Alternet has a list of five brave religious leaders who fought theocracy in America, and top of the list is Rhode Island’s own Roger Williams.
Well-deserved, and I’m so proud.
Category Archives: Religion & Spirituality
Some Historical Context on the Prayer Banner Controversy
My overall analysis is that the real problem we have right now in Rhode Island is not that the Cranston Schools had a banner hanging in an auditorium that had a prayer on it. The real problem is that our economy is sagging big time, and we need to figure out how to turn that around. But the prayer banner controversy does define an important distinction about what government can and cannot do. The thoughts of Oswald Krell also serve to give more historical context to the discussion:
[...]To begin: any sentence that contains “the founding fathers believed/thought/said/wanted/intended/were, etc is necessarily wrong.
Yes. wrong.
The founding fathers were not a monolithic bunch. Exactly the opposite. They were a group of men, many of whom had long years of experience in politics in some form. As such, as a group and for the most part, they understood the necessity of compromise. Not all of them; there were some doctrinaire ideologues, especially in the earlier days, but they were weeded out as time passed.
A great example of this is Sam Adams–whose father was a brewer, by the way. He played a major role in the early days of the protests that led up to the outbreak of fighting, but he did not have the political chops to play any role in congress during the war.
Solstice– Take Time for the Dark
Winter Dusk
The word ‘Solstice’ does not mean ‘return of the light’…
Solstice refers to the two times of the year when the sun is closest to and farthest from the earth’s equator. The word itself is of Latin origin with “sol” meaning “sun” and “sistere” meaning “stand still.” The latter refers to the sun’s apparent stoppage in the sky as observed by someone on Earth.
It’s more in tune with nature’s mood to remember that today is the first day of winter.
January brings us into the coldest month of the year, which we are just beginning to feel with the weird, prolonged autumn warmth we’ve been enjoying.
For the Word on the Return of the Light, I look to what is written on the Providence Journal weather page. They publish a nice almanac. You’ll note that immediately after Solstice we do not get any day lengthening action at all, and for weeks following, the days lengthen by a minute every couple of days–if you are lucky enough to see the sun through the iron grey clouds that strew freezing rain or snow. Harsh, I know, but let’s get real. This is why people move to Florida.
For a sense of lengthening days, I try to hold out until Candlemas, February 2. That’s the midpoint to spring, when we have six more weeks of winter no matter what the groundhog sees. And in Rhode Island, it’s anyone’s guess whether we’ll have spring.
I might leave my lights up till then, Christmas lights are the best Pagan fusion party idea ever invented.
I’m really enjoying a blessed season with a combination of mindfulness, gratitude and strategic griping. This is a sample. You don’t beat seasonal affective depression by being chirpy.
I Want Some Peace and Goodwill for Christmas
Poor Innocent Conifer
This is not the kind of post I like to write, but sometimes the personal and political are so intertwined it’s not possible to stay on the lofty perch that We at Kmareka feel most comfortable perching on. So We are just going to put it out there.
It’s something most of us are now going through, or will. This week I got a 5am call that my mother was in the Emergency Room. She’s having a hard time adjusting to the loss of my father, and I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a spouse of over fifty years. All went well, medically. Otherwise it’s clear that we kids will have to call regularly, because our mother needs us.
Today I went by to visit her, and things were good until I left the room for a bit and came back to the sound of the radio. My mother listens to some religious station that always sounds angry. She was all of a sudden very worked up about whether Governor Lincoln Chafee lights a Christmas Tree or a Holiday Tree. She said that The Jews would never call a Menorah a candlestick, would they? I said that I had not seen any giant Menorah on the State House lawn, but we could drive on over there and look. I was trying to get her out of the house. I argued with her for too long, I could not get her to understand the difference between public and private space and finally she told me that I hate Christ.
Readers, you know that earlier this morning I posted a verse from the King James Bible. Unitarians are free, skeptical and tolerant– that’s Tolerant with a capital ‘T’. And me and Jesus have an understanding.
This would just be TMI, except that on the way home I stopped at a Dollar Store, and there was a woman in the checkout line who was talking loudly to all around about how Christmas isn’t Christmas any more. And that Governor Chafee is going to light a Holiday Tree. And The Jews would never call a Menorah a candlestick, would they? And you can’t give presents to children. And people are all bad these days, nothing is good anymore. I wished her peace and goodwill and got out of there.
Clearly this is a talking point going around. Since Christians are about 78% of the population and Jews less than 2% I doubt this tree crisis has anything to do with Hanukkah.
It’s got a lot to do with politics, finding some ammunition against the Governor, and the fun of a symbolic war that doesn’t cost blood or treasure, and stokes a satisfying sense of grievance. When 78% of the population feels dissed, all us non-Christians had better watch our step.
The funny part is that there’s nothing in the Bible about bringing trees indoors. The evergreen and lighting candles at the time of the winter solstice is a custom with Pagan origins. That’s why some Christian denominations ban these observances. And our Pilgrim forebears had no sense of fun at all…
It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.
I haven’t seen the State House tree yet, but I was downtown and City Hall has the grandest most extravagantly lit tree I’ve ever seen–it’s like a giant redwood. As a taxpayer I can probably claim a few needles and bulbs as my own contribution. Public art and beauty matters. You can call it a Christmas tree and I won’t get too excited. I appreciate the intent of calling it a Holiday tree, though, because I like being included in my own home state. All the people who can’t miss a chance to stamp a cross on a season that includes holidays of several religions and serious shopping should try extending peace and goodwill instead. It would be the Christian thing to do.
Getting 15 Minutes on Google
It seems like the quickest way to get attention is to do something disgraceful, fame and notoriety get you the same amount of internet hits.
15 people in a church in rural Kentucky got their 15 minutes.
(AP) LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When Stella Harville brought her black boyfriend to her family’s all-white church in rural Kentucky, she thought nothing of it. She and Ticha Chikuni worshipped there whenever they were in town, and he even sang before the congregation during one service.
Then in August, a member of Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church told Harville’s father that Chikuni couldn’t sing there anymore. And last Sunday, in a moment that seems from another time, church members voted 9-6 to bar mixed-race couples from joining the congregation.
By way of comparison, here is another church in Kentucky, in 2006…
(AP) A woman died after being bitten by a snake during a serpent-handling service at church, police said.
Linda Long, 48, of London, Ky., died Sunday at University of Kentucky Medical Center, Brad Mitchell, a detective with the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
Long died about four hours after the bite was reported, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Officials said Long attended East London Holiness Church. Neighbors of the church told the newspaper the church practices serpent handling.
Decades ago, in what must have been a wrenching church/state conflict, the state of Kentucky passed a law against religious rituals involving poisonous snakes. Other states in the South found it necessary to outlaw this mode of worship. Things are different down there.
Somewhere in our great nation, a little boy is saving his allowance to buy a Christmas present for a needy child. Across the USA churches will celebrate Christmas with acts of generosity and goodwill. This won’t make headlines, it happens every year.
A church with about 40 members that decides to put respect and inclusion of one of their own to a majority vote– and bans a loving couple from their community– this gets attention.
Hate radio stars who want to use Christmas to identify and bully non-Christians into accepting domination of public space by the majority religion get way more publicity than the Christians who spread peace and goodwill.
The Kentucky churchgoers who feel that a church service is just not complete without someone waving a handful of copperheads would tell you that they alone are keeping the true Christian faith, and they really believe it.
The Christian religion is so wide and so diverse that throughout history Christians have tortured, murdered and attempted to annihilate Christians of different sects or nations. This is also true of other huge major religions. It’s a tragedy of human nature that we are violent, warlike, shortsighted fools and no religion has changed that.
I’m not trying to harsh on the Season, I’m just pointing out that it’s not wise to assume everyone who wears a cross is singing with the same choir.
This issue was addressed about 2,000 years ago…
Matthew Chapter 7 vs 15-20
15 ¶ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
I wonder why a church that can’t rustle up more than 15 voters would want to drive out two nice young people who want to be a part of their congregation.
Stella and Ticha would be welcome in plenty of other churches and I imagine they will find one that values love and justice.
Pope Benedict Hears it in German
What was it like to hear the truth in his own native language?
Pope Benedict XVI met victims of sexual abuse by clergy on the second day of his visit to his German homeland, an encounter that left him “deeply shaken”, Vatican officials said.
…
During a 30-minute meeting with abuse victims in Erfurt, the pope said he was “moved and deeply shaken by the sufferings of the victims,” the Vatican said. Church officials described the meeting as “very, very emotional”.“The Holy Father expressed his deep compassion and regret over all that was done to them and their families,” said a Vatican statement.
Nothing will change except in places where ordinary Catholics take charge and bring the institution into line with secular laws that protect children and parents. That is happening all over the world as the Church trails behind and tries to put the issue to rest.
I wrote some speculative fiction about what might happen if the Pope confronted his own seduction by a vicious regime and the abusive frenzy of the adults and authorities around him. A fourteen-year-old boy in Nazi Germany didn’t have choices, but the Nazis depended on the complicity of German Catholics and Protestants in the murder of their Jewish neighbors. If, in his advanced years, Joseph Ratzinger could speak honestly of this history, he might give real moral leadership to the world.
Kmareka occasionally reports the news before it happens, so we post this book review from next year…
New York Times Book Review, June 24, 2012
My Life in Hitler Youth by Pope Benedict XVI
Translated from the German by Sophia Magdalena Scholl and Hans Scholl
With commentary by Steve Biko, Rabbi Hillel, Badshah Khan, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and the Ven. Mahaghosananda
Forward by Archbishop Oscar Romero
While confessional literature has won an enduring readership, it is unusual to find a religious or political leader who is willing to attempt it. Most are less given to autobiography than to self-promotion.
It is all the more surprising that Pope Benedict XVI, whose tenure had been characterized by autocracy, even, some would say, arrogance; has humbly and honestly laid bare his experience as a teenage German boy caught up in the Nazi war machine.
In today’s world child soldiers are cannon fodder in countless civil conflicts. Teenagers are recruited to sign ten, or even twenty-year contracts with the privatized militias favored by the developed nations. The desperately poor allow their children to be implanted with RFID chips and fed psychotropic drugs to increase their value on the mercenary market.
Pope Benedict’s book stands as a powerful challenge to our 21st century way of war.
The catalyst for this amazing book was a 2010 meeting in Rome with survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
“I prayed with them, I assured them that never again would such violation of innocence be tolerated. Committees would be formed, the guilty would be routed out. I thought I was doing all that I could, but there was no mistaking the disappointment in their eyes. They wanted to hear something more from me.”
From that day, Benedict began to suffer from insomnia. He was tormented by nightmares in which he was visited by the ghosts of his Jewish playmates who disappeared in the Nazi violence. A letter from ‘Konrad’, a boyhood friend and fellow Hitler Youth, triggered a spiritual crisis. Benedict flew to Germany, secretly and under high security, to hear his friend’s confession and to give last rites.
“Konrad needed to unburden his soul to someone who knew what we did, and what was done to us. Our souls were violated, we were seduced by hate. Only to each other could we admit that we sometimes enjoyed the seduction. We were robbed of our innocence, and the loss did not diminish with time. It was not for me, his fellow sinner and fellow victim, to grant absolution. We prayed together for God’s forgiving grace. We wept together. Then we forgave those who had done this to us. They themselves were seduced.”
The Pope returned to Rome with a new resolve to address the needs of the world’s children. His Encyclical, ‘The Sin of Obedience’, shocked many in the Catholic hierarchy, but did much to mend relations with parishes torn by the sexual abuse scandals. His eloquent stand against war, previously muted by his close relationships with the world’s aggressors, was broadcast worldwide. Benedict’s frank conversations with Rabbi Hillel concerning the abuses that occur when religion becomes handmaiden to politics led to a change in direction that some call ‘radical’. His account of that conversation is not only a heartfelt apology for the failure of the Catholic Church to effectively oppose the Nazis, but an admission that political expediency corrupted the Church’s response to the atrocious acts of that regime.
“Christians had forgotten that the greatest Rabbi, Our Lord and Savior, spoke truth to power, even at the cost of his life. Being truly Man, as well as truly God, he suffered as we all do.”
The Pope’s incognito visit to Brazil, where he met some of the poorest of his flock in the favelas (slums), celebrating Mass in a tin shanty, washing the feet of meninos da rua (street children) will go down in history as an act of saintliness.
Since then, the Pope has led his flock in a direction that is changing the global Church. The Pope’s recent encyclicals have drawn criticism as well as praise.
‘A Little Child Shall Lead Them’ prompted one conservative commentator to remark that the Pope, who was formerly known as a crusader against abortion “now expects us to waste our tax dollars on snot-nosed welfare brats.”
But despite accusations of betrayal from many of his former allies on the American religious right, this pope is enjoying a surge of popularity not seen since the reign of Pope John the XXIII. The attrition of the past few decades is reversing as the Church gains more new converts and lapsed Catholics return to the faith.
The rumor that the Vatican will soon make priestly celibacy optional has sparked a renewed interest that promises to alleviate the dire shortage of priests in the developed nations; and if implemented would legitimize the de-facto priestly marriages that are common in Africa.
Meanwhile, in Central America, the revival movement known as ‘Caridad’, endorsed by the Church despite its strong resemblance to the ‘Liberation Theology’ that was dismantled by Benedict just a few years ago; promises to take the wind out of the sails of the Protestant Evangelical revival as former Catholics return to the faith of their childhood.
Here in the US, it is interesting to see some of the same politicians who enjoyed support from the pulpits of their local Catholic churches now invoking the principle of separation of Church and State.
Worldwide, the Catholic church has undergone a profound shift in emphasis. New orders of nuns and other religious operate with a freedom and authority unimaginable just a few years ago. With the goal of protecting children, nuns have organized on behalf of women in practical ways–health care, literacy, employment, respect.
‘Space Your Children’ a family planning pamphlet by Liberian nun and midwife Sr.Grace Wah, has been tacitly approved by papal authorities despite its frank endorsement of birth control. Sr.Wah would have been facing censorship, if not excommunication, for such views prior to Benedict’s change of heart.
Pope Benedict continues to reach out to those who have suffered the most from global war. His conversation with Hussam Abdo, a teenage would-be suicide bomber disarmed by Israeli police, and Zawadi Mongane, a rape survivor from the war in Congo, is still being parsed by theologians for its affirmation of living a whole and healed life in the wake of unbearable wrong. Truly, Pope Benedict has become a voice of conscience for the Christian world and extended the hand of friendship to other faiths.
This Pope, who began his reign determined to roll back the changes of Vatican II, now stands in the shoes of John XXIII, and promises to take his legacy farther than any thought possible.
Waiting
No surprise that we’re here waiting. This is life when you get to the age when you count your blessings and count the days. The worst thing we could do to our parents would to pre-decease them, so the best requires us to say goodbye.
There’s a Buddhist story. A peasant man saves up until he can afford to pay a monk to write him a blessing to adorn the family altar. He watches the monk cover the scroll with flowing calligraphy, and asks him respectfully what the blessing says.
‘Grandfather dies, father dies, son dies.’ says the monk.
The peasant is outraged. ‘I gave you everything I had to buy a blessing, and you have written me a curse!’ he cried.
‘On the contrary’, said the monk. ‘If the father died before the grandfather, or the son before the father, this would cause terrible suffering to the family. If each dies in his time, this is the way of the universe and everything is as it should be.’
The peasant was satisfied that he had truly been blessed.
Of course, the monk did not write that the family would enjoy longevity, or be spared any other of the thousand fates that could befall them, because the monk had no power or knowledge of that. The best we can hope for in this world is that we have our time, and don’t leave our parents bereaved.
My Dad is in the hospital now, we hope he will come home soon. Meanwhile we are taking turns watching over him and talking to the nurses and doctors. He’s at Kent County, they’ve been wonderful and we’re all in agreement that he should be discharged as soon as it’s safe. Still, there have been failures of communication between the ER and the unit, the VA and Kent. We’ve ironed that out and have been his voice and protection from falls that can happen in an instant no matter how good the staff. The staff has been good about letting us camp out here and help with the care– I haven’t had a huffy or officious word spoken to me in three days.
If we are blessed, we are here to help our parents in their time, and that is the best we can hope for in this world.
Rapture Date Moved Up
Harold Camping has emerged from hiding to announce a new Rapture date.
OAKLAND, Calif. – California preacher Harold Camping said Monday his prophecy that the world would end was off by five months because Judgment Day actually will come on October 21.
Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before the Earth was destroyed, said he felt so terrible when his doomsday prediction did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions — some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.
But Camping said that he’s now realized the apocalypse will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted. He had earlier said Oct. 21 was when the globe would be consumed by a fireball.
Too early to be the October Surprise of the next big election.
I have a word of prophesy. All of you who believe in The Rapture, stay away from the voting booth. The voting booth has cooties. Thus saith The Lord.
Thief in the Night
There’s those that will knock you over to get your wallet, and those who con you into throwing away your life’s savings…
The sky turned dark Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t a sign of the world’s impending doom – just passing rain.
Welcome to the No-pacalypse – a disappointing finish to what doomsday believer Robert Fitzpatrick thought would be the End of Days.“I don’t understand why nothing has happened,” a deflated Fitzpatrick said in Times Square just after 6 p.m. “I did what I had to do. I did what the Bible said.”
“I obviously haven’t understood it properly, because we’re still here,” added Fitzpatrick, 60, surrounded by a phalanx of reporters and skeptical onlookers.
The retired MTA worker from Staten Island bought $140,000 worth of advertising, proclaiming that the end was near. He and followers of California televangelist Harold Camping thought a global earthquake would strike the East Coast just before 6 p.m.
I think Harold Camping is worse than the ordinary mugger. Some time ago I was listening to interviews on NPR with victims Bernie Madoff, the pyramid king. They felt so betrayed, and self-blaming. It’s really nasty to win someone’s trust and do that to them. Fitzpatrick sounds like a vulnerable man who had the bad luck to be cleaned out by a con man.
According to CNN Money Harold Camping has millions– more than enough to restore Robert Fitzpatrick’s life savings and whoever else he has particularly screwed over. He also holds enough FCC broadcasting licenses to make him a media baron. That’s really scary.
We need to re-think this religious tax exemption thing. I’m all for giving tax breaks to charitable and religious organizations that serve the community, but we shouldn’t let every con man who comes along build a tax-free empire. Even Jesus paid taxes. It’s in the Bible.
I truly feel sorry for Robert Fitzpatrick and all the others who gave money to this crook. But then again, Mr. Fitzpatrick looked forward to my imminent torment and death in the Great Tribulation. Even so, he’ll have the benefit of secular programs like Social Security and Medicare. The people who help him will be accountable in a way that failed prophets are not.
Two Visions of the Apocalypse
Today when I got out of work the weather had taken a turn to sunny and warm. I have a brand new sun dress, and anyway, the world is due to end today. So I’m wearing it.
Strangely enough, I think I heard the end of the world prophet, Harold Camping, on Family Radio about a month ago while driving through the Bershires on my way to a conference organized by a witch named Starhawk. I was scanning stations, and tuned into an elderly man preaching on the Rapture. I listened for a while before finding NPR.
Today Family Radio is silent, perhaps the staff was Raptured…
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – With no sign his forecast of Judgment Day arriving on Saturday has come true, the 89-year-old California evangelical broadcaster and former civil engineer behind the pronouncement seemed to have gone silent.
Family Radio, the Christian stations network headed by Harold Camping which had spread his message of an approaching doomsday, was on Saturday playing recorded church music and devotional messages unrelated to the apocalypse
Oh well.
When I got to the conference, Starhawk was running classes on permaculture, a philosophy of building local, sustainable systems. She wrote a novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing, that deals with a society in the ruins of ecological collapse. Here is an excerpt from an address she gave after doing volunteer work in New Orleans…
There’s a Native American proverb that goes, “If we don’t change our direction, we’re going to end up where we’re headed.” Where we’re headed, without a major, fast, global shift in our technology, our means of food production, our economics and our values, is a world of multiple Katrinas, intensified storms, rising seas, drowned coastal cities, drought, famine and the wars that come in their wake.
We still have a small window of time to avoid that fate, and we have the knowledge we need to do it. I believe we bear a special responsibility, those of us who love the Goddess, who honor the sacredness of life, who draw our sense of renewal and our vitality from contact with the elements and the natural world. We belong in the forefront of the movement to heal our damaged earth, to learn the skills and tools for doing so, and to agitate for the public policies to put those skills to work. There’s no more vital work we can do at this moment in history.
This week, author Junot Diaz was interviewed on NPR. He spoke compassionately about the popularity of end of the world beliefs– about a general uneasiness about the changes we see and the fear of what lies ahead…
Apocalyptic catastrophes don’t just raze cities and drown coastlines; these events, in David Brooks’s words, “wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done. They expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities.” And, equally important, they allow us insight into the conditions that led to the catastrophe, whether we are talking about Haiti or Japan. (I do believe the tsunami-earthquake that ravaged Sendai this past March will eventually reveal much about our irresponsible reliance on nuclear power and the sinister collusion between local and international actors that led to the Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe.)
If, as Roethke writes, “in a dark time, the eye begins to see,” apocalypse is a darkness that gives us light.
But this is not an easy thing to do, this peering into darkness, this ruin-reading. It requires nuance, practice, and no small amount of heart. I cannot, however, endorse it enough. Given the state of our world—in which the very forces that place us in harm’s way often take advantage of the confusion brought by apocalyptic events to extend their power and in the process increase our vulnerability—becoming a ruin-reader might not be so bad a thing. It could in fact save your life.
As easy as it is to mock a failed Rapture, I have some words of comfort for all those Left Behind. We’re in interesting times, and nothing is certain. But we will face them together, and the more we hold to our best principles of putting right before selfishness, the better we will survive the coming storms.
