1. My student won’t say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the national anthem. Isn’t this unpatriotic?

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that actions such as saluting the flag, singing the national anthem, and saying the Pledge of Allegiance give reverence to one’s country, instead of God. To the Jehovah’s Witness, patriotism is a form of idolatry to be avoided.

How to respond: Your student may ask to sit during the pledge, stand quietly, or even be dismissed from the classroom. You may not agree with her beliefs, but you can respect them by allowing her to take part (or sit in the hallway) as her conscience permits.

2. Can my student participate in a holiday celebration?

Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays or holidays (including Christmas) because they believe holidays originated as pagan festivities and put the focus on humans instead of God.

How to respond: Do not automatically plan a birthday celebration for your Jehovah’s Witness student. If you are planning any sort of birthday or holiday celebration to be held during class, pull him aside ahead of time and ask whether he would be allowed to attend. If not, make arrangements for him to be elsewhere during the celebration. Be sure to give him a fun activity to do in the other room (not homework) since your other students will be doing something fun.

If you are holding a holiday celebration that’s intended to teach a student about a culture (such as Mexico’s Day of the Dead), give your Jehovah’s Witness student instruction and classroom materials that will help him understand what that holiday means to the culture…but don’t require him to participate in the celebration.

3. Will my student try to convert people in school?

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus sent followers out to share his message. Children often accompany adults on missionary activities. The steps that are believed to lead to conversion include passing out literature at homes but do not include passing out materials in schools. That said, students may be excited to share their beliefs just as any student from another religion might want to tell others what he believes.

How to respond: For the most part, if a student wishes to pass out evangelistic materials to her classmates, public school districts can’t prohibit them from doing so. However, they can place restrictions on when and where those materials are distributed. If you have concerns, talk to your administrators.

To learn more about what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe and how you might respond, visit their official website or this BBC site.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2011.

A new Barna Group study found that 93% of church-attending Christians are concerned about global poverty and 20% of practicing American Protestants have traveled outside of the United States to serve the global poor. But what’s really striking is the info they gathered about young adults:

Younger Christians, those under 40, are more than twice as likely to have traveled outside the U.S. to serve the global poor.

Younger Christians give 50% more than older Christians toward the cause of global poverty.

45% of younger Christians believe their churches should be more involved in helping the poor…and 37% said they would donate more to their church if their church increased its involvement.

Do your religious beliefs affect your concerns about poverty? Are you doing anything to eradicate hunger?

Created by ReligionTranscends.com, 2011

The recent spate of violence stems from years of tensions resulting from the mash-up of two groups: Coptic Christians and Wahhabi Muslims. Watch this video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly to learn about these recent tensions.

Some definitions to know before you watch this video…

Who are the Coptic Christians?

Nowadays, this term refers to Egyptian Christians (including those who first came to the region in the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries), particularly members of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The term “Desert Fathers” refers to Christians of the desert in Egypt around the 3^rd century. They became the first real monastic community, leading the way for present-day monks and nuns. As Egypt has changed from a mostly Christian country to a mostly Muslim country, the freedom and acceptance of Copts in Egypt has waned.

What is Wahhabi?

Wahhabism is a branch of Sunni Islam named after Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. (Click here to learn the difference between Sunni and Shi’ite.) It is prominent in Saudi Arabia, though often viewed as an extremist branch of Islam. Learn more about Wahhabism from PBS.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2011

My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block. – Mary J. Blige

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) began an investigation in November 2007 into the spending of American televangelists. Yesterday Grassley released his report, bringing a close to the investigation. The findings showed concern for the “lack of oversight of finances” but contained no penalties, according to the Associated Press.

The investigation looked into the ministries of six televangelists including Joyce Meyer Ministries, Benny Hinn Ministries, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changes Church International/Creflo Dollar Ministries, Without Walls International Church/Paula White Ministries, and Bishop Eddie Long/Bishop Eddie Long Ministries. The latter four refused to provide complete information to Grassley.

Why these six televangelists?

The Associated Press notes that all six televangelists preach the “prosperity gospel.”

What is the Prosperity Gospel?

Maybe you had already heard of Joyce Meyer, or maybe you’ve seen Joel Osteen on TV or on a book cover. Meyer and Osteen (and the televangelists probed in the investigation) promote prosperity theology, a belief by some evangelical Christians that God wants to make His people prosper financially.

The idea is a little bit “do this and you’ll get this” or perhaps it’s more passive: Just be Christian and God will give you things. One follower of this belief was quoted in Time magazine as saying, “Because I want to follow Jesus and do what he ordained, God wants to support us. It’s Joel Osteen’s ministry that told me. Why would an awesome and mighty God want anything less for his children?”

Such beliefs are often traced back to the covenant God made with His people in the Hebrew Bible. (Learn more about the covenant in this Judaism overview.) If these are God’s people, the thinking goes, and God wants to give them blessings, then surely that includes material goods. Others point to the New Testament of the Bible – ““For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

The movement has not been without its fair share of critics, particularly within Christianity. Click here to learn about these criticisms.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2011

In the spirit of the new year, RT is taking a quick look at a couple of fun lists (ok, they’re serious issues, but who doesn’t enjoy light-hearted list-making?).

1. Looking back: Religion Newswriters Association recently released its ranking of the top religion stories of 2010 (voted on by religion journalists). The top five stories involved the Ground Zero mosque proposal, the earthquake in Haiti, the pope’s handling of priest pedophiles, the Tea Party Movement, and Obama’s health care reform bill.
2. Looking forward: The Public Religion Research Institute posted 10 stories from 2010 that will affect us in the coming months. These include churches and homosexuality, immigration reform, and Americans’ religious knowledge.

Still looking for a good new year’s resolution? Resolve to learn a little more about your neighbor’s faith this year. Click on the religion overviews in the top navigation to get some quick background information on the religions of people around you.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2011

The winter season brings with it a number of important holidays for folks around the world. Among these holidays is Christmas, a Christian celebration. At this time of year, Christians tend to gather together, decorate their homes and churches, give gifts, and remember the birth of Jesus, founder of the Christian religion. But this merry-making will be impossible for Christians in Iraq this year.

Christians in Iraq have been receiving threats from Al-Qaeda and, as reported by the AFP, are still mourning the loss of 53 Christians in the October 31 Al-Qaeda attack on a Baghdad church. An additional 39 Christians were attacked in their homes in Baghdad in November.  Churches in Iraq have widely called off their celebrations, choosing only to participate in worship services.

Readers should remember that not all countries allow freedom of religion. And in this instance, although freedom of thought/belief exists, lack of respect for that freedom has led to fear, death threats, and loss of life.

To all RT readers, we thank you for following us on our site and on Twitter this year. It has been a great year with new content, a new design, and new followers. Have a great holiday season.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2010

Recently, the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), a Pentecostal Christian denomination, said it would allow women to serve on local church councils – but like the Church of England, women cannot be ordained as bishops.

As quoted on the Pew Forum:

“This has nothing to do with women not being smart enough or good enough or qualified enough. The issue is, did God know what he was talking about? And whether we like it or don’t like it … if our rules, our standard, is biblical text, then we have to be faithful to biblical text even in a contemporary society that sees it as bigoted or old-fashioned.” — Britt Peavy, senior pastor of West Ward Church of God in Douglas, Georgia

Religion Transcends supports the Church of God’s efforts to work toward inclusion of women at every level. Here’s hoping religious groups continue to consider women’s roles and debate the sacred texts that seem to define those roles.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2010

At a time when the media is pushing the loss of black believers (with some even claiming the black church is dead), one retort displays the worth of black churches – and it’s written by two white pastors/academics.

In What We Love About the Black Church: Can We Get a Witness?, William H. Crouch, Jr. and Joel C. Gregory show what they’ve learned from working with black church leaders that white preachers could incorporate into their churches. For example, they applaud:

-Energetic, Narrative preaching

-Camaraderie

-No “stifling sense of conformity”

-Recognition and appreciation of efforts and older members of the church

Such a focus on recognition and cooperation despite differences shows an effort to appreciate the “other.” It shows an attempt to set aside preconceived ideas to discover one another’s merits, celebrating our similarities while understanding our differences.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2010

So why is everyone up in arms?

The board approved new standards that will:

- Ensure Texas textbooks state that the Founding Fathers were guided by Christianity
- Ensure Texas textbooks would make positive references to the National Rifle Association
-Require U.S. history students in Texas to learn about leading conservative groups from the 1980s-90s (though they aren’t required to learn about liberal groups).

Initially, the board also wanted to minimize Thomas Jefferson’s role in founding the country because he pushed for separation of church and state. In the end, the board put reference to Jefferson back in the curriculum – but minimized separation of church and state by pointing out that it wasn’t in the Constitution.

The board consists of elected members – a majority of whom are conservatives. Those who stood against the changes claimed the board was pushing a conservative Christian agenda. Agenda or no agenda, it can be difficult to ignore one’s own religious upbringing when making decisions for a diversity of schoolchildren. One member, Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, did not check her beliefs at the door; she opened the board meeting by stating that the United States is a “Christian land governed by Christian principles.”

Some board members claimed these changes should balance out the liberal teachings that they believe dominate American classrooms.

Why should you care?
Texas will have to revise their textbooks and lesson plans for the next school year to begin teaching the new required standards. Texas children will begin learning just one side to some complex issues involving religion while students in other states will learn either the liberal side or the unbiased version (depending on your political leanings).

For other states, if any politicians follow Texas’s example, there’s a chance that politicians could be editing out what they don’t like in our nation’s textbooks and replacing it with wording they DO like.

Of course, editors edit out what they don’t think is appropriate all the time. But the goal of education is to inform students about the facts.

It is important, then, to have truths from both sides of the table in our historical accounts. Otherwise we are telling kids they HAVE to believe that all founders were Christians (see American Gospel by Jon Meacham) and they should NOT appreciate or even accept separation of church and state. Both sides of the political fence should be actively working to keep true accounts in textbooks and let students decide whether they like the way history played itself out. Should we eliminate the Great Depression from our textbooks because it was a hard time? Or tell only one side of the Crusades? History needs to be recorded in its actuality so we can draw our own conclusions.

Furthermore, we should continue to work toward diverse representation in our government, school boards, etc. so that all religions and political beliefs are represented in these types of debates.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2010

Catholic Justices: John G. Roberts, Jr. (chief justice), Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor

Jewish Justices: Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan (awaiting confirmation)

Per the U.S. Constitution, religion cannot be a factor in the choice for who will fill a government office. But people certainly think about it. With Kagan in place, the court will no longer have a Protestant voice – a fact some consider scary and others consider hopeful. For those in the latter category, they say it’s great that justices are no longer pigeon-holed into the “woman” or “Jewish” category but are welcomed into the court even if they don’t have a stereotypical role to play. They say it’s exciting that we’ve become diverse enough that we it doesn’t matter whether we have a Protestant in place. Not to mention the Supreme Court existed for almost 50 years before adding a Catholic to the bench and it took another 80 years beyond that to include a Jew.

Those on the other side say the Protestant voice isn’t going to be heard at that level and decisions won’t be made that fit within Protestant values (particularly related to abortion, marriage, etc.). Given that half the United States claims to be Protestant, the lack of a Protestant justice is, at the least, surprising.

The Wall Street Journal speculated as to why more Catholics and Jews than Protestants are becoming justices.

Of course, representation for everyone would be ideal. The court now includes African American and Hispanic justices, women and men, Jews and Christians. But how can we as a nation sit back and question the lack of a Protestant justice when the court is also lacking Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, LGBT, and Asian-American representation?

Perhaps when it’s time to choose the next justice, we should be considering all genders, all races, and all religions. And for now, we can sit back and be proud of the diversity we have attained so far.

Read biographies of the justices on the Supreme Court site.

Created by Religion Transcends, 2010