Asking the Clergy: What is your favorite religious rite?

From Newsday-

Spiritual leaders are called upon to officiate at a variety of celebrations — baptisms, bat and bar mitzvahs, weddings — and, of course, services marking the upcoming religious holidays. This week’s clergy discuss the joy and satisfaction that come from leading especially meaningful rituals.

The Rev. Winfred B. Vergara

Priest in charge, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Hicksville

Of all the sacramental rites I perform as priest of the Episcopal Church, my favorite is baptism. Baptism is a sacrament because it has an outward symbol and an inward grace. The symbol is water and the grace is new life in Christ.

After pouring water on her forehead in the baptismal formula, I would often raise a child (a la “The Lion King”) to signify that she is born again. In adult baptism, I would sometimes do immersion in the river, sea or swimming pool. The symbolism is that the person dies from sin (is drowned) and rises again to a new life in the spirit.

More here-

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/religion/asking-the-clergy-what-is-your-favorite-religious-rite-1.35660012

America’s New Religions

From New York Magazine- (Andrew Sullivan)

Everyone has a religion. It is, in fact, impossible not to have a religion if you are a human being. It’s in our genes and has expressed itself in every culture, in every age, including our own secularized husk of a society.

By religion, I mean something quite specific: a practice not a theory; a way of life that gives meaning, a meaning that cannot really be defended without recourse to some transcendent value, undying “Truth” or God (or gods).

Which is to say, even today’s atheists are expressing an attenuated form of religion. Their denial of any God is as absolute as others’ faith in God, and entails just as much a set of values to live by — including, for some, daily rituals like meditation, a form of prayer. (There’s a reason, I suspect, that many brilliant atheists, like my friends Bob Wright and Sam Harris are so influenced by Buddhism and practice Vipassana meditation and mindfulness. Buddhism’s genius is that it is a religion without God.)

More here-

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/andrew-sullivan-americas-new-religions.html?fbclid=IwAR0SKI8La-5JO5DMPzKzKjTiVZTUROGNs5Pu3A7tO2uyjWGR7MSjnJKjOr0

Religiosity linked to lower teen suicide rates

From The Washington Times-

Scientists and researchers often point to the positive aspects of religion in creating a sense of community and providing a purpose for life. But research shows it can have a protective effect on children against suicide, even if they are not religious.

Researchers from Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute found that children whose parents believe in religion are less likely to have suicidal thoughts and fewer of them commit suicide.

Their study, one of the first to look at how religious beliefs influence offspring, was published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry.

“Previous research has examined a number of risk factors of child and adolescent suicide, but one that has received little attention is religious/spiritual belief,” the authors said in the introduction of their report. “This is surprising given that religious beliefs and practices have been associated with lower rates of suicide.”

More here-

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/aug/8/parents-belief-religion-influences-happiness-child/

Mainstream Christianity in America has failed. It looks nothing like Jesus.

From Sojourners-

For the last few years Christians have been singing worship songs that include lyrics like “ keep my eyes above the waves, when oceans rise …” and yet have rejected refugees who’ve seen loved ones die beneath waves, who themselves have literally struggled to keep from drowning in oceans. Those American Christians — particularly white evangelicals — continue to sing the words: “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders …” but fail to realize the shameful irony that they’re largely responsible for refusing shelter and opportunity to some of the world’s most helpless and oppressed people.

This represents a predominant theme of Westernized Christendom: proclaiming Christian rhetoric while actively — or passively — practicing the opposite in reality.

Because while the gospels instruct followers of Christ to help the poor, oppressed, maligned, mistreated, sick, and those most in need of help, Christians in America have largely supported measures that have rejected refugees, refused aid to immigrants, cut social services to the poor, diminished help for the sick, fueled xenophobia, reinforced misogyny, ignored racism, stoked hatred, reinforced corruption, and largely increased inequality, prejudice, and fear.

More here-

https://sojo.net/articles/american-christianity-has-failed

WHAT IS RELIGION’S PLACE IN SCIENCE FICTION?

From World Religion News-

Millions of Americans will be braving long lines to see the new Star Wars movie Solo. Millions more will stay home to play Detroit: Beyond Human playing as androids seeking freedom from their human oppressors. Others might choose to watch Westworld to see the violent retribution of androids after years of mistreatment. Science fiction has recently gained new popularity in mainstream culture. 
Science fiction has recently gained new popularity in mainstream culture. 

But does religion have a place in science fiction? And is the representation favorable? Usually not. Science fiction is a genre often asking philosophical questions, as what technology will exist in the future. It uses exaggeration to make issues of consciousness, morality, and the ties that bind society. One of the fundamental questions is the role of religion in society.

More here-

https://www.worldreligionnews.com/entertainment/religions-place-science-fiction

 

Protestants decline, more have no religion in a sharply shifting religious landscape

From ABC-

The nation’s religious makeup has shifted dramatically in the past 15 years, with a sharp drop in the number of Americans who say they’re members of a Protestant denomination – still the nation’s most prevalent religious group – and a rise in the number who profess no religion. 

On average last year, 36 percent of Americans in ABC News/Washington Post polls identified themselves as members of a Protestant faith, extending a gradual trend down from 50 percent in 2003. That includes an 8-point drop in the number of evangelical white Protestants, an important political group. 

Reflecting the change among Protestants, the share of Christians overall has declined from 83 percent of the adult population in 2003 to 72 percent on average last year. In the same time, the number of Americans who say they have no religion has nearly doubled, to 21 percent. 

Catholic self-identification (22 percent) has held steady during this time. The share of adults who identify with another form of Christianity – including Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Greek or Russian Orthodox, for example – has risen modestly, from 11 to 14 percent. 

More here-

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/protestants-decline-religion-sharply-shifting-religious-landscape-poll/story?id=54995663

Where do atheists get their values?

From The Irish Times-

John Gray is a self-described atheist who thinks that prominent advocates of atheism have made non-belief seem intolerant, uninspiring and dull. At the end of the first chapter of his new book, Seven Types of Atheism, he concludes that “the organised atheism of the present century is mostly a media phenomenon and best appreciated as a type of entertainment”.

He laughs when I remind him of this sick burn. “I wrote the book partly as a riposte to that kind of atheism,” he says. “There’s not much new in [new atheism] and what is in it is a tired recycled version of forms of atheism that were presented more interestingly in the 19th century. In the so-called new atheism people are [presented with] a binary option between atheism, as if there was only one kind, and religion, as if there was only one kind of religion. [It’s] historically illiterate.

More here-

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/where-do-atheists-get-their-values-1.3467299?__vfz=c_pages%3D11000002670848

Why Priests, Rabbis, Nuns, and Reverends Solve So Many Crimes

From Crime Reads-


From the bespectacled Father Brown, blundering along with pipe and umbrella, to Clare Fergusson, the tenacious, Air-Force-pilot-turned-Episcopal-priest, the clerical detective delights mystery fans with the twining of murder and mysticism, death and divinity. Why does the priest, minister, rabbi or nun make such a compelling and fascinating detective? Because religious types are natural sleuths in their own right as they sort out the most troublesome realities of society: order and chaos, good and evil, right and wrong. Not unlike the police detective or the gumshoe private eye, the members of the clergy are often faced with the dark side of humanity. But unlike their more mainstream contemporaries, they temper it with an enduring faith in goodness.  Throw in the melodrama of a church jumble sale, the social entanglements of a lady’s luncheon, or the tension of parish council meeting, and you have the perfect setting for murder.

This list focuses on the top ten clerical mysteries found in a series, chosen for their intriguing detectives and page-turning plots as well as an acquaintance with all things ecclesial. An ecclesial mystery must, above all, represent the faith community with authenticity: the good, the bad and the ugly, from last rites to first communion.

More here-

http://crimereads.com/divine-mystery-10-great-clerical-sleuths/

Trump + Gillibrand + faith: 'Why is religion only talked about when reporters profile Republicans?'

From Get Religion-

Did you happen to hear where Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was last week when President Trump posted a tweet about her that the president's critics labeled "sexually suggestive and demeaning?"

Yep, that's right: The New York Democrat was at a bipartisan Bible study.

So what are the odds that the New York Times political writers who profiled Gillibrand in Sunday's newspaper — in a lengthy A-section piece tied to the president's kerfuffle with the senator — delved into her faith?

Hint: The Times makes passing reference to the aforementioned Bible study.

But any actual consideration of Gillibrand's faith? Not so much. (Interestingly enough, the profile does point to the senator's propensity to curse "freely in public venues.")
More here-

https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2017/12/18/about-kirsten-gillibrand-donald-trump-and-faith-why-is-religion-only-talked-about-when-reporters-profile-republicans

Is Ideology Becoming America's Official Religion?

From Forbes-

More than a year after Donald Trump’s stunning victory liberals and conservatives are still struggling to make sense of what feels like a very abnormal “new normal.”

Liberals tend to argue that Trump is merely the manifestation of an innately unkind, racist and misogynist GOP. Conservatives, on the hand, blame Hillary Clinton’s miserable campaign, failed progressive policies and the Left’s sanctimonious and divisive identity politics. If Trump voters are racist, conservatives ask, why did one-third of American counties that voted twice for Barack Obama twice vote for Trump?

Both sides are eager to be the conscience of conservatism. The Left, however, does not seem to share the Right’s capacity for self-reflection and correction. Liberal voices of self-reflection are hard to find but conservatives have an ample supply. Prominent voices on the Right who argue something has gone horribly awry include U.S. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Peter Wehner, Bill Kristol, Charlie Sykes and more.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhart/2017/11/30/is-ideology-becoming-americas-official-religion/#2bb54f7b164b

Does Religion Make People Moral?

From The New York Times-

Over the past 15 years, my country, Turkey, has gone through a colossal political revolution. The traditional secular elite that identifies with the nation’s modernist founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, has been replaced by religious conservatives who, until recently, were largely powerless and marginalized. The religious conservatives have by now come to dominate virtually all institutions of the state, as well as the media and even much of the business sector. In short, they have become the new ruling elite.

This political revolution has had an inadvertent outcome. It has tested the ostensible virtues of these religious conservatives — and they have failed. They have failed this test so terribly that it raises the question of whether religiosity and morality really go hand in hand, as so many religious people like to claim.

More here-

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/opinion/does-religion-make-people-moral.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20171128&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=6&nlid=72655576&ref=headline&te=1

Inside America’s Largest Religious Revival You Know Nothing About

From The Federalist-

For decades, demographic studies have indicated the steady decline of religion in America, but new measures suggest that, on the contrary, at least one religion in America is alive and well, thriving in every community, and claiming devoted adherents in nearly every household.

This new religious revival has remained under the radar in large part because its adherents do not claim any religious attachment to this social institution, but by every measure of behaviors typically associated with religion, it is deceitful to label it as anything less. Although it shies away from adopting an overarching organization or name for itself, for the purposes of this study, it will be considered under the name Athletica.

More here-

http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/10/inside-americas-largest-religious-revival-know-nothing/

Searching for Spirituality in the U.S.: A New Look at the Spiritual but Not Religious

From PRRI-

The American religious landscape is undergoing unprecedented tectonic shifts in identity and practice. Americans who do not identify with any religious group—the religiously unaffiliated—now account for nearly one-quarter (24%) of the adult public, tripling in size over the last 25 years.1 At the same time, trust in religious institutions has fallen to historic lows. According to Gallup, only 42% of the public report having a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in organized religion. This is the lowest mark in the more than 40 years Gallup has canvassed American opinion on this topic. At its peak in 1975, more than two-thirds (68%) expressed confidence in organized religion.2

The decline of formal religious affiliation and the rising distrust of institutional religion have led some scholars to question whether the fundamental nature of religious practice and belief is changing. Rising rates of disaffiliation may not necessarily indicate an increasingly secular orientation but rather an abandonment of traditional religious practices in favor of a more personalized and customizable spirituality. This argument—that in leaving formal religion, many people who disaffiliate are not becoming secular, but instead are identifying as “spiritual but not religious”—is supported by research that shows growing interest in spirituality.3

More here-

https://www.prri.org/research/religiosity-and-spirituality-in-america/

Is the Solar Eclipse a Message From God?

From Atlantic-

In Silverton, Oregon, Sonrise Ranch is hosting a sold-out, family-friendly festival on its grounds called “Eclipsed With God’s Love,” which will include outdoor church services and Christian film screenings. In Casper, Wyoming, which is expecting thousands of visitors, a pair of Baptist churches and a local chapter of a Christian nonprofit will hand out hundreds of copies of God of Wonders, a movie, styled like a nature documentary, that features creationist explanations for everything from weather systems to DNA. “Additionally, if our parking lot is utilized for eclipse watchers, we will take that opportunity to try and share the Gospel,” a pastor explained, according to the Baptist Press. In Chillicothe, Missouri, a Baptist-run campground will host a “Wonders of Creation Solar Eclipse Family Retreat” of hiking, swimming, and other activities, interspersed with time for worship and teachings. “Since we’re in the range of the eclipse, we thought we were in a position to do teaching and ministry for families,” an organizer told The Pathway, a Baptist publication in Missouri.

More here-

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/solar-eclipse-as-religious-experience/536823/

THE DEMOCRATS’ REAL RELIGION PROBLEM, AND ALL OF OURS

From Religion Dispatches-

Hand to God, every mainstream commentator on religion and politics has a liturgy—a catechism—they must learn before they are allowed to publish in a big-ticket outlet. It goes like this:

Q: Who promulgated Rerum Novarum?
A: Pope Leo XIII promulgated Rerum Novarum, placing the Catholic church on the side of labor.

Q: Who wrote The Social Gospel?
A: Walter Rauschenbusch wrote the Social Gospel, paving the way for Christian involvement in liberal social reform?

Q: Who twice appeared on the cover of Time magazine?
A: Reinhold Niebuhr twice appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Why doesn’t anyone talk about Reinhold Niebuhr anymore?

Q: Who is the great and only prophet of black liberation in America?
A: Martin Luther King is the great and only prophet.

Q: Who marched with King?
A: Abraham Heschel marched with King.

More here-

http://religiondispatches.org/the-democrats-real-religion-problem-and-all-of-ours/

Study finds the nonreligious can be more close-minded than the religious

From Psypost-

New research indicates that religious believers can be better at perceiving and integrating different perspectives than atheists in Western Europe.

“The main message of the study is that closed-mindedness is not necessarily found only among the religious,” the study’s corresponding author, Filip Uzarevic of the Catholic University of Louvain, told PsyPost.

The research was published April 27, 2017, in the peer-reviewed journal Personality and Individual Differences.

“The idea started through noticing that, in public discourse, despite both the conservative/religious groups and liberal/secular groups showing strong animosity towards the opposite ideological side, somehow it was mostly the former who were often labeled as ‘closed-minded’,” Uzarevic explained. “Moreover, such view of the secular being more tolerant and open seemed to be dominant in the psychological literature. Being interested in this topic, we started to discuss whether this is necessarily and always the case: Are the religious indeed generally more closed-minded, or would it perhaps be worthy of investigating the different aspects of closed-mindedness and their relationship with (non)religion. ”

More here-

http://www.psypost.org/2017/06/study-finds-nonreligious-can-close-minded-religious-49182

Is Your God Dead?

From The New York Times-

Is your God dead?

I don’t mean the God of the philosophers or the scholars, but, as Blaise Pascal said, the “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob.” With no disrespect, I hope the question comes as a jolt. And without being outraged or quick to accuse me of “blasphemy,” know, too, that I am a hopeful monotheist. I might even be called a Christian, only I continue, every day of my life, to fail. Friedrich Nietzsche’s observation weighs heavily on me: “There was only one Christian and he died on the cross.” Call me a failed and broken Christian, but a Christian nevertheless.

So, is your God dead? Have you buried God in the majestic, ornamental tombs of your churches, synagogues and mosques? Perhaps prosperity theology, boisterous, formalistic and mechanical prayer rituals, and skillful oratory have hastened the need for a eulogy.

More here-

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/opinion/is-your-god-dead.html

Money, democracy and religion: Why some countries disapprove of homosexuality

From Salon-

With Trump’s removal of federal protections for transgender students, debate over LGBTQ rights rage again across the U.S. The Conversation

Despite these disagreements, Americans are relatively liberal compared to countries across the world, where the consequences for gay or transgender citizens are far more dire.

In Europe and here in the Americas, only a minority of people believe that homosexuality is never justified. The percentage increases in places like Russia, India and China. In Africa, the Middle East and parts of Southeast Asia, attitudes become even more conservative.

More here-

http://www.salon.com/2017/03/05/why-do-some-countries-disapprove-of-homosexuality-money-democracy-and-religion_partner/

Scientist Robin Dunbar to test new theory that religion is key to humans' social evolution

From The Washington Post (via Houston)-

In humans' mysterious journey to become intelligent, socializing creatures like no other in the animal world, one innovation played an essential role: religion.

That's the theory that a preeminent evolutionary scientist is setting out to prove.

"You need something quite literally to stop everybody from killing everybody else out of just crossness," Robin Dunbar said. "Somehow it's clear that religions, all these doctrinal religions, create the sense that we're all one family."

Dunbar, an evolutionary psychology professor at Oxford University, gained some measure of fame more than 20 years ago for his research on the size of animals' social networks. Each species of primate, he found, can manage to keep up a social bond with a certain number of other members of its own species. That number goes up as primates' brain size increases, from monkeys to apes.

Humans, Dunbar found, are capable of maintaining significantly more social ties than the size of our brains alone could explain. He proved that each human is surprisingly consistent in the number of social ties we can maintain: About five with intimate friends, 50 with good friends, 150 with friends and 1,500 with people we could recognize by name. That discovery came to be known as "Dunbar's
number."

More here-

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/houston-belief/article/Scientist-Robin-Dunbar-to-test-new-theory-that-10977335.php

Analysis: Will Faith Decide the 2016 Election?

From NBC-

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will square off at Washington University in St. Louis for their second presidential debate and while the topic of faith and religion was neglected during the pair's first encounter, it is possible that the conversation may go beyond generic statements about the significance of the Black church, and engage the issues of faith and belief.

Many pundits, writers and political strategists are convinced the African American community will determine the next President of the United States and that faith will play an important role in their decision-making.

Faith has been at the core of survival for the black community and for Robert M. Franklin, professor in Moral Leadership at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, GA, faith should continue to be such a driving force.
More here-

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/analysis-will-faith-decide-2016-election-n654511