In addition to interviewing people of different religions, Weatherly and I went with several people we had interviewed to their worship sites to participate in their own personal worship experience. We wanted to get a deeper understanding of each individual's religious experience, and then ask them what they actually get out of what they do in their worship.
The first site that I visited was the Jewish reform temple. (I already briefly posted on this visit, but here were the highlights): The rabbi lead everyone in Hebrew prayers out of a prayer book that we sung with a guitar, then he gave a brief sermon. The entire worship experience lasted about 30 minutes.
I asked Kelsey if she knew what all the prayers meant when she said them (she did not use the prayer book, but instead had all the prayers memorized), and she said that she knew the general idea of what the prayers were saying, but if she wanted to know she could just read the translation out of the book. She said that there was a certain type of reverence that she felt when she said the prayers, and that it was important to her to say them in Hebrew because it was the language of God. That was part of her religious experience.
The second site that I visited was the Hindu temple. This visit was really amazing. At the front of the temple were the statues of the gods and goddesses Ganesha, Rama, Sita, Hanuman, Durga, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Parvati, and Shiva just to name a few. The back wall was a painted mural of the famous scene from the Bhagavad Gita featuring Krishna as the charioteer with Arjuna. Everything was very brightly colored. We took our shoes off as we entered. As the curtain was pulled back to reveal the gods and goddesses, a bell was rung to wake them up. Then a plate was brought out and incense was lit to make a better atmosphere for the gods. On the plate, people gave money and food as an offering called prasad. Then a candle was lit (called a divo, it reveals the eyes of the gods) on the plate and the prayers to all the different gods were chanted while we sat. Then we stood for the final prayer called aarti. We stood in respect for the gods, one person rang the bell again and another took the plate with the incense and the candle and waved them around in circles. Then when that chant was done each person went up to the candle and waved their hand over it several times and either waved that over their head or touched their forehead. They did this to remind themselves of every aspect of the god including every organ and ask the god to make their organs demonstrate those qualities as well. We then ate the prasad because it is holy and is considered good luck. I spoke to one of the adults who explained everything they did to me. He said that what was important was to recognize the main point - that you were thanking and praying to god.
The third site that I visited was the Muslim mosque with Anjum. She covered her head before we got out of the car, then we had a separate entrance and a separate room that was in the back of the main room with the men. We were completely separated from the men except for a glass window. This was out of respect for the men so that we did not distract them when they were praying (if we were in front) and also so the women were not embarassed when they had to bend over and get on the ground. We took our shoes off before we entered out of respect for god (you can't wear shoes on holy ground) and then sat on the floor. One man got up and spoke for a while, somewhat like a Christian sermon, then everyone prayed facing Mecca. The prayers were led by the man that gave the sermon and there were different stances. First we stood, then bent over, then on the ground and touched our head to the ground, then we sat up and bent back over again, and finally stood up again. This was done twice. Anjum then did her own personal prayer before we left.
From the last two places that I went, I noticed that the prayers were in the original language. This is even true for Catholic services. Even if a worshiper did not know what was being said, the fact that it was in that other language made it closer to god. It was the language of god, or the original text so that you get everything out of it that is in the text. You also don't lose or confuse anything in translation. Everyone was willing to sacrifice understanding what they were saying for it being in the original tongue. It didn't even matter that they couldn't understand it because god knows what they are saying.
In mid March I went to a worship service at the same temple for the God Ganesha's birthday. There was a large crowd already gathered when we arrived so we removed our shoes and joined them on the dais in front of the God's. The first thing I noted was the women seated on the right and the men on the left. I have been to this same temple several times before for the nightly services. At that time all the people, men and women, sat together, but that could have been because it was a smaller and less formal ceremony. At the birthday party, as I am calling it, there were about 7 people sitting in the very front with small trays in front of them. These 3 couples and 1 daughter had chosen to take a more active part in the ceremony. I couldn't see much of what was going on (or understand it since it was all in another language), but one part really stood out. They each passed around a flaming candle and made motions like they were blessing a coconut that sat on a tray in front of them.
While this ritual was going on, two men took several garlands of red flowers and placed them around the necks of each of the god's, starting with Ganesha. A small bowl with grey powder was passed around and each person made a small mark with it on their forehead. Thankfully a girl probably around the age of 16 arrived shortly before this and sat with our group to explain what was going on. She said she didn't know the exact reason for the powder, but assured us that we were welcome to have some and applied it for us. Once each person had some, each family approached a large cylindrical shaped, vase-like structure and poured milk from the coconut over it, rinsing it with water between each family. When it was her turn to go, our new friend insisted we join her family, but we didn't feel right participating in that personal type of worship (even though we weren't quite sure what it meant yet) and declined. When she returned she explained that the statue was another manifestation of Ganesha and this was a form of offering him nourishment and blessing on that day. After everyone had been up, they began a series of chants and prayers. We checked the time and realized it was 8:50- we had been there nearly two hours and the service wasn't scheduled to be over for a while longer yet. One of our group had to be at work at nine, so we unfortunately had to leave and couldn't stay after to talk with the service leader and worshippers. Even though we couldn't be completely sure of everything that was happening the experience was still fascinating to watch and gave us great insight to a celebration in the Hindu community that is meaningful and sacred to them like the celebrations of Christianity are to us.
I attended two Christian services to look into the different types of Christianity that Roof had been describing in his book. The first was Hopepoint, a non-denominational church that meets in the gym of Oakbrook elementary school. This congregation is made up mainly of the people Roof classifies as the Born Again Christians. These are people who had a major turning point in their life that leads them to a deep spiritual relationship with God. I went with interviewee Drew Bryan and several of his younger friends I had never met before. We walked into the "sanctuary" and headed for the right side of the room which was filled with around 50 college students (the left side was the rest of the congregation: adults, and children). Worship consisted of contemporary songs sang with a full band and arms raised. The preacher got up and spoke with a clear passion: his eyes were often shut and he got very excited, speaking in a loud voice and often seeming like he couldn't catch his breath or say enough. He also had a PowerPoint to highlight the most important parts.
The second site visit was at Central United Methodist Church located in downtown Spartanburg on Church St. I walked in and was immediately welcomed by the greeters and handed a program to the service. The music was vastly different- old hymns played on the pipe organ and accompanied by the choir. The sermon was preached in a more stately manner- of a very knowledgeable person trying to explain an important matter to the congregation. Several times he referenced authors such as Kierkegaard and Camus, and stuck to what the Bible and Biblical scholars said about the topic as opposed to the more worldly and slightly more personal/opinion oriented view of the first service. As it was the first Sunday of the month communion was served, and the atmosphere while the wine and bread were blessed and distributed to the people was drastically different from the one at Hopepoint and the Hindu Temple (though those ceremonies are difficult to compare- I will try to more in just a moment). As the people filed by I looked at the diversity of the congregation: old and young, black and white, and all of different dress and with different outlooks as they approached the alter.
I have made several observations about the characteristics of the ceremonies at the Temple and Church. At the Temple, the people brought food and spent the entire time presenting the offerings to the gods to make sure they were satisfied and never seemed to expect anything in return. In contrast, the Church presented the people with a piece of God as the focal point of the service. I could go into this, but it would go on for a good while. Just some food for thought.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Problem with Pluralism
I wanted to take a moment to step back and look at the project as a whole. To evaluate what we have done so far, and what we have discovered. Wendy Doniger wrote a book called The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth, where she looks at the definition of a myth, specifically a religious myth, and evaluates their purpose. She defines myth as: “A tool in the hands of human beings” and “reveals certain basic cultural attitudes to important (usually insoluble) questions”. Basically, a myth is a sacred story that tells us the deepest truths about every aspect of our lives. She means the fiction that makes reality real; a story that can bring reality into closer focus. These myths are acted out in the sacred rituals of each religion.
Each religion is designed to answer these basic insoluble questions; a few being the ones that we are asking in our interviews. Doniger describes this as looking at life through a telescope, seeing the broad picture and interpreting life through this lens. These are the questions that religious myths look at, and try to answer on the microscopic level, the more personal perspective. What we have seen through our interviews is that the answers to these telescopic questions are individual people’s microscopic perspectives influenced by their religious myths and acted out in their own religious rituals. Some of those religious myths are interpreted within a certain religion and believed by most members of that religion, but as we have seen commonly throughout our interview process, many of those myths (creation, for example) are becoming individualized to fit the belief systems of the individual and transforming to a deeper and more meaningful level for that individual. Roof discusses this shift from a religious community to individuality as we have discussed in previous posts. Robert Bellah, et al. also highlights on this theme in Habits of the Heart: Individualism and commitment in American Life. He claims that, “The American pattern of privatizing religion while at the same time allowing it some public functions has proven highly compatible with the religious pluralism that has characterized America from the colonial and grown more and more pronounced.” Bellah, 225.
This leads to a problem with that pluralism. If there can be more than one explanation to questions within a certain religion, and all the explanations are correct even if it is to the individual, then other religions and their explanations must be correct as well. However, we live in a world where there are competing claims of truth in religion; somewhere deep inside we believe that we are right, and there (logically) can’t be more that one right answer to a given question. If we did entertain the idea that another religion could be truthful, then we are betraying our own faith. Diana Eck discusses this topic in her book, Encountering God. She says, “To recognize this plurality of religious claims as a profoundly important fact of our world does not constitute a betrayal of one’s own faith. It is simply a fact among the many facts that emerge from the historical and comparative study of religion.” Eck, 14. What she is saying, is that when we look at other religions as being truthful, we are not denying the validity of our own, we are evaluating our own beliefs and relating the beliefs of other and of what we hear to what we already know.
Many of the people that we have interviewed agree with this idea. They can take what they have learned about other religions and get something out of it that they otherwise would not have been able to see. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita, “I am in every religion as the thread through a string of pearls. And wherever thou seest extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power brazing and purifying humanity, know ye that I am there.” If we are so narrow-minded as to think that what we already know is the only thing there is to offer, then we are not only becoming more ignorant, but we are actually narrowing our faith and the possibilities of what God can become and how we can be impacted by our faith. As one Hindu said in Eck’s book, “[What kind of stingy God would that be] to show himself only once, to one people, in one part of the world, and so long ago?” We would be small-minded and self-centered to not even consider the idea that this might not be the case.
Our interviewees also agree that challenging what we believe is necessary in establishing what religion we believe in. “We need to acknowledge our own responsibility for the image of God that we are content to believe in.” Eck, 48. This “image of God” that Eck is referring to is our personal religious views of how we see God. Whatever religion someone is, they see the divine in a way that is personal to them. Their personal views are shaped by their religious myths microscopically, the culture they grow up in, and (should be) the pluralistic study of other religions to broaden their telescopic view of the world, society, and other religions.
Each religion is designed to answer these basic insoluble questions; a few being the ones that we are asking in our interviews. Doniger describes this as looking at life through a telescope, seeing the broad picture and interpreting life through this lens. These are the questions that religious myths look at, and try to answer on the microscopic level, the more personal perspective. What we have seen through our interviews is that the answers to these telescopic questions are individual people’s microscopic perspectives influenced by their religious myths and acted out in their own religious rituals. Some of those religious myths are interpreted within a certain religion and believed by most members of that religion, but as we have seen commonly throughout our interview process, many of those myths (creation, for example) are becoming individualized to fit the belief systems of the individual and transforming to a deeper and more meaningful level for that individual. Roof discusses this shift from a religious community to individuality as we have discussed in previous posts. Robert Bellah, et al. also highlights on this theme in Habits of the Heart: Individualism and commitment in American Life. He claims that, “The American pattern of privatizing religion while at the same time allowing it some public functions has proven highly compatible with the religious pluralism that has characterized America from the colonial and grown more and more pronounced.” Bellah, 225.
This leads to a problem with that pluralism. If there can be more than one explanation to questions within a certain religion, and all the explanations are correct even if it is to the individual, then other religions and their explanations must be correct as well. However, we live in a world where there are competing claims of truth in religion; somewhere deep inside we believe that we are right, and there (logically) can’t be more that one right answer to a given question. If we did entertain the idea that another religion could be truthful, then we are betraying our own faith. Diana Eck discusses this topic in her book, Encountering God. She says, “To recognize this plurality of religious claims as a profoundly important fact of our world does not constitute a betrayal of one’s own faith. It is simply a fact among the many facts that emerge from the historical and comparative study of religion.” Eck, 14. What she is saying, is that when we look at other religions as being truthful, we are not denying the validity of our own, we are evaluating our own beliefs and relating the beliefs of other and of what we hear to what we already know.
Many of the people that we have interviewed agree with this idea. They can take what they have learned about other religions and get something out of it that they otherwise would not have been able to see. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita, “I am in every religion as the thread through a string of pearls. And wherever thou seest extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power brazing and purifying humanity, know ye that I am there.” If we are so narrow-minded as to think that what we already know is the only thing there is to offer, then we are not only becoming more ignorant, but we are actually narrowing our faith and the possibilities of what God can become and how we can be impacted by our faith. As one Hindu said in Eck’s book, “[What kind of stingy God would that be] to show himself only once, to one people, in one part of the world, and so long ago?” We would be small-minded and self-centered to not even consider the idea that this might not be the case.
Our interviewees also agree that challenging what we believe is necessary in establishing what religion we believe in. “We need to acknowledge our own responsibility for the image of God that we are content to believe in.” Eck, 48. This “image of God” that Eck is referring to is our personal religious views of how we see God. Whatever religion someone is, they see the divine in a way that is personal to them. Their personal views are shaped by their religious myths microscopically, the culture they grow up in, and (should be) the pluralistic study of other religions to broaden their telescopic view of the world, society, and other religions.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Roof vs. Reality
In chapter 6 of his book Roof goes into detail about different types of Christians. One group he looks at is the born-again Christians. When I first read this, I thought it was referring to the people who practice evangelism whole-hartedly, which we touched on earlier. Many Christians do consider evangelism a strong part of their faith, but this is not the only aspect of their faith. This post will be looking at the make-up and values of the group. Here are a few quick facts Roof gives on the born-again Christians.
They make up nearly a third of the Baby Boomer generation. Many have had a memorable moment when they feel like they've "really become a Christian". The members of the group come from all different denominations and religious backgrounds and are bound together by a "spirituality combining the experience of a 'personal God' or a 'personal relationship' with Jesus Christ and Boomer culture and sensibilities". The transformation and spirituality is also highly individualistic.
Now for two aspects of this group of Christians in general that I don't necessarily agree with. Roof states that narrowminded exclusiveism and rigid moral laws that are usually associated with this group are disappearing with the Boomers. He later goes on to say that " half of all Boomer Evangelicals agree that the religions of the world are all 'equally true and good'". From what talking to the people I know that would fit under this category, they are fairly closeminded and believe that their religious views are the only right way. One male student I recently interviewed said that he believed only Christians who believed in Jesus and did not do evil could go to heaven. Everyone else was to go to hell. He didn't say it in quite those terms, but that is the gist of it. What happened to the loving God who sent his son to save all of mankind? I don't believe that God could comdemn anyone to an eternity of hell, but that's getting way too into my own opinion, so I'm stopping now.
As for the end of exclusiveism, I could believe that it has stopped in the sense of the church welcoming everyone into it and not turning anyone away, but if you (in the end) don't believe what they believe, you cannot be correct.
By no means I am saying that members of this group are bad people, their hearts are in the right place and they do many good things, but I think they could be more sensitive to other Christians- and non Christians- whose beliefs differ slightly from their own.
This post was a little harsher than I meant it to be. At the end of the day we must remember who Christians really are and remove any steriotypes that are associated- they are simply people who stand firm in their faith and believe that it is right for them to spread it to others.
They make up nearly a third of the Baby Boomer generation. Many have had a memorable moment when they feel like they've "really become a Christian". The members of the group come from all different denominations and religious backgrounds and are bound together by a "spirituality combining the experience of a 'personal God' or a 'personal relationship' with Jesus Christ and Boomer culture and sensibilities". The transformation and spirituality is also highly individualistic.
Now for two aspects of this group of Christians in general that I don't necessarily agree with. Roof states that narrowminded exclusiveism and rigid moral laws that are usually associated with this group are disappearing with the Boomers. He later goes on to say that " half of all Boomer Evangelicals agree that the religions of the world are all 'equally true and good'". From what talking to the people I know that would fit under this category, they are fairly closeminded and believe that their religious views are the only right way. One male student I recently interviewed said that he believed only Christians who believed in Jesus and did not do evil could go to heaven. Everyone else was to go to hell. He didn't say it in quite those terms, but that is the gist of it. What happened to the loving God who sent his son to save all of mankind? I don't believe that God could comdemn anyone to an eternity of hell, but that's getting way too into my own opinion, so I'm stopping now.
As for the end of exclusiveism, I could believe that it has stopped in the sense of the church welcoming everyone into it and not turning anyone away, but if you (in the end) don't believe what they believe, you cannot be correct.
By no means I am saying that members of this group are bad people, their hearts are in the right place and they do many good things, but I think they could be more sensitive to other Christians- and non Christians- whose beliefs differ slightly from their own.
This post was a little harsher than I meant it to be. At the end of the day we must remember who Christians really are and remove any steriotypes that are associated- they are simply people who stand firm in their faith and believe that it is right for them to spread it to others.
A Closer Look at Judaism
This week I had the opportunity to attend a reform Jewish Friday service with Kelsey, one of the students that I interviewed earlier this semester. The experience was not what I was expecting...
The temple was small, but enough people came so there could be a minyan (ten Jewish men), so all the prayers could be recited. The Rabbi had an acoustic guitar that he played while the prayers were being chanted, all in Hebrew, and one of the young boys in the congregation who was practicing for his Bar Mitzvah led us through the prayers. The Arc was opened, but the Torah was just prayed and bowed to, not taken out and read. We recited prayers (that were available in the prayer book for those in the congregation that needed them... aka me... but it was hard to follow because it was all backwards) then the Rabbi spoke for about ten minutes. He was really excited about the new prayer books, so actually spoke on the development of the prayer books, how they were first oral traditions, then written down, then condensed, then rewritten again, then modernized, and finally re-traditionalized to what they now have today. He compared this to baseball.
The entire service lasted about 45 min.
Afterwords, everyone gathered together in another room and ate a ton of food (after it was prayed over, or course!) I had the opportunity to talk to the Rabbi for a minute about the project. He said something to me that I was shocked to hear come from a Rabbi's mouth.
"I don't care what religion you believe in as long as you hate it. Every religion has bad things about it, but they all have good things about them too." Um, that seems a little confusing. Why should you have to hate your religion?
Wow. This was someone who has dedicated their life to this one religion, memorized a BUNCH of prayers in another language, practiced traditions, lived in guidelines, and says that he hates his religion. Why practice it then? Why devote your life to something you hate? This is very backwards from all the people who have told us that they find their religion a place of comfort and calm. How could you have find comfort in something that you hate and why you continue doing it?
I think that we need to take a look back at one of the differences we have encountered in Judaism. A person can be Jewish by religion and by heritage, so being Jewish does not necessarily mean that you practice it, or even believe in it. I would expect someone who is a Rabbi to be more than just a cultural Jew, but because this was a reform temple I guess even the Rabbi doesn't have that strong of a religious affiliation. I wish I had thought to ask him why he was a Rabbi, but I was so taken aback by what he said that I didn't think to ask anything else. I think that he is a Rabbi because he gets something out of practicing the prayers. Maybe he likes being a "teacher" (because that is what the word "Rabbi" means), and he just wants to convey the important moral aspects of that religion, and not so much the religion itself; what he would call the "good things" about the religion. These are only speculations.
I can also interpret this as one of the many signs of religion shifting from a restricted and organized group practice to a more personal spiritual experience. He chooses to be a Rabbi and teach, while hating the idea of his religion.
On the other hand, this can also be interpreted another way (as pointed out to me by Jonathan...) Hating your religion mean that you have thought about it and you have seen that the religion itself has to be more than just what you are raised with, more than what you have been taught and say. It has to be what you believe and what fits your worldview. I don't think that if you actually think about any religion there isn't some aspect that you don't understand, something you can't think about, and something you can't disagree with. It just matters that it's you thinking about it. Because what is the point of just doing religion if it is lip service? People that just do that are doing nothing. If it is suppose to mean something then you should think about what you don't agree with and come to terms with that. Think about why it is said and why you disagree. Religion is not all bad and you should not look at them to see only what you don't like (because religion offers more than just debate topics), but they are set up to be a framework of guidelines and not concrete rules. I wish more people saw them as such.
The temple was small, but enough people came so there could be a minyan (ten Jewish men), so all the prayers could be recited. The Rabbi had an acoustic guitar that he played while the prayers were being chanted, all in Hebrew, and one of the young boys in the congregation who was practicing for his Bar Mitzvah led us through the prayers. The Arc was opened, but the Torah was just prayed and bowed to, not taken out and read. We recited prayers (that were available in the prayer book for those in the congregation that needed them... aka me... but it was hard to follow because it was all backwards) then the Rabbi spoke for about ten minutes. He was really excited about the new prayer books, so actually spoke on the development of the prayer books, how they were first oral traditions, then written down, then condensed, then rewritten again, then modernized, and finally re-traditionalized to what they now have today. He compared this to baseball.
The entire service lasted about 45 min.
Afterwords, everyone gathered together in another room and ate a ton of food (after it was prayed over, or course!) I had the opportunity to talk to the Rabbi for a minute about the project. He said something to me that I was shocked to hear come from a Rabbi's mouth.
"I don't care what religion you believe in as long as you hate it. Every religion has bad things about it, but they all have good things about them too." Um, that seems a little confusing. Why should you have to hate your religion?
Wow. This was someone who has dedicated their life to this one religion, memorized a BUNCH of prayers in another language, practiced traditions, lived in guidelines, and says that he hates his religion. Why practice it then? Why devote your life to something you hate? This is very backwards from all the people who have told us that they find their religion a place of comfort and calm. How could you have find comfort in something that you hate and why you continue doing it?
I think that we need to take a look back at one of the differences we have encountered in Judaism. A person can be Jewish by religion and by heritage, so being Jewish does not necessarily mean that you practice it, or even believe in it. I would expect someone who is a Rabbi to be more than just a cultural Jew, but because this was a reform temple I guess even the Rabbi doesn't have that strong of a religious affiliation. I wish I had thought to ask him why he was a Rabbi, but I was so taken aback by what he said that I didn't think to ask anything else. I think that he is a Rabbi because he gets something out of practicing the prayers. Maybe he likes being a "teacher" (because that is what the word "Rabbi" means), and he just wants to convey the important moral aspects of that religion, and not so much the religion itself; what he would call the "good things" about the religion. These are only speculations.
I can also interpret this as one of the many signs of religion shifting from a restricted and organized group practice to a more personal spiritual experience. He chooses to be a Rabbi and teach, while hating the idea of his religion.
On the other hand, this can also be interpreted another way (as pointed out to me by Jonathan...) Hating your religion mean that you have thought about it and you have seen that the religion itself has to be more than just what you are raised with, more than what you have been taught and say. It has to be what you believe and what fits your worldview. I don't think that if you actually think about any religion there isn't some aspect that you don't understand, something you can't think about, and something you can't disagree with. It just matters that it's you thinking about it. Because what is the point of just doing religion if it is lip service? People that just do that are doing nothing. If it is suppose to mean something then you should think about what you don't agree with and come to terms with that. Think about why it is said and why you disagree. Religion is not all bad and you should not look at them to see only what you don't like (because religion offers more than just debate topics), but they are set up to be a framework of guidelines and not concrete rules. I wish more people saw them as such.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Questioning Your Faith
"[do] doubts relate mainly to God or society: Is it religion that is really in question, or is it the secular loss of faith?... A hunger for certainty leads some people to embrace neotraditional formulations of faith and truth, but greater numbers, it seems, simply acknowledge the possibility of beliefs but do not necessarily affirm belief... many people are not convinced by older beliefs and notions about religion that were once more widely accepted; they combine skepticism with varying degrees of faith, or openness to faith" (Roof, 47-48).
Questioning and doubting religion has increased throughout history. As one interviewee, Becky, pointed out: "Faith has changed. Institutions are now questioned and faith is becoming a personal level of action behind closed doors. I think it is a good change." There is a trend that is seen throughout history of changing religious landscape much like what Becky is describing.
From Catholicism to the protestant reformation and Martin Luther, to, in the 1950s, "the decline of the Protestant establishment, post-Vatican Council II Catholicism, the Evangelical and Fundamentalist resurgence, the rise of new religious movements and increased diversity, the rise of televangelism, the growth of special-purpose groups, and the polarization of religious liberals and religious conservatives" (Roof, 48). To now the trend being more introspection and self realization. This shift is described by Roof as, "a shift from a world in which beliefs help believers to one in which believers hold beliefs" (Roof, 42). This shift in religious traditions is seen to evolve with different encounters between groups of people, for example, whites and blacks, southerners and northerners, east and west coast, social and Evangelical theologies, men and women, and gays and straights (Roof, 44).
Roof predicts that the next generation (the one that we are investigating) are "...less likely to value faith in God or to say they feel close to God that did older generations... and are more open about their doubts and uncertainties" (Roof, 52, 54). But are these doubts and uncertainties always bad? doubting causes a person to question their religions, which has the potential to make their religious views come back stronger than ever when the come to their own conclusions on why they believe what they believe.
We asked the last few people we've interviewed whether or not they had ever personally questioned or doubted their religion, and whether or not they thought this doubt had positive or negative retributions. All but one person agreed that intelligently questioning religion was a good, and even necessary, thing. The one who had hesitations started by saying she was naturally a skeptic, but that it is not good to doubt religion. Then she got quiet for a minute, thinking, and rephrased "Searching for answers could make your faith stronger when you find them". This very thought has been the general consensus thus far.
Jonathan, Christian
Had a hard time with religion for a while- questioned it. I believe that questioning your religion is necessary- if you don't question it you don't know what you really believe. So many people today just believe things because of the home they grew up in. This is a huge factor but it's not the only one. Religion is a personal thing and everyone has to find it differently and has a different view of things and meaning of what religion is.
Anjum, Muslim
Growing up your parents tell you your religion and you don't know why, but I have gotten closer myself not because of my parents enforcing it. It is an independent thing, I have researched things too. The experience has been positive.
Zack, None
It is best if you can doubt your religion. It is awesome. Doubt could still be considered worshiping the higher power as you are still considering the higher power.
Hilna, Hindu
I agree with Anjum [about the researching], I go to the temple by choice.
Theresa, Undecided
Yes. I think it's a must. I don't think you are your religion fully unless it is questioned. I am currently questioning my religion.
From listening and talking with these people, we are beginning so come to the conclusion that only through questioning can you truly know why you believe what you believe. Roof speaks about this a little in his book and one of his categories of religious people involved someone who has previously doubted their religion. Apparently this is common in the people that we are encountering in our study as well.
Questioning and doubting religion has increased throughout history. As one interviewee, Becky, pointed out: "Faith has changed. Institutions are now questioned and faith is becoming a personal level of action behind closed doors. I think it is a good change." There is a trend that is seen throughout history of changing religious landscape much like what Becky is describing.
From Catholicism to the protestant reformation and Martin Luther, to, in the 1950s, "the decline of the Protestant establishment, post-Vatican Council II Catholicism, the Evangelical and Fundamentalist resurgence, the rise of new religious movements and increased diversity, the rise of televangelism, the growth of special-purpose groups, and the polarization of religious liberals and religious conservatives" (Roof, 48). To now the trend being more introspection and self realization. This shift is described by Roof as, "a shift from a world in which beliefs help believers to one in which believers hold beliefs" (Roof, 42). This shift in religious traditions is seen to evolve with different encounters between groups of people, for example, whites and blacks, southerners and northerners, east and west coast, social and Evangelical theologies, men and women, and gays and straights (Roof, 44).
Roof predicts that the next generation (the one that we are investigating) are "...less likely to value faith in God or to say they feel close to God that did older generations... and are more open about their doubts and uncertainties" (Roof, 52, 54). But are these doubts and uncertainties always bad? doubting causes a person to question their religions, which has the potential to make their religious views come back stronger than ever when the come to their own conclusions on why they believe what they believe.
We asked the last few people we've interviewed whether or not they had ever personally questioned or doubted their religion, and whether or not they thought this doubt had positive or negative retributions. All but one person agreed that intelligently questioning religion was a good, and even necessary, thing. The one who had hesitations started by saying she was naturally a skeptic, but that it is not good to doubt religion. Then she got quiet for a minute, thinking, and rephrased "Searching for answers could make your faith stronger when you find them". This very thought has been the general consensus thus far.
Jonathan, Christian
Had a hard time with religion for a while- questioned it. I believe that questioning your religion is necessary- if you don't question it you don't know what you really believe. So many people today just believe things because of the home they grew up in. This is a huge factor but it's not the only one. Religion is a personal thing and everyone has to find it differently and has a different view of things and meaning of what religion is.
Anjum, Muslim
Growing up your parents tell you your religion and you don't know why, but I have gotten closer myself not because of my parents enforcing it. It is an independent thing, I have researched things too. The experience has been positive.
Zack, None
It is best if you can doubt your religion. It is awesome. Doubt could still be considered worshiping the higher power as you are still considering the higher power.
Hilna, Hindu
I agree with Anjum [about the researching], I go to the temple by choice.
Theresa, Undecided
Yes. I think it's a must. I don't think you are your religion fully unless it is questioned. I am currently questioning my religion.
From listening and talking with these people, we are beginning so come to the conclusion that only through questioning can you truly know why you believe what you believe. Roof speaks about this a little in his book and one of his categories of religious people involved someone who has previously doubted their religion. Apparently this is common in the people that we are encountering in our study as well.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Different Views of Being "Religious"
In Wade Clark Roof's book, Spiritual Marketplace, he divides people into five catagories of religion:
Dogmatists
Mainstream believers
Born again Christians
Metaphysical believers and seekers
Secularists
He came up with these catagories during a study that he conducted that is very similar to ours. However, he focused on the "baby boomer" generation, while we are focusing on the generation after them (i.e. the kids of the baby boomers). Even though these divisions are in an older generation, it is possible that many of them can still apply to the age group we are studying. Before going into more detail with the groups themselves, we will take a brief look at a few of Roof's ideas of varying religion.
He starts out by giving two sets of statistics that surprised me when I read them. The first says that "Polls indicate that 94% of Americans believe in God and 90% report praying to God on a fairly regular basis" (Roof, 3). This contradicts the apparent decrease in religious people in America. Religion is being taken out of schools and is constantly railed on by the government. So why is it this happening when 94% of Americans report a belief in God?
Roof quickly answers this by providing a statistic showing that, while religion is decresing in public, it is still thriving and even increasing in people's private lives. "...65% of Americans believe that religon is losing its influence in public life... yet 62% claim that the influence of religion was increasing in their personal lives" (Roof, 7). Outwardly religion apears to be declining, but nearly the same percent feel that religion is growing inwardly. Now that we see that personal religion is actually growing, we must examine what that personal religion is.
Here are a few quotes from Roof that we thought well explained the growth and change of religion during the Baby Boomer generation:
"Spirituality is a very difficult word to define. An adequate definition would include reference to a relationship with something beyond myself... that is intangible but also real. It would recognize that spirituality is the source of one's values and meaning, a way of understanding the world, an awareness of my "inner self," and a means of integrating the various aspects of myself into a whole" (35).
"[The United States] is religiously pluralistic and lacks an established church... Organized religion can be experienced as distant and out-of-date; spiritually it can be dry" (36-37).
There is now a greater emphysis on self understanding and self reflexivity, which is a shift from the previous culture (Roof, 9).
"House churches, Catholic Eucharistic groups, Jewish havurot, Bible study, prayer groups, and other such groups are often invisable yet by all accounts are flourishing today" (Roof, 20). He later points out that, "One out of every four Americans are involved in small groups of one sort or another..." (Roof,39).
After seeing these small ways in which religion has changed, Roof showed interviews from a few people who fit into the different categories.
Sara Caughman: born again Christian, or a rediscovery of tradition
I think that Sara's story is similar to that of many people of her generation. She was raised in the church but dropped out when she reached her twenties. Years later (when she was in her 40's) something happened in her life to cause her to rediscover the religion she had once been a part of. Not only did Sara return to church, she became an active member and helped establish many groups in her church to further the knowledge and understanding of Christian values and teachings.
Not everyone who returns to their faith necessarily becomes super involved, but it can be commonly seen that people who have been away from the church tend to return when they have children of their own and want them to be raised in the church, or when some other big and life-changing thing happens to make them reflect back on their life and think about the future.
Vicki Feinstein: Eclectic Seeker
Vicki claimed to be not religious for most of her life, but said that she and some friends started to get involved with the religious movement occuring around her. She says she "cannot imagine herself belonging to any religious organization", so she struck out on her own. She looked into scientology and liked what she saw there about how the mind is shaped and the ways it helped her to know herself better, but wasn't satisfied and kept looking. She read everything she could about Buddhism and followed the religion's advise on self reflection and meditation. In addition to these, she mentioned liking Star Trek and asked if it could be considered a religion as well.
In this day people consider all sorts of things to be religions that never would have been given a second thought a hundred years ago. "New Age" teachings that combine religious ideas with things like yoga and other techniques to connect you to your body are becoming commonplace and Vicki is not alone in her blending of religions and other ideas to form her own "religious values".
Some people just don't want to be told what to do and what to believe, and would rather take the time to discover that themselves. This is echoed in several comments from our interviewees making statements like find quotes "should be your choice, your own personal beliefs, no one should make you believe anything, etc." That is why you find people, like Vicki, who can believe in Star Trek as a religion. That is how they experience spirituality on a personal level.
John McRae: Reawakenings (secular alternative to traditional faith)
John was born into a Presbyterian church but did not know if he was religious or not. He would refer to himself as a Presbyterian, but he had not been to church in about twenty years, claiming that he “got out of the habit of going and never went back”, and could not say that he even knew what Presbyterians believed.
His fiancé, who is Catholic and participates in small group study because they are not comfortable in church, influenced him and he started going to the small group as well. He said that he liked the group because even though they are Catholic, that does not matter, instead it is very open and they talk about their own lives and their own experiences. Through this group, John experienced the ability to address his feelings of doubt and uncertainty and think about his priorities.
Karen Potter: Feminist Journey
Karen was raised Southern Baptist and was very active until she began to desire to feel a spiritual movement through her own experiences, and through the feminist movement. She says, "I have come to find out that [the church] doesn't corner the market on spirituality. Still it's a tool for those that it works for. This church has helped me, but right now it doesn't have much to offer me" (Roof, 21). She became an active member of a women's group that helped her explore her own needs and empower her to reach deeper levels of feeling through activities like meditation. She claimed that she, "found God inside myself" through self help books.
According to Roof, this feminist movement is not uncommon in a society that has been male dominated in the past. Throughout history, women have separated into small groups to "bond" with other women and deepen the feminist unity in "gender-based alienation". In Karen's case, she did this through studying eastern religions, ancient goddesses, meditation, and spa treatments, to name a few.
This ties in with the common theme that Roof keeps reiterating of a gradual feeling of ambivolence toward the traditional faith in which they were raised and a growing spiritual hunger for self discovery.
Sam Wong: Evangelical Seeker
Sam was not raised in a religious household. When he was in college, he was exposed to Christianity and him and his wife became members of an evangelical christian organization. He was not an active member of one church until six years ago. Since then, the change was even aparent on his coffee mugs (Jesus is the reason for the season) and his WWJD bracelets. He described his church as a "seeker church" meaning they attract middle aged people who are "seeking" answers, and who often know very little about Christianity and enjoy a much more contemporary setting. This included being tied into a "Christian network" on the internet so he could talk in chat rooms to other Christians. Through this, his goal is to "win people over to Jesus" and "organize a worldwide evangelical campaign".
Dogmatists
Mainstream believers
Born again Christians
Metaphysical believers and seekers
Secularists
He came up with these catagories during a study that he conducted that is very similar to ours. However, he focused on the "baby boomer" generation, while we are focusing on the generation after them (i.e. the kids of the baby boomers). Even though these divisions are in an older generation, it is possible that many of them can still apply to the age group we are studying. Before going into more detail with the groups themselves, we will take a brief look at a few of Roof's ideas of varying religion.
He starts out by giving two sets of statistics that surprised me when I read them. The first says that "Polls indicate that 94% of Americans believe in God and 90% report praying to God on a fairly regular basis" (Roof, 3). This contradicts the apparent decrease in religious people in America. Religion is being taken out of schools and is constantly railed on by the government. So why is it this happening when 94% of Americans report a belief in God?
Roof quickly answers this by providing a statistic showing that, while religion is decresing in public, it is still thriving and even increasing in people's private lives. "...65% of Americans believe that religon is losing its influence in public life... yet 62% claim that the influence of religion was increasing in their personal lives" (Roof, 7). Outwardly religion apears to be declining, but nearly the same percent feel that religion is growing inwardly. Now that we see that personal religion is actually growing, we must examine what that personal religion is.
Here are a few quotes from Roof that we thought well explained the growth and change of religion during the Baby Boomer generation:
"Spirituality is a very difficult word to define. An adequate definition would include reference to a relationship with something beyond myself... that is intangible but also real. It would recognize that spirituality is the source of one's values and meaning, a way of understanding the world, an awareness of my "inner self," and a means of integrating the various aspects of myself into a whole" (35).
"[The United States] is religiously pluralistic and lacks an established church... Organized religion can be experienced as distant and out-of-date; spiritually it can be dry" (36-37).
There is now a greater emphysis on self understanding and self reflexivity, which is a shift from the previous culture (Roof, 9).
"House churches, Catholic Eucharistic groups, Jewish havurot, Bible study, prayer groups, and other such groups are often invisable yet by all accounts are flourishing today" (Roof, 20). He later points out that, "One out of every four Americans are involved in small groups of one sort or another..." (Roof,39).
After seeing these small ways in which religion has changed, Roof showed interviews from a few people who fit into the different categories.
Sara Caughman: born again Christian, or a rediscovery of tradition
I think that Sara's story is similar to that of many people of her generation. She was raised in the church but dropped out when she reached her twenties. Years later (when she was in her 40's) something happened in her life to cause her to rediscover the religion she had once been a part of. Not only did Sara return to church, she became an active member and helped establish many groups in her church to further the knowledge and understanding of Christian values and teachings.
Not everyone who returns to their faith necessarily becomes super involved, but it can be commonly seen that people who have been away from the church tend to return when they have children of their own and want them to be raised in the church, or when some other big and life-changing thing happens to make them reflect back on their life and think about the future.
Vicki Feinstein: Eclectic Seeker
Vicki claimed to be not religious for most of her life, but said that she and some friends started to get involved with the religious movement occuring around her. She says she "cannot imagine herself belonging to any religious organization", so she struck out on her own. She looked into scientology and liked what she saw there about how the mind is shaped and the ways it helped her to know herself better, but wasn't satisfied and kept looking. She read everything she could about Buddhism and followed the religion's advise on self reflection and meditation. In addition to these, she mentioned liking Star Trek and asked if it could be considered a religion as well.
In this day people consider all sorts of things to be religions that never would have been given a second thought a hundred years ago. "New Age" teachings that combine religious ideas with things like yoga and other techniques to connect you to your body are becoming commonplace and Vicki is not alone in her blending of religions and other ideas to form her own "religious values".
Some people just don't want to be told what to do and what to believe, and would rather take the time to discover that themselves. This is echoed in several comments from our interviewees making statements like find quotes "should be your choice, your own personal beliefs, no one should make you believe anything, etc." That is why you find people, like Vicki, who can believe in Star Trek as a religion. That is how they experience spirituality on a personal level.
John McRae: Reawakenings (secular alternative to traditional faith)
John was born into a Presbyterian church but did not know if he was religious or not. He would refer to himself as a Presbyterian, but he had not been to church in about twenty years, claiming that he “got out of the habit of going and never went back”, and could not say that he even knew what Presbyterians believed.
His fiancé, who is Catholic and participates in small group study because they are not comfortable in church, influenced him and he started going to the small group as well. He said that he liked the group because even though they are Catholic, that does not matter, instead it is very open and they talk about their own lives and their own experiences. Through this group, John experienced the ability to address his feelings of doubt and uncertainty and think about his priorities.
Karen Potter: Feminist Journey
Karen was raised Southern Baptist and was very active until she began to desire to feel a spiritual movement through her own experiences, and through the feminist movement. She says, "I have come to find out that [the church] doesn't corner the market on spirituality. Still it's a tool for those that it works for. This church has helped me, but right now it doesn't have much to offer me" (Roof, 21). She became an active member of a women's group that helped her explore her own needs and empower her to reach deeper levels of feeling through activities like meditation. She claimed that she, "found God inside myself" through self help books.
According to Roof, this feminist movement is not uncommon in a society that has been male dominated in the past. Throughout history, women have separated into small groups to "bond" with other women and deepen the feminist unity in "gender-based alienation". In Karen's case, she did this through studying eastern religions, ancient goddesses, meditation, and spa treatments, to name a few.
This ties in with the common theme that Roof keeps reiterating of a gradual feeling of ambivolence toward the traditional faith in which they were raised and a growing spiritual hunger for self discovery.
Sam Wong: Evangelical Seeker
Sam was not raised in a religious household. When he was in college, he was exposed to Christianity and him and his wife became members of an evangelical christian organization. He was not an active member of one church until six years ago. Since then, the change was even aparent on his coffee mugs (Jesus is the reason for the season) and his WWJD bracelets. He described his church as a "seeker church" meaning they attract middle aged people who are "seeking" answers, and who often know very little about Christianity and enjoy a much more contemporary setting. This included being tied into a "Christian network" on the internet so he could talk in chat rooms to other Christians. Through this, his goal is to "win people over to Jesus" and "organize a worldwide evangelical campaign".
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Religion: A Cultural Influence
In today's world it is easy to go with the flow, to believe things because that's what society tells you to believe. In the United States, especially in the Bible Belt of the South, Christianity is the most common religion. But that's not the only one out there even though many people aren't aware of what's in their own backyard. Here, if a person grows up a Christian, they remain a Christian their whole life; maybe they will become a solid Christian who goes to church every week and prays often, or maybe they will be more of a nominal Christian who does not really participate in church, yet still considers themselves a part of the religion. It is a rarity to find an individual who seriously questions their faith and why they believe what they believe. One reason for the lack of questioning could be the general social acceptance of the faith. If someone walks into church and says they are questioning the teachings of the church and need to work out for themselves why they are a Christian (this is applicable for all religions, not just Christianity), their fellow laymen and the ministers will probably not jump for joy. You just don't do that.
However, I personally believe that a questioning and reasoning out of why you believe what you believe is necessary in order to be fully in your faith. Know why you believe will make you a stronger follower and enhance the religious experience.
Think about it from this point of view. If you are born in a country where the primary religion is Hindu, but your family is Christian, it would be much harder to keep the will to remain a Christian. It would be the easiest thing in the world to convert to Hinduism and do what the majority of the population is doing. In this situation it is necessary to make sure you really know why you believe what you do, because if you don't there's not much reason to believe it. You are not doing the easy thing, but the hard thing: not letting your surrounding culture affect what you believe to be right.
How do we get past this paradox?
Let's think for just a minute about the major religions of the world. Besides the ones most people have heard of (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), there are innumerable other religions. The East Asian Religions like Confucianism is just one example. Even within a religion there are divisions and sects. These religions are present everywhere, not just the country of origin. For example, in Spartanburg alone there are Christian churches of at least 5 denominations that I can name off the top of my head, a Hindu temple, synagogues, a mosque, and a Buddhist population.
In her book A New Religious America, Diana Eck describes the new religious setting of America, one in which religions that have never had much contact are now interacting on a daily basis. In this new religious era, many people are unaware of the beliefs of Sikhs or Muslims and many have never visited a mosque or Hindu or Buddhist temple. Yet despite are extreme lack of knowledge, we are willing to say that "Muslims" (as a collective term) are extremists who will resort to anything have their message heard, when in actuality that couldn't be farther from the truth. Our society has developed a set of stereotypes that have spread from the secular world into the religious world- it is these stereotypes that we intend to identify and set straight.
Eck goes on to point out that the diversity in America gives us the opportunity to study the dynamics of various faiths. Whereas in years past study of Buddhism would have only been possible through books and firsthand knowledge through traveling to the areas of the world where it originated, the playing field is in our backyard. It is easier now than ever before to walk down the street and experience something completely different than anything we are used to. This is an opportunity that people should take advantage of.
Religion (no matter how hard the government may try to fight it) is a big part of our culture and helps shapes us and the world around us whether we're aware of it or not. The study of world religions allows us to understand what's going on around us- the situation with the Dalai Lama in Tibet, wars between Pakistan and Israel, and wars between the Shia and Sunni Muslims, and countless other disputes. I think it's as necessary a topic as science or math- it's just a matter of time before people realize that.
However, I personally believe that a questioning and reasoning out of why you believe what you believe is necessary in order to be fully in your faith. Know why you believe will make you a stronger follower and enhance the religious experience.
Think about it from this point of view. If you are born in a country where the primary religion is Hindu, but your family is Christian, it would be much harder to keep the will to remain a Christian. It would be the easiest thing in the world to convert to Hinduism and do what the majority of the population is doing. In this situation it is necessary to make sure you really know why you believe what you do, because if you don't there's not much reason to believe it. You are not doing the easy thing, but the hard thing: not letting your surrounding culture affect what you believe to be right.
Every person we have interviewed thus far have said that they believe the culture and the environment that a person grew up in is one of the, if not the deciding factor for a person's religious beliefs. In the opinion of the interviewees, if someone is born here in the southern "Bible belt", and their parents are typical Christians, then they will be Christian regardless of any other factor. They will be born into a Christian home, environment, and culture, and they have basically no other choice but to be Christian. I have probed this farther with several people and asked whether they believed that just applied to the United States, or whether that was world-wide. The general consensus has been that it is world wide.
So, for example, if someone is born in India, then they will most likely be Hindu. If someone is born in the middle east, they will most likely be Muslim. But what happens if someone is born where there is no outside religious influence? The two common answers have been, "I don't know" and "then is depends on what the family of that person believes". Does that mean that religion is not a personal decision? If that is the case, then the entire last post is null because it wouldn't matter if someone shared their religion with others because that is not the influencing factor. On the other hand, every person we have interviewed has expressed the need for religion to be a personal decision, not influenced by any other factors than individual choice.
How do we get past this paradox?
Let's think for just a minute about the major religions of the world. Besides the ones most people have heard of (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), there are innumerable other religions. The East Asian Religions like Confucianism is just one example. Even within a religion there are divisions and sects. These religions are present everywhere, not just the country of origin. For example, in Spartanburg alone there are Christian churches of at least 5 denominations that I can name off the top of my head, a Hindu temple, synagogues, a mosque, and a Buddhist population.
In her book A New Religious America, Diana Eck describes the new religious setting of America, one in which religions that have never had much contact are now interacting on a daily basis. In this new religious era, many people are unaware of the beliefs of Sikhs or Muslims and many have never visited a mosque or Hindu or Buddhist temple. Yet despite are extreme lack of knowledge, we are willing to say that "Muslims" (as a collective term) are extremists who will resort to anything have their message heard, when in actuality that couldn't be farther from the truth. Our society has developed a set of stereotypes that have spread from the secular world into the religious world- it is these stereotypes that we intend to identify and set straight.
Eck goes on to point out that the diversity in America gives us the opportunity to study the dynamics of various faiths. Whereas in years past study of Buddhism would have only been possible through books and firsthand knowledge through traveling to the areas of the world where it originated, the playing field is in our backyard. It is easier now than ever before to walk down the street and experience something completely different than anything we are used to. This is an opportunity that people should take advantage of.
Religion (no matter how hard the government may try to fight it) is a big part of our culture and helps shapes us and the world around us whether we're aware of it or not. The study of world religions allows us to understand what's going on around us- the situation with the Dalai Lama in Tibet, wars between Pakistan and Israel, and wars between the Shia and Sunni Muslims, and countless other disputes. I think it's as necessary a topic as science or math- it's just a matter of time before people realize that.
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