Religion News for 9/16/2009

Hello readers! Today marks the 1843 death of Ezekiel Hart, the first Jew elected to representative office in the British Empire. And today in religion news...

• David Gibson at Politics Daily does an exceptional job at delineating the statements of official Catholics on the issue of healthcare reform. DC's Archbishop Wuerl has also published a column on the issue. (PD, 2)
• The government of the Philippines and Muslim separatists from the south of that country are working towards peace, and allowing international monitoring. (AP)
• Anti-abortion group Operation Rescue is "completely out of money," according to OR president Troy Newman. One abortion provider previously targeted by them isn't so sure. (KC Star)
• Cuba is now allowing religious services in its prisons. (Reuters FaithWorld)

Religion News for 9/15/2009

Hello readers! Today in 1352, Ewostatewos, a monk and leader in the formation of the Ethiopian Church, died in Armenia. And in religion news today...

• Alfred Gottschalk, a leader of Reform Judaism and a Holocaust survivor, died last Saturday from complications related to a car accident. (LAT)
• Barack Obama is walking a tightrope with regards to "faith-based initiatives" begun by Bush. (WaPo)
• One filmmaker claims he couldn't find a distributor in the US for his movie about Darwin because of the ongoing conflict about Darwin's theory of evolution. (Christian Post)

Religion News for 9/14/2009

Hello readers! On today in 1975, Elizabeth Ann Seton was canonized, becoming the first native-born American saint. In religion news today:

• Frequent pro-life protester James Poullion was killed on Friday. (Politics Daily-1-2)
• Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minn., is the country's first Muslim congressman. He had a few interesting comments for the Religion Newswriters Association. (Articles of Faith)
• Indonesia's Aceh province has approved stoning to death for adultery and other harsh punishments for what some lawmakers see as amoral. Human rights activists, including the gay community, are protesting. (SFGate)
• Atheists and agnostics held a conference in Indianapolis over the weekend. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

And it's not news, but I thought this column in Sojourners was pretty poignant.

Remembering 9/11/2001

In retrospect, the path I've taken to blogging about religion seems almost natural. Eight years ago today, I sat in my first journalism class during college. I and my classmates watched the second plane hit on television. Most of us were hoping to become journalists of one kind or another, and this class provided an ample chance for reflection--was reporting on this kind of pain and tragedy something we wanted for our lives?

In the years since, I have realized that this kind of thing passes. Life goes on. Talking later with my mother, who has now passed on, about her thoughts when this happened, she explained to me that the TV had been on mute when she was watching everything unfold. She heard a song in her head:

Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe

The universe...it's eternal. It's never ending, and no matter what happens in our lives, life goes on. And in a world where we must all ultimately live with each other, the best thing we can do is to forgive the actions of those who have done us harm, and try to pursue a righteous life. We can try to understand each other, and prevent violence and tragedy from happening again. Love someone today.

photo, "Pentagon Memorial," by cliff1066

Religion News for 9/11/2009

Hello readers. Today marks the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I wish all of you a peaceful day of reflection and contemplation.

• The NYT has a wonderful essay by a Muslim woman explaining 9/11 to her child. (NYT)
• The Boston Globe's religion writer lays out a few ways immigrants are changing the face of religion in America. (Articles of Faith)
• A new group called "What's Your Response?" is fighting human trafficking, which is still under the radar here in the US. (Sojourners, CNS)
• Pope Benedict XVI will be meeting with artists from all over the world in November, in order to re-kindle the relationship between religion and art. (CNS)

Judaism, Liberalism, Youth

Norman Podhoretz had an opinion column in yesterday's WSJ, asking the question "Why are Jews Liberals?" His book, of the same title, I saw today at a bookstore. As a 26-year-old living in a city with an admittedly small but nonetheless visible Jewish community, I was perplexed as to why anybody might ask this question. Most of the Jews I know, who are my age or not far from it, wouldn't question their liberal political beliefs.

Podhoretz himself traces back the integration of American Jews into the Democratic party to the days of FDR in his article. And it goes without saying that party loyalty dies hard in the U.S. among ethnic, and to some extent, religious groups. Of course, any population gets more conservative gets with time and success, as Podhoretz did decades ago.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, "The Jewish population is aging, compared to 1990, and is substantially older than that of the total U.S. population." But it is worth noting the influence of youth on the aging Jewish population of the country.

Among one of my closest friends is one radically liberal young man who has worked in the Palestinian territories and Israel to come to a peaceful solution. He's of Jewish descent, but non-practicing. A recent article in Sojourners profiles a similar person. As younger generations of American Jews are more cognizant of the problems facing the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they may start doing more to solve the conflict. Why? Because the distance of their Americanism may give them a chance to step back from immediate involvement, but the intimacy of the US-Israel relationship provides an urgency, not to mention the ancestral link to the conflict. This suggests to me that the younger generation of Jews is less attached to the question of support for Israel, and more attached to the idea of peace.

Cultural Jews, to borrow a phrase, take an increasingly important role in the mind of the younger Jewish population. To take a kind of offbeat example, you can further look at the influence of entertainers such as foul-mouthed comedy princess Sarah Silverman, and her urging of (NSFW) young Jews to get their grandparents on Obama's side via her "Great Schlepp."

So why are Jews liberals? Not being Jewish, I can only speak from an outside perspective, but to the extent that I might be so bold, I would argue that the older Jewish community has a strong bond with its progressive though often non-religious youth, which tends towards liberalism.

Other theories? I'd love to hear them. And what to make of the "buyer's remorse" Podhoretz hopes for in the introduction of his article?

photo by zeevveez

Religion News for 9/10/2009

Hello, readers! Today in 422, Celestine I began his reign as pope. And today...

• Mohammed is the third most popular boy's name in England. (Daily Mail)
• One in 33 women has been the target of sexual advances by a religious leader, according to a new study by Baylor University. (WaPo)
• Hassen Abdellah, president of the Dar-ul-Islam mosque in Elizabeth, N.J., is trying to get 50,000 Muslims to pray on Capitol Hill on September 25th. (Islam on Capitol Hill-site contains automatic audio, WaPo, WaPo)
• Some Jewish communities are using Rosh Hashanah (September 18th this year) as a reason to emphasize stewardship of the earth. (RNS)

Religion News for 9/9/2009

Happy 9/9/09, readers!

• The Washington Post claims that the Christian Right is being resuscitated by the healthcare debate. (WaPo)
• Mahmoud Amedinejad has put a woman in his presidential Cabinet. (Miami Herald)
• Americans see Muslims as facing more religious discrimination than people of other faiths. (Pew)
• A traffic sign near the University of Utah was the victim of vandals/atheists. (Salt Lake Trib)
• The President of the Columbia Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State has problems with state officials and public prayer. (The State)

Books!

I read quite a lot - you might have noticed from my earlier posts. And lately I've been reading a lot of religion books. Since this is my first daily update I figured I'd keep the content pretty light, and just let you all know what religion-related books I've been reading/intend to read soon.

1. What the Buddha Taught, by Walpola Rahula - Having asked the one close Buddhist friend I have what she thought about this book, she advised me that it was a pretty solid introduction. There are subsets and sects within Buddhism, as there are in any major religion, but this is a wonderful start if you're trying to understand the broad picture.

I have a pretty much scholarly interest in Buddhism but the lightness of being I felt when reading this book was a wonderful thing. There is a lot about Buddhism that makes a solid logical sense. It was this that really encouraged me to learn more about it, particularly since the Buddhists I know are journalists or scientists by trade. Whether you want to identify Buddhism as religious, philosophical, or otherwise, it is ultimately comforting and joyful, and I feel very satisfied knowing more about it.

2. The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis - I am a huge fan of Lewis, as is probably anybody who grew up going to Catholic school and reading the Chronicles of Narnia. As I got older I grew into his Out of the Silent Planet series. With Screwtape, feel like I'm finally reading a Lewis book meant solely for adults. I'm about a quarter of the way through, and the premise is entertaining, the concepts of demons and devils keep the book lively, and I am yet again happy to read the indirect meditations of a great Christian scholar. As far as I can tell, the book contains numerous prescriptions against temptation and for greater peace in one's life. There might be no writer so convincing of Christianity's virtues and yet so cognizant of the faults of the churches which represent it.

3. Confessions, by Augustine of Hippo - I have yet to really delve into this book, but simply happy to read what is essentially the inner struggle of a saint. Few Catholic saints are regarded as Augustine's intellectual equal, and perhaps what lies behind that is the description of his redemption. I would welcome any reader's comments to help me through this book: passages I should meditate on, ones that mean much to you. Let me know what I should look for in Augustine's Confessions.

Religion News for 9/8/2009

Greetings, readers! So I'm back from a hiatus and am considering today the launch of Religionography in earnest. As such, I will be doing my best to include several religion stories in a roundup, and write one longer meditation/feature/musing of my own. So, below is the first roundup. I hope you find something enjoyable and thought provoking.

• WaPo writer Monica Hesse is under fire from both supporters and opponents of gay marriage. (GR)
• Fr. Carl Kabat, an elderly Catholic priest who has spent years in prison for peace protests, hasn't given up. (NYT)
• Sojourners is hosting a "justice revival" in Dallas during November. (Sojourners)
• How heavy is your area on mortal sin? Check out the infographic from Wired and find out. (Wired)
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is moving towards ordination of gays and lesbians. (ELCA, Tammeus)