TruthBook Religious News Blog

ROCHESTER, N.Y.

--This spring, The Harris Poll® has asked Americans about nine areas in their lives that contribute to their overall happiness, and has created a National Happiness Index with the intention of tracking changes in happiness in the United States over time. This year's index stands at 35 (out of a possible 100).

Following are some of the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,513 adults surveyed online between March 11 and 18, 2008 by Harris Interactive®. This survey was conceived and developed by Harris Interactive and was not commissioned by any organization. Harris Interactive worked closely with MBA students at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in developing the survey questions and in the analysis of the results.

Religion

People who describe themselves as “very religious” are among the happiest of people. Those who say they are “very religious” come in ten points higher than America as a whole on the Happiness Index (45% compared to 35% are considered “very happy”). In contrast, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who describe themselves as “not religious” were measured at that level of happiness.

A similar difference is noted among people who say they “pray or study religion at home” on a daily basis compared to less often. Over four in ten people (43%) who engage in “daily” prayer or religious study are very happy. In comparison, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who “never” pray or study religion at home have a comparable happiness level.

Ethics

Ethics also appears to affect happiness levels. Just under four in ten people (37%) who are “never or rarely pressured to act unethically” are very happy according to the Index. Only about one-quarter (26%) who are pressured to act unethically “all the time” or “often” are very happy according to the Index.

Age

Older people tend to be happier according to the Happiness Index. Less than one in three (29%) in the 18 to 24 age bracket are very happy according to the survey, compared to almost one-half (47%) of people age 65 and older. The survey results also show a clear trend in increasing happiness between those two age groups.

Other Findings

The various components of the Happiness Index also reveal some issues relevant to national politics and people's personal finances. While some of the findings from the happiness survey will be discussed in greater detail in The Harris Poll #47, to be released April 23, 2008, some highlights are:

Almost three-quarters (73%) of people say they feel their “voice is not heard in national decisions that affect (them).”

Almost four in ten Republicans (39%) are very happy compared to about one-third of Independents (34 percent) and Democrats (33%).

About two-thirds of Americans (65%) say they “frequently worry about (their) financial situation.”

More people without any credit card debt are very happy (38%) than people who have any amount of credit card debt (32%).

So What?

Although this data does not establish causal relationships among the various factors studied, it does raise some provocative possibilities. One possible explanation of the correlation between religion, ethics, and happiness, could be that people who struggle with personal relationships, financial pressures, and other stressful challenges feel more ethically pressured, more unhappy, and more disillusioned with religion. On the other hand, another plausible explanation is that people find relief and happiness in their religious faith despite such challenges and frustrations in life. It's also possible that people who practice their religion faithfully have a better developed ethical framework, feel more confident in unethical environments (or perhaps avoid unethical pressures altogether), and experience greater happiness as they live according to their convictions.

The trend of increasing happiness with age is also interesting. One explanation could be that younger people are more pressured with finances, time, and relationships. This might be due to a perceived or real need to establish their independence. Potentially satisfying relationships with family, friends, and God may suffer as a result. Another possibility might be changing expectations and perceptions with age, which would affect how older people assess their sources of unhappiness and happiness. Finally, maybe happiness does not really increase with age. Perhaps the age-related differences noted in the data are instead related to fundamental differences in each generation's attitudes, values, or environment. For example, maybe the circumstances in which younger people are currently being raised are fundamentally more stressful, less religious, and less ethical than for previous generations.

Methodology

This Harris Poll® was conducted online within the United States between March 11 and 18, 2008 among 2,513 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. A full methodology and data tables will be made available at www.harrisinteractive.com.

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms.

Labels: age, ethics, happiness, happiness index, Harris Interactive, religion

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Mourchidat - Morocco's female Muslim clerics

26/04/2008

Just inside Rabat's walled medina - with its market stalls selling fake Gucci sunglasses and bzeghir, traditional Moroccan pancakes - stands the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, an octagonal building resplendent with bougainvillaea and a fountain. This is the seminary where a revolution is under way. Two hundred student imams sit in long rows in disciplined silence as their tutor, Hussein Ait Said, addresses them. All the students are wearing robes and have a copy of the Koran on their desk, but 50 of them also have handbags and, more surprising still, a pair of white slingbacks is just visible in the fifth row. These are the women who are training to be mourchidat - female priests - the second intake at the seminary.

The mourchidat (meaning 'female guide') first made news in April 2006 when the Moroccan government announced with great fanfare that the first 50 had graduated. Funded by the government, the initiative is part of a wave of liberal reform begun by King Mohammed VI in 2004. 'This is a rare experiment in the Muslim world,' Muhammad Mahfudh, the centre's director, says. The mourchidat will help women with religious questions, with their education and give support in schools and prisons. The long-term hope is that by working face-to-face with the community, they will help foster a more moderate Islam.

In the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, the female student priests are taking a morning break. More than 400 women applied for the 50 places. The prerequisites are an exam, an interview and a BA. Candidates are also required to have a life grounded in the Koran, by which is meant memorising it, and an understanding of tajwid, the art of Koranic recital. Men have to know the entire text by heart; women, half of it. Once accepted on the course, students are given a grant of 4,000 dirhams (£360) a month. To rent a room in a shared house, as many students do, costs about a quarter of that. The youngest woman on the course is 22 - 'baby mourchidat!' - the oldest nearly 40. Lessons include Islamic studies, psychology, sociology, computer skills, economy, law and business management, plus three hours of homework a day.

The seminary where the mourchidat are taught is inside Rabat's walled medina
Men and women learn side by side, but only men will be able to lead prayers. Does she mind? 'No, because it is from our religion,' Haddad replies. 'We are not shocked or belittled by this.' How do the men treat you? 'There is distance, manners in our relationship.' Any criticism? 'If there is, they don't say it to our face…' She pauses and smiles, 'so perhaps…'

Women have come a long way since pre-independence days, but Morocco is still a divided society: one where some women are modern, educated and forging ahead in high positions in politics, business, medicine, law - about 25 per cent of professionals are women; yet nearly 70 per cent of women are illiterate (89 per cent in rural areas) compared with 41 per cent of men, according to 1999 government figures.

In some rural areas, a woman who is beaten or abandoned by her husband with no means of livelihood has only one course of action: words 'of spiritual impact' to her husband are written on a piece of paper by the local imam. The woman then keeps the piece of paper, hoping it will somehow change her husband's behaviour.

The idea for the mourchidat was first discussed in 2003, but its roots go back to 1999, when Mohammed VI came to the throne. He promised a new era of openness and democracy after the 38-year repressive dictatorship of his father, Hassan II. First to go was the palace harem - some 40 women. Next was the interior minister, Driss Basri, who had run Hassan's security system for 20 years, and was feared and detested like no other. The king also remodelled himself as a champion of women's rights, approving modifications to the Moudawana, the family code, in 2004, including raising the age of marriage from 15 to 17.

But the landmark event that paved the way for the mourchidat took place in 2003. In a radical break with tradition, the king invited a woman - el Mekkaoui - to give the Ramadan lecture at the royal palace in Rabat, attended by members of the government, high-ranking military officials and foreign ambassadors. It was the first time a woman had even been allowed to enter the room, let alone permitted to speak.

But in Morocco the monarchy has all the power, and the parliament plays a marginal role. The true power is in the hands of the people close to Mohammed VI. And the two other people instrumental in the formation of the mourchidat are senior advisers to the king: Professor Abdelhadi Boutaleb, a well-known Islamic authority; and Ahmed Toufiq, the minister of Islamic affairs. Boutaleb publicly stated his support of women's rights soon after Mohammed VI came to power in late 1999. Islam, he noted at a public meeting of the Woman's Network, a coalition of some 200 volunteer organisations, was a 'message of renewal and reform', and he cited verses that demonstrated that Islam advocated the equality of men and women - 'It is true that a bird needs two wings to fly.'

On graduation, each mourchidat is assigned a mosque, which can be anywhere in Morocco, although the ministry in charge aims to find somewhere close to their families. The mourchidat offer spiritual advice and teach women the Koran, but also discuss more contentious gender-related issues - about sex, women's health, what to do if your husband beats you - issues that women would not dream of asking an imam. They are paid 5,000 dirhams (£420) a month, and work long hours, both in and outside the mosque.

Since the introduction of the mourchidat, Turkey has also challenged traditional Islamic gender roles with the appointment of 450 women as preachers - or vaize. The Diyanet, or Directorate of Religious Affairs, which controls the Islamic faith in Turkey but also tries to improve women's rights, sees the appointment of female vaize as a crucial step forward.

But many Moroccans see the mourchidat as 'government propaganda', particularly those from one Islamic movement, the Justice and Charity Association. There are two main political Islamic organisations in Morocco: the Justice and Development Party (PJD), which takes part in elections; and the Justice and Charity Association, which is tolerated by the government but banned from mainstream politics because of its open hostility to the monarchy. (Both these groups have publicly condemned violence and castigated terrorists who attacked the World Trade Centre. But just as forcibly, the two organisations condemn 'American terrorism'.) Marvine Howe, the author of Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Conflicts, points out that the Justice and Charity Association, 'is of overwhelming importance. It's the strongest party in the country, even though it isn't actually a party.'

Justice and Charity supports feminist ideals (its spokesman is the charismatic activist Nadia Yassine), seeing Muslim women as being liberated through the original teachings of the Prophet, and not by imitating a Western model of emancipation.

'We've been carrying out a programme of education and training for women in Morocco for more than 20 years in mosques,' argues Maryem Yafont, 37, the head of Justice and Charity's women's section, who says that her party has long had women acting as informal mourchidat.

To the great embarrassment of the government, several mourchidat from the first intake to graduate turned out to be supporters of Justice and Charity. 'Now the ministry carries out inquiries to find out if they [students] belong to our movement or not,' Yafont says, 'so they have to keep it secret.'

Back in the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, Zakia Haddad is about to resume morning lessons. Haddad is to be tested on three verses from the Koran, in front of a large group of male students. But she is not nervous. 'There is a big difference between an imam and a mourchidat,' she says. 'Women have more patience,' she laughs, 'they are more generous, and because women are mothers they are more nurturing, more giving - like a mother among people, that is what our role is from God.'

Labels: clerics, Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, Morocco, mourchidat, Muslims, Turkey, women

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Monday, April 21, 2008

Discovery of the God Module Results in New Field of Science: Neurotheology

Saturday, April 19, 2008
by: Barbara L. Minton

(NaturalNews) During the concentration of prayer, the encompassing peace as we draw near death, a mystical revelation, or the sense that God is talking to us, we experience the most intense experiences of our lives. Since the beginning of time, people have imbued such experiences with religious significance. But in recent years, scientists have begun to explore this spiritual realm, asking their own questions about what goes on in our brains during these extraordinary events. They have been coming up with some fascinating answers that have given birth to a new field of brain science: neurotheology, the cognitive neuroscience of religious experience and spirituality.

Early Studies and Results

In a vanguard experiment on the physical sources of spiritual consciousness, Michael Persinger, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and psychology at Laurentian University in Canada, isolated an area of neurons in the brain's temporal lobes that repeatedly fire bursts of electrical activity when one contemplates God or has feelings of spirituality. Attempting to try to stimulate these bursts, Persinger isolated an area near the front of these temporal lobes, the amygdala, an almond shaped organ that infuses events with intense emotion and a sense of meaningfulness.

He then passed a controlled electrical current through coils on the head of his 80 subjects, creating a magnetic field that mimicked the firing patterns of the neurons in the temporal lobes. This resulted in an induced spiritual experience. The subjects reported an "opiate-like effect with a substantial decrease in anxiety, a heightened sense of well-being" that gave them the sense of not being alone. This sense was described by some as a religious experience.

At the same time While Persinger conducted his experiments, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Ph.D., director of the Brain and Perception Laboratory at the University of California at San Diego, also tuned in to the cosmic consciousness. He announced that he had discovered the 'God Module' in the brain which could be responsible for man's evolutionary instinct to believe in religion.

Ramachandran and his team studied the brains of people with an unusual type of epilepsy that affects the brain's temporal lobes. The study compared epileptic patients with normal people and a group who said they were intensely religious. Electrical monitors on their skin, a standard test of activity in the brain's temporal lobes, showed that the epileptics and the deeply religious displayed a similar response when shown words invoking spiritual belief.

According to the Ramachandran led research team, the most intriguing explanation is that the seizures cause an over-stimulation of the nerves in a part of the brain dubbed the God module. "There may be dedicated neural machinery in the temporal lobes concerned with religion. This may have evolved to impose order and stability on society." The results indicate that whether a person believes in a religion or even in God may depend on how enhanced is this part of the brain's electrical circuitry.

The idea of a single God module is regarded by most scientists, including Ramachandran, as too simplistic. A Canadian researcher, Mario Beauregard, and his student used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brain activity of Carmelite nuns while they were reliving the experience of unio mystica, an intense sensation in which they report feeling the presence of God.

With fMRI imaging, changes in blood flow in the brain may be monitored in almost real time. This allows researchers to see which regions of the brain become more or less active in different conditions. Beauregard observed that the nuns' ecstatic state was associated with a distinct pattern of activity in several areas of the brain. The researchers concluded that "mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems".

Other researchers have probed the experiences of people with temporal lobe epilepsy with interesting results. In Switzerland, Olaf Blanke and his colleagues found that electric stimulation of specific brain regions can trigger repeated out-of-body experiences. Although these experiences are somewhat common, they were not rigorously studied until Blanke came upon a case of a woman he was treating for epilepsy.

A part of the woman's brain near the junction point of the temporal and parietal lobes was stimulated with an electrode, producing the experience. Every time that part of her brain was stimulated, she described the experience as floating above her own body and watching herself.

Brain Mechanisms and Religious Experience

Shahar Arzy, a colleague of Blanke's, purposed that the junction between the temporal and parietal lobes may have played a part in some of the pivotal events in world religions. As Arzy and co-authors pointed out, many of the world's religions feature revelation experiences that take place on mountains. Many non-religious, non-mystic mountaineers have also had similar experiences while in the mountains. Time spent at high altitudes may affect the brain, according to Arzy, and "facilitate the experience of a revelation".

Arzy suggests mechanisms that could be involved in this experience. High altitudes have a significantly reduced level of oxygen which can affect the temporo-parietal junction. Stays at high altitude, particularly in solitude, might lead to low resistance to stress and loss of inhibition.

History is full of charismatic religious figures. Could any of them have been epileptics? Were the visions of Bible characters like Moses or Saint Paul reflective of temporal lobe epilepsy? There is no way to know.

Researchers suggest that these issues may have played a part in one of the mystical phenomena of ancient times, the oracle of Delphi. George Papatheodorou, an emeritus professor of geology at Patras University, and his colleagues examined the narrow cave where the Delphic priestesses were believed to have delivered their messages. They found high levels of methane, ethanol and carbon dioxide in the cave's air. "The site lies on a fault where gases leak out. These gases cause an oxygen reduction that induces a mild hypnotic state that could well produce hallucinations," he told the Greek Kathimerini newspaper.

Brain Mechanisms and Near-Death Experiences

Neurophysiologist Kevin Nelson, a researcher at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, is exploring the powerful spiritual phenomena of the near-death experience. His results have led him to believe that these experiences may be dream-like states triggered by stress and a common sleep disorder known as sleep paralysis. When people with this condition begin to awake, part of their brain stays in the random eye movement (REM) phase of sleep. They experience inability to move, resulting in frightening hallucinations.

Nelson studied 55 people who experienced near-death phenomena in a range of circumstances, including heart attacks, traffic accidents, and fainting spells. He found that about 60 percent of them reported symptoms of sleep paralysis. In a matched group of 55 healthy volunteers with no near-death experiences, only 24 percent had symptoms of sleep paralysis. Nelson concluded that his findings "anticipate that under circumstances of peril, a near-death experience is more likely in those with previous REM intrusion".

Possible Conclusions

According to the Ramachandran team, it is not clear why such dedicated neural machinery for religion may have evolved. One possibility they saw was the encouragement of tribal loyalty or reinforcement of kinship ties and the stability of closely knit clans. These scientists emphasized that their findings in no way suggest that religion is simply a matter of brain chemistry. "These studies do not in any way negate the validity of the religious experience of God," the team cautioned. "They merely provide an explanation in terms of brain regions that may be involved."

As Ramachandran has said, "We are only starting to look at this. The exciting thing is that you can even begin to contemplate scientific experiments on the neural basis of religion and God."

Labels: brain, God, God Module, Michael Persinger, neurotheology, religious experience, spiritual neuroscience, Vilayanur Ramachandran

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A Populist Shift Confronts the U.S. Catholic Church

Piotr Redlinski
for The New York Times

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To say she was a practicing Catholic would be an understatement. For years, Maria Aparecida Calazans was a mainstay at her Long Island church, joining dozens of fellow Brazilian immigrants for the Portuguese language Mass on Sunday mornings. She and her husband, Ramon, were married at the church. Their two daughters were baptized there, and every Friday she attended a prayer meeting that she had helped organize.

But six years ago, her husband went to a relative’s baptism at a Pentecostal church in a warehouse in Astoria, Queens, and came home smitten.

The couple made a deal. “We would go to the Pentecostal service on Thursdays and to Mass on Sundays, and then we would decide which one we felt most comfortable with,” Mrs. Calazans said.

Within 40 days, they had given up Roman Catholicism and embraced Pentecostalism, following the path of the estimated 1.3 million Latino Catholics who have joined Pentecostal congregations since immigrating to the United States, according to a survey released in February by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

“I feel whole here,” Mrs. Calazans, 42, said one recent Sunday in the Astoria sanctuary, the Portuguese Language Pentecostal Missionary Church, as she swayed to the pop-rock beat of a live gospel band. “This church is not a place we visit once a week. This church is where we hang around and we share our problems and we celebrate our successes, like we were family.”

As Pope Benedict XVI completes his visit to the United States on Sunday with a Mass at Yankee Stadium, in a borough that has been home to generations of Latinos, he does so facing something of a growing challenge to the church’s immigrant ranks.

For if Latinos are feeding the population of the church, many have also turned to Pentecostalism, a form of evangelical Christianity that stresses a personal, even visceral, connection with God.

Today, it has more Latino followers in the United States than any other denomination except Catholicism; they are drawn, they say, by the faith’s joyous worship, its use of Latino culture and the enveloping sense of community it offers to newcomers. As the Pew survey revealed, half of all Latinos who have joined Pentecostal denominations were raised as Catholics.

They are part of a global shift. Pentecostalism, the world’s fastest-growing branch of Christianity, has made such sharp inroads in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, that in an address to bishops there last year, Pope Benedict listed its ardent proselytizing as one of the major forces the Catholic Church must contend with in the region.

Catholic leaders and experts on the church in the United States say that the impact of Pentecostalism has been less dramatic here. Still, the pope has urged the nation’s bishops to make every effort to welcome immigrants — “to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials, and to help them flourish in their new home.” And any number of Catholic clergy and laypeople have conceded that the church needs to work harder at reaching, and keeping, its Latino flock.

“That some of the newly arrived Latinos are drawn to Pentecostalism is certainly reason for concern,” said the Rev. Allan Figueroa Deck, the executive director of the Office for Cultural Diversity, which was created last June by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to help the church adjust to its changing ethnic makeup.

“But we can counter that with the kind of music we use, with the sense of celebration that we bring to our worship, the spontaneity and some of the popular customs that are not part of the official liturgy of the church. We’re doing some of that, but we could do better.”

The Pentecostal church in Astoria vividly shows what Catholicism is up against. It offers enough activities to fill a family’s calendar: services on Sunday and Thursday, youth group meetings on Friday, a Bible study group on Wednesday and all-night prayer vigils throughout the year. Then there are the birthday and engagement parties, to which every congregant is invited.

The church, on the second floor of a stucco building opposite a nightclub and three blocks from the subway, is half house of worship and half community center. It ministers primarily to a single immigrant group, Brazilians, in the group’s language, Portuguese — much as the ethnic urban parishes founded by European Catholics did more than a century ago.

Labels: Brazil, Catholic, Latinos, Pentecostal, Piotr Redlinski, Pope Benedict XVI

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Book Review: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope

April 22, 2008
reviewed by Todd Friesen

Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope
by Brian McLaren
Thomas Nelson

Brian McLaren may not eat locusts or wear clothing made of camel's hair. But in Everything Must Change, this modern-day prophet issues a piercing critique of a U.S. church which, he says, too often serves as a force of "domestication, resignation, pacification, and distraction" rather than "liberation and transformation." All the while, a perfect storm of global crises gathers ominously on the horizon. But like the prophets of old, McLaren balances his warnings of impending doom with a compelling invitation "to defect" from the world's "suicide system" and to join Jesus' nonviolent insurgency of peace, generosity and sustainable living.

McLaren taught college English for 18 years and pastored the nondenominational church he founded in Spencerville, Maryland, for 24. In the past decade he has become a leading voice in the Emergent church movement and a prolific and sometimes controversial author. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the "25 most influential evangelicals in America." Everything Must Change is a sequel to an earlier book, The Secret Message of Jesus (2006), in which he focused on the kingdom of God. In his new book, McLaren asks: "What would change if we applied the message of Jesus—the good news of the kingdom of God—to the world's greatest problems?"

This book's most significant contribution is its incisive look at the competing "framing stories" of our world and of Jesus Christ. McLaren argues that the world's crises are being driven by a powerfully destructive and covert narrative. This story tells us that we are godlike creatures who are free to live without moral or ecological limits and that we exist merely to consume products and experience maximum pleasure. The devastating consequences of this story are becoming increasingly evident in our families, communities and environment.

McLaren convincingly argues that Jesus exposed and confronted this suicidal story, which already existed in his own day, and offered a radically different one. His new framing story tells us that we have been created not "to shop" but to live in loving relationship with our Creator, one another and creation. This new narrative gathers us into faith communities that proclaim and embody God's liberating and nonviolent love. It leads us not to escape our troubled world but to engage its crises so God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Evoking September 11, McLaren provocatively writes that the followers of Jesus are called to "fly airplanes of generosity into towers of need and plant improvised encouragement devices [IEDs] by roadsides and in neighborhoods everywhere."

In a book so focused on the dominant systems of our day, I found it surprising that McLaren mentions only once the New Testament's theme of principalities and powers (Colossians 1), and then only tangentially in his closing chapter. His analysis of the destructive potential of our world's structures would have been strengthened if he had integrated this crucial concept.

McLaren clearly recognizes that it is going to take more than a book to inspire American Christians to engage the urgent global crises of our day. It will require a profound transformation in our worship life, in what we sing about, and in the kinds of sins we confess each Sunday. With some fellow musicians, McLaren has recorded a CD called Songs for a Revolution of Hope to begin to fill this vacuum. He is also trying to connect with the younger, media-savvy generation by posting clips about his book's central ideas on YouTube and maintaining a Web site (www.deepshift.org) as a venue for further conversation.

As a pastor of a congregation in Chicago's wealthy suburbs, I found this book tremendously compelling, challenging and troubling. Everything Must Change left me asking two questions: What does defection look like when it is practiced by faithful Christian communities in the United States? And where in our nation are Jesus' followers actually making radical changes commensurate with the urgent crises we face and providing one another with the mutual support necessary to sustain this new way of living? McLaren's most recent work begs for its own sequel.

Todd Friesen is lead pastor of Lombard Mennonite Church in Lombard, Illinois.

Labels: Brian McLaren, Christianity, church, Emergent church, Jesus

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Keeping faith with the American voter

Saturday April 19, 2008
FOO YEE PING

The Catholic vote has become the focus of both Democrat presidential hopefuls with Pope Benedict XVI visiting the United States.

THERE is a mantra going around that the best way to know how Americans vote is to find out where they are on Sunday.

Over the past five decades, the Gallup Poll frequently surveyed Americans on the role of religion in their lives. Very often, at least 55% indicated that their faith was “very important” to them.

Women, Southerners, senior citizens, non-whites and lower income people were more inclined to say that religion was huge for them.

This week’s first official trip by Pope Benedict XVI to the United States has led to discussions about the Catholic vote; and how the Democratic presidential candidates are chasing it.

In the critical Pennsylvania round this Tuesday, an estimated 36% of the voters are Catholics.

According to news reports, Obama have tried to connect to this group of people by speaking about his time attending a Catholic school during the four years he spent in Indonesia as a child.

Clinton, a Methodist, has been reported as saying that she had felt the presence of God in her life ever since she was a little girl. “And it has been a gift of grace that has been, for me, incredibly sustaining.”

Back in 1960, there had been concerns about John F. Kennedy being a Roman Catholic. But he was a young candidate who offered a different kind of fresh politics to voters, who were also assured that faith would not interfere with any state decisions.

So, what role does religion play in secular America?

“Some people say the United States is the most religious nation in a secular set-up. With the state having no role in promoting religion, the state, too, has an obligation of not interfering in the private lives of its citizens,” Wang said.

“Thus, religion outside of the state flourishes. It plays an important role in America in determining political decisions. No where in the western world would the focus of an election include matters such as abortion.”

But how religious are Americans? USA Today reporting on a survey last year, noted that 60% of Americans could not even recall five of the Ten Commandments.

“Being religious does not mean being ritualistic or having a strong sense of religiosity,” Wang said. “It’s not about taking a quiz to determine a person’s faith.”

He explained that the changes in western society in the past 30 years included individuals trying to be more spiritual than ritualistic.

“At the same time, the tendency to equate religion with morality is prevalent in America,” he added.

In that sense, Americans would never vote for an atheist.

“As religion equals morality, atheism is seen as the end of morality, turning society into chaos,” Wang said.

“Americans, although firm believers in individual freedom and a free market, can accept protectionism or even a soft socialist as their president, but they will never accept an atheist.”

Jimmy Carter, for example, was left leaning but voters liked his strong Christian beliefs, he said.

Republican Mitt Romney failed in his bid for his party presidential nomination because Americans were mostly uneasy about his Mormon faith.

“He also did not succeed because he tried to pretend to be someone he isn’t, He tried to be more conservative than he actually is,” Wang pointed out.

Both Clinton and Obama have employed Catholic officials to speak on their behalf in their clamour to win over the faithful. A vast majority of the earlier arrivals among working class Hispanics are professed Catholics, too.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found in a recent survey that one in four Americans aged 18 to 29 declared they were not affiliated with any religion.

Be that as it may be, a person’s personal faith and religious views is a weighty factor in determining the choice of political candidacy in the United States.

Labels: Barack Obama, faith, Foo Yee Ping, Hillary Clinton, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, politics, religion

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Christian Science is a 'kind and gentle religion'

By REBECCA AUBUT
Standard-Times correspondent
April 19, 2008 6:00 AM

In the late 19th century, after a severe fall that allegedly caused a spinal injury, Mary Baker Eddy turned to the Bible for support and then unexpectedly recovered. Even in childhood, Ms. Eddy was said to have heard the voice of God calling to her. Inspired by her recovery, Ms. Eddy spent the next few years devoted to biblical study and healing; the culmination of which led to the publication of her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and the birth of a new religious way of teaching, Christian Science.

At the core of Christian Science is the teaching that God and God's creation are entirely good and spiritual, and that God's infinite goodness, realized in prayer, heals.

The church's universal system of prayer-based Christian healing created roots by establishing a mother church in Boston, The Church of Christ, in 1879. New Bedford's branch of Christian Science began in 1893 and by 1910 had built and dedicated a church on County Street. By the mid-seventies another Christian Science church was built in the North End of New Bedford.

Here is 274 Union St., New Bedford, the group's main meeting area and the heart and soul of the congregation, their Reading Room. Reading Rooms were established early on for Christian Science members, as well as to be a place for people to come in and learn about Christian Science, says Ms. Booth.

A third generation Christian Science member, Ms. Booth opens the Reading Room's doors three times a week. Along with Marcia Albert, a member of Christian Science since the mid-eighties, she is happy to talk about the history of Christian Science

And though services seem to be dominated by study and reading, as Ms. Booth said, "Mrs. Eddy, with her writings, says that it's not intellectual in the sense that you don't have to be brilliant to embrace Christian Science."

Even with its deep spiritual outlook on life, Christian Science membership has continued to dwindle. Ms. Booth says the church doesn't count the number of its members and that despite a small, older congregation and the closing of many area branches, she still has faith that the church and its beliefs will always have a following.

"I know that the church will flourish, maybe not in this area, but in another community and grow," she said. "I don't have any doubts. It's well established and the writings stand by themselves because it's founded on the Bible; it can't help but go on."

Labels: Bible, Christian Science, healing, Mary Baker Eddy, religion

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Pope Benedict : A view from within

Published April 19, 2008 12:35 am -
By James F. Drane

An informative, interesting article. Click on "external source" to view it in its entirety.

All the attention being given to Benedict XVI in the media during his visit here provides an opportunity for Americans to learn something about the Papacy — an office that has had enormous influence, both good and bad, on Western history. Most people know who the pope is and his leadership role in the Catholic Church. But not many know much about the history of his office or its evolution over almost two millennia.

Some of the more than 200 popes who preceded Benedict in the office are remembered for their saintliness and their model leadership skills. Others are remembered for their sins and for the harms which they inflicted on the church world-wide. The enduring and scandalous fragmentation of the Christian community into Protestants and Catholics can be understood in different ways, but no historian would deny that the sins of some Renaissance popes had a powerfully destructive influence on church unity. Most 16th century Protestant reformers focused attention on examples of papal debauchery. Some fundamentalist Protestant ministers continue to tag all popes and the papal office with the adjective “satanic.” In fact, however, there were both saints and sinners among the hundreds of popes. Those who use terms like satanic to describe all holders of the papal office say more about themselves, their bigotry and prejudice than they do about the papacy.

Hope, the pope argues, is important at different stages of life. Young people need hope to be able to commit themselves to a career or to a relationship. Then at midlife, hope is needed again to be able to keep going after failures, disappointments and declining capabilities. Finally, as physical beings, we must die and leave behind anything and everything we have accomplished. Without hope in something more, human life would be defined by loss, despair and depression. With hope believers can anticipate being united with God and life eternal. Hope is the only cure for the inevitable suffering at the end of life. Societies which do not help members to handle suffering at the end are defined as cruel and inhumane. The injustices of history, the pope insists, cannot be the final word or the defining reality.

One issue which the pope refers to over and over is the necessary relationship between faith and reason, religion and science. One without the other, he argues, becomes a distortion and leads to destruction. For him, the fundamental error of our contemporary age is secularization; the attempt to replace religion and faith with salvation through science and material progress. He traces this error to the beginning of modern science (Francis Bacon) and sees Karl Marx and 20th century communism as prime examples of this error.

Unlike popes during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries who took a negative and combative stance against the modern Enlightenment culture, Benedict cites Enlightenment heroes to make his point on the need for religion and science to remain in relationship. He cites Albert Einstein for example, who warned that “if technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in ethical formation, then it is not progress at all but a threat.” Without religion, science is a threat. Without science and reason, religion is a threat. Benedict also cites Immanuel Kant to make the same point. Throughout the document, he cites Adorno, Bacon, Dostoevsky and Plato.

Drane is the Russell D. Roth Professor of Bioethics at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Drane said he and Ratzinger “crossed paths” while they both studied in Rome in the late 1940s and early ’50s. A decade later, Ratzinger worked with German bishops, while Drane, a former Catholic priest, was working with Jesuit scholars who took part in creating the Second Vatican Council documents of the 1960s.

Labels: history, hope, James F. Drane, Papacy, Pope Benedict XVI, religion

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

African-rooted churches flourish in Houston

April 14, 2008

By Leslie Casimir

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Since the 1980s, more than 25 churches with African roots have sprouted in southwest Houston and the surrounding suburbs, said Elias Bongmba, professor of religious studies at Rice University.

Through word-of-mouth and the Internet, the churches have spread to places like Missouri City and Sugar Land.

The parishes have caught the eye of religious scholars who believe that Houston now has the nation's most active hub of African-initiated churches.

The parishes, primarily charismatic and Pentecostal in style, are an extension of the city's African population — namely the Nigerians, who comprise a large share of Africa's local demographics. The 2006 census population survey estimated more than 62,000 Africans and West Indians live in the city, a marked increase from 49,000 in 2000, according to research by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C.

Spiritual healing

Known as African-initiated churches, the institutions grew out of the rejection of Western missionaries who began setting up congregations on the continent in the 1800s. But white pastors devalued African converts' culture, viewing their strong beliefs in spiritual healing as superstitious, said Harvey Sindima, professor of religion at Colgate University.

...some Africans embraced Jesus Christ but rejected the white missionaries' colonial doctrine. And so they created their own churches that spoke to their cultural, spiritual and linguistic heritage.

"After Africans would go to church, they still would feel that something was missing," said Aidonmiyi, who lives in Missouri City.

The growth of these churches intensified during the independence movements of the 1900s. African immigration in the 1970s added a new twist: They brought their churches with them.

Some of the major religious groups in Nigeria that have a large Houston following are the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim, which was founded in 1925. Also, there is the Redeemed Christian Church of God, formed in 1952. On its Web site, the Redeemed church lists 13 places to worship in Houston.

Their charismatic brand of Pentecostalism, rooted in the belief that prayer and fasting go hand-in-hand with physical healing, can be intense to a newcomer. Believers at Mount of Christ Healing, for example, can spend hours prostrating, standing, singing and dancing.

During the Lent season, members — who are part of the Lagos-based Cherubim and Seraphim order — took part in a fast that lasted 40 days. Some members refrained from eating food for the entire day, breaking fast in the evenings with fruit and juice.

Barefoot congregants, resplendent in white robes and headdresses, held daily prayer services at the church, with some members opting to sleep overnight for more reflection.

Value of visions

With the aid of modern medical care, members believe that any physical ailment can be cured with prayer and fasting. They also revere dreams and visions.

In 2005, for example, when Houstonians were urged to flee from Hurricane Rita, a church member told the congregation that he had a vision that Houston would be spared, Iseyemi said. So instead of evacuating, the congregation spent the day praying and eating at church, he said.

"People thought we all were all crazy that day," Iseyemi said. "But it was God directing us — we were blessed."

Labels: Africans, charismatics, Houston, Leslie Casimir, Pentecostal, prayer, religion, visionary

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Religion Not Just a Private Affair, Affirms Pontiff

Encourages Prelates to Remove Obstacles to Encounter With God

WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 16, 2008 (Zenit.org).-

Benedict XVI says that any tendency to treat religion as a private matter should be resisted, and that faith should permeate every aspect of life.

The Pope affirmed this today in an address to the bishops of the United States at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. His discourse ranged in topics from immigration to the formation of priests. As he left the shrine, the prelates sang him "Happy Birthday," -- the Pope turns 81 today.

The Holy Father emphasized the key role of bishops during his address, asking how, "in the 21st century, a bishop can best fulfill the call to 'make all things new in Christ, our hope'? How can he lead his people to 'an encounter with the living God'?"

"Perhaps he needs to begin by clearing away some of the barriers to such an encounter," the Pontiff proposed.

He explained: "While it is true that this country is marked by a genuinely religious spirit, the subtle influence of secularism can nevertheless color the way people allow their faith to influence their behavior.

"Is it consistent to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs? Is it consistent for practicing Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death? Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel."

Obstacles

Benedict XVI proposed further obstacles to this "encounter with the living God," perhaps particularly faced by Americans. One such barrier is materialism, he said: "People today need to be reminded of the ultimate purpose of their lives. They need to recognize that implanted within them is a deep thirst for God.

"It is easy to be entranced by the almost unlimited possibilities that science and technology place before us; it is easy to make the mistake of thinking we can obtain by our own efforts the fulfillment of our deepest needs. This is an illusion. Without God, who alone bestows upon us what we by ourselves cannot attain, our lives are ultimately empty."

Another possible obstacle, the Holy Father affirmed, is an overemphasis on freedom and autonomy, which makes it "easy to lose sight of our dependence on others as well as the responsibilities that we bear toward them."

"This emphasis on individualism has even affected the Church, giving rise to a form of piety which sometimes emphasizes our private relationship with God at the expense of our calling to be members of a redeemed community," he noted. "If we are truly to gaze upon him who is the source of our joy, we need to do so as members of the people of God. If this seems counter-cultural, that is simply further evidence of the urgent need for a renewed evangelization of culture."

Public life

The Pontiff further encouraged the bishops to give priority to education and to participate in the exchange of ideas in the public square.

"In the United States, as elsewhere, there is much current and proposed legislation that gives cause for concern from the point of view of morality, and the Catholic community, under your guidance, needs to offer a clear and united witness on such matters," he said. "Yet it cannot be assumed that all Catholic citizens think in harmony with the Church's teaching on today's key ethical questions.

"Once again, it falls to you to ensure that the moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial life reflects the authentic teaching of the Gospel of life."

In this context, the Bishop of Rome encouraged the formation of families: "How can we not be dismayed as we observe the sharp decline of the family as a basic element of Church and society? Divorce and infidelity have increased, and many young men and women are choosing to postpone marriage or to forego it altogether.

He added: "To some young Catholics, the sacramental bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to live with another person. Hence we have an alarming decrease in the number of Catholic marriages in the United States together with an increase in cohabitation, in which the Christ-like mutual self-giving of spouses, sealed by a public promise to live out the demands of an indissoluble lifelong commitment, is simply absent."

"It is your task," the Pope told the prelates, "to proclaim boldly the arguments from faith and reason in favor of the institution of marriage. […] This message should resonate with people today, because it is essentially an unconditional and unreserved 'yes' to life, a 'yes' to love, and a 'yes' to the aspirations at the heart of our common humanity, as we strive to fulfill our deep yearning for intimacy with others and with the Lord."

Labels: God, individualism, materialism, morality, Pope Benedict XVI, religion

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Dalai Lama: Lessons of Buddhism as applied to medicine

By JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY, Star Tribune

Last update: April 16, 2008

(Page 1 of 2. Click on external link for complete article)

He admits his mind is scattered by the events of the last month and he's worried. But despite the Dalai Lama's troubled feelings about turmoil between his native Tibet and China, he is sleeping well.

Abiding by Buddhism's teachings has helped him maintain peace and compassion in the face of life's trials, the Dalai Lama told 400 doctors and nurses Wednesday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

"If there is no solution, why worry?" he replied when asked how he maintains his good cheer and optimism in the midst of life's trials. "If there is a solution, why worry?"

The Dalai Lama was in Rochester for his annual check-up at the Mayo Clinic. But in the afternoon, he spoke with the clinic's doctors and nurses about compassion, and his concern that health care workers can be emotionally exhausted by dealing with the pain of others day after day.

The crowd stood in respectful silence as he entered a conference room at the world-renowned clinic and made his way to the stage. He and a group of monks stood out in their brilliant red and yellow robes, like birds of paradise amidst a Minnesota crowd wearing dark suits and sensible pants. In a nearby hotel, 300 Tibetans gathered to watch by video link.

The crowd at the clinic listened intently as he began a philosophical discussion about compassion and trust, and how to apply the lessons of Buddhism to modern western medicine.

To many in the room, he represented two worlds. The Dalai Lama is believed by Tibetans to be a manifestation of the Buddha of Compassion, who chose to be reincarnated to serve human beings. In that role, he is a spokesman for the compassionate and peaceful resolution of human conflict.

But he is also a great student of science and has supported western researchers studying the power of the mind in relation to illness and healing.

"This is part of the future of medicine," said Dr. Doris Taylor, a stem cell researcher specializing in cardiac medicine at the University of Minnesota. "We are beginning to have a scientific understanding of this. I couldn't not be here."

"We see so many patients that we can only get to a certain point in healing," said Dr. Tim Johnson, director of Mayo's Austin clinic. "That mind-body spiritual connection is often something that is missing in our patients and ourselves. But it's important in their health and well-being."

Tough compassion

"What do you see as the role of compassion in medicine?" asked Daniel Goleman, a psychologist who writes about the brain and emotion, and who led the discussion.

The Dalai Lama scratched his nose for a minute while pondering the question.

"One time in Japan, a doctor asked me about trust between patients and doctors," he said. "Trust is very important. Then he asked me how to develop trust. I don't know. But the key thing is the doctor's sense of concern. His sense of commitment, his sense of responsibility with affection. Genuine affection for the patient. That is the basis of trust." Trust, he noted, needs to be mixed with compassion.

But he also urged what Goleman said might best be described by the phrase "tough love." Compassion, the Dalai Lama said, doesn't mean pity or pure empathy. Sometimes, nurses just have to be stern with difficult patients, he added.

Goleman asked how Buddhist practices could reduce emotional stress for health care workers.

"Joy," replied the Dalai Lama -- joy in the pursuit of work is very important, particularly in health care. "You are directly involved in relieving the suffering of the person in front of you," he said. "Recognizing the value of that will sustain your joy in your work."

But equally important, he said, is that each of us aspire to our own happiness, that on a fundamental level we care for ourselves.

Labels: compassion, Dalai Lama, Josephine Marcotty, medicine, Richard Tsong-Taatarii

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Diverse religious, political strains to greet pope

By Sharon Schmickle
Tuesday, April 15, 2008

When Pope Benedict XVI lands at Andrews Air Force Base today, he will be welcomed by a nation that is teeming with religious intensity surpassing anything he could hope to find in Europe.

A good share of the religious rhetoric has as much to do with politics as with spirituality in this highly charged election year. And a good share of the religious tension comes within the ranks of Catholics themselves, who disagree with Rome and each other over birth control, the role of women in the church and other issues.

But this pope already has taken bold strides into broader issues that are roiling America in its pews and in its streets. Catholics and non-Catholics alike will be listening for his message on the Iraq war, the environment and the moral state of the nation.

Pope Benedict has consistently opposed the Iraq war from its beginning. On Palm Sunday this year, he thundered, "Enough with the bloodshed, enough with the violence, enough with the hatred in Iraq!"

The pope's main reason for visiting the United States is to speak before the United Nations on Friday, said the National Catholic Register.

Still, pundits don't expect to see the pope launch a direct broadside against President Bush's foreign policy or to comment on the U.S. election, said the Associated Press.

The pope's itinerary also calls for him to address leaders in Roman Catholic higher education, pray at Ground Zero and hold Masses in the new Nationals Park in Washington and Yankee Stadium in New York. His 81st birthday is Wednesday, and a party is planned in Washington.

The environment

At the United Nations, the pope also is expected to deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt protection of the environment as a moral cause for Catholics, The Independent of London reported.

Benedict has earned the title "green pope" for his emphasis on a duty to "protect creation" and safeguard the poorest on the planet from the effects of global warming.

"Before it is too late, it is necessary to make courageous decisions that reflect knowing how to re-create a strong alliance between man and the earth," he told a youth audience in September.

Vatican City recently became the world's first carbon-neutral state, offsetting its carbon footprint by planting a forest in Hungary and installing solar panels on the roof of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Clergy sex abuse

Some Catholics are disappointed that the pope isn't visiting the Archdiocese of Boston, where the clergy sex-abuse crisis erupted in 2002 and then spread nationwide, the AP said.

However, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone — the Vatican secretary of state — told the AP that Benedict will address the scandal during his trip and "will try to open the path of healing and reconciliation." A likely forum could be when Benedict speaks to priests during a Saturday morning Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

Diverse voices

By several measures, the United States is one of the most devout nations in the developed world. But the faithful often disagree vehemently. And, whether or not he sees it, the full flavor of that diversity will greet the pope. Groups advocating a stronger role for women, gay marriage and peace are prepared to demonstrate along the papal route.

Some Catholics also will urge the pope to remonstrate against mass consumerism, rampant free enterprise, and the neoconservative agenda for global democratic revolution, said the feisty American Conservative magazine.

They may not be disappointed. The Conservative predicted the pope will speak to such issues, reflecting themes of a forthcoming social encyclical, which is expected to be published on May 1.

"The document may touch on subjects that make many conservatives blush," the Conservative said.

Labels: Catholic, environmentalism, Iraq, Pope Benedict XVI, priest sex scandal, Sharon Schmickle, Unites States

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Monday, April 14, 2008

Evolution vs. intelligent design?

Screening of controversial movie sparks debate

April 13, 2008
BY ANDRE SALLES

There's a war going on in our schools and universities, our laboratories and lecture halls.

The scientific community is so enraptured with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution that they are working as one to stamp out anything that may contradict it, especially the notion of intelligent design. Scientists with impeccable records are being ostracized from that community -- losing their jobs, their tenure, their professional credibility -- for even giving voice to the notion that life may have been the work of an intelligent creator.

At least that's the premise of the new movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The documentary, produced by Premise Media and starring speech writer, actor and game show host Ben Stein, is set to open on Friday, but it has already ignited controversy.

It remains one of the most talked-about (and blogged-about) topics on the Internet, and producers are so concerned about pirated copies of the film showing up online that they've instituted strict security measures for preview screenings. Photo IDs are checked, bags are searched, and all cell phones and other electronic devices must be left in cars.

On Thursday night, the Total Living Network held one of those screenings in Aurora. TLN is a Christian television studio and broadcasting network based on Aurora's far West Side, which creates its own faith-based programming and beams it out via satellite to stations across the globe.

TLN's CEO and president, Jerry Rose, prides himself on using his network to spark open debate about important issues.

Expelled will certainly start a few of those. The film starts off with Stein, perhaps best known as the droning teacher repeating the title character's name in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, interviewing biologists who believe they've been censured for giving credence to the idea of intelligent design. Stein also interviews biologists who vehemently disagree with intelligent design, particularly Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion.

Later, the film attempts to draw connections between Darwinist theory and Nazism, and compares the perceived debate in the scientific community to the erecting of the Berlin Wall.

Science, religion co-exist

The main criticism of intelligent design from evolutionary biologists is that it isn't really science. Darwin's theory of evolution states that species adapt and grow over time to suit their environmental and biological needs, and that one can trace that evolution down the chain. Biologists will tell you there is more than 100 years of observable, verifiable data to support evolutionary theory.

But evolution does not provide an answer to the big question -- where did we all come from? That's a hole the intelligent design theory attempts to fill by saying complex structures in nature can only be the work of an intelligent creator. The theory has been criticized as an attempt to bring religion into the classroom, but proponents are quick to point out the theoretical creator isn't necessarily the Christian God.

Labels: Andre Salles, Ben Stein, evolution, Expelled No Intelligence Allowed, intelligent design

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Hispanics help reshape US Church

Hispanics help reshape US Church

By Kevin Connolly
BBC News
April 14, 2008

In the remote village of Chimayo, where the mountains of New Mexico swell up out of the desert scrub, the faithful pray for miracles, and offer a clue to the pressures and influences helping to reshape modern American Catholicism.

One of the faithful gathers "holy dirt" - believed to have mystical powers

The ancient tribal peoples of the region believed that the fine, sandy soil from the local hillsides had mystical powers to heal broken bodies and broken lives, and there are plenty of 21st century American Catholics who agree with them.

The soil is kept in a small, dry, shallow well in a side chapel of the church, and the faithful queue to collect it, using a children's plastic beach shovel to pour it into containers brought from home. They touch samples of the soil to affected areas, they offer it to dying relatives, they ask priests to bless their sample. And they believe.

"I definitely felt the Holy Spirit in there; the presence is everywhere here, whether the healing is spiritual or physical," she told me.

Folk beliefs

Hispanic immigrants bring with them a vitality and a tradition of folk beliefs

Like many other churches across the south and west of the United States, the decor at the church of Chimayo and the tone of worship are set by Hispanic immigrants, who bring with them not just the Spanish language, but a vitality and a tradition of folk beliefs that are very different from the values of Catholics in the colder cities to the North.

Immigration from Latin-American countries though (and the high birth rates among those groups) are more than making up for the decline. About a half of all American Catholics under the age of 40 are Hispanics, and that proportion will continue to grow.

"Church of immigration"

Luis Lugo of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life says that is simply evidence of an old historical pattern repeating itself in a new community.

"The growth (of Hispanic influence) has really been since the major changes in US immigration policy in the mid 60s, so it really would once have been very much a European Catholic church: Irish, Italian, German influence," he says.

The truth is that while Chimayo creates an awkward dilemma for the modern Church (several people there told me of miraculous cures, but there's no sign that the Catholic authorities intend to start to promoting or publicising them).

On the one hand, it inspires claims that might be difficult to substantiate under the scrutiny of modern science. But on the other, there is a spirituality to the place that helps to bring a much-needed vitality back to a Church over which the priestly child sex abuse scandals of recent times still throw a long shadow.

Damaged confidence

The crisis created difficulties at many levels, chief among them, of course, is the trauma suffered by the many victims whose suffering was eventually publicised after years of secrecy and shame.

For the Church, the cost of compensating those victims is crippling and will continue to be a drain on resources for years to come.

But perhaps more importantly, it damaged the confidence of ordinary Catholics in their priests and bishops.

Even Father Funtum, an engaging and convincing spokesman for the spiritual energy at Chimayo, had his story of being falsely accused of perversion by a parishioner who happened to see him pat a small child on the head at a church social.

That charge was absurd but it is a demonstration of the extent of how almost every conversation about American Catholicism (like mine with Father Jim) ends up being dominated by the issue of abuse.

We will know soon the extent to which Pope Benedict intends to address the subject, but it's highly unlikely that he will get through the visit without it being raised.

We already know that the Pope won't be heading for Chimayo - not this time around anyway - and in a way, it's a shame.

If he wanted to get a feeling for how the American Church will look in the future - more Hispanic, more charismatic, more populist and perhaps more mystical - he could do worse than to travel into New Mexico's mountains to see for himself.

Labels: Catholic, Chimayo, Hispanics, holy dirt, Kevin Connolly, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religion, spirituality

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Religious teaching straight to your iPod

Spiritual podcasts show "religious traditions trying to keep alive and relevant," says researcher David Roozen.

By Ron Barnett, USA TODAY

Evangelists have long used the airwaves to get their messages out to a mass audience. But now, podcast technology is opening the doors to a wider variety of religious teaching than ever before, available on demand and delivered automatically to the computers of a growing number of Americans hungry for spirituality.

A survey last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that more people used the Internet to look for religious and spiritual information than to download music, participate in online auctions or visit adult websites.

And a list updated recently by the podcast directory Podcast Alley shows 2,462 podcasts in the religion and spirituality category, the fourth highest among 21 categories, and more than in sports, news and politics.

"The good news about podcasts is this is probably another example of religious traditions trying to keep alive and relevant," says David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

Labels: David Roozen, Internet, Pew Internet And American Life survey, podcast, Podcast Alley, religion, Ron Barnett, spirituality

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Church and State, Reconsidered

When most people talk about the “separation of church and state,” the idea is to protect the state from the church. People work hard to keep “Intelligent Design” out of the public schools, believing that public life is already too religious. This may be true, but Steven Goldberg argues in the book Bleached Faith, that it’s religion that needs protection from the influence of public life.

Intelligent design in the classroom, over-sized menorahs in public buildings, and the Ten Commandments—dubbed by Goldberg as the “Nike Swoosh of religion”—in the courts don’t strengthen faith. Forcing religious imagery into public life actually cheapens religion and spirituality.

Many in the religious community, however, understand that politics and religion don’t mix well. In a recent survey by the National Association of Evangelicals, the vast majority of evangelical leaders came out unequivocally opposed to using their churches to endorse candidates. One university president put the issue in stark terms saying, “the pulpit is not the place for electioneering.”

—Bennett Gordon

Labels: Bennett Gordon, church-state, National Association of Evangelicals, politics, religion, Steven Goldberg

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Monday, April 07, 2008

Scientist: Belittling evolution has dubious origins

BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Monday, April 07, 2008

VALPARAISO | The Darwinian theory of evolution, because it has not been disproved by rigorous testing over time, has become accepted knowledge, and disbelieving it is not an option.

That was the conclusion of Murray Peshkin, a physicist with Argonne National Laboratory, in a recent talk on science and religion at Valparaiso University.

Opponents of teaching Darwinian evolution have lost the court fight to keep it out of the public schools, Peshkin said, so they have changed the battle to push for equal billing for creationism, or intelligent design.

"What's wrong is teaching those as part of science -- they are not. They belong to religion because their assumptions and their logic belong to religion," he said.

Dismissing science with "it's only a theory," Peshkin said, is "intellectually appalling" and a material threat to the country. Science in the 21st century offers chances to conquer diseases and achieve other advances, opportunities that could be lost if students aren't taught the best science and if parents aren't taught respect for science, he said.

Scientists have failed to explain the limits of science, Peshkin said. Science deals in what can be observed and measured through experimentation. Assertions or beliefs are not part of it. A theory, he said, is a hunch about how the world works that is then subjected to experimental observation.

Religion, on the other hand, accepts revealed knowledge. The two, therefore, take different approaches to reality, Peshkin said.

But each is valid and the conflict between the two is unnecessary, he said.

Peshkin said experimentation can only disprove a theory, but never finally prove it.

With proof always impossible, then, scientists rely on the repeated successful testing of a theory to make conclusions about the physical world, he said. Newton's laws of mechanics are accepted because they have accurately described observable phenomena consistently over centuries. They have been found to apply not only to planets, as Newton started with, but also to baseballs and jet engines. An airplane designed to fly under a different theory of motion would not get any riders, Peshkin said.

Disbelieving well-tested theories is not an option intellectually or practically, he said.

Since the 1900s, Darwin's prediction of primates' descent from a common ancestor through natural selection has been confirmed by repeated observation. The theory of evolution has been subjected to numerous and varied tests and has not yet encountered limitations, he said.

Labels: Brian Williams, Center for the Study of Law and Religion, creationism, evolution, faith, intelligent design, Murray Peshkin, revelation, science

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Minister has embraced ‘sacred evolution’

‘Evolutionary evangelists’ reconcile science, religion in book, talks

By Rob Cullivan

Apr 4, 2008

Do you believe the biblical story of creation is literally true, symbolically true, a little of both, or none of the above?

No matter what you believe, the Rev. Michael Dowd wants you to consider that there may be another story behind the creation story – and that’s the story of evolution. He’s presented his belief in “sacred evolution” to Christians, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics and other groups, and has earned kudos from scientists and religious thinkers alike for his work.

Dowd, 49, notes that he met a number of Christians on his spiritual journey who also believed in evolution and who changed his mind on the subject. As he learned more about science and evolution, he saw them as pointing toward God, not away.

“What I was gaining was a sense of divine revelation that wasn’t going back a few thousand years, but going back millions of years. Science is showing us what God is revealing.”

Dowd has become a zealot for his faith, which reconciles evolution and religion, and has written about it in his book “Thank God for Evolution.” In his view, God is the ultimate “nest egg” of all that is, the “Ultimate Reality,” so to speak, out of which all other “eggs” are hatched – namely, all that is. Evolution is not some meaningless, random series of events, but a meaningful march of the universe trying to come to know itself.

One reason people have rejected evolution, he says, is because it’s taught as a coldhearted “survival of the fittest,” when it should be more accurately described as “survival of what fits.” On that note, cooperation among living things to survive is as much a component of evolution as competition, he says, noting that humans can take charge of their evolution by cooperating more, a stance religious and non-religious people alike can understand.

“Cooperative individuals and organizations will almost always out-compete non-cooperative individuals and organizations.”

He adds that he has Portland ties – he lived in the city from 1996 to 2000, and served as campaign manager for the Portland Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign, organizing “eco-teams” of neighbors who encouraged each other to live sustainable lifestyles, consuming less water and composting as just two examples.

He and his wife, science writer Connie Barlow, have spent the last several years on the road, as “evolutionary evangelists.” He adds that the gospel they preach contains elements that people of conservative, moderate and liberal mindsets can accept, even if they don’t always agree on other matters.

“What ultimately I think matters is how well we cooperate across ethnic, religious lines to co-create a just, healthy, beautiful and sustainable life-giving future.”

Labels: creationism, evolution, Michael Dowd, Rob Cullivan

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Einstein's Idea Of Religion

5 Apr 2008

Einstein's religious views have been a matter of considerable controversy. Max Jammer, the well-known Jewish historian and philosopher of science, wrote a thoughtful book, Einstein and Religion, concluding that for Einstein 'religion' was definitely not 'atheism'. Einstein himself said that: 'You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a religious feeling'. Yet in his best-selling and much-publicised atheist polemic, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, who takes most of his Einstein quotes from Jammer, categorises Einstein as 'atheistic'.

Einstein, in fact, spoke and wrote of God extremely frequently; for example his most famous way of criticising the random nature of quantum mechanics was to say 'God does not play dice'. He described himself as 'an intensely religious man', but also, equally interestingly, as 'a deeply religious non-believer'.

A crucial point is that Einstein stated categorically that he did not believe in a personal God, of the kind assumed by most practising religious people. He had not always been this way. Though brought up in a very liberal Jewish household, at the age of six he became fervently religious, obeying all the religious prescriptions. However, when he was 12, he read various scientific texts and came to believe that much in the Jewish bible could not be true. This was a crucial period in his life, in which he became an intense freethinker, first over religious matters, later over orthodox scientific beliefs.

So what was Einstein's religion? He called it 'cosmic religion' and it was a sense of awe at 'the nobility and marvellous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought'. He believed that throughout history the greatest religious geniuses have followed cosmic religion, and that exploring this order in the laws of science was the motivation for the most celebrated scientists such as Newton and Kepler. Without this feeling of confidence in order and simplicity, science, he felt, degenerated into uninspired empiricism.

Einstein felt closest to the nineteenth century Jewish philosopher, Baruch Spinoza, who also rejected the idea of a personal God. Like Einstein, some considered Spinoza intensely religious while others judged him an atheist. Spinoza's firmest belief was in a universal determinism; all events, including the actions of human beings, followed a precise law of cause and effect. There was no free will, and thus no justification for punishment of offenders. Einstein broadly followed Spinoza in these beliefs. As is well known, as well as realism, he was a strong believer in determinism; one of his main arguments against quantum mechanics was that it respected neither. Spinoza's belief in the unity of nature was paralleled in Einstein's long search for a unified field theory.

Einstein's view of traditional religion was somewhat ambivalent. He detested any idea of indoctrination or fundamentalism, but admitted that conventional religions had a role in setting ethical standards. Dawkins would disagree, considering that 'the cause of all this misery, mayhem, violence, terror and ignorance is religion itself'. Einstein also venerated the founders of the major religions, especially Jesus and Buddha; Dawkins might be more sceptical. Einstein even found the elements of cosmic religion in the Psalms and the Proverbs of the bible, and particularly in Buddhism.

An interesting question is whether Einstein's beliefs, like those of Spinoza, were pantheistic, in the sense of actual worship of Nature, giving it the status of God. At times Einstein seemed close to accepting this label, but he was clear that God was to be found in the laws of the Universe, not in Nature itself. Jammer suggests that Einstein's theology may be called a naturalistic theology, in which one searches for God by study of the Universe.

So at last we reach the question: Could Einstein be considered a mystic? Awe about the Universe might lead to some direct spiritual experience of 'God', however 'God' might be defined. However Einstein explicitly rejected such ideas, saying: 'Mysticism is the only reproach that people cannot level against my theory'. Whatever his feeling of wonder about the Universe, his exploration into its laws was always entirely rational. He believed that scientific knowledge could not be obtained through direct supernatural perception, and incidentally considered any idea of personal immortality or the suggestion of any contact with the dead ridiculous.

Labels: Albert Einstein, God, Max Jammer, religion, science, Spinoza, theology

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Prayer can be powerful

April 6, 2008

Prayer can be powerful

By Amy Olson
Wausau Daily Herald

Though a belief in the power of prayer is central to many Christian denominations and other faiths, the healing it offers might have a greater effect on spiritual wounds than physical ailments.

Eleven-year-old Kara Neumann died March 23 of complications from untreated diabetes after her parents chose to pray for recovery at their town of Weston home rather than seek medical treatment.

Mike Neill, a chaplain at Aspirus Wausau Hospital, said he'd never personally encountered a family who chose prayer as a treatment over medical care.

Neill said he believes in prayer's power, noting it has benefits "even at times when we don't see healing" quickly or in the ways we seek. For many people, however, it can help them come to terms with what's happened and give them comfort. It also enables them to turn over what they can't control to God and helps them know God is with them.

"We are holistic beings," Neill said, and a person's emotional, physical and spiritual make-up are intertwined.

Research suggests many people pray and use other spiritual practices for healing. Forty-five percent of 31,000 people surveyed in 2004 used prayer for health reasons, according to research conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine. Almost one quarter reported having others pray for them.

"There is already some preliminary evidence for a connection between prayer and related practices and health outcomes. For example, we've seen some evidence that religious affiliation and religious practices are associated with health and mortality -- in other words, with better health and longer life," wrote Catherine Stoney, program officer at the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine.

Still, researchers cannot determine cause and effect.

Studies suggest prayer seeking intervention -- called intercessory prayer -- has no effect as a treatment, said Dr. Steven Miles, professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics.

A study of almost 800 people published in 2001 by Mayo Clinic researchers found patients with heart conditions who were prayed for fared no better than those who were not. A 2006 study by Harvard Medical School researchers of about 1,200 heart bypass surgery patients found those who were prayed for had similar rates of complications within a month of their operations to those for whom no prayers were offered.

Labels: Amy Olson, healing, intercessory prayer, medicine

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The Dalai Lama's Appeal Transcends Religion, Politics

April 5, 2008

Star Power

By JANET I. TU
The Seattle Times

SEATTLE | On his first visit to Seattle 30 years ago, the Dalai Lama drew a couple of thousand people. On his second, the crowds totaled more than 10,000.

The Dalai Lama's popularity - here and worldwide - reflects his rise during the past half century from a relatively obscure spiritual and political leader to a prominent global figure with transcendent star power.

SPREADING FAME

The Dalai Lama's increased prominence in recent decades can be attributed to several factors - including the spread of Buddhism worldwide, his Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the many books written by or about him, movies and stories on Tibet, and his own charisma.

He draws people as an ethical leader, rather than strictly as a religious leader, said Paul Ingram, professor emeritus of the history of religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. "They see him as a very gentle spirit whose values don't contradict their own."

The current - 14th - Dalai Lama, named Tenzin Gyatso, was born in Tibet in 1935 and, according to Tibetan tradition, was recognized at age 2 as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama.

'ENLIGHTENED BEING'

He is considered to be a manifestation of the bodhisattva of compassion. A bodhisattva is an enlightened being who chooses to remain in this world to serve others.

For centuries, Tibet and China have had a complex relationship. Many times in history, Tibetans have acknowledged the Chinese emperor as a kind of overlord, while administering their own affairs with almost no interference, said Stevan Harrell, a University of Washington anthropology professor specializing in China and ethnic relations.

Their language, culture, religion and political systems were completely separate from those of China, Harrell said.

In 1950, Chinese Communist troops invaded Tibet and established direct control, but allowed the Dalai Lama to remain as spiritual leader.

In 1959, after an unsuccessful Tibetan revolt and subsequent crackdown by the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet with about 85,000 followers. They eventually established the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.

While the Chinese government has improved schooling, health care and infrastructure in Tibet, Harrell said, it has also placed enormous restrictions on the practice of religion, which is immensely important to most Tibetans.

CURRENT UPROAR

Perhaps causing the most resentment over the past decade, he said, is the Chinese government's requirement that monks undergo "political education," which includes renouncing the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama has characterized what is happening in Tibet as cultural genocide. But he did not call for the protests, Thurman said, and he remains open to talking with Chinese leaders.

Tenzin Wangyal, a lab assistant in Seattle who is Tibetan, says he disapproves of violent protests, and that the Dalai Lama's approach is noble. But "we're also tired of not seeing any results from this" - especially from the Chinese side, he said.

Labels: Buddhism, China, Dalai Lama, ethics, Janet I. Tu, Tibet

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Friday, April 04, 2008

I've Been To The Mountaintop

Martin Luther King's Last Speech On April 3, 1968 In Memphis, Tennessee.

Labels: anniversary, Martin Luther King Jr., Memphis, speech, video

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