Hackers group Anonymous takes down Vatican website: http://t.co/B6lbGAVp
WGN-TV calls doomsday prophecies "an illusion": http://t.co/mv8Gzyw7
RT @graceishuman: Really,? Asking people JUST LEAVING the service how they felt about it? Tacky, tacky, inappropriate
Whitney Houston's funeral service really took the world to church. Love Pastor Winans' honesty, very moving.
#teacher ? Here are appropriate responses to situations with your Jehovah's Witness student: http://t.co/A6UfqcgH
#Teachers: Want to know why your Jehovah's Witness student won't say the pledge and how to respond? http://t.co/EIdlgDwW
3 common questions teachers ask about their Jehovah's Witness students: http://t.co/kPTygb8r
3 common questions teachers ask about their Jehovah's Witness students: http://t.co/0y3R4WZV
Hey @BlackArtistNews check out this sculptor, this will blow your mind. My mind seriously can't take this in. http://t.co/I4VgB8ni
What do reporters have to say about balance in religion? Watch the video from last night's panel: http://t.co/jutu8oJ9
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Archive for September 2008
If you haven’t seen a preview, you soon will.
Bill Maher, former host of Comedy Central’s Politically Incorrect, has a new movie out: Religulous.
In theaters October 3, the documentary is more of a satire of religious belief. Maher is known for satire and going after right-wingers. And the director is Larry Charles who worked on Borat. So it’s bound to be…um…not so serious.
The Huffington Post published this interesting comment from Maher:
It has been my pleasure over the last decade and a half to make organized religion one of my favorite targets. I often explained to people, “I don’t need to make fun of religion, it makes fun of itself.” And, then I go ahead and make fun of it too, just for laughs.
With religious fanatics like George Bush and Osama bin Laden now taking over the world, it seemed to me in recent years that this issue — this cause of debunking the man behind the curtain — needed to have a larger, more insistent and focused forum than late night television. I wanted to make a documentary, and I wanted it to be funny. In fact, since there is nothing more ridiculous than the ancient mythological stories that live on as today’s religions, this movie would try to be a real knee slapper. Unless, of course, you’re religious, then you might not like it.
If you visit the movie’s Web site, you’ll find Disbeliefnet.com. The tagline for the Web site? You won’t believe what people believe. The site contains articles about strange religious beliefs as well as obviously-fake advertisements (or are they?) for “hermetically sealed sacrament” and “singlemuslim.com.”
Watch the trailer and decide for yourself. Will you see Religulous? Do you expect it to be a “knee slapper” satire or an offensive documentary? Is this kind of dialogue necessary or hurtful?
Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate, has made no secret of her religious background. She grew up with and has maintained an affiliation with the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal Christian denomination.
Want to know more about the Assemblies of God?
Check out this article on the Pew Forum, which contains demographics, beliefs, and so forth.
Or try this article from Christianity Today (fewer charts, more narrative style).
The California Department of Education (CDE) has been sued for misrepresenting Hinduism in its textbooks.
According to Hinduism Today, the California Association of Parents for the Equalization of Educational Materials (CAPEEM) sued CDE and members of the State Board of Education for adopting textbooks that:
1. included gross inaccuracies in sixth-grade textbooks;
2. taught religious concepts from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, while slighting Hinduism and eastern religious concepts; and
3. were illegally adopted, since CDE held secret meetings to discriminate against Hindus and avoid opposition while adopting the textbooks.
Secret meetings? Yes. According to CAPEEM, they have e-mail proof that CDE held secret meetings with anti-Hindu groups while upholding church ideals.
Learn more at www.capeem.org.
Are more women than men leaving the church? If so, are they leaving for Wicca?
According to a report from Dr. Kristin Aune, a University of Derby sociologist, women are leaving the church in drones, due primarily to the masculine hierarchies and traditionalist ideologies.
Wicca for women
Instead, women are turning to Wicca, the pagan witchcraft tradition. In Wicca, emphasis is placed on both the god and the goddess, often giving more prominence to goddesses and female witches (practitioners of the religion). Wicca, Aune told reporters, offers working women a solution to religions that no longer fit into their busy lives. And they offer more opportunities for leadership than churches: for example, the Catholic Church will not ordain female bishops (though female priests are allowed).
In other words, Wicca has given women a sense of relevance when other religions have not. And Aune believes when religions offer women greater roles, those women will return to those religions.
What about men?
But according to one reporter, men are the ones leaving the church – not women. And why would they leave? Because the church is actually too feminine.
UK Telegraph reporter Jonathan Wynne-Jones says as many women as men are now being ordained as church leaders (i.e., beginning to take over the leadership ranks). Churches are stressing balance, trying to use “he or she” in phrasing and sometimes calling God a woman or referring to “our mother Jesus.” Not to mention, by taking traditionalism out of worship services, church-goers are left with emotions only, something “soft,” as he puts it.
Men, he thinks, will return when church services are bold, structured, and, well, masculine.
What do you think?
Do you notice more men or women leaving religion? Why do you think they’re really leaving? Is it really a power struggle?