Can't Even Pay Attention to the Dali Lama

Even when the Dali Llama is speaking, it's tough to pay attention sometimes. Saw this AP photo on the Huffinngton Post.

Civilization or Religion: Which Came First?

Did civilization arise before religion or did religion arise before civilization?

History books teach us that civilization arose with the Neolithic Revolution when hunter gatherers first settled down because of the discovery of agriculture.  Settled life then led to cities, writing, and religion.

The discovery of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey several years ago may change that story. Göbekli Tepe contains a series of circles with limestone pillars carved with bas-reliefs of animals like gazelles, foxes and wild boar. The tallest pillars are 18 feet high and weigh 16 tons.  It looks like a temple "reminiscent of Stonehenge," according to the National Geographic.

But Göbekli Tepe is much older than Stonehenge and over seven thousand years older than the Pyramid at Giza. It was built before the Neolithic Revolution, 11,600 years ago. As the New Yorker Magazine noted, most historians believe that hunter gatherers did not have the "complex symbolic systems, social hierarchies, and the division of labor, three things you probably need before you can build a twenty-two-acre megalithic temple."

According to the online magazine, Archaeology, Klaus Schmidt, of the German Archaeological Institute and the chief archaeologist at Göbekli Tepe, believes that the animals on the pillars "probably illustrate stories of hunter-gatherer religion and beliefs, though we don't know at the moment.  The sculptors of Göbekli Tepe may have simply wanted to depict the animals they saw, or perhaps create symbolic representations of the animals to use in rituals to ensure hunting success."

Does Göbekli Tepe mean that the need for religion or for a scared site led hunter gatherers to organize themselves into a workforce, settle down for a long period of time, and eventually discover agriculture?

Here's a clip from National Geographic about building Göbekli Tepe  and below that a longer documentary from National Geographic about the discovery.

Muslim Hipsters Spark Controversy

Does the video "objectify the Muslim female form" or does it simply show Muslim women as cool and fun?  Not everyone agrees. 

Both NPR and the Huffington Post put up this video of young Muslim women wearing hijabs, skateboarding, walking around around and doing other random things to the music of the Jay-Z song "Somewhere in America."

It's been both lauded and condemned. Some applaud it because of its "aesthetic beauty and depiction of Muslim women as modest, cool, and fun. It paints a picture of American Islam which isn't often seen, despite its reality."

The criticism, says NPR, falls into three categories.

"First, there were those who felt the video inaccurately and wrongly portrayed "a fluffed up version of hijab." Second, critics broadly claimed the video "objectif[ied] the Muslim female form." Third were those who said they couldn't and didn't identify with the Muslim women in the video."

US Ranks Near Bottom of Income Inequality

Pope Francis recently spoke about growing inequality in the world. "Just as the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say "thou shalt not" to an economy of exclusions and inequality." 

Some criticized the Pope as being a Marxist. But the question remains, how unequal are we? 

Max Fisher put together the maps above for Atlantic Magazine. They show America near the bottom. The first map shows the most unequal countries in red and the most equal in green. We're near the extreme end of the inequality scale, with Cameroon, Madagascar, Rwanda, and others. The second map compares other countries to the US. Note that West Africa has more equality than the US. 

And here are 12 facts about America's struggling  lower middle class. Did you know, for example, that half of American families earn less than $60,000 each year?   Or that "a low-income, single parent can face a marginal tax rate as high as 95 percent." 

You can read more about inequality at Bill Moyers and Company here. They put together an essential reader on inequality with many more links.

Reza Aslan Discusses Jesus with Evan Smith

Reza Aslan, author of  "Zealot, The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth," outlines the argument of his book: that we can separate Jesus "the man" from Jesus "the Christ"  and place Jesus "the man" as a product of the time and place in which he lived.

In this interview with Evan Smith, he says that Jesus was an" illiterate, poor and pious peasant who lived in the back woods of Galilee who nevertheless started a movement on their behalf."  He claimed to be a messiah and that claim eventually led to his death.

When Church & Cool Collide: Hipster Christianity

Protestant American Christianity is changing. Pews are disappearing and many Christians are abandoning the church altogether. But others, like the hipsters in the story below, challenge the traditional fundamentalism and seek to replace it with a more meaningful and relevant kind of Christianity.

Hipster Christianity, according to self proclaimed hipster, Brett McCracken, is all about when church and cool collide. In fact,  the title of McCracken's book  is "Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide." 

According to this story in NPR, hipsters are Christians "with esoteric interests going against the grain."  They seek a  "conscious separation from the connotations of traditional fundamentalism and evangelical Christianity."

The Wall Street Journal says that they "want to re-brand Christianity as hip."  They are on the technological cutting edge and their sermons try to be, what the Journal calls, "culturally savvy."

The center of Hipster Christianity is Hillsong Church NYC.  The NPR story says that the crowd is "racially diverse, tattooed, pierced and looking as if they belonged in an art gallery or punk-rock band."  A Hillsong pastor says that it is hard to define a hipster, but notes that "if by hipster you mean young, funky, artist-y people, then, sure, that's there. ... Our church is an example of a new way of articulating something in a way that people can understand."

How do Celebrities Define God

Guests of Oprah's Super Soul Sunday define God. Some of the guests include Brené Brown, Stephen Pressefield, Dr. Brian Weiss, and Tina Turner.

America's Only Gay Iman

Conservatives and liberals clash in every faith. Just last week, for example, the Methodist church defrocked a Pennsylvania minster for officiating the gay wedding of his son. Now, America's only openly gay Muslim Iman, Daayiee Abdullah,  faces criticism.  He tells Aljazeera America that "some local imams have refused to greet him, and many others across the country argue his work performing same-sex marriage is not legitimate, and that he should control his “urges.”

You can read more about Abdullah in this Aljazeera America story and you can see part two of the video in which Abdulah explains how he reconciles his faith with his life. You can also read about Abdullah in this Washington Post story.

Did Romans Invent Christmas?

 

Is the Roman celebration, Saturnalia, what we're really celebrating when we celebrate Christmas?  Gift giving, mistletoe, and even the Christmas tree all come from Vikings and Saxons.

"Christmas in December is a Western, Roman idea..." says Dr Matthew Nicholls, senior lecturer in Classics at the University of Reading in England.  Romans, he argues in this BBC article,  spent seven days from mid December partying. It was a celebration called Saturnalia  "Homes were decorated, parties held and slaves became masters - at least for one banquet." Simon Sebag, who hosts the clip above, explains that pagan ritual and Christianity coexisted for decades after the conversion of Constantine the Great.

Some historians, like Nichols, believe that Christianity simply merged pagan traditions with the the new religions.  For example:

• kissing under the mistletoe probably came from the Viking goddess Frigg. 
• Vikings and Saxons worshiped tress and that worship may be the origin of the Christmas tree. 
• And the Sigillari which, according to the article, "- held on the 23 December - was a day of present-giving in ancient Rome."

Religion & Women's Rights

Countries in red and orange have the largest differences between men and women's rights. The map comes from the World Economic Forum and Caitlin Dewy of the Washington Post summarized what she thought were the seven most ridiculous restrictions.  For example, in Yemen women cannot leave their house without their husband's permission and in Morocco rape victims can be charged with crimes.

And here is a summary of the top most gender equal countries from the World Economic Forum.

Methodist Minister Defrocked; Officiated Gay Wedding

Were Methodist church authorities right to defrock a pastor who officiated a gay wedding (his son's)?

That's exactly what happened this week.  The church told  Rev. Frank Schaefer of Pennsylvania that if he could not follow the Book of Discipline, he should resign.   He did not, so the church defrocked him this week.

• NPR's The Two Way
• New York Daily News
• The New York Times

Shinto: Religions of the World Documentary

Here's a dated but good documenatry about Shinto from the Religions of the World series. This is part 1 of a four part series which is narrated by Ben Kingsley.  You can find the other three parts here.

Buddhism: How to Live in the Present

Former monk, Buddhist teacher and author, Jack Kornfield, sits down with Oprah for one of her Super Soul Sunday episodes. He discusses how to return your mind to its original state of goodness. He advises us not to get swept up by the past. "The past you can learn from, but to be awake is to live here so that when you are with the person you love, you're really present," he says.

Sufism: The Heart of Islam

Here is an excellent clip on Sufism from the documentary "Sufism, The Heart of Islam."

Alien Abduction: Islam

Here's an interesting and, for kids,an engaging review of the central beliefs of Islam.  It comes from True Tube, a British website that provides video and lessons for schools and religion classes.  Thanks to Ms. Clarke for the link which I found on her blog.

Muslim Impact on English Soccer

Interesting BBC documentary on how Muslim soccer players impact their English soccer teams. Thanks to Ms. Clarke for the link which I found on her blog.

Mormon Missionary Expansion

Here's an interesting clip about the expansion of Mormon missionaries from Religion and Ethics News Weekly. The Church recently lowered the ages for which young Mormon boys and girls can go out on missions.

Religion in America's States & Counties

If you want to show your students the religious make-up of  America,  you should check out these awesome  maps from from the Washington Post.

The map above shows the largest non-Christian groups in different regions. You'll see that Islam is the largest, especially in the midwest and the south.

Other maps will show you which counties have the largest number of adherents, which have the most religious participation,  and which have the most religious diversity.  Another map shows the total number of congregations as a share of the population. My thanks to F.C. Tymrak for tweeting the link.

Reza Aslan/ Megyn Kelly On Jesus's Skin Color

 

Was Jesus black or white?  Megyn Kelly, a Fox news host, suggested that both Santa and Jesus were white on a recent broadcast (here's the story from Poltico) and caused a big reaction in the social media. 

Reza Aslan, author of "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" suggests that Kelly might be right.   He says that one's "Christ" might be any color he or she wants while the historical Jesus is a middle eastern Palestinian Jew.  In an interview with Max Fisher in the Washington Post, Aslan suggests that "the Christ of faith and the Jesus of history are two different characters."

And it easy to confuse the two which is why, Aslan says, people like him , "who write books like "Zealot," get in trouble."

Ten Important North American Muslim Women

Here are ten North American Muslim women that Samina Ali, curator of of the International Museum of Muslima, believes is noteworthy in the arts, or revolutionary in showing what Muslim women can accomplish, or a pioneer fighting for women's rights.  Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is pictured above. She is an activist, a motivational speaker and the producer of the WAKE UP tour, a youth empowerment program.

You can see all ten women, with a short biography for each, here at the Huffington Post.  Some of the biographies have links to more detailed biographies at the International Museum of Muslima,

Can Zoroastrianism Survive

Teaching Zoroastrianism? Here's great short article that explains it's basic beliefs and rituals and why the author thinks the religion might not survive. 

Zoroastrianism, the world's oldest monotheistic religion, might be the least inclusive of all religions.  It numbers less than 150,000 and for every birth there are five deaths. For these reasons, Ariane Sherine suggests that "Zoroastrians need to widen their admission criteria fast, or go the way of the lesser Antillean macaw and the koala lemur."

Sherine, writing for The Guardian, writes  that as a child, she was was never allowed to take part in key rituals or even call herself a Parsi because she is the daugher of a female Zoroastrian in a religion that is patrilineal.   That makes her membership doubtful.

Hagia Sophia: Mosque or Church?

Should the Hagia Sophia, built soon after the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, not long after the fall of Rome, and now a museum, be converted to a mosque?

 It became a mosque in 1453 when the Ottomans took over the Byzantine Empire. It remained a mosque until the Ottoman Empire broke apart after World War II and Attaturk created a secular and modern Turkey.  That is when the mosque became a museum.

Now the Turkish government wants to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque angering many Christians.  For example, the Archbishop of Constantinople told a Turkish newspaper, that "if it is to reopen as a house of worship, then it should open as a Christian church." He also reminded the newspaper that the Hagia Sophia was built as a church, not a mosque.  According to the Huffington Post, some say the current government is simply giving " payback against Turkey’s former secular military elite, which has historically jailed leaders of religious parties and staged coups against elected governments."

This might be an interesting debate for students.Should the Hagia Sophi be converted to a mosque, an eastern orthodox church, or simply remain as a museum.  And here's the story from NPR.

Great Visual Resource: The Temple Mount- Noble Sanctuary

Here's a great visual resource from the Washington Post on the real estate that includes, among other things, the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Solomon's Stables, and the Western Wall.  It is possibly the most contested real estate in the world, according to the Post.  That's because events critical to all three Abrahamic faiths happened in this 36 acre area. 

The graphic explains the significance of each structure and its importance and shows you where its located in relation to other structures. You can also read the Post's related story here.

This is a great resource not only for religion students but also for World History students who must learn the basics of all religions. My thanks to Frances Coffey for sending me the link.

Encyclopedia of Shinto

Here's a great introduction to Shinto including shrines, deities, rites and festivals, beliefs and practices, concepts and doctrines, and text and sources, to name just a few.  The encyclopedia includes pages from all these categories.  You can even see a list of movies about Shinto.The encyclopedia would also be great for a web quest.

My thanks to David  Korfhage for tweeting the link.