President Trump was heavily criticized in his statement on the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Not once in his speech did he acknowledge the millions of Jews that lost their lives or the fact that anti-Semitic feelings are still present today. His speech many felt was inappropriate and missed the mark completely, however the white house refused to comment when asked why he left out central themes. According to the article “Trump has been accused of trafficking in anti-Semitic stereotypes and his campaign has been accused of employing anti-Semitic tropes.” (Gibson). On top of those accusations leaving out a core part of Holocaust Remembrance is only accentuating his anti-Semitic views indirectly.

In order to be successful in the congregation visits students had to go into the church service with an open mind. One of the main advantages of an open mind way of thinking is the ability to empathize with other religions and people. The contrast between the southern Baptist and the Catholic Mass could not have been more distinct, but learning about them both made me more understanding of their beliefs and traditions. We are also able to compare across the board why some congregations are successful and the different ways they each measure success.

Source:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/27/trump-fails-mention-jews-holocaust-remembrance-statement/97150252/

https://thewire.in/109052/understanding-religions-fundamental-to-citizenship/
The article’s point was learning and understanding religion is necessary nowadays to citizenship. You see different religion everywhere, and  religion is key that brings conflict among different viewpoint about anything such as justice, freedom, etc.

As McGuire said in the book, religion brings not only conflict but also cohesion. But in order to have debate that walk towards cohesion rather than attack each other, knowing and understanding other religion is so important that “In educational theory, religious literacy could be considered a ‘threshold concept’ for 21st-century citizenship”.

This article uses the word tolerance, but in Levitt word I think it’s more pluralism. As tolerant (in Levitt definition) people are afraid, the article says that becoming more religiously literate can change “will not necessarily lead to more agreement – indeed, it might even steel our convictions. But it will lead to being able to ‘disagree better’ (the aim of the Scriptural Reasoning movement) by tampering cheap stereotypes and petty caricatures”. I define myself as tolerant person. I sometimes wonder why I want to study religion anyways if I don’t like to be changed by religion. Want to know about something I don’t know is one, but I think “disagree better” also makes sense to me. I don’t mean I want to disagree with people to attack, but want to disagree to get something out of it, so I can become more pluralistic.

This week’s news article discusses the tragic vandalism of dozens of headstones at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis. According to the article police are in the process of reviewing security footage, and are not yet prepared to declare whether or not the act was a hate crime. However, on the same day as the vandalism occurred, 11 Jewish community centers were targeted with another wave of bomb threats; the fourth this year. The FBI is currently looking into the matter. The cemetery in question is the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, which was founded in 1893 and has been serving the community for more than 125 years. According to the cemetery foundation’s website, “It operates in accordance with Jewish tradition as is telling from its name: Chesed – loving kindness; and Emeth – Torah Truth and integrity.” This is a very tragic occurrence, and highlights our recent discussion about religious conflict among different congregations and society at large. Assuming this act of defamation was indeed a hate crime, it is truly tragic what this indicates for the political situation in America.

Source: http://religionnews.com/2017/02/21/vandals-wreck-headstones-at-historic-jewish-cemetery-in-st-louis/

The devastating reality that people are after a particular religious denomination has been evident in the news the past few days. The article I read was called, Another Wave Of Bomb Threats Targets Jewish Community Centers. Reading this article was emotionally draining. The anti semitism that is still among us in the United States breaks my heart. I believe that everyone should have the freedom to worship who they want and practice the religion they want without being threatened for it. This all connects back to the intolerance that Muslims have been suffering through in the past few years. For some reason as Americans we have grown up to believe that certain people have superiority compared to others. This is not the case though, our forefathers created the Declaration of Independence and Constitution so that everyone would have freedom. I believe that a big role in these threats is that America is seeing hard times right now. Everyone is having a hard time living as one and learning to accept each other and a big part of this has to do with our current President. In the article it mentioned the way that President Trump was approaching question about what the government was going to do about this. His response was that he was insulted because he took it as if people were asking because they thought he didn’t care about the situation. I personally think that this was the wrong way to go about a response. He should have just answered the question and not taken offense to it. This problem is something we need to handle, whatever the solution may be. It is a right to choose your Religion and people living in fear should not be a result of our freedom.

Work Cited: Domonoske, Camila. “Another Wave Of Bomb Threats Targets Jewish Community Centers.” NPR. NPR, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/21/516422832/another-wave-of-bomb-threats-targets-jewish-community-centers.

I thought Reinventing American Protestantism was really interesting case study. Compare to the church I visit, and other stories that I heard about church, the “sandal church” sounds much more fun. It looks like going concert and have community.

The story of pastor reminds me the pastor from “Born again: Life in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church”. The people, not just pastor, in that movie had experienced the fall out of life at some point and turned into religious and have personal relationship with God. However, different from those in “Born again”, the way of sandal church is more suited to the people and period. What I have felt about that film was that it is not right way to attract people (well that film was in 1987 so that make sense). And the sandal church, I thought, is inventing new style of religion that attracting people in this period (maybe not including old people or people who like traditional way). As they said in presentation, they are successful because they fulfill the needs of people. The church I visited was diminishing the size because there is not enough people attending. They were discussing about what to do about that, and maybe they need to invent something like sandal church (maybe not exactly something since one of member of that church was complaining about loud music playing in other church) to get more people in church.

The diversity of the presentations this past week was astonishing. From a discussion of a cult and freedom, to the strict aspects of women who choose a life of Orthodox Judaism, the experiences varied. While all the presentations this week were interesting, two stuck out to me: Traditions in a Rootless World and Reinventing American Protestantism. I think they interested me more because of the opposite experience individuals were seeking for their religious life. For the women who chose to be Orthodox Jews, they lived strict lives with guided rules and structure. Their traditions consisted on following concrete rules which in a very specific way. On the other hand, Reinventing America Protestantism focused on the idea of a casual experience with God and your religious practices. While both can be considered to be based on more conservative ideals, the experience of these ideals vary.

One question that the group on the Paradigm Church proposed to the class was “do you think the popularity of the mega church will lead to the extinction of the type of churches and religious institution that have come before it?” This question stuck out to me because I think this trend has always been a part of religion. There has not been a time where a church or another community has come from another and gained more popularity than the more traditional counterpart. However, early churches such as the Eastern Orthodox or Jewish traditions such as Orthodox Judaism are still in existence. It is obvious that the numbers in America differ between the mega churches and more traditional, but that is religious freedom. Each person is seeking something different and we have the ability to search for what we are most attracted to. In my opinion the paradigm churches are very unattractive. I don’t want it to be as “relatable” as social media or other things. I want to church to feel like it is other worldly, but I might be the only one. The beauty of having a choice is being able to do what you think is best.

I am happy that I was able to present to the class this week “Shared Parishes” the book written by Brett Hoover.  The challenges the parishioners had to deal with from sharing a church facility or the integration of people from different backgrounds is something everyone in America has gone through. With the promise of the “American Dream” how can we blame others for wanting what is best for themselves but also for their family? With President Trump bringing up a great deal of hate in the country the fear that has been burden upon people is unimaginable. In my opinion and as seen through my case presentation the faster we adapt to change and are willing to be open minded to the ways of other cultural background the happier our country will be, and the more likely we will all grow as individuals.

Listening to the presentations I came upon one reoccurring theme; religion has such a positive influence on follower’s no matter what faith members practice. Perhaps my favorite presentation this week was the one done on the Paradigm churches. After the presentation was done I understood why they are so popular, the fact that there not a hierarchy, that they use all the senses to portray their message and how they focus in on smaller focus groups reminds of me so much of school at U of R. All of these elements make for the ideal learning environment. The genius behind this way of preaching is that by creating a place where people feel empowered and motivated to learn is the best way to get a message across.

Looking back to the book presentations of this past week, after having now seen presentations regarding women in cults and Orthodox Judaism, to the idea of new Protestantism. The last case study we saw about Reinventing American Protestantism really opened my eyes and finally gave me a title for my own identity. For years I have always identified as Christian but never identified to a specific denomination or a specific type of church. But after hearing this presentation from Wednesday, I found myself finally putting a title to my beliefs and the style that I had come to love, and may have even found a church for myself, which has been part of my searching since I’ve been to college. The ideals behind the style and the set up of it made it all seem more realistic and not just a confusing idea that I had in my head about what I believed. I found it interesting that people specifically sought out this style of church based on the emotions that it brought into one’s faith that not many other styles or denomination tend to focus on. I also found it interesting that it focused on a combination or blend of beliefs, ideals, and traditions and simply created something that was more relatable with society of today and the new up and coming generations that have sought out churches and have sought answers from and an identity within their faith.

Watching the in class book presentations these past two weeks has been enlightening. I have been able to once again see religion through a new lens, this aspect of the class has been my favorite. I am very confident and set in my faith so sometimes it helps to break away and open up my mind to new ideas. I have no interest in ever converting religions but I like having the chance to being more knowledgeable and accepting of others. One of the most compelling book presentations we had was Passionate Journeys: Why Successful Women Joined a Cult. I was intrigued by the drastic differences between a cult and a denominational religion. The experiences that they have are extremely different than those that I have grown up having. The concept of them all living in one big mansion was a surprise to me because that takes on a whole new meaning to what community is. Community can take on many shapes but this was one of the first times I had actually been taught about a cult. In the cult they all have the freedom to do what they want with one another and live freely with no commitments. That is something that I have never seen in my time studying denominational and secular religion. Denominations have very set rules and regulations in order to ensure that people will be able to get themselves saved and to Heaven. Another interesting book presentation was The Shared Parish, before this I had no idea this phrase stood for two different church groups sharing one space. I loved having this opportunity to learn from my peers.