My new Twitter handle is now live - check me out at @jackiewgibson!
CNN has posted a history of bias against Sikhs - more reason for people to learn about religions before they attack anyone:...
Sikh temple shooting unfolding, learn about Sikhism here: http://t.co/A0ltLLIm
Sikh temple shooting unfolding, learn about Sikhism here: http://t.co/l3KrAJZf
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
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Ethics & Religion
September 11 was personal.
A national tragedy in the United States, September 11 also represented a world-wide awakening. It demonstrated that terrorism and religious rhetoric were not relegated only to specific pockets of the world or particular sects. Terrorism, particularly terrorism that employs the name of God, offends us all.
The events of September 11 resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, a direct offense to family and friends of the victims. But those same events also offended the entire population of religious adherents throughout the world. Attackers hijacked the name of God and used it for horrific purposes. Their acts claimed the name of love and used it for hate. They took the sacred and made it profane. Such blatant abuse of sacred texts and religious symbolism certainly offends each and every one of us who respect and uphold the world’s religions.
Yet God (Brahman, Allah, the invisible unifying substance) has a way of taking evil and squeezing the good out of it. Thanks to September 11, university religion programs have grown exponentially. More and more students seek to learn about other religions to banish their own stereotypes and support coexistence. I was one of those students in 2001 who watched the Twin Towers fall on a TV screen and quickly switched majors to religious studies. Innocence shattered, it seemed time to dust ourselves off and figure out how we could live in a world where terrorism in the name of religion was ever-increasing.
It was and is time to demonstrate that religious understanding is necessary and that anything that thwarts a more peaceful coexistence is unacceptable. The first step toward such peace is education. Borrowing from the words of Charles Kimball in his book When Religion Becomes Evil (HarperOne, 2002):
“The more effective we are at identifying dangerous patterns of corrupted religion, the more likely people of goodwill can avert disaster inspired or justified by religion. Whether or not one believes that religion itself is the problem, the diverse religious traditions will continue to be a powerful fact of life in our increasingly interdependent world community. Whatever philosophical or theological explanation one may hold for the evil things that happen, approaching the future passively is unacceptable. In the aftermath of September 11, it is incumbent on all of us to educate ourselves about religious attitudes and behaviors that lead to widespread suffering.”
Let’s honor the victims of 9/11 by doing our part to learn more about the people around us and to work together to eradicate hate.
More resources for understanding religious violence:
When Religion Becomes Evil by Charles Kimball
Terror in the Mind of God by Mark Juergensmeyer
Use the links at the left to find more information on particular religions, then check out these sites:
BBC – Religion
Religious Tolerance
Religion News Service
Created by ReligionTranscends.com, 2009
The New Encyclical
Last Tuesday, Catholic Pope Benedict XVI released his latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth).
An encyclical is a letter from the pope that usually addresses doctrine and takes a stance on some idea or ideas. Perhaps the most famous encyclical is Humanae Vitae (1968), in which Pope Paul VI wrote about abortion, contraception, and so on.
According to The Examiner, Caritas in Veritate builds on Pope Paul VI’s 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio which discusses worldly progress and truth. The new encyclical makes it clear that there is a black and white answer for everything – and there should not be any relativism when it comes to morals. It also mentions Humanae Vitae, upholding the “strong links between life ethics and social ethics.” He wrote that man cannot depend on social foundations alone – in other words, we cannot make our decisions based on the progress of the day. Decisions (whether we apply them to abortion, poverty, etc.) must be grounded in a respect for life and in morality. He wrote:
“When a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man’s true good…By cultivating openness to life, wealthy peoples can better understand the needs of poor ones, they can avoid employing huge economic and intellectual resources to satisfy the selfish desires of their own citizens, and instead, they can promote virtuous action within the perspective of production that is morally sound and marked by solidarity, respecting the fundamental right to life of every people and every individual.”
Read the full encyclical on the Vatican website.
The Pope and Obama
U.S. President Barack Obama met with Catholic Pope Benedict XVI on Friday. Highlights of the meeting include the following:
–The pope gave Obama a copy of Dignitas Personae (2008), his encyclical that talks about the dignity of humans, including the unborn. The statement is pro-life and urges politicians to consider morals when making laws.
–Obama said he’d like to reduce the number of abortions in the U.S.
–CNN reports they likely discussed stem cell research.
–The two discussed the pope’s new encyclical (see above).
A Catholic Surgeon General
Today, Obama named Alabama rural family physician Regina Benjamin as the next U.S. Surgeon General.
According to LifeNews.com, Benjamin:
–is Catholic
–has urged future physicians to learn how to perform abortions
–is on the board of Physicians for Human Rights, which speaks out against illegal abortions
–received a distinguished service medal from the current pope and the National Caring Award from Mother Teresa
By selecting Benjamin, it appears Obama has chosen someone the pope approves of – yet someone who seems to support legal abortions. So has Obama really taken to heart the pope’s call to consider morals? What do you think?
Content created by ReligionTranscends.com
If you follow the LDS Church in the media, you may have heard a number of myths:
Blacks can’t be Mormons.
Blacks can’t participate in the Mormon priesthood.
Mormons are all racist.
Some are true. Some were true. Some are quite false.
Fair LDS has a great explanation of the history of the black race in the Mormon Church.
It’s true that Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) wouldn’t allow black members to join the priesthood. But that’s no longer the policy. The original policy, enacted by Brigham Young in 1852, was based on Biblical passages. The Church used those passages to claim that God had set aside the lineage of Cain (yes, Cain and Abel) as a cursed race — purportedly the black race.
Eventually the Church admitted that there is no such cursed lineage in the Bible – just cursed individuals, like Cain himself. The Bible does mention that Cain’s lineage became black, but it doesn’t say why. And it’s certainly not directly connected to Cain’s behavior. The Church reversed its policies in 1978 under then-president Spencer Kimball.
The author of the Fair LDS article explains that keeping blacks out of the priesthood was, quite simply, racist and unnecessary. It would be wrong to generalize and claim that all Mormons are racist. In fact, founder Joseph Smith did not see reason to keep any specific races out of the priesthood.
Unsatisfied? Still think Mormons are racist as a group? Check out the Q&A section of the article for the Fair LDS response. It’s really quite interesting. It doesn’t excuse it. But it explains it away.
Want more? Their store has a DVD documentary about black Mormons.
Learn more about Mormons on Religion Transcends.
Copyright 2009, Religion Transcends.com
Will you lose your PBS station due to religious content?
Public TV stations in the United States are not permitted to air religious programming. So on June 16, PBS (Public Broadcast System) will decide whether to remove its name from stations that broadcast religious services. If a station loses its PBS designation, it would in turn lose PBS-created shows like Sesame Street.
Areas with PBS stations in question include New Orleans; Provo, Utah; and a station in Texas; and stations in two other states.
Learn more about the debate from PBS ombudsman Michael Getler.
Copyright 2009, Religion Transcends