“Does America have a religion? For the answer, look to Walt Whitman” by Anthony T. Kronman

While creating unity through groups, religion in America most commonly divides us. When concentrated, beliefs grow stronger. Finding a common ground with those who share different morals and values than our own becomes harder and compromise seems impossible. We, as a country, have found ways to neutralize this as much as possible through separation, such as the separation of the church and state. However, instead of separating and losing hope because of differences and individuality, some believe we as a nation can grow stronger by uniting under one idea. In, “Does America have a religion? For the answer, look to Walt Whitman”, Anthony T. Kronman analyzes Walt Whitman’s, “Democratic Vistas” which expands on the idea of America being “held together by the common spiritual ideal” of emphasizing individuality.  Whitman describes each human as divine and that each one of us “ are all expressions of the one everlasting God of the world”. Because we each have different backgrounds, personalities, and stories, we all become an integral part of this world. He describes the word “God” and the word “world” as being two different words with the same meaning. Whitman understands that not all Americans will follow this way of thinking, but he believes that regardless of previous beliefs, it would unite us as “One nation under God”. Although I understand the importance of a nation united under a common belief or idea, I do think that if we strip of a person of their religious/spiritual or non-religious/spiritual identity and replace it with a national identity, we would be ruining the idea of cultivating unity through individuality. Maybe unity could be created through a different aspect of a citizen’s life, but asking to replace personal values with a national value to preserve individuality is unintentionally stripping everyone’s individuality away.

While Pope Francis was traveling from Rome from Sweden, he met with Lutheran Archbishop Antje Jackelen of Uppsala, a woman and the primate of the Church of Sweden.

On the plane, a Swedish journalist referenced the archbishop and asked the pope whether women might be able to serve as Catholic priests in coming decades. “On the ordination of women in the Catholic church, the last word is clear,” Francis said, citing Pope John Paul II’s 1994 letter banning women from the priesthood. “It was given by St. John Paul II and this remains.” Francis had made a statement before in 2013 declaring that women could never become priests.

For some traditional Catholics, these statements are likely a relief, yet 6 in 10 American Catholics think the church should allow women to become priests, according to a 2015 Pew Survey. This came to me as no surprise after reading Chaves’ book “American Religion.” In it, he describes that there is a decline of belief in the Bible’s literal truth. He also says that no traditional religious belief or practice has increased in recent decades. The belief that all priests must be men is a very traditional and literal view of Christianity, yet more people now a days believe in the “modern” view that women are capable of being priests.

USA Today article by Heidi M Przbyla

Throughout out this past election here in the United States both candidates have been met with fierce resistance. On November 8^th of this past year Donald Trump was announced the victor of the 2016 presidential election. On Friday January 20, Donald Trump will be sworn into the office he won to the dismay of many across the nation.

Demonstrations of protest are planned to take place throughout the nation’s capital, in each of the 50 states, and around the world in 32 countries. Many of these protest are focusing on defending the rights of women, other are paying homage suffragettes confirming women’s rights in government, and some protest are taking a more hostile stance against the president elect. Most striking is the unprecedented numbers of participants expected to show. Many are taking note that people who have never been involved in politics before are making moves now to mobilize. 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama even plans to conduct a demonstration on inauguration day. A significant objective of these protest is to encourage people to get more involved in their community.

As was discussed in class, Separate Realities showed how church and other religious organizations provide a basis for people to get involved and engage their community seen today in church organizations like 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama.

A newspaper article from the Orange County Register last Saturday focused on religion across the globe in honor of World Religion Day. Color-coordinated maps showed which parts of the world practiced which faith in the vast majorities. In terms of percentage, Christians made up 31.5% of the world’s population, Muslims 23.2%, Hindus 15%, Buddhists, 7.1%, and Jews only 0.2%. (Snibbe, News Pg. 4) Christianity and Islam, not surprisingly, are the dominate religions for a huge amount of the world. However, just because the majority of people practice these faiths in any particular country doesn’t mean that’s the only religion practiced there. This article can give a person some idea about religious diversity around the world, but certainly not a complete picture. However, the article did also listed the top ten most religious countries and the top ten most in decline in terms of religion. (Snibbe, News Pg. 4) The top three most religious were Ghana, Nigeria and Armenia. (Snibbe, News Pg. 4) Meanwhile, the countries that are most in decline were Vietnam with a 23% drop in religion, Switzerland at 21%, and France at 21%. (Snibbe, News Pg. 4) The US is 7^th on this list with a drop of 13% in religion. (Snibbe, News Pg. 4) This clearly reflects how more western countries are declining in religious faith while more non-western countries continue to have strong religious ties. Whether or not western countries are rejecting religion all together or just organized religion is unknown.

On June 2, 2014, in Pune, India, Vijay Gambhire, Ranjeet Yadav, and Ajay Lalge attended a meeting of the Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS), a right-wing fringe group. The meeting was held in response to protests following the release of morphed images of prominent right-wing figures such as Bal Thackeray. According to witnesses the leader of the HRS, Dhananjay Desai made an impassioned speech provoking listeners to go out and rampage through the streets. Gambhire, Yadav, and Lalge obliged, and later that evening tracked down Mohsin and Riyaz Shaikh, young Muslim IT workers. They beat Mohsin to death with hockey sticks while Riyaz escaped.

On January 16, 2017, Justice Mridula Bhatkar of the high court released the three men on bail, claiming that “in the name of the religion, they were provoked and have committed the murder.” The family of the deceased is expected to take their case to the supreme court and challenging the sentence. Mohsin’s father is quoted as saying “Is provocative speech permissible for murder of an innocent person from another religion? All three accused were arrested from the murder spot.”

This case is a very severe example of the differences between religious faith and observance as discussed in-class on Monday. It is very evident that the three aggressors in this case had very, very different religious views than Mohsin Shaikh. The question of whether or not these religious views are an acceptable excuse for murder is a separate issue, but the fact remains that spirituality can form a piece of one’s identity so prominent that they can be moved to kill someone over it.

At the start of the new year, a McDonald’s location opened right outside of Vatican City. The McDonald’s franchise is expansive and global and thus it is characteristic of the company to monopolize on the extensive tourism surrounding the Vatican. It is surprising, however, that the Catholic community, the leadership of the Vatican, and the agency that handles its real estate would allow for McDonald’s to utilize that space. Although the McDonald’s has successfully opened their doors, they have not done so without vocal disappointment from its surrounding community. Cardinal Elio Sgreccia called the new location a “disgrace” and also noted that the restaurant clashed with the historic visual appeal of the rest of the Vatican City and disrespects Roman traditions and cuisine.  The Vatican will receive approximately 30,000 euros monthly in rent from McDonald’s, proving financial gain to be a significant factor in the Vatican’s approval of the lease. The real estate agency has also approved The Hard Rock Cafe to open it’s doors near the City, which will replace a religious bookstore.

The incoming of McDonald’s and The Hard Rock Cafe is representative of the recent shift in religious traditions. As we have studied in class, although spirituality may be on the rise, involvement in religious organizations has declined significantly. The Vatican City is an emblem of the Catholic tradition and is powerfully symbolic to many who practice Catholicism. The influx of commercial industries near the Vatican exemplifies the notion that the tradition within the organization has become less important, and capitalistic tendencies has began to play a bigger role in its function.

In Ireland, 90% of primary (K-8th) schools are under the control of the Catholic church and 6% are controlled by other religious groups.  This means that only 4% of schools in Ireland are not religiously affiliated. The education minister, Richard Bruton said “religious parents’ wishes to educate their children in their faith should be respected but that non-Christian parents should not be unfairly disadvantaged.”  Resources are often given to the religious schools before the non-relgious ones, effecting many children’s educations. Bruton has set out plans to tackle the religious discrimination in the Irish education system, cutting out the unfairness of a baptism requirement for school enrollment. Bruton has four different plans   to stop schools discriminating against non-religious families, but Irish secularists say that each proposal is “deeply flawed”. Three of the proposals would  continue some form of religious discrimination and only a full ban would actually make any difference within the schools. Some school officials see this as a good thing because it would make it easier to convert the atheist children if they are already within the school. They see it as a way to further their following especially with children being so impressionable. Although if the schools are forced to mix, it could create discrimination for the children who are the minority religion. In McGuire books she talks about how in a society like Ireland where majority of people around have the same beliefs, the child’s exposure to religion is informally and continuously. In Ireland, children go to school where they learn about their religion and then they go home to their families that reenforce that learning. If children get taught at school, but then hear different things at home it could cause an identity crisis for the child.