America's New Thought Obsession

I blogged the other day about Phineas Quimby and the attraction of "New Thought" in the American religious landscape. It's not at all surprising. Here we are, a prosperous and peaceful nation (on our turf, at least), who define ourselves largely as Christians - a religion that prizes renunciation, poverty and the millennialist vision of a better world.

The message of New Thought - that being close to God brings you all the bourgeois comforts right here and now - has been working its way into American churches consistently since its introduction in the 1850's. It's had enormous appeal throughout American Christianity, from Christian Science, to Norman Vincent Peale, to certain traditions within Pentecostalism. The megachurches often flirt with the same ideas - of course being closer to God means material wealth. It's our own most significant syncretism, I think.

I often think about the twin implications of this: Those who have success and material comforts are somehow closer to God. And those who are hurt, broken and poor are far from God, and just need to pray a little harder, and think positive.

Having come clean about my personal misgivings, I must say Newsweek tickled me a little with their review of The Secret, a blockbuster new New Thought sensation. The book - which has been a favorite of Oprah's - seems to be a stew of badly understood quantum physics, historical revisionism straight out of the Da Vinci Code and the same saws we see in Richard Bach, Neale Donald Walsch and countless others.

A bit from the Newsweek piece:

You'd think the last thing Americans need is more excuses for self-absorption and acquisitiveness. But our inexhaustible appetite for "affirmation" and "inspiration" and "motivation" has finally outstripped the combined efforts of Wayne Dyer, Anthony Robbins, Dr. Phil and Mitch Albom . We have actually begun importing self-help—and from Australia, of all places, that citadel of tough-minded individualism, where just a couple of years ago [Rhonda]Byrne was a divorced mother in her 50s who had hit a rocky patch in her business and personal lives. It was in that moment of despair, when she "wept and wept and wept" (as she recounted to Oprah on the first of two broadcasts devoted to her work), that she discovered a long-neglected book dating from 1910 called "The Science of Getting Rich." In it she found how to let your thoughts and feelings get you everything you want, and determined to share it with the world. She called it "The Secret."

If you're familiar at all with the literature of New Thought, this storyline should be achingly familiar (Celestine Prophecy, anyone?). I lead a group to different church services in Manhattan, and last month we ended up at the Sacred Center for Spiritual Living, a huge New Thought church in Chelsea. During the service, the pastor quoted a book about a magical prayer box, wherein a man, brought to the depths of despair , discovered a "secret book" in his attic that outlined the same well-circulated secrets: thoughts are things, prayers are answered, and all you need to be wealthy and fat is a positive outlook.

I grew up in California, where New Thought is practically the state religion. My aunt worked for a prominent New Thought TV preacher for years, and my time with her was filled with mantras that were supposed to help us get parts in school plays and find parking spaces. It made sense somehow. In a cushy suburban nation, these are often the only things that pass for crises. And it is crisis that we reach for God - right?

About year ago, I was helping out in a Quaker homeless shelter. After dinner, the clients were settling into bed, and a woman named Charlotte - who spent her days in libraries and her nights in shelters like this one - was reading a book by Richard Bach, an earlier incarnation of the "positive thinking" genre. Charlotte believed it wholeheartedly. She spent every day, from shelter breakfast to shelter bed, trying to keep her head up, practicing the forgiveness that was supposed to unblock the energy of prosperity that would float her out of her dire straits.

Will it work? Who knows. In the meanwhile, the old-fashioned ethic of compassion is keeping Charlotte from the cold and want of the streets. And one thing's for sure - "Secret" author Rhonda Byrne is seeing the fruits of her positive thinking. And that's something, right?

Allahu Akbar!

Ok - the rumor is almost officially true. Michael Jackson is converting to Islam. The AP ran the following statements from brother Jermaine yesterday:

"I think it is most probable that Michael will convert to Islam," Jackson said.

Jermaine, 52, converted to Islam in 1989 and now lives in Bahrain, where Michael has also recently taken up residence.

"When I came back from Mecca I got him a lot of books and he asked me lots of things about my religion and I told him that it's peaceful and beautiful," he said.

"He read everything and he was proud of me that I found something that would give me inner strength and peace."

And today, the San Francisco Chronicle ran the following lede:

Pop superstar Michael Jackson has confirmed his conversion to Islam, according to reports in the Middle East.

The Arab-Israeli newspaper Panorama claims Jackson has announced the move and revealed plans to move to Bahrain, where he has purchased property.

You know where my mind went first? Awesome. This solves everything! In my split-second view of the future, Jackson moves to Bahrain. He is received with great joy, ululations in the street (or is that just for mourning?). With his uncanny and unfathomable popularity, he moderates anti-American feeling. Jackson, the anti-Bush in pretty much every respect, undoes everything that Bush has done and builds a bridge between Americans and the Muslim world. By extension, the gloved one prevents the next terrorist attack, becomes a key figure in future hostage negotiations...

I can dream.

While looking into this tantalizing and earthshaking story, I found the welcome news that this is no mere spiritual dalliance for Michael Jackson. His interest in Islam goes at least back to December 17, 2003 - the night before he had child molestation charges filed against him. The New York Post reported then that this was the day he joined the Nation of Islam, and brought Leonard F. Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan's chief of staff, into his employ.

By the way - for those of you paying attention, we have finally seen the stories about Farrakhan that I was wondering about. Details about his state of health and "final" speech can be found here.

The question on everybody's mind - will Jackson make a good Muslim? One of the five pillars of the faith is Zakat, or charity. Oddly enough, this story also comes out today in the LA Daily News:

The family of a woman who died two years ago is suing Michael Jackson and a hospital, claiming the gravely ill patient was moved to make room for the pop star when he arrived with flu symptoms.

...

The family had previously complained publicly that Ruiz, who had suffered a heart attack and was on life support, was suddenly moved to make way for Jackson, whose Feb. 15, 2005, admission caused cancellation of a court session in his child-molestation trial. The pop star was later acquitted.

Ruiz's family says she was moved from her two-bed trauma unit to another room. She suffered a second heart attack and died later that day.

He can always take a go at Kabbalah.

Prosperity Dharma?

One of the great contradictions in our country's religious life is how a get-up-and-go culture like America so wholeheartedly embraces a give-it-all-up faith like Christianity. We're steeped in the teachings of humility and voluntary poverty found in the Bible - yet we're the richest and most powerful culture in the world.

There are a lot of explanations for why this happened historically - see Max Weber's theory of the "Protestant Work ethic", where Calvinists and others made hard work - and not necessarily gain - part of the road to salvation.

But there have been many other attempts to more nakedly rewrite the poverty message of Bible. They go loosely under the name of "Prosperity Gospel," and in many ways try to make this claim: the closer you are to God, the better you'll do in this world, in health, wealth and happiness.

Even a cursory reading of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament makes this a little hard to swallow. Those closest to God tended to end up exiled, stripped of their posessions or painfully tortured to death. But this hasn't stopped generations of pulpit preachers and theologians (most notably in America the enviably named watchmaker Phinneas Quimby) from claiming that the wealthy and powerful are beloved in the sight of God - and that, if we behave ourselves, we too can have an easy, fat life.

So much for beholding the lily. The REAL cultures of renunciation - Buddhists, who see this whole world as Mara, illusion - must be laughing up their non-existent sleeves, right? Wrong. Leave it to an American Buddhist to write a best-selling book about the material benefits of renunciation.

Not so with Nichiren Buddhism. Says author Woody Hochswender in USA Today,

"...you'll see immediate benefits, produced by you, proof in your own life now. Buddhism doesn't ask you to believe in God. Buddhism asks you to believe in yourself."

Practitioners include actor Orlando Bloom, musician Herbie Hancock, singer Tina Turner and U.S. Rep. Henry "Hank" Johnson Jr., D-Ga. In the biopic What's Love Got to Do With It, Turner is shown learning to chant, and she gains the strength to flee her abusive husband.

Expounding on his book in a cavernous Manhattan cafe, Hochswender's ice-blue eyes are aglow, and he sounds like a health-and-wealth televangelist, in tone if not message. "You can realize your enlightened self almost from the first day. And you can become enlightened exactly as you are.

"No matter what your goal is in chanting, at the very least you will become a more disciplined person," he says. "All of us want to be more disciplined."

The article uses the phrase "prosperity dharma." I love it. Lemme run this one the Tibetan monks. I'll get back to you.

Lent - continued

I missed the memo. There is some kind of "Get the Lent Out..." going on this year in the churches 'round the globe. Suddenly the season of fasting is a springboard for pet issues. A scorecard:

Irish bishops are calling for a season of temperence. Yup, put down that Jameson, because:

The bishops are trying to tackle what they see as an out-of-control binge-drinking culture that has seen the alcohol intake in the Emerald Isle soar by 40 per cent in under a decade - 10 years in which economic wealth has soared.

They have been planning for some time to "encourage a society-wide debate" on the mounting problems of alcohol abuse and saw Lent as the ideal moment to address the public.

They will make their plea in a letter to be read at every Mass in the country this Sunday, which they have designated a "day of prayer and temperance".

Not to be outdone, the priests of my SoCal homeland are calling for Lent to be a season of... immigration reform. Yup:

In Orange County, the church asked people to fast — consuming liquids only — for one day between March 26 and 30 as an appeal for citizenship opportunities for undocumented immigrants and reductions in visa application backlogs for the families of immigrants.

The church also called for a temporary worker program.

In Los Angeles, before 3,000 people at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said his focus for Lent would be the children of immigrants.

"They are innocents impacted by an unjust system that has failed and will continue to fail them and our society until true comprehensive reform is passed by Congress and the president," he said.

This in addition to more traditional projects, such as donating the money saved by eating simple Leten meals towards alleviating:

During Lent, Operation Rice Bowl participants pledge to pray, fast in solidarity with those who hunger, learn about the global community and the challenges of poverty overseas, and give sacrificial contributions to those in need.

And the Episcopalians? Fasting for clarity about "the gay thing."

Great. I'm all for temperance. Social action? Go team.

But isn't this a heavy load for a season of sobriety and private reflection? I'm not one to chapter and verse, but I seem to remember a passage in the Book of Matthew -

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18 NIV)

Fasting for a cause seems like fasting loudly to me. But who am I to judge? Just a religion hack intoxicated by the fishwich season.

Lent starts today. Me, I've observed a strict Lenten fast for the last 13 years. I can't tell you with any great precision what my religion is, has been or will be, but I can say this for sure - next year will also find me gearing up in the late winter for seven weeks of veganism, moderation and reflection.

It just makes sense to me. Periods of fasting in the early spring have been a part of so many traditions, and I can't deny that, whatever you believe in the seasons of your life, the simple act of saying "no" to yourself, once in a while, does wonders for your body and soul.

One of the time-honored ways that we do this, of course, is through diet. And if there's one thing to look forward to in this season of fasting and repentance - it's the Fillet-O-Fish. Yup, this delicious Tartar-smeared McDonald's favorite was invented for Lent.

And, not to be outdone, this year KFC is petitioning the Vatican for approval on it's delicious new fish sandwich. According to an AP report,

For years, anything produced by KFC had to meet the standards of Colonel Harlan Sanders.

For its new product, the fried chicken chain is seeking a higher endorsement. KFC has asked Pope Benedict XVI to bless the Fish Snacker Sandwich, a Lenten addition to the chain's Snacker sandwich line.

KFC sent the Pope a letter earlier this month, asking him to bestow a blessing on the sandwich. While the sandwich is being marketed generally, John O'Reilly, chief marketing officer for KFC, said the sandwich should prove especially popular on Friday's, when Catholics traditionally don't eat meat in the 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday.

Prayer, solitude aqnd a fishwich. I'm starting my own monastic order.

Don't you love the new, interactive world of the newspaper?

I mean, as a journalist, you used to never really know how your work hit the reader. On a good day you imagine some impartial, professor-type smoking his pipe and thoughtfully poring over page E6, where your latest genius offering awaits. More often, you guess, with some accuracy, that your life's work has been lining birdcages.

The internet smashes all illusions.

Honestly, the best thing about the new two-way street is that sometimes, what comes back around is better than what went out in the first place. Check out the comments section for this AP story in the Rapid City Journal.

OK, Rapid City. That's not being totally fair. And the story is a little hokey, about an inmate who is making demands on the prison authorities so he can practice Asatru. For those just tuning in, Asartu is a modern take on Norse paganism, which, by all evidence in the AP story, was big on tchotckes:

Hoadley’s lawsuit asks for 23 ritual items, 10 reference materials and other requests, including visits from people who also practice the religion.

Many of the items already are included in a Corrections Department list of property that inmates may have in their cell or in the religious storage area.

Among those items: Rune cards and tiles, altar and cloth, wooden wand, ritual drinking horn, apple juice, blessing bowl, candles and holders, feather fan, wooden hammer, drum, abalone shell, evergreen twig and dragon’s blood resin, a type of incense.

Other requests include an outside area with a tree and a sauna, special foods and privileges for religious holidays and a time once a week for studies, in addition to the one already allowed for rituals.

“This is no different than any of the various Bible studies, Hebrew lessons, Arabic lessons, etc., that have been or are approved,” Hoadley wrote.

First, the story. I know the prison systems in our country are brutal. I've made a good friend who is serving time (his father is a brimstone Baptist preacher down Kentucky way), and changing his religion is one of the only things he has freedom over anymore. Some of the only rights that remain to convicts are religion-related. (He was a Hare Krishna for a while. Then he decided he wanted to get away from the normal prison slop and onto the "Old Testament" diet, which is slightly higher in daily nutrients and fresh foods. So he recently became a Seventh-Day Adventist. Score one for cynicism here.)

But what's amazing is how clearly the article is fishing for outrage - and how balanced the debate is in the comments. A sampling:

Whether or not he practices True Asatru or Odinism is debatable but the issue is allowing him the items he has asked for to practice his version of it. No one is ever denied a bible crackers, grape juice and a cup. Why should he be denied his horn, apple juice, and plastic toy sword. Last time I checked my daughter could hurt anyone with hers, short of making her own eye water when she hit her self in that face flipping it around.

I am not one of those people who thinks that people who "find God" should be spared. But when someone starts claiming an arcane religious affiliation to get extra privledges, I draw the line.

I guess I'm amazed at how many religions and traditions there are out there. I guess I either nuts or very sheltered in my thinking about how simple religous practice should be

And on and on - for FIVE PAGES or so.

When they ask - where's the religious dialogue in this country? we can proudly say, ignore the journalists. Read the citizen commentary.

Another good day for odd religion news.

Every hear of the Cargo Cults?



I hadn't. They happened mostly in New Guinea and Melanesia. As I understand it, when a remote culture runs into Western technology for the first time, the encounter often figures into the local mythos (think The God's Must Be Crazy). The Westerners seem to have special "powers," and when they leave, natives try to replicate the magic they've seen through mimicry and ritual. Cargo cults have built straw airplanes and radios out of coconuts, trying to coax the gods to deliver them "cargo" and salvation.

Hey - worked for Gilligan.

Wikipedia has more.

One of the last of these cults is celebrating the 50 year anniversary, on Tanna Island in Vanuatu. The BBC has the story. Today, February 15th, is the date they believe that their messianic leader, a (potentially real historical) black American will return one year to free the islands of white influence and provide them with material wealth. Here's more from the BBC:

The John Frum Movement worships a mysterious spirit that urged them to reject the teachings of the Church and maintain their traditional customs.

...

Devotees say that an apparition of John Frum first appeared before tribal elders in the 1930s.

He urged them to rebel against the aggressive teachings of Christian missionaries and instead said they should put their faith in their own customs.

World War II and the arrival of American troops on Vanuatu was a turning point for the John Frum Movement.

Villagers believe that their messiah was responsible for sending the generous US military and its cargo to them.

Speaking in local pidgin, the movement's head, Chief Isaac Wan, said that John Frum was a god who would one day return. He's "our God, our Jesus," he said.

Islanders are convinced that John Frum was an American. Every year they parade in home-made US army uniforms beneath the Stars and Stripes.

They hope one day to entice another delivery of cargo.

As a side note: I love the name, living as I do in the shadow of the Williamsburg bridge here in New York. "Frum" in yiddish means observant, a good Orthodox Jew. It's generally take to mean someone who honors the Sabbath, eats kosher and observes the niddah, or sexual rules. You can see the good "frummers" heading past my house every Friday near sunset, walking either towards the Williamsburg bridge to reach the large Hassidic community there, or just down my block, to observe Friday prayers at the Orthodox Syagogue.

Thanks for the Vanuatu story goes to my friends over at Religion News Blog. If you haven't seen their site, you should check it out. It's run by Christian apologists and cult watchers in Holland, and they routinely pick up really interesting stories about smaller, offshoot and offbeat religious groups.

Saint Valentine was beaten and beheaded in Rome in 269. Where's my candy?

A couple stories floating around the web about the Catholic Church leaning towards St. Rafael on this holy day of macking out. St. Rafael is the "little-known patron saint of 'happy meetings', according to the London Telegraph story, who arranged the biblical marriage between Tobias and Sarah (who had, shall we say, had been having a bad run - see Tobias 3:7-17 in the Apocrypha).

According to Rome, you pray for nine consecutive days to St. Rafael and there may be a heavenly intercession in your love life.

Neil Hughes, a 24-year-old physics graduate, has been single for a year and welcomes the Church's offer of help.

"It might sound like a crazy idea, but I believe that prayer is an important way of seeking guidance in life," he said.

"I'll be praying to St Raphael. It definitely beats trying to find your partner by getting drunk in a nightclub."

But nightclubs have their uses too, it seems:

Bishop Griffiths, who is also chairman of Catholic Youth Services, warned people against praying to St Raphael in search of sexual gratification.

"Prayer should not be used as a tool for people to find someone to jump into bed with. True love is much deeper than that."

Religion News Service has also sent out a version of the story out today.

I see that my hometown paper ran the AP story about X-rated animal sex tours on Valentine's day, which take place at progressive zoos.

Not surprising the story ran there. A weird place to grow up. We were home to a breeding program for rare animals at the Wild Animal Park division of the San Diego Zoo. And this strange guy created a sperm bank for Nobel Laurates, which inspired a book last year. My dad once invited the guy to talk at his Kiwanis breakfast. As a whole, North County San Diego has a disproportionate interest in male effluvia.

My favorite take on the pagan antecedents of V-Day comes from Brooklyn Blogger ZeFrank, a genius, who reminds us that during the Roman holiday of Lupercalia, boys used to run around slapping women with strips of raw meat.

Where is the romance anymore?

Those of you who read Canada's National Post may have run across this gem of a story called "The Green Fervour: Is Environmentalism the New Religion?"

Oh, how I love this angle - even though its politics, in keeping with the Post, are nakedly conservative. It's pretty much a rant against global warming science, but there are a few points about the religious idion of the environmental movement that strike home. Being, myself, a refugee from the environmentalist meccas of the west, I appreciate how the author pegs the righteous "fervour" of the modern enviros:

It can be felt in the frisson of piety that comes with lighting an energy-saving light bulb, a modern votive candle.

and

Adherents make arduous pilgrimages and call them ecotourism. Newspapers publish the iconography of polar bears. The IPCC reports carry the weight of scripture.

John Kay of the Financial Times wrote last month, about future climate chaos: “Christians look to the Second Coming, Marxists look to the collapse of capitalism, with the same mixture of fear and longing ... The discovery of global warming filled a gap in the canon ... [and] provides justification for the link between the sins of our past and the catastrophe of our future.

and

What was once called salvation — a nebulous state of grace — is now known as sustainability, a word that is equally resistant to precise definition. There is even a hymn, When the North Pole Melts, by James G. Titus, a scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is not exactly How Great Thou Art, but serves a similar purpose.

Environmentalism even has its persecutors, embodied in the Bush White House attack dogs who have conducted no less than an Inquisition against climate scientists, which failed to bring them to heel but instead inspired potential martyrs. Of course, as religions tend to do, environmentalists commit persecution of their own, which has created heretics out of mere skeptics.

Apart from these canny observations, the article is mostly a rant against recent findings on global warming. It is a 1,000 word detour on review of Apollo's Arrow, a new book by mathematician David Orrell about the statistical difficulty of predicting... anything.

For a more liberal take on the same subject - and a much more comprehensive list of the similarities between environmentalism and religion - do yourself a favor and read Jack Hitt's "A Gospel According to the Earth", which appeared in the July 2003 issue of Harper's Magazine. My favorite comparison is between the early Christian ascetics and the tree sitters of the Earth First! movement. Uncanny.

It's Black History Month and there's plenty about African Americans in religious life. A few favorites:

Check out this story by Adelle Banks of Religion News Service about the roles of pastor's wives in black churches.

Pastor June Robinson wears several hats -- and not the big fancy ones you might expect for a pastor's wife...

As you may already be tired of hearing, the faith magnifying glass is scrutinizing the presidential hopefuls. After lots of speculation about Mitt Romney, and Newsweek's article on Hillary Clinton, it's Obama's turn. The AP story has him talking about his Muslim-exposed childhood, his United Church of Christ church, and most alarmingly, about quitting smoking:

At the house party in Iowa Falls, Obama said, "I'm going to have to be run through the paces, people are going to have to lift up the hood, kick the tires and be clear that I have a grasp of the issues that are of utmost importance in people's lives."

In that vein, Obama said he has quit his cigarette habit and now chews nonprescription Nicorette gum all day.

Better now than when he's in office with his twitchy finger on the button, I guess. We're gonna see what the man's really made of.

Missing? Any news about Louis Farrakhan, who was recently released from five weeks in the hospital following surgery. I'm guessing that the big outlets are polishing off his obituary packages though there hasn't been any dire news yet (Farrakhan is scheduled to speak at the Nation of Islam's "Saviour's Day" events at the end of the month). Speaking of which, I haven't seen many Nation of Islam stories AT ALL in the recent obsession with world Islam. Anyone?

And a plug: for great stories on faith and black history month, check out my friend Joe Orso, who writes about religion for a local paper in Wisconsin. Joe is one of those committed religion journalists who puts his heart and soul in the pews, across denominations and traditions. His Ramadan blog from last fall followed him as he fasted with a small Muslim community in the midwest. Beautiful stuff - go, Joe.

Inspired by yesterday's Iraq rant, and the future of their church-state relations, I got an email from the folks at First Freedom First about a little known anniversary.



Sixty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Everson v Board of Education, a landmark case about the separation fo church and state.

The decision itself is a little confusing - it's about a state's right to use money for busses that go to Catholic schools - but it was important in defining the "establishment clause". How much can the government participate in religion? All nine judges agreed:

Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between Church and State.

- Justice Hugo Black

If you haven't heard of it, you must not be watching 700 club with Pat Robertson (I haven't). He has repeated bashed the decision on his show.

Polls show that, while Americans have strong religious feelings, they have a healthy respect for the seperation of church and state. So, put a candle in cupcake and celebrate.

Last week I posted some of my misgivings about the Soldiers of Heaven story coming out of Iraq (Did anyone see the coverline on Newsweek? "Shite Death Cult" Sexy, huh!). The Soldiers of Heaven were a "millenialist" group planning attacks of Shite leaders during the holiday of Ashoura, a delicate time for Sunni-Shiite relations. They were anhiliated Waco-style by Iraqi and American forces.

Though the response was quick and brutal, the information - even to American troops - was scarce. I asked if it wasn't an awkward time to talk about the future of religious tolerance in Iraq, and the future of minority religious viewpoints.

Well the AP sent out a story two days ago about the Mandaeans in Iraq. They are an ancient sect of quasi-Christians in Iraq.

Scholars who study the Mandaean religion and culture say its extinction would be a great loss, the end of an ancient religious movement. Dating to the time of the Roman Empire, it survived primarily in what is today Iraq and Iran, a branch of the Gnostic movement that borrowed elements of Christianity.

Mandaeans view John the Baptist as a great teacher, and engage in baptisms to come in closer contact with a "world of light" that is better than the material world on Earth.

"It represents a slice of the culture of the Middle East before the rise of Islam. It's a view to a former world. And frankly, we don't know very much about it," said Charles G. Haberl, an instructor in Middle Eastern studies at Rutgers University."

There's a lot of interest right now in gnostic Christianity across the board. Think the Da Vinci Code, the Gospel of Judas. It seems like a living, gnostic-influenced community would be a really invaluable asset to learning about early Christian thought, right? But of the 60,000 Mandeans in Iraq, 5,000 remain. Why?

... the few thousand Mandaeans still living in Iraq are finding their lives increasingly in danger, targeted by extremists of every political stripe and religious faith.

Nashi said a cousin on his father's side, Suhail Jani Sahar, was killed by Shiite fighters in November. A more distant cousin on his mother's side, Yahya Al-Chuhaily, was killed by Sunnis in June.

"Where there are areas where the Shia are the majority, they'll kill the Mandaeans and the Christians along with the Sunnis. Where there are areas where the Sunni are the majority, they'll kill the Mandaeans and the Christians along with the Shia," Nashi said.

Both Nashi and Aldulaimi are convinced that there will soon be no Mandaeans left in Iraq.

Don't expect things to get better.

You've got to love a religion survey - especially when it comes from China.

A whole flurry of interest today in the recent poll showing an upsurge of believers in modern China. Here are two in the NY Times and the Washington Post.

Post quotes the researchers at length, who have a sober and socialist take on the revivalist spirit:

More Chinese feel unstable and harassed by the rootless lives they lead now," Liu Zhongyu, a philosophy professor who helped organize the survey, said in a telephone interview.

"The standards of morality are declining," Liu told Oriental Outlook magazine, which reported the survey results. "People don't trust each other anymore. They are looking for something to anchor their lives in.

And the official response from the government:

President Hu Jintao, reacting to such sentiments, repeatedly has cited a need to reemphasize human values in China, suggesting they should be part of the "socialism with Chinese characteristics" that is the ruling Communist Party's official dogma. He has made creation of "a socialist harmonious society" a watchword of his administration. Last year, he issued a list of eight virtues and eight vices as guidance for officials and ordinary people as they go about their business in this fast-changing country.

I love this. You can definitely see the masses swaying - ancient wisdom traditions, with holidays, cosmologies, communities? Or a government-issued list of virtues you can clip and save in your new velcro wallet. Ermmm... no contest, Bob. Secularism takes a hit.

There's a great argument to be made here, if anyone is brave enough to make it. Both China and Russia, the Communist giants, experinced the same thing when the freedom of religion was revived. There was a huge resurgence back to the church. The numbers in Russia are similarly striking - generations raised without any spiritual beliefs return by droves, not just to the traditional church but to mystical, evangelical and fringe religions.

But was it an innate craving for religion, or the result of economics? Compare this to Europe, where a milder form of socialism and steady economic growth have seen the standard of living grow and religious observance fall over the last few decades. If China wants a secular nation, I say they try France's 30 hour workweek.

As far as the Christian numbers here - double what they were expecting, at 40 million - the marked uptick in conversions should come as no surprise. Western missionaries are still illegal in China, but there has been a constant flow of support for China's Christians flowing from west to east. A number of new Bible translations, a focus on China's overlooked minority groups, like the Black Yi and the Flowery Miao, and a steady supply of Chinese Bibles have made a big dent in Soviet objectivism.

As the sleeping giant stirs in the next century, I wonder if the growth of western religion will be a good thing or a bad thing. Will China become another battlefield of Islam and Christianity? Whose side will China finally be on?

And where are the numbers for the Falun Gong? I'll bet if you marked that oval, you got to meet the pollsters personally...

I was covering the Parliament of the World's Religions a few years ago. I spent long hours in the makeshift press room of Montserrat, a medieval monastery outside Barcelona. Part of my internment in that stuffy room was technical - I brought the first Macintosh the monks had ever seen, and it was an exercise of divine patience to get it networked.

During one of those late nights, the organizers of the event took over the room for a beef session. They seemed unaware that a journalist was lurking - or were just too tired from wrangling hundreds of holy people to care. The Dalai Lama had cancelled at the last minute, citing health reasons, though they grumbled that there were probably political pressures. A Sikh leader needed a delicate intervention for his oversized entourage. And don't even mention the keynote speaker. "I don't care if she did win the Nobel Peace Prize," said a prominent clergyman who will remain unnamed. "That woman is a ****."

The woman he was talking about was Shirin Ibadi, an Iranian lawyer and a force for human rights in the Muslim world. In an opinion piece today over at the NY Times, Maura Casey begins her article about Ibadi with the bumper-sticker wisdom, "Well behaved women rarely make history." Read the rest of the (very good) piece here.

Ibadi is undertaking the task of gathering a million Iranian signatures in support of women's rights. She probably won't succeed. She doesn't have to. She has comfortably settled into gadfly status, protected by her international reputation, free to hold up the standard of the western humanist tradition in the world of Sharia. There's little doubt that she is unpopular in Qom. But how popular is she in the rest of the country - especially the educated, growing middle-class?

There is little question that Iran is poised to become a major player in the new middle East, especially with the rise of Shiite power in Iraq and Lebanon (there is a good piece in the Christian Science Monitor today exploring the regional power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran). So the question becomes important: Who are the major players in Iran? The move towards the moderates, which flickered less than five years ago, seems to have died. But people like Ibadi are pressing against a lockdown on human rights, keeping the Iranian debate alive on tolerance and democracy.

Ibadi reminds me of another ill-behaved woman. Mad, bad, and dangerous to know...

GREAT story about the ancient Cambodian temples in The Washington Post today. Read it here. The background is nice:

Without doubt, Angkor has had its share of good times and bad. The great King Jayavarman II began erecting his capital city here in A.D. 802, founding the Khmer Empire that held sway over what is now Cambodia, as well as much of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, from the 9th century to the 12th.

At its peak, the city boasted a population of more than 1 million, with part of its cultural importance stemming from a mixed religious influence that resulted in a magnificent diversity of stunningly intricate reliefs. Starting as a Hindu city, Angkor turned to Buddhism in later centuries. Its religious life always included a strong dose of animism as well.

Hindu, Buddhist, Animist. What they DON'T mention is how important the buildings are to Christian anti-evolutionists. Say what? Bear with me a moment.

A literal reading of the Bible says that the earth can only be around 6,000 years old - biblical scholars arrive at this figure by adding up the biblical lineage from Adam to historical times. Scientists take issue with 6,000 years, of course; cosmology and geology to show the earth is significantly older than that. It is one of the more empassioned clashes between belief and science today.

One of the most striking, in your face contradictions to the biblical account are the fossils of dinosaurs, who clearly roamed the earth for thousands of years but make no appearance in the Bible or in human history. But if you join the hordes of tourists on Angkor Wat, you will notice a strange, almost inexplicable carving...



Is that a stegasauros?? Scores of Christian scholars would like for you to believe it is. If the Cambodians were alive and building their temples when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, it goes a long way in telescoping the millenia of the fossil record into the 6,000 years that the Bible accounts for.

Of course, the arguments about this image range far and wide. Opponents say that this was clearly a local beast or a mythical interpretation, and that the stegasauros fossils have never been found in the area. Champions of the Cambodian Barney say that the carving appears on the temple with other normally depicted local animals.

The Post article goes on to say that temples were almost lost for centuries. Since the fall of the Khmer Rouge and the rise of modern Cambodia, the country has been assiduously restoring them. Today, archaeologists from 12 countries are involved in the effort. But the temple which was originally a place where only " the king and a few of his monks would come to worship," according to John H. Stubbs of the World Monuments Fund. Massive waves of tourism are causing irremediable damage.

It wouldn't surprise me if some of those busloads at the Buddhist temples were coming from American megachurches.

They say that you become a New Yorker when you live here for seven years. That's next month for me. Sigh.

Don't get me wrong. I love New York - it's fast-paced, full of smart people. I like not having a car (both for environmental reasons and because I have bad mechanic car-ma). There is instant access to culture. People are good at living in groups; they growl and then they grin, like dogs yipping at each other then playing seconds later. And Thai delivery in the snow. What's not to love?

But... I miss California sometimes.

Why? Read this story from the LA Times. It's about the Universal Life Church, famous for ordaining people online. They claim about 20 million ministers, including friends of mine. The article is skillfully done, against a backdrop of an annual "gathering" that now gathers only a few hard-core members.

The ULC is minting about 10,000 ministers a month, double the volume of just a few years ago, according to Hensley. They're ordained so they can become jail pastors, visit hospice patients or gain credibility for their own religious groups. The overwhelming majority—at least 90%, by Hensley's guess—sign up just for the perk of having the legal authority to officiate at a wedding.

These days, interfaith marriages are commonplace, as are second marriages. Many couples don't belong to any formal religious institution. And many want a ceremony tailored to their tastes and personalities. So it's no surprise that the number of nondenominational officiants, both hired professionals and volunteer amateurs, is booming.

By the end of the weekend, only the Hensley family remain, the descendants of the man who, 50 years ago, decided to found a church with no set beliefs or requirements for ordination. His grandson has this to say:

...it was just family left. Kalena shared a smoke with her girlfriend on the church's back steps. Her brother, Josh, arrived with his daughter Delaney to pick up his wife.

"I don't believe in God or any higher power," Josh was pleased to tell me. "But I'm a member of this church. I'm even ordained. For me, a good church isn't about worshipping whoever—it's about the community to which you belong. The fact that I can have no religion whatsoever and be totally welcome here is fantastic."

I've been reading a lot of Josiah Royce lately, this Harvard philosopher of religion. He was a hard-line Christian in an age of increasing secularization. In trying to reimagine the church, Royce makes the claim that what Jesus promised as the Kingdom of Heaven was, in fact, a community of believers on earth.

Royce seems to say that the most Christian virtue is not love, but loyalty. Love is for one person - loyalty is a love of the group. Join your community and give them your heart. Give up stubbornness and pride and, more important than belief, stand by your people.

For better or worse, Californains are my people.

Another California book came out a few weeks ago - The Visionary State by Erik Davis. He covers everything from the Self-Realization temple to the Haight. I met a friend of Erik's here in the city, who writes a Hinduism blog called Souljerky. Check it out.

I was having dinner with my uncle the other night. All right, "uncle" is not quite right - I think technically he's my father second cousin - but in the Greek world these things get really muddy. In any case, we were sitting down with a few of his friends, and talk turned to religion.

"What's the deal with the Jehovah's Witnesses," one couple asks. They recently bought a loft in the trendy Dumbo area of Brooklyn, and just realized that the neighborhood was home to the headquarters for the Watchtower magazine.

What's the deal with the Jehovah's Witnesses? A lot of people have been asking that question in the last week - especially friends north of the border who have been following the sextuplets that were born to a Jehovah's Witness couple in British Columbia. The Toronoto Star has some good coverage. The babies were born four months premature, and the standard procedure involved supplying blood transfusions. Blood transfusions are considered ungodly by Jehovah's Witnesses, so the parents refused. Two children died. The state decided to intervene, and as of today, still maintains they have the right to intervene.

So - what IS the deal with the Jehovah's Witnesses? What's the blood thing about? I asked a friend who was raised an the faith, and he pointed me to the Acts of the Apostles, where Chrsitians are enjoined to "abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well." Here's the beginning of the christians distancing themselves from the sacrifice cultures of their era (see my post from yesterday). Also - note that fornication places a distant fourth!

I'm not sure if this reference is the only justification. Like all religious groups, the Jehovah's witness cannot be summed up in a few sentences. Some of the other practices that define them include a history of spotty millenialism (the end of the world has come and gone a few times), the use of Jehovah - the "covenant" name of God, and the non-observance of most traditional Christian holidays.

Want to know more? Do what I told the couple. Head to Dumbo and knock on the big doors. Or better yet - wait until someone knocks on yours.

I am a little jealous of a little piece in this week's Newsweek, in their welcome and regular BeliefWatch column. Lisa Miller takes on sacrifice, following the story of a group of Texans who practice chicken sacrifice as part of their Santeria faith, and the town set against it.



This story was originally broken in the wonderful (and now defunct) religion section of the Dallas Morning News. The longer treatment nicely handled the range of the issues it presented - animal rights, religious intolerance, and my favorite, history.

• The Old Testament is rife with references to the sacrifice of rams. Jews abandoned the ritual after the temple where sacrifices were performed was destroyed. The Torah commands that sacrifices must be done in a place commanded by God, and no sacrifice can take place until a new one is designated.

• Many Muslims commemorate the end of the Hajj by sacrificing a sheep in honor of Abraham's willingness to slay his son at God's commandment and God's providing of a ram instead. The holiday, known as Eid al-Adha, was celebrated last week.

• In Christianity, the crucifixion of Jesus replaced animal sacrifice under the belief that Jesus was the Lamb of God and his ultimate sacrifice redeemed the world of its sins. This sacrifice is commemorated in Mass with the sacrament of the wafer and wine.

I am just working through Walter Burkert's wonderful history of Greek Religion. He a couple of really interesting views on the power of the experience. He says that for the Greeks it was "the essence of the sacred act," the central most powerful metophors of ceremonies which experienced death as necessary for the coninuing of life.

It was far from a cold-blodded act. In fact, he says, the empathy for the animal is essential. A "domestic animal, a posession and a companion, must nevertheless be slaughtered and eaten," which creates "more conflicts and anxieties
which are resolved inthe ritual."These conflicts were mirrors of larger societal anxieties: that for a wommunity, life depends on death for food and space - after communially witnessing the animal's slaughtered, the community celebrated new life.

The tradition was of course widespread in the ancient world, practiced mong the Hittiites and of course the Semites (though it is an interesting difference that the greek gods left the best meat to mankind but semites preferred the charred "burnt offerings" which could not be eaten).

Muslims still celebrate this act and the Jews, should the Temple ever be rebuilt, will also need to sacrifice to be observant. Sacrifice is the central metaphor of Christianity. So who's worried about a few families in Texas?