' award goes to…The Duggars

September 16,
Jackie Kass

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were awarded the title of "2009 National Parents of the Year" by the National Parent’s Day Council. The council insists that the Duggar’s were not selected just because they have a large family of their own children, but because they have exhibited such high standards of parenting. The website states, "Their highly organized household centers around spiritual principles and is obviously filled with huge amounts of love, grace, joy and mutual respect."

However, there is no getting around the fact that the Duggar family is indeed super-sized. Michelle and Jim Bob were high school sweethearts, have been married 24 years and produced 18 biological children (with one on the way!). There are 10 boys and 8 girls ranging in age from 7 months to 20 years. The oldest son and his wife are expecting their first child, making Michelle and Jim Bob grandparents for the first time. Their grandchild is due before their own 19th child. Jim Bob states on his website, "We believe that each child is a special gift from God and we are thankful to Him for each one."

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: children, family, God, parents, spiritual values, the Duggars

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New Poll Shows Religious Right and Left Look Very Different

By Daniel Schultz
September 15, 2009

Those on the religious right and left not only diverge wildly on everything from abortion to torture, but in their composition and distribution as well.
A graph showing the opinions of progressives on raising their profile.

It should be said at the outset that the new poll released today by the Bliss Institute and Public Religion Research concerning religious activists (on both the left and the right) contains very little that will surprise anyone who has studied religion and politics in recent years.

That should not be taken to mean that there is nothing of worth in the poll results. Far from it. It confirms, for example, much that observers have had to intuit or scratch out from other data. The religious right—pardon me, conservative religious activists—is mostly evangelical (54%), with lesser contingents of Catholics and mainline Protestants. If you’re not standard-grade Christian, however, you’re probably not a part of the demographic: only 1% were Mormon, Orthodox, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, and less than 1% were non-Christians.

Progressive believers were a much more diverse group, which is also not a surprise: 44% mainliners, 17% Catholics, 12% Unitarians/mixed faith, and so on down the line. Only 10% claimed to be evangelicals, a point we’ll come back to in a moment.

More not-shockers: conservative activists are focused like laser beams on abortion and homosexuality, while progressives are interested in poverty, health care, the environment, the economy in general, and ending the war in Iraq. Conservatives love them some individualistic ethics and free-market economics, progressives want to see structural reform. Cons are for torture and progs are against it (if that makes any sense). And the two sides have very different views about church-state relations, though interestingly enough, they both agree that faith should play a role in the public square in roughly equal numbers. [For an in-depth analysis of progressive attitudes on church-state issues see Rebuilding the Wall of Separation: A Progressive Discussion on Church & State—Ed.]

One last result that should not come as a surprise if you stop to think about it: conservatives report attending church far more frequently than their liberal counterparts. 52% of conservatives are in the pews more than once a week, compared to 25% of progressives. Once-a-week numbers are a little more balanced: 37-36. Does this mean that conservatives are more religious than progressives, or that there’s something about church that makes one a conservative? Nope: evangelical and Catholic churches typically offer more than one service a week. Mainline congregations, which tend to be smaller, are open for business only on Sundays.

Labels: Bliss Institute, Conservative, Daniel Schultz, politics, religion, religious left, religious right

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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Religion in America in Decline

09/11/09

Religion in America is on the decline and has been dropping since the turn of the century. That's not an atheist's happy dream. It's the conclusion of researchers at Faith Communities Today (FACT), the multi-year study of American religion quarterbacked by the Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

The group released a preliminary look this week at results from a major survey done last year. For the bottom line, I really can't improve on their wording:

"The clear and consistent short-term direction is negative -- including worship attendance growth, spiritual vitality and sense of mission and purpose. And as suggested by the eight-year decline in financial health. . . . it is likely that the broader erosion of vitality dates to at least 2000. What makes this even more sobering is the fact that this pattern of decline, here shown for American congregations as a whole, also holds within each of FACT's four primary faith families -- old-line Protestantism, Evangelical Protestantism, Catholic and Orthodox, and Other World Religions with few exceptions."

You want numbers?

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: America, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, religion

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EMOCLICK Survey reveals that Latinos would Prefer to do away with the Celibacy Requirement of Catholic Priests

The question was: "¿Do you believe the Catholic Church should allow priests to Marry?"

Miami, FL (PRWEB) September 11, 2009 --

A poll conducted by EmoClick among members of the major Faith based Social Networking Site KuMundi.com indicates a considerable majority of the 28,288 Internet users agree the Catholic Church should allow Catholic priests to marry if they so desire.

The question was: "¿Do you believe the Catholic Church should allow priests to Marry?"

The results of the poll required reveal a clear divergence of opinion with the requirement of celibacy by the Catholic Church. A total of 18,561 visitors voted in favor of lifting the rule, and only 5,727 voted in favor of preserving the traditional requirement.

For the results visit http://encuesta.elcelibato.com/

The survey, offered in promotion of the release of the new book "El Celibato" received the response of 15,365 visitors who identified themselves as Catholic, and 5,006 who identified themselves as Evangelical (the poll also included the participation of other religious denominations including agnostics and atheists). The countries representing the highest number of participants were México, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.

El Celibato is the debut novel by Daniel Garza. Audio novel is also available starting September 24th narrated by voice talents Andres Garcia Jr. and Elluz Peraza.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: Catholic, celibacy, Daniel Garza, El Celibato, EmoClick, KuMundi.com, priests

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8 years later, 9/11 still no ordinary day for US Muslims who fear anniversary backlash

RACHEL ZOLL
September 10, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) — There is the dread of leaving the house that morning. People might stare, or worse, yell insults.

Prayers are more intense, visits with family longer. Mosques become a refuge.

Eight years after 9/11, many U.S. Muslims still struggle through the anniversary of the attacks. Yes, the sting has lessened. For the younger generation of Muslims, the tragedy can even seem like a distant memory. "Time marches on," said Souha Azmeh Al-Samkari, a 22-year-old student at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

Yet, many American Muslims say Sept. 11 will never be routine, no matter how many anniversaries have passed.

"I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every year," said Nancy Rokayak of Charlotte, N.C., who covers her hair in public. "I feel on 9/11 others look at me and blame me for the events that took place."

Rokayak, a U.S.-born convert, has four children with her husband, who is from Egypt, and works as an ultrasound technologist. She makes sure she is wearing a red, white and blue flag pin every Sept. 11 and feels safer staying close to home.

Sarah Sayeed, who lives in the Bronx, said that for a long time, she hesitated before going out on the anniversary. The morning the World Trade Center crumbled, she rushed to her son's Islamic day school so they could both return home. The other women there warned that she should take off her headscarf, or hijab, for her own safety. She now attends an interfaith prayer event each Sept. 11, keeping her hair covered as always.

"There's still a sense of 'Should I go anywhere? Should I say anything?' There's kind of that anxiety," said Sayeed, who was born in India and came to the U.S. at age 8. "I force myself to go out."

The anniversary brings a mix of emotions: sorrow over the huge loss of life, anguish over the wars that followed, but also resentment over how the hijackings so completely transformed the place of Muslims in the U.S. and beyond.

A poll released this week by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 38 percent of Americans believe Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence. That is down from 45 percent two years earlier.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: 9/11, emotion, fear, interfaith, Islam, Muslims, Pew forum on Religion, Rachel Zoll

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

U.S. survey: More know about Islam, fewer think it's violent

The Associated Press

Americans are learning more about Islam, and familiarity with the faith makes people more likely to view Muslims favorably and less likely to believe Islam encourages violence, according to a new study.

The survey by the Pew Research Center also showed that Americans still believe Muslims face far more discrimination than the nation's other religious groups.

The findings can be linked because increased knowledge about Muslims is tied to more sensitivity about bias they face, said Greg Smith, the report's senior researcher.

"To say that Muslims are discriminated against ... it's not the same thing as expressing an unfavorable view of Muslims. In fact it's just the opposite," he said. "People who are most sympathetic to a group are more likely to see that group as being discriminated against."

In the annual survey released Wednesday, 58% of Americans said there was "a lot" of discrimination against Muslims. Jews were seen as the religious group with the next highest level of bias against them, with 35% saying they faced a lot of discrimination.

Homosexuals were the only group seen as facing more discrimination than Muslims, with almost two-thirds of Americans saying homosexuals are discriminated against a lot.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: bias, discrimination, Islam, Pew Research Center survey, violence

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Twittering God

Charlotte White, Promotions Coordinator, www.AuthorHouse.com

SCOTTSDALE, Sept. 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- For centuries chirping was a bird thing. Not anymore. Now millions of people Twitter daily to keep in contact with friends through tweet messages that say what they are doing, much like 58% of the U.S. population who pray daily according to a recent Pew Survey. But can Twitter mesh with spirituality?

"Twitter seems to fill emptiness with short messages of 140 characters or less about what's happening in life. Tweets may provide warmth to senders and receivers like an electronic blanket," says John Groh, author of Rubbing God's Ear With His Promises, a book of prayers. "While Twitter may appeal to some who want self-affirmation, praying arcs away from self by relying on God's promises," he adds.

Like Facebook and MySpace, Twitter is a social interconnector that lets "followers" maintain contact with acquaintances. Reportedly the free service played a role in the uprising in Iran this year and the Mumbai massacre of 2008.

Tweeting makes a home in some churches. Micro-blogging raises the bandwidth in several Nashville, Seattle, Charlotte and New York City churches with tweeting during sermons. One man solicits prayers to God on Twitter and then prints, rolls and inserts them in Jerusalem's Western Wall.

Labels: Charlotte White, God, John Groh, prayer, social networking, spirituality, Twitter

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How the Facebook spirit moves us

The tiny ‘Religious views’ box has become a pit stop for philosophical inquiry
By William Wan
September 08, 2009

For the longest time, the question just sat there on his screen. Cursor blinking. Waiting quietly, like a patient priest in a confessor’s box.

Religious Views: ––––.

Creating a Facebook profile for the first time, Eric Heim hadn’t expected something so serious. He had whipped through the social network Web site’s questionnaire about his interests, favorite movies and relationship status, typing witty replies wherever possible. But when he reached the little blank box asking for his core beliefs, it stopped him short.

"It’s Facebook. The whole point is to keep it light and playful, you know?," said Heim, 27, a college student from Dumfries, Va. "But a question like that kind of makes you think."

Such public proclamations of beliefs used to require a baptism in water, or a circumcision, or learning the five pillars of Islam. Now Facebook users announce their spiritual identity with the stroke of a few keys. And what they are typing into the open-ended box offers a revealing peek into modern faith and what happens to that faith as it migrates online.

Of its 250 million users worldwide, Facebook says, more than 150 million people choose to write something in the religious views box.

Amid the endless trivialities of social networking sites –the quotes from Monty Python, the Stephen Colbert for Prez groups, the goofy-but-calculatingly-attractive profile pics –the tiny box has become a surprisingly meaningful pit stop for philosophical inquiry.

Millions have plumbed their innermost thoughts, struggling to sum up their beliefs in roughly 10 words or less. For many, it has led to age-old questions about purpose, the existence of the divine and the meaning of life itself.

Some emerge from the experience with serious answers. George Mason University student Travis Hammill, 19, spent several days distilling his beliefs into this sentence: "Love God, Love Others, Change the World."

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: belief, Facebook, faith

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Labor Day: honor the holiness of labor (video)

September 7, 1:43
Margaret Benefiel

This Labor Day, honor the holiness of labor. The holiness of labor, a motif that surfaces consistently across spiritual traditions, is especially important to recognize this year in the midst of tough economic times.

According to spiritual teachers, work is sacred because it is a manifestation of the divine work through humans in the world. Human dignity must be honored in work, work should be compensated justly, and workers should work honestly and with integrity.

In the Bible, for example, landowners are commanded to pay workers their wages at the end of each day (Deuteronomy 24:15), because the workers are “poor and counting on it.” Otherwise, workers may “cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.” Workers in turn are exhorted, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23).”

Please click on "external source" for the complete article, and an entertaining video about the modern evolutions of labor in America.

From The Urantia Book:

69:2.5 Labor, the efforts of design, distinguishes man from the beast, whose exertions are largely instinctive. The necessity for labor is man's paramount blessing. The Prince's staff all worked; they did much to ennoble physical labor on Urantia. Adam was a gardener; the God of the Hebrews labored—he was the creator and upholder of all things. The Hebrews were the first tribe to put a supreme premium on industry; they were the first people to decree that "he who does not work shall not eat."

Labels: holiness, Labor Day, Margaret Benefiel, The Urantia Book

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Church survey results

Church survey results

Sunday, 06 Sep 2009
Robert Hornacek

Every Sunday, many people gather at church services. But some churches are trying to focus on the people who are not coming to church.

"We want to help connect people to God," said pastor Mark Schmechel from Journey Community Church in De Pere. Schmechel is one of about two dozen pastors in the Green Bay area who will soon be using the results of an on-line survey to try to reach more souls.

"We just want to offer people the hope that we believe as a Christian church," Schmechel said.

The survey was put together by the Green Bay Pastors Network. More than 2,000 people responded to the survey this spring. While the results are still be finalized, some have been released, including some responses from people about their frustrations with local churches.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article, and to see the preliminary results of the survey

Labels: church, God, on-line survey, Robert Hornacek

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'Creation' tells of Charles Darwin's war between science and love

The evolutionist's wife, Emma, embraced her faith to the point that she believed her husband shouldn't publish his theories.

By Nev Pierce
September 6, 2009

Reporting from Hertfordshire, England - Almost 50 years after the Scopes "Monkey" trial received the Hollywood treatment in the original "Inherit the Wind," the eternal friction between science and religion is back on the big-screen with "Creation," which opens the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday. The British period drama tells the story of how 19th century naturalist Charles Darwin wrote his revolutionary book "The Origin Of Species" while facing opposition from his devout Christian wife and struggling with grief over the death of his eldest daughter.

It was a difficult time in young Darwin's life, both personally and professionally. When he first advanced his groundbreaking theory that animals, including humans, evolved from common ancestors, he was challenging centuries of consensus between religious and scientific thinkers. Until that point, it was broadly accepted that life in all its complexities and forms was simply too intricate to have arisen naturally. But Darwin had painstakingly detailed the process of natural selection, showing how it was indeed possible, even probable, that nature was her own maker, concepts that have remained central to modern scientific thinking. Nevertheless, the creation-evolution dispute marches on, and the discussion now includes the theory of intelligent design, which blends science with biblical accounts to argue that God's hand may be the guiding force behind the natural processes of evolution.

This is basically a movie review, but its subject matter is enough for me to make a mental note to see when it gets a wider distribution. Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: Charles Darwin, evolution, movies, relationship

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Religious people choose college majors in education and humanities

September 5th, 2009

Washington, Sep 5 (ANI): The most religious people are more likely to do their college majors in education and the humanities, a new study has revealed.

However, while the teachers-in-training tend to become more religious over their college careers, religiosity fades for those majoring in the humanities.

"Education majors are clearly safe havens for the religious. Highly religious people seem to prefer education majors, tend to stay in that major, and tend to become more religious by the time they graduate," Live Science quoted study researcher Miles Kimball, an economist at the University of Michigan, as saying.

For the results, the researchers conducted a survey of more than 26,000 individuals who graduated from high school between 1976 and 1996 and took part in the Monitoring the Future Study.

Participants were interviewed in their senior year in high school and every two years or so following the initial survey until respondents turn 35.

They indicated on a four-point scale, how often they attend religious services and how important religion is in their lives.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: education, Monitoring the Future Study, religiosity, teachers

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White House Iftar

White House Iftar

Tuesday night's White House Iftar had both a courtly feel and a common touch. Servers circled the ornate reception rooms of the White House with glasses of juice and bowls of dates at fast-breaking time. Prayers were led by a Muslim chaplain in the U.S. military.

Dinner attendees included Congressmen (Andre Carson, Keith Ellison, John Conyers, Rush Holt, Richard Lugar) and Cabinet Secretaries (Bob Gates, Eric Holder, Kathleen Sebelius), but the loudest applause was reserved for the guest of honor -- an American Muslim girl wearing a headscarf who broke Massachusetts state records in high school basketball. She was seated at the head table, to the President's left.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: Iftar, Islam, Muslims, religion, White House

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Conference says teachers must listen to children who believe in angels

Conference says teachers must listen to children who believe in angels
Thursday, September 3, 2009

Children who believe they have seen angels or had other spiritual experiences often keep it a secret for fear of being ridiculed by adults, the British Educational Research Association conference was told today.

Teachers have a special responsibility to listen to children who want to talk about 'spiritual' experiences that other adults may dismiss as fantasy, says Dr Kate Adams, a senior lecturer at Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln. Both the 1988 and 2002 education Acts require them to attend to children's spiritual development.

She accepts that this legal requirement is daunting, given the difficulty of defining "spiritual" and the almost impossible task of demonstrating development in spirituality. However, Dr Adams argues that teachers can at least grant children the right to have their "spiritual voice" heard. "By doing this we can show them how important this dimension of their life is and begin to combat the disinterest which can make children feel misunderstood and retreat into silence," she says.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: children, spirituality, teachers

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Thursday, September 03, 2009

Outside faith, a rising tide of 'nones'

Outside faith, a rising tide of 'nones'
by Jay Tokasz
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: September 03, 2009

A few years ago, Tyler Manley would have considered himself a Presbyterian.

If asked about his religion today, he will confess he doesn't have one. Nor does he believe in God.

The United States remains one of the most religious countries in the world, but Manley is part of one of the steadiest trends in the national landscape of faith … the growing number of Americans who profess no religious affiliation.

Social scientists often call them the "nones" … a broad category that includes atheists and agnostics, as well as those who believe in a higher power but don't cite a particular faith.

Studies indicate they make up as much as 16 percent of the U.S. population, and researchers expect that the numbers will continue to grow.

"You're just getting a lot of people drifting away," said Barry A. Kosmin, research professor in the Public Policy & Law Program at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

For Manley, who studies philosophy at the University at Buffalo, the drifting was the result of understanding that "human conscience comes before religion."

"It's important that you critically examine your own beliefs," he said.

Kosmin's latest American Religious Identification Survey, published in March, estimated the population of U.S. "nones" at 34 million … roughly 15 percent of the total … up from 29 million in 2001 and 14 million in 1990.

"It was quite amazing. It went up in every state," Kosmin said. Fourteen percent of New Yorkers did not associate with a religion, up from 7 percent in 1990.

A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 16 percent of U.S. adults had no religious affiliation. Data from the General Social Surveys indicates that 16.4 percent of Americans are nonreligious, up from 5.1 percent in 1972.

Researchers once observed a familiar pattern of religious disaffiliation among young adults, who then would reaffiliate later on, said Darren E. Sherkat, a sociologist at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

But that pattern is breaking down, said Sherkat, who analyzes data from the General Social Surveys.

"We're seeing greater stability of non-affiliation, and we're also seeing greater numbers of parents raising their children without affiliation, which was really quite rare in earlier generations," he said.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: agnostic, belief, God, Jay Tokasz, Nones, religion

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Religion & Ethics Newsweekly Returns For Its Thirteenth Season

Wed Sep 2, 2009

Acclaimed PBS Series Offers One-of-a-Kind Television News Coverage of Religion

As today`s top headlines reveal, dealing with faith, religion and ethics has
never been more important to communities across the U.S. and worldwide. But
network news offers only limited coverage of such issues. For more than a
decade, RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, anchored by veteran journalist Bob
Abernethy, has been providing distinctive, exhaustive, one-of-a-kind coverage of
religion`s role in American life, international news, and major ethical issues.
September fourth marks the start of the thirteenth season of this half-hour
weekly program.

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly is a production of WNET.ORG - one of America`s most
prolific and respected public media providers.

Since 1997, an award-winning team of correspondents, including Lucky Severson,
Fred de Sam Lazaro, Saul Gonzalez, Tim O`Brien, Deborah Potter, Betty Rollin,
and Mary Alice Williams, along with host Bob Abernethy and managing editor Kim
Lawton, have traveled around the country and the globe to cover stories on such
topics such as Middle East peace prospects, the ethics of privatized genetic
testing, the split in the Episcopal church over homosexuality, religion`s role
in American politics and in helping people cope with the recession. Studio
discussions featuring newsmakers, scholars and policy analysts have also offered
insightful perspectives on subjects ranging from bioethics to Vatican policies
to Wall Street and faith.

For more information, and to see the rest of the article, please click on "external source."

Labels: ethics, faith, PBS, religion, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly

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Seeing the Future: Can Religion Evolve and Survive in a Changing World?

By Peter Savastano
September 2, 2009

Since the fall of Secularization Theory, which claimed that belief in God would slowly recede in the face of science and technology, we still must ask: Is there a future for formal, organized, institutionalized religion as we presently recognize it in rapidly globalizing, postindustrial and postmodern world? Here’s what religion will have to do for humans to survive and flourish.

One of the last books the Catholic mystic, social activist, poet, and Trappist monk Thomas Merton read just before his tragic death in Bangkok, Thailand on December 10, 1968, was Final Integration in the Adult Personality (1965, E.J. Brill). Written by the Iranian-born psychologist A. Reza Arasteh, the central premise of the book is that in order for a person to reach final integration of the adult personality, she or he must grow beyond their native culture and religious tradition.

In a subsequent book published twelve years after Merton’s death, Growth to Selfhood (1980, Routledge), Arasteh further develops this central idea making the paradoxical argument: that the means by which one outgrows or moves beyond the limiting worldview of one’s native religious tradition is through the practice of the religious tradition itself.

Two questions I have spent a lot of time thinking about over the last number of years is what form, structure, and expression the phenomenon we call "religion" will take in the future (that is, if "religion" is then still labeled as such); or, conversely, is there a future for religion (specifically formal, organized, institutionalized religion as we presently recognize it) in a rapidly globalizing, postindustrial and postmodern world?

Back in the 1960s, sociologists predicted that the advancement of science and technology would usher in a secular worldview and that religion would eventually fade into the past. Or if it did manage to survive, they imagined, religion would become the purview of a small segment of the population that, kicking and screaming, has refused to enter into the contemporary world.

Of course, we now know that the sociologists were wrong. Religion, it seems, is here to stay. Rather than fade into oblivion or become a private matter, religion is front and center in the new millennium, especially since the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Still, while it isn’t going away any time soon, it is also true that if we humans are going to collectively survive and flourish living in the information age of a globalized world, our understanding and practice of religion will have to change. While we can’t know for certain what shape or form religion will take in the future, I am willing to speculate. Fortunately, there are some trends and patterns that support my speculations so they are not simply spun out of thin air.

If the recent surveys, Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S." (2009), and the "2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS)," are any indication, the process Arasteh described in his two books may be an experience common to a growing number of Americans. As the surveys suggest, this process of growing beyond one’s inherited religious tradition has become far more prevalent, sometimes spanning generations. Referred to as the Nones," these are people who identify themselves as unaffiliated with any kind of organized religion and are happy to be so. However, this does not mean that Nones have no interest in spirituality, prayer, meditation, or ritual; all areas traditionally associated with "religion."

This is just a small portion of a two-page article exploring the subject of the future of "religion." Please click on "external source" to access the entire article.

Labels: A. Reza Arasteh, ARIS, faith, God, Peter Savastano, religion, sociology

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Martin lifts voice for science and religion

Former N.C. governor tells church the two need not be in conflict.
By Tim Funk
Monday, Aug. 31, 2009

For centuries, they waged war. It was religion vs. science.

Their battles ranged from 17th-century Italy, when the Catholic Church sentenced Galileo to house-arrest-for-life for saying the earth orbits the sun, to the Bible Belt in the 1920s, when Tennessee science teacher John Scopes was prosecuted for teaching evolution.

Militants on both sides are still shouting away, but another, more nuanced voice can also be heard today: that of the scientist who believes in God.

On Sunday, former N.C. Gov. Jim Martin – son of a Presbyterian minister and a longtime chemistry professor – argued that science and religion are compatible, not contradictory, and that faith must evolve along with our understanding of nature.

"I believe the God of Abraham and Moses… was the creator of the universe and all forms of life," Republican Martin told about 230 people at Charlotte's Covenant Presbyterian, his church for 16 years. "I do not believe it was done in six days."

Six periods of time is more like it, Martin said, starting 4.5 billion years ago. And though one-time seminary student Charles Darwin's theory of evolution continues to be dismissed by many evangelical Christians, Martin called it "the best understanding we have available. You can't be a biologist unless you subscribe to that."

A thoughtful article - please click on "external source" to see the whole thing...

Labels: evolution, faith, Jim Martin, religion, science, Tim Funk

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In pursuit of happiness

AMRITA MULCHANDANI
4 September 2009

What can make a youngster happy and content? Love? Well, not really. It’s spirituality
that can bring in a dash of sunshine. A recent survey by a music channel found out that youngsters who practice spirituality are much more happier than the ones who don’t.

"I am a great believer in spirituality. I meditate once in a day for twenty minutes," says Gunjan Patel, 22 who has been doing it since she was seven. So what makes youngsters get attracted to soul matters?

"I think, being spiritual alters one’s belief system and changes your perspective towards various things. Practicing spirituality helps a lot during difficult times and makes one optimistic," replies Patel. Forty four per cent of the youngsters consider themselves spiritual, and ten per cent say that spirituality is the most important thing in their lives.

"This is a positive trend that youngsters are inclined towards spirituality but they don’t know the right direction. Things should be presented to them in a way they understand. Being spiritual depends on how one takes it. It isn’t limited to what we see or feel but it is something we experience beyond our senses," says Archarya Brahmachari Atharvana Chaitanya associated with a leading centre of yoga and spirituality.

There are some youngsters who are open to learn about spirituality. "I believe in spirituality but not completely. I have just started to learn more about it. I think it really gives peace of mind and makes an individual calm."

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: Amrita Mulchandani, meditation, spirituality

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Kennedy was much more than his many mistakes

August 28, 2009

BY CATHLEEN FALSANI Religion Columnist

"I recognize my own shortcomings -- the faults in the conduct of my private life. I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them. I believe that each of us as individuals must not only struggle to make a better world, but to make ourselves better, too."

-- Sen. Edward Kennedy, in a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Oct. 25, 1991

Ted Kennedy was a complicated man with a complicated life. Deeply faithful and deeply faulted, Kennedy was a lion of a man full of contradictions. Fierce and loyal. Dangerous and wise. Strong and yet felled by all-too-human weaknesses.

It is the complexity of his story and his character that made him such a compelling person, a heroic figure in an arena where they are few and far between.

I grew up in an Irish-American family in New England where the Kennedy clan was like royalty. They were icons -- culturally, politically and in some ways spiritually.

My parents were married the year John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As a child, I was aware of the depths of tragedy the Kennedy family endured time and time again, and I was taught to admire the family's resilience in the face of despair. The way they kept picking themselves up and soldiering on. Their commitment to public service. Their devotion to caring for the poor, the weak and those on the fringes of our society.

For all of my life, Sen. Kennedy was the patriarch of the Kennedy clan -- an avuncular, kind and fun-loving Irishman who forged into political issues with dead seriousness, but never took himself too seriously.

Ted Kennedy made many mistakes. The most infamous occurred 40 years ago when he drove his car off a bridge in Chappaquiddick, Mass. He was able to swim safely to shore, while his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. He neglected to report the accident until the next morning. A reckless and selfish act of cowardice to be sure.

"I think he was chastened by it," Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Barnard College in New York and author of God in the White House: A History, said, referring to Chappaquiddick. "He did have his period later in life -- this kind of wild period -- but he repented of that as well and then settled down.

"He was a human being," Balmer said. "He had faults. But he was big enough to acknowledge them, and that's fairly uncommon for a politician."

This op-ed piece is interesting, for it gives a good example of an honest (and very public) attempt at Self-Mastery, one of the ideals we learn in the pages of The Urantia Book.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: Cathleen Falsani, character, self-control, Ted Kennedy

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