TruthBook Religious News Blog

By James Bowman, Special to the Sentinel,
March 26, 2009

NOTE: Another kind of meditation is to be found here - called "Jesus-Style" meditation, it is a different, and very effective form of meditation practiced by the Master while he walked the earth.

What is meditation? Depending on who you ask, you might get a variety of different answers.

These days, many people are interested in meditation because it relieves stress and contributes to overall health and fitness.

For millennia, meditation has not only been a way to relax, but also a very important part of spiritual life for Buddhists.

If you have ever been to a group meditation, you know that everyone sits silently, and it can be hard to know what’s happening. This is how it works: In a single meditation session we actually engage in two types of meditation, one called analytical meditation and the other called placement meditation.

First, it is helpful to begin by taking a few moments to allow the flurry of distracting thoughts that normally consumes our minds to settle. One simple way to do this is to sit comfortably and focus on the sensation of the breath as it passes through the nostrils. With practice, distractions gradually diminish, and a peaceful feeling arises in their place.

Then, with our minds clear and free of distractions, we can begin analytical meditation. With this type of meditation we spend time analyzing or contemplating the meaning of a spiritual teaching.

For example, Buddha explained that having compassion for others leads to inner peace. If we deeply contemplate how others have been very kind to us, the disadvantages of selfish attitudes and the advantages of cherishing others, we will be able to develop a caring attitude toward others.

Once this caring attitude arises in our minds, we have found what we call the object of our meditation, which is said to be virtuous because it causes our mind to become peaceful and happy.

At this point we stop contemplating and begin the second type of meditation, placement meditation. This means we simply hold our caring attitude toward others for as long as possible without thinking of anything else. Gently allow your mind soak it up and become familiar with it. If the object of meditation is lost among other thoughts, then simply repeat the process, beginning with analytic meditation again.

Labels: Buddhism, compassion, James Bowman, meditation, peace, spirituality

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Shaky economy forces Americans to rediscover community

Fri March 27, 2009
By John Blake

(CNN) -- Leslie Gage knew it was coming, but that didn't take away the pain.
Atlanta Community ToolBank volunteers build playground, and relationships, in their community.

Atlanta Community ToolBank volunteers build playground, and relationships, in their community.

She was working as an architect for a small company in Atlanta, Georgia, when the company's founder asked her into his office. He took off his glasses and rubbed his hand against his forehead.

"We just can't afford to keep you..."

She eventually joined a nonprofit group that renovated homes in her neighborhood, but she also built something else: a place in her community.

Now she wonders whether more Americans will arrive at the same conclusion that she has: We have to rebuild our sense of community, not just our banking system, if we're going to survive.

According to one perspective, more Americans turn to their remote, not their neighbor, in bad times. Netflix officials reported a 45 percent jump in profits during the end of 2008. Gross movie ticket sales are up 18.8 percent this year, according to BOXOfficeMojo.com. And home entertainment business sales are surging, according to sales figures.

Yet there are other signs that the economy is also inspiring Americans to turn to one another for everything from solace to stew.

Making stew for the neighbors

Nonprofit groups report a surge in volunteers. Peace Corps applications are up 16 percent from last year. Online applications for AmeriCorps, a federal program where volunteers tutor needy children and build housing for the poor, have increased three times faster than a year ago.

Thousands of Americans have organized Economic Recovery House Meetings in all 50 states at the urging of President Obama to talk about the stimulus plan and help one another get through the economic crisis.

Turning to Google instead of God

The duty to one's neighbor is a fundamental belief in most religions. It would seem natural that more people would turn to their church, mosque or synagogue for community in tough times.

But don't expect a shaky economy to lead to a national religious awakening, said Nancy Dallavalle, chairwoman of the Department of Religious Studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

While individual communities of worship may see some uptick in their numbers, Dallavalle said, fewer Americans depend on traditional religion for support.

Some studies reinforce her point. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, almost all religious denominations have lost members since 1990. Membership in mainline Protestant denominations has fallen for the past 30 years and has been widely documented.

The Internet also siphons people away from traditional religious communities during tough times, she said. Americans who have grown up outside organized religion prefer to get their inspiration through the Internet: online motivational tracts, inspirational speakers and self-help gurus.

Whether people turn to God or Google, this economic crisis will shift people's values, said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a commentator and political science professor at Princeton University.

An economic crisis may even cause Americans to rethink what's worth admiring, she said. Instead of watching the "Real Housewives of Orange County," more might become drawn to the real families of ordinary America, where couples lose jobs and get sick, but they still stick together, she said.

Gage, the Atlanta architect, had to do the same for herself. After she was laid off, she experienced an emotional tailspin. For several weeks, she refused to apply for unemployment benefits because she didn't want to get more depressed shuffling along an unemployment line.

Then she volunteered at the Atlanta Community ToolBank. The nonprofit group lends tools and renovates home for the elderly and disabled. She quickly realized that people weren't just inviting her into their homes. They were inviting her into their lives.

She still remembers the first neighbor she visited on behalf of ToolBank. The woman offered her breakfast in her living room and directed Gage's attention to her "Wall of Fame," which held portraits of her children.

"She had 13 children, all of them grown and several with college degrees," Gage said. "She was so proud of each and every one of them because, as she said, education of any kind was hard to come by when she was a girl. ... I won't ever forget that."

Why economic uncertainty is 'awful' for bringing people together

David Putnam is the author of "Bowling Alone," a 2000 book that argued that many Americans are living more isolated lives. The book concluded, after wide-ranging interviews and numerous studies, that Americans belong to fewer civic groups, know their neighbors less and meet less often with family and friends.

That solitary impulse in Americans actually gets worse during hard economic times, Putnam said.

He said economic uncertainty has an "awful" effect on social connections because people become depressed and lose their sense of self-esteem when they lose a job, he said.

One study looking at the Great Depression demonstrated this, Putnam said. He said that civic engagement, measured by involvement in groups such as local PTA groups and Elks lodges, steadily rose in the U.S. from the turn of the 20th century.

But between 1930 and 1935, during the height of the Great Depression, many civic organizations lost half of their membership, he said.

Americans eventually recovered their engagement in community. He said the country's greatest civic book occurred between 1940 and 1965. That boom was driven by "the Greatest Generation," the men and women who came of age during World War II.

"They had just been exposed to five years of war bond drives, scrap metal drives and Boy Scouts asking people to give up rubber mats in their car for the war," Putnam said. "They lived with a sustained notion of we're all in this together."

Perhaps that will happen now. Gage said she's seen it happen in the United States before.

Gage lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina demolished much of the city. What she remembers most is not what was destroyed by Katrina but what was borne out of it: a luminous sense of community.

As she walked through the neighborhoods, she said, she kept encountering people who were cleaning up and looking to help others.

Gage has found a job at an ecofriendly architectural firm in Atlanta. But her memories of her neighbors in New Orleans, and the people she met through the ToolBank, convince her that Americans won't live by Netflix alone in the days ahead.

"It was a tough time, but I saw the entire city come together," Gage said. "I don't see why we can't do that."

Labels: Atlanta, community, faith, God, Internet, John Blake, recession, the economy

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Interfaith Marches in Bethlehem Deliver Message of Peace

Mar-24-2009

Tim King
Salem-News.com

A movement to end the violence in Palestine and Israel is spearheaded by an author with rare insight into religious extremism.

(SALEM, Ore.) - A strong message embraced in peaceful solidarity was shared with people in the Middle East during an interfaith peace march in Bethlehem, for the future of the West Bank and Israel.

Dr. Frank Romano is the author of a fascinating book called STORM OVER MOROCCO that retells the story of his captivity among religious zealots in the middle east.

He is presently organizing interfaith events for Hebron, West Bank and Gaza that will take place in August, 2009.

The marches are also dedicated to building humanitarian efforts to improve the education of people in the area, including cross-cultural dialogues, mixed student programs, and other methods that will improve the economic environment.

Dr. Romano's inadvertent induction into the world of Islamic extremists began in 1977 when he was attending the Sorbonne in Paris, studying philosophy.

He says he had sort of a vision that if he traveled to the middle east maybe on the way he would find himself, and learn what my spirituality was, and become helpful and more directly involved in the peace process.

Interfaith Freedom March

"The marchers walked in the light of the creator, following the principles of non-violence and respect for all creatures which are common denominators among the Peoples of the Book (ahl al-kitab) who reside in the area, as it is written in their Holy Scriptures of the Qur’an, the Torah, the New Testament, and in other texts."

Romano explained that Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sufis, Kabbalists, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, etc., and members of all faith communities were welcomed as part of the event.

With the recent Israeli attack on Gaza that cost 1300 Palestinian lives and 13 Israeli lives, 4 by friendly fire, we may have reached the turning point that can lead to a lessening of tension among people in a part of the world that has simply seen too much violence in recent years.

It is optimistic but a worthy gamble. The Internet is allowing more western viewers to see real and accurate stories about Gaza and similar Israeli situations, without a complete and total pro-Israeli slant, or a strictly pro-Palestinian bias.

In keeping with that, Romano says hopes the marches help counter-balance the filtered and false information about the suffering of the people in the area, notably Palestinians and Israelis.

"Their suffering has become invisible in the face of narratives with no basis in reality and exaggerated reporting on incidents of violence and subsequent retaliation, often dominating the news and distracting the world from focusing on the day to day suffering of the residents in the area."

Romano, like many who strive to help create peace in this contested place, believes that removing all West Bank settlements would help in diffusing the tension accelerating since 1967; tension that is begging to have the emergency brake applied.

"As such, the occupation of the West Bank must end as a precursor to peaceful coexistence on the condition that adequate security measures are taken by both sides to preserve the peace."

He says he hopes the march, "is a precursor to freedom through love and understanding that is achieved by bringing all people together, as brothers and sisters and as children of the creator, showing the world that all people want peace in Israel and Palestine."

It could not happen soon enough, and plenty of people in Israel and Palestine agree. Below are scheduled appearances for Dr. Frank Romano, and other links that will help a person learn more about his efforts to bring about a lasting change that benefits the entire world.

Labels: faith, Frank Romano, interfaith, non-violence, peace, peacemaking, Tim King

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4 Spiritual Steps To Coping With The Recession

Jonathan Ellerby
Posted March 24, 2009

Most of our spiritual traditions would agree that the path to true happiness and peace is an inner one, and one that we actually have a great deal of influence over. Here are 4 of the most helpful pointers I have found useful for people in chaotic times; these are the same qualities that emerge naturally as a person commits to a sincere spiritual practice, like those I outline in my new book "Return to the Sacred: Ancient Pathways to Spiritual Awakening."

1. Look for the lesson. It is hard to admit, but yes, even the most awful things can teach us. The best qualities, such as patience, forgiveness, love, trust, and altruism, are more powerfully learnt in the times that test us. Ask yourself, what you can learn about yourself or life from the situation? What can you do differently in the future? What great quality is being tested in you?

2. Find the opportunity. Simple things can block our view of what might be right before us. A fence, a hedge, a billboard sign - take it away and suddenly you see more. When the familiar is taken from us it is natural to grieve. It is also important to look to see what is revealed. With each change in life the landscape is renewed and you may discover aspects of yourself you have forgotten or long wanted to explore. Look for new opportunities every chance you get.

3. Be compassionate. This means to yourself and others. Remember compassion is more like loving-empowerment than just making people happy. It means to respect your limits, share your talents, help others, but not at your own expense. It doesn't mean rescuing people all the time or taking away their own process of growth and learning. Compassion means to be supportive while the hard lessons are learned. Practice being kind - nurture yourself, be nice to others. It's a kindergarten rule, but will change your life if you stick to it.

4. Commit to Inner Intentions. Outer intentions are about the things we want to have and do. Inner intentions are about our character, and how we do things. Things like perfect health, wealth, sex, or jobs are illusive and impossible to control over time. Inner intentions like the desire to be forgiving, patient, good-humored, adaptable or true to your word, are all intentions that only you can shape and choose. No matter how hard times get, you r inner intentions can always be pursued and met. In fact hard times are the best times to practice the finest qualities of being human.

Labels: compassion, Jonathan Ellerby, learning, lessons, opportunity, recession, the economy

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Institutions trying to be more inclusive with public prayer

By Kathryn Kennedy
The Daily Reflector

Monday, March 23, 2009

Page one of three. Click on "external source of complete article.

One must only drive around Greenville to see how religiously diverse the community is today.

The city houses all the world's major religions, Mayor Pat Dunn pointed out: The Al-Masjid Islamic Center, Congregation Bayt Shalom, The Hindu Society, a Tibetan Buddhist Meditation & Study Center, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Protestant, Catholic and Evangelical churches.

There are no statistics available for Greenville or Pitt County in particular — the U.S. Census Bureau doesn't record religious data. But a recent American Religious Identification Survey showed increases in non-believers, Muslims, new religious movements like Wicca or Scientology, and nondenominational Christians nationwide. And as Greenville's population grows, so do the minority groups.

“The university and medical school bring in people from all over the world. When that happens, you will get a bigger picture of what the world religions are,” said Debi Habiba Niswander, leader of the Interfaith Alliance of Eastern Carolina which represents nine religious traditions and non-believers.

City government and other institutions are reacting to that growth in an effort to be more inclusive in a long-standing national tradition — public prayer.

“We have 200 years of history if you go back,” Dunn said, noting that Congress opens with a prayer. City Council has a prayer schedule wherein each council member has a turn at delivering the invocation.

Niswander, who is a Universal Sufi, said a large part of the Interfaith organization don't want people to stop praying before meetings and banquets — though a couple are concerned with the separation of church and state. Most just want to feel recognized.

“It's a social norm,” she said. “To ask them not to (pray) is not right either. To ask them to do that where it includes everybody in that room, I think that is right. And needed.”

With that idea, the Interfaith Alliance held a discussion on inclusivity in public prayer in February. More than 20 people of various religious backgrounds and traditions took part.

“I really wanted to see where people were,” Niswander said, “how much it affected them. If people say, ‘Well I'm so used to it, it doesn't bother me anymore,' which we did hear. As a minority, their views, their way of looking at things and beliefs are pushed down. And the more that happens, the more you just become conditioned to it, which does not make it right.

“A public prayer ... includes the whole group that's in that room. We pray. That kind of inclusiveness. But they're not really taking into effect necessarily who that whole group is.”

Some are already responding to the increased diversity locally. The city of Greenville adopted a pre-meeting prayer policy in 2002. It states that prayers should be sensitive to members of the audience who do not share their beliefs and should not be used to advance or disparage a particular faith or belief.

The council also approved an objective this year to “promote an inclusive community that is respectful of all faiths.”

Many council members, including Larry Spell, don't drop names during their invocations. They give what is clearly a prayer but ambiguously religious. At the March 2 council meeting, Spell's prayer was, “Let us pray. Grant us wisdom and peace so that we may do the city's business in a collegial manner.”

He described it as a general prayer that anyone attending or watching can “apply as they see fit.”

The Pitt County Department of Social Services board has held a moment of “silent prayer or silent meditation” for more than a decade. The change was initiated when non-Christians first served on the board.

“It's probably a step forward to attaining a politically correct agenda,” Chairman Chris Haddock said. He identifies himself as a Christian but said he's not uncomfortable with the procedure because the moment allows one to pray “in whatever way you see fit in that setting.”

City Councilman Calvin Mercer also asks the room to observe a moment of silence when it's his turn to deliver the invocation, but for a different reason.

“I pray in private,” Mercer said. “I pray for my city. But when I'm on the public payroll, conducting public business, I'm not comfortable giving a prayer.”

Labels: inclusion, interfaith, Kathryn Kennedy, prayer

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Obama Walks Religious Tightrope Spanning Faithful, Nonbelievers

By LAURA MECKLER

WASHINGTON -- In the early days of his administration, President Barack Obama has developed an unusual pattern as he talks about religion: He regularly puts nonbelievers on the same footing as religious Americans.

It is a rare gesture for a U.S. political leader. But what makes Mr. Obama's outreach especially remarkable is that it is accompanied by public displays of faith that sometimes go beyond even those of his religiously oriented predecessor in the White House.

Mr. Obama speaks easily about his own faith. White House events, even those without a religious theme, often begin with a prayer. And the president said he would expand President George W. Bush's outreach to faith-based organizations.

At the same time, he has taken a series of policy steps that are troubling to religious conservatives, and pledged that decisions in his administration would be governed by science. He reversed Bush policies on funding for international family-planning groups and stem-cell research, and he has moved to rescind regulations that allow health-care workers to opt out of duties that offend their beliefs.

Mr. Obama acknowledged nonbelievers on the campaign trail last year, and, notably, in his inaugural address, where he said: "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers."

While nonbelievers welcomed Mr. Obama's recognition, the move could make some people uneasy. Americans are less comfortable with atheists than they are with many other minority groups, according to a 2006 University of Minnesota study. Nearly half of those surveyed said they would disapprove if their child wanted to marry an atheist, versus a third who said the same of a Muslim. People were more accepting of homosexuals, conservative Christians, immigrants, Hispanics and Jews.

A 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, conducted by Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., found that 15% of Americans are unaffiliated with any religion, up from 8.2% in 1990. In 2008, only 0.7% identified themselves as atheists and 0.9% said they are agnostic.

Mr. Obama isn't the first president to acknowledge nonbelievers. When running for re-election, Bill Clinton spoke of the U.S. having more religious freedom than any other country in the world, "including the freedom not to believe." At the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, George W. Bush recognized those with "no faith at all" among Americans of varying religions.

But Mr. Obama's frequent mentions of nonbelievers stand out, said Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist who studies religion and culture. In some ways, says Mr. Lindsay, it represents the continuation of a pattern in American public discourse. "The last 50 years has been a gradual evolving notion of what constitutes religious diversity," he said. First, he said, Jews were included. Later, after immigration increased from Asia in the 1960s, politicians began mentioning Buddhism and Hinduism. But rarely have atheists been included, he said.

Part of the explanation for Mr. Obama's references also may lie with his own story. He wasn't raised religious and only became a Christian as an adult, when working with churches as an organizer in Chicago.

"I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist; and grandparents who were nonpracticing Methodists and Baptists; and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion, even though she was the kindest, most spiritual person I've ever known," he said at National Prayer Breakfast in February. "She was the one who taught me as a child to love and to understand and to do unto others as I would want done."

Labels: faith, freedom, non-believer, President Obama, religion

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Americans Losing Their Faith in Faith ... And Everything Else

by Nate Silver

Note: There is a great graph chart in this article which shows clearly the elevls of confidence discussed in this article. Please click "external source" for complete article.

The longstanding project called the General Social Survey, which has polled Americans about their feelings on a variety of political and social issues for more than 35 years, just recently came out with their preliminary 2008 data (which, I should warn you, is a little bit cumbersome to access).

The only major institution to have gained a statistically significant about of trust since 2000 is the military, which is now the most trusted major institution in the country . The gain came as a result, presumably, of 9/11, with the number of Americans expressing a great deal of confidence in the military shooting up from 41 percent in 2000 to 57 percent in 2002. The figure peaked at 59 percent in 2004 and has fallen slightly since, but the rating was slightly higher in 2008 than it had been in 2006 before the Iraq conflict had begun to wind down.

Trust in major corporations plummeted following the Enron scandal and is off slightly further since. In fact, the 16 percent of Americans who said they have a great deal of confidence in such institutions is the lowest figure on record. Banks and financial institutions were holding up a bit better ... until last year, when the trust score dropped to 19 percent from 30 percent two years earlier. This is not an all-time low -- confidence in the banks had been slightly lower during the S&L crisis of the early 90s -- although we'll see where we end up once the financial crisis ends.

Confidence in organized religion also fell significantly under Bush's watch, although most of the decline came between 2000 and 2002, when the rating dropped from 29 percent to 19 percent. I'm not sure whether that was the result of the Catholic priest scandals, some odd kind of ricochet from 9/11, or something else, but the scores have yet to really recover.

Medicine is less trusted than it once was -- the 39 percent score it achieved in 2008 was an all-time low -- and to a lesser extent so is science. Nobody, whatever their political persuasions, has much trust in the press, although the decline came long ago in the 1980s, perhaps as conservatives learned the utility of bashing the institution. And some instutitons are perennially unpopular -- particularly the Congress, which has never polled higher in this survey than 17 percent (in 1984).

We are not a very trusting bunch, it would seem.

Labels: confidence, General Social Survey, medicine, Nate Silver, organized religion, politics, the military

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Survey: Millions of Non-Christian Iraqis Watch Christian TV

By Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
Sun, Mar. 22 2009

A new survey found that about 5.3 million Iraqis, or about 19 percent of the population, watch the Christian satellite programs on SAT-7, the ministry reported Friday.

As Iraq’s tiny Christian community numbers less than 600,000, it is safe to say that most of SAT-7’s viewers are Muslims. According to the CIA World Factbook, 97 percent of Iraq’s population is Muslim (Shia 60-65 percent, Sunni 32-37 percent).

Data collected in the recent nationwide study conducted by Intermedia, an independent audience research firm, found that 97 percent of Iraqis have access to satellite television, and 18.8 percent watch SAT-7. The study also found that 2.6 million are watching on a regular daily or weekly basis.

SAT-7 is a Christian television ministry created by and for the people of the Middle East and North Africa. Its mission is to make Christ’s message of hope available to every home in the Middle East.

Each week, between nine and ten million people tune into the network, whose programs are broadcasted in three languages – Arabic, Farsi and Turkish.

The study by Intermedia found that SAT-7 is only 1.7 percentage points behind BBC Arabic in the number of people aware of the channel.

In addition to effective use of funds, SAT-7 says it is also glad that it can provide desperately needed support to the struggling Christian community in Iraq.

“Iraqi Christians have really suffered in recent years and many have fled the country,” says David Harder, SAT-7’s communications manager. “Iraqis often call and text us asking for prayer. Fortunately, through our programs, SAT-7’s Arabic producers and hosts can show God’s love and offer encouragement.”

Though SAT-7 has for years been aware of its impact in Iraq from the responses they receive, the recent study has confirmed to the ministry just how far they are reaching.

Established in November 1995, SAT-7 aired its first broadcast in May 1996. Aside from strengthening believers, the satellite TV ministry has been working to present a more accurate image of Christianity in the Arab world, where people often associate Christians with negative images from the Western world.

Labels: Christian TV, Christianity, Ethan Cole, Intermedia, Iraqis, Muslims, SAT-7, satellite TV

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Johnson: Religion survey shouldn't be alarming

3/21/2009
Jessica Johnson

Results of the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, released last week, have caused many to ponder the future of Christianity in our nation. The survey found that mainline churches have experienced a sharp decline in membership, while the number of people identifying themselves as nondenominational Christians has been on the rise since 2001.

The highlight that may have been most interesting to many was that the survey concluded the challenge to Christianity in America is not coming from other religions but "from a rejection of all forms of organized religion."

Many Christians like myself have wrestled with "organized religion" in our faith in the same manner the Apostle Paul struggled with the thorn in his flesh. As a child growing up in Ebenezer Baptist Church West in Athens, I always wondered why there were different denominations that claimed to believe in the same God.

Although many Americans today are, according to the ARIS findings, rejecting organized religion, I don't interpret this trend as completely negative for Christianity. I think many people who still profess to be Christians are discarding man-made ordinances - not necessarily the order of the church - to find a more intimate and meaningful relationship with God.

The Bible clearly explains the order of the church in terms of the ministry gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers that are to edify the body of Christ, but it also speaks of truly knowing God through a personal walk of faith.

Many of the Christian respondents questioned in the ARIS survey who are non-denominational are most likely looking to fill a spiritual void. Historic mainline churches are known for messages to keep believers on the straight and narrow, which we definitely need, but many people are also yearning for teachings that illustrate how they can get to know God for themselves.

We speak of having faith constantly in the church, but in order to grow in faith one must trust in God. The word "trust" occurs 152 times in the Old Testament, as documented in the Scofield Study Bible, and "trust" is the Old Testament term for faith.

When thinking of how David wrote songs emphasizing trust, such as Psalm 13:5, which reads, "but I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation," it's clear God desires much more from us than just adherence to his statutes.

The ARIS data concerning the state of Christianity in the United States have alarmed many, but I think the numbers reveal something much deeper.

Now, more than ever, many Americans are looking to their faith to sustain them through the trying times they are facing. They are seeking to strengthen the temple within themselves amid uncertainty and apprehension about the future.

It is my prayer that those on this spiritual path, who have discarded the manmade precepts of religion, will find the fulfillment in God for which they have been diligently searching.

Labels: ARIS, Christianity, church, faith, Jessica Johnson, trust

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America's faltering faith

March 20, 2009

By Ken Connor

Americans appear to be losing faith in God and in our cultural institutions. Is the loss of confidence in one related to a loss of confidence in the other? The answer is unequivocally yes.

How we view God inevitably determines how we view our fellow man. And how we view our fellow man, in turn, determines how we treat him. Created in God's image or creature of chance? The answer makes a difference because what we believe determines how we behave.

America's Founders recognized the important role that a shared belief in God contributed to the stability of our society. Our second President, John Adams, said, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Adams' son, John Quincy Adams (our sixth President), declared, "This form of government... is productive of everything which is great and excellent among men. But its principles are as easily destroyed, as human nature is corrupted.... A government is only to be supported by pure religion or austere morals. Private and public virtue is the only foundation of republics." Both presidents — father and son — understood that a shared belief in God is necessary to produce the shared values required for a stable society. Belief in God was the foundation of the republic. The very freedoms and republican form of government we embrace today require society's acknowledgment of "the laws of nature and of nature's God" acknowledged by the Founders in our Declaration of Independence.

Unfortunately, shared belief in a transcendent God — the cornerstone of our stable society — seems to be eroding in America today. The recently-released American Religious Identification Survey is an overview of religious demographics in America. Preliminary results show an America rapidly losing its religious faith. Since the survey began in 1990, the number of self-identified Christians has dropped from 86.2% to 76%, and the number of people claiming no religion has risen from 8.2% to 15%. People are losing faith in God at a rapid rate.

As our shared belief in a transcendent God disappears, our shared moral values inevitably give way to a pervasive relativism. We no longer believe in common moral values, so social norms begin to disappear. Every man is a law unto himself. Radical individualism reigns. We should, therefore, not be surprised when our cultural abandonment of shared values manifests itself in the caveat-emptor business practices which have produced our current financial crisis or the forked-tongued politicking of politicians who will spin any lie or reverse any position in order to pass the buck and keep their jobs. Without shared moral values, every person makes their own morality.

Likewise, we should not be surprised to find that Americans' faith in our cultural institutions is also faltering. Without shared belief in God, social values disappear, social norms are abandoned, and we no longer know what to expect from institutions like the family, church, or state. According to the General Social Survey of 2008, Americans have lost trust in nearly every single major American institution. The recent poll asked Americans whether or not they have confidence in several cultural and political institutions. The preliminary results have just been released, and the picture is not pretty. Since 1976, Americans have lost confidence in every major cultural institution except for the military. This list includes the scientific community, financial institutions, organized religion, the federal government, the media, medicine, education, and major companies. The percentage of Americans expressing a "great deal" of confidence in organized religion has dropped from 32% in 1976 to 20% in 2008. Over that same period, confidence in the media fell from 29% to 9%. Confidence in Congress fell from a dismal 14% to an even more dismal 11%. Clearly we Americans are losing faith in our cultural institutions.

A shared belief in a transcendent God produces shared moral values which provide people with social norms that give them confidence in their culture. Without this core belief, the structure of society is undermined by man-centered relativism. An increasingly unbelieving people also suffer from a loss of confidence in one another. Having replaced faith in a transcendent God with faith in flawed human beings, they inevitably set themselves for disappointment and abandon the only moral basis for a stable society.

Only by regaining our shared faith in a transcendent Law Giver will Americans be able to recover our faith in our society.

Labels: ARIS, belief, faith, God, Ken Connor, morality, relativism

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Here's the steeple. Open the door. Where are all the people?

Elizabeth Scarinci
3/19/09

This page one of three. Please click on "external source" for complete article.

The steeple of the Congregational Church of Middlebury is the most defining characteristic of the town's skyline. But despite the steeples that dominate many Vermont towns, religion is a declining landmark of the state. The most recent American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), released March 9, showed that a record 34 percent of Vermonters claim no religious affiliation, making Vermont the most secular state in the country, followed by New Hampshire and Maine.

The Program on Public Values at Trinity College recently conducted the last of three surveys from 1990 to 2008. On a national level, Americans who claim no religion almost doubled from 1990 to 2008. In 1990, 8.2 percent claimed no religion, which spiked to 14.2 percent in 2001 and is now at 15 percent. The number of people answering "None" grew in every state.

Vermont's status as the leader of "Nones" is an issue that Vermonters themselves can unfurl. Professor Larry Yarbrough, chair of the Religion department at the College, speculates that part of the reason is that Vermonters are independent and freethinking.

"For the most part, they are not susceptible to be led one way or another, and that definitely comes in [to play]," Yarbrough said.

Anne Brown, communication director of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, said that religious institutions could be better communicating their missions and relating them better to Vermonters' lives.

"I think this is a response to the failure of the institutional religious bodies to respond in a creative and helpful way to the search for meaning," Brown said. "We have often been more focused on maintaining tradition than on meeting people where they are with something that works for them."

Yarbrough said he would be interested in a survey that asked the people who claim no religion if they were spiritual but just did not associate with an organized religion. He speculates that many Vermonters who find themselves spiritual would say that they can encounter God in nature.

Labels: ARIS, Elizabeth Scarinci, nature, religion, Vermont

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Americans Reject Labels, Not Faith

Americans Reject Labels, Not Faith

A lengthy article, well-worth the read...click on "external source"

If the new American Religious Identification Survey study tells us anything at all, it is that the categories by which people measure and define their own faith are shifting, but that is hardly something new. The personalized, even idiosyncratic nature of faith in our culture has been a growing trend for a very long time.

The bottom line is that we have always been a culture that rejected the spiritual status quo. But we have not ever been, and are not now, a culture that rejects faith. We just want in on our own terms -- that is the American spiritual tradition. The American Religious Identity Survey actually confirms that. For people invested in status quo categories, whether out of academic or theological necessity, that may be upsetting, but it need not be for the rest of us.

The results of the American Religious Identity Survey suggest that we live in a time of incredible spiritual ferment, one in which personal freedom and individual dignity are celebrated more than ever. The last time I checked, those were pretty good values to celebrate. The survey also raises important questions about the state of faith in our nation, and failing to ask them would be as mistaken as the 'death of religion' conclusion to which others have jumped.

In light of this survey, we need to ask ourselves three basic questions. First, how do people, whatever faith they follow (including no faith at all) maintain their sense of obligation to the welfare of others when personal freedom defines their identity? Without that kind of commitment, forget religion, the whole world is in trouble. How do we assure that a celebration of personal freedom is not simply cover for a culture of narcissism and selfishness?

Second, how do those of us who still feel deeply rooted in a particular tradition take advantage of this moment not to make converts, or to beef up our numbers, but to serve all people (most of whom will never sit in our pews or pay our dues) who might benefit from some of the wisdom contained within the traditions we follow? How do we use this moment in American life to become increasingly sensitive to the difference between religion as we happen to understand it and faith/belief/spiritual connection which, if they are really real, must be bigger than our particular doctrine or tradition?

Finally, are those of us who still claim attachment to a religious community or institution going to ask ourselves the tough questions raised by this survey about the credibility which religion has lost in recent decades? With violence in the name of religion on the rise, extremists becoming increasingly powerful in every segment of religious life, and the ever-more polarizing language used by ideologues ranging from absolutist atheists to radical religionists, this is not someone else's problem. If the use of traditional religious labels is on the decline, those who remain comfortable with those labels must ask ourselves what we have done to "degrade our own brand" and even more importantly, what we must do to fix it.

Labels: American Religious Identification Survey, Americans, faith, spirituality

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Men are from Tyre, Women are from Bethany

Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox

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

Just a generation ago, mainline Protestant clergy were made up almost exclusively of men. Over the last two decades, the number of women clergy in the mainline increased nearly three-fold, from only 7% in 1989 to 1-in-5 (20%) in 2008. While still a minority in the church, as the percentage of women in the ministry continues to grow, female clergy have the potential to dramatically shift the balance of opinion of mainline churches and denominations on a variety of key issues. They will also increasingly influence mainline congregants, who make up nearly one-quarter of all voters and 18% of the general population--an estimated 40.7 million Americans.

The Clergy Gender Gap on Social Issues

Consider the stark gender differences on the volatile issue of same-sex marriage, which most mainline denominations have been fiercely debating over the last few years. Nearly 6-in-10 (58%) female clergy believe that gay couples should be allowed to marry, compared to only about one-quarter (27%) of male clergy--a gap of more than 30 points.

This clergy gender gap is more than three times as large as the gender gap among all Americans. One-third of all women support allowing gay couples to be married legally, compared to one- quarter of men, an 8-point gap. Among all mainline Protestants, the gap between men and women is even smaller at 5 points (31% to 36% respectively).

This pattern is also clear on the issue of abortion, where the clergy gender gap is 34 points. Nearly 8-in-10 (78%) female clergy say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to only 44% of male clergy. Among all Americans, the gender gap is only 5 points on this issue, and among mainline Protestant laity, the gap is only 3 points.

The Clergy Gender Gap on Economic Issues, Priorities, and Political Identity

But this fault line between male and female clergy is not just confined to social issues. We found double-digit gender gaps also on key economic issues and issue priorities as well.

For example, 9-in-10 female clergy say that the federal government should do more to solve social problems such as unemployment, poverty, and poor housing. Among male clergy, about three quarters (76%) agree. More than 8-in-10 female ministers say that more environmental protection is needed, even if it raises prices or costs jobs, compared to two-thirds of male ministers. And 85% of female clergy support the government guaranteeing health insurance for all citizens, even if it means raising taxes, compared to about 6-in-10 (63%) male clergy.

Female clergy also hold starkly different issue priorities than their male colleagues. Half of all female clergy say that social welfare problems, like poverty, education and health care are the most important issues in the country that the church should address, compared to only about one-third (34%) of male clergy. Male clergy are more than twice as likely to cite cultural issues like abortion or same-sex marriage as most important (12% to 5% respectively).

These different issue positions, not surprisingly, lead to divergent political identities. More than three-quarters of female pastors identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared to half of all male clergy. Male clergy are about four-times more likely to identify with the Republican Party (40% to 11% respectively). Likewise, nearly three-quarters (74%) of female ministers identify as liberal, compared to about 4-in-10 (42%) male ministers.

Here, as above, the clergy gender gap far exceeds the gender gap in the general population. Overall, women are only slightly less likely than men to identify as Republican (25% vs. 30% respectively), and the proportions of women and men overall who identify as liberal are nearly identical (24% vs. 25% respectively).

Labels: clergy, Daniel Cox, gender, Mainline Protestant Clergy Voices Survey, protestants, Robert P. Jones

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Poll examines faith's role in parenting

Posted on Mar 17, 2009 |
by Mark Kelly

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The vast majority of parents hope their children grow up to live good lives but, for many, parental success does not include faith in God -- even among parents who are evangelical Christians, according to a new study from LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources.

The national survey of 1,200 adults with children under 18 at home found the most common definitions of successful parenting include children having good values (25 percent), being happy adults (25 percent), finding success in life (22 percent), being a good person (19 percent), graduating from college (17 percent) and living independently (15 percent). Being godly or having faith in God is mentioned by 9 percent of respondents.

Parents who attend religious services weekly are particularly likely to emphasize faith in God, but only 24 percent of them identify that as a mark of parenting success, the research found.

INFLUENCES AND GOALS

While the vast majority (83 percent) believes parents should be most responsible for a child's spiritual development, only 35 percent say their religious faith is one of the most important influences on their parenting, according to the study. This leaves nearly half (48 percent) who acknowledge their role in their child's spiritual development, but fail to consider their own religious faith among the most important influences on their parenting.

Pushing out to either end of the religious spectrum, the study found that almost a third of all parents either have no religious faith or say religious faith has little or no influence on their parenting. Conversely, among born-again Christians, 29 percent say faith is not among the most important influences on their parenting.

Asked if they have a written plan or goal for what they want to accomplish as parents, a full 33 percent say they have no plan or goal at all. Among those who attend religious services weekly and evangelicals, 76 percent say they have a plan, either written or unwritten.

FEARS AND REGRETS

In contrast to visions of success, many parents are fearful for their children's futures and some harbor regrets about their parenting, according to the research. A full 82 percent agree they feel fearful when they think about what kind of world their children will face as adults. Asked if they feel a lot of regret about what they've done as parents, 28 percent of parents agree, although only 5 percent feel strongly about it.

Almost six in 10 parents (59 percent) indicate they want their children to experience pain and disappointment so they can learn from it, but about three in four parents (74 percent) say they try to keep their own pain hidden from their children. More than one in three parents (34 percent) say they worry when they think about their children 'leaving the nest.' A full 15 percent say the prospect of their children growing up and leaving home is simply too painful to think about.

Only 14 percent of all parents say they feel they are very familiar with what the Bible has to say about parenting, even though 77 percent identify themselves as Christians. Among those who attend religious services weekly, that number rises to 36 percent.

Labels: children, faith, God, LifeWay Research, Mark Kelly, parenthood

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Author: New forms of religion take shape

By Peter Smith
March 17, 2009

This is the first of a two-page article - interesting...since institutional religion seems to be on the wane, what might take its place? Please click on "external source article" for page two.

Three authors offered an unapologetically radical vision of Christianity at a conference yesterday, saying that churches may actually be able to return to their core principles now that they have lost the cultural dominance they enjoyed in past generations.

And their view of core principles, they contended, is not to focus on personal salvation or getting people into heaven but rather to build communities, fight social injustice and try to solve the urgent problems of the day.

"One of the reasons people get nervous about evangelism is … they don't want to be the marketing department for a narcissistic message," author Brian McLaren said last night at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. "When we discover God is recruiting people to join in the healing of the world, that's a whole different deal. I bet a lot of us … (would) get up and knock on doors for that."

McLaren and authors Diana Butler Bass and Marcus Borg brought those views -- which for years have drawn conservative criticism -- to the seminary's annual Festival of Theology. The festival, which brought an overflow crowd to the seminary's chapel, drew on the theme, "New Ways of Being Church."

The speakers agreed that churches -- particularly historically Protestant denominations that once dominated the social establishment -- face an identity crisis now that their numbers are declining.

A major survey released last week by Trinity College in Connecticut indicated that self-identified Christians have declined from 86 to 76 percent of Americans since 1990, while people with no religion have nearly doubled to 15 percent.

McLaren, author of such books as "Everything Must Change" and "A Generous Orthodoxy," is a leading voice in the "emerging church" movement of church leaders seeking to get past traditional labels of liberal and conservative. The movement seeks to reach a world that has shed many of the institutions and other cultural forms that dominated the 20th century.

McLaren's evangelical critics say his focus on solving social problems undercuts the need to proclaim the gospel.

Labels: Brian McLaren, Christianity, church, Emergent church, intentional community, Peter Smith, social issues

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Religion and economics during hard times

Mar 17, 2009

-- Martin E. Marty

Virtually every church newsletter, denominational website, religious periodical, or other medium, disseminated in print or electronically, makes some reference to the economic situation in which all classes of Americans find themselves today. Local congregations' offers of spiritual sustenance, community-sharing burdens, and hopes are still among the main and best things they do, as well as providing counseling, tips, and sometimes guidance to non-church organizations and experts who may be of help. These concern issues of joblessness, home foreclosures, and other devastating realities of 2009.

It is too soon to know how this recession-depression will work out for religious institutions and ideas. While watching and waiting, I decided to do what so many do: compare today to the Great Depression of the 1930s. I had explored religious roles and responses in my The Noise of Conflict: 1919-1941, the second volume in my Modern American Religion (University of Chicago, 1991). If we repeat in any way -- but who says we will, or must? -- what happened then, there is not a lot of cheer to be spread. I particularly relied on Samuel C. Kincheloe's 1937 Research Memorandum on Religion in the Depression, an extensive, judicious, realistic survey done for the Social Science Research Council by a Chicago Theological Seminary (then Congregational) professor. Like so many other secular and mainstream Protestant analysts, he did not pay much attention to what was prospering when nothing else was: fundamentalism.

Some leaders hoped and prayed for religious revivals, none of which erupted. "There has been much emphasis on the belief that what society needs is religion," Kincheloe reported, and I observed, "but society evidently did not think so." Money problems limited church efforts to serve the poor, whose numbers grew exponentially. At the same time, deep believers within all congregations and denominatins "did not fall away from faith merely because of economic trauma." The Christian Century editorialized, with a view on the past: "Did people not address this Depression religiously because for once they did not think it occurred under the providence of God?" The editorial conclusion: this may have been "the first time men have not blamed God for hard times." If that was true in 1935, it seems to be true today, too. There are accusers, accused, and commentators on all hands today, but one seldom hears that all the dealings, many of them now seen as greedy at best and criminal at worst, were anything but the results of individual and corporate folly and corruption. This time again, citizens can't blame God for getting them into this, and are trying to find God-ly ways to get out of it...together.

Labels: Great Depression, Martin Marty, recession, religion, the economy

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French Physicist Wins Templeton Religion Prize

By Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
Mon, Mar. 16 2009

A French physicist and philosopher of science is the winner of the 2009 Templeton Prize for religion, the largest annual religion prize given to an individual, the foundation announced on Monday.

Bernard d’Espagnat, 87, will receive the $1.42 million prize for his work in quantum physics that shows the limits of knowable science and affirms a reality that can be explained through spirituality and art, according to Reuters.

D’Espagnat said in prepared remarks that he is “convinced that those among our contemporaries who believe in a spiritual dimension of existence and live up to it are, when all is said, fully right,” according to The Associated Press.

The John Templeton Foundation announced the prize at a news conference held at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris.

“[D’Espagnat has] explored the unlimited, the openings that new scientific discoveries offer in pure knowledge and in questions that go to the very heart of our existence and humanity,” said John Templeton, Jr., president of the foundation, at the ceremony.

Through his work, the physicist counters classical physics pioneered by Isaac Newton that says the world can be explained through laws of nature. Quantum physics, he argues, shows that tiny particles defy the laws of physics and act in unpredictable ways.

"Materialists consider that we are explained entirely by combinations of small uninteresting things like atoms or quarks," said d'Espagnat, who was raised Roman Catholic but now considers himself instead a spiritualist, in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

"I believe we ultimately come from a superior entity to which awe and respect is due and which we shouldn't try to approach by trying to conceptualize too much," he said. "It's more a question of feeling."

D’Espagnat will receive the prize May 5 in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London, according to AP.

Previous winners of the prize include American evangelist Billy Graham, Roman Catholic humanitarian Mother Teresa, and Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

The Templeton Prize was established in 1972 by global investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. The prize, given by Pennsylvanian-based Templeton Foundation, seeks to support scientific research that contributes to the “Big Questions” of science, religion, and human purposes. Each year, the Templeton Prize, which exceeds the monetary value of the Nobel Prizes, is presented in London.

Labels: Bernard d’Espagnat, Ethan Cole, quantum physics, religion, spirituality, Templeton Prize

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Worldly religions find their way to Franklin

By VICTORIA GRAY
Sunday, March 15, 2009

FRANKLIN — Those interested in learning about world religions don't need to go to Harvard Divinity School, or even a closer university or college. They only have to go as far as West Main Street, where a series of interfaith dialogues begins today at Franklin Congregational Christian Church.

Rev. Jeff Stevens, pastor, said as part of the church's adult education program he has invited speakers representing various religions and members of the public to participate in these discussions.

The first of these dialogues is today at the church hall at 1 p.m. and features Mohamed Ebrahim, PhD, an Imam and director of the Dover-based Islamic Society of the Seacoast Area, as the guest speaker.

The next discussion is scheduled for Thursday, March 19, when Manitonquat, an elder of the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation, will speak about his culture's spiritual traditions.

Manitonquat, whose name translates to Medicine Story, is a counselor and lecturer with a Ph.D. in Religious Counseling. He is a retired ceremonial leader and is currently involved in a prison spirituality program in New England, including at the Concord State Prison for Men.

Manitonquat, who lives in Greenville, said he is looking foward to Thursday's discussion in Franklin.

"I'm always interested in interfaith dialogues," Manitonquat said. "It's very exciting for me to connect with people from various faiths and talk to them about Native American spiritual beliefs."

He added that Native American spiritual beliefs do not constitute a religion or religions and that there are many different traditions among the various tribal councils and nations in North America.

One universal belief is that of respect — that everything in creation, including every person, deserves respect.

He said that, in his prison programs, this concept resonates with inmates, many of whom have neither been given nor seen examples of respect in their lives before.

The next common belief is in "the primacy of the circle as the form in which people should gather together."

The circle, also an important symbol of the life and death cycle, symbolizes the equality of members in gatherings, as there is no head or end.

The third belief is one of continually thanking the spirit and natural world.

Manitonquat has written a book that is soon to be published, called "The Original Instructions," which he said is based "on a lifetime of listening to elders and trying to figure things out."

He said the title comes from a frequent answer elders gave when he asked, "What is wrong with human beings today?"

The answer he often got was "They have forgotten the original instructions."

Manitonquat says this means that the earliest inhabitants of world, including on the North American continent, lived more in harmony with the natural and spiritual world than people do today.

He said since Europeans settled the continent it has been their religions and spiritual traditions that have dominated and been propagated.

"No one really understands the wealth of spiritual understanding that existed here before," Manitonquat said.

Stevens said that, as the population in New Hampshire becomes more diverse, it is increasingly important that people learn about and respect each other's cultural, spiritual and ethnic backgrounds.

He added that there is a Buddhist population in the state and a growing number of Sikhs and members of the Bahá'í faith.

Sikhism is a religion that formed in India approximately 500 years ago. Followers believe in a single, formless God who can be known through deep meditation. They believe in samsara, karma and reincarnation as Hindus do, but reject the caste system.

Stevens has been pastor at the church since December 2007.

Originally from Williamstown in Western Massachusetts, Stevens received a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School and has always been interested in world religions.

He said one of the professors at the school, Diana Eck, started and still directs the "Pluralism Project," which began in 1991 to explore America's changing religious landscape. The project has recorded the growth of religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism in the U.S. as a new wave of immigration that began 30 to 40 years ago continues.

"The Lakes Region is sort of on the edge of the movement toward more religious diversity, this wave of great change," Stevens said.

He said he is excited that the first speaker will be discussing Islam, as he worked with Muslim (followers of Islam) communities in the greater Boston area while at Harvard.

Stevens said despite the substantial Muslim population in the U.S., many people still know little about Islam, though the religion, along with Judaism, shares some of the same history as Christianity.

He noted that Thomas Aquinas, in the 1100s, wrote a letter to Christians, Jewish people and Muslims about the things their religions shared in common.

Islam began in the Middle East more than 1,400 years ago and is the second largest religion in the world with more than 1 billion followers. The word Islam means "submission to the will of God (Allah in Arabic)".

Muslims believe there is only one God and that God sent a number of prophets to humanity to teach them how to live, including Jesus, Moses and Abraham.

The final Prophet was Muhammad, who Muslims believe most perfectly delivered God's message, therefore they follow his example (called the Sunnah) and base their laws on the holy book, the Qur'an.

The five basic Pillars of Islam are a declaration of faith, praying, fasting, charity and undertaking a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in one's lifetime.

The Islamic Society of the Seacoast Area is located in Dover and serves more than 300 Muslim families in coastal communities in New Hampshire and Southeastern Maine.

...Amala Dharmacharini, program director of the Aryaloka Buddhist Retreat Center, will lead a discussion on Buddhism.

Buddhism developed out of the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama who, in 535 BCE, reached enlightenment and assumed the title of Buddha.

He promoted 'The Middle Way' as the path to enlightenment rather than the extremes of mortification of the flesh or hedonism. Buddhists believe in reincarnation and that, after many lives, a person can attain nirvana by releasing their attachment to desire and the self.

Stevens said he also is working on booking a speaker from the Bahá'í Faith, a faith that arose from Islam in the 1800s. Bahá'í beliefs promote gender and race equality, freedom of expression and assembly, world peace and world government.

Other speakers may include representatives from neopagan traditions and from the Jainist religion.

Jainism is one of the oldest religions in India and its followers believe that the way to true bliss is through lives of harmlessness and renunciation. Followers believe every living thing in the universe is sacred and has a soul. Because of this, they follow a strict vegetarian diet and live in a way that minimizes their impact on the environment.

Labels: Bahá'í, Buddhism, Christianity, God, interfaith, Islam, Jainism, Native American Church, Pluralism Project, religion, Sikhism, Victoria Gray

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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Don’t mention God: how Darwin’s marriage survived

Scots writer’s play sheds light on a troubled but devoted relationship
By Mike Merrit

A LEADING Scottish playwright has produced a new twist on the life of Charles Darwin: the evolution of the relationship between the scientist and his wife, Emma.

It seems their marriage survived largely by avoiding the issue of religion. While Charles lost his faith, his devoted wife remained a committed Christian.

Now, in the bicentenary of the scientist's birth, Caithness-based writer Murray Watts, who wrote the screenplay for the film The Miracle Maker, will show that love really did conquer all in the Darwins' marriage. The couple hardly spent a day apart in more than 42 years of marriage.

Even in marriage Darwin was ever the scientist. Used to jotting down daily notes on animal breeding, he scrawled rambling thoughts - one with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry". Advantages included "constant companion and a friend in old age better than a dog anyhow" against points such as "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time".

In his play, entitled Mr Darwin's Tree, Watts show that despite their religious differences the couple's relationship survived on a deep love.

Emma was part of the Wedgwood pottery family and was Charles's first cousin. The couple had 10 children but lost two girls and a boy.

Emma grew up belonging to the Unitarian Church. For a time in her youth she was sent to Paris, where she studied piano with the celebrated composer Frédéric Chopin, and conducted a grand tour of Europe.

The naturalist frequently lamented his own lack of musical skills, which seemed to heighten his admiration of Emma's playing. In The Descent of Man, Darwin wrote: "I conclude that musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex."

Emma was with her family when they helped Darwin overturn his father's objections to the voyage of the Beagle, which sparked his evolution theory.

She accepted Charles's marriage proposal in 1838, at the age of 30, and they were married the following year.

But a source of difficulty in the Darwins' marriage was the inevitable conflict between Charles's scientific findings and Emma's own devout Christian beliefs.

The tension was increased when, following the death of their daughter Anne at the age of 10, Charles no longer accepted the orthodox Christian view of God. After the biologist TH Huxley coined the word "agnostic" around 1868, Darwin used it to describe himself.

Now in Mr Darwin's Tree - which will star TV actor Andrew Harrison - Watts hopes to show that Emma was in many ways her husband's opposite.

"Charles's father told him not to confide his doubts about faith to his wife. He felt it would cause trouble in the marriage," said Watts.

"But Charles told Emma that he had misgivings. The truth is that he did not have that much faith to lose, despite him at one-time contemplating life as a clergyman.

"People forget that some of Charles's greatest supporters were leading Christians of the time.

"Emma even wrote a letter to Charles to avoid confrontation. When he was ill she would leave a letter on his pillow. She thought he had not faced the chain of difficulties on the other side'.

"For Charles, God and faith were a series of propositions that he could knock on the head. So the couple did not talk about faith much. Emma felt there would be a painful void between them if they did. Their marriage survived by avoiding the issue of faith.

"But she did tell him, I wish you could have my faith and the perfect peace of Christ.' Emma was totally supportive of Charles in every way. She made sure she did not judge him.

"Love came first in their relationship, not faith."

Labels: Charles Darwin, marriage, Mike Merrit, Mr Darwin's Tree, theater

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Optimism, In The Middle Of A Depression

CBS Evening News: Will Thinking Positively Help The Economy Rebound?

This interesting article contains a video regarding optimism in the downturn. Click on "external source" for complete article.

March 13, 2009 |
by Steve Hartman

Despite constant news reports of a declining economy and dwindling financial markets, Steve Hartman meets several optimists who say that remaining hopeful will

(CBS) By now we've all heard that the sky has fallen, which is why CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman couldn't believe the results of a CBS News/ New York Times poll taken before this week's Wall Street rally. It asked, “Do you think the economy is getting better or worse?” You could also pick “staying the same.”

Most Americans - 51 percent - thought the economy was getting worse. Only 8 percent thought it was getting better, while 40 percent thought it was staying the same. Hartman wondered: What the heck were these Pollyannas thinking?

To find out, he called one back to arrange an interview.

"Enjoy this beautiful winter day," the answering machine instructed.

It was actually cold and rainy. But inside - this proud member of the 8 percent was waiting for Hartman's visit with juice and homemade lemon meringue pie - and pure, unbridled optimism.

His name is Mark Jastrzembski. He’s unmarried and a retired corrections officer.

"The president talked about hope. I've taken that to the next step. Hope means that you want stuff to happen. Faith means you know it's going to happen. I'm a 100 percent certain that things are going to get better in this country," Jastrzembski said.

He lives in Muskegon, Mich. - which makes his survey answer all the more confounding.

"I look around, you know, I'm not blind,” he said. “I have 10 to 15 close friends who got laid off."

Fortunately, Jastrzembski said he doesn't need to see hope to believe things are getting better. In fact, quite the opposite - he thinks we need to believe it to see it.

“The problem with the country is that we're not feeling good about ourselves," he said.

There are others like him.

Hartman met Michael Seltzer at a local meeting of the Muskegon Optimists Club. He’s in charge of all the Optimist clubs in Michigan. He's also recently unemployed.

"There's something known as a self-fulfilling prophesy, and attitude is a big part of that self-fulfilling prophesy,” Seltzer said. “And if everybody you talk to says the economy is getting worse, they can make that happen.”

It's true. Economists call it a feedback loop. When people are pessimistic they do less spending and investing. Less spending and investing makes the economy gets worse. A worse economy makes people even more pessimistic, and so on. Does that mean if we could all somehow just believe the economy is getting better that all of a sudden it would? The answer seems to be yes. And no.

Actor and economic commentator Ben Stein says the problem is -- for people who don't think America has the right economic plan -- it's very hard for them to just pretend. To which Jastrzembski says, please, at least try.

"What can we as individual people do to get this economy going? We've got to change this philosophy, change this attitude, start thinking positively," Jastrzembski said.

That may or may not help - but there is new evidence this week that optimistic people are, indeed, more likely to see their 401(k)s make a comeback. Because, as this new study shows -- they live longer.

Labels: CBS news, longevity, optimism, Steve Hartman, the economy

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The spirit moves Baby Boomers

December 2

AARP has found that Baby Boomers are intensely spiritual, believing in divine healing, miracles and guardian angels.

AARP's Knowledge Management division commissioned a study to measure, in its words, "what Americans 45 and older think about miracles and miraculous events, including what they believe about divine healings, guardian angels, the circumstances under which someone may receive a miracle, and how miraculous events have changed their outlook on life."

The telephone survey included an oversample of Hispanic respondents.

The survey found:

* 80 percent said they believe miracles occur today as they did in antiquity,
* 67 percent said they believe illness and injuries can be divinely healed,
* 37 percent said they witnessed a miracle,
* 27 percent have witnessed a divine healing,
* 11 percent of seen an angel.

In addition, younger Boomers hold to more spiritual beliefs than older Boomers: Respondents age 45-54 were more likely to believe in miracles (85 percent) than those age 55 and older (77 percent).

Also, from the oversample the survey found that Hispanic Boomers have stronger spiritual beliefs in this regard than their white counterparts:

* 86 percent believe in miracles,
* 86 percent believe in spirits and angels,
* 82 percent believe in divine healing.

Labels: AARP, angels, Baby Boomers, miracles, spirituality

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Round-the-world bicycle trip turned into a spiritual journey as well

By Steve Timko
March 12, 2009

This is page one of a two-page article...interesting reading. Please click on "external source" for complete article.

Rick Gunn left Carson City in 2003 and spent almost three years pedaling around the world on his bicycle.
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Gunn, a former photojournalist for the Nevada Appeal, pedaled across 1,200 miles of Tibet at 16,000 to 18,000 feet while stricken with giardia. As a volunteer at an AIDS hospice in Thailand, at one point he risked contracting tuberculosis while caring for a dying woman. Then there was extreme poverty in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

"I watched people being hauled off the streets in Dhaka having starved to death," Gunn said. "They have trucks that go around and pick up the dead off the streets and sing a prayer for a proper burial."

The 45-year-old Gunn's long-term goal is to write a book about the journey, but in the meantime he's putting on multi-media shows. Gunn holds one Friday in Reno.

The seeds of the round-the-world adventure were planted by his mother, who wanted to travel around Europe. A kidney disease kept her from going for a long time, and then she finally went.

"As she got there, she had to turn around because she was too sick," Gunn said. "And she died without seeing the places she wanted to see. And that taught me a very powerful lesson."

Why on a bicycle?

"When you're inside of the car, it's almost like you're watching television," Gunn said. "You can't smell the smell. You can't feel the wind around you. And most importantly, you can't come in contact with the people. ... If you're on bicycle, you're perceived as one of them, even though you're a strange one of them."

By the time he made it to central Asia, he encountered extreme poverty in places in such as Tibet, Nepal and Bangladesh. The 52-day trip across Tibet with giardia left him fatigued and seriously considering quitting, so he took a break in Nepal and went rafting for a couple of months to rejuvenate and he saw a dead child floating in the river where he was rafting.

That kind of poverty inspired Gunn's goal of volunteering in each country, or at least making a record as a journalist of those doing things that made a difference.

Labels: adventure, bicycle, poverty, Rick Gunn, service, spirituality, Steve Timko, volunteering

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U.S. Buddhists, Hindus Back Evolution, Says Study

India West, News Report, Ashfaque Swapan
Mar 13, 2009

Despite virtually unanimous support in the scientific community, there is considerable public skepticism in the U.S. about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, with 39 percent believing in the theory, according to a Gallup poll.

Hindus in the U.S., however, overwhelmingly accept the scientific consensus, with four out of five Hindus agreeing that evolution best explains the origin of human beings, according to a recent study by the Pew Center.

Buddhists, edging Hindus by a slight margin, were the greatest supporters among different religious groups, the survey found.

As the world celebrated the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin Feb. 12, his legacy is a study in contrasts: While there is virtual unanimity among biologists regarding the validity of his theory of natural selection, public opinion continues to show surprising pockets of resistance in some nations.

The resistance has come almost entirely from religious groups, led by Christian groups, who support an alternative theory called intelligent design, which accepts the existence or agency of a supreme being.

However, skepticism among scientists about intelligent design in unanimous.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has stated that "creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science." The U.S. National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have termed it pseudoscience. Many in the scientific community have been less kind, bluntly calling it junk science.

Public opinion in the U.S., however, continues to be surprisingly resistant to Darwin’s theory. According to an August 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 63 percent of Americans believe that humans and other animals have either always existed in their present form or have evolved over time under the guidance of a supreme being. Only 26 percent said that life evolved solely through processes such as natural selection.

Hindus in the U.S., however, do not share this view. In advance of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday on Feb. 12, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life released a report exploring the evolution controversy in the U.S. The Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey found that views on evolution differ widely across religious groups.

Buddhists and Hindus led the study with 81 percent of Buddhists and 80 percent of Hindus agreeing that evolution is the best explanation of the origin of human life on earth, followed by Jewish (77 percent) and unaffiliated (72 percent) groups. Muslims (45 percent) were the fifth least enthusiastic about Darwin’s theory in the 12-group study, with Jehovah’s Witnesses (7 percent), Mormons (22 percent) and evangelical Protestants (24 percent) being the least enthusiastic religious groups.

Labels: Buddhists, Charles Darwin, creationism, evolution, Hindus, science

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Happiest place? Survey says … Utah!

By Lynn Arave

Deseret News
Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Page one of a two-page article. Please click on "external source" for complete article.

Move over, Disneyland. Your claim as "the happiest place on earth" is being challenged by a new Gallup "happiness" poll that ranks Utah as No. 1 for well-being among the 50 states.

Not bad for a state recognized in 2001 as the state with the highest rate of antidepressant use in the United States.

Maybe that's what's helping.

Add to that a dose of Utahns who made grand showings at Winter and Summer Olympic Games, an "American Idol" runner-up, a "So You Think You Can Dance?" champion, "The Greatest Snow on Earth" and "Life Elevated" and the power of positive thinking becomes evident.

The Utah Jazz have won 12 games in a row and are division leaders in the National Basketball Association.

With unemployment at 4.6 percent, Utah's rate ranks among the lowest five in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

With a combined total score of 69.2 in the poll, Utah comes in a full point ahead of runner-up Hawaii.

Wyoming and Colorado, two neighboring states, were third and fourth, respectively.

The new survey was conducted by Gallup, in conjunction with Healthways and America's Health Insurance Plans. Each person surveyed could get a score of up to 100.

Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., has extensively studied happiness and the reasons for it.

In a forum address last month at Brigham Young University, he said statistics show Utahns are among the happiest people in the nation.

Not surprisingly, "The most charitable state is Utah," which gives twice as much as the second-place state does, Brooks, a Roman Catholic, noted in that address.

"People who give get happier as a result … happiness is the secret to success … you can be a happier person by giving."

Jan Shipps, professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University and an expert on Utah's dominant religion, said of the survey results, "You don't have people smoking or drinking so much in Utah. That makes a difference in health and well-being."

She believes members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah who give 10 percent tithing, as well as fast offering donations, are certainly a factor in the survey results, though not as much as the Mormons' healthy lifestyle.

The Western states also dominated the study with nine of them in the top 12. The only one not in the top 20 was Nevada at 38th place.

Labels: happiness, Lynn Arave, Utah

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Church that cannot be attacked

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

March 11, 2009

One heartbreaking aspect of the killing of the pastor in a Maryville, Ill., church last Sunday is that it happened in a church during a service – a place and time of refuge. It leaves one asking, Is there no time that is sacred, is there no place that is truly safe?

As meaningful as our places of worship may be, they are not the bulwarks of safety we wish they could be. But behind the physical structures is something unassailable and thereby safe because it is not material. It is our spiritual consciousness or our place of communion with the one infinite Creator, or divine Mind.

The Psalmist referred to this place of peace as "the secret place of the most High": "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust" (91:1, 2). This psalm assures us that we all have a place not subject to events, not at the mercy of violence – a place evil can never touch because it can only be accessed by aligning oneself with God's good thoughts.

The secret place of the most High is not an abstract place of retreat to avoid dealing with the world. Christ Jesus prayed consistently and was always conscious of his spiritual refuge in God. This protected him from an angry mob in the temple. He'd been sharing with this congregation that his spiritual identity (and therefore everyone's spiritual identity) exists in timeless, deathless, eternal oneness with God. This offended some listeners, and the crowd responded violently, preparing to stone him. "But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by" (John 8:59).

Mary Baker Eddy described Church as "the structure of Truth and Love..." ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," p. 583). Prayer can help each person become conscious of dwelling in this spiritual structure. And we can feel this structure as an infinite embrace, the embrace of God's tender care, which is with everyone in Maryville, in churches throughout the world, and with all people everywhere.

Labels: Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, prayer, safety, worship

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The coming evangelical collapse

The coming evangelical collapse

An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise.

By Michael Spencer
March 10, 2009

Oneida, Ky. - We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

This is a lengthy article, well worth reading. In it, the following questions are asked, and answered:

Why is this going to happen?

What will be left?

Is all of this a bad thing?

Please click on "external source" to access the article in its entirety.

Labels: Christianity, evangelicals, Michael Spencer

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Religious Thoughts and Feelings Not Limited to One Part of Brain

By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: March 9, 2009

Brain researchers trying to understand the neural basis of religious belief have concluded that the brain has no special region or network for this task. Rather, it depends on general networks that exist for other purposes.

A team led by Dr. Jordan Grafman of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke questioned volunteers about their religious beliefs while monitoring the blood flow in their brains with a scanning machine. Extra blood flow is assumed to reflect the activity of neurons in a specific region of the brain.

Different networks of neurons sprang into action when subjects were asked their view of three sets of statements about the religious beliefs, Dr. Grafman and colleagues report in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In all three cases the neural activity in the subjects’ brains corresponded to brain networks known to have other, nonreligious functions. These include the theory of mind networks, used to predict other people’s intentions.

Dr. Andrew Newberg, director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania, said Dr. Grafman’s findings were in line with other research that has so far failed to find any specific structure in the brain that is dedicated to religious belief. “Religion has so many different aspects that it would be very unlikely to find one spot in the brain where religion and God reside,” Dr. Newberg said.

But he expressed doubt as to whether the biological correlates of religious belief, as visualized in brain scans like those taken by Dr. Grafman, in fact captured all of what religion is. “There may be other elements that science is not capable of measuring,” Dr. Newberg said.

In his own work Dr. Newberg looks at subjects undergoing religious experiences, like speaking in tongues or meditating. In “How God Changes Your Brain,” a book being published later this month, Dr. Newberg reports that certain regions of subjects’ brains have enlarged areas of neural activation after many months of intensive meditation.

He questioned whether asking subjects questions about religion when they were not in a religious frame of mind would capture much of interest about religious belief.

Dr. Grafman said that religious cohesion for a common purpose, and the ability to infer what others are thinking, would each have been favored by evolution, along with the theory of mind networks that serves both systems.

Labels: belief, brain, God, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Nicholas Wade, religion, science

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Most religious groups in USA have lost ground, survey finds

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers.

The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.

These dramatic shifts in just 18 years are detailed in the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today. It finds that, despite growth and immigration that has added nearly 50 million adults to the U.S. population, almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990.

"More than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are. They say, 'I'm everything. I'm nothing. I believe in myself,' " says Barry Kosmin, survey co-author.

This is a lengthy article, complete with inter-active graphics and charts - worthwhile exploring. In addition, the following topics are covered: "Religion as a hobby," Social mobility a factor," and "Religious movement in the USA"
Please click on "external source for complete access.

Labels: America, Cathy Lynn Grossman, religion

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New Study Reveals Sources of Resilience and Strength for Black Girls in New York City

March 7, 2009

New Study Reveals Sources of Resilience and Strength for Black Girls in New York City

Black Girls Face Hardships and Challenges

A new and unique report, Black Girls in New York City: Untold Strength and Resilience, was released by the Black Women for Black Girls Giving Circle (BWBG), a funding initiative of The Twenty-First Century Foundation, and the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR). A key finding in the report is that the impact of poverty is especially acute in the lives of Black girls. Approximately three-quarters of the girls in the study live in low-income communities and households. Importantly, the report also explores the positive influences in Black girls' lives. It finds that girls who highly valued spirituality also tended to have an excellent relationship with their primary caretaker. Likewise, those who possessed a strong sense of racial identity were more likely than other girls to be happy on typical day, to receive better grades, to want a college education and believe in their ability to reach their goals.

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 7, 2009 -- A new and unique report, Black Girls in New York City: Untold Strength and Resilience, was released by the Black Women for Black Girls Giving Circle (BWBG), a funding initiative of The Twenty-First Century Foundation, and the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR). The report, commissioned by BWBG from IWPR pairs analysis of original data collected through written surveys and focus groups with a review of existing literature to provide an in-depth examination into the lives of Black girls living within the city of New York.

The report finds that the impact of poverty is especially acute in the lives of Black girls. Approximately three-quarters of the girls in the study live in low-income communities and households.

"Like all Black children, Black girls are at increased risk of living a life of poverty. But poverty plays out in the lives of Black girls in very distinct ways," remarked report author, Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, affiliate scholar of IWPR and Director of the Research, Public Policy and Information Center for African American Women at the National Council of Negro Women.

"Our surveys and conversations with adolescent Black girls in New York City show that many of the girls are at an increased risk of violence because of the economic situation of their families and economic conditions of their communities," emphasized Dr. Jones-DeWeever. "For far too many of the girls in our study, poverty truncates their childhood experience."

Most survey respondents indicated that they worry about their personal safety. Among those who feel unsafe at home, most attribute their uneasiness to drug activity in their community as well as the prevalence of violent crime, fights, and gang activity. Black girls most often indicated that they felt unsafe due to frequent fights at school.

The study also examines issues of self-esteem for Black girls, a group often considered immune to the impacts of mainstream culture on body image and self-confidence. While most of the Black girls in this study seemed largely satisfied with themselves, one-fifth indicated, that if given the opportunity, they would change their bodies in some way. A few expressed keen sensitivity to issues of skin tone. Some were teased harshly for being "too Black." Others even expressed a desire for skin bleaching; and in at least one instance, that ultimate desire was not just to become lighter, but instead, to become white.

Importantly, the report also explores the positive influences in Black girls' lives. It finds that girls who highly valued spirituality also tended to have an excellent relationship with their primary caretaker. Likewise, those who possessed a strong sense of racial identity were more likely than other girls to be happy on typical day, to receive better grades, to want a college education and believe in their ability to reach their goals, and when involved in intimate relationships, to engage in self-protective behavior by insisting upon condom usage.

Please click on "external source" to access the entire article, and the study.

Labels: African-Americans, BWBG, girls, IWPR, poverty, religion, spirituality

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Religion Reduces Anxiety—A Matter of Faith or Fact?

March 06, 2009
by Rachel Balik

This article reference a number of studies, and provides links for further exploration of this most interesting topic.

Two studies show that the brains of religious people have less intense responses to error, suggesting that faith in God can reduce anxiety.

God on the Brain

Many previous studies have tried to determine whether religion has a positive effect on mental health. In February 2008, the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion and the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at Oxford began a three-year study to develop a scientific understanding of why humans believe in God. Researchers will look for evidence that faith in God is a desirable evolutionary trait, and attempt to discover what aspects of religion can be attributed to nature, and which must be taught.

Psychologists compared a group of students trained for a month in mindfulness meditation with another that was taught somatic relaxation. Both techniques reduced stress, but meditation was more effective at reducing “distractive and ruminative thoughts and behaviors,” indicating that it offered a “unique” method for minimizing distress.

Mindful meditation has also been found to alter the structure and functioning of monks’ brains, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2004. Five neuroscientists visited the Dalai Lama to explore neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to rewire itself) and its relation to meditation. The brains of novice and experienced monks were scanned as they meditated; the experienced monks showed a significantly higher level of gamma waves, a type of brain activity that plays a key role in consciousness.

Religion’s effect on the brain has yet to be fully assessed. However, research suggests that incorporating spirituality into children’s lives can help them navigate the difficult choices of adolescence. Several studies have shown that children raised with a spiritual or religious tradition are less likely to make poor choices about drugs and alcohol.

And in hard times, many find comfort in religion. In September, as the foundation of Wall Street began to crumble, many financiers turned to God and organized religion for support. Churches and synagogues throughout New York City reported a higher number of congregants in business suits.

Labels: believers, God, meditation, mental health, Rachel Balik, religion, science, Stroop

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Coaches walk fine line on praying with students

Published on Friday, March 06, 2009
By Jesse J. Holland
The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — Coach Marcus Borden used to bow his head and drop to one knee when his football team prayed. But the Supreme Court on Monday ended the practice when it refused to hear the high school coach’s appeal of a school district ban on employees joining a student-led prayer.

“We’ve become so politically correct in terms of how we deal with religion that it’s being pretty severely limited in schools right now, and individuals suffer,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization that focuses on First Amendment and religious freedom issues.

But Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said some parents had complained about Borden leading prayers before the East Brunswick, N.J., school district ordered him to stop and banned all staff members from joining in student-led prayer.

“The bottom line is people in positions of authority, like a coach, have to be extremely careful about trying to promote their ideas, or implying that if you don’t pray, you may not play,” Lynn said.

The high court without comment refused to reconsider the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision upholding the ban.

The district established the ban in 2005 after parents complained about Borden, coach at East Brunswick High School since 1983, sometimes leading prayers at the Friday afternoon team pasta dinner or in the locker room before games.

Judge D. Michael Fisher, writing for the Philadelphia appeals court, said Borden’s past action of leading the prayers made his head-bowing seem inappropriate. “A reasonable observer would conclude that he is continuing to endorse religion when he bows his head during the pre-meal grace and takes a knee with his team in the locker room while they pray,” Fisher said.

School employees should avoid looking like they’re endorsing religion in any way, said Lynn, whose group represented the school district.

The Supreme Court ended school-sponsored prayer in 1962 when it said that directing that a prayer be said at the beginning of each school day was a violation of the First Amendment. The justices reaffirmed the decision in 2000 by saying a Texas school district was giving the impression of prayer sponsorship by letting students use loudspeakers under the direction of a faculty member for prayers before sporting events.

Labels: Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Jesse J. Holland, prayer, religion, sports, supreme court

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Friday, March 06, 2009

Recent poll finds most teens think lying, cheating can be ethical

A new survey finds that 80 percent of American teenagers believe they are "ethically prepared" for life in the real world but 40 percent believe they have to "break the rules" to succeed.

The poll of 750 teens conducted by Junior Achievement and Deloitte doesn't bode well for religious leaders. It shows that only 3 percent of teens see members of the clergy (pastor, priest, rabbi or imam) as "role models."

In contrast, most teens (54 percent) see their parents as role models, followed by friends (13 percent), teachers or coaches (6 percent) and brother or sister (5 percent). About one in 10 teens (11 percent) say they have no role models.

Key findings of the survey:

•80 percent of teens either somewhat or strongly agree that they are prepared to make ethical business decisions when they join the workforce, yet more than a third (38 percent) think that they have to break the rules at school to succeed.

•More than one in four teens (27 percent) think behaving violently is sometimes, often or always acceptable. Twenty percent of respondents said they had personally behaved violently toward another person in the past year, and 41 percent reported a friend had done so.

•Nearly half (49 percent) of those who say they are ethically prepared believe that lying to parents and guardians is acceptable, and 61 percent have done so in the past year.

•Teens feel more accountable to themselves (86 percent) than they do to their parents or guardians (52 percent), their friends (41 percent) or society (33 percent).

•Only about half (54 percent) cite their parents as role models. Most of those who don't cite their parents as role models are turning to their friends or said they didn't have a role model.

•Only 25 percent said they would be "very likely" to reveal knowledge of unethical behavior in the workplace.

"If teens lack accountability to others," Grocholski said, "the data suggests that their choices may be driven purely by selfinterest and not by interest in the greater good. . . . Teens seem to be experiencing a sense of ethical confusion and relativism, an endemic ethical attitude of 'the ends justify the means.'"

That attitude is compounded by the absence of adult role models, "which can leave a vacuum of ethical guidance as young people enter adulthood," Grocholski said. "With a significant number of teens reporting they don't have an adult role model for ethical behavior, the data raises even more questions about why adults are not viewed as role models and what can be done to fill the gap."

This story is written by Jerry L. Van Marter

Labels: ethics, Jerry L. Van Marter, Junior Achievement, success, teenagers

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How Science Fiction Found Religion

Benjamin A. Plotinsky

Once overtly political, the genre increasingly employs Christian allegory.

There is a young man, different from other young men. Ancient prophecies foretell his coming, and he performs miraculous feats. Eventually, confronted by his enemies, he must sacrifice his own life—an act that saves mankind from calamity—but in a mystery as great as that of his origin, he is reborn, to preside in glory over a world redeemed. Tell this story to one of the world’s 2 billion Christians, and he’ll recognize it instantly. Tell it to a science-fiction and fantasy fan, and he’ll ask why you’re making minor alterations to the plot of The Matrix or Superman Returns. For reasons that have as much to do with global politics as with our cultural moment, some of this generation’s most successful sci-fi and fantasy movie franchises follow an essentially Christian plotline.

Hallelujah!” cries a minor character early in The Matrix, the 1999 cyberpunk flick, directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, that took the nation by storm and, together with its two sequels, raked in about $600 million domestically. “You’re my savior, man, my own personal Jesus Christ.” The character is addressing Thomas Anderson, a restless computer hacker, played by Keanu Reeves, who goes by the handle “Neo” and has sold him some precious illegal software. It’s just one of the movie’s many references to its central inspiration. Neo, we learn eventually, is in fact a nearly divine savior, the Jesus Christ of the bizarre world in which he lives.

Anderson doesn’t realize it yet, however. First, a mysterious man named Morpheus must contact him, conveying a shocking truth: the universe isn’t real but is actually a “Matrix”—a “neural interactive simulation,” a “computer-generated dreamworld”—and the year isn’t 1999 but something like 2199. Early in the twenty-first century, Morpheus explains, human beings and intelligent machines went to war against one another. The machines, seeking a constant source of bioelectrical energy, started to breed people and use them as human generators, keeping them in little cells but convincing them, through illusion-conveying cables attached to their brains, that they still lived in an ordinary world. “You are a slave, Neo,” Morpheus says. “Like everyone else, you were born into bondage.”

Yet escape from bondage is possible. “When the Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit,” Morpheus tells Neo. “It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth. . . . After he died, the Oracle prophesied his return—that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people.” Is Neo this reincarnated savior—the “One” whom Morpheus and his fellow rebels await? We don’t know until near the movie’s end, when a comrade-in-arms betrays Neo and Morpheus. Neo chooses to save Morpheus’s life by surrendering his own. The machines kill him—but then he mysteriously returns to life and obliterates his enemies, to the grand accompaniment of trumpets and a choir. He is indeed the One.

It takes no great perception to recognize how closely this plot tracks the basic Christian narrative, though it conflates the Passion with the End Days, adding the betrayal of a Judas to a messianic Second Coming. Neo’s very name isn’t just an anagram of “One” but also a prefix meaning “new,” a word with important Christian overtones: Jesus is a “new man,” we read in Ephesians 2:15, who says that he brings a new testament.

This is just the beginning of a very interesting and readable article about science fiction and religious influence. Cited are "Superman," and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," among others...Please click on "external source" for complete article.

Labels: Benjamin A. Plotinsky, religion, science fiction

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JCPA Approves Effort To Build Dialogue With Muslim Groups

By Nathan Guttman
Published March 04, 2009,

Washington — The Jewish community’s main umbrella organization for domestic policy has struck a significant blow against internal resistance to dialogue with Muslims.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs adopted a resolution March 2, calling for local and national Jewish groups to build coalitions with Muslim Americans and to oppose anti-Muslim bias.

The resolution comes 18 months after Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism — America’s largest Jewish religious denomination — broke new ground by addressing a major Islamic organization, despite strong criticism from some quarters of the Jewish community.

Previous attempts at engaging with the Muslim community have left some Jewish activists bruised and scarred by skepticism and harsh criticism from their fellow Jews.

One such activist is Rabbi Michael Paley of New York, who warned a room filled with community leaders, “It’s a dangerous conversation.” The danger, Paley said, is not from what is being said inside the room, but rather from how it will be perceived by other Jews.

In August 2007, after already being deeply involved in dialogue with the Muslim community, Paley spoke out in defense of the principal of a planned Arabic-language middle school in Brooklyn who had come under fire mostly from Jewish scholars. The critics accused her, wrongly, of being a “9/11 denier”— someone who rejected Muslim or Arab responsibility for the World Trade Center attack.

Following his public comments on the principal’s behalf, Paley, a scholar-in-residence and director of UJA-Federation of New York’s Jewish resource center, was ordered not to speak on the issue anymore. He told communal activists attending the plenum that pursuing Jewish-Muslim ties requires some courage.

Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim Congregation in Arlington, Va., also encountered criticism when trying to promote dialogue between Jews and Muslims. He said that each attempt to raise the issue brought about challenges from congregants “who believe Islam is essentially anti-Jewish.”

The issue boils down to the question of what makes a legitimate partner on the Muslim side.

But Rabbi Schneier noted that at the behest of Jewish groups, ISNA president Sayeed Syeed intervened with the King of Saudi Arabia last year to convince him to disinvite the Jewish anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta from a high-profile international gathering of religious leaders the monarch was sponsoring.

“This was unprecedented,” he said in an interview last October. “This is the kind of relationship we have been working for.”

A recent Gallup Poll of Muslim Americans, the largest ever conducted, suggested another possible common ground for Muslim and Jews — political affiliation. Both groups have similar voting patterns: Half of the Muslims identify as Democrats, a third as Independents and only a small minority as Republicans. The survey also found American Muslim women to be more highly educated than women in every religious group except Jews.

The JCPA plenum supported the pro-dialogue resolution by a large majority.

The Reform movement’s Mark Pelavin, who presented the resolution, stressed that many local Jewish communities across the country are “looking for guidance” on how to go about reaching out to Muslims.

But the American Jewish Congress’s acting co-executive director, Marc Stern, voted against the resolution and argued that guidance is exactly what it lacks. “It talks only about the easy issues,” he said, noting that the resolution does not address the problems of choosing Muslim interlocutors and setting the agenda for a dialogue.

Labels: American Muslims, dialogue, interfaith, Jewish-American, Judaism, Nathan Guttman

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Religion may keep believers from losing their cool: study

'Opiate of the masses?'

Charles Lewis, National Post
Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Religion may or may not be the opiate of the masses but a new study says it may keep believers from losing their cool when things go wrong.

"These results suggest that religious conviction provides a framework for understanding and acting within one's environment, thereby acting as a buffer against anxiety and minimizing the experience of error," said the study published in the journal Psychological Science.

Led by Michael Inzlicht, a University of Toronto psychology professor, researchers measured activity in the part of the brain - the anterior cingulate cortex - that is important for self control and acts as a warning signal that a mistake is being made.

"It acts as a cortical alarm bell," said Prof. Inzlicht. "And the finding is that the more people believe in God the less the cortical alarm bell rings."

Those with the deepest religious belief were more likely to let mistakes roll off their backs, while those who tend toward atheism were more likely to suffer stress and anxiety after committing an error.

To test stress levels, he and his co-researchers used a "Stroop task." In it, subjects have a series words flashed in front of them. But they are told not to read the word but the colour of the word. For example, the word might be "blue" but if coloured red, the correct answer is red.

"It's difficult to do when the word and colour mismatch," said Prof. Inzlicht.

He said it is possible that a lack of anxiety may not be a good thing, as it may cause a more lackadaisical attitude.

"Anxiety can be beneficial," he said. "It gets you motivated, activated to perform at your best level. But if you're too anxious, your performance is going suffer. You're going to over analyze and think too much. What may be happening is that people with religion have a more optimal level of anxiety."

The study was not meant to argue for or against the existence of a higher being, Prof. Inzlicht said.

"Whether God is real or not is irrelevant to this study."

He called the study "statistically significant," meaning that the results should be repeatable in similar experiments and could act as a predictor to how people might react to real-world stress situations, such as today's crumbling stock markets. Prof. Inzlicht also said that no atheist in the study showed low anxiety and no religious person showed high anxiety.

Two separate studies were done and both showed the same results.

He said initially they were simply trying to understand what factors would activate these brain waves, not investigate religious belief.

At first, they asked people to describe themselves as being liberal or conservative. Then they asked others to describe their level of self-esteem. Neither of those parameters helped predict brain wave activity. It was only when they started asking about a belief in God and religiosity that a pattern developed.

Labels: anxiety, Charles Lewis, Psychological Science, religion

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The Zen Millionaire's 14 Secrets To Happiness

Monday, March 02, 2009
Paul B. Farrell
MarketWatch

This is an entertaining and informative article, well worth the read. Please click on "external source" to access the complete article...

Take a few moments, read the "14 Secrets" below, then finish this simple sentence: "I'm the happiest (and richest) investor because ..."

Impossible? After all, we can't all be "the richest," let alone "the happiest." Yes you can. This is your life. Each of us in our own unique way can be "the happiest and also the richest" ... in your special way, in your world, all by yourself. You decide. Just do it.

Here are a few reminders, my Zen Millionaire's 14 secrets to being happy and rich. Maybe they'll jar your memory, maybe bring a smile, maybe help you see that at this one moment in time, in your own unique way, you really are the happiest, richest and luckiest investor living in the whole wide world:

1. Happiness is making others happy

2. Happiness is doing what you love (even if you're not doing it)

"Success is getting what you want," says Uncle Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha. "Happiness is wanting what you get."

3. Happiness is some Cheerios and a warm puppy

For Peanuts' creator Charles Schultz, it's very simple: "Happiness is a warm puppy." And pure joy in Anna Quindlen's "A Short Guide to A Happy Life:" "Get a life in which you pay attention to the baby as she scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger. Turn off the cell phone. Turn off your regular phone, for that matter. Keep still. Be present. Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you." God bless Snoopy and cheery Cheerios!

4. Happiness is getting lost in whatever you're doing

5. Happiness is getting into action and doing what's right

6. Happiness is also doing nothing, just whistling

7. Happiness is faking it so good you really are happy

8. Happiness is more a bunch of little moments than big deals

9. Happiness is knowing when 'enough is enough'

10. Happiness is not being attached to money and stuff

Remember Henry Miller's famous opening line in "Tropic of Cancer:" "I have no money, no resources, no hopes, I am the happiest man alive."

11. Happiness is spending less than you earn

Americans know this truth, from Charles Dickens' famous formula: "Annual income, 20 pounds; annual expenditure, 19 pounds; result happiness. Annual income, 20 pounds; annual expenditure, 21 pounds; result misery."

12. Happiness is doing what you really love

13. Happiness is being of service ... to your world

In "The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success," Deepak Chopra says: "Everyone has a purpose in life, a unique gift of special talent to give others ... ask yourself, 'How am I best suited to serve humanity?' Answer that question and put it into practice.

14. Happiness is about being 'rich in spirit'

"Instead of focusing almost exclusively on our finances," says Ralph Warner in "Get A Life -- You Don't Need A Million To Retire Well," we "should be thinking about the things that truly make a difference in our later years; our health, spiritual life, relationships with family and friends, and having a plate full of interesting things to do."

Now add your comment, complete this sentence: "I am the happiest (and richest) investor because ..." The prize? It comes from within, an investment that will continue growing, making you richer in "spirit and in fact" as "you cause happiness wherever you go" today, and every day. And share this column: Email it to friends and loved ones.

Labels: happiness, money, Paul B. Farrell, service

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No Holds Barred: The spiritual roots of the economic crisis

Mar 3, 2009 20:00 | Updated Mar 4, 2009 9:59
By SHMULEY BOTEACH

You don't have to be an expert to see that no one in America really knows how to fix our economy. It's come down to trial and error; throw trillions of dollars against a wall and see what sticks. Still the Dow Jones tumbles, still the recession deepens. One day we hear that only by rescuing Detroit's jet-setting auto executives and Wall Street billionaires will we stabilize our economy. The next day we're told the exact opposite, that bailing out these spendthrifts encourages the greedy and slipshod business practices that got us into this mess. The other day a 22-year-old man who has never held a job told me he bought his girlfriend a four-carat diamond ring and took her around the world. When I asked him how he could afford such extravagance, he told me he simply put it all on credit cards. The bank who issued them has now been bailed out, and so you have Americans who can scarcely afford clothes for their families picking up the tab for this man's golfball diamond. And this is the way we rescue our economy?

AN OLD JEWISH aphorism says that the difference between a smart man and a wise man is that a smart man knows how to extricate himself from a situation in which a wise man would never have found himself. As the sky falls around us, we've learned is that America, for all its smarts, lacks wisdom. And this time even our smarts may not extricate us.

Our current economic crisis is born of a spiritual crisis. Greed is a sickness of the soul. For all our wealth and high standard of living, we Americans are the most unhappy nation on earth, consuming three quarters of the world's anti-depressants. The modern history of our country is built on a lie that says affluence, fame, and a shopping addiction are the secrets to happiness.

None of these reflect authentic American values. George Washington refused to accept pay as commander of the Continental Army. Abraham Lincoln practiced justice even though he was killed for it. Martin Luther King lived in a modest home even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. These men understood that what made America great was its commitment to human liberty and dignity, and not only to a high standard of living.

In our time there is little to counter the consummate consumer hucksters. Religion has been neutralized by becoming politicized. New-age spirituality focuses on finding inner bliss rather than fixing external problems. And the American obsession with therapy is only leading more men and women to depend on professionals to navigate their lives rather than cultivating the inner voice of conscience which is the true hallmark of a wise adult.

America will only be healed if we replace the consumer itch with a whole new set of values: values which hold that money is a means to an end, and not an end in itself; values which teach that greatness comes, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, from the content of one's character rather than the content of one's bank account.

Americans have to stop focusing on a career and start focusing on a calling. Find something in life that requires fixing and devote yourself to healing it.

All of this must begin in childhood. We must teach our children that school grades are less important than intellectual curiosity, the kind of mental engagement that has them playing fewer video games and reading more books.

We can renew America, but it won't come solely through shoring up our banks, but through shoring up our families.

Labels: America, family, Shmuley Boteach, spiritual crisis, the economy, values

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'Do not resuscitate' vs. 'allow natural death'

By Jennifer Booth Reed, USA TODAY

Could three words change the way severely ill patients and their loved ones think about death?

Spiritual leaders and some medical staff at hospitals across the USA believe so, and they are reconsidering how they pose one of life's toughest questions:

Do you want to sign a "Do Not Resuscitate" form?

When they ask, family members often balk. They believe they are giving up, condemning a loved one to death.

Some are now asking the question a different way:

Do you want to allow natural death?

Do not resuscitate. Allow natural death. Both phrases are uttered at the same time — the moment when doctors believe they have exhausted treatment options and death is inevitable.

"More often than not, the body language of the family will soften" when the phrase "allow natural death" is used, says the Rev. Cynthia Brasher, spiritual services director. "It shifts the burden."

Specific meaning for 'do not resuscitate'

A study published last year in the Journal of Medical Ethics measured how often nurses, student nurses and people with no health care backgrounds would endorse allowing death to progress when they were approached with the phrase "do not resuscitate" vs. "allow natural death." The nurses were likely to support the dying process regardless, but all three groups reported a greater likeliness to forgo resuscitation if "allow natural death" was used.

Some intensive care doctors say the words "do not resuscitate" can't yet disappear. That phrase carries a specific command to the attending medical team.

Only about 20% of Americans have advanced directives leaving their loved ones to make the call if they are too sick to do so. Brasher says she knows of only one other hospital in Florida — the Miami Children's Hospital — that uses similar terminology.

It is not clear, she says, how many other health organizations across the country use it, but enough are doing so to pique the interest of scholars who are studying how words affect end-of-life decisions.

"Our argument is it's more humane and more compassionate," Brasher says.

The semantic shift is a sliver of a broader question: how to talk about death, disease and the limitations of medicine.

The conversations are more crucial than ever as doctors amass an arsenal of technologies to keep people alive — and a growing list of ethical dilemmas about the nature of life artificially supported.

"Allow natural death" isn't a new concept.

Samira Beckwith, CEO of Hope Hospice in Fort Myers, says a statewide task force a decade ago looked at adopting the language on its Do Not Resuscitate forms. That didn't happen, Beckwith says, but it got health care providers talking. Hope Hospice providers use "allow natural death," along with other terminology, to make sure patients and family understand their options.

"Our greatest responsibility is to listen to the person and find the language that is best understood by them," Beckwith says.

St. David's Health Care in Texas adopted the "allow natural death" terminology eight years ago, championed by the manager of spiritual care, the late Rev. Chuck Meyer, and his successor, the Rev. Amy Donohue-Adams.

"I think people are much more comfortable with that," says Donohue-Adams, who first introduced the switch at the system's Round Rock Medical Center in Texas. "They hear 'allow natural death' and say, 'Well, that's exactly what we want. We want a death that is as natural as possible.' "

" 'Allow natural death' to my ears is ambiguous between 'do not resuscitate' and 'comfort measures only,' " Chessa says.

He suggests using no such terminology but rather explaining patients' options with specific examples of potential life-prolonging therapies.

Many hospitals, Chessa says, are using lengthy, specific end-of-life order sets to decide on everything from CPR to dialysis to intubation to blood transfusions.

Dosani and Marilyn Kole, the Lee Memorial medical director for intensive care, say explaining terminology, options and implications of their choices will allow family members to make the best decisions for their loved ones.

"That's one of the things lacking in our medical community," Dosani says. "We need to take time and educate.

Labels: do not resuscitate, Jennifer Booth Reed, natural death

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Survey reveals makeup of rarely studied group: Muslim-Americans

By The Associated Press
March 2, 2009

Gallup Organization interviews with a random sample of 946 Muslim Americans in 2008 shed light on the demographics of this rarely studied group:

RACE: Muslims are the nation's most racially diverse religious group. At least a third of Muslim-Americans are black — mostly converts or children of converts to Islam. "The significant proportion of native-born converts to Islam is a characteristic unique to the United States," Gallup said. More than a quarter call themselves white, while nearly one in five identified as Asian and about as many classified themselves as "other."

RELIGIOSITY: Muslim-Americans are more religious than other Americans, but less likely than those in predominantly Muslim countries to say religion plays an important part in their lives — 80 percent of Muslim-Americans compared to virtually all in Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Morocco, for example.

IDEOLOGY: Muslim-Americans are the U.S. religious group most evenly spread out along the political spectrum — 29% liberal, 38% moderate, 25% conservative.

PARTISANSHIP: 49 percent of Muslim-Americans called themselves Democrats, 8 percent Republican and 37 percent independent. Gallup found that among all Americans in 2008 34 percent identified as Democratic, 26 percent Republican and 33 percent independent. But voter registration was relatively low among Muslim-Americans.

OTHER DEMOGRAPHICS: Muslim-Americans skew young, with 36 percent age 18-29, double the rate for the general population. They're more likely than other Americans to be single. Forty percent have at least a college degree, compared to 29 percent of Americans overall. Muslims may be slightly more likely than other Americans to report low household income.

Results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points for Muslim-Americans, 0.2 points for all Americans.

Labels: American Muslims, Gallup Poll, ideology, partisanship, race, religiosity

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Happiness Is Looking Up

Happiness Is Looking Up
J. Walker Smith,
Sunday, March 1, 2009

Productivity: Happiness Is Looking UpA recent story in the new york times bore a telling headline, "Even if You Can't Buy It, Happiness Is Big Business." It's true. The happiness trend has not appeared out of nowhere. In fact, it is an expected correlate of an increasingly materially affluent society, a pattern of development called "post-materialism."

In his work running the World Values Survey, University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart has found that as material development increases, value priorities gradually pivot from materialistic to humanistic. In the United States, journalist Bill Bishop found survey data clearly shows the pivot point for this post-materialism shift occurred during the autumn of 1965, and got a lot of attention at the time. This trend has accelerated during the last two decades.

As everything around them has gone awry, people look within for strength and inspiration. They feel no hesitation in doing so, drawing from the reserve of self-assurance built up during the consumer empowerment revolution of the past decade. What they find within is a determination not to be daunted or overwhelmed and an ability to look up even as things head down, from which optimism and happiness find expression in the marketplace. Indeed, getting past fear makes people happy.

People are learning that it takes work to be happy. That happiness is not an entitlement and must be learned and earned, particularly if it is to be sustained and not a transitory moment of elation. In the Yankelovich monitor, 74 percent agree that "people have unrealistic expectations about how easy it is to find and maintain happiness."

Two generations are poised to embrace the work involved in happiness - baby boomers and millennials. Boomers are transitioning to a late life stage in which they want one more chance at the fulfillment and meaning that was the early promise of their generation, especially given the events of the past year. Millennials are now coming into their own as the so-called civic generation, and want careers and lifestyles that contribute to issues of substance and impact. Witness the turnaround in youth voting during last year's presidential election in which millennials accounted for 90 percent of Obama's popular vote margin. Both generations are determined to find happiness in everything they do going forward.

The happiness trend is now finding expression in the marketplace. The Happiness & Its Causes conference has sold out in Sydney, London, Singapore and San Francisco and is now entering its fourth year. Pepsi unveiled its "Optimism" campaign during the New Year's holiday. Dunkin' Donuts launched its You Kin' Do It campaign the first week of January. Coke announced its Open Happiness campaign a week later. In the middle of last October's financial meltdown, Oprah showed off her impeccable timing again with the release of O's Big Book of Happiness, just what we needed when we needed it and right on trend with what we want more of right now.

Labels: happiness, humanism, J. Walker Smith, materialism, Ronald Inglehart

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Questions Raised Anew About Religion in Military

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: February 28, 2009

Page one of a two-page article. Please click on "external source" for complete article

WASHINGTON — Terry Bradshaw stared intently into the camera, his eyes moist, as the interviewer asked him if his faith in God had helped him through his bouts with depression.

“Oh, yeah,” answered Mr. Bradshaw, the Hall of Fame quarterback. “Well, I’m a Christian for one thing so, yeah, I’d been praying.”

The viewers of this video were military personnel who were watching an official military production dealing with depression, suicide and “the importance of faith.”

The screening of the suicide-prevention video and other recent incidents are reviving questions that the Pentagon had hoped to put behind it years ago: what the proper role of religion should be in the military and whether a pro-Christian culture permeates the armed forces.

Military officials have worked to enforce tougher restrictions on proselytizing and religious bias since a flare-up over religious discrimination in 2005 at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where the football coach posted a locker room banner for “Team Jesus.” Officials said they had made great strides in the last few years, with training for officers and a concerted effort at the inclusion of all faiths.

“I’d be wrong to state that every chaplain does it right 100 percent of the time, but we work very hard at it,” said Carleton Birch of the Army’s Chief of Chaplains Office. “Chaplains ascribe to pluralism. We represent our own faith while respecting other faith groups.”

Signs of continued friction over the issue still abound, however. In a memorandum distributed last month at the Air Force Academy in response to several recent complaints about religious bias, base leaders reminded faculty members that “the Air Force is ‘officially neutral’ when it comes to belief systems.” The memorandum said cadets should not be made to feel that they would get better jobs by going to optional Bible study sessions.

Still, some military personnel and activists opposed to what they see as “forced religion” in the military said they believed the problem had continued largely unabated, and they said private groups like the Officers’ Christian Fellowship and the Campus Crusade for Christ’s Military Ministry maintained an outsized influence on many bases.

“The Army enforces policies against racism and sexism, but doesn’t bat an eye at these kinds of religious discrimination,” said Specialist Dustin Chalker, an Army medic based at Fort Detrick, in Maryland, who was raised in a Christian home but is now an atheist. “Why is it acceptable that soldiers are unable to serve this nation without attending state-led religious practices they find offensive and false?”

Specialist Chalker is now a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit that accuses the military of ignoring laws and policies banning mandatory religious practices. Specialist Chalker, who earned a Purple Heart in Iraq, remembers returning from the war in 2007 and attending a mandatory ceremony that began and ended with a Christian prayer. The experience, Specialist Chalker said, was “humiliating and dehumanizing.”

Leaders of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group that brought the lawsuit against the Pentagon, point to episodes that they said represented a pattern of improper religious influence: official military retreats at off-base churches, the appearance of uniformed officers at religious events, displays of crucifixes at military chapels in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the practice of “dipping” the American flag at the altar of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., among others.

The foundation says the Terry Bradshaw video represents only the latest example of what it considers an improper blurring of secular and religious issues.

Mr. Bradshaw appears in a half-hour interview to discuss his experience with depression, with outtakes appearing in a six-minute video that includes a segment called “the importance of faith.” A suicide-prevention manual, training Army leaders in using the Bradshaw video, includes a “talking point” saying, “Spirituality is an invaluable ingredient in his battle with this disease.”

Chaplain Birch said testimonials like those from Mr. Bradshaw helped soldiers deal with depression. “No one’s trying to force religion on anyone,” he said of the video. “But someone’s personal faith testimony is part of their story, and we’re not going to go around and censor it.”

Labels: Eric Lichtblau, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Pentagon, religion

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ASKING THE CLERGY: Is there a relationship between art and religion?

February 28, 2009

Rabbi Johanan Bickhardt, Congregation Beth Sholom, Long Beach:

Without question, there is a powerful relationship between art and religion. Scripture tell us in Genesis 28:2: "You shall make Holy Vestments ... for honor and splendor." The direct commandment to create vestments that are enticing and aesthetically pleasing were to provide splendor into the holy service and bring honor to the office to those who held it. Houses of worship through the centuries always have had an eye for adornment and to create an atmosphere that was spiritually uplifting... In the words of the great 20th century writer Franz Werfel (1890-1945); "Religion is the everlasting dialogue between humanity and God. Art is its soliloquy."

Pastor James Lupis, Grace and Truth Church, Coram:

Since the beginning of time, there has always been a relationship between art and religion. Before the written word, man communicated what he felt and believed by art. I believe that in this world today, which has become mostly visual, art can be a great way to communicate our belief in God...Jesus painted pictures in the minds of men and women in the form of parables. The relationship of art and religion has never been stronger or more important than the time in which we are living. I believe that men and women and especially children can effectively communicate and minister their personal belief in God through art, and more importantly, glorify him in the process.

Pastor Joseph Costa, Blessed Hope Baptist Church, Coram:

...Art, as well as other forms of creativity, such as music or writing, can be a great way to connect with faith. I also am aware that art does not necessarily have to express anything other than that which its author intended. Some art has certain appeal to some, while it may actually be viewed as offensive to others. My church has sponsored a cable show the past seven years, called "Drawing Men to Christ," where a gospel preacher draws as he preaches. It has proved to be successful in that he keeps the attention of his audience by his artwork while at the same time his message of either salvation or sanctification settles into the soul of the listener.

The Rev. Richard Lehman, director of pastoral care, Long Island Council of Churches, Hempstead and Riverhead:

Art is often expressed in religious ideas and symbols...I think it is great to have art in the church. Art is an expression of a person's creativity. The church should always encourage creativity. I'm a musician, which is another creative expression. Some of the greatest music there is was written for the church. Christmas without "The Messiah" would be a distinct loss. The church would be very much at a loss without music and art.

Labels: art, church, clergy, music, Rabbi Johanan Bickhardt, religion, worship

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Women More Religious Than Men

By Robert Roy Britt, Editorial Director
28 February 2009

A new analysis of survey data finds women pray more often then men, are more likely to believe in God, and are more religious than men in a variety of other ways.

The latest findings, released Friday, are no surprise, only confirming what other studies have found for decades. Still, the new numbers illustrate interesting and stark differences. They come from a fresh review of data that was collected in a 2007 survey and initially released last year by the Pew Research Center. The percent of women (and then men) who:

* Are affiliated with a religion: 86 (79).
* Have absolutely certain belief in a God or universal spirit: 77 (65).
* Pray at least daily: 66 (49).
* Have absolutely certain belief in a personal God: 58 (45).

The survey involved interviews with more than 35,000 U.S. adults by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

George H. Gallup, Jr., in an analysis for the Gallup polling organization back in 2002, wrote that the differences in religiosity between men and women have been shown consistently across the previous seven decades of polls.

Among the reasons women tend to be more religious:

* Mothers have tended to spend more time raising children, which often means overseeing their involvement in church activities.
* Though two-income households are more common today, in the past women often had more flexible daily schedules, permitting more church involvement during the week.
* Women tend to be more open about sharing personal problems and are more relational than men. Other Gallup research shows a higher proportion of women than men say they have a "best friend" in their congregation, he wrote.

Lastly, Gallup argued, "More so than men, women lean toward an empirical [depending on experience or observation] rather than a rational basis for faith."

There may be another reason. Rodney Stark, a professor of sociology and comparative religion at the University of Washington, flips the question around: Why are men less religious?

"Studies of biochemistry imply that both male irreligiousness and male lawlessness are rooted in the fact that far more males than females have an underdeveloped ability to inhibit their impulses, especially those involving immediate gratification and thrills," Stark argued in a 2002 paper in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

The upshot is that some men are shortsighted and don't think ahead, Stark said, and so "going to prison or going to hell just doesn't matter to these men."

Stark may have purposely overstated the case, but you get the point. My wife suggested another reason: Life is simply harder for women. While I can't argue with that, I also can't find any research connecting that to prayer or church attendance.

Labels: faith, George Gallup, God, Pew Research Center survey, prayer, religion, Robert Roy Britt, spirituality, women

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