Supreme Silliness

The notable lack of religious diversity on the Supreme court is a pretty old and tired topic. If you didn't already know, there are now, with the retirement of John Paul Stevens, only Catholics and Jews on the court.Stevens was the only Protestant, as this article in the New York Times points out.
But I found one part of this article utterly ridiculous, and haven't been able to get it out of my head. Here goes:

'The practical reality of life in America is that religion plays much less of a role in everyday life than it did 50 or 100 years ago,'' said Geoffrey R. Stone, a law professor at the University of Chicago. Adding a Protestant to the court, he said, would not bring an important element to its discussions.

''These days,'' said Lee Epstein, a law professor at Northwestern and an authority on the court, ''we've moved to other sources of diversity,'' including race, gender and ethnicity.'

With due respect to folks who have far greater expertise than I on the Supreme Court, I think this is silliness. To say that we live in a post-religious society is as unrealistic as to say that President Obama's election solved racism. Not that there aren't people saying that too.

I say this because I can already imagine the round the clock paranoid coverage were a Supreme Court nominee, say, Muslim. Heck, while we're at it, let's speculate on the combination of paranoia, curiosity, and hate that would be generated by a Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, or other religious minority.

Furthermore I would argue something about this:

"religion, which once mattered deeply, has fallen out of the conversation. And it seems to make people uncomfortable on the rare occasions it is raised."

It seems, simply, to be a contradiction in terms. What makes us most uncomfortable perhaps matters the most deeply.

Consume Carefully: A.C. buys a pair of jeans...maybe.

Though I regard this blog as a place to talk about religion, it's important to remember the reasons for religious beliefs and underlying practices which make us good humanists, Christians, Hindus, or otherwise. In that vein I submit the following:

Every once in a while I have to shop for clothes. It's a process I despise thoroughly because, more than my food-eating habits, it's something that I feel puts a lot of weight on my conscience. When you go to Wal-Mart or Target, it's pretty rare to pause to think about the hands that put together your $5/3 pair socks. But you should.

Long story short, sometime soon I want to buy some jeans. I want them to be kind of nice and don't mind paying a couple of extra bucks this time. That means (probably) buying new instead of going to a thrift store, which I do more often than buying new clothes. I seem to remember Levi's as a brand you could trust to be decent and non-exploitative of their workers, domestic or foreign. And what could be more American than a USA-made pair of jeans, produced by well compensated and satisfied factory workers? But I shop so rarely, I couldn't remember whether Levi's actually checked out.

So I sent their customer service department the following email:

I'd like to buy a pair of jeans in good conscience. Can you help me out by telling me who makes your jeans, domestic or imported, and what kind of labor standards Levis are made in accordance with? Do you subcontract with independent producers or do you directly supervise the production of your clothes? Where are they made?

I'm expecting a pretty standard response, assuring me that there are no sweatshops or other worker exploitation. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to do some checking of other kinds before taking Levi's word about. I'll post the company's response when I get it. And before I buy, I'll be telling you about what I'm reading on the company's history with sweatshops.

*P.S. If you're looking for some really good reading on this topic, I suggest you look to Naomi Klein's classic investigation of manufacturing and branding, No Logo.

Religion News Roundup (January 15 2010)

Hello readers,

Here's what's been going on in religion recently:

• The writing of the Bible may have started a lot earlier than scholars previously thought. (Haaretz)
• The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has recently been full of useful statistics about beliefs and attitudes in the U.S. 16.1% of US adults identify as "unaffiliated." Does this mean a lot of agnostics/atheists, or that a significant number of people are fed up with religious organizations?
• Also worth seeing: How religious is your state? (Pew) and the increasingly common mixture of faiths (Pew).
• The recent battle over gay marriage here in D.C. (my hometown) has been leaving many questioning whether the Catholic Church is too influential, or at least, trying to be. Now, a Washington Post guest columnist is asking the same question over a different topic: the healthcare debate. (WaPo).

Have a great Martin Luther King Day weekend!

Seeking Interfaith Understanding

Quick Housekeeping Note: I'm back and blogging it up again in 2010, so happy new year. With my current work schedule it's just to hard to keep doing the daily religion news summary, but I will make an effort to have at least one news summary a week from now on, as well as more regular in-depth commentary about religion stories I'm finding interesting. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

There's a piece online from TIME right now about Malaysia's High Court ruling that the word Allah is not exclusive to Muslims. This allows Christian (and presumably other faiths) to publish the word in their newsletters, and claim that Allah is their god as well, apparently a controversial statement because of the country's religious/ethnic makeup.

Some 60% of Malaysia's 28 million people are Malay Muslim, while the rest are ethnic Chinese, Indians and indigenous tribes, practicing various faiths including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and animism. Among Christians, the majority Catholics number about 650,000, or 3% of the population.

I know little about the Malay language but the Catholic Church in Malaysia has apparently been using Allah in its Bibles and otherwise for a long while, and in a court case in 2008 cited pre-Islamic use of the term.

But the point missed here by many parties seems to be that as Abrahamic faiths, there is a common god, regardless of names. As the latter part of the TIME article describes, the fact that the Muslim community is so strongly opposed is one of a series of worrying incidents of intolerance in Malaysia. It seems, to me, a missed opportunity for understanding and dialogue.

Religion News for 10/6/2009

Hello readers! Today in 1979, Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit the White House. And today in religion news...

• The Supreme Court will allow documents from the cases of sex abuse by Catholic priests to go public. (NPR)
• An Italian scientist has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, which is suspected to be (by some, at least) a medieval forgery. (Reuters)
• A former military lawyer is suing so people won't pray for his harm, among other threats. (USAT)
• Brother Ali is a rapper who draws inspiration from Islam. (NPR)

Religion News for 10/5/2009

Hello Readers! It's a beautiful Monday morning. Here's what's been happening lately in religion news...

• Miguel Humberto Diaz is the new American ambassador to the Vatican, and is himself a theologian. (Reuters)
• Pew says support for abortion rights is declining, and that the debate over it is losing steam. (Pew)
• Six of the Supreme Court's justices are now Roman Catholics. Politics Daily's David Gibson has some interesting thought on the implications of that. (PD)
• Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has taken a stance against evolution at his kingdom's only co-ed university. (Reuters)

Just a note about missing posts and such...

...so, dear reader, I'm asking for your forgiveness and patience. The last week or so has been a little crazy and I am attempting to update every day, though I have had some weird schedule changes as of late. I'm still going to try, but if I miss a day or two this week, know that I'm not giving up, it's just that I'm only one guy.

Peace,

A.C.

Religion News for 9/30/2009

Wow, readers, it's almost October! On this day in 1962, César Chávez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association (later the United Farm Workers). And today in religion news...

• Berlin is working to accommodate the prayer needs of Muslim students, but the ruling which permitted it is generating some interesting questions. (Reuters)
• Apparently today is Blasphemy Day. I'll be goddamned. (PD)
• An Arizona judge has granted an injunction on recently passed abortion regulation, pending suit by Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights. (AZCentral)
• A lawsuit in Oklahoma is challenging the constitutionality of abortion laws there, which would require doctors to disclose new information about women receiving abortions. (AP/KJRH)
• A Malaysian woman will be caned for drinking beer under Shari'ah law.
• Bill Tammeus has a saddening and interesting graphic depicting the splits in the Christian church, and an interesting reflection on the ELCA split, which may yet worsen. (Tammeus)

Religion News for 9/29/2009

Hello readers! Today's quote comes from C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Proposes a Toast:

"No man who says 'I'm as good as you' believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St Bernard never says it to the toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain." I found it pretty provocative. What are your thoughts?

Recently in religion news...

• Confucius' 2,560th birthday was celebrated yesterday. (CCTV)
• The hotels and businesses in Saudi Arabia, which depend on the hajj (a sacred journey made by many Muslims to Mecca) for revenue, are being impacted by fears of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus. (Reuters)
• Hindus in India's Kashmir region, known as Pandits, may be returning home due to government encouragement. (Reuters)
• There's an interesting interview with evangelical performance artist/pastor Rob Bell over at Articles of Faith. He discusses his take on suffering and creativity. (AOF)
• Remember the earlier post (9/22) about Thich Nhat Hahn? Vietnamese authorities have destroyed the monastery of his followers. (AP/SeattleTimes)
• South Dakota is considering throwing out its ban on embryonic stem cell research. (AP/Pierre Capital Journal)
• The Lutheran church is still struggling over internal disputes over gay marriage and gay clergy. (Indianapolis Star)

Reverend Billy @ Busboys & Poets (DC) Tomorrow Evening

We now pause to make you aware of a pretty cool event:

For those of you who aren't familiar with The Reverend Billy, you should know that he'll be making an appearance at bookstore/cafe Busboys & Poets tomorrow at 7:30 p.m, in Washington, D.C. The Church of Stop Shopping Choir will be there too, and their performance is always a good reminder to spend less, shop less, and love more.

Rev. Billy is also the Green Party candidate for NYC mayor, a longtime activist in favor of corporate responsibility and peace, and saving Coney Island, and a performance artist. I have known of him since college and was lucky enough to meet him a couple of times, once for an interview I produced. His brand of activism does secular humanism pretty proud, I think. Come out if you can.

photo by crizzirc