Pagan Resurgence

So I recently noticed my last final is on December 21st, the winter solstice, and I am considering invoking all the Pagan gods to help me ascertain success in that endeavor. This NY Times article shows I'm not the only one, either. I'd love to meet all these people and sacrifice a goat with them. After all, what is more natural, more instinctive to humans than a bacchanalian gathering to honor the elemental forces that surround and transfix us?

Upcoming Spirituality Committee Service Events

"They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing." - Hindu proverb

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, the Spirituality Committee of the Graduate Student Association would like to invite members of the BC community to participate in two rewarding service opportunities.

On Saturday, November 14th, 2009 we will be arranging visits to elderly Jesuits residing at Weston Theological Seminary. On Wednesday, November 25th, 2009, in partnership with Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly, we will conduct home visits and give holiday gifts to elderly citizens in the Boston area. For the latter event in particular, we encourage multilingual students to volunteer, as many of the visits will be to senior citizens from various ethnic backgrounds. As charity illuminates the holiday season, and service provides a cornerstone of the BC learning experience, we hope you will join us in this educational and fulfilling project!

If you'd like to participate on the 14th, please RSVP by November 4th. If you'd like to participate on the 25th, please RSVP by November 10th. To RSVP or if you have any further questions, please e-mail Stefaan Deschrijver at deschris@bc.edu.

An Atheist Divide

Here's an article from today's NPR News outlet. It is difficult for me to understand how Christopher Hitchens fails to see the parallel between his own vituperative language and the language religions putatively bring against other religions and worldviews, the type of language that can provoke violence, which is one of the biggest critiques against religion (cf. 'Religulous' by Bill Maher). It's also ironic that atheists are facing the same divide that many religious groups today are facing, that of choosing between fundementalism or a strict exclusivism on the one hand, and a tolerance/acceptance/respect for alterity on the other hand. This leads to some interesting questions: is 'atheism' a religion itself? Can it be defined by something other than what it is against? What would Hitchens say about 'The New Humanism' (http://thenewhumanism.org/), which approaches other religions with respect rather than aspersion, and desires to be "Good Without God"?

A Bitter Rift Divides Atheists
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty


Last month, atheists marked Blasphemy Day at gatherings around the world, and celebrated the freedom to denigrate and insult religion.

Some offered to trade pornography for Bibles. Others de-baptized people with hair dryers. And in Washington, D.C., an art exhibit opened that shows, among other paintings, one entitled Divine Wine, where Jesus, on the cross, has blood flowing from his wound into a wine bottle.

Another, Jesus Paints His Nails, shows an effeminate Jesus after the crucifixion, applying polish to the nails that attach his hands to the cross.

"I wouldn't want this on my wall," says Stuart Jordan, an atheist who advises the evidence-based group Center for Inquiry on policy issues. The Center for Inquiry hosted the art show.

Jordan says the exhibit created a firestorm from offended believers, and he can understand why. But, he says, the controversy over this exhibit goes way beyond Blasphemy Day. It's about the future of the atheist movement — and whether to adopt the "new atheist" approach — a more aggressive, often belittling posture toward religious believers.

Some call it a schism.

"It's really a national debate among people with a secular orientation about how far do we want to go in promoting a secular society through emphasizing the 'new atheism,' " Jordan says. "And some are very much for it, and some are opposed to it on the grounds that they feel this is largely a religious country, and if it's pushed the wrong way, this is going to insult many of the religious people who should be shown respect even if we don't agree with them on all issues."

Jordan believes the new approach will backfire.

A Schism?

Jordan is a volunteer at the center and therefore could speak his mind. But interviews for this story with others associated with the Washington, D.C., office were canceled — a curious development for a group that promotes free speech.

Ronald Lindsay, who heads the Center for Inquiry, based in Amherst, N.Y., says he didn't know why the interviews were cancelled. As for the art exhibit and other Blasphemy Day events the group promoted:

"What we wanted were thoughtful, incisive and concise critiques of religion," he says. "We were not trying to insult believers."

But others are perfectly happy to. New atheists like Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins and journalist Christopher Hitchens are selling millions of books and drawing people by the thousands to their call for an uncompromising atheism.

For example, Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and author of the book God Is Not Great, told a capacity crowd at the University of Toronto, "I think religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt, and I claim that right." His words were greeted with hoots of approval.

Religion is "sinister, dangerous and ridiculous," Hitchens tells NPR, because it can prompt people to fly airplanes into buildings, and it promotes ignorance. Hitchens sees no reason to sugarcoat his position.

"If I said to a Protestant or Quaker or Muslim, 'Hey, at least I respect your belief,' I would be telling a lie," Hitchens says.

Asked why he feels compelled to be so blunt, he responds: "I believe it's more honest, more brave, more courageous simply to state your own position."

The more outrageous the message the better, says PZ Myers, who writes an influential blog that calls, among other things, for the end of religion. On Blasphemy Day, Myers drove a rusty nail through a consecrated Communion wafer and posted a photo on his Web site.

"People got very angry," he recalls. "I don't know why. I mean, it's just a cracker, right?"

Myers, who teaches biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris, says he received about 15,000 hate e-mails. He says one reason he favors the provocative approach is that it works, especially for the next generation of atheists.

"Edgy is what young people like," Myers says. "They want to cut through the nonsense right away and want to get to the point. They want to hear the story fast, they want it to be exciting, and they want it to be fun. And I'm sorry, the old school of atheism is really, really boring."

The Old School

Paul Kurtz founded the Center for Inquiry three decades ago to offer a positive alternative to religion. He has built alliances with religious groups over issues such as climate change and opposing creationism in the public schools. Kurtz says he was ousted in a "palace coup" last year — and he worries the new atheists will set the movement back.

"I consider them atheist fundamentalists," he says. "They're anti-religious, and they're mean-spirited, unfortunately. Now, they're very good atheists and very dedicated people who do not believe in God. But you have this aggressive and militant phase of atheism, and that does more damage than good."

He hopes this new approach will fizzle.

"Merely to critically attack religious beliefs is not sufficient. It leaves a vacuum. What are you for? We know what you're against, but what do you want to defend?"

The new atheists counter that they believe in reason, science and freedom from religious myth. And, as Lindsay, who replaced Kurtz, puts it: "We take the high road, the low road, country roads, interstates, highways, byways, — whatever it takes to reach people."

Holy War 2009

I always like hearing people's personal journey's of faith, because usually they're studded with gems of truth. The article below details an unusual story of a teen's conversion from Islam to Christianity. Someone in the story is crazy, but I still haven't figured out who.

Conversion and Controversy
Teen's Switch from Islam to Christianity Becomes Flash Point for Debate in Fla.

By Amy Green
Religion News Service
Saturday, October 17, 2009

ORLANDO -- First there was Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy torn between two nations. Then there was Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman torn between two families. Now comes Rifqa Bary, the teenage runaway torn between two faiths.

If you're involved in a high-stakes custody fight, Florida, it seems, is the place to be.

Could Rifqa's father in Ohio really kill her for leaving Islam to embrace Christianity? Has the 17-year-old read too many fundamentalist Christian Web sites? Or is it all just teen dramatics?

Those are the questions swirling around the 17-year-old Ohio girl who became a Christian several years ago and sought shelter with an Orlando pastor after she feared for her life because, as she said, her father is bound by his Islamic faith to kill her.

Her parents deny the charges, and are fighting in courts in both states to bring Rifqa home. The case has become a cause celebre among conservative Christian groups, Muslim activists and, of course, politicians.

Gov. Charlie Crist (R) said, "The first and only priority of my administration is the safety and well-being of this child." Marco Rubio, Crist's opponent in a GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat, also urged state leaders "to use every legal tool at their disposal to properly evaluate Rifqa's best interests."

"The case in Florida began as a television event," said Craig McCarthy, a former attorney for Rifqa's mother in Orlando. "It could have been dismissed on Day One." As courts in Orlando and Columbus, Ohio, wrestle over which state has jurisdiction, Rifqa remains in Orlando in foster care. On Tuesday, an Orlando judge ruled Rifqa should return to Ohio, although no timeline was set, and when she does return she will remain in foster care.

The girl arrived in Orlando after connecting with the wife of an Orlando pastor on Facebook. The pastor and his wife took Rifqa in after "they realized that she was someone who really believed her life was in danger," said Mathew Staver, the founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, an Orlando firm specializing in religious litigation. Staver represents the pastor and his wife, Blake and Beverly Lorenz. The teen was placed with a different foster family after the couple contacted authorities.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement report found no evidence of any threat or abuse against Rifqa and said her allegations are "based on her belief or understanding of the Islamic faith and/or Islamic law and custom. [Rifqa] stated that she believes Islamic law dictates she must be put to death for her abandonment of the Islamic faith." Her father, Mohamed Bary, denied making any such threat, according to the report, but he told investigators that when he confronted Rifqa about her conversion in June he lifted a laptop to throw it but reconsidered, thinking about how much money he had spent on it.

The case has put Muslim groups on the defensive. Islam condones no such killings, said Babak Darvish, executive director of the Columbus chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Darvish said the girl's parents are distraught about her behavior. They moved to the United States from Sri Lanka when Rifqa was a child so that she could receive better treatment for an injury that left her blind in one eye, he said.

Darvish accused some conservative Christians and politicians of using the story to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment. "They're trying to use this case to further this extremist political, religious agenda," he said.

Lou Engle, an outspoken Kansas City, Mo., evangelist who has taken up Rifqa's case, said, "If Florida authorities release her to her parents, who she alleges threatened her for converting, we don't know what will happen to her and we should not risk it. While we hate to see any child leave the care of their parents, these conditions are unacceptable."

For some, Rifqa personifies lingering Christian-Muslim tensions more than eight years after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. In late September, as more than 3,500 Muslims prepared to gather for Friday prayers at the U.S. Capitol, Rifqa was featured as part of a national call-in prayer-a-thon.

Engle, who helped organize the call, referred to Rifqa as "our little sister," and during it, Rifqa grew emotional when asked to pray for Muslims to embrace Christianity.

In her few public appearances, Rifqa has been at times emotional, impassioned, giddy and, occasionally, incoherent. In a YouTube video during which she shared her testimony, Rifqa called her parents "radical, radical Muslims," adding, "They can't know of my faith because if they do know, the consequences are really harsh. Just the culture and the background that they come from is so hostile toward Christianity." She explained that a classmate introduced her to Christianity, and then grew emotional as she described the moment she became a Christian, during an altar call at church.

"The Lord completely wraps me in his arms of love, and I break down on the floor and weep," she said. "I felt nothing but love, nothing but this great radical love." An attorney for Rifqa did not return calls seeking comment; staff members cited a court-imposed gag order. Staver said the threat against Rifqa is real and that Muslims, not Christians, have turned the story into another televised courtroom circus.

McCarthy, the Orlando attorney who represented Rifqa's mother, was ambivalent about those who have taken up Rifqa's cause.

"It is not a unanimously held belief that these people are orthodox Christians, which to me is a double tragedy for Rifqa, because if she wants to be a Christian, that's fantastic," McCarthy said. "I don't think she's necessarily being taught the faith in a healthy way.

The making of a saint

Priest who lived with leprosy now a saint

By FRANCES D'EMILIO
The Associated Press
Sunday, October 11, 2009 2:31 PM

VATICAN CITY -- A 19th-century priest whose courageous work with leprosy patients in Hawaii has been likened to the efforts of those battling the stigma of AIDS was elevated to sainthood Sunday by Pope Benedict XVI, along with four other Catholics he hailed as heroes of holiness.

Among the 10,000 pilgrims packing St. Peter's Basilica was Hawaii resident Audrey Toguchi, an 80-year-old retired school teacher whose recovery from lung cancer a decade ago stunned her doctor and was ruled a miracle by the Vatican.

Toguchi has credited her survival to praying to Belgium-born Jozef De Veuster, also known as Father Damien, who himself died from leprosy in 1889 after contracting the disease while working with ostracized patients living on Molokai island.

Some 40,000 faithful who couldn't fit inside the vast church filled St. Peter's Square on a warm, sunny morning. Many women from Hawaii wore headpieces made of roses and large beaded necklaces over floral-print loose gowns.

Among the five Benedict added to the church's roll call of saints is French nun Jeanne Jugan, who helped the elderly, including some abandoned by their families. Jugan, also known as Marie de la Croix, was "an authentic Mother Teresa ahead of her time," Vatican Radio said. Her Little Sisters of the Poor order of nuns today runs homes for impoverished old people worldwide. She died in 1879.

Toguchi and her doctor, Walter Chang, joined in one basilica procession, and two leprosy patients participated in another.

The new saints had heeded Jesus' call to "the heroism of sanctity," sacrificing themselves for others without "calculation or personal gain," the pope said.

"Their perfection, in the logic of a faith that is humanly incomprehensible at times, consists in no longer placing themselves at the center, but choosing to go against the flow and live according to the Gospel," Benedict said in his homily.

Official delegations included King Albert II and Queen Paolo of Belgium; U.S. President Barack Obama's new envoy to the Vatican, Miguel H. Diaz; and Hawaii Sen. Daniel Kahikina Akaka. Poland's president, France's prime minister and Spain's foreign minister also attended.

Obama, born and partially raised in Hawaii, said in a message to mark the canonization that he remembers stories about Damien's care for people with leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, and its stigma.

The U.S. leader, noting that millions worldwide suffer from disease, especially HIV/AIDS, urged people to follow Damien's example by "answering the urgent call to heal and care for the sick."

Honolulu pilgrim Gloria Rodrigues said she saw a link between Damien and AIDS.

"He was a servant of the outcast and should be an inspiration for us today to do as he did," said Rodrigues, who added she had relatives with leprosy who had been cared for on Molokai, although years after Damien's work there.

Those with leprosy, which can cause disfigurement, had been ostracized for centuries by societies and even families.

"The way leprosy was perceived then is how AIDS is perceived today" by many people, said Gail Miller, a pilgrim from Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Damien, said Benedict, "not without fear and repugnance," chose to go to Molokai and risked his health to serve the leprosy patients "who were there, abandoned by all," and went on to feel "at home with them."

Damien's image, vividly showing lesions of leprosy on his face, was draped from the basilica's facade.

Mills' pastor, the Rev. James Kean, said their parish, St. Damien of Molokai, in Pontiac, Michigan, is the first U.S. church to be named in the saint's honor. He said a relic of St. Damien, a fragment of a heel bone, will be brought to their parish from Rome for a day before being taken to Hawaii.

Later greeting the pilgrims in the square, Benedict urged those to help in the battle against leprosy as well as what he called "other forms of leprosy caused by lack of love or cowardliness," apparent reference to those who psychologically isolate themselves from others.

Also becoming a saint was Zygmunt Szcezesny Felinski, a 19th-century Polish bishop who defended the Catholic faith during the years of the Russian annexation, which had led to the shutdown of Polish churches.

Two Spaniards, Francisco Coll y Guitart, who founded an order of Dominicans in the 19th century, and Rafael Arniaz Baron, who renounced an affluent life at age 22 to live humbly in a strict monastery in the last century, also were raised to sainthood.

----

Associated Press reporter Daniela Petroff contributed to this report.

© 2009 The Associated Press

Minarets in Zurich?

BBC News has reported that the poster above has been allowed under free speech laws in Switzerland. It comes ahead of a decision by the government on whether to curtail the construction of mosques and minarets in Zurich. My own opinion is that the poster's clear hateful overtones override free speech laws and it should therefore be disallowed. The minarets look just like missiles (coincidence?) and the poster evokes a sense of dark/black/terrorist Islam overtaking pure white/cross/Christian Europe. What are your thoughts? What are the limits of free speech when it comes overt or implicit propaganda that evokes religious and cultural enmity between groups like the one above does?

In Glock we trust

Below is an AP story (with a clever title!) about preachers carrying guns. It seems to me that just possessing a weapon isn't at all contradictory with the aims of the clergy, so I think the Rev. Adams' rationale at the end of the article is a good one. The instant one man pulls the trigger against another human being though, is. In that instant, in order to shoot someone, the mind has to generate some kind of negative emotion, like fear, anger, or hatred, and that to me seems to be against the values extolled by most Christian pastors. I think guns should be to these Detroit pastors what nuclear weapons are to most countries today: something you never use, but keep around for their deterrent properties.

Piece be with you: Detroit pastors packing heat

By COREY WILLIAMS
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 1, 2009 5:32 PM

DETROIT -- The Rev. Lawrence Adams teaches his flock at the Westside Bible Church to turn the other cheek. Just in case, though, the 54-year-old retired police lieutenant also wears a handgun under his robe.

Adams is one of several Detroit clergymen who have taken to packing heat in the pulpit. They have committed their lives to a man who preached nonviolence and told followers to love their enemies. But they also say it's up to them to protect their parishioners in church.

"As a pastor, I'm referred to as a shepherd," Adams said. "Shepherds have the responsibility of watching over their flock. Do I want to hurt somebody? Absolutely not!"

Responding to a break-in at his church Sunday evening, Adams surprised a burglar carrying out a bag of loot and shot the man in the abdomen after the man swung the bag at him.

The burglar survived - for which Adams is grateful - but the reverend said he could have been hurt or killed if he had not been armed.

Detroit had the nation's highest homicide rate last year among cities of at least 500,000 residents. The city has been losing manufacturing jobs for decades, and these days about one in four working-age residents is without a job.

The northwest Detroit neighborhood surrounding Adams' church isn't one of the city's most dangerous. But there have been many recent reports of crimes in the area, including four burglaries, three auto thefts, one armed robbery and four assaults, including one with intent to murder.

"It's getting worse because of the economy," Adams said. "People are out of work and feel they have to provide for their families."

Prior to 2000, anyone who wanted to carry a concealed weapon in Michigan had to show a need to do so. Now, gun owners simply have to pass a stringent background check and complete eight hours of handgun training.

"I get people from all walks of life, including pastors," said Rick Ector, owner of Rick's Firearm Academy in Detroit. "But it's not anything specific to pastors. Detroit is not a very safe place."

Michigan allows pastors to decide if someone registered to carry a handgun can do so for protection inside churches.

The clergy in Detroit who arm themselves say they do so because of the high overall crime rate. But churchgoers elsewhere have been the target of violent attacks several times in recent years:

- Last year in a New Jersey church, a man fatally shot his estranged wife and a man who intervened in the attack.

- A pastor was found stabbed to death in August in an Oklahoma church.

- A Maryville, Ill., preacher was gunned down during his Sunday sermon in March.

- In December 2007, a gunman killed two people at a Christian youth mission center near Denver and two others at a megachurch in Colorado Springs.

- Near Detroit, a man was shot to death in 2003 while worshipping in a Catholic church. And an attacker fatally shot a woman and wounded a child inside another Detroit church three years ago because of a domestic dispute.

"I don't know what kind of issues people are bringing with them. You could be running from estranged husband, boyfriend," said Bishop Charles Ellis III, pastor of the 6,500-member Greater Grace Temple in Detroit.

Ellis said he sometimes carries a gun, but never in the pulpit. His church has a "ministry of defense" for Sunday services made up of about 18 armed congregants who are off-duty law enforcement officers.

Clergy are adjusting to society, said the Rev. Kenneth J. Flowers, pastor of Greater New Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Detroit.

"In addition to their faith, they are carrying weapons," said Flowers, who does not carry a gun. "There used to be a time when everybody respected a pastor. Even a drunk would straighten up if a preacher came by."

Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of an armed clergy, because Christ preached against violence and taught people they should love their enemies.

"But the scriptures also are clear that civil authority is part of God's plan," said Claude Wiggins, a former pastor and current assistant at the Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.

"In our country, it says in due process that you may bear arms to protect yourself. While we should be committed to trusting God, that doesn't prevent us or command us to be totally passive," Wiggins said.

Al Meredith, pastor of the Wedgwood church in Fort Worth, said some off-duty police officers who are deacons at his church carry guns, but he's uncomfortable with the idea of an armed congregation.

"It discourages the crazies from acts of violence if they see uniforms around, but I don't want everybody bringing guns," Meredith said. "My ultimate conviction is what does the word of God say and what would Jesus do? Can you in your wildest imagination ever see Jesus packing a .38? I can't imagine Peter and Paul carrying .45s."

The Rev. William Revely, who sometimes wears his .357-caliber handgun while preaching at the Holy Hope Heritage Church in Detroit, does not worry whether it might be wrong for a man of God to carry a firearm in church.

"I've always felt that the only way to handle a bear in a bear meeting is to have something you can handle a bear with," said the 68-year-old pastor, who practices at a gun range with another pastor. "We have to be realistic. I know too many people who've been shot, carjacked."

Adams said most - if not all - of Westside's 50 members have supported his actions after encountering the burglar.

"People want to look at Christians and the church as believers in God and ask 'Why doesn't God protect you?" Adams said. "The reality is God has given man free will. We have to use our God-given talents and protect ourselves."

© 2009 The Associated Press