TruthBook Religious News Blog

By Lyn Boyd-Judson

The religious values held by George W. Bush have undoubtedly informed his foreign policy decisions. This simple fact should give every American voter pause.

For the past eight years, many like-minded Americans have rejoiced in the current president's conservative Christian worldview and its foreign policy consequences, rather than recognizing that this worldview is a profoundly disturbing element of his presidency. They take comfort in the belief that their president receives God's guidance in political matters, both domestic and foreign. Their logic is that if good and evil exist in our world, the tension between the two manifests in the political realm and plays out in our foreign policy.

In contrast, those Americans - both secularists and liberal Christians - who find the current president's claims of divine guidance profoundly disturbing argue that one of the key principles on which the U.S. was founded is freedom from religion in state institutions. They argue that the founding fathers were deists who advocated a natural religion based on human reason rather than divine revelation. They understand that one's religious beliefs or worldview can never truly be divorced from decision-making, but they also hold that these religious assumptions should constantly be re-evaluated by rational and factual criteria when applied to matters of state. So when it is reported that President Bush says he receives divine guidance on matters of U.S. foreign policy - for instance, that God told him to invade Iraq? - these Americans believe that all citizens, Christian or otherwise, should be profoundly disturbed, because an unjust war can never be a divine war.

This contrast between American Christian worldviews is starkly apparent in the recent media reports of controversial comments made by religious leaders connected to the current presidential candidates. Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has made inflammatory remarks about the U.S. government, suggesting that the U.S. is racist on the home front and that its foreign policy is unjust, aggressive and foments Islamic terrorist attacks on U.S. citizens. John McCain has close ties to pastors Rod Parsley and John Hagee. Parsley has claimed that Islam is a false religion that America should destroy, and John Hagee has called for bombing Iran to hasten the Christian apocalypse.

Several political pundits describe the current politico-cultural divide in the U.S. as a rift between God-fearing Christians and "secular" (read atheist) liberal intellectuals from (pick your coast). Of course, this distinction is inaccurate and misleading. The divide in American political culture over God is not so much about whether Americans believe in God as it is about how the 90 percent of Americans who believe in God? want to define his purpose in our political world. In this sense, the divide in American political culture over a presidential God is an argument between the politically left-leaning Christian who embraces a God of peace, inclusiveness, forgiveness and social justice, and the politically right-leaning Christian who embraces a God Almighty whose main attributes are judgment, the strength to vanquish enemies, and the righteous impulse to devalue - even destroy - all things not Christian. Again, which presidential God will shape the foreign policy decisions made in the Oval Office?

As Americans, regardless of our religious beliefs or political commitments, it is our duty as voters to reflect deeply on what we value in foreign policy initiatives, why we hold these values, and how we express them in the public sphere. We need reasonable voices speaking to reconcile the factions in the religio-political divide - a divide not over whether a candidate knows God, but over how Americans want to define the role of a candidate's God in a president's foreign policy. While religious values can certainly inform our moral impulses, the distinction between an exclusive or inclusive God is where war and peace often hang in the balance.

Labels: Americans, Barack Obama, Christianity, George Bush, John McCain, Lyn Boyd-Judson, politics, religion, war

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Religion at the register

To retailers such as Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, spiritual principles go hand in hand with profits

By Dana Knight
Posted: March 31,2008

When customers walk into Chick-fil-A, they get a side with their chicken sandwich that's rare in the world of monstrous fast-food chains: Christianity.

No bones about it, this company's business philosophy is based largely on biblical principles -- including the decision to remain closed on Sundays, when the company could be making big bucks at its 1,356 stores.

Once scared to speak out about religion in business, more and more companies are coming out of the spiritual closet. No organization actually tracks the number of companies driven by a religious philosophy, but there are plenty of examples.

Nationally, Hobby Lobby closes its doors on Sundays, so its employees and customers can honor the Sabbath.

Intel sponsors employee-based religious networks, and Deloitte & Touche offers employee prayer groups. Other companies, such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and subsidiaries of Wal-Mart, hire chaplains to visit employees in hospitals, deal with their mental health issues and even deliver vows at their weddings.

Locally, the McDonald's on Olio Road in Fishers features a Bible on the wall and Scripture. And at Transformations Salon and Spa on Madison Avenue, Christian music plays and Scripture is written on the walls.

Most spirit-based businesses say they aren't trying to shove religion down customers' throats. It's simply a way of doing business.

Dan Cathy is the son of Chick-fil-A's founder, S. Truett Cathy, who started the business in 1946, when he opened an Atlanta diner know as The Dwarf Grill.

The elder Cathy and his son have stuck to the values the chain was founded on.

"Nearly every moment of every day, we have the opportunity to give something to someone else -- our time, our love, our resources," Truett Cathy wrote in his book "Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People." "I have always found more joy in giving, when I did not expect anything in return."

Still, Chick-fil-A has recorded 40 consecutive years of annual sales increases. And some might attribute that to the company's philosophy.

A study by McKinsey & Co. found that when companies engage in programs that use spiritual techniques for their employees, productivity improves and turnover is greatly reduced.

Chick-fil-A has some of the most committed employees in the industry, "given the strong principled, religious and value-driven corporate culture," said Richard Feinberg, a professor of retailing at Purdue University. "Committed employees do better. One would think that closing Sundays would hurt business, and in a sense it does, but it improves employee business relationships and leads to the commitment that the others do not have."

Customers are drawn to the restaurant not only for the food but also for the values.

Danville resident Jared Wade was eating at the Avon Chick-fil-A last week and walked up to Cathy to thank him personally for his business philosophy.

"Being a Christian, I really admire what you are doing," Wade told Cathy. "I have had to fight to get Sundays off, and what Chick-fil-A does is incredible."

And different. Even Family Christian Stores, the nation's largest Christian retail chain, which had been closed on Sundays, decided to open its doors seven days a week several years ago.

Chick-fil-A stands out for its integrity and values, said John Livengood, president and chief executive officer of the Restaurant & Hospitality Association of Indiana.

"Being closed on Sundays probably enhances that reputation as they forgo profits to stay true to their values," he said.

Labels: business, Chick-fil-A, Christianity, Dana Knight, Hobby Lobby, religion, retail, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Faith news

March 29, 2008

— One in every ten voters in America believes Barack Obama to be a Muslim, a survey has revealed. White evangelical Protestants and Americans from the Southern, mid-Western and rural states are the most likely to hold this view, according to the poll commissioned by the Pew Research Centre.

— A hotel in Nashville is removing the Bible from its bedrooms and offering guests a “spiritual” reading menu instead. Reports in the Tennessee press say the Hotel Preston will invite guests to call room service to ask for the religious book of their choice. The selection offered will include the Koran, Book of Mormon, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism as well as the King James Bible. “Our guests come from different places and they definitely come from different cultures, backgrounds, ethnicities, so we want everyone to feel welcomed and comfortable,” said Dina Nishioka, public relations director for Hotel Preston.

— A German security agency has published a teenage comic illustrated with Manga cartoon sketches as an attempt to combat the appeal of Islamic extremists. One hundred thousand copies of Andi, a comic relating the adventures of a schoolboy with a Muslim girlfriend who is influenced by a radical preacher, have been published and distributed to every secondary school in Germany. They have been produced by the intelligence and security department of the interior ministry of North-Rhine Westphalia. Spokesperson Hartwig Moller explained: “We had to make clear we weren't aiming against Muslims, but only those people who want to misuse Islam for political aims." The magazine is intended for use in citizenship and religion lessons for 12-16 year olds.

— Yale University is running a course on the theology of Harry Potter. Danielle Tumminio, a graduate from Yale Divinity School has devised a study programme that examines Christian themes of sin, evil and resurrection in JK Rowling's seven Harry Potter books. She described the course as “a critical endeavour” adding that she did not wish to “indoctrinate students.”

— A church magazine in Canada has become the first sponsor in North America of a travelling exhibition devoted to the life and work of Charles Darwin. David Wilson, editor of The United Church Observer, decided after learning the exhibition had attracted no corporate funding that the magazine should sponsor the exhibition. “There is nothing in the exhibit that threatens or diminishes religion. If anything, it shines a light on the inherent beauty and wonder of a creation that is constantly and eternally evolving,” he explained. Darwin: The Evolution Revolution is on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto until until August 4 and will later come to the Natural History Museum in London.

— The governing body of the Church of Wales is to vote on whether women should be ordained as bishops. The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan said: "I do not personally see how, having agreed to ordaining women to both the diaconate and priesthood, the church can logically exclude women from the episcopate.” The vote will take place on Wednesday when the governing body is due to meet.

Labels: Barack Obama, Bible, bishops, Darwin, Harry Potter, Islam, women

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Doctor is harbinger of healthy living

April 1, 2008,
Posted On: 3/28/2008

Singh’s new book details physical, mental balance

By Paul Imbesi

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Dr. Bindya Singh, 45, has been interested in living healthy – physically and mentally – since her teenage years, which gives her a lot of expertise on the subject. In her new book, “Nine Easy Steps to Complete Health and Well-Being,” Singh puts this expertise to work.

Singh became interested in spiritual health when she was about 15 years old when she accompanied both of her arthritis-stricken grandmothers to religious conferences, looking for help with their affliction. According to Singh, she enjoyed the religious trips with her grandmothers because she learned about the peace and calm that can come from spiritual conversations.

A healthy mind, body and spirit are the three cornerstones to Singh’s new book on health. “Unless you can control your mind, you really cannot address the needs of your body,” she said. Singh is the director of outreach and community education at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, specializing in neonatology and pediatrics, and a clinical faculty member at Stanford University. She went to medical school at Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi, India. Singh is also the founder of the Healthy Center Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes healthy living.

In her book, Singh talks about the importance of a stress-free, positive attitude mindset. She said negative attitudes can have long-term effects on bodies, which can lead to harmful physical effects like hypertension, stress-induced heart attacks and depression.

She added that people can relieve their minds from stress through meditation, which she delves into by talking about simple steps to master the practice.

Singh’s book also covers topics like eating right, sleeping right and exercising. She said her book addresses the long-term needs of living well, which helps differerentiate it from many of the other diet and exercise books out there today.

“This book completes the picture because it gives you all the aspects of health that you need to get under your belt,” she said.

The roots of Singh’s book stem from a period in her life when she was reading and attending conferences and seminars on health-related subjects.

According to Singh, she took copious notes on these topics and began writing her book about nine years ago, after deliverying a baby. She admits she still cannot explain why she started writing, but said it consumed her.

She said she originally wrote for herself, her family and friends, but her parents told her to go further with her information since it presented such a full view of health, unlike today’s segmented books that only focus on eating well or the body, for instance.

Singh said her book is for anyone who cares about themselves, their families, and want to attain not just physical, but also long-lasting mental and spiritual health. She said it contains information to help anyone looking to control their life and be healthy and happy.

“Destiny is the choices you make with the chances that you’re given. So I hope that we all can make healthy and happy choices,” she said.

Labels: Bindya Singh, meditation, mind-body connection, Paul Imbesi, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Deep faith may lead to puzzling choices

Posted March 30, 2008

Community of like-minded people reinforces beliefs

By Keith Uhlig
Gannett Wisconsin Media

WAUSAU — Dale and Leilani Neumann of Weston relied on prayer to heal their sick child, 11-year-old Madeline Kara Neumann, police say. After she died from an undiagnosed but treatable form of diabetes, that decision seemed incomprehensible and even criminal to many.

Religious scholars say a potent mix of deep faith and a reinforcing community of like-minded people can lead believers to make choices that seem unfathomable.

Rita Swan, 64, of Sioux City, Iowa, said she and her husband, Douglas, prayed for the recovery of their son, Matthew, along with a Christian Science practitioner, or faith healer.

"We thought Christian Science worked, and we felt superior to the general public. We thought we were closer to God, and we had the kind of secret knowledge in keeping yourself well," Swan said.

After Matthew died of meningitis in 1977, the Swans broke from Christian Science, a religion in which they both grew up. In 1983, they formed Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, an advocacy group that lobbies for laws requiring parents to provide medical help for seriously ill children.

Intense faith is a powerful force, said Rob Howard, an assistant professor of communication and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It can give the devout the "ability to reinforce certain beliefs that some people can view as extreme."

For many, this kind of faith starts with a powerful feeling they can't explain.

Often people use religion to "understand these experiences, because they're sensed mind and body. It's an intense kind of certainty, an intense kind of conviction, and it might be attached to different beliefs," Howard said.

Leilani Neumann described her strong spiritual feelings in posts on a religious Web site operated by Unleavened Bread Ministries of Pensacola, Fla., led by David Eells. The site doesn't condemn the use of doctors or medicine, but it shares stories of miracle cures and bolsters the notion of faith healing.

The Neumanns told police they weren't members of any specific church, but they found a religious community of sorts through the online ministry that reinforced their faith-healing beliefs.

Labels: Christian Science, community, faith, faith healing, Keith Uhlig, prayer, religion

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

A matter of character

Who stacks up in 'speaking truth to power'
BY DAVID WELLS

According to a national Associated Press/Ipsos poll, 55 percent of Americans think "character" is more important than "issues" when picking a president. But what exactly is meant by "character"?

According to Neal Mayerson, a psychologist and president of the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, here in Cincinnati, everybody, including every candidate, has character; they just have it in different measures.

• How do you define character?

CHARACTER TRAITS

Character is common in the famous and the unknown. It is a personal measure by which we judge others. But clearly, there is no one standard.

Ten years ago the Mayerson Foundation organized a study group of social scientists called Values in Action, and began to categorize and evaluate the traits of what people call "character." Studying a wide range of religions, cultures and philosophies, the group eventually came up with six categories of consistently valued positive human characteristics, each with a subgroup of character strengths:

Wisdom (creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, perspective).

Courage (bravery, honesty, perseverance, zest).

Humanity (kindness, love, social intelligence).

Justice (fairness, leadership, teamwork).

Temperance (forgiveness, modesty, prudence, self-regulation).

Transcendence (appreciation of beauty, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality).

We all judge character, and how we define it and balance its various characteristics is largely a matter of personal choice - perhaps an indication of our own "character."

LOOK FOR BALANCE

Mayerson suggests that a truer picture of a person's character emerges when we balance the various character traits. "I would use the legal term of preponderance of evidence when trying to assess someone's character," he said. When discussing character, we also should remember that our own preferences are subject to change. We look for different character strengths for different roles. "If you are looking for a spiritual leader, you may be inclined to look for a different set of traits than you would want in the CEO of the company that is managing all of your retirement stock," Mayerson said.

So what would you want in a president?

Mayerson's group has been conducting an online survey asking people just that. Full data is not yet available, but some trends seem to be emerging, he said. One is a decision maker, but not one so single-minded that he/she is unwilling to hear opposing views. People seem to want someone with humanity strengths, but are not primarily interested in "a nice guy," he said.

Putting character ahead of issues is a way for people to deal with candidates in terms they can more easily relate to, Mayerson suggested. We may not all understand the nuance of economic policy, but we all understand honesty, courage and generosity. The important thing to remember about character, however, is that it is a package, not a single issue.

Labels: character, courage, David Wells, humanity, justice, Mayerson Foundation, politics, temperance, transcendence, Values in Action, wisdom

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Friday, March 28, 2008

Russians believe in God and in the Church’s role in support of social mores

03/18/2008

by Maria Anikina

A survey shows that 42 per cent of those interviewed considers themselves religious and that 16 per cent prays one or more times a day. For 45 percent the degree of influence the Church exerts on politics is satisfactory.

Moscow (AsiaNews) – Most Russians believe in God, consider themselves religious and Orthodox, view faith as the first source of meaning for life and eternity and that the Church’s main role is to support social mores, this according to a survey conducted in February by the Levada Analytical Center.

According to the findings, 42 per cent of the Russian population is religious; 33 per cent is not very religious and only 20 per cent says they are not religious at all.

Religious beliefs are stronger among people at the lower end of the socio-economic scale but also for those with high social status; among women (51 per cent vs 30 percent among men) and the elderly (29 per cent among in the 18-24 year age group; 38 per cent in the 25-39; 44 per cent in the 40-54, and 49 per cent for those 55 and over).

As for membership in the Russian Orthodox Church, 71 per cent of respondents say they feel a part of the Church (compared to 60 per cent in 2004 and 69 per cent in 2007). Muslims constitute 5 per cent; Catholics are 1 per cent; Atheists 5 per cent and 15 per cent do not follow any religion.

When it comes to specific beliefs, a third say that “God exists’ and had “no doubts” about his existence; 21 per cent “believe that God exists but sometimes have doubts” about it; another 14 per cent believe from time to time. One tenth does not believe in God’s existence; 9 per cent is not sure and does not believe one can prove his existence; 11 per cent believes in some higher power (but not in God.)

Answering the question “What do people find in religion?”, 31 per cent said “moral norms of everyday life;” 12 per cent of them gain “consolation and relief from pain;” 11 per cent of Russians find in religion “salvation, a way to eternal life;” the same number of believers chose “purification of soul. “

For 36 per cent of respondents, religion gives meaning to life; 29 per cent believe it helps people to be more tolerant and support hardships; 18 per cent believe that it is necessary for them as believers. However, for 22 per cent religion means nothing in their lives.

As for prayers, 34 per cent said they never do, compared to 7 per cent who do it several times a day and 9 per cent who do it once a day. For another 10 per cent weekly prayers are compulsory, whilst another 16 per cent prays few times a month. The remaining 24 per cent prays but rarely.

As for the Church’s social role 46 per cent believe that is has a role to play in supporting social mores; 37 per cent for spiritual needs; 31 per cent for charity and ideas of mercy; 30 per cent for help to the poor; and 29 per cent to help maintain cultural traditions.

By contrast, 15 per cent believe that religious organisations should not interfere in social life at all (compared to 11 per cent in a 1998 survey). Fewer people (22 per cent vs 27 per cent in 1998) believe the Church should support social, national and political consensus.

Overall 45 per cent of Russians view positively the Church’s influence on politics; 18 per cent believe it is excessive; another 18 per cent believe it should be greater, whilst 19 per cent could not answer.

Labels: God, Levada Analytical Center, Maria Anikina, prayer, religion, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Karen Armstrong - Charter for Compassion

As she accepts her 2008 TED Prize, author and scholar Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion. But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.

Labels: Christianity, compassion, God, Golden Rule, Islam, Judaism, Karen Armstrong, religion, video

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Child Happiness Linked to Spirituality

CBN News
March 27, 2008

CBNNews.com - New research shows spirituality is a major factor in children's overall happiness.

A study conducted by the University of British Columbia measured how a child's spirituality, and factors like temperament, affect the child's sense of well being.

"Our goal was to see whether there's a relation between spirituality and happiness," said Mark Holder, an associate professor of psychology and the study's co-author. "We knew going in that there was such a relation in adults, so we took multiple measures of spirituality and happiness in children."

Spirituality accounted for about five percent of happiness in adults, but a surprising 16.5 percent of happiness among children.

"From our perspective, it's a whopping big effect," Holder said. "I expected it to be much less. I thought their spirituality would be too immature to account for their well-being."

The study tested 315 children ages 9 to 12.

Next, researchers hope to survey children in a country where Christianity is not prominent and compare the results.

Source: Religion News Service

Labels: children, happiness, Mark Holder, spirituality, University of British Columbia

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Surgeon writes about the spiritual side of medicine

Professor Q & A

By: Aly Van Dyke

Allan J. Hamilton is a professor of surgery at the UA. He graduated with honors from Harvard Medical School and finished his neurosurgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. Hamilton has worked at the UA for 18 years.

Hamilton recently published "The Scalpel and the Soul." In the book, Hamilton delves into the correlation between the physical and spiritual aspects of surgery by recounting his experiences with spirituality in and out of the operating room.

Hamilton began working on the book in 2004, and it was released March 13. The book is available in the UofA Bookstore for $23.95. He sat down with the Arizona Daily Wildcat yesterday before his book signing in the UofA Bookstore to talk about the book.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wildcat: Who is this book written for?

Hamilton: Mostly patients who are facing severe illness or major surgery. The second group is probably people in the health care profession who are taking care of these patients.

W: What were you trying to accomplish?

H: I was hoping to pass on some lessons I learned from patients about harnessing their own emotional and spiritual energies to enhance their recovery.

W: What is one experience you talk about in your book?

H: I had a young man who had a brain tumor, a malignant cancer, and I operated on him and took care of him. His big hobby was fishing. He went through the regular regimen of chemo and radiation. He came to me one day and said, "I know I'm going to beat this thing, but if things really get bad, I want you to promise me you'll tell me when it's time to go fishing." And it went on for several years and unfortunately the tumor grew back and he had multiple operations, but the tumor was invading his brain and his spinal cord. One day I took him aside, and I asked him if he remembered when we talked about when it was time to go fishing, and I told him it was time. And the next morning his family called me and told me he was dead. And I think I snipped that cord of hope he had. I think when he saw me give up, he gave up. It just taught me that no one has the right to take away somebody else's hope.

W: In your book, you list some "Rules to live by." Could you tell us some?

H: I'll mention a couple of my favorites. One of my favorites is, "Don't let yourself be turned into a patient." A hospital has a way of removing your identity ... I really think that's a bad idea. I think you want to assert your identity. So bring your favorite T-shirt and wear your crazy sweat pants. Instead of those little paper slippers they give you, go get the big, fluffy, bunny slippers that you love. You aren't a disease in that bed. You are a patient in the bed with a disease. Music has a lot to play, I always tell patients to make their own soundtrack for their recovery. I tell them to put together some music that will convey some of the emotions that they want.

W: Do you think, as a surgeon, you lose any credibility in talking about spirituality?

H: I don't think it's credibility that you lose. Surgeons are a very, very conservative group. We are masters of technique. We are as mechanistic a field as there is. So I think that field of colleagues asks if we should really even be talking about this. And yet you have a lot of them that come up to you and say, "I've seen things I couldn't explain and I didn't dare tell anybody." I think there are a lot of people that are just afraid to discuss it. Nobody talked to me about this. You go right into this with your patients, and you don't realize that their spiritual challenges are going to have an effect on you too.

W: Do you think medical schools will start addressing the spiritual issues of surgery?

H: They are. I think patients are really insisting on it, and I think the younger generation is responsive to it. Fifteen years ago we had less than 10 percent of medical schools even having anything related to spirituality in medicine. Now it's nearly 70 percent.

Labels: Allan J. Hamilton, Aly Van Dyke, medicine, patients, spirituality, surgery, The Scalpel and the Soul

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Monday, March 24, 2008

For Clarke, Issues of Faith, but Tackled Scientifically

EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
Published: March 20, 2008

“Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral” were the instructions left by Arthur C. Clarke, who died on Wednesday at the age of 90. This may not have surprised anyone who knew that this science-fiction writer, fabulist, fantasist and deep-sea diver had long seen religion as a symptom of humanity’s “infancy,” something to be outgrown and overcome.

But his fervor is still jarring because when it comes to the scriptural texts of modern science fiction, and the astonishing generation of prophetic innovators who were his contemporaries — Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein and Ray Bradbury — Mr. Clarke’s writings were the most biblical, the most prepared to amplify reason with mystical conviction, the most religious in the largest sense of religion: speculating about beginnings and endings, and how we get from one to the other.

Even the titles of some of Mr. Clarke’s stories invoke scriptural language. “If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth ...” tells of a boy on a lunar colony who is taken out by his father to see their mother planet rendered uninhabitable by nuclear war, an experience that inspires a dream of future return to be passed from generation to generation. In “The Nine Billion Names of God” monks of a Tibetan-like retreat believe that the very purpose of humanity is to write down the nine billion permutations of letters that spell God’s secret name, a project assisted by representatives of an I.B.M.-style company who indulgently supply the equipment so the project can come to its long-awaited close. As the computer experts fly home, “overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”

Whatever attitude comes through — and it is almost always fraught with ambiguity — religion suffuses Mr. Clarke’s realm. He demands the canvas of Genesis and upon it he enacts experiments in thought. All science fiction does this to a certain extent, trying to imagine alternative universes in which one factor or another is slightly different. What if carbon were not the fundamental element in life forms? What if a society existed that never experienced nighttime?

Mr. Clarke’s enterprise, though, is at the edges of the frame: trying to examine the moments when things come to be and when they come to an end. In the short story “Rescue Party” aliens come to save Earth from an imminent solar explosion. They find that humans, a primitive species that had known how to use radio signals for barely 200 years, had already saved themselves, launching a fleet of ships into the stars, knowing their journey would take hundreds of years.

The rescuers are shocked by humanity’s daring and determination. “This is the youngest civilization in the Universe,” one notes. “Four hundred thousand years ago it did not even exist. What will it be a million years from now?” The story foretells the dominance of this species even though it is outnumbered by the creatures of the heavens — a dominance that, as Mr. Clarke makes sure we feel, will not always be welcome.

Such apocalypse is the bread and butter of science fiction, but sometimes with Mr. Clarke it is also the communion, the sharing of a moment of transcendence in which some destiny is fulfilled, some possibility opened up. Hence the fetus of “2001.” That transformation may also not be something to be desired by current standards. The prospects are just too alien, like the ineffable Overmind in “Childhood’s End” that propels humanity to a new evolutionary stage, inspiring as much horror as awe.

This side of Mr. Clarke’s work may be the most eerie, particularly because his mystical speculations accompany an uncanny ability to envision worlds that are eminently plausible. It is Mr. Clarke who first conceived of the communication satellites that orbit directly over a single spot on Earth and allow the planet to be blanketed in a network of signals. There are many other examples as well.

But overall religion is unavoidable. Mr. Clarke famously — and accurately — said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Perhaps any sufficiently sophisticated science fiction, at least in his case, is nearly indistinguishable from religion.

Labels: Arthur C. Clarke, Edward Rothstein, religion, science fiction

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Forgiveness can be a rebirth

March 23, 2008

Act can free you from the pain that holds you captive, some say

By Cheryl Sherry
Post-Crescent staff writer

The Rev. Dottie Mathews never will erase memories of being abused by three close relatives beginning at age 13.

Nor can she forget the man she first saw as rescuer, who later perpetrated and compounded the abuse during their marriage. It was a time she describes as tragic and horrific, not only scarring her but also her three children.

Mathews has, however, chosen to forgive.

What is forgiveness?

Forgiveness, as defined by Webster, is the act of giving up the resentment held against an offender.

While forgiving someone who has done you wrong is essential to mental health, forgiveness can be a difficult thing for people who aren't clear about its purpose.

Carlos Herrera, Hispanic ministries coordinator at St. Therese Church in Appleton, points to Jesus' sacrifices, the ones being celebrated today by Christians, as a path toward finding forgiveness even in the most difficult of circumstances.

"If we forgive each other we are also part of the new power of love that the Lord risen has given us," Herrera said. "Therefore we will be apostles of the resurrection, with joy, hope and forgiveness."

Mathews' road to forgiving those who hurt her took more than 20 years and involved taking responsibility for her life.

"My healing involved years of counseling, diving into spiritual practices, shedding buckets of tears, borrowing hope and strength from a community of support when I became shaky — but with all that I trudged forward and moved toward accepting that my past will never not be my past," she said. "The only thing I had any control over was the future I might live."A skilled counselor helped Mathews know she did not bring those past events upon herself. "But that's what children do," she said. "When I realized I didn't make those things happen to me I remember that being very freeing."

Benefits of forgiveness

The need to forgive is often intertwined with other struggles in life, said family therapist Lynda Savage, owner and director of the Center for Family healing, a mental health outpatient clinic in Menasha. Savage also is founder and director of Practical Family Living, a nonprofit Web and radio Christian outreach.

"One needs to hear the person's genuine concern and hurt, anger and loneliness before you say forgiveness is part of your healing, a part of your adjustment, a part of your goal of getting through this," Savage said. "Forgiveness is a part of the process of understanding letting someone off the hook and no longer blaming lets you off the hook and become more free to get unstuck from their pain and hurt."

The practice of forgiveness not only has been shown to reduce anger, hurt, depression and stress, it also leads to greater feelings of hope, compassion and self-confidence. Practicing forgiveness leads to healthy relationships and physical health.

"Living in a state of un-forgiveness is living in a state of stress," Savage said. "And when you are living in a state of stress your body is emitting all kinds of things that we call hormones that are the fight or flight kind of hormones. …That type of stress is hard on your body, hard on your heart. … It's a physiological thing as well as a spiritual thing."

Acting out bitterness

In 2006, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University conducted a study on whether child abuse and child neglect caused crime. The findings suggested criminal behavior increases not only with the incidence of maltreatment but also with the severity of maltreatment. Until a child comes to terms with the experience, accepts it and learns to forgive the abuser for what they did, they will never be able to disassociate themselves from the experience.

Many of the troubled and at-risk teenage boys who live at Rawhide Boys Ranch south of New London have been hurt by life, said clinical supervisor Mark Tegtmeier. "They come out of some difficult family situations such as abuse, neglect, family conflict; there are a lot of addictions, a lot of blended family issues as well as many others."

Rawhide is a Christian-based organization that works to equip at-risk boys to become responsible young men through family-centered care, treatment and education. Therapeutic treatment addresses their emotional needs.

Forgiveness, Tegtmeier said, is essentially wiping the debt clean. "You're saying that that person is released and you are letting go. It's a very freeing experience for those that do. A lot of the boys realize they can have peace in their hearts and they can stop feeling revenge or retaliation toward someone that's hurt them. It's a tremendous feeling of release and just a liberation that they experience."

A softer side

There is no universe in which Mathews' abuse or the suffering of others is acceptable, "but it is up to me to say I don't have to carry it around anymore," she said. "I don't have to be identified as their victim anymore. But it took me a lot of years and a lot of tears and a lot of counseling and enormous love for my children, which was the motivator.

"There's a Buddhist writer, Pema Chodron, who says when you can touch the center of your sorrow and let it soften you then can be useful in helping to heal the world. Don't hide from it. Don't deny that it happened, but really go there and touch it and realize this is the truth and allow it to soften you.

Forgiveness, Mathews said, is "acknowledging my past will never not be my past, so tomorrow I can move on. And that one I can do something about."

Labels: Cheryl Sherry, Dottie Mathews, forgiveness

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

The Doctor Is In: God, the 'Wonderful Counselor'

Author and therapist points troubled souls toward Great Physician

Longwood, FL (PRWEB) March 23, 2008 -- Presenting Jesus as the best mental health therapist on the face of the planet, and the Bible as the best mental health book, Therapy with God: Wonderful Counselor, Comforter, Friend (paperback, 978-1-60477-587-7; hardcover, 978-1-60477-588-4) by Susan Henderson McHenry teaches you, step by step, how to meet with Him on every page, how to see yourself through His eyes, and how to turn to Him for lasting freedom from mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering.

"In my therapy with clients, I have discovered that although they love the Lord, they don't know how to go directly to Him for their mental health therapy," says McHenry, a licensed mental health therapist. "I have written this book with the goal of bridging that gap. As the reader applies the techniques in Therapy with God, they will learn to see Jesus on every page of their Bibles, find a deep and abiding love of Scripture and Jesus, and learn to find biblical solutions to their struggles and suffering."

McHenry said most of the books on the market either help people grow closer to God, but do not have mental health as a focus, or, conversely, they address mental health and teach what the Bible says, but don't teach readers how to go into the Bible to find answers for themselves. Her book is unique in that it interweaves, in a single volume, how to apply what they learn in the Bible directly to their mental, emotional, and spiritual issues for lasting change. It specifically targets people who know that Jesus is the answer, but do not know how to go to Him for help.

Xulon Press, a part of Salem Communications Corporation, is the world's largest Christian publisher, with more than 4,000 titles published to date. Retailers may order Therapy with God: Wonderful Counselor, Comforter, Friend through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors.

Labels: Bible, Jesus, mental health, Susan Henderson McHenry, Xulon Press

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Marketing The God Business

by Laurence D. Cohen

Few enterprises know the marketing challenge of attraction and retention more profoundly than the God business, the churches, religious denominations and faiths and cults and Obama worshipers.

It was sort of easy in the old days. Your parents were some sort of Presbyterians or something, you burst from the womb — and a new Presbyterian was born.

The latest national survey on religion from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life suggests a marketplace more akin to fast food and cars. The general market leader, Protestants, is losing market share faster than Ford and General Motors. Protestants will soon be less than 50 percent of the American market.

Even among Catholics, where brand loyalty was pretty high, Hispanics are gravitating to the evangelical products — and remaining Catholic customers are calling the 1-800 number and demanding to speak to a manager.

Disgruntled Prayer People

The Catholics did a major brand overhaul a while back, modernizing and updating the product line and sales pitch. As you might expect, many of the existing customers were furious. They don’t want no suburban, guitar-strumming, banner-waving Mass with a cool, new post-Vatican II liturgy and a with-it priest.

There are few barriers to entry in the American religion market; the Hindus and Buddists can open up a church on the corner with much the same ease as more mainline American faiths — and even among the mainline Protestants, there is a casualness among the faithful as to where they attend and to what degree they claim allegiance to one denomination or another. Crest and Colgate receive more loyalty than that.

The Pew survey suggests that about half the adult American population has changed religious affiliation.

The need for sharper marketing among the mainline Protestants has been apparent for years. A poll in 1996 indicated that the only thing most Americans knew about the Lutheran faith, for example, was that it was some sort of religion.

Some of this loss of marketing focus and denominational identity was intentional, of course. One suspects that many students at Wesleyan University in Middletown don’t know why the school is, or was, called Wesleyan — and at Trinity, students might be somewhat fuzzy about why the Book of Common Prayer was the volume of choice in the Trinity College chapel. Yale recently dropped the chapel’s formal United Church of Christ affiliation, without prompting a religious war or even a whimper.

The turmoil in the religious marketplace may or may not be a “crisis.” Many of the Founding Fathers encouraged such competitive energy, to avoid the tyranny of a dominant faith. James Madison praised America’s multiplicity of faiths, “for where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”

There’s a hint of anti-trust law in that. Praise the Lord.

Labels: affiliation, Catholic, Laurence D. Cohen, marketing, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, protestants, religion

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

The Creator and the Created: the 2008 Templeton Prize

By Hasan Zillur Rahim

Michael Heller, a polish theologian, cosmologist and philosopher, was awarded the 2008 Templeton Prize “For Progress toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities.”

In accepting the prize, professor Heller said, “Science gives us knowledge, and religion gives us meaning. Both are prerequisites of the decent existence. The paradox is that these two great values seem often to be in conflict. I am frequently asked how I could reconcile them with each other. When such a question is posed by a scientist or a philosopher, I invariably wonder how educated people could be so blind not to see that science does nothing but explore God’s creation.”

Heller wrote 30 books, almost all of them dedicated to the creative dialogue between science, theology, and philosophy. Heller’s seminal contribution was to see in these seemingly distinct realms of human understanding a profound synergy, and he used his considerable intellect and insight in clarifying the nature of this synergistic relationship for us.

Attention to Heller’s work comes at a critical time. Scientists such as Richard Dawkins and atheists/secularists such as Christopher Hitchens have declared a war on religion. Their books are best-sellers. Many religionists have responded in kind, polarizing the religion-science issue further. What we seem to overlook is that inflexible ideologies, both secular and religious, drive common senses away, a loss for all humankind. It is this loss that Heller is determined to stem, by engaging our collective common sense and without minimizing the complexity involved in reconciling the knowable scientific world with the mysterious, and ultimately unknowable, nature of God. Through a rare combination of scientific acumen and theological insight, Heller addresses fundamental questions of knowledge and meaning in a holistic context that go far beyond the parochial arguments of the secularists and the religionists. In doing so, he also rejects a “God of the gaps” theory that uses God to explain what science cannot.

Michael Heller’s concluding statement after winning the Templeton Prize for 2008 should become a basis for public discourse on religion and science in America and elsewhere: “When thinking about science as deciphering the Mind of God, we should not forget that science is also a collective product of human brains, and the human brain is itself the most complex and sophisticated product of the universe. It is in the human brain that the world’s structure has reached its focal point – the ability to reflect upon itself. Science is but a collective effort of the Human Mind to read the Mind of God from question marks out of which we and the world around us seem to be made. To place ourselves in this double entanglement is to experience that we are a part of the Great Mystery. Another name for this Mystery is the Humble Approach to reality … The true humility does not consist in pretending that we are feeble and insignificant, but in the audacious acknowledgement that we are an essential part of the Greatest Mystery of all – of the entanglement of the Human Mind with the Mind of God.”

Labels: 2008 Templeton Prize, God, Hasan Zillur Rahim, Michael Heller, religion, science

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Brains Are Hardwired To Act According To The Golden Rule

ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2008)

— Wesley Autrey, a black construction worker, a Navy veteran and 55-year-old father of two, didn’t know the young man standing beside him. But when he had a seizure on the subway platform and toppled onto the tracks, Autrey jumped down after him and shielded him with his body as a train bore down on them. Autrey could have died, so why did he put his life on the line — literally — to save this complete stranger?

Donald Pfaff, the author of the new book The Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why We (Usually) Follow the Golden Rule, thinks he has the answer. Our brains, he says, are hardwired to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Individual acts of aggression and evil occur when this circuitry jams.

“If it’s really true that all religions have this ethical principle, across continents and across centuries, then it is more likely to have a hardwired scientific basis than if it was just a neighborhood custom,” says Pfaff, whose laboratory at Rockefeller University studies various hormones and brain signals that influence positive social behavior.

In his book, Pfaff proposes a theory that explains, in a parsimonious way, how people manage to behave well when they do, and under what conditions they deviate from good behavior. He describes how memories of fear, as well as various brain hormones, can play a vital role in whether people choose to act ethically or violently toward others. One’s behavior is a balance, he says, between “prosocial” and “antisocial” traits — a balance shaped by early life experiences.

“You have some people who are prosocial, who face the world with a smile and are uniformly nice to other people,” says Pfaff. “Others face the world with a snarl and are routinely aggressive and thoughtless. Most of us are a balance — we are able to treat each other almost all the time in a civil and thoughtful way.” But nobody’s perfect, he adds. “Even those in the prosocial group have cheated on their taxes.”

Donald W. Pfaff, Ph.D., is professor and head of the Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior at The Rockefeller University, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At Rockefeller, where he has studied the brain and behavior for more than 30 years, he discovered the brain-cell targets for steroid hormones and proved that these chemicals, among others, could elicit specific behaviors when reaching the right brain areas.

Labels: brain, Donald Pfaff, Golden Rule, neuroscience, social behavior

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Christ rose again, say 57 per cent in British poll

by Ed Beavan

MORE than half the British believe that Christ rose from the dead, a survey for the theology think tank Theos suggests.

In the think tank’s Easter survey, carried out on its behalf by ComRes, 57 per cent of respondents said that they believed Jesus had been executed by crucifixion and buried, and had risen from the dead. More than half of these (30 per cent of the total) believed in a bodily resurrection, while 27 per cent of the total believed that Jesus had risen in spirit form.

Asked about life after death, 44 per cent said that they believed their spirit would live on after death. Only nine per cent believed in a personal physical resurrection.

The survey found distinct differences between different age groups. Fifty-three per cent of 55- to 64-year-olds agreed that Jesus was the Son of God, compared with 29 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds.

Mr Woolley said: “The fact that younger people are less clear about what they believe than older generations reflects a more general rejection of the certainties of the past among that age group, whether religious or atheistic.”

The widespread belief in the soul’s escaping to heaven rather than in a physical resurrection suggested the influence of Plato rather than the Bible, he said.

The Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, said that the findings showed that people still cared about Jesus, and the confusion over the resurrection was “predictable”.

Labels: afterlife, Ed Beavan, Jesus, resurrection, Theos

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Religion Today

Religion Today
By RACHEL ZOLL – 1 day ago

On Easter Sunday, Christians will proclaim the message at the heart of their faith — "He is risen" — and will affirm the hope that God will raise all the dead at the end of time.

But this belief is deeply misunderstood, say scholars from varied faith traditions who have been trying to clear up the confusion in several recent books.

"We are troubled by the gap between the views on these things of the general public and the findings of contemporary scholarship," said Kevin Madigan and Jon Levenson, authors of the upcoming book, "Resurrection, The Power of God for Christians and Jews."

The book traces the overlooked Jewish roots of the Christian belief in resurrection, and builds on that history to challenge the idea that resurrection simply means life after death. To the authors, being raised up has a physical element, not just a spiritual one.

Levenson last year wrote a related book, "Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life." Meanwhile, N.T. Wright, a prominent New Testament scholar and author of the 2003 book "The Resurrection of the Son of God," has just published, "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church."

Debate about Christ's Resurrection has focused on whether Jesus rose bodily from the dead after the Romans crucified him on Good Friday, or whether Resurrection was something abstract.

The three scholars also have been challenging the idea, part of Greek philosophy and popular now, that resurrection for Jews and the followers of Jesus is simply the survival of an individual's soul in the hereafter. The scholars say resurrection occurs for the whole person — body and soul. For early Christians and some Jews, resurrection meant being given back one's body or possibly God creating a new similar body after death, Wright has said.

Madigan and Levenson, among other scholars, also emphasize that resurrection for humankind is a belief that Christians and Jews share. Christians generally find it difficult to imagine that a faith that doesn't believe in Christ's Resurrection can believe in resurrection at all.

Jews in the time of Jesus believed that resurrection was bodily and communal — in that it brought justice to the oppressed and renewed creation, wrote Madigan, who teaches Christian history at Harvard Divinity School, and Levenson, who teaches Jewish studies there. That Jewish belief was absorbed and reshaped by the earliest Christians to form part of their religion.

Most modern-day Jews don't know this. Except for the Orthodox branch of Judaism, Jewish groups deleted belief in resurrection from the traditional prayer book during revisions that began during the 19th century in response to rationalistic, Enlightenment thought.

Public understanding of resurrection has been influenced not only by modern rejection of the idea of miracles, but also by popular culture.

Alan F. Segal, a Barnard College professor and author of "Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion," notes that most Americans expect the afterlife will be a continuation of life on earth — "like a really good assisted-living facility."

He also said that belief in an existence beyond death persists among Americans no matter how little they observe their religion. In the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey, 82percent of respondents said they "absolutely" or "probably" believed in heaven. Nearly 71 percent said they "absolutely" or "probably" believed in hell.

But their ideas have been molded by Western individualism, and scholars say many important teachings from early Christianity have been skewed as a result. Indeed, even debating the specifics of resurrection may seem far removed from 21st century life.

Amy-Jill Levine, a New Testament scholar at Vanderbilt University's Divinity School, said interest in resurrection — along with reincarnation, ghosts and contacting the dead — has grown in recent years.

"The more chaotic our world, with war and disease, hurricanes and famine," she said, "the more many seek a divine response to the problem of evil."

Labels: afterlife, Alan F. Segal, Amy-Jill Levine, Christianity, Easter, Jon Levenson, Kevin Madigan, N.T. Wright, Rachel Zoll, resurrection

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Religion and Video Games

21 Mar, 2008

It’s Holy Week once again. It’s time to reflect upon the real reason for the holiday.

While we’re at it, I’d like to repost this piece which I did last year (around the same time) at my old blogger blog. It’s about Christian video gamesVideogame-Simulator-Job , its history and how it affects us today.

I invite you to take a look into religion’s foray into the virtual world and then judge for yourself. Is there really a need for religion and games to mix?

The first Christian video game was one made by Wisdom Tee called Bible Adventures This was launched in 1991 for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The game was a simple side-scrolling game which was further divided into 3 mini-games; namely Noah’s Ark, Baby Moses and David and Goliath. All games involved side-scrolling elements and borrowed, of course, from platform games like Mario, etc.

Since then, many other games were developed with a “themed-element” or involved characters or concepts based on the Bible and other prominent Christian beliefs. Some notable titles for the newer platforms/game systems include The Bible Game which was released (and was the first) for both PS2 and the Xbox.

In the Game Boy Advance version players explore different maps searching for demons. When the player finds one, they must hit the demon with their bible. At this point the demon challenges you to bible trivia in exchange for a piece of key (which opens the end level destination, the church).

Of course, not all games designed with Christian flavor evoke the same amount of approval from the press or critics of the industry. Case in point is a news report from BBC about a game called Left Behind: Eternal Forces.

According to that report, critics call it a “religious warfare. The way to win is to convert or kill. You have both the Inquisition and the Crusades,”

The controversial game is is based on a wildly successful series of novels about the struggles on earth after true believers ascend to heaven. Players can command the army of good - the Tribulation Force - against the anti-Christ’s Global Community. Of course, the game’s developers claim that their purpose is to convert players to true believers by immersing them in an interactive environment with lessons from the Bible.

Whatever happens to that debate, it is clear that the Christian community is eyeing video games as a valid medium to “reach out” and acquire followers or simply teach them about the fundamentals of faiths.

Where this journey will lead is, of course, up to the game developers of this new genre and the levels of acceptance of gamers who will ultimately play these games.

Labels: Christianity, GM T, religion, video games

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Surgeon writes book on spiritual side of medicine

03.20.2008

Heidi Rowley
Tucson Citizen

Early in Dr. Allan Hamilton's career, a young boy who had spent months in a coma after suffering severe burns claimed to see his recently dead father standing at his bed.

Hamilton told the boy, named Thomas, that his father had died. The boy's reaction was to wave to his father and tell the doctor that it must be his father's spirit watching over him.

Hamilton, a surgeon for 25 years, 18 with the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, was not religious or spiritual at the time of Thomas' surgery and rejected those things that could not be explained by medical science. Thomas' faith was the start of the doctor's journey into the spiritual and supernatural.

Hamilton's experiences into the unknown while becoming a successful brain surgeon and now a surgical consultant for the TV show "Grey's Anatomy," are chronicled in his new book, "The Scalpel and the Soul: Encounters with Surgery, the Supernatural and the Healing Power of Hope."

He said the book is his personal spiritual evolution, which happened because of his patients. Those experiences include an American Indian shaman telling him to let a patient die and a woman who was brain dead during surgery but remembered conversations between the doctors and nurses.

Since his book's release, Hamilton said he's gotten three reactions. Some people have told him that surgeons shouldn't discuss spirituality. Others have been grateful that someone is finally brave enough to talk about spirituality and medicine.

The third group, he said, is medical residents and interns who tell him they are relieved to learn that there can be more to medicine than just the science.

Hamilton didn't see Thomas for another eight years as he continued his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. As he prepared to leave on his last day, he encountered a woman and a teenage boy who had obviously been a burn victim. At that moment he realized it was Thomas.

He wrote in his book: "As I saw Thomas smile and wave, I reminded myself I had been permitted to watch the mortal threads of my life, interweave with the strands of the spiritual powers in Thomas' life. . . . This eight year-long adventure was not just the story of a surgical residency. It was a message: We're never solitary mortal beings."

Labels: Allan Hamilton, faith, Heidi Rowley, medicine, spirituality, surgery

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Money buys happiness if you spend it on someone else: study

Tom Spears, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Thursday, March 20, 2008

OTTAWA - Money can't buy happiness, say the experts. But a Canadian psychologist says spending it can make us happier - as long as we spend it on someone else, not on ourselves.

Even giving away as little as $5 gives a measurable boost to our happiness for that day, says the study by Elizabeth Dunn's team at the University of British Columbia, and a colleague at the Harvard Business School.

She and her grad student, Lara Aknin, approached a small company in the Boston area. The boss was planning to give profit-sharing bonuses to employees, but the workers didn't yet know the details.

Then each employee got a cheque for between $3,000 and $8,000 (average $5,000). The psychologists waited a while, giving them time to spend the money.

Some bought motorcycles, some spent on vacations, on gifts, even a swing set for the kids.

"People who spent more of their bonus on others - either on gifts for others or on charitable donations - reported greater happiness," she says. (This is after taking into account how content they were to begin with.)

"In other words, people reaped greater happiness from the bonus if they spent it on others. Whereas spending it on themselves didn't really lead to any benefits," no matter how much money they received.

Lab studies on student volunteers backed up the same findings. (Students given free cash from $5 to $20 were told to spend it on themselves, or on others.)

And the findings held in a random survey of 630 Americans that asked about their level of happiness, their incomes, and how much money they tend to give to charity or spend on gifts.

The study team didn't distinguish between giving to strangers (through charity) and spending on others that the workers knew, such as relatives. A happy feeling that lasts for six to eight weeks, she notes, is a major effect. And the increase in the happiness of these workers showed up as very large.

"I know that it doesn't fit what most people would expect. We actually did a separate study... and found a significant majority of people felt they would be happier spending money on themselves" rather than on others, Ms. Dunn says.

And the religious side of this? That it's better to give than to receive, for instance?

"I'm not a very religious person," she confides. "But there are certain religions that really advocate giving, and religious people do tend to be happier. So perhaps one of the benefits of religion that previous research has documented lies in the tendency to advocate charitable giving."

She's not done yet. She wants to ask "exactly what is causing this effect? Is it that people start to feel better about themselves? Is it that relationships are strengthened? Is is that people are simply spending more time with others? We're just now investigating these studies."

Labels: charity, Elizabeth Dunn, happiness, money, Tom Spears

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Book Review: How did we become so anxious?

by Judith Timson
March 18, 2008

In her compulsively readable new book, A Brief History of Anxiety (Yours & Mine), Toronto author Patricia Pearson reports that more than 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety.

Ms. Pearson herself has battled her way back from debilitating anxiety attacks, one of which involved frantically ordering crates of freeze-dried vegetables in case the pandemic flu hit and there was no fresh food available.

After reading her book, rich in humour and insight, I came to the grateful conclusion that I was (barely) within the normal range of anxiety. I know people who are not so lucky, burdened with clinical anxiety that inhibits their lives.

But how did we all get so anxious? It can't all be from watching CNN.

Ms. Pearson thinks anxiety is spreading through our culture because "we need, on a collective, cultural and spiritual level, to grow." There's also the matter of control - we wish desperately to control what is going to happen to us, and if modern life has rammed home anything to us, it is that we have little control.

Workplace angst is a major component of this modern condition. Julie McCarthy, a professor of organizational behaviour at the Rotman School of Management, says new statistics show that "in North America, 25 per cent of workers feel anxious most days in a week and that 44 per cent are anxious about losing their jobs."

I can believe that. Our jobs are insecure, the demands of new technologies are overwhelming and our bosses, suffering from bottom-line anxiety themselves, just aren't very nice to us any more. Hence the feeling of working throughout the day with your stomach clenched.

Of course the flipside of workplace anxiety involves workaholics using their jobs to keep all their other anxieties at bay. Self-medication through BlackBerry use. If I'm at work, the feeling goes, I can control the universe. If I'm at work, I don't have to be thinking about all the other things in my life that make me anxious.

But it's the kids I'm really worried about.

Ms. Pearson argues that anxiety in young adults is about the search for emotional attachment, but my guess is that low-grade (and not clinical) anxiety is exacerbated by a number of factors - including seeing their parents worried about money, work and health all the time, not to mention transmitting a hyper-realized state of global anxiety (cyber-terrorist attacks, anyone?). Children's anxiety can also be heightened by overweening parenting. (I shudder when I remember how overprotective I was of my children, "streetproofing" them into such paranoia that they probably thought they were living in a Martin Scorsese movie).

And certainly there's the foreboding sense many kids of all ages have that they simply have to succeed. Or else. A long-time philosophy professor told me he has never seen such driven students as the ones today: "They know that the world is no longer their oyster, that they can't depend on it to validate them, and that they have to differentiate themselves."

It's no wonder, then, with all this anxiety, that people young and old are desperate for ways, pharmaceutical and otherwise, to calm down and cope.

Ms. Pearson, having given up on medication, hints that visiting her local church is doing her a world of good. Others look to yoga and its calming properties, and there are lineups to get into "mindfulness programs," which teach people how to find the "stillness" at the centre of their beings.

The birth of anxiety as the disease of our times has actually been a progression from the paranoia of the 1960s, which became the depression of the 1980s and 1990s, and is now presenting as anxiety in the 21st century. What's next?

It would be nice to think that all our relaxation techniques will eventually pay off, that serenity will rule and the calm will inherit the earth.

Labels: A Brief History of Anxiety, Americans, anxiety, children, church, control, Judith Timson, Patricia Pearson, workers

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Monday, March 17, 2008

Do your habits reveal what's important to you?

By MARK ANSHEL
DNJ Columnist

The determination to live a life that is meaningful, consistent with our values and reflects our passion about what really matters is called spiritual capacity. It is our spiritual side that should drive our behavior.

We often neglect our spiritual side, which is evident by not taking better care of our health. We forget there are others who love us, depend on us and want us to stay healthy for as long as possible.

In turn, we want to have the energy to enjoy our passion — what really matters to us, such as our family, friends, faith and achievements at work.

Writers refer to "spiritual capacity" as the force behind what we do — the energy of purpose, our values, and beliefs about what's really important — what defines our character.

Here is a profound (and challenging) question: How can we respect and honor the people we love if we dishonor ourselves by living a careless and unhealthy lifestyle?

We adapt to the storms in our life without consideration of the long-term consequences. Our stress-management program consists of eating large portions of high fat food, avoiding physical activity — just too uncomfortable and, oh, yes, not enough time and then wonder why we feel miserable — taking yet more medication and having little energy for doing what gives us the most pleasure.

Challenging question: Why would a person who loves his or her family, has a strong spiritual component and lists family, health, faith, work excellence and compassion toward others as his or her most important values, live a life disconnected from those values?

What areas in your life do you need to improve in order to expand your spiritual capacity? Take this test of "The Spiritual Truth" about you. Check the items that apply to you.

Those areas you check form your "story" that explain a lack of spiritual incentive to improve your health and live a life consistent with your values.

Think about it, and ask yourself this: What is your legacy after you are gone? How do want to be remembered?

Uncover your spiritual truth

Check the ones that apply to you.

Commitment/Passion

_ Not fully committed

_ Lacking long-term energy (perseverance)

_ Lacking passion for work

_ Lacking passion to improve my health and energy

Vision/Purpose

_ Lacking a strong sense of purpose (something greater then myself that drives my behavior)

_ My core values are not connected to my actions

_ I respond to demands based on short-term needs, not long-term consequences

_ I make expedient (quick-fix) rather than values-based decisions

Ethics

_ My actions are not consistent with my words

_ I do not lead by example

_ I do all I can to help others

_ I lack the incentive/energy to make important changes that will improve my quality of life

_ I place my needs first before the needs of others

Mark H. Anshel is a professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance at Middle Tennessee State University.

Labels: behavior, character, health, Mark Anshel, spirituality, values

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Society diverges on idea of need to attend church

,
More Christians turn to non-traditional paths

SURVEY RESULTS

For decades, Christians -- four of every five American adults who identified themselves as Christians -- assumed they had one legitimate way to practice their faith: through involvement in a conventional church. A study from The Barna Group, which examines cultural trends and the Christian church, shows a majority now believe they have legitimate alternatives which are "a complete and biblically valid way for someone who does not participate in the services or activities of a conventional church to experience and express their faith in God."

* Engaging in faith activities at home, with one's family; acceptable by 89 percent.

* Being active in a house church; 75 percent.

* Watching a religious television program; 69 percent.

* Listening to a religious radio broadcast; 68 percent.

* Attending a special ministry event, such as a concert or community service activity; 68 percent.

* Participating in a marketplace ministry; 54 percent.

Less than 50 percent consider other alternatives to be biblically valid, including faith-oriented Web sites (45 percent) and participating in live events via the Internet (42 percent).

Used with permission of The Barna Group (www.barna.org), a marketing research company in Ventura, Calif., that studies cultural trends and the Christian church.

Can you be a legitimate Christian without going to church?

The question dates back to the earliest days of Christianity when post-resurrection adherents struggled to define doctrine in the decades after Christ's earthly departure. In letters to various first-century faith communities, the fledgling church's earliest theologian, Paul, wrote that individual Christians are members of the "body of Christ."

Times have changed -- dramatically -- at least according to a recent national survey of American adults.

A report from The Barna Group showed a majority of adults believe several alternatives to conventional church membership are legitimate ways to practice Christianity. The alternatives included sitting at home and watching a religious television program, which 69 percent said was "a complete and biblically valid way" to express faith in God, according to the Barna survey conducted in December.

Not surprisingly, the question of whether one can be a Christian without going to church drew strong opinions in a random survey of residents.

Some adamantly asserted the only way to be an authentic Christian is through a conventional church, where like-minded believers are educated and enabled to live following the divine example of Christ.

Others view God's grace as totally providential and not limited to dispensation through an earthly vessel.

Attitudes changing

Not too long ago, the Barna organization said most American adults -- four out of five identified themselves as Christians -- assumed the only legitimate way to practice their faith was through a conventional church. Barna is a marketing research company in Ventura, Calif., that studies cultural trends and the Christian church. But in recent decades, Barna said the pendulum has swung toward what some describe as non-traditional practices.

As a result, membership in organized Christian churches has declined in recent years, according to a 2008 yearbook prepared by the National Council of Churches. Among the 25 largest denominations, only Jehovah's Witnesses, with 1.07 million members, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with 5.78 million adherents, noted significant increases -- 2.25 percent and 1.56 percent, respectively.

Four other denominations gained members since the 2007 yearbook -- Southern Baptists, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Roman Catholic and Assemblies of God -- but the growth rates ranged only from 0.19 percent to 0.87 percent.

In a news release, yearbook editor Eileen W. Linder said 20- and 30-somethings might attend worship and other religious activities, but resist becoming official members of conventional churches.

Their reticence can lead to a religious "freedom" that is contrary to biblical teaching, Sorber said.

Many mainline Protestant and Catholic churches are feeling the pinch caused by "lone ranger" Christians.

A changing culture

The question can probably be debated endlessly and can arise in the most unlikely of settings. Several years ago, singer Bono of U2 told Rolling Stone magazine that even though he is a "believer," he finds it difficult to be around other believers. "They make me nervous. They make me twitch," he was quoted as telling an interviewer in 2005.

The only certainty is the changing face of religion, particularly Christianity, in America, which is a contributing factor to faith practices becoming less dependent on religious institutions.

Whether one accepts or rejects non-traditional practices or conventional churches, surveys show adults are an increasingly diverse and pluralistic lot who are willing to abandon their childhood faith for other options.

According to a recent national study, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found roughly 44 percent of American adults since their childhoods have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

"People will be surprised by the amount of movement by Americans from one religious group to another -- or to no religion at all," Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, said in a news release.

Labels: attendance, Barna Group, Christianity, church, community, faith, membership, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Oprah, self-help book author connect with millions online

By Jodi Rave
03/16/08

"This book is about you. It will change your state of consciousness, or it will be meaningless." — Eckhart Tolle, author of "A New Earth"

On Monday, I’ll meet with my reading group to discuss Oprah Winfrey’s latest book-club choice, a spiritual self-help guide that led one televangelist to call Winfrey “the most dangerous woman in the world.”

“A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,” is on the New York Time’s bestseller list. Oprah is helping propel the spiritual enlightenment book to dizzying heights, thanks to an unprecedented online promotion that includes a 10-week interactive Webcast discussion with her, the book’s author and an international audience.

“This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” Oprah said in the first discussion.

“I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but I am most proud of the fact that all of you have joined us in this global community to talk about what I believe is one of the most important subjects and — presented by one of the most important books of our time.”

As of Thursday, Oprah.com claimed more than 2 million people in 139 countries had “experienced” one of her New Earth Internet seminars.

The book’s primary focus encourages “a shift in consciousness,” or an awakening by the reader. The Web site encourages readers to discuss “A New Earth” in book clubs. Finding nothing in Missoula, the site allowed me to create one.

Here’s a bit of what we learned from the first Tolle-Oprah discussion:

Oprah: “This is not about trying to tell you how to believe. And how do you advise people to reconcile this with their religious beliefs?”

Tolle: “Well, religion can be an open doorway into spirituality and religion can be a closed door. It prevents you from going deeper. So I love reading the New Testament and I also read the Old Testament. Sometimes there’s some incredible jewels in there.

“There’s a depth to it. And it reflects your own depth when you read it. So there’s no conflict between this teaching, which is purely spiritual, and any religion. The important thing is that religion doesn’t become an ideology. And the moment you say ‘only my belief’ or ‘our belief’ is true, and you deny other people’s beliefs, then you’ve adopted an ideology. And then religion becomes a closed door.”

Oprah: “Well, I am a Christian who believes that there are certainly many more paths to God other than Christianity.”

At that point, the host took a video call from a viewer who asked: “Why is this happening now?” Why were some 700,000 watching a show encouraging an awakening of spiritual consciousness?

Tolle: “It’s happening now because we’re reaching a crisis point. Very essential things don’t happen until there’s an absolute need for them to happen. If you look at the history of the 20th century, that gives you a taste of what it will be if there is no major shift.”

Conservative estimates conclude that more than 100 million humans were killed by other humans in the 20th century, Tolle said. “It’s unbelievable insanity when you look at that history.”

“And so if there’s no shift in consciousness, we will go downhill very quickly, because we’re already in the process of destroying the planet. But there will also be continuous conflict, collective conflict, and eventually then humanity would collapse.”

Oprah: “So you think we’re at a crisis point, no?”

Tolle: “Crisis point, yes.”

Tolle’s message shouldn’t be so startling to anyone who keeps up with the daily news.

Our local reading is gearing up for our Monday discussion of Chapter 3. And I’m looking forward to being part of a conversation with “the most dangerous woman in the world.”

Labels: A New Earth, crisis, Eckhart Tolle, Oprah Winfrey, religion, shift, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Friday, March 14, 2008

Are we robbing our children of their childhood?

By Joseph M. Cachia
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Mar 13, 2008

‘The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.' --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Today children are under increasing pressure to grow up quickly and are not being allowed to enjoy their childhood. Children are entitled to a proper childhood and parents need help to realize this right. This is as much their right as giving them food, shelter and education.

‘The boundaries between adulthood and childhood are definitely becoming eroded,’ says Dr. Karen McGavock, an expert on childhood. Children are being seen as miniature adults. We are making them more miserable by forcing them into a premature adulthood. Childhood itself is disappearing in our society and the media, foremost the TV, are to blame. We need cultural safeguards against the erosion of childhood as this poses a threat of damaging effects of the mental and sexual health of our children.

Considering the time spent in front of a screen -- whether TV or computer -- and the tender age of our children, one is constrained to confess that to allow children to continue to watch this much screen media is an abdication of parental responsibility -- a truly hands-off parenting.

Perhaps it’s time to enact a legislation punishing failing mothers and fathers for bad or negligent parenting, as this is not simply a private matter and consequences of such are constantly being shouldered and suffered by all of us.

It is now an accepted fact that the vast majority of contemporary families cannot get by without women’s income. Unfortunately, this is the bitter choice! Parents are compelled to choose work and money over family time. If we really love our children, we should establish a formula by which parents work shorter hours for pay which may be lower, but still allows a higher living standard overall.

As a matter of fact, I see no sense or reason in those trying to discourage mothers taking up work. We can never turn back the clock to the good old village life. Of course, we must be careful of not becoming abusers of our own children by succumbing to the vice of greed and profit to the detriment of the proper upbringing of our children.

And what’s wrong with working mothers? Really, I mean those women who have a job outside their homes, as actually most women do, whether at home or outside, are engaged in some kind of work. And I don’t mean only the women who have toiled, alongside their husbands, in the fields and cattle farms. At that time, younger children were brought up much closer to nature -- romping around in the countryside. Of course, older children stayed home helping their grandmothers to cook, do the cleaning and caring for the younger siblings.

Children being cared for by someone besides their mothers is nothing new! Researchers on this issue have found that there was virtually no difference in attachment whether children were at home, cared for by a mother or father, or in day care or cared for by a relative. Although this did not cause any big stir, at least it did dispel the scare stories about day care. However, it must be admitted that parents have a far more powerful impact on children than being in day care does. I do not think that non-maternal childcare is about to disappear very soon.

But what ‘values’ are we transmitting to our children? Probably that money and power are top priorities. However, the spiritual (not necessarily religious) formation is the utmost and indispensable obligation. We ensure that they do not fall out with society and keep them in line with fashionable social conceits of the mob. Peer pressure is having the better of us. Religious stories should never be told to children to frighten them into behaving themselves so as to achieve this ambition. We never seem to realize that indoctrinating children into religion is a form of psychological child abuse. Parents could encourage religious literacy, and teach their children what they believe to be true, but definitely without any indoctrination.

The bigger concern should be about the quality of parenting. We should be more conscious of raising moral and ethical children than we are with teaching them a particular religious tradition. Teaching children about peace-making and non-violence is the most important component of spiritual development. Raising our children to think and decide for themselves is what really works for us!

Praise your children by letting them know what is good. Never encourage them to act impudently in any situation. No example of mature conduct is manifested by approving or complimenting your child for being a ‘smart-alec.’ Why isn’t discipline what it used to be and why can’t we let children be children for a while longer?

Joseph M. Cachia resides in Vittoriosa, Malta.

Labels: children, Joseph M. Cachia, parenthood

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Physicist-priest wins $1.7 million prize

March 13, 2008

A Polish physicist and priest has won the annual million-dollar Templeton Prize for “progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities”.

Michael Heller walks away with $1.7 million for investigating questions including whether the Universe needs to have a cause (press release). This is the largest annual prize given to an individual (just bigger than the $1.6m Nobel), and comes from the same foundation that has previously funded studies into whether prayer can heal the sick, and how a nun's religious experience looks under a brain scanner.

“I always wanted to do the most important things, and what can be more important than science and religion? Science gives us knowledge, and religion gives us meaning. Both are prerequisites of the decent existence,” Heller told the New York Times.

According to the London Times:

His theories do not so much offer proof of the existence of God as introduce doubt about the material existence of the world around us. He specialises in complex formulae that make it possible to explain everything, even chance, through mathematical calculation.

Physics World says Heller has worked on various branches of cosmology and mathematics, and is currently working on non-commutative geometry. From Physics Today:

Heller’s current work focuses on noncommutative geometry and groupoid theory in mathematics which attempts to remove the problem of an initial cosmological singularity at the origin of the universe. "If on the fundamental level of physics there is no space and no time, as many physicists think," says Heller, "noncommutative geometry could be a suitable tool to deal with such a situation."

He says he will use the money to set up a centre for the study of science and theology in Poland.

“He’s one of the key contributors in the international scholarly community dedicated to the creative dialogue on science, theology, and philosophy,” says Robert John Russell, director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley (Christian Science Monitor).

New Scientist’s Short Sharp Science blog admits to some unease about the Templeton Prize, about which it says: “It’s as if rather than fighting against science the way some religious factions - like creationists - do, they figure, we'll just buy science and use it for our own ends.”

Labels: cosmology, God, Michael Heller, religion, science, spiritual reality, Templeton Prize, universe

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

We need to learn how to survive being alive

By Dr. Dewall Hildreth, D.O.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Many physicians see a lot of patients who show illness, but only a few who express or portray sickness.

As expressed in a little booklet by Dr. Donald Dudley, for centuries, patient and physicians alike have attributed accidents or illnesses to bad luck or bad timing, or carelessness or an act of God.

Many of us see neighbors or close friends spend half their time running from doctor to doctor, week or month after month. Is their faith in hoping to find one doctor that is smarter than another rather than having faith in themselves and the doctor they have chosen?

Consider this startling fact. Again, and I extract from the same little booklet, medical records indicate 70 percent of those medical treatments and surgical procedures are administered to only 30 percent of us.

We all believe in something beneficial to our health or not beneficial to our health. As human beings we are incredibly complex with an endless stream of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs that must be satisfied.

It is impossible for us to go from one minute to the next wondering if what I do every minute is going to make me sick or well.

We may or may not realize it, but a deep-seated love for ourselves and everything around us including the bugs, the viruses, and other good or bad challenges, is what keeps our immune system strong and all of internal organs working in harmony.

Love and confidence within ourselves is the key.

The important part of this is that we all must express the love that is in us from time to time to maintain good physical and mental health.

There is another excellent little book that I have enjoyed and have thought of from time to time when treating patients over the past 50-plus years.

It expresses more meaning to me now than 40 years ago possibly because I am in contact with more patients closer to my age now than before.

Most of us have some ongoing illness but few of us are expressing a sickness. Just remember to get a good physical from a physician that will look beyond just the laboratory studies and will take time to look, examine and talk to you about your concerns.

Ask questions and understand that changes are taking place in your body.

What deficiencies or alterations that possibly have taken place over the past few years in your body could be corrected or supported without synthetic drugs?

This may require physical adjustments such as exercise, nutritional changes, weight changes, and a host of others, or it could be mental or emotional changes such as relationships with your family, husband or wife, neighbors, or whoever may need to be addressed.

Last, and possibly the most important, is your inner spiritual realm. Are you happy? Do you love yourself?

If not, this will all be reflected through physical functions particularly in areas where time and age have already influenced function.

Love and be happy with yourself. Know and understand weaknesses that are taking place with age.

Correct or support that which you can do or have done naturally and use crutches in the form of drugs to support that which is showing failure.

Just remember that there are no synthetic drugs used that don't have side effects.

You can not support one system in an artificial way without altering or influencing another system of the body. Talk to your doctor about your concerns.

Love all parts of you and age gracefully.

Labels: Dewall Hildreth, doctors, Donald Dudley, happiness, health, love

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Bypassing 'Big Pharma' with Alternative Medical Treatment

Holistic, non-toxic therapies gain ground in wake of drug recalls

March 14, 2008 --

Pamela Hoeppner, author of The Breast Stays Put ($15.99, paperback, 978-1-60477-103-9), is living proof that alternative treatments can not only keep you healthy but win the battle against cancer. She, along with two other new authors from Xulon Press, is spreading the word that people must take charge of their own healthcare and now have choices other than conventional medicine. In the wake of the healthcare crisis and repeated drug recalls, Americans are discovering the body's miraculous ability to heal itself through non-toxic and alternative therapies, or what one physician has called "the medicine of the 21st century."

After running her own successful business in Wellness Alternatives, Hoeppner faced the unthinkable. She was diagnosed with a malignant, fast-growing breast cancer. She declined all conventional treatment and chose an alternative approach with an impressive track record-- Protocel®. In her inspiring book, she shares her courageous story of overcoming a deadly diagnosis and provides prevention and treatment information. "With the Internet, and the world of alternative medicine it opens up only a click away, people today are taking charge of their lives, especially their health, and they're searching for options. The Breast Stays Put was my way of telling the world, 'You do have options--I found my answer--and I'm living proof that bona fide options and choices exist!'"

Author Ricki Pepin's son suffered for more than a decade with an unexplained, disabling illness. Desperate for answers, Pepin embarked on an intensive search for answers amid confusing and often conflicting medical data. She discovered seven biblical principles that she believes is God's prescription for healthy living. God's Health Plan: The Audacious Journey to a Better Life ($17.99, paperback, 978-1-60266-698-6; $27.99, hardcover, 978-1-60266-699-3), is based on her effort to find help for her child. "It's about wholeness and restoration of mind, body and spirit," says Pepin. "It's about adding life to your years, not just years to your life."

The seven principles encompass food choices, medical care alternatives, and environmental stewardship practices that will create healthier lives and a replenished world. Pepin believes we stand on the brink of a medical paradigm shift from fighting disease to maintaining health, but individuals face enormous frustration as they begin to take charge of maintaining their own health. "There is so much information available in the health industry today, and it is often hard to decipher what is true and what is mere hype," Pepin says. "This book will help ordinary people to sift out the fads and fallacies and find God's principles on health, which can lead to their own physical and spiritual restoration."

In the midst of confusing modern-day diets, food restrictions, and unnecessary fear-inducing food warnings, What the Best Doctor Recommends (paperback, 978-1-60477-552-5) reaches out to the many disillusioned souls who struggle with unnecessary food-related battles. Written by "Ms. Abigail" (penname), the book presents time-tested biblical secrets to eating--secrets which have been programmed within us since creation. It offers a simple, realistic, and logical solution for today's broad spectrum of dieting debates and health issues. Those principles helped the author completely overcome all her food-related issues on a physical, mental, and emotional level. "My mission is to spread a message of hope, one that lifts the confusion and relieves the frustration that countless diets and food restrictions have created in the lives of many," says Ms. Abigail.

Xulon Press, a part of Salem Communications Corporation, is the world's largest Christian publisher, with more than 5,000 titles published to date. Retailers may order the books mentioned above through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors.

Labels: Bible, cancer, God's Health Plan, medicine, mind-body connection, Ms. Abigail, Pamela Hoeppner, Ricki Pepin, spirituality, The Breast Stays Put, What the Best Doctor Recommends, Xulon Press

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Inside Islam, a woman's roar

Wazhma Frogh, an Afghan, uses her religion to press for women's rights – and development agencies take note.

By Jill Carroll
from the March 5, 2008 edition

Page 1 of 2 - Please click on external link for complete article

Just hours after Wazhma Frogh arrived in an isolated, conservative district in northeastern Afghanistan in 2002, the local mullah was preaching to his congregation to kill her. Ms. Frogh was meddling with their women with her plan to start a literacy program, he told the assembly.

As she walked past the mosque during noon prayers, his words caught her ear. Shocked, she marched straight into the mosque. In a flowing black chador that left her face uncovered, she strode past the male worshipers and faced the mullah. Trembling inside, she challenged him.

"Mullah, give me five minutes," she recalls saying. "I will tell you something, and after that if you want to say I am an infidel and I am a threat to you, just kill me."

She then rattled off five Koranic verses – in both Arabic and the local Dari language – that extol the virtues of education, tolerance, and not harming others. She criticized local practices of allowing men to use Islam to justify beating their wives, betrothing young girls, and denying women an education.

The room was silent. All eyes were on Frogh and the mullah. Then the mullah rested his hand on her head.

"God bless you, my daughter," he said.

With that, Frogh won permission to start the literacy program that later helped women from Badakhshan Province participate in local government and run for the national assembly.

Where rigid interpretations of Islam relegate women to second-class status, Frogh uses rhetorical jujitsu to turn religious arguments on their heads and win women's rights. Her steely determination has earned her attention in Washington.

"In a country where religion is so important to people, we need to understand the religion," she says. Arguments based on principles of universal human rights or on what international conventions say don't persuade many Afghans to support reforms, she says. "[M]y experience in the last 10 years is this does not matter to the people in Afghanistan," she says. Only religious arguments hold sway.

The international development field has lately seen more of that approach, says Rachel McCleary, a fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard. In the 1960s and '70s, foreign aid became more secularized, but now religious groups are a growing presence in international development work, says Ms. McCleary.

Frogh is like a number of Islamic scholars – from the United States to Yemen – who are using religious jurisprudence to argue that women have greater rights under Islam, convince leaders in Muslim communities to make reforms, or even turn around extremists who use Islam to justify violence. As an Afghan Muslim, Frogh is in the best position to persuade other Afghan Muslims to support her various projects, experts say.

"The fact [that] this woman is from within, and from the culture and society is much more powerful and salient than if a woman from outside said the same thing," says Eileen Babbitt, professor of International Conflict Management Practice at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Labels: Afghanistan, Islam, Jill Carroll, literacy, religion, Wazhma Frogh, women

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

American faith: A work in progress

American faith: A work in progress
Politics and a new view of morality have radically altered the religious landscape.

By Stephen Prothero

Numbers lie, but they also tell tales, untrustworthy and otherwise. So the key question stirring around the much discussed U.S. Religious Landscape Survey released in late February by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life is what tale does it tell about the religious state of the union.

For some, the story of this survey, based on interviews in multiple languages with more than 35,000 U.S. adults, is the strength of American religion.

Not too long ago, I wrote that American atheism was going the way of the freak show. As books by Christopher Hitchens and other "new atheists" climbed the best-seller lists, I caught a lot of flak for that prophecy. But atheists make up only 1.6% of respondents to this survey. And 82% of respondents report that religion is either somewhat or very important in their lives.

Others find in this new data a nation of religious shoppers: 44% of the Americans surveyed have traded in their original religious home for another. Apparently, the grass is also greener at the church, synagogue or mosque next door.

Still others, noting that only 51% of Americans describe themselves as Protestants, see Protestantism teetering on the verge of becoming a minority.

Catholicism is at least by some readers of the tea leaves in trouble, too, now that ex-Catholics constitute 10% of the population.

Diminished safeguards

The tale I take away from this study is that shifts in the political and moral winds are transforming American religion. Many believe that the Founders separated church and state in order to save the federal government from the interference of overzealous ministers. Not so. The purpose of the First Amendment's establishment clause — which prohibits the federal government from passing laws that favor any one religion (atheism included) — was to safeguard religion against the encroachment of politics. And this new survey suggests that those safeguards are, well, going the way of the freak show.

The key subplot here is the rise of "nones," a category growing faster than any other religious group. Of all adults in the USA, 16% say they are religiously unaffiliated, while 7% were raised that way. Moreover, 25% of younger Americans (ages 18-29) report no religious affiliation at all.

It is important to emphasize that this march of the "nones" is by no means beating the drums for the old secularization thesis, which posited that as societies embraced modernization they would shun God. This is because many "nones" are quite religious. In fact, many Americans refuse to affiliate with any religious organization not because they do not believe in God but because they believe in God so fervently that they cannot imagine any human institution capturing the mysteries of the divine. In this study, only about a quarter of all "nones" call themselves atheists or agnostics. In other surveys, about half the unaffiliated typically affirm the Christian God.

Two related factors seem to be at play in the rise of the "nones": a decline in the stigma of being a religious free agent, and an increase in the stigma of being a church member. According to Darren Sherkat, a professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University who has written widely on religious demographics, Americans have long "overconsumed religion because of social constraints." It used to be that you were considered a bad citizen, a bad marriage prospect and a bad employee if you didn't show a little faith in faith. And plainly it is still imperative for presidential candidates to pledge their allegiance to God as well as flag. But in recent years, the moral failings of Ted Haggard, John Geoghan and other men of the cloth have been broadcast from National Public Radio to YouTube. As the almighty have fallen, atheists have felt empowered to stand up and ask whether religion really is any sort of guarantor of moral behavior. What is so moral about affiliating with gay-bashing gay evangelists or pedophilic priests?

Plainly, the Republican Party gained ground over the past quarter-century by attaching itself to family, morality and God, even as the Democratic Party lost ground by focusing on such matters as rights and reason. In the process, the Republicans became the party of God and the Democrats the party of secularism — not a good strategy for the Democratic Party in a country where 96% of voters believe in God. So Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both taking pains to pitch their party as a party of prayer and piety.

Even so, for much of the past generation, "Christian" and "conservative" have seemed to be interchangeable terms. It should not be surprising if at least some on the left who once upon a time might have described themselves as "Christians" have decided to jettison that affiliation for political reasons. Such reasons, it should be emphasized, are basically the same ones why so many Europeans have divorced themselves from their country's established churches: because the marriage of a given church with a particular political regime is never eternal, and when it ends it leaves a lot of angry children in its wake.

Customized religion

Another story buried in the data of this new survey is the power of evangelical Protestantism, and particularly non-denominational churches. Of those surveyed, 44% called themselves "born again" or "evangelical" Christians, and among religious options non-denominational Protestantism is one of the fastest growing.

The story behind the numbers of this latest survey is not that religion is in trouble. It is that religion is morphing into something new. Faith is becoming more political. But it is becoming more personal at the same time.

Stephen Prothero is the Chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University. He's also the author of Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn't.

Labels: Americans, Christian, evangelicals, faith, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Stephen Prothero, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, unaffilIiated

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Monday, March 10, 2008

Expanding, not dumping, our definition of God

Mark Morford
March 5, 2008

...God is mutating, becoming slightly less appealing as a dogmatic force of sit-down-and-shut-up paternal scowling and becoming perhaps more dynamic, unspecified, something you actually want to take into your heart and into your mouth and lick until you find the rich, creamy center and then define that taste for yourself, blissfully independent of what your parents or priest or president tells you, until you reach that point of deeper knowing where you can't help but go aha.

It's all part of that big study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, released recently and ready to be spun a thousand different ways, the one that contains the whopper of a statistic that says 28 percent of Americans have abandoned the religion they grew up with and have taken up another one, or none at all, or maybe more than one because polytheism certainly sounds tasty and, you know, what the hell, right?

But it's always good to be reminded that 1) try as they might, no one system can ever have a lock on the divine experience, 2) more people are at play in the Wal-Mart of the lord than our leaders, preachers and godmongers might imagine, and 3) despite the disturbing number of evangelicals in America (26 percent), there might yet be hope for the nation to evolve and grow and bust out of the archaic straightjacket of religious authority once and for all.

Or maybe not.

Given the high rate of turnover, it's easy to see religious choice in America as essentially a dour marketplace, a consumer good, each system vying for your attention and your devotion and very much your dollar because, if you think it's all about deep personal enlightenment, I've got this noxious library of "Left Behind" books on tape to sell you, cheap. The pothole on the road of religiosity is obvious, and enormous. As the saying goes, most people use religion the way a drunkard uses a lamppost: as convenient support, not illumination.

Still Christian

Ah, but what of the big stunner of a number, the one that says 78 percent of Americans still identify as Christian, no matter if they actually pray or attend church or run for Congress or secretly snort meth and visit gay hookers as they run an evangelical megachurch in Colorado? It certainly seems like an impressive number - no matter how many new beliefs spring up, we are overwhelmingly, devoutly Jesus-happy.

I'm not buying it.

I suspect a huge chunk of respondents merely check the "Christian" box for lack of something else, because they felt they needed to choose something, even though they don't actually follow Scripture in the slightest, but since they're not technically atheists and they've never really ventured out on a unique spiritual quest of their own, they merely choose "Christian" as the default American position, the fallback, the safe bet, sort of like checking "average" on a customer satisfaction survey or saying "fine" when your barista asks you how you're doing today. Thoughtless, automatic, convenient.

Which brings us to perhaps the most interesting stat of all, wherein 16 percent of Americans (and 21 percent of godless, sinful, heathenistic Californians, both much larger percentages than perhaps anyone expected) don't hook into any religious affiliation whatsoever, thus making them/us the fourth largest "religious" group in America - and growing fast.

They are the unaffiliated, the wayward ones, not just agnostics and atheists but also the poets and the grazers and spiritualists, the mystics and the explorers and the cosmically, intellectually, divinely self-determined. (Or maybe they're all just actors and bass players and trust-funded art students. But let's try to be optimistic.)

A new secular age?

It's a heartening number, and it brings up a delicious question, pondered for ages and yet seemingly more pertinent than ever: Are we headed for a more secular age? Is dour organized religion finally losing its grip? Does it all point to something grander, perhaps more luminous for us as a society, as more people abandon religion's authoritarian hammers for spirituality's exquisite seeds?

And what of the other big question, the one no one really talks much about and certainly no one really teaches you? How does one actually abandon a religion? How do you dump your God and choose another, or none or the one deep inside yourself?

Tentative answer: Maybe you don't. Maybe it's not about abandoning God, and instead merely broadening your definition of the divine so as to encapsulate and swallow it all, every God, every dogma, every attempt to corner the market on belief and put it into cute little boxes and break us all up into angry tribes who stomp our feet and wave our little gilded books and launch wars over promised lands and chosen peoples and crucifixes and crusades and witches and pagans and gays.

In other words, maybe you abandon God by realizing it's all God, it's all divine, all hot, thrumming, vibrating connection in all places in all things at all times, and hence to try and parse it and restrict it and beat it into submission and claim it for one people, one history, one country or church or authoritarian body, is actually the highest form of divine insult.

Or, you know, grand cosmic joke.

Same thing, really.

Labels: Christian, God, Jesus, Mark Morford, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religion, secular, unaffilIiated

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Woman to woman

March 8, 2008

A mentoring minisry

By Ann Greenleaf Wirtz
Special to the Times-News

"As young moms we admired the mature spirituality we saw in the older women, especially since many of us were in those early seasons of motherhood, with all the challenges of parenting coupled with taking care of our husbands," Reid said.

"We wanted an experienced, Godly perspective on how they had raised their children to adulthood and survived," Reid smiles. "They had wisdom to share and it was encouraging to hear their stories.

"It was 2003, and Betty Brown had the vision to begin a mentoring ministry. She has since moved, but she left behind the program she started from a ladies' tea and a survey to determine interest. We ended up with enough older and younger women to do a test run," Reid explains.

The test run has turned into a continuous, five-year blessing for all who've participated in the ministry. The model is designed for a mentor and mentee to share concerns, Biblical counsel, prayers and fun throughout a six-month commitment.

Many needs met

Lisa Nelsen, who recently became a mentee, confirms the needs this ministry meets. "My mother lives in California, and my husband has to travel some with his work. We have a son who's 4 and an adopted 2-year old daughter from Guatemala. I have a wonderful family, but I felt the Lord pushing me to become involved because I was feeling alone at times and very busy with the children and needed someone close-by to talk to."

When the decision is made to participate in this ministry, a profile card is completed. Information about hobbies, interests, and essential beliefs are listed, as well as the desire to be either a mentor, a mentee, either, or both.

Martha Roach, who heads the prayer warriors, describes the matching process. "We cover the entire ministry in prayer, from beginning to end. Once we have the profile cards, we sit down and pray for the Lord's guidance in matching mentors with mentees and the prayer warrior who will be assigned to them. We believe if the Lord doesn't build the house, it doesn't stand. We are sensitive to his leading, his nudging, and we give him all the credit for the success of the matches."

Relationships continue

"Sometimes, however, the mentoring situation doesn't seem to work out," Funk says, "for whatever reason. More often though, the mentors and mentees want to continue their relationship beyond the 6 months because their interactions have been so beneficial."

"I've definitely been given a God-match," Nelsen says, "because my mentor, Penny (Oesterling), has been in similar situations, and her advice and spiritual beliefs have been such a help. I want to be where she is. I've started reading the Bible more to gain that close relationship with the Lord that shines in Penny.

Penny Oesterling began a mentoring ministry at her church in Rochester, N.Y., and after moving to Hendersonville several years ago, has continued her commitment to helping younger women by joining the mentoring program at First Baptist. "The Lord instilled this desire because of an experience I had with a friend who was 12 years older. While that's not a lot of difference, she shared parenting advice; helpful because I didn't have any relatives living nearby.

"We became close, even as couples," Oesterling said. "They mentored the Christian life to my husband and me. My friend never realized the extent of her impact until years later when I started the mentoring ministry, inspired by our relationship.

"We're always influencing others, either positively or negatively," Oesterling says. "It's important we train women to love God, to help them understand how to love their husbands and children."

Woman to Woman Mentoring at First Baptist is called "A Titus 2 Ministry," based on Titus 2:3-5, "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

On her profile card, Oesterling wrote that she wanted a mentoring relationship "led by the Lord in which he can use me to be a Titus 2 woman." He has done that through her relationship with Lisa.

Labels: Ann Greenleaf Wirtz, mentoring, ministry, women

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Journeys of faith can take different paths

March 8, 2008

By Rosa Salter Rodriguez

...many Fort Wayne-area residents who responded to a request from The Journal Gazette last week to discuss changing faiths say they’ve gone on journeys that led them away from their religious roots. Residents were asked for their stories in light of the findings of the Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, one of the largest studies of its kind.

Several said they pursued their decision to switch although it was upsetting to family members or friends.

Some of those who switched faiths said they were prompted by unpleasant experiences in their former churches.

Others say they switched because they no longer believed what their previous church taught.

Experts say economic, social and geographic mobility, marriage among members of different religions, the rise of minority religions in America such as Buddhism and Islam, and individualized faith styles are key reasons for the religious turnover. About 16 percent of Pew respondents said they were unaffiliated with any tradition, although many of those said personal spirituality was part of their life.

Regardless of where local faith changers have landed, most say they respect and learned a great deal from their former faiths.

Please click on "external source" to access the complete article.

Labels: affiliation, belief, church, faith, Fort wayne, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religion, Rosa Salter Rodriguez

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Friday, March 07, 2008

Book Review: Spring Cleaning for the Spirit

By Susan Apollon
Mar 6, 2008

Why Now Is the Natural Time to Learn the "ABCs" of Spiritual Healing

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Spring is in the air and with it comes an innate need to clean and declutter your emotional and spiritual world. Intuitive psychologist and author Susan Apollon shows you how to find inner peace and let the sun shine in.

It happens every spring. As sunlight reawakens tiny buds and fresh breezes dust the fields with lilacs, a strange compulsion kicks us out of our winter stupor. We actually want to clean. Floors suddenly seem grimy and corners cobwebby. The cluttered basement starts to really bug us. Even that previously insurmountable task—window washing—sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday. Intuitive psychologist Susan Apollon says our annual spring cleaning frenzy is more than mere tradition: It's the manifestation of a primal urge for renewal on a deeper level.

What exactly is spiritual healing? Apollon says it's about balancing our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and actions. It's about becoming whole. Healing takes place when we reclaim our power, wisdom, or spirit, which we often bury during the process of life, and when we reconnect with our soul or higher self, as well as with the Universe or God.

On a more practical level, it means learning to live in such a way that you don't spend all your time fretting about the future, worrying about your kids, or obsessing over health issues. And it means coming to a place where you refuse to settle for a job, a relationship, a lifestyle—a life—that doesn't fulfill you.

Understanding the Law of Attraction

Spiritual healing happens when we work with the Law of Attraction, which is basically an understanding that energy attracts like energy. Apollon explains it this way: Given that everything is energy and vibrates, and given the Law of Attraction, wherever we are vibrationally, we attract to us experiences of a similar level of vibration. What we choose to focus on (thoughts, images, beliefs) causes us to vibrate at a particular level, resulting in either good or not good feelings. Focusing on thoughts or images that cause us to feel relatively good or better will enable us to be at a higher level energetically and, consequently, will draw to us a higher level of vibrational experience.

In other words, when you worry about your job, your grades, your children, your health—and that is what you do most of the time—your dominant energetic level is quite low. Being in this state causes you to experience events and situations which are of equally low vibrations.

The trick, of course, is to become conscious and aware of how we are feeling in order to allow ourselves to do the work of cleaning up (or out) our spiritual closets and bringing in what feels energetically better. This allows us to attract to us wonderful things and experiences that we want—our hopes and dreams—rather than those things and experiences we don't want.

To do this we need to be really clear about our intentions, says Apollon. We need to decide what it is that we intend to do or make happen in our lives that will make us feel good or better (happy, satisfied, joyful, peaceful). Once we have our intentions in mind, we can give them power and help to create them by giving ourselves permission to really focus on them.

Practice Your ABCs

Once you have clarity regarding your intentions, it's time to practice what Apollon calls "the Art of your ABCs." Intertwined with the ABCs technique is another one, which she refers to as the "Face, Embrace, and Replace" method. Here's how it works:

· A is for AWARENESS and ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Become aware of your thoughts and images at the "head" level that do not feel good at the heart or belly level. Here, you're "Facing" what makes you feel bad.

Put your hand on your heart or belly and ask yourself, Am I feeling good (or okay) or not good at this moment? If your answer is "not good," put the same hand on your forehead and ask yourself, What is my thought, picture, or image that makes me not feel good?

Now, take time to Acknowledge or "Embrace" the picture or thought. Give yourself permission to really feel the pain associated with your thought or image stored deep within you. Kick, scream, or cry it out—for a few moments, or more, if needed, but not too much more, if possible.

· B is for BREATH and BREATHING OUT YOUR PAIN. Learn to use the Gift of Breath and then use your ability to lift yourself energetically to a higher level of well-being. Take three deep breaths. As you breathe in, visualize yourself breathing in the colorful and magnificent energy of the Universe or God. (Yes, actually give it a color so you can "see" it more readily.) Watch and feel this powerful healing energy coming in and filling your body with amazing warm, relaxing energy, causing you to feel so relaxed and heavy and at the same time . . . so light that you are aware of your body shifting up energetically.

· C is for CHOICE and CHOOSING THOUGHTS AND IMAGES THAT FEEL GOOD or BETTER. Here's where you "Replace" your negative energy with positive energy. You choose thoughts and images that lighten your vibrations and enable you to allow in those experiences you have viewed as your intentions, hopes, and dreams. Every moment is about choice. Be conscious of how you are feeling, moment by moment, and choose to focus on anything and everything that brings you relief and feels better or good, including your kids, pets, loved ones, or your favorite funny video. (NOTE TO EDITOR: See attached tipsheet for some healing choices.)

"Practice your ABCs and Face, Embrace, and Replace often," advises Apollon. "They are the tools that lead to healing."

If you're thinking it all sounds a bit too touchy-feely for you, don't. Apollon says these spiritual healing techniques work, even if you're a cynic. Feeling good is your birthright. Indeed, you've probably experienced the essence of spiritual healing at some point in your life—when you're so immersed in a project that you lose all sense of time and place, for instance, or when you're with friends or family and feel a surge of joy and gratitude and "rightness."

About the Author:

Susan Apollon is an intuitive psychologist, psychotherapist, and healer. For more than two decades, she has specialized in treating children and adults who are traumatized, ill (dealing with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses), grieving, and/or dying. As a master of several healing and energy modalities, a researcher of mind, consciousness, energy, and metaphysics, a student and teacher of intuition, and a survivor of her own challenge with breast cancer, she brings wisdom and compassion to those with whom she works.

www.HealthNewsDigest.com

Labels: law of attraction, peace, spirituality, Spring, Susan Apollon

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

I'll have a side of Christianity with that

Amy Baack
Issue date: 3/7/08

We live in an era of freedom of choice. Everything in our society is designed to provide us with options; we like feeling we are in control of our own lives. Don't tell me what to watch on TV - let me choose from 100-plus cable channels. Burger King's slogan sums up our choice-driven culture, as it encourages Americans to "Have it your way."

A recent study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows Americans are beginning to shop around more when it comes to selecting their spiritual beliefs. Based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans 18 and older, the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey found that more than 40 percent of the survey respondents said they changed their religious affiliation since childhood.

In addition, 16 percent of those surveyed call themselves "unaffiliated," meaning they do not identify with one particular religion or do not have any definitive spiritual beliefs. This number is startling - it is twice as large as figures from past surveys.

Americans today are simply not willing to mindlessly absorb information thrown at them about what to believe. People no longer stick to one religion, and some are not committing to any religion at all.

The survey results indicate an important trend: Americans are challenging authorities and not accepting ideas as truth simply because they were raised with them, instead they first explore multiple sides of the issue.

The survey also found that among Americans aged 18 to 29, one in four respondents are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

An additional study by Pew conducted in February examined the spirituality of college students during their undergraduate careers, with spirituality defined as "the students' search for meaning and purpose, … their values … and their self-understanding."

College is supposedly a monumental stage in one's life, when one's values and beliefs are solidified; the fact that students gain spiritual maturity throughout their college years is no surprise.

Our generation has been raised to demand choices, and it makes sense that in our pivotal 20s, we are exploring multiple religions and questioning our faith. What is unusual is that the rest of America seems to be following our lead in this collegiate route of self-discovery.

One of the strongest American values is freedom, and Americans are now applying it to their spiritual pursuits, exploring multiple religions to try to figure out what they really believe.

The survey also found that Protestantism, the leading religion in America for generations, is actually on its way to becoming a minority faith. In the 1980s, 65 percent of Americans called themselves Protestants, but the results of Pew's survey indicate this number is now down to 51 percent.

America is becoming more of a nondenominational country, freed from the boundaries of religious institutions. People are exercising their First Amendment rights and exploring whatever religions strike their fancy. As a result, religion is being shaken out of its traditional cut-and-dry mold as Americans begin to piece together their own individual beliefs, creating a sort of custom religion derived from a sampling of sources.

Spiritual beliefs are not one-size-fits-all; they are intensely personal, and we are beginning to treat them as such. No one can tell me what to put on my iPod playlists, and I can certainly practice whatever religion I choose. I don't need to settle on one religion at all; I can create my own. People are free to believe whatever they want; this is the beauty of modern America.

Religion is just the latest part of our culture to receive the choice-filled menu treatment. So what will it be today? Would you like to try some Judaism, or perhaps a bit of Scientology? I hear the Buddhism is fantastic.

Labels: America, Amy Baack, belief, choice, college, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religion, spirituality, students

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Pew Survey: Demographers dispute snapshot of American Jews

By Sue Fishkoff
Published: Wednesday, March 5, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- American Jews are adopting and discarding their Jewish identities with increasing rapidity in a country that is becoming less white and less Christian, according to a new study of religious affiliation in the United States. But just hours after the study’s publication on Feb. 24, Jewish demographers were disputing some of the findings on Jews.

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, shows how Jews fit into a national religious mosaic that is shifting at ever-increasing speed. Some of the findings about Jews, including the high income and educational levels, came as no surprise, as they mirror the results of earlier Jewish-only population studies.

Leading Jewish demographers, including those who worked on the National Jewish Population Studies of 1990 and 2000-2001 (NJPS), dispute some of the Pew data relating to American Jewry, particularly the figures about converts to and from Judaism.

“While we can learn a lot from this kind of survey in a general sense, in terms of Jews per se we have to be cautious because they’re such a small part of the sample,” said Jonathon Ament, the assistant director of research at the United Jewish Communities and the senior project adviser on the 2000-2001 NJPS. The NJPS survey included 4,523 respondents. With fewer than 700 Jewish respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 points that Ament calls “quite high,” he said the Pew report should be “taken with a grain of salt.” Pew researchers say the sample size is statistically sound.

Finding the total number of Jews has often been a source of controversy within the Jewish community. The Pew study arrives at its own numbers, suggesting the continuing difficulty of defining who is a Jew. Pew counted an estimated 3.8 million Jews, or 1.7 percent of the total American adult population. The NJPS counted 4.1 million Jewish adults out of a total Jewish population of 5.2 million. Some thought the NJPS underestimated the Jewish population, including Brandeis University's Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, which offered its own estimate of 6 million to 6.4 million.

But it was the findings on converts to and from Judaism, which involve controversial definitions -- including "Who is a Jew" -- that drew the most skepticism among Jewish demographers. According to the Pew study, 15 percent of America's nearly 4 million Jewish adults were not raised as Jews. That means, Pew researchers said, they either converted to Judaism or embraced the Judaism of one of their parents or grandparents. The study also reports that 9 percent of adults who were raised Jewish now profess another faith. Four percent of those former Jews are now Protestant, about half of them evangelicals; 1 percent are Catholic; and nearly 5 percent belong to a non-Christian faith, ranging from Islam to Buddhism to a New Age religion.

Still, the report found that Jews and Hindus are the most successful at retaining their people.

More than 84 percent of those who were raised Hindu still identify as Hindu, followed by 76 percent of those raised Jewish who say they are Jewish today. Fourteen percent of those raised Jewish now identify with no organized religion.

Judaism, Catholicism and Hinduism are the three faith groups filled with the highest percentage of born followers. Eighty-five percent of today's Jewish adults were raised as Jews, vs. the 15 percent of today's Jews who have "joined" the community. Ninety percent of today's Hindu adults were born and raised Hindu, along with 89 percent of Catholics.

Other highlights of the Pew report include:

* Jews are tied with Mormons as the sixth largest faith group, each claiming 1.7 percent of the country’s adult population.

* There are twice as many adult Jews as adult Muslims.

* Jews rank fourth among religious groups most likely to marry in the faith. According to Pew, 69 percent of married Jews are married to another Jew -- the same figure reported by the 2000 NJPS.

* Of the 31 percent of Jews married to someone of a different faith or no faith, the largest percentage, 12 percent, are married to Catholics. The faith groups most likely to marry their own are Hindus, Mormons and Catholics.

* The most highly educated faith communities are Hindus (48 percent with post-graduate degrees) followed by Jews (35 percent), compared to the national average of 10 percent.

* Two percent of America’s 1.57 million Buddhists were raised Jewish.

When it comes to drawing a Jewish picture from the Pew study, it’s difficult to compare the results to the National Jewish Population Study because it is rare to find the exact same questions or categories in both studies. In addition, the NJPS and other Jewish-sponsored population studies use a combination of self-identification and behavioral questions to arrive at a nuanced understanding of who is a Jew, whereas the Pew report allowed respondents to declare their own religious identity.

The conversion figures offered by the Pew study differ from those of other Jewish studies. The 1990 NJPS showed that 180,000 people had converted to Judaism, comprising 3 percent of the total Jewish population. The 2000-2001 NJPS did not report the number of converts to Judaism, so it’s impossible to make comparison with the Pew report’s statement that 15 percent of today’s Jewish adults were not raised Jewish.

“What does ‘raised Jewish’ mean?” asks demographer Bruce Phillips of Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, who also worked on the 2000-2001 NJPS. “To you and me it might mean someone went to Hebrew school,” but the respondents answering the Pew study were not asked to elaborate.

Similarly, the 1990 NJPS showed that 210,000 Jews had converted out of Judaism, representing nearly 4 percent of American Jewry. By the time of the 2000-2001 NJPS, that figure had risen to just above 5 percent, along with an additional 7.6 percent who said they had left Judaism for no religion. The NJPS total of 12.6 percent is less than the 23 percent of Jews who told Pew researchers that they now professed no religion or had joined another faith. But some of that difference can be ascribed to definitions used by the study organizers.

Pew researchers acknowledge these “definitional issues,” said Green, a senior researcher on the project. But that was not the focus of the Pew study. The study was concerned with measuring how much movement there is into and out of faith groups rather than in describing exactly what those faith-shifters are discarding and adopting, or why.

Labels: Hindus, Jews, Judaism, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religion, Sue Fishkoff, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

More schools teaching spirituality in medicine

Some medical schools require students to take at least one course examining the role faith plays.

By Bonnie Booth, AMNews correspondent.

March 4, 2008.

Christina M. Puchalski, MD, was a bit of a pioneer when she created a spirituality and health course in 1992 at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.

The course, offered as an elective, covered spiritual practices, including meditation, as well as topics such as humor and alternative medicine.

When Dr. Puchalski first began teaching her course, 2% of medical schools offered course work in spirituality. By 2004, the figure was 67%.

Now 100 of the approximately 150 U.S. medical schools offer some variation of spirituality-in-medicine course work. And 75 of those 100 require their students to take at least one course on the topic.

Dr. Puchalski can take some credit for the change. She and a colleague developed a program in spirituality and health at the National Institute for Healthcare Research. Funding by the John Templeton Foundation -- an organization that makes grants to research projects -- has given medical schools the opportunity to develop a spirituality curriculum of their own.

100 U.S. medical schools offer some kind of spirituality course.
Dr. Puchalski has worked with the Assn. of American Medical Colleges to define spirituality as part of the Medical School Objectives Project.

According to the MSOP, "spirituality is recognized as a factor that contributes to health in many persons. It is expressed in an individual's search for ultimate meaning through participation in religion, and/or belief in God, family, naturalism, humanism and the arts. All of these factors can influence how patients and health care professionals perceive health and illness and how they interact with one another."

76% of doctors believe in God, and 59% believe in an afterlife.

In recent years, more research has examined the links between faith and physicians. In 2005, a nationwide study found that 76% of physicians believed in God, and 59% believed in an afterlife. Physicians are more likely to attend religious services than the rest of U.S. population, said the study in the July 2005 Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Some experts said doctors don't know if it's appropriate to incorporate faith into medical practice. Doctors also might be unsure if they should address the topic of their patients' beliefs.

Research aside, social trends have led medical schools to consider spirituality in their curriculum planning, Dr. Puchalski said.

She said that during the mid-20th century, medicine shifted away from the physician-patient relationship and holistic care to a disease-centered model that focused more on advances in science and technology.

The switch to managed care, the diminishing doctor-patient relationship and public pressure brought demands for change. The increased criticism of the medical system as a whole, she said, also stimulated changes in medical education.

The goal today, Dr. Puchalski said, is to help medical students understand how they can be compassionate participants in their patients' lives.

Labels: Bonnie Booth, Christina M. Puchalski, health, medicine, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Choice: A Healthy Trend Indeed!

by Lauren Artress

The fact that many people change their religious affiliation nowadays is a healthy trend. Changing dominations shows that people are thinking about their beliefs. People are paying attention to what nourishes them spiritually and what leaves them dry, empty and uninspired. No longer are they satisfied with the beliefs that were passed down to them through their families. They want first hand experience of the Divine. The shift to a new religious paradigm relies on tuning into themselves and taking more responsibility for their spiritual lives. And that is what the Pew survey is identifying.

Often having many spiritual choices is demeaned by the phrase “the shopping mall mentality” of religion. This spiritual smorgasbord is a threat to the mainline churches that are struggling with declining membership. These churches, for the most part, are established to articulate and inculcate beliefs. But the spiritual hunger lies in establishing a relationship with the Divine, not “believing” in a masculine God who lives disembodied in the sky. The anonymous quote “Religion is for people who believe in hell; spirituality is for people who have been there” still holds true.

Underneath all the searching, we are hungry for spiritual sustenance. We long to live a symbolic life that has meaning beyond our everyday activities. We long for a safe place to express our devotion and to light a candle for our deepest hopes and longings to be manifest in the outer world. Or, we may need to support our creativity by igniting the creative spirit through insight and awakening the imagination through new experiences. Other times—as Mary Oliver says “if it all we can do to keep on trudging” then we need to find a place that will deepen our faith as we white knuckle it through.

Labels: belief, change, Lauren Artress, religion, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Monday, March 03, 2008

Thinking positive boosts bottom line

Ruth Ostrow | February 29, 2008

IN the elegant foyer of The Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney, 350 business leaders have gathered. Chief executives and managers from all the major corporations are there.

They have come as members of the Australian Institute of Management to hear advice on how to be more effective in business, but not from a sales guru. They're here to listen to one of the great thought leaders of our time; father of the positive psychology movement; Mr Happiness himself, author of the best-seller, Learned Optimism, Dr Martin Seligman PhD.

Seligman is selling the happiness message to our top corporations and he intends to return to Australia next year with a team to run in-house programs. "I teach the new prosperity," he tells me later.

"Not how to get rich, but how to stay prosperous in all aspects of life: work, home and body. We need to look at a gross wellbeing indicator, not Gross Domestic Product so we can get ahead without illness, depression, anxiety and fear stopping us in this new, positive paradigm."

Indeed, there has been a paradigm shift in corporate thinking since I last worked as a finance journalist in the "greed is good" 1980s and 90s.

Cairns says this is the new frontier - business with a spiritual edge. "I don't use the word spiritual. It is about transformation. To get the most out of your business and people, you have to work on yourself first. Buddhism has given me a profound sense of meaning and purpose."

Akehurst says: "I was an anxious over-achiever driven by anxiety, wanting targets to be met, and fear of failure. The change is that I have become mindful of the moment, I am only motivated by the positive, and have learned the value of authenticity and integrity. When you tell the truth to the people you work with, you save so much valuable time and money."

Rennie from McKinsey, a promoter and fan of both Seligman and Rinpoche, says: "When I tried to sell this type of thinking into the corporate market 10 years ago I was considered a heretic. Now it's mainstream."

Meanwhile, David White, a director of Port Jackson Partners who is organising the meditation event, says what's really being taught is "the science of the mind" and how to transform thinking to achieve quantifiable results.

International Business Week summed it up thus: "It may sound flaky but a growing number of companies are setting off on spiritual journeys ... in search of a soul as a way to foster creativity and motivate leaders." The list includes US corporate giants such as AT&T, Boeing and Xerox, not to mention the World Bank, where leaders sit in a semicircle once a week and "connect".

The crux of the new prosperity movement is happiness, not a superficial happiness but a deep, resounding contentment born of having abundance in all areas of life: work family and play.

As Seligman says, happiness doesn't come from pleasures alone, such as making money or having sex, but from adding a deep sense of meaning - what the Buddhists and yogis call bliss.

Property developer Bruno Grollo, of Rialto fame, understands this. "You work so you can gain security and material wealth, but money never made me happy. I made money but I never felt the way I did when I was 18 or 21, so I realised that money didn't matter. Transcendental meditation is the closest thing to the euphoria of youth I have discovered," he once confided to me.

With an international Happiness conference being held in Sydney in May, the medical statistics bear out the premise. Happy people live eight to 10 years longer and fight off illness at double the rate of others.

The Reserve Bank's Akehurst, admired for his leadership qualities, shuns the notion that working with concepts such as happiness and authenticity is the "soft and fuzzy" option. "This is hard-nosed business practice. It creates tough but fair leaders."

He says: "Authenticity is a beautiful, time-saving process. When you cover up, people know it's not true and trust is damaged. If you say something isn't working, everyone says that's bad, and gets on with fixing it. Otherwise it takes ages to get things sorted." Personal growth leads to efficiency.

It's two decades since I wrote my book The New Boy Network on the excesses of the 1980s. In some circles people joked that to be interviewed by me was the kiss of death, as those I had revered for their enthusiasm and determination seemed to go down like tenpins: Larry Adler, father of Rodney; textile king Abe Goldberg; Alan Bond; Christopher Skase; Adsteam's John Spalvins; Robert Holmes a Court and Coles Myer's Brian Quinn.

Many Asian visitors went with them, such as Thai confectionery mogul Jack Chia and Malaysia's Lee Ming Tee.

Why? I have thought a lot about it the past decades, myself having moved to Byron Bay to embrace wellness. I have observed that what drives you can drive you over the edge. My own journey echoed theirs. A workaholic, a believer that somehow external success would take away that nagging sense of fragility and unworthiness that so many of us feel, I soon discovered external success was like water to sand and resulted in burnout and bad decision-making. At the height of my own career, burnt out and suffering depression, I walked away.

Years later, having sat at the feet of people involved in personal growth: Buddhists, yoga teachers, wellness and longevity masters, I have unravelled the greatest mystery of all.

The answer to happiness is the ability to live now, comfortable in your own skin whatever the circumstance.

Greek poet C.P. Cavafy talks about not being so outcome-driven, not so eager to get to Ithaka, mythical home of Odysseus. Rather, he says, to be able to enjoy the journey itself on the high seas will teach us to appreciate the riches of Ithaka when we arrive. Seligman calls it being in the flow of life. The Buddhists call it absorption in the moment.

Others simply describe it as the pleasure of stroking your child's face or playing with the family dog. Whatever it is, those able to connect from the heart, rather than through ego alone, seem more able to achieve enduring success.

Indeed, coming back to Sydney to put into practice what I've learned, I have found a different corporate landscape. While some - such as the recent spate of overgeared entrepreneurs - are still suffering for their sins of hubris and being too driven, it's a rapidly changing world.

Funds management icon Brian Sherman is fighting for animal rights, our Prime Minister is fighting for home care for his son, and former Microsoft mogul Daniel Petre is taking time off to be with his wife and kids - all for the sake of joyfulness and meaning.

According to Gordon Cairns, words such as empower have replaced command and control, while abundance and prosperity have replaced wealth.

My new column, Business Life, is about the things that matter: business and life, work and play, passions and health, heart and soul - in balance. In a world in which happiness is the hottest new corporate commodity and health and success depend on it, it's no longer a dream to have it all. It's a necessity.

Labels: abundance, business, Dr Martin Seligman PhD, happiness, learned optimism, meaning, Ruth Ostrow, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Revolutionary religion revealed

Monday, March 3, 2008

By Sally Pollak
Free Press Staff Writer

Book Review: "Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of America's Founding Fathers" by Gary Kowalski.

The book focuses on the beliefs and interests of six men who were influential and instrumental in the founding of the nation: Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Paine, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

These leaders, Kowalski said, were "original and idiosyncratic religious thinkers." Kowalski said he would characterize all of them in two ways:

Religious naturalists: The men found God in nature rather than scripture or the traditional revelations.

Religious liberals: They believed that faith should flourish, but it should do so in the private sphere -- within a certain "inviolable zone of personal freedom that neither the state nor the church can intrude upon," Kowalski said.

Kowalski's interest in researching and writing about the faith of the founding fathers was driven by what he thinks are common misperceptions about who these men were and what they believed in. There are many people who believe the United States of America was founded as a Christian nation by a group of men who were devout believers in the bible, Kowalski said.

He learned that the founding fathers were curious thinkers with an interest in science and philosophy. They were comfortable asking questions that yielded ambiguous and complex answers. Their insistence on the separation of church and state was intended to help religious freedom and religious diversity flourish -- and an effort to prevent the submission of certain religions by a dominant faith, Kowalski said. They were religious pluralists who believed the nation benefited from a diversity of faiths.

"I think the founders would be disturbed by the way journalists and voters seem to be applying a religious screen to the presidential candidates," he said. "They were discreet about their religious beliefs, and never paraded them for purposes of gaining votes. They'd be dismayed to see the way candidates are expected to profess their piety as great church-goers -- as though that's a qualification for public office. The idea that God identified with some party platform would've been completely foreign to their thinking."

Kowalski used a combination of primary and secondary sources for his research. Private correspondence, including condolence letters sent when family members died, revealed insights into the men's beliefs, he said.

Kowalski writes that Washington "deliberately avoided using the word 'God' in his public statements."

He notes that Jefferson put together his own bible, the first version titled "The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth." In his bible, Jefferson eliminated miracles -- including the virgin birth.

Adams, who was interested in scientific inquiry, had a particular interest in astronomy. He speculated about life on other planets and the connectedness of the universe, writing that "it is highly probable every particle of matter influences and is influenced by every other particle in the whole collected universe."

"The founders believed and hoped that religion would be a cohesive social force," Kowalski said. "They believed that all denominations share some of the same values -- justice, love, mercy -- and that religion lists us above narrow self-interests in its concern for the public good."

Labels: America, Founding Fathers, Gary Kowalski, George Washington, John Adams, Liberal, naturalism, religion, Sally Pollak, Thomas Jefferson

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Origins of belief

Sat March 1, 2008

Researchers at Oxford University have been given nearly $4 million to investigate the origins of belief in God.

The three-year project titled "Empirical Expansion in Cognitive Science of Religion and Theology” is designed to determine whether belief in a deity is instinctive or learned. It will be funded by the Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation.

Justin Barrett of Oxford University's Center for Anthropology and Mind and Roger Trigg of Oxford's Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion will lead the investigation.

Barrett said developmental psychology has determined that faith in God is a universal human impulse, found in all cultures and grasped from a young age. Researchers will use various methods to try to determine whether faith in a deity is inherent to cultures worldwide and throughout history.

Religious believers and nonbelievers will make up the research team, Barrett said.

Labels: belief, Empirical Expansion in Cognitive Science of Religion and Theology, God, John Templeton Foundation

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Pew religion survey a fascinating read

February 28, 2008

BACKGROUND:
• The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a comprehensive study of religion in America this week.

CONCLUSION:
The survey found a sizeable number of American adults are engaged in a religion that is different than how they were raised as children.

Anyone who has spent time walking through a shopping mall of late doesn't need to be convinced that we live in a nation of shoppers – even in today's challenging economy.

The fact that a growing number of Americans also are shopping for a different religion might come as more of a surprise.

That was the conclusion of a fascinating study released earlier this week by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C., that studies the relationship between religion and public affairs.

The headline that emerged from the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey is that 28 percent of Americans – more than one out of every four – no longer observes the faith of their childhood. If you draw a distinction among the various Protestant denominations, that figure jumps to 44 percent.

The study also found that the fastest-growing group is unaffiliated (+9 percent to 16 percent), the fastest-shrinking group is Catholic (-8 percent to 24 percent), and that Protestants make up the largest group at 51 percent (-3 percent). In the 1970s, Protestants made up nearly 70 percent of the U.S. population.

The extensive study was based on a national survey of 35,000 adults conducted between May 8 and Aug. 13 of 2007. The report also used data from a 2007 survey of American Muslims that it conducted in partnership with its sister organizations under the umbrella of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Here's how religious affiliations broke down by the numbers:

-Christian (78.4 percent): Protestant (51.3 percent), Catholic (23.9 percent), Mormon (1.7 percent), Jehovah's Witness (0.7 percent), Orthodox (0.6 percent) and other Christian religions (0.3 percent).

-Other religions (4.7 percent): Jewish (1.7 percent), Buddhist (0.7 percent), Muslim (0.6 percent), Hindu (0.4 percent) and other world religions (less than 0.3 percent).

-Unaffiliated (16.1 percent): Nothing in particular (12.1 percent), agnostic (2.4 percent) and atheist (1.6 percent). Another 0.8 percent responded "don't know/refused."

The Pew Forum's Web site (http://religions.pewforum.org) contains numerous tools that allow you to examine the religious composition of the country, a further breakdown by state and demographic characteristics of each group.

So what does this all mean?

Plenty, according to Michael Lindsay, assistant director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University.

"Religion is the single most important factor that drives American belief attitudes and behaviors," Lindsay told The New York Times. "It is a powerful indicator of where America will end up on politics, culture, family life. If you want to understand America, you have to understand religion in America."

The Pew survey goes a long way in trying to do just that.

Labels: Americans, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religion

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

What Matters Most?

Dean Ornish M.D.

That simple question can play a powerful role in healing our lives.

One of two pages. Please click on external link for complete articleFeb 27, 2008

Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote: "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." Rachel Remen, M.D., has spent much of her 40-year medical career helping patients and doctors find their why. A colleague of mine at the University of California, San Francisco, and founder of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, she has been a pioneer of integrative medicine, exploring the powerful ways in which our emotional, mental and spiritual states may directly affect our health. Dr. Remen is also the author of the best sellers "Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal" and "My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging" (both from Riverhead Books). I spoke to her recently about how understanding and pursuing what matters most to us can help to heal both body and soul. Excerpts:

Dean Ornish: There is a lot of suffering in the world right now, and it's experienced on so many different levels—a lot of edginess, anxiety and fear. You often describe how suffering can be a catalyst for transforming our lives. In what ways?

Rachel Remen: Very negative experiences, including anxiety and fear, have the potential to cause us to question the way we've been living. They're a wake-up call. They make people think more deeply about things and ask themselves questions like: What's important? What really matters? How do I want to spend my time, my money, my energy? How do I live more deliberately according to the things that are important to me? Just a very simple two-word question—"What matters?"—can change your life and the lives of people around you.

Why?

Because most of us live by habit. We often spend our time and energy on things that, if we were to ask ourselves, "Is this really important to me?" the answer would be, "Not very." But we don't usually ask ourselves this question. We're not living our lives closest to what has meaning and passion and value for us.

Why not?

We get distracted. There are lots of pressures in life. We're multitasking a lot of the time. Many of us have become disheartened or depressed. We tend to want to numb ourselves out rather than go deep inside and find the well of renewal that is in every person. We spend a lot of time in front of the television set, maybe we tie one on over the weekend. And we're often looking for comfort rather than renewal, and those are two different things.

What's the difference?

Comfort is a temporary Band-Aid. But whatever you are trying to numb yourself from usually comes back. Renewal is healing. If you go deep within and look to live your life with greater integrity, closer to your genuine and authentic values, according to what is really true for you, then you permanently diminish the pain. You don't just numb it temporarily. Food is one of the ways we numb ourselves. Or we drink too much, or we go from relationship to relationship, constantly seeking something new.

A patient once told me, "When I get depressed, I eat a lot of fat—it coats my nerves and numbs the pain. It fills the void." Another said, "I've got 20 friends in this package of cigarettes. They're always there for me; nobody else is."
In the effort to heal our pain, we often numb it so we don't look at our lives. The real healing comes from asking ourselves what really matters and having the courage to let go of what doesn't matter and take hold of what does.

When people are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, they often realize this, as well.

Yes. There is a moment of clarity where you know what's important to you. And it often isn't the way you've been living your life but something different than that. I've worked for years with people who have cancer, listening to their stories—the view from the edge of life is a lot clearer than most of us have.

In all those years, nobody ever said to me, "If I die of this disease, I'm going to miss my Mercedes." What really matters is who you've touched on your way through life, who has touched you and cared deeply, and what you're leaving behind you in the hearts and lives of those around you. We're so busy that we may not be present in our own lives. We don't see. We don't connect. And it's all here in front of us. Many are starving in the midst of plenty.

Labels: Dean Ornish M.D., health, M.D., Rachel Remen, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Monthly Archives - Previous Articles
03/01/2003 - 04/01/2003 04/01/2003 - 05/01/2003 05/01/2003 - 06/01/2003 06/01/2003 - 07/01/2003 07/01/2003 - 08/01/2003 08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003 09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003 10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003 11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003 12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008 03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008 05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008 06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008 07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008 08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008 09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008 10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009 03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009 04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009 05/01/2009 - 06/01/2009 06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009 07/01/2009 - 08/01/2009

News Archives Predating March 2003

RSS Feed

Blogroll Me!

Blogarama
The Urantia Book : Pictures of Jesus : Angel Pictures: Inspirational Quotes : Life After Death : Story of Jesus : Truthbook.com : Urantia : The Urantia Book

EXPLORE TRUTHBOOK

The Urantia Book

Jesus in the Urantia Book

Quote of the Day

Urantia Book Video

Urantia Book Audio

Discussion Forum

Art Gallery

Heartwarming Stories

Humorous Stories

Life's Toughest Questions

FAQ

Spiritual Studies

About Us

News and Blogs