In the article, “Supreme Court Stays Execution of Buddhist Inmate,” by Adam Liptak, it is described how the execution of a Buddhist inmate in Texas was denied his request for his spiritual advisor to be present in the execution chamber on the basis that Texas policy only allows a state-employed Christian or Muslim religious advisers present in the execution room, not Buddhists or advisers of any other religion.

The article goes on to discuss how when Murphy, the inmate, asked to allow his religious advisor to be present at the execution that a prison official responded that only prison employees are allowed in the execution chamber. Texas officials justifies this policy by saying that it is based on security considerations; that to have an untrained visitor to the execution chamber could succumb to a multitude of consequences such as irrational behavior, pulling lines out of the inmate, taunting witnesses and so on.

This case presents a great nuance in the justice system of what is considered the line between religion and state. Furthermore, it presents the discrimination of one religion against the upholding of others which is obviously contradictory to the U.S. Constitution’s freedom of religion.

It is fascinating to see how such a specific case includes so many interdisciplinaries with religion such as  state policy, societal norms, and prison protocol. It shows how there are still many issues that our country faces with the intersection of state and religion and it can be argued to a certain degree that our government is institutionalized to uphold a Christian faith.

Here is the article to read more.

This week’s reading was by Professor Spickard and was about understanding catholic worker house masses. The prevalence of charity in the article reminded me of my time studying abroad in Salzburg, Austria. As students, we were required to do a good deal of volunteering and a part of that volunteering was through a Catholic organization called Caritas. Their reach extended to nearly all realms of charity and was at a state level. As a student volunteer, I did activities like cooking dinner for a children’s shelter as well as serving food at a shelter for refugees and homeless Austrians. I see similarities in values and practices with the organization discussed in this article. This reading brought up so many questions for me, like is there something about Catholicism in particular that allows for charity originations or acts of charity to be commonplace? Or do we see it in our daily lives so prevalently because of the sheer volume and reach of the Catholic Church? With just over a billion Roman Catholics in the world, it isn’t surprising to conclude the prevalence is because of sheer number of adherents, but is there something else?

It was also interesting to learn that this Catholic group which was in the realm of radical Catholicism had a relatively traditional mass. The type of mass that you could find all over the world in a Catholic church. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of traditional practices coupled with the types of progressive activities they were involved in. It’s a testament to being able to being able to do good in the world and interpret religion for the benefit of others.

This past week I went to visit my assigned congregation.  My partner, Lucy, and I went on a visit to the Door Christian Fellowship.  We went to the 11am worship service and had a wonderful time observing the traditions that this church does.  We are excited to share what our experience was like during class this next upcoming week.

As we walked in the building, there were a couple of people that were having conversations with each other.  However, I noticed that there was no one there to greet us or hand us out information cards/pamphlets. So we followed the crowd and joined everyone into the chapel.  As soon as we found a seat, the worship service immediately started. They sang a total of four songs. The first two songs were really short and fast. They lasted about 1-2 min with rapid clapping for rhythm.  The last two songs I was in fact familiar with and was able to sing along. The worship leader that started singing was a very young man in his mid 20’s. After two more songs, the two pastors of the church each took over and sang the rest of the songs.  I found this to be very interesting being compared to my church’s worship routine. At my church, we would have a worship leader sing every song and the pastor would come to the stage after to speak his sermon. At the Door Christian Fellowship, they had a total of 3 people sing.

The pastor of the church, Rich Cox, was speaking his sermon that day.  His message was mainly about joy and how that with God in your life, He will bring you joy.  It was a very touching message as he made some comical jokes here and there.

The service then ended within an hour, with a quick song and a prayer.  Lucy and I were then able to chat with other people and got some good information about the church.  My partner and I can’t wait to share our experience at the Door Christian Fellowship in more depth and to answer any questions that our fellow classmates have for us.  

Throughout the many  Jigsaw readings and articles we have been discussing in class these past few weeks, one of the few that caught my eye and I resonated with was the Fluffy Bunnies one, about “fake” Pagans. While in no way am I familiar with the religions encompassing Paganism itself, nor do I claim to be a practicing Pagan, I took a WGS course last semester called “Women and Witchcraft,” which explored the portrayals of witchcraft in the media and how there are harmful stereotypes perpetuated in the media of it.

Many Pagans were offended by movies such as The Craft and Rosemary’s Baby which draw connections between Satanism and the devil with witchcraft. The Craft specifically was not intended to be offensive and the director consulted actual people involved in high leadership positions within the religion to incorporate real elements of Paganism into the film, however, many Pagans found it offensive that elements of their religion were “appropriated” for entertainment. The “Fluffy Bunnies” the article discusses are practicers of some parts of Paganism, but hardcore believers argue that they are giving the religion a bad name, and that they do not respect all aspects of Paganism, only some. Therefore, this gives others a limited view of Paganism is about. In both scenarios, only certain elements of a religion are represented by a practicer or production.

However, religion, and furthermore, spirituality,  is really about picking and choosing what parts appeal to the individual. That is the job of pastors, to appeal to the congregation by emphasizing certain verses of the Bible and adapting it to fit in people’s everyday lives so they can relate to it. It seems unfair to claim someone is a “fake Pagan” for the level of religious intensity they exercise in their lifestyles.

The last case study I read, “The Religious Varieties of Ethnic Presence” by Carolyn Chen, is about how the religious landscape changes for the same ethnic group when they follow different religions. Chen talks about two Taiwanese congregations: a Buddhist Temple and a Christian Evangelical Church. The assumption is that despite the fact that these are the same ethnic groups, their social experience would be different because off their religion; Christian churches would have a greater interaction with those outside their ethnic, immigrant religious group because they’re “inner-worldly” and are more assimilated into American society, whereas Buddhist Temples would find the cold shoulder. However, what was found in a study is that the Buddhist temple was actually more engaged with American society than the Christian church, despite being “other-worldly” and a religious minority. Why this all boils down to how it is, is because religious ideals determine a congregation’s public presence. The Christian church emphasizes evangelism and the spreading of the word, however this method was limiting to outreach for members due to the fact that the Taiwanese Christian church was faced with the challenge of social and language barriers. These limitations only allowed members of the church to engage with others who they could talk to and interact with, most being people of the same ethnic group. The Buddhist temple on the other hand, emphasizes more of good deeds, world outreach, and religious tolerance. These ideals enabled the members of the Buddhist temple to be more involved with the outside world because they focused on charity which allows outreach everywhere and results in more exposure for the members. Furthermore, because the Buddhist temple emphasizes religious tolerance, the members have had more religious interactions and thus, more ethnic interaction. It was really interesting to read this article because it shows how even though one may pertain from the same ethnic group, one’s experience within religion can be completely different than another’s simply due to the religious ideals one follows.

In her 1996 presidential address Organized Religion in a Voluntaristic Society, Nancy Ammerman mentions how Conservative Judaism emphasizes commitment as a spiritual journey rather than as an either/or facet of modern life. My experience with Conservative Judaism confirms this notion, and this characteristic of the religion is a huge part of what has drawn me to it.

Because nobody forced the religion upon me or insisted that I must have certain beliefs to call myself Jewish, I have always felt at home at synagogue, which set a solid foundation to build off of as a young adult. Since then, I have developed genuine interest in studying the mitzvot and adhere to as many as I can in my daily life. This contrasts with others in our class who described their religiosity as declining, but they came from different backgrounds– it is easier to feel welcomed in a religious community when you don’t feel judged or looked down upon for failing to achieve total piety. It’s not that the standard for piety is lower, it just takes intention and the implications of modern society into account. If I came from a religious background in which they required you to totally buy in right away, there is a good chance that I would be on a completely different spiritual journey than I am today.

Before reading Ammerman’s work, I didn’t realize that this emphasis on the journey was particularly a feature of Judaism. It makes me wonder when this ideology began, and whether it was a response to a decline in Jewish followers or an existing facet that helps explain the rise in Conservative Judaism today.

*********So sorry this is late, I forgot to post and I’m just hoping to avoid a zero!

For the last several classes we’ve been doing the Jigsaw readings and Thursday’s was the first one where they didn’t really tie in together. The rest of them had, had an underlying theme that were all tied together from reading to reading and fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, but I couldn’t really figure out what tied them together thus time. I read the “Fluffy Bunny Syndrome” article and just reading the title at first, I was very confused. I genuinely had no idea what religion it would talk about or what bunnies had to do with it. As I read I quickly learned that it was talking about the Pagan religion. “Fluffy Bunny” is a derogatory term for some Pagans who just kind of practice the mainstream stuff and don’t really get the deeper sense of paganism. It was interesting to see it this way because to me the pagan religion seemed to be smaller and community oriented, like a tight knit group of people. But even then, they still have their own problems within each other and don’t always see eye to eye on how to practice.

When reading the article I found the Pagan Fairs to be most interesting because there were multiple sides to the people. There were some who wanted to stick to authentic Pagan ways, some who were just “fluffy bunnies”, and then there were the ones who “pretended” to be a fluffy bunny in order to make Pagans more attractive to others. This is interesting because most people in society  want to be accepted by others and may change their image in such ways, but I never really looked at it from the perspective of religion. In order to attract people to a certain religion or to make it more appealing, people do give somewhat of a “false” representation. It’s not just Pagans, it’s many religions we’ve looked at. We’ve seen it in the congregations we’ve visited, with the signs and encouragement to join and welcoming new people, most religions are seeking to grow and will figure out how best to do that. Religion can be very personal or community oriented, but each religious structure is going to display themselves in a way that will most strongly connect to people because the goal tends to be to continue the religion.

Throughout the past couple of weeks, as we have been reading different articles to present to the class; I have found the article “Apocalypse at Waco” by Tabor to be one of the most interesting. I find the idea of the ‘end of the world’ very interesting and it was intriguing to see the perspective of the Armageddon to be seen in a more realist and modern day light. As I was growing up, the apocalypse was a very big topic within most church services as people see “signs” of when God is coming back constantly and as it was written in the book of Revelation, so it is being seen in our modern times. The older I get, there seems to be so many more political and social issues that are associated with the end and I had never heard of this story of the Branch Davidians until reading this article. It is wild that people take the issues and ideas that come along with the apocalypse into their own hands because in the Bible it is pretty clear that the apocalypse will all be to Gods doing. However, it was pretty freaky reading about how we are in a time where people assure themselves that we are living in the end times and now it’s the time to take things into “our own hands” and prove that the end is near. This man Cyrus had so many strong beliefs and was able to gather so many people to listen to those beliefs which is so interesting to read about considering so many thought he was a type of holy man but others saw him as crazy.

This past Sunday, I, along with Lucy Snow, visited Faith Chapel. Faith Chapel is a pentecostal church, belonging to the Assemblies of God branch of pentecostalism. The sermon was given on the theme of worship. The lead Pastor, Keith Short, explained how there was, “no correct method or form to worship,” however he continued to mock the methods that members of other faiths practiced. I was struck by the hypocrisy of his sermon. I began to wonder if this is the shape that modern sectarian churches are taking. I believe that many sectarian churches realize how they are unappealing to outsiders and are taking steps to become more denominational. This was evident at Faith Chapel, where Miller’s Reinventing American Protestantism  came to life.

Although Faith Chapel was nowhere near the Evangelical Megachurch aesthetic that Miller describes, they were in the beginning stages of incorporating these elements into their service. When I entered the building, I was immediately welcomed and given a newcomers  packet. The very first piece of information listed on this packet was the church’s social media accounts. This, accompanied with the worship service illustrated to me Faith Chapel’s move to denominationalize. During the worship service, televisions were used to project the lyrics for the audience. The pieces that were chosen were contemporary Evangelical songs that I grew up singing at Sandals Church, an Evangelical Megachurch. Faith Chapel has been making big strides towards technological savviness and modernization. However, will that be enough to overpower the theologically sectarian congregation? I do not believe so.

During my visit, Pastor Short just so happened to dig at all three religions I have been affiliated with in my lifetime. He mocked Catholics by saying that their services are so ritualistic, that their members are “cold-hearted and lifeless.” He mocked Evangelical Megachurches when he explained their use of lights and sound engineering. He said to his congregation, “I am not asking you to be judgemental, but wonder with me, is this worship in the flesh or worship in the spirit?” He then poked at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by claiming that Modern day Temples were simply flashy structures meant to distract. He doubted the serious faithfulness and worship of every religion except his own, and I do not believe Faith Chapel with ever be a denominational congregation until that changes.

This past weekend I stumbled on an article on the topic of new archaeologist findings and religion. There were several valued belongings of the people of Lake Titicaca, today it is known as Bolivia. In the excavation there were two gold medallions, metal plaques , incense burners, animal remains  and stones located near the Khao reef. Since it was all found by the reef there is some assumption that this was a ritual site for the people.  It is too early; however to put a name or know the significance of the meanings of these pieces that were found in regards to their religion. Not only this but the value that was held between the relationship of trading and religion. For example some of the animal remains and other remains found were items that are specific to the Pacific Ocean and would not be found in Lake Titicaca. Which leads to the belief that some of the remains that had religions ties were held at a higher standard than others.

I found this article very important and when archaeologists discover these items I believe it should be spoken about more. It is important to look at our past of religion and different areas of how communities operated in their religious communities because in someway it all connects back to where certain religions are today.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/04/evidence-ancient-religion-discovered-lake-titicaca/