Bess writes: Make of this what you will. According to a new poll, having a rival in love is likely to make you feel… more religious.
That, at least, is the result of a survey of 269 college students shown the dating profiles of good-looking men and women. Having seen the profiles, each volunteer was asked to grade on a scale to 1-10 how much they agreed with statements including “I believe in God’” and “We’d be better off if religion played a bigger role in people’s lives.”
When confronted with attractive members of their own sex, their tendency to agree with such statements went up, reports Fox News.
So what exactly does this mean? Yexin Jessica Li at Arizona State University comments:"While we don't doubt there are many reasons people are religious, our current findings suggest that people do vary in religiosity depending on the perceived mating market.”
Very interesting! Does this mean people fake being religious in order to attract a mate? Or that they see being religious as an attractive quality more likely to indicate they are willing to settle down/marry etc?
And where does this leave the love-crossed Atheist? Answers please!
Bess writes: MataH reports on Psalm 109:8, the Biblical verse topping the google trends charts. It is appearing across America on bumper stickers and t-shirts accompanied by the words: Pray for Obama.
The verse reads: "May his days be few, may another take his office."
Well, you might argue, so what? MataH is, justifiably disturbed by the lines which follow:
“May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
May his children be wandering beggars;
may they be driven from their ruined homes.”
Bloggers, as you might imagine, are having a field day. MataH links to Diana Butler Bass’s blog on Sojourner's Magazine. Bass writes: "Thus, the “Prayer for Obama” does more than anticipate that he leaves office; it entreats God to destroy the president."
But for a full-blown condemnation read the inflammatory comments given by Frank Schaeffer, author of Patience with God: Faith for People who Don’t like Religion or Atheism, on the Rachel Maddow show:
"...This is the American version of the Taliban. The Taliban quotes the Qu'ran, and al Qaeda quotes certain verses in the Qu'ran, in or out of context, calling for jihad, and bloody war, and the curse of Allah on infidels. This is the Old Testament, Biblical equivalent of calling for holy war. Now, most Americans'll just see the bumper sticker and smile and think that it's facetious. Unfortunately, there are 22 million Americans or so who call themselves super-conservative evangelicals. Of this, a small minority might be violent. But, the general atmosphere here is really getting heated.
And what surprises me is that responsible, if you can put it that way, Republican leadership and the editors of some of these Christian magazines, etc. etc., do not stand up in holy horror and denounce this. You know, they're always asking 'Where is the Islamic leadership denouncing terrorism? Why aren't the moderates speaking out?' Well, I challenge the folks who I used to work with... I would just say to them: 'Where the hell are you? This is not funny anymore. And be it on your head if something happens to our President..."
What do you think? Does Schaeffer have a point? Or not?
Bess writes: You may remember that about 10 days ago Italy said, as our Rome correspondent Richard Owen reported, that it would challenge a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights about the right of Italian state schools to display Crucifixes in the classroom.
It was brought to Strasbourg by Soile Lautsi, a Finn married to an Italian. She's against the presence of the Crucifix in the school her two children attend, saying it violates the separation in Italy of Church and State. The court gave her €5,000 (£4,473) in damages and agreed.
Italy’s Education Minister declared the ruling “an offence against our traditions,” arguing that the Crucifix is for Italians “a traditional symbol”. The Catholic Herald reported that Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman as saying that a European court had no right to intervene in a profoundly Italian matter, as the Crucifix was a crucial sign of the importance of Christian values in Italian history and culture.
Now it appears that individual mayors in Italy are vigorously challenging the ruling.
The mayor of Sezzadio, for example, Pier Luigi Arnera, is levelling 500-euro fines against anyone who removes a Crucifix from a public place, while local officials in the cities of Sassuolo and Trapani are acquiring Crucifixes by the dozen to display in state schools, and digital billboards in the small commune of Montegrotto Terme are displaying images of the Crucifix accompanied by the slogan “we will not take it down."
What do you think? Was the European Court right or wrong to rule on Crucifixes in the classroom in a culturally Catholic nation?
Bess writes: Can you believe in God and in aliens?
That is a question brought up the astrobiologist Marc Kaufman in this intriguing piece on the first major congress on astrobiology, the science that “seeks to find life elsewhere in the Cosmos”. It’s being held this week at the Vatican.
Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, says the possibility of “brother extraterrestrials” is no problem for Catholic theology. “As multiplicity of creatures exists on Earth, so there could be other beings, also intelligent, created by God,” he says. “This does not conflict with our faith because we cannot put limits on the creative freedom of God.” Kaufman asks where this leaves the incarnation, the central tenet of Christianity, that God came to earth as man specifically to offer, through his death and Resurrection, mankind salvation..
He says aliens are less problematic for Eastern religions which tend to be less ‘Earth-centric”, and claims that belief in little green men is not a dilemma for the Mormons and for Muslims as “the Koran speaks explicitly of life beyond Earth.”
Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist from Arizona State University and a speaker at the Vatican conference opines that there are “two camps” in Christian debate on life on others planets, split between those who believe “it is human destiny to bring salvation to the aliens, and those who believe in multiple incarnations” (i.e Jesus appeared at other times on other planets). What do you think? Is it compatible to believe in Christ and in Aliens? Does one cancel out the other?
Update: Richard Owen's report from the Vatican
Theos Lord SacksREVISED
Theos lecture given by the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks and chaired by Libby Purves
November 4, 2009
Bess writes: Moral starter for 10: is Blogging a sin?
This post by Tod Goldberg on Jewcy.com caught my eye this morning. Goldberg makes the valid point is that bloggers who post up (and who hasn’t?) items about their lives involving friends, partners and or family members are guilty of gossip – or to be more specific break the Jewish law against Lashon Hara – and thus may upset people still alive. Lashon Hara derives – as do Christian prohibitions on gossip – from Leviticus 19:16: “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.”
Frankly it’s a moral dilemma for any writer who gets their best material from real life incidents, people or anecdotes. A temptation for sure. But just where do you draw the line between a cracking story and upsetting the parties involved? Surely respecting your partner, friend or family must rank above a good tale? And is anonymity really enough when, as in the case of Goldberg’s mother, the person involved recognises the details? She burst into tears and told him that he shouldn’t talk about his family on the internet.
A fair point - but where does this leave bloggers? Particularly those for whom as Jennifer Howze of Alpha Mummy reported recently blogging is a vital, at times confessional, outlet And even on a personal detail, are some things too private for public sharing? (See this Politics Daily report on the woman who ‘tweeted’ her miscarriage - in my opinion definitely too much information! ).
What do you think?
Bess writes: A fascinating post from Wayne Slater on Dallas News about the death penalty and Texas. Did you know that more than 400 people have been executed since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in Texas in 1976?
Slater writers “Ours is the busiest death chamber in the nation” and quotes polls suggesting nearly 75 per of Texas 24,326,974 citizens back capital punishment.
Slater has interviewed various faith leaders on for their views – is it always “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” – what about the role of mercy? Does the death penalty act as a deterrent to crime? Is it ever justified or is the margin of error just too much of a risk? And what of the role of God alone as supreme judge? What do you think?
Bess writes: A nice cheery post on ‘death’ to mark today, the Christian feast of All Souls. I wanted to flag up two things, first, the trend in Taiwan for ‘living funerals’, celebrations – that can take the form of parties, concerts, or simply speeches - given by someone who is ill and facing death.
“I don’t know how many days I have left so I want to hold a ’living funeral’ for myself, to announce my last wish of donating my body for medical studies,” explains David Tseng, 25, who is in the terminal stages of a genetic muscular disease.
Curiously it was popularised by a former Cardinal Paul Shan, 85. To share his struggle against lung cancer, report as AFP, he launched a “goodbye tour” in late 2007.
"We hope to encourage the ill not to fear death and help them bid proper farewells to their loved ones," explains Chou Chin-huar, head of the pro-living funeral cancer charity Chou Ta-Kuan Foundation.
In spirit – if you’ll forgive the pun – it isn’t that different, although obviously the living funeral takes place before death rather than afterwards – to Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, (see image above) marked yesterday in grand style, Mariachis et al, at the British Museum.
My second death thought is inspired by this clip from their website which explains the Mexican custom of making an altar for dead friends and families, decorated with their photographs, sugar skulls and ‘pan de muerto’ – the bread of death – left out as offering for their spirits. Mexicans usually visit cemeteries on the Day of the Dead to remember their relatives at their graves.
Key to this, is the belief that death is not a finale – that though the body dies, the spirit lingers. What do you think? Debates about the soul, as our article reports, date back to the Ancient Greeks. What do you think happens after death? Is there such a thing as the soul? And if so, what does that imply for the way we live now?
Bess writes: Is Hallowe’en spiritually harmless? What do you think? If your answer is “yes” you are out of touch with the Vatican, which according to this report from our correspondents in Rome and in Spain has decried the celebration as having “an undercurrent of occultism” that is “absolutely anti-Christian.” A report in the Vatican mouthpiece, L’Osservatore Romano contains a stern injunction to parents, to “try and direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death.”
November 1st in the Roman Catholic calendar is the feast of All Saints Day when believers remember the Saints. It is followed a day later by All Souls' Day when NewAdvent explains believers are urged to pray for the release of souls “stained with sin” from purgatory, the intermediate state between earth and heaven. The word comes apparently from the Latin Purgare which means to make clean or purify,
Anyway, enough theology: an interesting twist on the Hallowe’en debate is given in these two stories on Hallowe’en candy in the Drudge report. The first, a fascinating snippet reports that dentists are buying back Hallowe’en candy from children, at $1 a pound. They get a flashing toothbrush thrown in. But then the candy is going to the troops in Afghanistan who plan to give it to – children!
The second quotes a “pastor” from Jacksonville, Kansas, who is firmly convinced that hallowe'en trick-or-treating is an open invite to demons to infest your home.
He says : "During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches."
Is the good pastor in league with the dentists? Or are the dentists in league with the Vatican?? The mind boggles.
Bess writes: Forget the virgin for your second wife – marry a single mum. That’s the message the Islamic party in Malaysia has given this week.
Wan Ubaidah Omar, the cabinet minister in charge of women, family and health for the state of north Kelantan, said: "Muslim men usually like young girls or virgins as their additional wives, so I suggest instead of taking these young virgin girls, why don't they marry the single mothers as their second or third wife?" she said.
"This will ease the burden of the single mothers as the men can help them to take care of their children. The single ladies have no burden.”
Polygamy, though legal in Malaysia, has been campaigned against by women’s groups in the country, reports news.com.au. Ubaidah Omar says she isn’t seeking to promote the practice – merely help the 16,500 single mothers in her state.
Another bright idea she has is to introduce whipping for husbands who abandon their wives without good reason. "Some of these husbands just go missing in action suddenly, and leave the wives without any food or money. These kind of men should be whipped, they deserve it," Wan Ubaidah said.
"This punishment is not in the state sharia law at the moment, but we can make it a law to make men more responsible; there is a lot of room for improvement in the legal system to protect the welfare of women,"
What do you think? Should husbands be punished for leaving their wives?
Personally, the thought of polygamy makes me deeply uneasy – too much of a callback to the days when women were merely regarded as their husband’s chattels.
This instinct was not allayed by the following piece about the 112-year-old Somali man who has just wed a 17-year-old. Apparently Ahmed Mohamed Dhore, allegedly 112, has been pursuing his new wife Safiya Abdulle “for years” but the couple opted to wait until she was “older” before going ahead with the match..
"I didn't force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love — and then we agreed to marry," Mr Dhore, who has married five times previously, said.
"Today God helped me realise my dream."
Now that is a comment that surely counts as sick.
Half of American high school students think Sodom and Gomorrah are a couple,
In France, students wonder about the “weird” dove that appears so frequently in Renaissance paintings - according to this National Post report on public ignorance of the Christian faith.
Not that Britain is much better – only 48 per cent of those surveyed in a recent Reader’s Digest Poll knew Easter was associated with the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And in a 2003 Mori poll, only 55 per cent of Britons could correctly name one of the four Gospels.
Perhaps my favourite example of religious ignorance in Britain comes from Theos the theology think tank. It discovered earlier this year that just over a quarter of all Britons confuse Biblical passages with the speeches of Sir Bob Geldof. Twenty-seven per cent of those questioned in a ComRes poll attributed the statement "You must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless" (Proverbs Chapter 31, verse 8) to Sir Bob. A compliment I suppose.
Bess writes: This gets my vote for the most surreal – and sick – story of the day.
A Islamic insurgent group in Somalia has begun to whip women whom they deem to wear “deceptive” bras. The Daily Mail reports that Al Shabaab has sent armed men into the streets of Mogadishu to round up and “inspect” women with a firm bust to see if their bust is natural or the result of wearing a bra. Those found wearing bras are ordered to remove them and shake their breasts, Mogadishu residents report.
This is clearly ridiculous. It cannot surely be compatible with Islam to show such scant respect for women's dignity. Will some imam in authority please condemn this?
Bess writes:
Monstersandcritics carries this story about the extremist preacher Anjem Choudhary who is urging the Queen to convert to Islam. He is quoted as saying: "We invite everyone from the queen, to the ministers, to the Parliament, to the aristocracy, to the ordinary person in Britain to embrace Islam.
“Save yourself and your children in this life from misery and prepare them for a great destiny in the hereafter.”
Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP describes Choudary’s words as “laughable if we didn’t know that some take this man seriously.”
Meanwhile, The Sun reports that a “Muslim group” branded Choudary “an extremist nut.”
No comment.
Bess writes: It is swine flu season, says the LA Times and churches are taking precautions. Some Catholic Churches (as they are in the UK) are locking up the chalices usually used for communion wine.
"When you have 4,500 people showing up for Mass, and you have eight cups for the populace, it's easy to see how this could become a problem -- fast," explains Father John Kuzmich of St. Vincent de Paul in Fort Wayne.
Fair point. But maybe he should follow the example of Grace Episcopal Cathedral in Topeka, Kansas, where the chalice is wiped with gauze soaked in vodka after each worshipper has sipped it.
"Obviously, if you are wiping with 80-proof alcohol, you are probably being about as safe as you can be," said the Very Rev. Steve Lipscomb, the cathedral's dean, who noted that the alcohol had the added benefit of removing lipstick from the gold-and-silver cups. "Germs don't like . . . a high volume of alcohol."
Meanwhile, in Patterson, Georgia the fabulously named Tina Kicklighter is negotiating handshaking etiquette with her fellow Baptist worshippers. I quote:
"We have what's known as the 'hand of fellowship,' where we stop singing and shake hands with everyone," said Kicklighter, 46. "I started thinking, 'They might be good people, but they might not have good hygiene.'
Kicklighter started applying the “hand sanitiser” she carries in her purse after shaking hands. But was accused – perhaps understandably – of being rude. Next she tried “sneaking to the bathroom” during worship to avoid contact – only to be engulfed in hugs when she returned. In desperation, Kicklighter says "I tried reading the Bible, being engrossed in a conversation, even standing there with my arms crossed," Kicklighter said. "Nothing works. So I just grit my teeth.”
She is not alone in disliking the handshake – we recently reported on the Association of Corporate Travel Executives calling for a ban on the handshake to prevent the spread of swine flu. Is this OTT? Do you think handshaking should be banned, especially in Church? Or is it just rude to stop shaking hands with your neighbour in the next pew?
Bess writes: Hmm. Really not sure about this. This video the shows “the poker preacher”: Fr Andrew Trapp, 28, assistant Catholic priest in South Carolina. To raise funds for a new church for his parish in Garden City Beach he’s playing Fox TV’s million dollar challenge and so far has raised $25,000. Fr Andrew, also known as “Father Rambo” for his skill at paintball is competing against the American football champ, Jerome Bettis and NBA champion John Salley for the $1 million prize. He says; "Even if I didn't win any money, it would be an opportunity for people across the country to see that there are still young men choosing to be priests, and that one can be joy-filled and have fun as one serves God." Aha. Wonder if he’s read the section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on gambling? This (passage 2413 for interested parties) states while “Games of Chance (card games) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally they become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others” – well no one can accuse Fr Andrew of that. But the next sentence might raise concerns: “The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement”. In this video Fr Andrew talks about playing cards with his closest friends – John and Lisette Velasquez, whom he has taught poker. Should a priest really be encouraging gambling? Shouldn't they be trying to set an example of living a holy life to others? What would Jesus do? John asks at one point. What would the Vatican say too? I wonder.
Bess writes: This is an image from the “American Qur’an”, a series of pictures matching Sura or specific chapters from the Islamic holy book to recent American disasters such as Hurricane Karina, and wildfires in California or else scenes from contemporary America: gangsters, migrants labouring in fields, etc.
So far the artist Sandow Birk has copied half the Qur’an’s 114 Suras onto 16 x 24 inch panels, in a style reminiscent of urban graffiti.
They are now on display in San Francisco and Culver City near Los Angeles. Eventually the plan is to the turn the panels into a book reports AP.
Birk admits the concept is Christian: “When you go to a church here, the minister read a passage from the Bible and then he spends 30 minutes talking about, “How does this passage relate to your life in the 21st century?” That’s a familiar way that Americans have of dealing with religious texts.”
Creative – certainly – but is it blasphemy? The Qur’an forbids the making of idols, says this piece in the LA Times, the hadith contains restrictions on the use of figurative imagery.
The issue, it concludes, is open to interpretation.
Obviously, the question of which verses Birk matches with which event is highly interesting. For 9/11 - depicted above - for instance, he choses Sura 44 (10-12)
44:10 But watch thou (O Muhammad) for the day when the sky will produce visible smoke
44:11 That will envelop the people. This will be a painful torment.
44:12 (Then they will say): Our Lord relieve us of the torment. Lo! we are believers.
Is this just a case of match-up-the-verse-to-the-event? Or is this a call to convert to Islam? Amboy's take? [it]"implies that the 9/11 attacks were Allah's punishment for not accepting Islam." What do you think?
Bess writes: Is the Samba immoral? What do you think? I ask because a Samba troupe, whose attire is er, as you can judge from the photo rather scanty, has been banned from Tyre, after complaints from Lebanese Muslims.
“This is a pornographic dance group that goes against our ethics,” Sheikh Ali Yassin, one of 50 religious leaders who had called for the cancellation, told AFP.
“We fear that once they start dancing nude in the streets, there will be trouble,” he added. Measures, said the cultural attaché to Brazil, has been taken to respect the sensitivities of local Muslims. The dancer, for example, had volunteered to cover up. Even this did not satisfy and the ban went ahead.
But it got me thinking – is the charge that Samba is immoral simply a Muslim concern? Not so. This fascinating, if rather worthy study of Black Gospel artists in Brazil, shed some light on the matter. The author, John Samuel Burdick, who works in the department of anthropology at Syracuse University, conducted field study in Brazil.
He talked to “over one hundred musicians, participant-observed in six congregations, and accompanied theperformances, rehearsals, and backstage gatherings of six Black gospel, six gospel rap, and three gospel samba groups.”
He found that a common perception was that American slave owners had banned drumming, a tradition that led to slaves there developing their voice, and ultimately to the Spiritual.
I quote: “Of course spirituals began in America and not Brazil,” explained Sergio Saas, in an interview with me, “because your Blacks already knew the Bible, and ours did not.” What were Brazilian slaves doing in the meantime? “They were inventing samba.” For Black gospel musicians, samba is closely associated with the urban world of bars, dancing, Carnaval, the erotic, and the lusty mulata, the world of secularism and sin, a world at odds with the church.
Several informants insisted that their critique of samba—widely identified as Brazil’s national music—had nothing to do with a lack of national pride or patriotism; it had, rather, to do with samba’s immorality. “I could never accept samba,” said Daniel, the Black gospel choir singer. “When you look at the history of that, it has always been surrounded by drinking, sex, and drugs.”
Anyway, for what it is worth, here is a sample of Samba Gospel
I’m not sure it works.
What do you think?
Bess writes: This fascinating snippet on Think Progress reveals that officials in President Bush’s administration objected to giving America’s highest civil honour, The Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Harry Potter author JK Rowling. Usually the medal is awarded to individuals deemed to have contributed to world peace, the security of the US or cultural or significant public endeavours. Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for Bush and author of Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor says that some in the White House discouraged the medal being given to Rowling on the grounds that her books “encouraged witchcraft.”
This re-opens the intriguing debate over whether Harry Potter will harm the soul, a topic much discussed on Christian forums.
This article from Christian Answers explains that leaders are divided: some believe the books “just fantasy” others, including occult experts, disagree. A third line is that all magic – white and black – is specifically condemned in the Bible.
Deuteronomy 18:10-14 states categorically that witchcraft is “an abomination” to God. “There shall not be found among you anyone who… practicies witchcraft.” etc
“Those books” a Christian bookseller argues can “open the door to spiritual bondage.”
Possibly my favourite article condemning Potter is this, from a Christian author in the United States. She reads an extraordinary level of symbolic detail into Rowling’s books, as follows:
"Tom Riddle is clearly the God of Christian tradition as other Christian critics of Mrs. Rowling's books have pointed out. When Potter first sees Tom Riddle the Son, Tom is described as strangely blurred around the edges, suggesting a halo (p. 330).
The reason why Mrs. Rowling calls Jesus Tom is simple. In England, the saying every Tom, Dick and Harry is highly popular and in this case alludes to the omnipresence of God in our world.”
Fancy that. Too much of a good thing perhaps? But a final word on opposition to Harry Potter from believers. Obvious nonsense if you totally deny the existence of the supernatural. But – for those who do accept the possibility of a supernatural realm, beyond nature, a reality attested by the world’s major faiths, it does have a certain,if exaggerated logic. Especially if you further accept the possibility of two opposing forces, one of good, one of evil. The objections of the anti-Potter brigade stem from the fact that they view Christianity as the real good, and the divine source of the supernatural – a belief that takes its origins from the first followers of Christ – and that this is excluded from the books. Maybe they take it just a little too seriously forgetting this is fiction but a point worth considering is that while many Westerners consider cultures that appear to favour belief in the supernatural as “primitive”, many from cultures where such beliefs are prevalent consider Western dismissal and denial of the supernatural as simply “naïve.”
Certainly whatever stance you take, consistency is important across the board. Dismissing faith but reading horoscopes or tarot cards for instance is a failure in logic.
Bess writes: What did they say? AP carries this picture of Pope Benedict XVI meeting the disgraced Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at Ciampino Airport on Saturday. It was their first meeting since the news of Berlusconi’s orgies broke in the Spring.
Berlusconi, returning from the G20 in Pittsburgh, awaited Benedict XVI as he returned from his first visit to the Czech Republic. The Pope's spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi said the conversation last only two or three minutes and was “not a private meeting.”
Libby Purves is a Times columnist, novelist and Radio 4 broadcaster. Her interest in the glories, inspirations and eccentricities of world religions and cultural traditions was fuelled by an upbringing in Bangkok, Israel, Africa, France and a series of convent schools. Bess Twiston Davies works for the Times Register section and is a regular contributor to the Faith page and Times Online. She studied Hispanic studies and English at Sheffield University and has a journalism diploma from The Robert Schuman Institute, Angers, France. Contact Libby or Bess at: faithcentral@timesonline.co.ukYou might also enjoy Articles of Faith, Ruth Gledhill's wonderful blog about religious affairs.
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