Many more case studies were presented and many more added to our multi-diverse discussion.  I remember on Tuesday regarding the books “Tradition in a Rootless World” and “A Mosaic of Believers”.  What was fascinating was the background research each author did for their respective church setting.  Ms. Davidman did her outline surrounding the conversion of orthodoxy in Judaism with two very distinct groups of secular Jewish women.  I loved the consistent theme regarding women’s role in both groups that showed not only their experience; but also, the thoughts of their fellow Jews and how they treated women’s roles and if they were going to be progressive.  One common factor both groups seemed to share was that conversion happened mainly due to a sense of feeling lost, or discontent—ultimately leading them to their faith.

Next, Mr. Marti’s in-depth analysis of the Mosaic Church located in L.A.  The four “havens” were interesting in their own rights; since they all have their own pros and cons.  The theological, multiethnic, artistic, innovator, and age havens seem to have alienated a certain area of humanity—thus leading to more people leaving the church.  They did share one quote that I found inspiring; and one that I think sums up how many contemporary religious groups feel.  Gerardo Marti stated: “Change does not have to be feared; it can be embraced, especially if it accomplishes the purposes of God.”  It appears that the Mosaic church truly wishes to increase its fluidity of ethnicity; because it aims to create a new shared culture of different kinds of people together; rather than adapt the varying cultures.

My group and I did a case study on Konieczny’s book, The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work, and Religion among American Catholics, and I was intrigued. I didn’t know much about Catholicism as I was growing up (all I knew was that they baptized babies and “worshiped” the Virgin Mary), so I took this as an opportunity to learn more about the religion itself. However, this book gave me two, very detailed, experiences at two very different Catholic churches.

When I read about the Our Lady of Assumption church, I didn’t understand how a Catholic church could be so strict. I always remembered my Catholic friends being allowed to do more than I was when I was younger, and their parents were always less strict. I always wanted to convert to Catholicism as a kid because it seemed more fun. But this church wasn’t what I thought a Catholic church would be like. They had bold opinions on abortion, there were gender roles, and there was a bit of a hierarchy. I was blown away when I read the stories of the people Konieczny interviewed.

The second church, Saint Brigitta, was interesting as well because it was very different from Assumption. It was definitely a lot more lax, and it seemed like the members enjoyed being members there. I thought it was crazy that they met in a gymnasium, compared to Assumption that met in a grand chapel with stain glass windows. I thought it was especially crazy that members of this church were pro-choice, and they weren’t reprimanded by the priest. Overall, I love how Konieczny wrote this book because she took two churches of the same religion in the same city, and showed how completely different they actually were.

In chapter four of McGuires book, she brings up the topic of Women’s Religion and Gender Roles. She explains the connection between religious expectations and societal gender stereotypes. The roles that men and women have in society are created by the religious groups  definition of them. In class recently, we have been talking about how more people are identifying as Unaffiliated and how the word “Spiritual” is being used more. When examining America in recent years, we see an increase in women and minority rights. People today are defying gender stereotypes and breaking the norms and views of society. Women of this generation refuse to conform to a man’s idea of what a woman should do or say. This creates many women who reject what many traditional or official religious teachings say. In non-official religions, women are allowed to define their own roles and find meanings that have relevance to who they really are and not who men tell them to be.

I find it very interesting that “extrascientific explanations” can be so interwoven ad/or coexistent with official religion. As a practicing Jewish person, I am very familiar with numerology and its prevalence in Judaism. I learned when I was very young that the number 18 somehow spelled out the Hebrew word for “life”, and haven’t questioned the correlation or logic since. Although I was aware of the concept of numerology, I never thought of it as a stand alone belief system. I just assumed it was an exclusively Jewish concept, and one that did not fall anywhere near in the same category as UFOs or witchcraft.

Another practice I never considered comparable to religion is astrology. I have been around astrology my entire life, but I have never really delved in too deeply. However, I have always known that I am a Scorpio, and the related basic traits. I have observed that this is a commonality among most people in modern society– astrology is acknowledged as existent, but not necessarily believed in. I found it fascinating that McGuire felt the need to say that astrology can exist alongside official religion, because I never thought of the two as conflicting. I have several people in my life who subscribe wholeheartedly to astrology, and also express belief in G-d. Now that I think about it further, it does offer explanations for goings on in everyday life and personal tendencies that might otherwise be justified by religion.

Growing up in a Hispanic household I was always surrounded by tales of the paranormal and witchcraft. To convey how I felt to the reader, it almost felt like I was in the time period of the Salem witch trials. These stories range from La Llorona to witchcraft in the form of animals. These stories are so embedded in the Hispanic culture that they are passed down generations and always include a first-hand experience of the events. Of course, like most traditions, some of these stories tend to die off in the children of immigrant families. This I do not know why considering I am a child of immigrants. But what is consistent throughout these stories is that there always is some sort of religion implemented into the accounts. In the case of my family, my mother absolutely hates the fact that she can hear the Lechuzas at night. For those who do not know, Lechuzas are large owl like animals that are associated with death and witchcraft. My mother is a major believer in the stories to the point where she would sprinkle holy water around the foundation of our house to cast a sort of barrier from the evils that these Lechuzas bring. She has also tied in the death of a family member to the appearance of these animals. It is a strange occurrence that we happen to live by a mountain where these creatures are located and other various paranormal observations, made by my mother, happen. To say I do not believe in these stories would be a lie because there are things that have happened that I cannot explain and my usual response to the paranormal stories told by friends is “I’m Mexican so I’m not going to mess with that.” Could this just be folklore passed down generations and perhaps occurred before the arrival of the Spanish or is there actually something that is going on that people have used religion to counter these acts of the paranormal? Is culture a factor into these stories as well?

The case study I read was Passionate Journeys by Marion Goldman. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and was moved by the stories of the women who decided to devote their lives to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I had never heard of Rajneeshpuram or sanyassins before reading this book. Goldman tells the life stories of 3 women, although each composite is made up of multiple women. This was something that was difficult for me to wrap my head around, because Goldman was so descriptive of each of their lives.  After reading the book, I google searched to discover more about Bhagwan’s movement. Many of the articles had titles like “Crazy Stories from Inside Oregon’s Sex Cult”. After reading Goldman’s book and understanding the stories of some of the women who were a part of this movement, to see it reduced to a sex cult was very jarring. In each of the women, I saw parts of myself and of others I know. Part of Goldman’s message in this book was to show that the decisions and commitments these women made were not so different or crazy compared to decisions we make all the time. Each women always felt like they were missing something and seeking for something more, and none of them were satisfied until they discovered the Rajneesh movement. These women were smart and successful, and ended up on the path they did due to a mixture of things internal and external. It is easy to look at pictures of Rajneeshpuram where devotees are wearing all orange, and headlines reducing the movement to a sex cult, and believe that all who joined must have been crazy, irrational, etc. But when reading the stories of the women and recognizing how intelligent and analytical about their choices they were, and also seeing how their life played out, their decisions seemed to make sense. I appreciated how Goldman used the stories of successful female sanyassins to ask general questions about women in America and their searches for fulfillment.

This week I was interested in the section of Chapter 4 in McGuire’s book that discussed the “Paranormal and Occult” (McGuire 120). The section made me think about how “belief in paranormal occurrences is fairly widespread” (McGuire 120). Most of the people I interact with believe in some sort of paranormal aspect of life. From what I have observed, belief in the paranormal/occult can be as simple as the belief in ghosts or as complex as a completely altered worldview that revolves around mystical occurrences. I have noticed that the paranormal and occult is particularly prevalent and appreciated in popular culture for entertainment value. There are countless movies and television shows that are about ghosts and other paranormal experiences. In addition, astrology and horoscopes are present all over the internet and social media. These types of paranormal beliefs are seen more than those that are from other cultures. It seems unfair that certain types of paranormal/occult experiences are appreciated in Western society but non-western “beliefs and practices are [seen as] characteristic only of the poorly educated or of recent immigrants from other cultures” (McGuire 121). It is unreasonable to value some beliefs over others, especially when they are of considerable importance to an individual. In addition, many people do not realize that official religions have aspects that are paranormal/occult. For instance, in the Christian faith, it is widely believed that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Why is it reasonable for one to believe Christ rose from the dead, but it is unreasonable for someone to believe that they still have connections to those that have past? We cannot make a double standard that only accepts certain cultures’ and official religions’ beliefs as “worthy”. Even if we do not agree with someone else’s beliefs, we have a duty to respect them as we would want our beliefs to be respected.

As the semester continues, I learn more about religion has a role in much of our entertainment and media culture. Since I am a media and visula culture major, I am required to analyze specific movies throughout multiple courses. Today, in my Indian cinema class, we watched a film called “Pyaasa”. At first, I realized no religious symbols whatsoever, however through an in class analysis on the film, we discovered there were numerous religious symbols throughout. In the movie there is a scene where a man is resurrected from the dead and goes to his memorial service and you can see how he stands in a doorway with his arms in a T formation, with the light coming from behind him, which creates the visual that he is Christ. This movie is a Hindu film, which is interesting to see how there would be a Christian motif in the movie. This really opens my eyes to how religion plays a factor not only in peoples religious affiliations and lives, but it also something that is familiar to everyone in a way to if you were to see it in a film, you could identify how important the scene must be, considering the resurrection of Jesus Christ is such a influential moment that it was included in an international film. This goes along with how there not only is such a large Christian population in America, but also in India. We have to identify that using this symbol is a reflection of the influence that religion has amongst popular culture.

As my family was having a serious discussion about religion and how they enjoy when church speakers go to their homes once a week to talk about a bible version or any thoughts about the word of God. Hence the majority of my family is Catholic they really implement religious figures and tradition in everyday life like praying before a meal, praying and confession or talking to God. I was targeted by my mom saying that I was atheist for the reason that I didn’t like going to church and doubted the image of God.  So I looked up the definition of an atheist and I found this article on the types of non-believers and listed some alternatives. Atheists is the lack of a God concept with no moral core.  I somewhat believe that there is some energy, but I don’t necessarily identify an image of a God like person.

The second “non-believer” on the list was agnostic which represents  various perspectives on the importance of one’s own right. In other terms they don’t know if here is a God but believe there will be an answer in the future.

Third on the list is a skeptic which is someone who doubts a religious concept and will believe based on evidence. Another non-believer is a “freethinker” which I didn’t know was a classified groups but are those who oppose the church and the literal biblical idea. There will only believe the logic and with evidence and will decide on what is real or not.

Next are “humanist” who are set on ethical values like compassion and self-determination. It dwells on the concept of inner peace and spiritual connotation like recognize the benefits of a spiritual community and having rituals instead of the supernatural. “Pantheist” do not believe in a person-god but rather in the idea of natural order who see humans as a small grain of said in a whole universe and what exists.

https://www.alternet.org/2012/06/no_religion_7_types_of_non-believers/

In my reading of the case study, The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work, and Religion among American Catholics by Konieczny, it was really interesting to see the analysis of the religion to which I personally belong. It was definitely interesting to see the spectrum of communities within the broader community of the Catholic church. In my reading, I found that I related a lot to Konieczny’s description of Our Lady of Assumption. This church practiced more conservation values and operated under the organization of church as a family. In my personal experience, my family and I did not have the same interests of our church. As a result, we felt alienated from the Catholic church and thus left our religious community. While reading Konieczny, Assumption felt very familiar to me, but at the same time, uncomfortable, considering my conflict with a similar community.

Interestingly enough, reading about the second church, Saint Brigitta, was equally interesting in its espousal of egalitarian views and tension with the Catholic institution. In some ways, I feel like if my family had been involved with a Catholic church more similar to Saint Brigitta rather than Our Lady of Assumption, we may have not had a falling out with the church. Overall, it was really interesting to see how people’s attitude concerning religion can be vastly different depending on their church of memory, and how the church we attended played a major role in my family’s separation from Catholicism, rather than Catholicism itself.