And on that Subject...

... a rather distressed post on one of the Beliefnet pop culture blogs. Apparently a T-shirt company by the name of Holy Ghost Tees is promoting their shirts via MySpace. A hot, midriff-baring chick is wearing a tight shirt that reads "E-Cal-A-Ma-She." The shirt on the dusky dude holding her by the waist reads "A-Nin-Di-O-She." They're supposed to be phrases from Christians speaking in tongues.

Sez affronted blogger,

It's hard to tell whether these phrases are real or if they were made up in the mind of yet another mocker. What is most problematic--beyond the $37 price tag--is the fact that the words are printed on the shirt without explanation as to what they mean. These shirts defeat the purpose of opening eyes to the wondrous works of the Holy Spirit by belittling a profoundly deep experience and contributing to the compartmentalization of Christian spiritual gifts.

Are the entrepreneurs for real? Their MySpace blog says that they had a great time at the Greater Dimensions Christian Assembly Youth Conference in Jacksonville, Florida (they have pictures). "Not only was it a prime opportunity for HolyGhostTees.com to showcase our wonderful product amongst today's youth and Christian culture, exceeding our expectations selling out of t-shirts onsite within 2 days and generating additional sale orders more specifically, our pre-order limited edition "Tye-dyed On The Cross" HolyGhostTees. However, it allowed us to be in the presence of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as souls were saved and a new commitment of faith was restored."

The shirts, according to the website, are 100% cotton, pre-shrunk and come with an "authenticity label." Presumably this is to say that the phrases on the shirt came from a REAL encounter with God. "Whether your style is Hip Hop, grunge, baby-tees or somewhere in-between, you gotta sport your HolyGhostTees and let the world know you caught the Spirit."

And hey - they might come in handy for the rest of us. I was recently on the website of Tom Brown, an El Paso preacher who has been internationally quoted on matters of modern exorcism and speaking in tongues He says that:

English comes from England. Spanish comes from Spain. Italian comes from Italy.. Well, where [do] tongues come from? ... It is what is spoken in heaven; the only difference is that the people in heaven understand what they are saying. Here on earth Paul says, "For anyone who speaks in tongues does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understand him; he utters mysteries with his spirit" (v. 2).Jesus says that those who believe in Him will "speak in new tongues" (Mark 16:17)

Interestingly, both HolyGhostTees and Tom Brown rely on the internet for most of their traffic - Brown says that he has "half million visitors annually, with hundreds of testimonies." Odd, since there the web is, so far, a mute medium.

Our meetup group is heading to a Pentecostal group over the summer. Very much looking forward to it. Think I'll skip the Tee, though.

Get Thee Behind Me, Facebook!

Bad graphics and endless smileys aren't the only sins committed in the name of social networking sites. At least, not according to CNN, who saw fit to publish a "1,2,trend" piece about people giving up MySpace and Facebook for Lent.

"It's a form of spiritual awareness that allows you to reconnect with God," said Jocelyn Chiu, an Emory University sophomore and active member of her Presbyterian church. "By giving up something that used up so much of my time, I realized that I had been leaving my spiritual life behind."

Chiu gave up Facebook for Lent in 2006 and went one step further this year -- vowing to avoid the Internet altogether. She has only allowed herself to check Emory's internal e-mail for school-related messages

Ouch. That would be hard. And interesting, in light of the statistic in the Washington Post the other day, saying that hits for "God" are rivaling the number of hits for "sex." What way do the numbers go this time of year, especially if Christian netizens like Chiu aren't holding up their end?

Me, I'm all over it. I think that a personal fast is one of the great spiritual practices that crosses traditions. And very timely for our age. As Solzhenitsyn said in his infamous Harvard address, America needs, more than anything, to learn the ability to say "no" to itself.

My Lent observance got really creative about five years ago, when a friend and I started giving up plastic bags. In New York, this is almost impossible, and leads to near-fistfights with take-out counters who want to swaddle your food in layers of cardboard, strings, paper and plasic. As for ordering in, one of those New York perks - forget it. Just try ordering the mu-shu pork, hold the environmental destruction, and see what comes to your door.

You Can't Go Home Again

A depressing story from Ethiopia, courtesy of Reuters.

You've probably heard about the "law of return": all diaspora Jews are allowed to settle in Israel and eventually gain citizenship. Well, an ancient group of Jews, living on the margins of Ethiopian society, have been running into trouble. Thousands have been stranded for years in squalid refugee camps, and the Israeli government seems unwilling to let them return.

Israel -- a country built on immigration which says it houses about 110,000 Israelis of Ethiopian descent -- has finalized a list of the last to be brought in.

That would leave thousands -- estimates range from 8,000 to 16,000 -- in Gondar's sprawling, filthy camp and the surrounding villages.

Many people in the camps have been waiting for years in cramped mud shacks with no running water or basic sanitation, depending on food donations to survive. Families have been split up, only some of their number allowed into Israel.

The piece also hints at the double standard of emigration policies with Ethiopia and a more European country like Russia. Hundreds of thousands of Russians were allowed to return, often with little or no connection to the Jewish faith. I once spent a memorable afternoon in a park in Tel Aviv with a small group of these Russian Jews - who were devout Hare Krishnas.

There are claims that many Ethiopians are simply trying to leave their lives in Africa, taking advantage of the law. But they don't necessarily face a better life in Israel, where the Ethiopians who have already emigrated face dicrimination:

"It is not enough to airlift people in planes to Israel while those that have immigrated have not yet been absorbed," said Masala, referring to the hardships and social exclusion felt by many in the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel.

Israel has officially finished its list of who is and who is not a Jew among the Ethiopians who are waiting. Thousands will be left behind, facing lives of ostracism, exclusion, and loneliness at home.

In the middle of this, somewhere, there lurks the issue of tikkun olam - the Jewish idea that the purpose of being a Jew is to help rebuild a broken world.

Update: SCOTUS

As I opened my Inbox, I was pleased to get see some high-powered perspective on l'affaire Bong Hits, which I blogged about here.

No less an authority than David Masci, a senior research fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, has posted a legal analysis on how some Christian groups are finding themselves on the same side as Joseph Frederick, the teen who advocated "Bong Hits for Jesus" on a banner unfurled at a school event.

...more than a few eyebrows were raised when the likes of the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian public interest law firm founded by Pat Robertson, submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Frederick. Yet ACLJ, as well as other similar organizations, see a clear parallel between Frederick's plight and that of many religious, especially Christian, students around the country. "School districts must not be entrusted with the authority to arbitrarily determine what student speech is offensive and off limits," the group said in a statement released on the day of the Supreme Court oral argument. "In the future, that could put all student speech at risk -- including speech that advocates Christian beliefs on any issue."

Aside from ACLJ, who else is on Frederick's side? The ACLU, of course. Opposed? The National School Boards, drug policy groups, and... the Bush administration!

Strange Bedfellows indeed. But as Masci points out,

If the Supreme Court decides in favor of Frederick and against the school district, it will almost certainly strengthen the right of students, including religious students, to express opinions that other students and school officials find objectionable. This time, it's "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" that raised a principal's ire. But the Christian public interest groups involved in the Frederick case believe that next time it might be an entirely different, more reverential invocation of Christ's name that lands a student in hot water.

Institutions

Two articles from the beginning of this week, both from the LA Times, both good, both wrestling with the same idea. If you're a Catholic, what is your duty to powers other than the Church - especially that power is the U.S. Government?

It's been a thorny issue for Christians from the days of Jesus, who gave the equivocation "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s ."

The first one deals with the Catholic Worker, which helps the homeless in LA. The organization has never registered with the IRS as a non-profit, which ensures that the infrastructure for the group is off the books, and donations to them non-deductible. Why?

"We have this idea in the back of our head that money corrupts," said [Catherine] Morris, 72, a former nun who has a wide and tireless smile. She said the group collects about $200,000 a year. "It seems the first thing that money goes to is salaries, and we have no salaries."...

Her husband, Jeff Dietrich, agreed. "We don't want the federal government's permission to do this," said Dietrich, a 61-year-old with a robust mustache.

"Jesus really didn't have anything to do with the state, and he wanted people to take care of each other.

"

The organization runs a shelter and soup kitchen, and provides a dental and medical clinic for the city's poor. They rely on "no-strings-attached altruism" from its donors and volunteers to get things done. The Times gives a few lines to the history of the lefty Catholic Worker and founder Dorothy Day:

A writer, social activist and pacifist, Day embraced the radical politics of the Depression era — her brand has been described as "Christian anarchism" — along with more orthodox teachings of Roman Catholic morality, including an opposition to abortion.

Day, who died in 1980 and has been proposed for sainthood, maintained that charity should be a personal endeavor and that living among the poor is a virtue.

Score one for God over Caesar. Compare this to the story this one that ran the next day, about a little-known fact in the ongoing trials in the Catholic church over sex abuse. It starts this way:

An elderly nun, under questioning by a lawyer, recently said she could remember almost nothing about his client, a child who had been sexually molested by a Roman Catholic priest.

Lawyer Irwin Zalkin was puzzled because church records showed she had heard several complaints about the San Diego priest, and the file noted that she had reported them to higher authority.

Finally, Zalkin asked whether she was familiar with "mental reservation" — a 700-year-old doctrine by which clerics may avoid telling the truth to protect the Catholic Church.

"She explained in her own way that it is 'to protect the church from scandal.' She said she subscribed to the doctrine," Zalkin said.... "You put somebody under oath; you assume they understand that under civil law they would be committing perjury to lie. It complicates that process when there is a doctrine that allows for a lie to avoid scandal to the church."

The article goes on to describe "mental reservation," a Catholic tradition unsanctioned by canon law to keep the authority of the church intact under assault from civil law by stretching the truth. Clearly, since the first wave of pedophilia cases hit in 2002, this has been an issue, ith millions of dollars at stake. At least "half a dozen lawyers," according to the article, have run into the practice in the courtroom. When church officials were confronted about its use on the stand, they are advised to not answer the question by their lawyers.

Who has your loyalty - God or Caesar? A tough question, obviously. I mentioned the Mennonite s the other day, and in the course of their radical peace witness, one of their pastors was quoted as saying, "We have discovered some doubt as to what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, and have decided to give the benefit of the doubt to God."

But where does God lie? Where do you draw the battle lines? In turning away from government, to keep the spirit of altruism from becoming an institution? Or, in disregarding the law to preserve the institution you've set up, ostensibly, to help the poor in body and spirit? Beyond me.

Forgive these tardy posts, btw. The magazine has been in overdrive and I'm finding it hard to focus. All better soon.

Ask and Ye Shall Recieve

The other day I asked where the smart stories were about American Islam as it is practiced in non-immigrant communities, especially among African-Americans. I mean, is it just me, or is it significant that the United States is embroiled in baiting the Islamic world abroad, while our own most historically fraught ethnic group at home - blacks - have been turning to Islam in greater numbers? Isn't this... news?

The AP came through with a few insights. The headlines read along the lines of, Black Conversions to Sunni Islam Rise Since Sept. 11 Attacks. There's a meaty story here.

Unfortunately this piece doesn't quite come through. But here's what's relevant:

Following what appears to be a trend in cities nationwide, religious leaders in Pittsburgh say there has been a rise in black conversions to Sunni Islam since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

No national surveys have been taken to confirm the increase, but Islamic religious leaders in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit have also reported growth, said Lawrence Mamiya, a professor of religion and Africana studies at New York’s Vassar College. Experts estimate that 30 percent of the 6 to 7 million Muslims in the U.S. are black, with only South Asians making up a larger number at 33 percent.

But... why? The story largely sidesteps any analysis in favor of focusing on the growth of black Islamic communities in Pittsburgh and New York. A few coy stabs, though, are telling:

A growing number of Muslims in America, especially blacks, are building mosques that offer a variety of community services, partly because the federal and state governments do not answer to many of their social needs, Islamic experts say.

These complexes take the religion back to its roots before the modern-day state began providing services to the population.

Sure - African-Americans feel ignored by the government. There's probably some truth there. But Islam doesn't have a corner on intra-community support. Plenty of Christian assistance programs in and out of the black community.

The last few grafs are, I think, what the story should have been about:

After the [9/11] attacks, [Muslim] immigrants — subject to FBI surveillance, police raids and other scrutiny — began to reach out to black Muslims in Pittsburgh, whose persecution they could suddenly relate to, said Sarah Jameela Martin, 64, an active member of the city’s black Muslim community....

Now, as immigrant and black Muslims in Pittsburgh try to improve the religion’s image and separate it from global terrorism, blacks are paving the way, Martin said.

Black women, for example, have long worn the traditional head-covering, or hijab, to work, while immigrants have been reluctant to do so, she said. Today, Muslims in Pittsburgh are far more visible, she said.

“Because of our social tag … we didn’t mind,” Byrdsong said, pointing to his dark skin as an explanation to why being openly Muslim has never been a problem for blacks in America. “We can’t hide it.”

A strange way to end the story, isn't it? “Because of our social tag … we didn’t mind.” What exactly does this mean??? We don't mind the stigmas of wearing the Islamic faith on our sleeve. We have had it tougher just wearing the colors of our race.

There are a lot of issues here. As the Church of England is discovering this week the horrible legacy of slavery is a moral blot on the history of the west that resists easy solutions - that religious body is looking at the financial ways it profited from the slave trade and what, if anything, can be done to come clean again.

That's the moral story of America, writ large. It's why the story of faith in our African-American communities is so important. The introduction of Christianity to Africa was wrapped up in the introduction of chains and slavery. Perhaps today - and I'm not the first one to say this - African-Americans are drawn to Islam in the wake of 9/11 BOTH because it is not Christianity AND because it is instead a faith that bears the burden of a misunderstood stigma, something that blacks can relate to?

I want more. This is the next chapter in a story that, in the end, is the most important story of our nation. Sin, repentance, the impossible hope of forgiveness.

Am I off base? The door is open to anyone with a keener analysis.

Synagogue

As the sun sets tonight around the globe, millions of Jews will begin their observation of the Sabbath.

They will keep it in different ways. Some will go to their local shul and sing the Lecha Dodi Likrat. Others will repeat the kiddush over the wine and challah bread in their homes. More secular Jews may choose to enjoy a meal with their families, the beginning of a 24 hours set aside for enjoying life. America owes the idea of the "day of rest" to the Jews. For the Jews it is more than this. As the Zionist Ahad Ha'am noted, the practice has kept Jewish identity alive through a tumultuous history: "More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews."

The group that I lead went to Shabbat services at Central Synagogue last Friday, braving a March sleetstorm that turned midtown into an obstacle course of ice and slush.

The building is beautiful, with a vaulting cathedral-like ceiling and an attention to pattern and detail that is rich in carved wood and bright colors. When the synagogue was built in 1872, it was modeled on Moorish Mosques. Since the Jews really didn't have a tradition of big buildings since the fall of the Temple in 70AD, the larger, more affluent communities in Germany and Europe looked for architectural inspiration to the Golden Age, when 90% of the world's Jews lived relatively peacefully under Muslim rule in Spain. The building is enormous, and seats 1,500. Thanks to Amy Nyack for these insights.

The service itself was upbeat and progressive. Many men chose not to wear the kippa, or head covering. The two cantors were women - one played the guitar. There was a large contingent of Muslims visiting that night - their Imam from the Islamic Cultural Center as sitting next to the Rabbi as part of an interfaith exchange. There was a pastor there as well, the three joined in a benediction that was moving.

Also, lots of rosy-cheeked kids got up to sing, a Hebrew song punctuated with cowboy yelps of "Yeee-haw!" We were invited to sing along. I couldn't help but notice that some of the kids didn't look ethnically jewish at all - Chinese and African-American features punctuated the group, maybe through adoption or intermarriage or conversion.

Needless to say this is a Reform Jewish congregation. Reform Judaism was born in the mid-nineteenth century, and embraced a lot of enlightenment, progressive ideas about how strictly Jews should observe their traditions. Today, most Jews outside of Israel are part of this movement.

But inside Israel, the Orthodox Judaism rules. A piece from yesterday's Washington Post:

World leaders of Reform Judaism launched a new push Monday for greater support from Israelis despite what they called continuing discrimination at the hands of the Orthodox religious establishment in Israel.

Reform Judaism, a liberal, egalitarian movement, is the largest branch of American Judaism. But the movement has never caught on in large numbers in Israel, where the majority of religious Jews are Orthodox, and only a small minority Conservative or Reform.

In Israel, the Orthodox rabbinate has strenuously resisted inroads by the other streams, refusing to recognize their rulings or conversions as religiously valid.

The niceties of the struggles within Judaism are beyond my ken, but it was interesting to hear the reaction of the one Jewish guy in our group to the services at Central Synagogue. He is a freelancer for the NY Times, sniffing around to see if our travels are worth a story or not. He was raised in a Conservative Jewish community in New England, where there were no guitars or cowboy yelps. He hadn't stepped foot in shul for some fifteen years.

"I felt protective of my tradition," he said. "Religion is not supposed to be fun."

Glad he wasn't along when we saw the Hip-Hop Taoists.

Well, to everyone - "shabbat shalom." (good sabbath)

J K eLe Menno...

I blogged yesterday about our American legacy of being settled by persecuted churches. One of these groups was the Mennonites (who take their name from the Dutch Catholic priest Menno Simons, pictured, occasioning the infantile pun above).

Mennonites are known for their belief in adult baptism (or "Believer's Baptism"), their pacifism, and their practice of a simple, often rural, way of life. Old Order Mennonites are often confused with the Amish (with whom they share a lot of history) because of their horse-and-buggy lifestyle on the fringes of society.

The Mennonites came to America fleeing persecution first in the Netherlands and Switzerland, then in England. They settled across the US in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri. Now, after a few hundred years, the flight of persecution continues, according to this story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

...Mennonites are leaving Missouri as state officials enforce a 2004 law that requires all residents to have their pictures taken for drivers licenses -- a rule that conflicts with the Mennonites' belief in a Biblical prohibition against "graven images" that keep community members from having their picture taken.

Near Huntsville, community members say more than a dozen families in this central Missouri enclave are preparing to move south to Arkansas, where state law still offers a religious exemption to obtain driver's licenses without photos.

The Grand Inquisitors of the Missouri state DMV are citing the increased security since 9/11 for requiring these horse-and-buggy pacifists to carry their mugshots along with them as they drive their eggs to market. Arkansas, the new promised land, has decided to shoulder the risk.

The article doesn't mention what the Mennonites are doing with driver's licenses to begin with. As I understand it, modern technology has a place in "simple" and Old Order communities. The towns may decide on limited innovations - like a few cars for commercial use - if they can be of benefit to all without jeapordizing their belief in a meditative pace of life.

The Secret... ugh

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

Words of wisdom from the murky worldview of Ecclesiastes (1:9 KJV). I quote that author here, because he has the sole distinction of being the only historical figure not cited in the pages of Rhonda Byrne's book The Secret.

And no wonder. Life is tough and gather ye rosebuds are hardly the sentiments to sell books. You won't move nearly 2 million units with gems like "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."

Don't ask me to go into why I think The Secret is a yawner. I've already gone into my thoughts about the book, America's long-standing New Thought syncretism, and my own family's weird involvement with New Age gurus. But it's nice to see some thoughtful coverage, especially in the dailies. The Toronto Star gives some serious ink to The Secret and the mysteries and histories it is a part of. Great, great article, in which author Murray Whyte talks to happiness experts, ex-gurus, and Steve Salerno, the author of SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless.

After giving The Secret and its detractors their due, Whyte finishes the article by showing up at an event held by a publisher holding a Secret-related event. The interaction between the guru and the acolytes is priceless:

[Canadian publisher] Burman hosted [author Marie] Diamond at an event at Indigo Books on Bloor last weekend, where she took some questions from a packed audience. "I'm a really big believer in The Secret," said one, a young black woman. "But I also believe that discrimination and racism are real. How can you harmonize those things?"

Diamond, a middle-aged Belgian woman with a welcoming air, nodded knowingly. "You just said you believe in discrimination. You be-live it. I'm going to ask you to stop believing it, because if you focus on the negative, you project it yourself."

Another, from a young man. "I really love what you're doing," he says. "But how, for example, was 9/11 attracted to the people in those buildings? That's something I can't understand."

Another thoughtful pause. Diamond, in her madras blazer and jeans, furrows her brow and speaks softly, breathily. "Sometimes, we experience the law of attraction collectively," she says. "The U.S. maybe had a fear of being attacked. Those 3,000 people – they might have put out some kind of fear that attracted this to happen, fear of dying young, fear that something might happen that day. But sometimes, it is collective."

The only area I wish Whyte had explored was the extent that books like The Secret have influenced mainstream Christianity. Positive thinking has held a grip on congregations since Normal Vincent Peale, and megachurches and the explosion of Pentecostalism have, for the most part, strengthened the message of God-equals-prosperity-and-happiness. Gone are the scowls of our Puritan forefathers. Here to stay is the era of blind optimism - with it's adolescent obsession with stuff and the road to "happiness".

Whoa. Did I just use scare quotes on the word happiness?

All right, time to soft-pedal the cynicism. In my defense, I officially became a New Yorker last week by the seven-year rule. Time to grab a slice or a blintz and chill out with the Daily News. A time to weep, and a time to laugh - right?

The Great Pond Divide

Two stories that should be read back to back.

First, the British government today decided that school administrators had the right to ban full-face veils, if they affected "safety, security or pupils' learning." The AP story, courtesy of CNN:

School administrators have the right to ban students from covering their faces under a new uniform policy, but educators should speak with parents before introducing such a ban, the Education Ministry said in a statement.

...

The issue of face-covering veils has sparked a debate over religious tolerance and cultural assimilation in Britain, which is home to 1.6 million Muslims.

The English ruling should be distinguished from l'affaire du voile across the channel. In France, any conspicuous outward sign of religious affiliation - cross, kippa or veil - is forbidden, on the grounds of keeping schools secular. In England, with its stress on the school's right to keep a dress code, the rallying cry seems to be more towards propriety than secularity. Vive la difference.

Compare both of these with what our Supreme Court was discussing yesterday: l'affaire "Bong Hits for Jesus."

Yup, for those of you cloistered on a grand jury somewhere, our highest court is seriously debating whether or not a school has the right to stop a student from carrying a banner advocating getting stoned for Jesus.

Some are asking - will the face veil ban ever cross the Atlantic? I say - are you kidding? We carry three centuries of heavy baggage as the religious refugees of Europe. As Christian as the nation is, it will be a cold day in hell before we forbid anyone the right to wear their colors of faith - no matter how out-of-step they may be.

Speaking of out-of-step. Lord love Miss Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

"If the design had been `Bong "Stinks" for Jesus,' would the reaction have been the same?" asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "One could look at these words and say it's just nonsense . . . it isn't clear that this is `smoke pot.'"

According to the latest from the Chicago Tribune, the Bong Hits case looks like it will hinge on whether the student, who was on a field trip at the unfurling, is considered in school or out of school.

Buddhist Conscientious Objectors

I blogged the other day about attending services in Daniel Seeger's church. His name doesn't exactly resonate through the ages. He was the defendant in a case that reached the Supreme Court, The United States of America vs. Daniel Seeger, which eventually allowed him to claim conscientious objector status due to his religion, even though he wasn't sure he believed in God. The court decided that his agnosticism was still "religious" in the eyes of the law. This kept him out of the Korean War.

Well, South Koreans are now mounting their legal front to keep from fighting in the same war - which is technically still being fought. This piece in the Korea Times says that military objectors of many stripes, including Buddhists and Jehovah's Witnesses, are bringing their claims to the United Nations.

The lengthy debate over the right of Korean citizens to refuse mandatory military service will now be heard at the United Nations (U.N.).

Oh Tae-yang, a 30-year-old who became a public figure in 2002 when he was indicted for refusing the draft citing his Buddhist beliefs, will join 10 other Koreans in submitting a complaint to the U.N.'s Human Rights Committee that deals with the Korean government's alleged discrimination against military objectors.

"Oh and the other military objectors will argue on the international stage that the Korean government's decision to punish them under criminal law violate their basic human rights to freedom of thought and religion that should be protected by law," said Choi Jung-min, secretary general of a coalition of 36 activist groups and religious organizations advocating the rights of military objectors.

The article goes on to say that of the 3,655 Koreans who have claimed objector status since 2001, more than 3,000 were sentenced to at least 18 months in prison. At least 900 are currently serving time for their beliefs.

The problem, of course - applying to the UN. What are they going to do? Pass a resolution? Look sternly across the room at the Korean delegate? Anyone who is savvy to the actual power of this organization in this case, please feel free to comment.

It's important to remember that the basis for military objection in this country is still religious, by law, Daniel Seeger nonwithstanding. Young objectors are required to show a substantial paper trail documenting their moral beliefs, which needs to add up to a "religious" conviction. Until Seeger, the US government asked the following questions of potential objectors:

Give the name and present address of the individual upon whom you rely most for religious guidance.

Are you a member of a religious sect or organization? Describe carefully the creed or official statements of said religious sect or organization as it relates to participation in war.

Describe the actions and behavior in your life which in your opinion most conspicuously demonstrate the consistency and depth of your religious convictions.

It's one of the instances where the US government can still pass judgment on the depths and reach of a citizen's religious belief. Unreal. Our best wishes to the Buddhists Over There.

Web of Worship

Check out this piece from the Washington Post a few days ago - it's about how people can increasingly experience worship services over the internet. The piece focuses on a South Indian temple, and the website where you can order a personalized puja from anywhere in the world.

I must say the website is very cool - menus for different temples of Ganesh, Vishnu, Shiva and Navagraha, and the services you can request to have performed there. There's also information about Hinduism for the curious - who, according to the article, increasingly make up the traffic for the site.

But the real news, I think, is here:

For many cyber-worshipers, online religious life conducted at home or in an Internet cafe has replaced attendance at traditional churches, temples, mosques and synagogues. Some are coming to religion for the first time, in a setting they find as comfortable as their grandparents found a church pew, while millions of people reared on churchgoing are discovering new ways to worship.

“The first wave of religion online, in the 1990s, was mainly for nerds and young people and techies,” said Morten Hojsgaard, a Danish author who has written extensively about online religion. “But now it really is a mirror of society at large. This is providing a new forum for religious seekers.”

Hojsgaard said the number of Web pages dealing with God, religion and churches increased from 14 million in 1999 to 200 million in 2004. Religion now nearly rivals sex as a topic on the Internet: A search for “sex” on Google returns about 408 million hits, while a search for “God” yields 396 million.

In fact, I was told once that the first discussion board dedicated to one topic on the proto-internet was about paganism. And just last month, a guy from our meetup at a Greek Orhtodox church mentioned that he was becoming converted to a different shade of Judaism through a Rabbi's teachings on YouTube.

It feels right, that our fascination with God is exploding online. American religion, with its proliferation of denominations and flavors, has always incorporated the robust market mentality of this country. We are a nation of superstar preachers and new spiritual winds. According to the ACIS survey, 1 in 7 Americans ends up in a religion they weren't born into, I've wanted to see more articles like this, on the ways that Americans shop around for faith.

Temple Skirmishes

From western India, the following report about skirmishes between two rival sects of the Swaminarayan branch of Hinduism:

Sadhus, who take a vow of non-violence and abstinence, shed their saffron robes to don violent garbs, aiming soda bottles and stones at each other and later attacking a police station. By the time peace prevailed, at least a dozen sadhus were in the Takhatsinhji Hospital in Bhavnagar. The town remained tense on the second consecutive day with the police deploying 200 personnel

The city of Gadhada is an important pilgrimage center for the Swaminarayan believers, and violence is erupting between the five sects about the rights to maintain lucrative temples and pilgrimage sites. The move to violence is a significant change, according to political commentator Dinesh Shukla. In the past, the sects confined themselves to slur campaigns - "sting operations revealing sex scandals and financial irregularities."

Apparently. The article ends with the following interesting (if grammatically questionable) note:

The tension was palpable when elections were held last October at Maninagar and Junagadh temples. And, the election results are usually followed by a sodomy or sex scandal, revealed to followers by either faction.

Sodomy scandals? Gosh. Sounds like home.

Speaking of Quakers

Today charges were dropped against six Guilford College football players, who were accused of attacking and using racial epithets against three Palestinian students. From the News and Observer:

The Palestinian students, including an N.C. State University freshman, said they were called "terrorists" and taunted with racial slurs as they were beaten and kicked Jan. 20.

On Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Howard Neumann said he dropped the charges after reviewing witness statements from nearly 30 people. All six players faced assault charges, and five of them were charged with ethnic intimidation.

The case was ugly enough to merit international attention - even Al Jazeera sent a film crew to Greensboro, NC, where the school is located.

All the more perplexing, as the News and Observer article points out, because Guilford is a school with a "rich heritage in the pacifist Quaker faith" - founded in 1837 by Friends and the only Quaker college in the Southeast.

"Any time a violent incident happens on a Quaker campus," [Nic Brown, assistant director of college relations at Guilford] said, "there's going to be intense scrutiny."

In both the News and Observer story and in a piece by the AP, the story raises the question of whether the players' apologies prompted the dismissal of the charges. The Palestinians' lawyer said "that if the players apologized, they would consider asking for the charges to be dropped." But:

[Guilford County Assistant District Attorney Howard] Neumann said he considered the apologies, ``but we're not setting a precedent in Guilford County that as long as you say you're sorry it's OK to break the law.''

But apologies can go a long way. There is an opportunity here to talk about how Quakers resolve conflict. The idea of "Gospel Order" is central to many Quaker communities. Part of it is summed up in Matthew 18:15-17:

If your brother sins against you, go and point out what was wrong. But do it in private, just between the two of you. If that person listens, you have won back a follower. But if that one refuses to listen, take along one or two others. The Scriptures teach that every complaint must be proven true by two or more witnesses. If the follower refuses to listen to them, report the matter to the church. Anyone who refuses to listen to the church must be treated like an unbeliever or a tax collector.

Conflicts are resolved close to home, with the courts of law only involved as a last resort. And Quakers are no stranger to conflict. The "peaceful" Friends have been on the front lines of most of the 20th century's social movements, which has brought them into conflict, both external and internal, with some regularity. Their historical mechanisms for consensus building and conflict resolution are pretty amazing - check out some here.

As Guilford tries to reconnect with it's Quaker past in the wake of the brawl, it will be an interesting to see if that message of brotherhood can extend these ideas to the modern clash between America and Islam.

Bush v. Chavez: UPDATE

As I blogged the other day, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and our own George Bush are both using Christian language to sell their ideologies. But the face-off for the hearts of South Americans took an interesting turn today when Mayan Indian leaders in Guatemala resolved to begin purification rites at ancient places Bush visited to cleanse them of any "bad spirits." From CNN:

...many Mayans are angry that Bush is visiting Iximche, founded as the capital of the Kaqchiqueles kingdom before the Spanish conquest in 1524.
...
"That a person like (Bush) with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked is going to walk in our sacred lands is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, director of a Mayan non-governmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, told The Associated Press.

On the Road: Quakers

As I've mentioned, I lead a group of New Yorkers of different faiths to services around the city. Afterwards, we talk about them. Feel free to join us.

Yesterday we sat with the Quakers of Fifteenth Street Meeting House. It was an "unstructured" meeting, which means that the Quakers sit in silence in a large open circle until someone feels moved to speak. No clergy, and the Bible preaching was all attenders quoting from memory. Mostly it was just quiet. New York had one of its early spring days - the clouds passed over the sun, and the plain white walls of the colonial-era building glowed in a slow rhythm.

The church has a fairly prominent history of social activism - Bayard Rustin and Daniel Seeger were both members - which continues to the present. Before the congregation was released to the coffee hour, a hefty sheaf of announcements was read out, including committees for the environment, the death penalty, the homeless, and a call to the fourth anniversary protests against the invasion of Iraq. Silence and speaking loudly, I guess.

Only one broad-brimmed hat, and no oatmeal.

On Friday, we attend services at Central Synagogue. Doing our part to make Stephen Prothero proud.

And Now Vietnam...

Is communism good for Christianity? Recent posts have remarked on the explosion of faith in China and on Hugo Chavez' plans to make the church a partner in his quasi-socialist road plan for Latin America. Today, the AP carries a story about the thaw in relations between the Vatican and Vietnam where, despite being run by the Communist Party since 1975, the country has one of Asia's largest populations of Catholics.

It was the 15th time Vatican representatives have made an annual visit to Vietnam, but this year's meetings drew heightened attention because of the prospect the two sides might establish diplomatic relations.

They announced that possibility in January after Pope Benedict XVI received Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, the highest-level Vietnamese official to visit the Vatican.

UPDATE: All the gory details from Vietnamnet...

Bibles in Schools

Buzz about plans to begin teaching the Bible in Georgia schools (AP via ABC).

On a list of classes approved Thursday by the Georgia Board of Education are Literature and History of the Old Testament Era, and Literature and History of the New Testament Era. The classes, approved last year by the Legislature, will not be required, and the state's 180 school systems can decide for themselves whether to offer them.

Apparently the classes are explicitly structured to not stray into preaching, as "the measure calls for the courses to be taught 'in an objective and nondevotional manner with no attempt made to indoctrinate students.'"

Every story I've read so far has featured opponents to the measure worring that these classes will, in fact, lead to spreading a Christian worldview. But is this true? If the classes are really "objective and nondevotional," exactly the opposite might happen.

Modern skepticism about Christianity was born out of the whole cloth of German philology, which approached the Bible as a historical text, not a sacred one. Historicizing the Bible tends to desacralize it, except in the hands of the most devout.

A few months ago I got to attend some Bible study sessions at the American Bible Society here in New York. A theology graduate student had us reading a lot of modern seminary papers, which used interdisciplinary ideas of post-structuralism and historicism for shedding light on the Bible. To a room full of preachers and scholars, the plucky seminarian pointed out the parallels and provenance of a wide range of beloved passages to contemporary historical documents to make the point, I think, that the Bible could be read as a coded literature of oppressed peoples.

Showing that the ideas of the Bible did not emerge out of a vacuum is a big deal. For those in the room who believed in a more literalist, received Word approach, the sessions got really uncomfortable.

As I blogged the other day, I'm all with Stephen Prothero for more religious education in the schools. It remains to be seen what the effects will really be.

Witch trial

We throw around the term witch trial. Well, it's really happening in Central Islip, NY, according to this AP story (courtesy of CBS). A grade school teacher was allegedly fired for being thought to be a wiccan, by a devoutly Christian principal.

Or was she? As the 2001 incident goes to trial, weird allegations of severed fingers, plane crashes, Munchausen by proxy.

It is no everyday employment dispute. As defense attorney Steven Stern put it during opening statements, "It's been quite a long time since we've seen a witch trial in this country."

The picture shows the woman, Lauren Berrios, with suspiciously wicked eyebrows.

Culture War Skirmishes

Alright, so it's the Christians versus the gays. Again. You were missing it, weren't you?

What's it been - a week? Two? I've just finished trying to understand the primates meeting in Tanzania, and what it means for gay American Episcopalians (I'm still a little baffled). Just in time for the next round of of the war.

And "war" its the word, according the NY Times piece about a 25,000 member Christian youth rally whose "rhetoric used onstage... is overtly antigay and subtly militaristic." Nothing new here, right? Oh yeah - the organizers set up their stage in San Francisco. Um... again.

It is not the first time that BattleCry has gotten the cold shoulder from San Franciscans. The group held a concert here last year, an event that was greeted by a resolution from the Board of Supervisors calling BattleCry a “right-wing Christian fundamentalist group” trying “to negatively influence the politics of America’s most tolerant and progressive city.”

BattleCry officials complain that the city has made their lives difficult by imposing noise restrictions on a planned Saturday-morning celebration. City officials said the restrictions came after numerous complaints about last year’s event.

The dispute may come to a head on Friday afternoon when hundreds of Christian teenagers are expected to congregate on the steps of City Hall to pray and “raise their voices on behalf of their generation,” organizers said. A group opposing BattleCry plans to protest alongside.

Something called BattleCry is "subtly" militaristic? Is that dry wit from the Old Grey Lady? The kids just want a place where "young Christians [can] speak out against what they view as destructive cultural elements, including sex on television, obscene music and violent video games." And apparently Topeka's after-hours scene was lame.

From Adelle Banks at Religion News Service, a great blog catch: A prominent Southern Baptist, Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., says that homosexuality should be genetically nipped in the womb.

"If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin," Mohler wrote in advice for Christians.

This will presumably forestall any Anglican-style clashes when the Southern Baptist Convention faces that issue sometime in the 23rd Century.

Big implications here, as Banks noted, since many Christians believe that homosexuality is a choice. If it is not, there are theological implications, aren't there? Help me understand. Is Andrew Sullivan in the house?

And lastly, from my old stomping grounds, the latest development in the Harper v. Poway case, which was seen by the Supreme Court this week. To catch you up, Tyler Chase Harper wore a shirt with the Bible verse Romans 1:27 and "Homosexuality is shameful" during his high school's "Day of Silence" bringing attention to gay and lesbian issues. The school told him to remove the shirt.

The Supreme Court, in a squirrely move, decided that Harper no longer had any standing to sue the school since he graduated (the incident was in 2004). The school's policy stands.

Which is kind of a shame - that the Supreme Court backed out, I mean. The Bible is pretty unequivocal about the sinfulness of same-sex love, while our culture, more and more, is trying on the idea that gay and lesbian people are entitled to equal rights and recognition under the law. There's a growing pain here. The language that this plays itself out in is, for the moment, religion. And some black-robed wisdom on the topic would have been welcome.

My thoughts? Equivocal. I'll defer to Lance Bass, the gay former boy band-it:

Q:Did your mom ask you if you would still go to church?

A:Yeah, definitely. And I still go to church. I'm still Christian. I was not raised in a Christian church to hate people. I was taught to love people and accept people. I know what I believe.

Women in Iran: Update

I blogged about Shirin Ebadi's signature drive in Iran, for advancing the rights of women. In today's Christian Science Monitor, she is mentioned in an article about the arrests made in Iran. In case you haven't been following, 30 protesters for women's rights were arrested and the larger protests planned for International Women's Day have been called off. While 15 of the protesters have been released, "the remainder told family members they were on a hunger strike inside Tehran’s Evin Prison."

The piece by Scott Peterson gives an interesting take on how American "aid" is hurting the cause:

Activists charge that the pretext for the arrests is the government's suspicion that the women were receiving some of the $85 million earmarked by the US to undermine the government by funding antiregime and pro-democracy groups. Activists say they haven't received any of those funds.

...

The cash set aside by the US Congress to fund broadcasting into Iran and groups working against the Islamic Republic has complicated local efforts at political and social change – once the clarion call of Iran's reform movement.

The money "was the worst thing for all of the movements – women, students, and NGOs – they catch everyone, and say they are spies," says Mr. Saharkhiz. "We know that most of that money went to royalist groups and the Mujahideen-e Khalq," Iranian opposition that has several thousand militants under US guard in Iraq.

Stay tuned.

Is there an Imam in the house?

A cool article in the Boston Globe today raises questions about the way institutions like hospitals and prisons hire and deploy chaplains - and how this creates problems for traditions, like Islam, that don't train clergy through graduate-type seminary programs.

The CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) certification is rare among Imams, says writer Vanessa Jones:

A look at the number of Muslim chaplains certified by the association at least offers a glimpse into the community. In 2000 the organization had 1,600 certified chaplains, only one of them Muslim. Last year, there were 2,000 certified chaplains, four of them Muslim.

Muslim chaplaincy is a particularly American creation. The role doesn't exist in predominantly Muslim countries, since Muslims there have a wide range of familial and spiritual support. No equivalent to the master's of divinity, which is a Judeo-Christian creation, exists in Islamic culture. Instead scholars pass down religious knowledge orally. Once the student gains enough knowledge, he or she becomes an imam.

So, according to the article, Muslim clergy are going back to school to serve the needs of their flocks in schools and hospitals.

"I can't imagine any non-Muslim chaplain talking about Ramadan , leading Friday prayer, and explaining Islamic dietary law," [program graduate Abdullah] Antepli says. "I can't imagine any non-Muslim chaplain, no matter how well-trained, responding to the unique identity crisis that Muslims are facing after Sept. 11. Islam is at the center of attention and there's so many negative messages conveyed to this society about this faith and faith tradition. You need a reliable source person on campus, at the hospital, in the prison system who understands the stereotypes and the scapegoating."

Great. And where is (according to the article) the "only degree program in the nation for Muslim chaplains"? That Qom of the west - Hartford, Connecticut.

Don't religions always change a little in transit? I've been reading about the Reform Judaism tradition lately, how the decision to "modernize" Jewish worship made it assume many of the shapes of the Protestant worship of its day - and what, in that, was lost and won. Will American Islam become more institutionalized? Our bias in the west is always towards scholarly religion. I'm thinking of the tendency, for example, to reduce the thousand faces of Hinduism to what can be studied in the scholarly Brahmanic traditions.

A quibble - I'm annoyed about the way Jones decided to end the article, with what comes across as a pretty serious dig...

Bilal Ansari, 35... began working as a Muslim prison chaplain 10 years ago and entered the Muslim chaplaincy program in the fall... Now he works two days a week -- nearly 27 hours total -- at a men's prison in Niantic, Conn. Ansari says he decided to enroll in the Muslim chaplaincy program because he realized "that there are areas where I struggled to reach the men sometimes."

One challenge? Tempering the form of Islam the prisoners practiced. Many members of the prison population receive religious materials that gave them an unorthodox, and sometimes incorrect, perspective about Islam, says Ansari. "They think they know what's right and that they have the authority to interpret the scriptures in this way." This mindset created a wedge between the prison staff and the incarcerated Muslims.

By taking the Islamic Law course taught by Ingrid Mattson , the director and founder of the Muslim chaplaincy program, Ansari learned how to give the prisoners a better understanding of the religion.

End of story. Without stating it, it seems pretty clear that Jones and Ansari are saying is that the "unorthodox, and sometimes incorrect" Islam MIGHT be the Nation of Islam, which has wide currency and practice in Africa-American communities, as opposed to the Islam as it is practiced nearer to Mecca.

Yeesh. Me - I think THAT is the underreported story of the year. Have we heard ANYTHING lately about American's homegrown Muslims? Not even Farrakhan's bad health and "final" speech during African-American History Month were enough to break the uneasy news silence about African Americans who practice Islam. In a time when both immigrant Muslims and our own minority cultures face an uneasy time in practicing and living their faith, I'd like to see something smart and well-researched about the living intersections between the two.

Anyone?

That's Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba.

The reason I attached this snugly moment is to highlight the ideological intimacy between Castro, the only living communist icon in the western hemisphere, and Chavez, the president of Venezuela, whose populist socialism is walking, at least to some, a parallel path of authoritarian government control and nationalization of resources.

The difference? Highlighted today in a great AP piece about Chavez's "reaching out" to clergy. While Castro kept his country officially "atheist" for most of his rule (with a notable thaw in the last 10 years) Chavez seems to be looking more towards a partnership with the church:

President Hugo Chavez calls Jesus a guiding light for his self-styled socialist revolution.

But his relationship with the Roman Catholic Church is complicated and sometimes strained. Even as the leftist leader has invited Catholic priests to share their ideas on transforming Venezuela into a socialist state, he has clashed with some priests who are critical of him...

...

The Venezuelan leader peppers his speeches with Bible verses and often describes his political movement as a struggle between good and evil, such as when he famously called U.S. President George W. Bush "the devil" in a speech to the United Nations last year.

I love the last part. As President Bush readies himself to tour Latin America this week, he should take note - his arch-nemesis can chapter and verse as well.

But wait - doesn't the capitalist democratic leader automatically win the award for Most Christian? I mean, this is America we're talking about. And what do socialists know about the Bible?

"Christianity is essentially socialist, so no one - no Christian, no Catholic - should be alarmed," said Chavez, who was once an altar boy and says his brand of socialism will not copy Soviet or Cuban communism despite his close friendship with Fidel Castro.

Chavez says if he had not entered politics, he would have loved to be a priest. He calls Jesus an exemplary revolutionary and often recalls the Bible passage that declares it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

It reminds me of the futuristic novels of
Ira Levin and Aldous Huxley that pondered future dystopias based on the marriage of Marxism and Christianity. I mean - I guess the parallels are there.

But, of course, not everyone is buying the demagogue's bid for sanctity.

Monsignor Roberto Luckert... has warned that Venezuela is headed for communism and that the shift could infringe on freedoms. In a January speech, Chavez accused Luckert, the archbishop of Coro, of telling lies and living an ungodly privileged life.

Chavez said the priest is doomed to go to hell - to which Luckert responded: "It seems he's going to hell, too.

...

At home, Luckert has been one of the most outspoken critics of Chavez. The archbishop recently told Venezuela's Union Radio that, while Chavez gives sermon-like speeches, his government is spending money lavishly. Just as Chavez urged him to live more humbly,Luckert replied that "I invite him to take a dugout canoe (instead of the presidential jet) and go to Nicaragua."

When's the last time a Monsignor told you to take a dugout canoe to Nicaragua? Me neither. We must be doing something right.

I refrained from blogging about the James Cameron Jesus "documentary." I mean, really - who can top John Stewart's analysis?

For the record, I haven't heard any convincing arguments that the flick was anything more than elaborate marketing of some dubious speculation on biblical archaeology - a field that has faced more that its share of dubious discoveries in the last few years (Wait! I heard they found Jesus' brother! Uh, wait... maybe
not.) There was a smart piece in TIME this week about the erosion of academic standards in the age of blockbuster religion scholarship:

[Professor and best-selling author Bart] Ehrman, 51, says the dynamic of the academy has changed. "The generation that trained us would spend many years honing their discipline until they felt they could write their seminal work, maybe in their 50s," he says. "This generation is different. You publish as quickly as possible, create a sensation and get known [academically] that way." (Ehrman himself waited 10 years.)

Then there is what Publishers Weekly senior religion editor Lynn Garrett calls the Da Vinci Code effect. "Speculative histories were out there before Dan Brown wrote," says Garrett. "But they didn't make the best-seller lists and their authors didn't go on The Daily Show." Or receive a million-dollar paycheck, as was rumored in a recent case.

And by adopting a more journalistic standards, they have towed the journalists along in their wake - every badly-substantiated claim gets the double press treatment - breaking story and academic refutation. Ugh.

Rather than participate in it, I thought it might be fun to go spend the next evening with the gentlemen over at Opus Dei, where I was pretty sure what kind of reaction I'd hear. Opus Dei? You may remember them as the bad guys in the last kerfuffle about the family of Jesus. In the last year I've had the pleasure of crossing paths with their head of PR here in New York who, I think it's safe to say, had one of the worst American jobs of 2006.

He invited me to a worship service at the Opus Dei headquarters last night (in the sacred precinct of Murray Hill) and, heck, I went. I'm not a Catholic, and didn't quite know what to expect. Secret passages? Monks and lashings?

I must say, it was solemn and pretty tame. The evening was part of a monthly "retreat" that they give, which includes meditations, a recollection, and a speech from a (clearly nervous) lay member about spiritual responsibilities in daily life. There were no women (I understand that their "retreat" happens around the corner), and the men who filled the room in suits and cologne reminded me of nothing so much as the Kiwanis group my dad belongs to.

The oratory is pretty striking, about 12 pews that face a mural of the Marriage at Cana. Looks like maybe it's done by popular Christian painter Ron DiCianni? Anyway, during the service I tried to keep up with the Our Fathers and Hail Maries, but foolishly forgot my copy of How to Be a Perfect Stranger. You can imagine my delight when the men finally lit into something I knew - the Pange, Lingua of Thomas Aquinas. (I learned it a few years ago from a Jewish devotee of G.I.Gurdjieff - long story). Then I, uh, forgot how high it went and promptly embarrassed myself. God forgives all sins, no?

Anyway - over beer and peanuts, I finally got to mix a little with the Opus "guys". Reaction to the Cameron Jesus flick were predictably swift and critical. Garbage. Unbalanced. Not worth the time toTiVo it. Was I expecting anything else? Not really.

Well... I guess I was KIND of hoping to overhear the secret plot to slip strychnine in Cameron's martini. Maybe that save that for your second visit.

Do you know an Anglican from a Zoroastrian?

Yeah, probably. But a Unitarian from a Universalist? What are the five pillars of Islam? Unless you're a religion geek - don't look at me like that - the answers are hazy. And why shouldn't they be? Religion seems to be the one information sphere in this hyper-glutted age where less is more. If you're a believer, sniffing around in other traditions seems kind of... blasphemous. Right?

Author Stephen Prothero - chair of the religion department at Boston University - disagrees. In his new book Religious Literacy, Prothero says that what America needs most is a healthy dose of what many think we've got too much of already - religious schooling. From a book review in the Washington Post...

Americans are also the most religiously ignorant people in the Western world. Fewer than half of us can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

That's not me, right? Take this quiz from Prothero and find out.

Newsweek is also giving ink to the book. Here's a clip:

Americans are selling themselves short by remaining ignorant about basic religious history and texts, by not knowing the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite or the name of Mormonism's holy book. "Given a political environment where religion is increasingly important, it's increasingly important to know something about religion," he says. "The payoff is a more involved [political] conversation."

The book proposes a solution that is at once controversial and familiar: teach religion in public schools.

I always felt like a lone voice position during the evolution-vs.-creationism debate. Of course we should teach creationism in the schools. Tell them about the Glittering World and the magic reed of the Dine. About Eros born from the egg of the Night in Homeric traditions. About the dreaming of sleeping Vishnu. And of course, about the Semitic traditions that shape Western civilization. American kids know so little of the world around them, and this is especially true of religion.

But somehow, as Susan Jacoby points out in her Post review,

a curriculum that would meet with the approval of Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and nonreligious parents would probably be a worthless set of platitudes.

I'm a little more optimistic. A little knowledge is a wonderful thing.

So much for my rant on Ayahuasca. Why bother with an obscure south American drug when you can build your church around weed?

That's the question being decided in LA, after the cops busted Temple 420, a church that claims cannabis as its central sacrament. Well... really? According to the LA Daily News...

"They were trying to set it up under the guise of a religious right and then be able to sidestep marijuana laws," [LAPD spokesperson Kevin] Maiberger said. "The deal was for a $100 initiation fee and $100 annual fee, you could buy all the pot you wanted for quote-unquote `religious purpose.'That's bull----."

Rubin, however, continues to distribute marijuana six days a week to the temple's members - there are more than 400 who have paid the initiation and annual dues - for a "requested donation" of $60 for an eighth of an ounce.

He continues to burn marijuana as a sacrament at Friday night services and preaches on the weekends - Old Testament on Saturdays, New Testament on Sundays, always at 4:20.

Sounds fishy, no? But the Rev. Craig X Rubin is making a case in court that his beliefs are protected, the same way that peyote cults and OCentro (which sacralizes Ahayuasca) are protected.

While undergoing a family crisis three years ago, Rubin began studying the Bible and, he claims, God revealed to him cannabis' status as the tree of life.

Last year, after the Supreme Court ruled on O Centro, Rubin reasoned he could openly practice his new beliefs, which he describes as "Judeo-Christian" and "Bible based."

In August, Scott Linden, a Pasadena attorney who has helped open several medical-marijuana dispensaries in the San Fernando Valley, filed paperwork with the Secretary of State's Office that registered Temple 420 as a religious corporation.

Sound far fetched? Maybe. Maybe not.


Last year, the Jewish Press published a piece by Rabbi Michael Paley, a acquaintance of mine and an executive director of the UJA-Federation of New York. He had this to say on the subject of marijuana:

One further note, perhaps best left for the linguists: Among the ingredients of the anointing oil found in Exodus (30: 23) is one called k’nei-bosem, usually translated as “sweet calamus.” Calamus is an aromatic plant, which Rashi translates literally as a “reed of spice.” Take away the final mem, run the two words together, and you’ve got something that sounds like “cannabis.” Coincidence?

A new frontier for medical marijuana??