Kirpans Allowed In Alberta Courts, Sikhs Can Wear Religious Knives

We just finished covering Sikhism and talked about how Sikhs would probably have to leave their Kirpans (ceremonial daggers carried by Sikhs) when they went to airports and other government places. Well, Alberta, Canada just announced they will allow Sikhs to wear their kirpans in provincial courthouses. According to this article in the Huffington Post, Alberta is the "provincewide adoption of a uniform policy with respect to the kirpan."

Thinglink: A Great Class Activity

David Korfhage tweeted this link to Thinglink. Thinglink allows you to tag your images with video, audio, social profiles, and web links. It's a really cool site with great possibilities for the classroom.

I created an assignment for my religions class. We're beginning a unit on Judaism and the object is for them to annotate pictures and art that represent the development of early Judaism using Thinglink (such as Abraham's Journey, Abraham Sacrificing Isaac, Moses Breaking the Tablets). Once the kids have annotated the photographs, they will paste them into an assignment folder on Blackboard. Here is an image that I annotated using Thinglink.

My Nephew Self-immolated for Tibet

In this touching and sad story, Tsering Kyi, a Tibetan refugee who escaped the Chinese in 1999 and fled over the Himalayas to India, and then to America, writes about the death of her nephew. He was the first Tibetan to self-immolate in 2013. He died protesting China's occupation of Tibet and demanding the return of the Dali Lama to Tibet. Kyi recounts her nephew's story and tries to come to grips with his death. At one point, she says, "Deep down, I too believe that the flames that rose from my nephew’s body will illuminate our struggle for freedom and bring a ray of hope to my suffering homeland." Read the story here at the Washington Post.

Make Google Chrome More Stable: Turn on Click to Play

Amit Agarwal who writes the blog Digital Inspiration offers a great tip on how to make Google Chrome more stable. Flash Player often crashes and the video you are watching goes blank. Argawal shows you how to make changes in Google Chrome's settings to get Flash Player to play only on demand. That way, Flash Player is not on all the time thus making Chrome more stable. You can follow the steps at his site here.

Poll: Quarter of Americans say God influences sporting events

Ahead of the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that about a quarter of Americans believe that "“God rewards athletes who have faith with good health and success.'” You can read the whole story at the CNN Belief Blog here.

JellyTelly and Exodus

JellyTelly review Genesis and Exodus in an elementary and engaging way.

An RSS Feeder Add-on For Chrome

In his technology blog, Digital Inspiration, Amit Agarwal, describes a great Chrome add-on called "Feeder". It is, as Agarwal explains, " like a mini Google Reader embedded in Chrome – it tracks RSS Feeds and offers instant notifications whenever new content is available."

It's very cool. I installed it this afternoon. Every time you land on a site, Feeder detects the feeds and you can subscribe to them by clicking on the icon in your browser. I like the way Feeder displays your feeds by showing you a list of the most recent entries. And every time Feeder detects a new entry, a little pop up notifies you. You can even add your email to Feeder and it will notify you .  Very cool!

Israel through Google Street View

Google maps with Street View allows you to look at places around the world "through 360-degree street-level imagery."  Google has put together a number of collections that include landmarks and natural wonders.  The one for Israel includes great images like the Western Wall, the Knesset, the Louis Promenade, and the Holy Sepulcher, to name just a few of the images. As we begin a unit on Judaism in my religion class, this collection should be a great addition.

Is Gun Ownership Christian

Here's an interesting editorial by Washington Post writer, Lisa Miller, about reconciling gun ownership and Christianity. She argues that 59% of Christians who identify themselves as evangelical own handguns, and in spite of the recent murders in Connecticut, that 59% continues to oppose tighter regulation. Is that Christian, she asks? She outlines both the least persuasive and the most persuasive arguments in her editorial.

Teaching High School World Religions as an Elective

My school has an electives fair at the end of January. Here's a Google presentation that I created for the fair. I took a lot of material from the blog for the presentation in an attempt to show kids the importance of religion in today's world. Here's what it looks like.

Going Clear: New Book on Scientology

Lawrence Wright investigates the Church of Scientology in his new book, Going Clear. In this CNN report  The Church denies many of the claims in the book.

Harvard to Study Kumbh Mela: World's largest Gathering

As I noted in a couple earlier blogs, Maha Kumbh Mela is a Hindu holy festival that lasts 55 days and is considered to be the largest gathering in history. Harvard University is sending teams of researchers from different faculty departments--the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Design, the Business School, the School of Public Health, the Divinity School, and the School for Global Health-- to study the different aspects of the festival that creates a temporary "pop-up mega-city."

Here's what they want to study, according to the article,  "Creating this huge encampment entails multiple aspects of contemporary urbanism, including city planning and management, engineering and spatial zoning, an electricity grid, water lines and sanitation systems, food and water distribution plans, hospitals and vaccination centres, police and fire stations, public gathering spaces, and stages for entertainments and plays, the university said."

Sikhism: Washington Post Pictorial Overview

After the shooting of Sikhs in their temple in Wisconsin this summer, the Washington Post ran this pictorial overview of Sikhism that I find interesting and useful in my religion class. In the picture above, a young Sikh attends a ceremony called Dastar Bandi. That ceremony celebrates the occasion when a young Sikh first begins to wear a turban.

Obama Uses MLK Bible and Lincoln Bible at Inauguration

The two Bibles that Obama uses at his inauguration are steeped in history as the two short clips below demonstrate. The first discusses the Martin Luther King Bible and the second discusses the history of Lincoln's Bible.

Reaction to the Giglio Affair

Evangelical, Louie Giglio, was Obama's first choice to give the invocation at his inauguration, but it soon surfaced that that he once said something inappropriate about gays, so he was forced to withdraw. Christian ethicist and author David Gushee and Sarah Posner, a senior editor at Religion Dispatches, discuss the reaction to Giglio's withdrawal. "Will the Giglio Affair Ruin the Democrats’ Outreach to Evangelicals?" You can read more about the affair here at the Religion News Service.

Scientology Called Madness by Paul Haggis

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NBC News show, Rock Center, delves into Scientology as it interviews Paul Haggis, an Oscar winning director, who recently defected from the church. The show also interviews the writer, Lawrence Wright, whose new book, Going Clear, is about Scientology. Wright also wrote an excellent book about the 9/11 tragedy called The Looming.

Sikhs in America

Teaching Sikhism? This video, put together by the editors of the Huffington Post after the tragedy in Wisconsin this past summer, does a good job describing the faith and what its like for Sikhs living in America.

Flash Mob Brings Some Sunshine Into Spanish Unemployment Office

A bad winter and high unemployment bring a flash mob to a Madrid unemployment office singing "Here Comes the Sun." Both NPR and On Being picked it up.

More Young People Moving Away from Religion

NPR interviews six young people (under 30)about their struggle with religion and faith. The big story this year, of course, is that almost 1/5 of Americans say that they are unaffiliated with a religion. Many of those so-called "nones" are under 30.

Illuminating Jewish Life in a Muslim Empire

Documents found in a cave in Afghanistan provide details about the economic, cultural, and religious life of a small group of Jews in the Persian Empire of the 11th century. The New York times reports.  According to the the National Library of Israel, where the documents were unveiled, “This is the first time that we have actual physical evidence of the Jewish life and culture within the Iranian culture of the 11th century." My thanks to Frances Coffey for sending along the link.

More on Great Kumbh Mela Hindu festival

This 55 day festival in Allahabad is expected, according to BBC News  "to be the biggest religious gathering of humanity on Earth, with up to 100 million pilgrims bathing in the holy waters in January and February." That's quite a festival and as you can see, if you read the BBC News article, requires great collaboration with sanitation, police, food, medical care and hospitals, and even firewood for warmth at night. It will require about 80 million liters of drinking water,  25,800 tons  of wheat and  rice, and 35,000 toilets.  And I thought planning for the Olympics was tough!

Evangelical Christians: Grassroots Push on Immigration

CNN Belief Blog reports that evangelical Christians are betting on 2013 as the year immigration reform will finally happen. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and other evangelical leaders plan to make a concerted push for meaningful reform. They have formed a coalition called the Evangelical Immigration Round Table.

Hindu Kumbh Mela Festival: largest in world

The most sacred of all Hindu pilgrimages is taking place later this month. It's called Kumbh Mela, takes place in Allahabad and Haridwar and is probably the largest gathering of people in the world (over 10 million are expected this month). It takes place every 12 years and during the 55 day festival over 100 million people are expected to visit the cities.

Here's a video clip from Aljazeera and here is a story from the BBC.  Mark Tully, who wrote the BBC story remarks:" I have seen vast crowds assemble but none as big as the millions who flocked to the north Indian city of Allahabad to bathe at the confluence where the cloudy waters of the river Ganges meet the blue waters of the river Yamuna on the most auspicious day of those Melas."

Massive Snow Buddha Along Silk Road Route

This massive snow Buddha was made in Xinjiang earlier this winter.  Xinjiang is a city along the old Silk Road, in the northwest part of China. You can see more images of the Silk Road here.

A Dream in Doubt

Here is a story about hate in America after 9/11 in Phoenix Arizona where an Indian immigrant was gunned down, presumably because he wore a turban and beard, essential components of the Sikh faith. It chronicles the life of Rana Soda as he tries to makes sense of his brother's murder and reconcile that crime with the American values of freedom. The video was produced for PBS and first aired on PBS in 2002.

Sikh Immigration to the US: Berkeley Library

Studying Sikhism?  The University of California Library at Berkeley has an excellent online exhibit about the history of immigration from South Asia to California.

That immigration begins, according to the exhibit, in 1899 when four Sikhs arrive in San Francisco.

The exhibit covers immigration to 1965 when Congress signed the Immigration and Nationality Act. That act, also known as Hart-Celler Act, lifted the "national origins" quota beginning a period of greater immigration. The exhibit is divided into chapters and chronicles the lives of immigrant Sikhs in the U.S.

The material is fascinating and might make for an interesting Web quest when you cover Sikhism. Chapter 7 of the exhibit, for example, covers Sikh students at the University of Washington on the Pacific Coast. Prejudice, stereotyping and hazing were all part of the experience.  In Chapter 8, Sikh students become active in nationalist causes and form the Gadar Party.  They even worked to raise money for arms to send to India in their cause against the British.

The Color of Christ: Author Interview

Maureen Fiedler, host of Interfaith Radio, interviews the co-author of the book, the Color of Christ in this 28 minute broadcast. Edward Blum and his co-author, Paul Harvey, explain how the color of Christ became entangled with American race relations. Here is a link to Paul Harvey's interesting web-page (thanks to my colleague, Jeff Feinstein for sending me the link). NPR also interviewed Edward Blum and you can listen to the interview here and read the story here. It's much shorter than the Interfaith interview.

The Pale Blue Dot- Carl Sagan

Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birthday

Tomorrow, Saturday, is Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birthday. So what? If you meditate or practice yoga, you might want to thank Swami Vivekananda who introduced Hinduism to the western world at the Parliament of Religions in 1893. He was born on Jan. 12, 1863 in India. Here's a NY Times story from 2010 about Vivekananda called "How Yoga Won the West. And here is a link to his speech at the Chicago Parliament in 1893.

Shinto Mythology

If you are teaching Shinto and want to explore Japanese mythology and folklore, you should explore the Mukashiabanashi Library. It includes some of the important early Japanese myths. The sampling includes Izanagi and Izanami , and The Journey to Yomi among others. I might print out some of the myths and have the kids compare them and explain how they reflect Shinto beliefs.

Update: The link to the Mukashiabanashi Library no longer seems to work. Fortunately, I copied some of the myths when I fist found the link. I just copied them into Google Docs and you can find them here. The myths include: Nihon shinwagaku, the Mythology of Japan; Izanagi and Izanami; The Journey to Yomi; Amaterasu and Susano-o; Yōkai and Bakemono: Monsters and Apparitions in Nippon; and Susano-o and the Orochi;

“I’M SORRY, I’M A BUDDHIST, I DON’T DO POLITICS”

In his blog, Dharma Dialog, Akasa Skye, notes that American Buddhists, unlike their counterparts in mainline religions like Christianity or Islam, rarely get involved in political issues like same-sex marriage or abortion. He argues in this rather long, but interesting post, that American Buddhists tend "to maintain a largely individualistic, self-help appearance in the U.S."  Skye quotes Harvey Cox, the Harvard Divinity School professor, to explain: :

 "The problem is…that in a culture like ours, already steeped in the philosophy of ‘You do your own thing and I’ll do mine’, the lofty Buddhist idea of nonattachment can hardly escape distortion. Westerners will not be able to practice the oriental posture of nonattachment until they move not just beyond attachments but also beyond an ‘I’ which does ‘my thing’. Real nonattachment will become possible only when self slips away, too. But this is something most Westerners either cannot or will not concede."

Psychological Common Ground for believer and non-believers

Medical News Today (MNT) reports that thoughts of mortality provide a common goal for both believers and non-believers.

Both groups seek a coherent world view to manage the fear of death and link themselves to a greater and immortal entity, such as a supreme being, scientific progress or a nation. If people were more aware of this psychological similarity, perhaps there might be more understanding and less conflict among groups with different beliefs.

However, this common view does not mean that thoughts of death increases an atheists belief in god or an ultimate deity.

Thanks to Frances Coffey for sending the link.

Medgar Evers Widow to deliver Invocation at Inauguration

The widow of Medgar Evers and Atlanta pastor,Rev. Louie Giglio , will deliver the invocation and benediction at Obama's inauguration on January 21th. You can read more at CNN here.

Egypt: Women Cut Hair to Protest Constitution

In his blog, Informed Comment, Professor Juan Cole, reviews a recent protest in Egypt over the passage of the constitution. Just as the daughter of Pharaoh Akhnaton cut her hair to protest the persecution of her father, Egyptian women in late December cut their hair to protest a constitution they believed denied them liberty. They do not consider the constitution developed by the Muslim Brotherhood as legitimate.

What if money was no object?

This is Alan Watts, the great English professor and writer who did much to popularize Zen in America with some really good advice for all of us. There is also a cartoon of this video here. Watts, who died in 1973, came of age during the Beat Generation. He wrote many books about Zen Buddhism and lectured all over the U.S. You can find lots of his stuff on You Tube.

Same Sex Marriage: Crime against Humanity in Camaeroon

As you can see in the post below, the French president and his education minister are in trouble over their support for same sex marriage. But in Cameroon, officials can put you in prison for simply texting love messages to someone of the same sex. Same sex marriage is a crime against humanity, says Roman Catholic Archbishop of Yaounde. At least 12 people have already been convicted.

Catholic Education, in Need of Salvation

My colleague, Jeff Feinstein sent me the link to this This New York Times story, which reports that Catholic parochial education is in trouble. The church has closed many schools in the northeast and mid-west and suggests that their long term future is in doubt unless they make some significant changes.

Church of England ends ban on gay bishops, says they must pledge celibacy

The church says gay clergy with partners can be appointed to the episcopate if they agree to remain celibate.

French Government in trouble over gay marraige

France's president, Francois Hollande , and his education minister, Vincent Peillon, are in trouble with voters and the Catholic Church because of their apparent support for same-sex marriage. In an article in Reuter's Faith World, all France's main religions--Catholic, Muslim, Protestant, Jewish and Orthodox Christian-- are opposed to the idea

Sean Corn on Healing Power of Yoga

Indonesia Envisions More Religion in Schools

Concerned that their children lack character and need more tolerance and empathy for others, the Indonesian government has proposed to increase the amount of religious education their children get. In this New York Time article that my colleague, Jeff Feinstein, sent me, the government wants to merge the science and social studies classes in order to make room for religion.

Muslim parents sue primary school over ban on hijab

In a posting below, the Canadian Supreme Court dealt with niqabs worn in court trials. Now, according to an article in The Telegraph, a  London primary school is trying to ban the hijab head covering for a child in a London primary school. The child's parents are fighting back and suing the school arguing that it is sinful for females to be in the presence of a male with her head uncovered.

Five Must reads on the Nones

Writing for Religious Dispatches, Elizabeth Dresscher reviews what she calls "5 must reads" on the so-called "nones," or the religiously "unaffiliated. She argues that existing books like Dianna Butler Bass' "Christianity after Relgion" and David Kinnaman's "You Lost Me" don't distinguish "the finer distinctions" between the nones. You can check out the five books she reviews here. The picture above is the cover image from Leigh Eric Schmidt's "Restless Souls."

College students raise funds to fight slavery

CNN Belief Blog reports here that  Christian college students in Atlanta are attempting to make a dent in modern day slavery which involves over 27 million people.  Over 60,000 of them gathered to "shine a light on modern day slavery" on Friday, 1/4/13.

Religion and Current Events

If you are teaching a high school world religions course like me, you might find some of these sites useful for tying current events to the different religions. Two newspapers have great religion blogs,

• CNN Belief Blog
• Washington Posts, On Faith. 

 There are several excellent radio shows that discuss religion.

• Krista Tippett's, On Being is the best in my opinion. 
• On Being also has an interesting blog. 
•  Another good site is NPR's Interfaith Voices.
• The BBC's Heart and Soul
• PBS, Religion and Ethics, a weekly 30 minute television review
• From Canada's CBC, Tapestry, hosted by Mary Hynes

Non-believers on rise in Congress

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports that the number of members of Congress who don't belong to any faith is on the rise. According to Politico, ten members fall into that category, which is ten times more than before.

Sikhs Celebrate the Birthday of their 10th Guru

Today is the birthday of the tenth and last Sikh guru, Gobind Singh. He made a number of contributions to the religion in the areas of ethics, hair, and headress. You can read more about Sikhism at the On Being blog here.

South Korea's Aging Population & Confucianism

My colleague  Frances Coffey, sent me the link to this interesting NPR story. Unlike the elderly in the United States, very few elderly South Koreans live in nursing homes. That's because of the Confucian virtue of filial piety, or respect for the older generation. That virtue is still important to South Koreans and means that many generations live in the same house so older Koreans do not need to go into nursing homes. Read the full NPR story here.  You can also listen to the story below.

Blood on Chinese hands in Tibetan self-immolations

Stephen Prothero, the writer and Boston University religion professor, discusses the Tibetan self-immolations in this interesting CNN Belief blog. He criticized the Dali Llama last summer for not speaking out against the suicides. Last week, a Chinese newspaper quoted him to justify the atrocities. Prothero reminds his readers that while it's "disconcerting to see one’s words used by Chinese officials to justify the atrocities it has been visiting on Tibet for generations," he stands by his criticism of the Dali Lama and other leaders who have not spoken out against the atrocities. He notes that the Chinese paper failed to mention that " The biggest moral outrage in Tibet today is the behavior of the Chinese government." 

The Rise of the Tao

This New York Times Magazine story discusses the religious revival in China after years of Communist suppression. Taoism, in particular is rebounding in the small villages and the country side and the author outlines Taoism's history and appeal today. This might be a nice reading assignment for a religions class, or even a world history class.

'Color Of Christ': A Story Of Race And Religion In America

"What was the color of Christ?" asks the author of this new book. You can listen to the NPR review here and you can read the review at the NPR site here.  The author shows how the color of Christ changes depending on who claims him.

The Global Religious Landscape

The big story in American religion is the growing number of those who are unaffiliated. The departing editor of CNN Belief blog believes that it will be one of the biggest stories of the century. Here is the Pew Forum's report on the size and distribution of the world's religions.

Confucian Comeback: China Remains Divided Over Reviving its Ancient Sage

As this story suggests, China still has not committed to reviving Confucianism, despite efforts.

China's Latest Efforts to Stop Self-Immolation Protesters

Listen to this story about China's effort to stop Tibetan monks from self-immolating.

The Rise of a New Religious America

America is becoming more pluralistic. Tulsi Gabbard, from Hawaii, is the first Hindu to be elected to Congress. She just took her oath of office in the new House of Representatives and took her oath on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu sacred text. Here is the Washington Post story.

Canada’s Supreme Court rejects blanket rule on wearing niqabs in court

Lots of countries are questioning when Muslim women can wear full-face veils called niqabs. In Canada, according to this story from Reuter's Faith World, the question was whether women should have to remove their niqabs while testifying in court. The Supreme Court would not issue a blanket rule saying that it would depend on each case. For example, a lower court might consider "the harm that could come if Muslim women who wear the niqab feel discouraged from reporting offenses."

Five things I learned editing the Belief Blog

Dan Gilgoff, the religion editor of the CNN Belief Blog, is leaving to work for National Geographic. Here he lists the five things he learned since he began editing the Belief blog. One thing he thinks will be  very big this century is the explosion of people with no religion.

The Islam women were promised

This is a must read by the Islamic cleric, Sheikh Musa Furber, about the status of women in the context of the events in India. He argues that there is nothing in Sharia law that condones rape or even the marriage of a girl to her rapist. He writes near end of his post in the Washington Post, "there is something deeply wrong when a Muslim society views the shame of a single rape to outweigh facilitating the spread of corruption and the wrongful taking of life."