While looking at my Facebook newsfeed last Wednesday, I stumbled across something that caught my eye in the ‘trending’ column. I believe it said something along the lines of “12^th Dead Sea Scrolls cave found”. Quite interested in this area of subject, I clicked the link and it took me to this webpage: http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/33424 where the homepage was titled “The Hebrew University of Jerusalem”. I started to read the article which proceeded to say that a 12^th Dead Sea Scroll cave had been found by Dr. Oren Gutfeld and Ahiad Ovadia from the Hebrew University. Similar to the 8^th Dead Sea Scroll cave, no actual scrolls were found within, instead, there were storage jars and lids dating to the Second Temple period, alluding to the fact that at one point, there were Dead Sea Scrolls within. The article continued to inform us that scholars believed the scrolls had been looted in the century prior and thus weren’t present in the cave.

Finding this discovery quite fascinating, I went to google and typed in “12^th Dead Sea Scroll cave” to see what else was out there. Websites I weren’t familiar with (besides AOL) popped up and I tried avoiding them, not knowing if they’d be credible sources. Eventually, I stopped my 15-minute search and decided to call it quits, not being able to find a known reputable news source. This moment in time had me thinking a lot about all the fake news that’s constantly being spouted through media and more. It’s hard for most people, especially the uneducated and the youth, to be able to weed out what they should and should not trust. There’s also a whole other aspect to this problem, and it’s that everyone is going to have their own opinion on what ‘reliable’ news is. Conservatives could believe everything that comes out of Fox News while liberals do the same with NPR and the New York Times. This is a problem that I have no answer to, though I wish I did.

Looking back at the case study presentation from the past two weeks, I have found that many of the books cover the idea of breaking from the tradition in some way or another to meet one’s religious/spiritual needs. One idea of this that I found in the news is the common tradition of Ash Wednesday, the marking of the first day of Lent, repentance and fasting before Easter which is commonly recognized with plain black ash on the forehead. However, with the growing discrimination between the LGBT community and the religious community, a religious advocacy group in New York has decided to start bridging the gap between the two communities, by asking members who identify with the LGBT community as well as the Christian community, to wear glitter ash as a recognition for Ash Wednesday. Since many religious denominations do not officially recognize the presence of lesbians, gays, and other sexual orientations and gender identities in the church, this is a way for them to express both of their identities while still adhering to all the rules. This was something similarly seen in a Shared Parish where there was a mixing of religious customs in order to accommodate both groups. All in all, I think that there is a common practice in society today for people to take their religious identity and mold it to whatever their own specific needs are, further pushing the idea of spirituality within oneself, but also within the religious institution

‘Glitter Ash Wednesday’ sparkles for LGBT Christians and others

What is true freedom of religion? Kentucky Senate passes bill to allow religion in schools. I saw people commenting on it, and most of them was opposing it while the most of senators (31 out of 34) voted to pass the bill.

I am not sure how many people agree or disagree with that bill, and I am not sure how I feel about that either. People who disagree and worry about this bill say this just gives school/teacher chance to promote their own religion, which is most likely major religion, which is Christianity. I agree that it is difficult to say that all religion has equal chance to be represented in school since all religion has different population. To protect freedom of religion,  they say, religion in school should be not allowed.

I do agree with them but not fully. Those people opposing the bill might be tolerant but not pluralistic. I think separating religion is little bit different from freedom of religion. If we can perceive difference of religion less important (doesn’t mean religion is not important to person), and if we can talk about religion and how do others think about religion more freely, people might be  more pluralistic, not just be tolerant, which is like “Oh you believe in that? That’s good, bye.” Also, knowing about something makes less fearful or unconformable of it. I am still questioning about this bill, but at same time, how people opposing might be opposite of something that they truly want.

http://www.wdrb.com/story/34481794/kentucky-senate-passes-bill-to-allow-religion-in-schools

http://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/bill-passes-kentucky-senate-allow-religion-schools

On February 14 there was an article posted on scpr.org titled Religion and Culture: Refugees of Different Faiths Seek LA Armenian Church Help. It explored a diverse community coming together to seek aid from a common source. Both Christian and Muslim refugees are going to Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Los Angeles. They call the priest there “abouna,” which is father in Arabic. They have sought his help in both financial and moral issues. He stated that he has more than 30 people contact him throughout a day looking for assistance. The priest mentioned other places which refugees are seeking assistance as well.

The article included a lot of logistical facts such as which countries the individuals were coming from and the number of refugees which have been displaced. However, I think the highlight of the piece was the ability to show the coexistence between different people. They were not only from different religions, but also different countries. This related to the presentation about the shared parish. Our Lady Queen of Martyrs is a parish that is a haven for refugees of all kinds.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/02/14/69053/religion-and-culture-refugees-of-various-faiths-se/

The article I read, Freedom of Religion According to Thomas Jefferson, was a piece that laid out some background on the Declaration of Independence and the reasoning behind Jefferson’s strong belief in religious freedom. This article came out at the right time because currently Betsy DeVos has plans to put more funding towards private religious education. Her reasoning for this is upheld by her religious background. This is exactly what Jefferson was trying to avoid. The first amendment stands for Jefferson’s beliefs and it expresses that congress and government have no place in establishing a religion. So why would it be alright today if religion became imbedded in education? As current Americans we are living through a very different time than Jefferson did. We are undergoing things that our founding fathers would have never wanted to happen. There has been push after push for changes that our country wasn’t supposed to stand for. As amazing as I personally think it would be for a majority of schools to be faith driven, I cannot stand behind forcing children into that. I might love the idea of doing something like that on my own but  as Americans we have a right to believe anything and shouldn’t be funneled down a path we don’t want to go down at such a young age. Religion isn’t defined by just Christianity, there are so many other religious branches, denominations, and aspects that don’t even align with Christianity. We need to be careful what kind of changes are made to our country because we cannot leave people out.

Rollston, Christopher. “Freedom Of Religion According To Thomas Jefferson.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Feb. 2017. Web. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-rollston/freedom-of-religion-accor_b_14712844.html.

On Monday, my group presented the key points and ideas of Nancy Tatom Ammerman’s, “Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes”. Throughout the book, Ammerman uses real experiences and stories to describe spirituality from different religious perspectives. In, “A Spirituality For Hot-Mess Times #LoveTakesAction”, published in The Huffington Post, Rev. Jacqueline J. Lewis, Ph.D. writes how she finds God in her own daily life. Like Ammerman’s book, she writes about meditation and it’s spiritual ability. However, also similar to some of Ammerman’s interviewees, Lewis finds God and her spirituality through the world around her. Whether she is walking on the street, or enjoying the waves of the ocean she feels, “God there; She is marching, dancing, singing, chanting with [her]”. In “Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes”, it was common for people to feel the presence of God through other daily routines such as: gathering for dinner around the table, listening to specific songs, and gardening. Regardless of religious beliefs, I think that finding spirituality within one’s self and world around them is important. Practicing any form of spirituality is a great way to focus on goals and to find positivity in life.