Religion Posts
Archives
@religionblogger
religionblogger

  • 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

Translator
English flagItalian flagKorean flagChinese (Simplified) flagPortuguese flagGerman flagFrench flagSpanish flagJapanese flagArabic flag
Russian flagGreek flagDutch flagBulgarian flagCzech flagCroatian flagDanish flagFinnish flagHindi flagPolish flag
Romanian flagSwedish flagNorwegian flagCatalan flagFilipino flagHebrew flagIndonesian flagLatvian flagLithuanian flagSerbian flag
Slovak flagSlovenian flagUkrainian flagVietnamese flag      

Holiday Information

Today, Sikhs are celebrating Guru Purab, the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji – founder of the Sikh religion.

Who was Guru Nanak?

Guru Nanak was born near Lahore in modern-day Pakistan in 1469. He received a vision to preach about God; as a result, he taught that there is only one God and one unified humanity. The roots of some of his ideas can be traced to both Hinduism and Islam.

Learn more about Guru Nanak on the BBC Religion site.

How are Sikhs celebrating?

Sikhs celebrate Guru Nanak’s birthday today, if you’re going by the lunar calendar. The celebration is one of the gurpurbs, or festivals associated with the life of the Sikh gurus.

Two days ago, Sikhs began a continuous reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture, which was to be finished by the start of the festival. Today, Sikhs take the scripture out in a procession, decorating the guru. The gurdwaras, or places where Sikhs gather, are also decorated for Guru Nanak’s birthday. Sikhs may also eat special holy food (called prasad) today and light lamps.

Check out this video from Sify about Guru Purab.

Learn more about Sikhism on ReligionTranscends.com.

Created by ReligionTranscends.com, 2009

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

Today is Lailat al Miraj for Muslims – learn more about the holiday on ReligionTranscends.com.

And stay tuned to Religion Transcends for more holiday explanations and religion news updates. Follow us on Twitter @religionblogger.

Created by ReligionTranscends.com, 2009

A resolution is on the table in New York City calling for NYC schools to adopt two religious holidays:

-Eid Ul-Fitr (the end of Ramadan)

-Eid Ul-Adha (which celebrates Abraham/Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son for God)

The NYC Council passed the resolution last week, which would seem to give two breaks to the 12% of NYC school kids who are Muslim. But the city’s Mayor Bloomberg is speaking out agains tthe measure. He doesn’t want to further shorten the schoolyear, which already includes time out for Jewish and Christian holidays. As of now it is unclear whether the resolution will be formally passed.

According to the New York Times, the holiday resolution has already been adopted by some school districts in New Jersey and Michigan.

What do you think? Should Bloomberg let Muslim kids have those two days off? Stay tuned for updates…

Content created by ReligionTranscends.com