Pope Ben on Agnosticism

In addition to the two phenomena of religion and anti-religion, a further basic orientation is found in the growing world of agnosticism: people to whom the gift of faith has not been given, but who are nevertheless on the lookout for truth, searching for God. Such people do not simply assert: “There is no God”. They suffer from his absence and yet are inwardly making their way towards him, inasmuch as they seek truth and goodness. They are “pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace”. They ask questions of both sides. They take away from militant atheists the false certainty by which these claim to know that there is no God and they invite them to leave polemics aside and to become seekers who do not give up hope in the existence of truth and in the possibility and necessity of living by it. But they also challenge the followers of religions not to consider God as their own property, as if he belonged to them, in such a way that they feel vindicated in using force against others. These people are seeking the truth, they are seeking the true God, whose image is frequently concealed in the religions because of the ways in which they are often practised. Their inability to find God is partly the responsibility of believers with a limited or even falsified image of God. So all their struggling and questioning is in part an appeal to believers to purify their faith, so that God, the true God, becomes accessible. Therefore I have consciously invited delegates of this third group to our meeting in Assisi, which does not simply bring together representatives of religious institutions. Rather it is a case of being together on a journey towards truth, a case of taking a decisive stand for human dignity and a case of common engagement for peace against every form of destructive force. Finally I would like to assure you that the Catholic Church will not let up in her fight against violence, in her commitment for peace in the world. We are animated by the common desire to be “pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace”.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/popes-address-in-assisi-full-text/#ixzz1cGvTwMU8

the rapture – the ultimate blasphemy

JC still loves Harold Camping though, God bless him.

cross-posted from Jottings by Michael Cardin

Many people might think Camping (!) a fool and wonder why I would waste my time writing about this. He is a fool and the millions he spent on his promotion campaign could have been much better spent. He would have made a much better testament to his Lord if he had followed the Gospel dictum to sell all he had (no small fortune) to give it to the poor and embrace a life of poverty and prayer and works of mercy. Instead he traduced the gospels utterly and brought Christianity into complete disrepute. The most depressing thing is that he has played into simple media binaries, in this case Christians vs unbelievers/secularists/atheists/humanists with Camping (!) himself as a key exemplar of what Christianity is all about. And of course Camping (!) is an exemplar of a type of Christianity or I would say a perversion of Christianity that has taken root in the US and, with the US global hegemon, is spreading throughout the world, like a noxious toxic bloom. In my opinion it’s a heresy of the worst order, a vile pernicious heresy that perverts and inverts the central Christian message. Thanks to Camping (!)  unfortunately a large proportion of of the world’s population believe that this pernicious theology is normative, traditional Christianity. It’s not, it’s a 19th century aberration that took root in the United States in the mid-19th century in a time of major transformation and upheaval.

It’s all based on a single word in the Christian scriptures. It’s found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and in the Greek in which it was written, the word is harpagesometha, ‘we shall be taken away’ or ‘we shall be caught up’, derived from the Greek verb harpazo. In the Latin translation the word is rapiemur, from the verb rapio. In the passage, Paul is talking about the very end, the final things of the world, the Second Coming and he says that when it occurs, first the dead will be raised up from their graves and then the living will be caught up from the earth to meet Jesus as he returns at the end of the age, which Paul and the audience for this letter considered imminent. The issue that is being addressed here is not an elaborate end times scenario, that we see in the modern Rapture cult but rather the concerns by some in the Thessalonian community that those who have died will  not participate in the final moment of the Lord’s return, or even, possibly by some, that those who are living who are alive at the Second Coming are in some way better or more fortunate than those who have died.This passage is written to disabuse  these Thessalonian Christians of such concern, or conceit. And the thing is, its context is the last things, the last day, the end of the world as we know it, the transformation and reconciliation of heaven and earth, that has always been key to the Christian proclamation. And throughout Christian history that’s how it’s always been understood and still is for the vast majority of the Christian world.

Read the rest here. -EP

religious belief is human nature, huge new study claims

cross-posted from CNN by Richard Allen Green

Religion comes naturally, even instinctively, to human beings, a massive new study of cultures all around the world suggests.

“We tend to see purpose in the world,” Oxford University professor Roger Trigg said Thursday. “We see agency. We think that something is there even if you can’t see it. … All this tends to build up to a religious way of thinking.”

Trigg is co-director of the three-year Oxford-based project, which incorporated more than 40 different studies by dozens of researchers looking at countries from China to Poland and the United States to Micronesia.

Studies around the world came up with similar findings, including widespread belief in some kind of afterlife and an instinctive tendency to suggest that natural phenomena happen for a purpose.

“Children in particular found it very easy to think in religious ways,” such as believing in God’s omniscience, said Trigg. But adults also jumped first for explanations that implied an unseen agent at work in the world, the study found.

The study doesn’t say anything about whether God, gods or an afterlife exist, said Justin Barrett, the project’s other co-director.

“This project does not set out to prove God or gods exist. Just because we find it easier to think in a particular way does not mean that it is true in fact,” he said.

Both atheists and religious people could use the study to argue their sides, Trigg told CNN.

Famed secularist Richard “Dawkins would accept our findings and say we’ve got to grow out of it,” Trigg argued.

But people of faith could argue that the universality of religious sentiment serves God’s purpose, the philosophy professor said.

“Religious people would say, ‘If there is a God, then … he would have given us inclinations to look for him,’” Trigg said.

The blockbuster study may not take a stance on the existence of God, but it has profound implications for religious freedom, Trigg contends.

“If you’ve got something so deep-rooted in human nature, thwarting it is in some sense not enabling humans to fulfill their basic interests,” Trigg said.

“There is quite a drive to think that religion is private,” he said, arguing that such a belief is wrong. “It isn’t just a quirky interest of a few, it’s basic human nature.”

“This shows that it’s much more universal, prevalent, and deep-rooted. It’s got to be reckoned with. You can’t just pretend it isn’t there,” he said.

And the Oxford study, known as the Cognition, Religion and Theology Project, strongly implies that religion will not wither away, he said.

“The secularization thesis of the 1960s – I think that was hopeless,” Trigg concluded.

on osama

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

-William J. H. Boetcker

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. – Ezekiel 18:32

Sometimes I forget this — my God is merciful. -EP

UPDATE, 5/13/2011:

Stephen Prothero, author of American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, says in a CNN blog entry

“Poll on bin Laden’s death reveals a disposable Jesus“

Only 53% of those surveyed say the United States should follow the golden rule and not use any methods on our enemies that we would not want used on our soldiers. Oddly, support for the golden rule in this case was actually lower (47%) among white evangelicals.

In other words, when Jesus said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12), he didn’t really mean “everything.” He thought there should be an exception in the case of waterboarding your enemies.

One thing that struck me hard while researching my 2003 “American Jesus” book was how malleable Jesus is in the American imagination. Instead of lording over American life, telling us what to do, he seems to be taking orders from us, carrying our water.

Something about our culture has to change… -EP

funny yet sad

Another gem from reddit. -EP

why we’re fasting

cross-posted from NYT’s the Opinionator

by Mark Bittman

I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry.

By doing so, I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living. But the decision was easy after I spoke last week with David Beckmann, a reverend who is this year’s World Food Prize laureate. Our conversation turned, as so many about food do these days, to the poor.

Who are — once again — under attack, this time in the House budget bill, H.R. 1. The budget proposes cuts in the WIC program (which supports women, infants and children), in international food and health aid (18 million people would be immediately cut off from a much-needed food stream, and 4 million would lose access to malaria medicine) and in programs that aid farmers in underdeveloped countries. Food stamps are also being attacked, in the twisted “Welfare Reform 2011” bill. (There are other egregious maneuvers in H.R. 1, but I’m sticking to those related to food.)

These supposedly deficit-reducing cuts — they’d barely make a dent — will quite literally cause more people to starve to death, go to bed hungry or live more miserably than are doing so now. And: The bill would increase defense spending.

Beckmann, who is president of Bread for the World, made me want to join in just by talking about his commitment. For me, the fast is a way to demonstrate my interest in this fight, as well as a way to remind myself and others that there are bigger things in life than dinner. (Shocking, I know.) I expect I’ll learn something about patience and fortitude while I’m at it. Thirty-six hours into the fast, my senses are heightened and everything feels a bit strange. Odors from the cafeteria a floor away drift down to my desk. In the elevator, I can smell a muffin; on the street, I can smell everything — good and bad. But as hungry as I may get, we know I’ll eat well soon. (Please check my blog for a progress report.)

Many poor people don’t have that option, and Beckmann and his co-organizers are calling for God to create a “circle of protection” around them. Some are fasting for a day, many for longer. (I’m fasting until Friday, and Beckmann until Monday. And, no, it’s not too late to join us.)

When I reminded Beckmann that poor people’s hunger was hardly a new phenomenon, and that God hasn’t made a confirmed appearance recently — at least that I know of — he suggested I read Isaiah 58, in which God says that if we were more generous while we fasted he’d treat us better. Maybe. But a billion people are just as hungry, human, and as deserving now as the Israelites were when they were fleeing Egypt, and I don’t see any manna.

This isn’t about skepticism, however; it’s about ironies and outrages. In 2010, corporate profits grew at their fastest rate since 1950, and we set records in the number of Americans on food stamps. The richest 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all American households combined, the effective tax rate on the nation’s richest people has fallen by about half in the last 20 years, and General Electric paid zero dollars in U.S. taxes on profits of more than $14 billion. Meanwhile, roughly 45 million Americans spend a third of their posttax income on food — and still run out monthly — and one in four kids goes to bed hungry at least some of the time.

It’s those people whom Beckmann and his allies (more than 30 organizations are on board) are trying to protect. The coalition may be a bit too quick to support deficit reduction, essentially saying, “We understand the need for fiscal responsibility, but we don’t want to sacrifice the powerless, nearly voiceless poor in its name. As Beckmann knows, however, deficit reduction isn’t as important as keeping people from starving: “We shouldn’t be reducing our meager efforts for poor people in order to reduce the deficit,” he told me by phone. “They didn’t get us into this, and starving them isn’t going to get us out of it.”

This is a moral issue; the budget is a moral document. We can take care of the deficit and rebuild our infrastructure and strengthen our safety net by reducing military spending and eliminating corporate subsidies and tax loopholes for the rich. Or we can sink further into debt and amoral individualism by demonizing and starving the poor. Which side are you on?

If faith increases your motivation, that’s great, but I doubt God will intervene here. Instead, we need to gather and insist that our collective resources be used for our collective welfare, not for the wealthiest thousand or even million Americans but for a vast majority of us in the United States and, indeed, for citizens of the world who have difficulty making ends meet. Or feeding their kids.

Though Beckmann is too kind to say it, he and many other religious leaders believe that true worship can’t take place without joining this struggle: “You can’t have real religion,” he told me, “unless you work for justice for hungry and poor people.”

I don’t think you can have much humanity, either.

the reality of sex trafficking

by Tiffanie Shanks

cross-posted from The Next Great Generation

For many, American slavery is an issue of the past, long taken care of by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War. Some recognize, however, that slavery has remained an issue in areas outside of the U.S., specifically developing nations. But wait. Most of that was resolved by the Apartheid in South Africa, right? Wrong. Regardless of what many people believe, the truth remains that more people are enslaved today than in 1860, and more specifically, more people than ever are enslaved today in sex trafficking.

Depending on the source, 27 – 30 million slaves exist in the world today, nearly half of which (roughly 12 million) are sex trafficked victims. Unfortunately, compared to its counterparts of sweatshop labor and child soldiering, sex trafficking is the least-acknowledged form of modern-day slavery. You may think that the 12 million victims are made up of children captured and abused, physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually, then boxed and shipped like packaged goods, where their abuse continues until they are killed, freed or rescued. Or maybe you think of the women and men on most street corners in all major cities who are held against their will and are accountable to another person who then reaps illegal profits from sexually commercializing the slave’s body. Both are true. Modern-day slavery and sex-trafficking comes in many forms.

Like many other aspects of society, today’s slavery operates as a function of supply and demand. As evidenced by the most recent Super Bowl, when excessive numbers of fans descend on a city for an event, the demand for commercialized sex increases. Many traffickers are eager to meet the demand with a constant supply of exploited men, women and children.

Luckily, people around the world have taken notice of the significant need to address the issue of slavery. Here are some profiles of organizations and individuals that fight for the cause of freedom in a variety of ways.

The A21 Campaign

Southern and Eastern Europe contains approximately 25% of all sex trafficked victims. Additionally, Greece has been identified as the center of sex trafficking in Europe. From the enormous need for advocates to fight the issue of slavery in Europe, the A21 campaign was born in 2008. A21 exists to abolish injustice in the 21^st century, specifically sex trafficking. This organization provides relief for victims through care shelters, accountability for perpetrators through a legal team, after-care for victims through restoration programs and structural prevention through other initiatives. Here are some ways to become an advocate of this cause.

The Polaris Project

Since 2002, this organization has provided what they have coined a “comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery.” Their efforts are focused on the fight within the United States, primarily through political activism, education and awareness. Just as the name implies, they believe everyone can embody the significance of the North Star and help guide an enslaved world to freedom!

Not For Sale

In this book by David Batstone, the issue of modern-day slavery is illuminated through an understanding of how slavery “flourishes in the shadows.” The book has evolved into acampaign to “re-abolish slavery.” See how you can get involved and spread the word!

Not My Life

A documentary, directed by Robert Bilheimer, explores the issue of slavery through the lens of victims and survivors. Although slavery is an issue that crosses all boundaries in regards to geography, age, and gender, this film focuses on the subjection of children. Bilheimer challenges anyone who calls themselves human to answer the question, “What kind of society cannibalizes its own children? Can we do these sorts of things on such a large scale and still call ourselves human in any meaningful sense of the term?” Watch the video and invite your friends.

The Abolitionist Hymnal

The Abolitionist movement focused on abolishing slavery in the 19^th century. In the spirit of that movement, which grew (in part) out of the Church as a way to awaken communities of faith to the issue of slavery and the effort to abolish it, Carl Gladstone has undertaken a project referred to as the Abolitionist Hymnal. In essence, this project was birthed out of a desire to shine light on the issue of slavery today, such as the sex trade and trafficking. Gladstone stated, “There are more people enslaved today than there were in 1860. If there were ever a time for the Church to awaken to the issue of slavery, that time is now.”

In many ways we’re all enslaved to something simply out of ignorance. Regarding those enslaved and exploited by the sex trade industry, ignorance is no longer acceptable; not if we “still call ourselves human.”

muslims & christians protesters join hands in cairo

Abed/Getty

cross-posted from Daily News
by Helen Kennedy

Muslims return favor, join hands with Christian protesters for Mass in Cairo’s Tahrir Square

On Friday, the holy day for Islam, Christian protesters in Tahrir Square joined hands to form a protective cordon around their Muslim countrymen so they could pray in safety.

Sunday, the Muslims returned the favor.

They surrounded Christians celebrating Mass in Cairo’s central plaza, ground zero for the secular pro-democracy protests reverberating throughout the Middle East.

“In the name of Jesus and Muhammed, we unify our ranks,” the Rev. Ihab al-Kharat told the crowd in his sermon.

“We will keep protesting until the fall of the tyranny,” he said.

Some of the worshipers began to cry as the congregation sang, “Bless our country, listen to the cries of our hearts.”

Afterward, the crowd of both Muslims and Christians chanted “one hand” – meaning “we are one” – and held up a Koran and a cross.

Egypt’s 10 million to 20 million Coptic Christians are the largest and oldest Christian community in the Middle East.

They have been targeted by Islamic extremist groups and systematically barred from official positions by President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

A year ago, nine Copts were killed and 13 were wounded when Muslim militants opened fire on worshipers leaving the church where they had celebrated Mass on the Coptic Christmas Eve, Jan. 6.

A month ago, on New Year’s Eve, 23 Copts were killed and 97 injured in the bombing of a church in Alexandria during a midnight prayer service.

That history made the fellowship in Cairo yesterday all the more moving.

“Christians pray and Muslims defend them. It is a touching scene,” Coptic activist Michael Muneer told Al Jazeera TV.

The images also contradict those who suggest the protesters are militants bent on installing a fundamentalist government.

Though police forces quit protecting anything – including churches – when the anti-Mubarak protests began two weeks ago, not one church has been attacked.

Mass wasn’t the only ceremony yesterday at Tahrir Square.

Dr. Ahmad Zaafan and his fiancée, Oula Abdul Hamid, who had been camping in the square for 10 days, got married in the shadow of a tank.

It was like having 300,000 guests, they said.

“We both received blessings and congratulations from all over the world,” said Zaafan, a volunteer medic who treated wounded protesters.

<3 colbert

If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we’ve got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert

Indeed.

strangers, saints and indians

This article made my Thanksgiving! – EP

*****

from the Wallstreet Journal

There’s little question that we live in a hyperpartisan country, and it might seem that only divine intervention can bring about the cooperation needed to move our nation forward. Perhaps in this light we might pause to remember it was only the cooperation of some very unlikely parties that made possible the first Thanksgiving.

The Pilgrims who set sail for the New World on the Mayflower in September 1620 embodied two groups: the Saints and the Strangers. The Saints were Christians who had fled England to Holland. Although they lived free of the religious intolerance of King James I, the Saints were still not happy with their Dutch surroundings. They sought a place where their children could be raised both Christian and English.

The Strangers, on the other hand, had no concern for religious freedom. These merchants, tradesmen and servants chiefly sought economic opportunity in the New World.

As we read from the historical accounts, the voyage was difficult and the first winter dire. At one point, only a small group of adults was strong enough to care for the others and oversee the building of the main common house. Miraculously, all 30 children survived.

When spring arrived, nearly half of the original 102 were dead from lack of food and medicine. Many of the survivors debated whether to sail back to England.

But on one early afternoon in March, as Captain Miles Standish was discussing defense plans in case of an Indian attack, a visitor appeared at the door of the common house. Surprisingly, it was an Indian.

Squanto showed the Pilgrims how to plant a fish with a seed and the fish was fertilizer. by Kyler

Samoset—who had learned to speak some English from a British sea captain who’d made an earlier voyage to what is now Maine—greeted them. He told them a large, hostile tribe, the Patuxets, had cleared the land they now inhabited but had been completely wiped out by a mysterious disease four years before. As a result, no Indian tribe would settle the area.

This unusual event—and what happened next—is recounted by Pilgrim Governor William Bradford in his work “Of Plymouth Plantation”:

“About the 16th of March [1621], a certain Indian came boldly amongst them and spoke to them in broken English,” Bradford wrote. Samoset “told them also of another Indian whose name was Squanto, a native of this place, who had been in England and could speak better English than himself. . . . Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation.“

“Sent of God?” That sounds quaint to modern ears. But consider Squanto’s story. Many years before the arrival of the Pilgrims, he and several other Patuxet Indians had been kidnapped along the New England coast and transported to Spain to be sold into slavery. Providentially, Squanto was purchased by a group of Catholic friars who taught him about the Bible and Jesus Christ in preparation to send him back to America to be a missionary among his tribe.

After Squanto completed his Christian education, the friars freed him and enabled him to make his way to England. Learning English while working aboard British ships, he boarded a ship in 1619 to return to America. Upon his arrival Squanto learned of the Patuxets’ untimely demise.

With Squanto’s help, the Pilgrims were able to survive their first year. He taught them agriculture and fishing. As an interpreter, he also helped the Pilgrims establish a peace with the local Indian tribes that would last for close to 50 years.

In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims reaped a bountiful harvest. To thank God for their deliverance and the help they had received from the Indians, Bradford held a three-day Thanksgiving feast inviting the Indians to join them in their celebration.

Squanto remained friendly with the Pilgrims until he succumbed to an unknown fever and died in 1622. Amazingly, he bequeathed his possessions to the Pilgrims, as Bradford would document, “as remembrances of his love.”

Considering the trials of his own life, it would have been understandable for Squanto to sow bitterness and seek war against the Pilgrims. Instead, his generosity and forgiveness enabled their survival.

Exemplifying St. Paul’s challenge to “not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” Squanto’s cooperation would not be forgotten by the Pilgrims. Nor should it today.

Mr. Murray is headmaster of Fourth Presbyterian School in Potomac, Md.