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The Jesuits at St. Joe’s Prep taught me that the worst sin in religion is hypocrisy. So it is not an attack on religion to question if the politicians invoking God’s name to bless the United States of America are doing anything more than seeking votes.
I really don’t have either the expertise or the genes to offer new insights about support for the state of Israel, anti-Semitism or Jewish identity. But I think exploration of such issues involves the same principles as the 19th-century debate over support for the Papal States, anti-Catholicism and Catholic identity.
You can’t be an educated person today unless you have studied religion. Notice, I didn’t say you had to BELIEVE in religion to be educated.
There’s discrimination against Catholics: I know -- I’ve experienced it. But then, virtually everyone gets discriminated against at some time, and not only the usual suspects of race and religion: obese people, Chicago Cub fans, smokers, atheists, witches, etc. The real question is whether the bigotry against Catholics exceeds anything considered normal in the give-and-take of society.
A question about incorporating practices of other religions is a question about syncretism. Most believers in the Abrahamic faiths don’t like the word “syncretism.” It implies imitation of something alien to your religion, which means that your faith was “inferior” before the syncretism began.
I hardly accept the familiar apologetic phrasing: “I’m sorry for whatever pain my remarks caused.” It is the perfect vehicle to shift any blame away from the perpetrator and on to the victims. The formula suggests that it is only because of a victim’s sensitivities that offense was created.
I make a distinction between “Mormons” and “Mormonism.” There is no doubt that both as citizens and religious believers, Mormons participate in America’s mainstream. They reach for the same achievements, make the same mistakes, and share hopes and dreams with virtually everyone else. However, Mormonism – as an ‘ism’ – is a different case.
I have more of a problem with the use of the word "pagan" on this page than I have with pagan chaplains in the military. There is an obvious gain in respect for "paganism" to receive the official sanction that employment in the chaplains’ ranks will provide. However, are these modern day shamans up to the professionalism required of today’s chaplains?
Whether or not Catholicism is the “fullest expression” becomes a question with two parts: first, “Is this true that Catholicism has this privileged place?” and second: “What does this statement do to ecumenical relations?”
I will leave it to my colleagues to say the most obvious things about pluralism and separation of church and state. Since I believe government has no role in preventing people from practicing their religion, invoking divine protection BEFORE going to work seems harmless enough. Heaven knows, the U.S. Congress needs all the help it can get. If someone chooses not to pray, they can stay in the cafeteria or cloak room.
The issue is not whether to love or be compassionate or forgive: at stake is whom do you love or forgive compassionately? On that point, we have almost as many formulae as we have religions.
Buddhism has an excellent record on the love, compassion and forgiveness for all as advocated by the Dalai Lama. Among Christians, denominations like the Quakers and the Amish, have distinguished themselves by abjuring all violence and conflict. They follow literally Jesus’ instruction to Christians to “turn the other cheek” and “to love your enemies.” But the histories of these religions pinpoint the problem: “What do you do when the other party uses violence unjustly?” In the case of the Buddhists of India in the 12th century, they lost hegemony to a renascent Hinduism and were driven back into monasteries in order to practice their religion. The Quakers – Society of Friends, officially – have carved out a small, but important niche in US society as frontline missionaries of compassion. However, their numbers remain very small. The Amish have established communities for their own people, not very different in function from the Buddhist monasteries. The Amish are among those who have learned that you do not need to confront the unjust violence of others if you live alone and apart all the time.
Whether Christmas should be a Christian holy day or a secular holiday is a moot point. Popular culture has so wounded the original sacred celebration that no amount of tinkering can restore its Christian meaning in the public square. Moreover, I’m not sure such restoration would be a good thing.
I would argue that the Christian meaning of gift-giving, presents, family reunions, sentimental cards and nostalgic songs has been fused with an earth religion arrival of winter. The syncretism has been so complete that separating the sacred from the profane or the commercial from the spiritual would lessen the appeal of the season. I am contented that Christianity has made its presence felt, and – unlike some militant atheists – I derive no pleasure in denying other people the chance to be happy within their own frame of familiarity.
Because Judaism has weathered so many storms and waves of oppression in the past, I cannot think of an American future without Jews. Rather than measure the vitality of the religion by the numbers of its synagogues, the demographics of its membership or the training of clergy, however, I think would judge its endurance with more subtle measures: tribal togetherness and popular religiosity.
In high school, the Jesuits taught me that to find a principled answer to any question, it had to be stood on its head. So, before responding about Islamic law, we ought to ask first if U.S. law should make room for Christian teachings?
The recent Pew Forum study on religious switching is old hat. The ARIS report (American Religious Identification Survey) reported on this panorama back in 2002. So the authors of ARIS – Drs. Barry Kosmin, Ariela Keysar and the late Egon Meyer – were far ahead of Pew on this issue. I was able the following year (2003) to use this data for the PARAL Study that looked at the nation’s Latinos and Latinas of faith. (It speaks badly of the scholarship from the Pew folks like Luis Lugo to have identified their findings as a “surprise.”)
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
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