the last time I went to church

I'm not sure what else to do for my blog post, so I guess I will just tell you a story.
In Junior high I had a friend named Sheri, who was a Christian, she said, a real one. She asked me to go to church with her when I was thirteen. There was a band playing and lots of snacks. She said the boys in the band were really cute. She said that the music was good and then afterwards there were skits and only a very short sermon. It didn’t sound so bad, being saved.

In the church there was a ruby red carpet and checkered tablecloths. It was set up like a cheap coffeehouse. There were pimply preteens everywhere. The band was okay. I remember wishing we could all just sit down in our chairs, I didn’t understand why we all had to stand with our hands in the air, and why no one was looking at the band, but at the ceiling instead. About halfway through the show I realized that people weren’t dancing; they were swaying and praying, and half of them were crying. I felt my face getting red again, the kind of red that it only gets in church.

After the band played some girls did a skit. One of the girls didn’t devote herself to Jesus. Her friend was begging her to save her soul from hell. The devil girl agreed and they were on their way to church when they both were killed by a car. The angel girl went to heaven, while the devil girl was dragged to hell by demons, screaming the entire way off stage. My friend Sheri turned to me clapping hysterically, “wasn’t that powerful?” About a year later her church was shut down and charged with embezzlement. All the souls that they saved cried for days.

Religious Tradition in Law

Religious tradition has had a strong influence on American society from the get-go. As many religious traditionalists have pointed out, our founding fathers were Christian and the belief system that they based the Constitution on was that of enlightenment-period Christiandom.
Interestingly, although the founding fathers intended a "seperation of church and state," they also granted both the freedom to practice religion and the freedom to vote. Combined, these two form the right to vote based on your religious belief; something that is not uncommon in modern American society.

Because our lawmakers are elected, this means that the religious beliefs of the masses can have a subtle yet no less powerful impact on the way laws are written. In America today, I would describe our law as "selectively Christian" in the sense that, although many laws based on religion are rejected as unconstitutional, many laws which do not uphold traditional religious values meet heavy resistance because the voters have religious opinions. Take for instance the example in The Transformation of American Religion regarding the idea that the galvanization of the evangelical right against Roe v Wade may well have made the difference in the election of George W. Bush (Wolfe 117).

This is by no means a recent occurance. In fact, our laws have been passively created from a Christian foundation despite the secular nature we attribute to them. As I have mentioned before, suicide is considered illegal in most places in the U.S. In fact, it has long been supposed that suicide denotes insanity (suicidal tendencies can be used as proof of insanity in a courtroom). I maintain that this is a fundamentally Judeo-Christian viewpoint. Although it may be considered a sin in the eyes of the Judeo-Christian God, under the first ammendment we should not require the non-Christian to abide by a traditionalist's definition of sin.
We have the right to life, liberty, and property. We are allowed to give up our property and our liberty, why wouldn't we be allowed to give up life?

There has been a debate over whether suicide denotes insanity. This NY Times article draws a line between "true suicide" for trivial reasons, and "reasonable suicide" when circumstances make life too painful to live. (Article by S.A.K. Strahan)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9403E3DC1F39E033A25757C1A9679C94659ED7CF

This issue is still very much at hand in American politics. California act AB 374 was incredibly controversial. This act gives the dying the right to suicide to avoid the last painful moments of a deadly disease. Click here for an article by Frank D. Russo about the "Compassionate Choice" act:
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/03/california_comp_1.html

Check out this Youtube video on AB 374 (I couldn't figure out how to embed). Tom MacDonald speaks to the California assembly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82vi7F5mnsE

I find it amazing that there is so much controversy over suicide among dying people. It seems we are a long way off from legalizing meaningless suicide. Apparently you have to live your life whether you like it or not. That's what we call freedom.

For more citation info on Wolfe, http://secularsacred05.blogspot.com/search/label/course%20texts

All men are created equal

Over the course of this class one question has continued to bother me. My question is that if in the U.S. “All men are created equal” why are people who simply give themselves another label or are labeled something outside the norm treated differently and more importantly why do people care so much.
I don’t have a complete answer to this question but I do have a theory. My theory is that people who believe in their religion beyond a shadow of a doubt believe that there religion is the right one and therefore the one that everyone should fallow. This takes its most basic form in religious symbols and objects. According to McDannell “Religious objects also signal who is in the group and who is not. They teach people how to think and act like Christians. They are used to lure, encourage, and shock non-Christians into considering the truth of Christianity”. I for one believe that a person should be able to believe in whatever they want so long as it doesn’t interfere with the rights of anyone else. Hopefully our old friend George Carlin can help me get this point across.
Work cited
McDannell, Colleen. Material Christianity. London: Yale University Press, 1995.
“THIS COUNTRY IS FINISHED GEORGE CARLIN ON COUNTDOWN” YouTube. 23 October 2007. 16
February 2009.

Altars

This week we spent time a full class going around the room discussing each of our altars. They all represented our personalities and who we are as people. It got me thinking about how we each our own person and this brought me back to the old saying that the USA is the Great Melting Pot. This brought back some memories of School House Rock and this video:



This brought me to thinking about the slide show of altars that we saw in class earlier and how even within a single religion there are vast differences in what people believe and how they show that belief.

Ten Commandments

Ten Commandments, what are they and who really cares? Our last class discussion ended on the Ten Commandments and I thought it would be a good topic to bring up for our next blog discussion. As I read Alan Wolfe The Transformation of American Religion, it inspired me to think about how people today are so vulnerable towards religion. From Alan Wolfe’s readings I gathered from that resource that most people today have very strong beliefs in a said religion but they don’t necessarily understand it. That’s why the Ten Commandments were a perfect specimen to observe.

“Most people know the Ten Commandments or perhaps it is better to say that they think they know the Ten Commandments. The commandments are one of those cultural products that people imagine that they understand, but in reality, they frequently can't even name all of them, let alone explain them.”

So, what do people really believe when it comes to the Ten Commandments? Well I would like to think that there is a small gap between what the Ten Commandments actually state, and what people really follow. Most people incorrectly believe that all of the Commandments represent moral behavior in current society. For instance: to not lie, steal, or commit adultery. However I believe that in today’s age the messages that were trying to be conveyed back when the Commandments were written has a slightly different juxtaposition of poise and content conveyance towards a progressive neutral society.

I also found an interesting website 10 Commandments in America that asks some of the important questions like: What are the Ten Commandments? What do people believe about the Ten Commandments? Should people follow the Ten Commandments? If you would like to know the answers,check out the website.

Evidence of this conclusion can be found in many text books, both of philosophers and mildly entertaining connoisseurs of religious preferences. However there is hope that one may find the answer to this religious argument by simply asking themselves: what are the real definitions of these religious jurisdictions and how would the hypothesis benefit society in general, or even, just maybe benefit everyone individually as they see fit.

This video is about how Ten Commandments can be turned just only in three.



-Andrei

Organ's Are Not The Problem

This past weekend, I arrived at UVM's Catholic Center at 5:30 to practice the various musical pieces and hymns in the mass. As we sang the opening song, I felt a rush of emotion that I can only describe as a spiritual connection. The music that was only text on a page a few moments ago was suddenly full of a new meaning to me. The harmonious sound of the choir imbued a feeling of joy to be in God's presence. I could not help but smile as I sang! (The congregation also seemed to appreciate the sound as well as I saw quite a few people swaying back and forth and bouncing.)

In Alan Wolfe's book The Transformation of American Religion, Wolfe says that many members of churches prefer to hear more modern music and "turn away and leave the moment they hear an organ". (29)

RUN! IT'S AN ORGAN!

I must respectfully disagree.

I believe that bad music drives people out of church, not old or unfamiliar music. Due to dwindling numbers of churchgoers, musicians for each and every church have been hard to find. Most churches are so desperate to find a musician, they let almost anyone who can play a piano or barely carry a tune do it. Nobody wants to sing in mass when the pianist can't keep the rhythm consistent. (True story but that's for another time.)

One thing I do not disagree with Wolfe in is the idea that music is a key factor in keeping attendance! In my experience, the churches that I have attended in the past (about 15-20 different ones) that have, in my opinion, better music than others, get higher attendance and more participation from mass goers. The Cathedral in my home town pays a different professional musician to come each week. These paid musicians give outstanding performances and each week there is a new one to see. Compared to other churches in the area, the number of people who show up for this mass in particular is quite large. There are so many, that I often times cannot find a seat for myself. Another example is a comparison between two churches similar in location and but different in size. St. Mary's church and St. Matthew's are close to each other distance wise, but St. Matthew's is a bit larger and has a larger member base. However more people attend St. Mary's each week. Why? Most people you ask will tell you (I have asked myself) the music is better.

Now, I can go on and on listing examples of why I think GOOD music increases attendance (If you want the full list ask me when you have about an hour or two to spare). But I think an even more important question is why. I think that the power of music lies in its ability to channel ideas and emotions into one output. Music makes it easy to combine the intent of words, with the feeling behind the intent. It makes having a sacred moment easier and more natural. I don't think there is anything natural about reciting a prayer in a zombie like fashion. But when put to music, people put the words together with the feeling of the music. Crescendos tell people of climax and importance, and musical notes help put together the phrasing of sentences in ways that make sense. As one of my choir teachers once told me, singing in church is like praying twice. I think she meant that in one sense you are saying the prayer, and in another sense, the music you are putting behind the prayer is giving it meaning to you.

I know it's a little cheesy, but I'm sure many of you are familiar with the movie Sister Act, with Whoopie Goldberg:

Direct Link Here

This clip sums up my ideas on how good music can stir people to become more involved and connected in their respective religious experiences.

So my question for this week is: What are your thoughts and experiences with religion, music and spiritual connections?

Feel free to use the comments section and tell me what you think!

Religion = Violence ?

Religion means many things to many different people. It gives us a set of ways to live our lives. It gives us a reason to why we exist. It gives us a sense of belonging. It gives us something to believe in. Religion is supposed to bring us together. However, when different religions are brought into close contact with each other conflict and violence sometimes erupts. As Alan Wolfe states in The Transformation of American Religion “ Religion, in short, is valued because it opens a window on the sacred, a realm of life that we treat, in the words of Peter L. Berger, ‘as ‘sticking out’ from the normal routines of everyday life, as something extraordinary and potentially dangerous’” (Wolfe 245).

Different religions give us different things to believe in, and sometimes when these different beliefs come into contact with each other violence erupts. This isn’t because religion tells us to be violent towards other different religions. Religion does not tell us to fight and kill those that don’t believe in the same things we do. People sometimes take religion in this way and some of the biggest conflicts in history were based off of these religious conflicts (such as the holocaust). Some people tend to feel so strongly about their religion that when they see other people who follow some other religion that conflicts with theirs, they feel the need to do something about it. Sometimes this might just be trying to convert them to your religion or it can be praying for their soul. Other times, a small fight could start which can then grow into a large war between the two religions.

Even though religions are able to coexist in many parts of the world, violence still erupts to this day between different religions across the world. This video shows how in Orissa, Hindu believers attacked Christian homes and churches.