TruthBook Religious News Blog

This article highlights a prime-time TV program dedicated to Thomas Merton to be aired on Dec 19th. It looks like a worthwhile program, but you'll have to look for it in your time-zone.

By RAY WADDLE • December 6, 2008

America's most famous monk lived up the road in Kentucky at Gethsemani monastery, writing books and wrestling with his own questions and impulses, until his sudden death 40 years ago next week.

People read him today because he lived what he wrote about, seeking to renounce futile self-centeredness in order to discover the freedom of living with God. As one commentator put it, he thrilled at the life of prayer the way others thrill at Notre Dame football.

A fine new documentary, Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton (prime-time debut on Channel 8 is 7 p.m. Dec. 19), gives insight into a remarkable man's conversion to God and solitude, and his struggle against fame. (The helpful companion book, $39.95, includes the DVD.)

Convinced that secular success is a sham, he entered the monastery's disciplines. He entered, also, out of self-disgust, after a destructive college year in England (rumors were he fathered a child) and a bohemian embrace of New York City. At Gethsemani, he surrendered to something new, the peace of God, which emboldened him to speak against forces of modern war and modern despair.

He lived often as a hermit at the monastery but corresponded with popes, poets, laypeople and children. He believed contemplation was not just for monks but available to anyone in the turbulent world.

He dreamed of peace

Fearless belief in God gave him confidence that he had something to learn from Asian spirituality. He attended a conference of Christian and Buddhist monks in Thailand when, on Dec. 10, 1968, he was electrocuted by a faulty electric fan in his hotel room. He was 53.

The 21st century has yet to live up to this 20th-century risk-taker and his dreams of reconciliation and peacemaking. But let's not make a cult of Merton. Instead, seek his books, like New Seeds of Contemplation, where he says, "If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed — but hate these things in yourself, not in another.''

Labels: Gethsemani, God, monk, Ray Waddle, Thomas Merton, TV

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Friday, November 14, 2008

Survey: Americans Believe Religious Values Are 'Under Attack'

Los Angeles, CA, November 14, 2008 …

A majority of the American people believes that religious values are "under attack," and that the people who run the television networks and major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans, according to a survey from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued today.

American Attitudes on Religion, Moral Values and Hollywood, a national poll of 1,000 American adults conducted in October 2008 by The Marttila Communications Group, found that 61% of the American people continue to believe that religious values in this country are "under attack." The poll also found that 59% of Americans agree that "the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans."

The poll was released during the League's 2008 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

"These findings point to the challenges that we face in dealing with issues of religion in society," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "The belief that religion is under attack underlies the drive to incorporate more religion into American public life. Disturbingly, 43% of Americans believe there is an organized campaign by Hollywood and the national media to weaken the influence of religious values in this country."

Among the main findings of the ADL survey, American Attitudes on Religion, Moral Values and Hollywood:

• 61% of Americans say they believe that "Religious values are under attack in this country," while 36% disagree with that statement (graph). 59% agree that "the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans." And 43% hold the view that Hollywood and the national media are waging an organized campaign to "weaken the influence of religious values in this country." (graph)

• Significantly fewer Americans believe today that Jews control the TV and film industries. The survey showed that 63% disagree with the notion that "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," while only 22% agree. When ADL conducted its first survey on anti-Semitic attitudes in 1964, nearly half of all Americans believed that the television and film industries were run by Jews. (graph)

• There is surprising support for censorship. Nearly 40% of the American people support the notion that "dangerous ideas should be banned from public school libraries," and nearly the same number of Americans disagree with the statement that "censoring books is an old-fashioned idea." (graph)

• Nearly half of those surveyed – 49 percent – believe that the United States is becoming "too tolerant in its acceptance of different ideas and lifestyles;" 47 percent disagreed with that statement. (graph)

"It is troubling that so many Americans feel as if the output of Hollywood is part of an organized campaign to undermine religious values in this country and believe that censorship is acceptable," said Mr. Foxman. "It shows that in this age of pervasive media and the widening availability of the Internet, many Americans still maintain a very parochial view toward the information age, and even believe in censorship to 'protect morality.' If anything, it points to the need for a greater awareness of the fundamental role that the First Amendment has played in helping religious freedom in America to be sustained, and indeed, to flourish."

The survey was conducted by the Marttila Communications Group, a Boston-based public opinion research firm that has conducted numerous national surveys for ADL measuring American attitudes on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues. The survey has a margin of error of +/-3.09 percent. For many questions, the survey used the technique of split sampling," a process in which the 1,000 sample was split into two demographically representative national samples of 500 respondents each. The margin of error for questions answered by 500 respondents is +/- 4.38 percent.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

Labels: American Attitudes on Religion, Americans, Anti-Defamation League, censorship, Marttila Communications Group, Moral Values and Hollywood, religion, religious values, TV

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

7 Things that Sap Your Spiritual Energy

Friday July 25, 2008

by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach and 50 pound big-time-loser.

What is seriously sapping your spiritual energy? Your resolve? Your energy?

Our Lady of Weight Loss's
Top Seven Things that Sap Your Spiritual Energy

1. CLUTTER silently gnaws, bites, and nibbles away at your calm center as it takes up valuable air and space.

What to do? Clean up, of course! Make order (humans love order). Read "Miracle of Clearing Proportions."

2. LOUD NOISES grate, aggravate, annoy and irritate and can wind you up and drive you mad!

What to do? Wear ear plugs! From $1 to $187.50

3. AIR POLLUTION can negatively impact on our health, cause coughs, burning eyes, breathing problems and even death (which would surely sap spiritual energy).

What to do? True, we have no choice but to breathe, however, we can avoid high-traffic industrialized areas on poor air quality days (my head is spinning that we've created such a planet). Protect yourself and the air you breath!

4. DEHYDRATION dries, shrivels and depresses. Our bodies are more than 75 percent water, our blood is more than 80 percent water, our muscles more than 75 percent water and our brains more than 76 percent water! We NEED water to think!

What to do? Bottoms up, plain and simple. Drink 6 to 8 glasses every day! Our Lady has plenty to say on the topic!

5. WORRYING clutters the mind, drains, takes up valuable thinking time and carries some heavy-duty negative health effects with it.

What to do? Meditate, listen to music, chant!

6. SLEEP DEPRIVATION brings on feelings of irritability, impatience and depression. It weakens the immune system and leaves dark circles on ones eyes.

What to do? Get a good night's rest! (Duh!) Stanford U. has some tips on sleeping!

7. TELEVISION deadens the mind and puts you into a non-active, non-thinking state. You disappear all right, but not in a good way.

What to do? Escape into a book. Or into something interactive that teaches. I highly recommend EdHeads.org. Have FUN!

Spread the word, NOT the icing,
Janice

Labels: anxiety, Janice Taylor, pollution, spiritual energy, TV