Dealer's Choice

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint's news website posted an article on December 12, 2015 declaring the placement of the angel Moroni on top of a Hartford,

The War on Christmas

Every year we are reminded on the war on Christmas. This year, Starbucks was the main target with switching from their holiday cups, to plain, red cups. Some, such as a man in congress,don't support the change in these coffee cups.

Is America a Christian Nation

As we wrap up the semester, Lippy leaves us student with the chapter asking "Is America a Christian Nation?". I feel like there are many ways to answer this question.

Anti-Muslim Sentiment

After reading the Huffington Post's religion section from December, I'm learning that the anti-Muslim sentiment is hitting the internet in a huge way.

Islam

From the Huffington Post, a Muslim taxi driver was shot on Thanksgiving day. The driver was shot in the shoulder after driving away then the passenger brought out a rifle and began to shoot. The driver had been answering the passengers questions related to his Islamic religion and how he doesn't support ISIS. Reporters and police are classifying this as a hate crime.

Hate crimes have been present throughout our history against those with opposing religions. The Mormons has towns burned down and the Chinese were isolated into specific areas of towns across America, formally known as Chinatowns(Lippy 252). What's different about the recent Islamic attacks on Muslims in America is that many are supporting the Muslims, even arguing that the government should step in stating people have the right to religious exercises and beliefs. Whereas back in the day, the government wouldn't have stepped in and many would support and take part of the hate against various religions.

Hinduism in America

After visiting the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Wisconsin website, http://aha-svtemple.org/,I was able to see how local Hindus embrace their culture. In our readings, we learn about their rituals and importance of community. This website has many links where users can see community involvements and times for their Puja services. Their mission statement and vision is centered around preserving their culture and bringing a community together.
They post calendars, news updates and newsletters to their user, keeping their community updated and current with events. They are becoming connected through social media as well. There are many opportunities for those interested to reach out and get connected electronically. In our readings, we learn that Hindus were largely accepted when they made their way into our mainstream culture. By having the "finger tip" accessibility, they are able to do so faster.

I found it interesting because I live right outside Madison and didn't know there was this large of a community around me. I want to make my way to a service and see first hand this culture on a whole new level.

Anti-Mormonism

      Mormonism has been around in our country since the middle of the 19th century but hasn't always been accepted. Like many religious groups we have studied so far, the Mormons have been making their way into society to be accepted by humanity.

New Age Religion

I read the article "Actress Leah Remini blasts Scientology in exclusive '20/20' interview". It was written in reflection on an interview 20/20 had with former Scientologist believer Leah Remini. 

Leah Remini describes her 30 years with this religion in her new book Trouble Maker.  Growing up, she worked laborious hours because that was what the faith required of children. They saw them are spiritual creates and not treated as a child. You are given a lot of responsibility and because of this, your ego is inflated. She continues to explain her comments towards Tom Cruise, Scientology's biggest image and follower. Remini told Cruise to "get a freakin' room" when she was teaching him and his girlfriend Katie Holmes salsa dancing as Cruise was "forcibly kissing" Holmes. The church of Scientology later wrote up Remini for her comments, correlating her disgust towards Cruise and her disgust towards the religion. 

Scientology interview with Leah Remini

In our book, Religion in Contemporary America, Scientology is described as being a cult, which is something Remini talks about in the interview. The book also talks about Tom Cruise being a major figure in it. It doesn't talk as much as how the see children in Scientology, but it was interesting to see how it has affected Remini's life. Both the book and Remini talk about the payments Scientologists make to become more involved in the church and gain access to it's higher levels.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this clip and reading the interview. I feel more inclined to read Leah Remini's book to see a more in depth experience inside the church. 

Religion and Race

Reb. Jerry Young

In the article, "Black, White Baptist Presidents Lead Racial Unity Event" form the RNS, a merger of two largest Baptist denominations, leaders Rev. Jerry Young, of the NBCUSA and President Ronnie Floyd of the SBCUSA, will meet with pastors from both groups in Mississippi for a “Conversation on Race in America”. These leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention will come together to reconcile their racial differences in hopes to bridge the gap in their religion's segregation and find peace within the crisis of their religion in America. They will be joined by 10 other religious leaders of similar backgrounds for their annual luncheon. 

President Ronnie Floyd

As we have learned in our book, race is an issue for many minorities when it comes to being in power of a religious group(Lippy 161). Young admits that "they do not have the same level of influence on the protests triggered by recent events that they had during the civil rights movement.(RNS, Banks)" This is linked to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s when blacks began to fight for their rights. America was build with a large Caucasian base and many believe they are superior. Because of this, it is harder for those of color to be seen as equal. 

I think it is really special that these men are coming together to try and make right with the racial injustice that can be present in religion. This is different than the history of the religions talked about in our book. They really don't try and see people for actually being people, but rather as just their color. 

Here is the link to this article: 

Religion and Race

Football Coach Prayers Not Answered

The View talks about a current issue that has been going on since 2008 in this link. 

     Coach Kennedy from Washington would pray before and after his football games for the safety of his players and for their ability to play the game. It started off as him praying alone with his eyes closed and his players would voluntarily join him.
     Once his school district discovered this, they wrote him a letter forbidding him to pray before or after his football games.
    The View discussion
     In our class we learned about the Constitutional rights when it comes to religion. I believe that the school district didn't have a right to forbid him from doing this because it breaks the free-exercise clause in the Constitution. We as individuals are able to practice our own religions and their practices. By saying that this coach can't do so, is breaking the law. The students joined voluntarily, so he wasn't forcing anything. I can see how people would agree with the school district because the players may feel obligated to do so in fear of being judged by their peers, but they also need to realize that there is peer pressure everywhere in life. Why not figure it out when you're with people who will support you? They have to find when they can stand up for what they do or do not believe it.
     This article shows that America is still bending the rules of the Constitution when it comes to religion. There are so many times when people are unable to exercise their religion because of what the government thinks.

Jewish and Catholic Immigration

     Over the course of American history, various religious groups immigrated to our country. The two largest groups that we have learned about in our class have been the Jews and Catholics.

   

Women in Religion

     I found an article in Time magazine entitled "How Religious Women can Fix Sexual Politics" by Phyllis W. Curott. I found this to be one of the most stimulation articles involving religion this whole semester.

Catholicism in Our Modern Age

I read two articles on the same event but from two different new sources. One is from the Global Catholic Network News and the other from Eye Witness News, a channel in Chicago, Illinois. Both of the articles cover the story of a Chicago shrine that burned down October 7, 2015.

I found it interesting to see how the stories differed even though they discussed the same event. The GCN discussed more of the tragic affect the fire had on it's community and didn't focus much on the facts. The discussed more of the history of the building and it's importance to the Catholic church. The EWN channel was very factual and straight to the point. There were a lot more quotes from those involved with the fire and went into greater detail as to how the fire started. However, both articles contain all of these aspects of facts and tragic effects.

These articles reflect modern Catholicism because it demonstrates how important churches are and their history. The church has been around since 1923 and carried a 17th century statue of the Infant of Prague. Catholics make up a large majority of the American population and their religion is seen through out America.

Here are the two links to both of the articles I've read:

Global Catholic Network News

Eye Witness News

A Cultural War- Creationism or Evolution?

For years schools have been teaching evolution in their classrooms do to the separation of church and state. However, the ongoing war between Creationism and evolution is on going, As I read an article from the Huffington post entitled, "Fundamentalists Think Science is Atheism", this war was examined a little more.

The article explains how scientist have research showing that it is physically impossible for Adam and Eve to form the human race. But rather, studies show that "humans are closely related to chimps and bonobos, with whom they share a common ancestor; that the human race originated in Afraica millennia before the evens in Genesis took place; and that the human race ever consisted of only two people."

However, much of our society refutes these studies. Their beliefs involve God creating one man and using his two ribs to create a woman. They believe in Creationism. Most of these people are also from the Evangelical church., the church we are currently studying in class.

The article goes on to state that many Christians are stating "All this is a good example of believing man's word instead of God's word. This is, making a compromise with atheists." These conservatives associate scientists and those who believe in the evolution of man to be atheists.

I personally see this issue as ongoing. I believe that many people can't respect other's views and beliefs, leading us no where. We will never be able to agree on the path in which man took to get here today because of our societies stubborn nature and closed mines.

Here is a link to the article written by Karl Giberson if you'd like to read more into this cultural war.
Creationism or Evolution?

Religion and Politics

     It's clearly states in America that we have a separation between Church and State. In my Religious Studies book, Religion in Contemporary America by Charles H. Lippy and Eric Tranby, chapter 9 discusses the issues between our politics and religion. Our First Amendment is "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment or religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
   

"Smokes Signals" Movie Review

For this weekend, I had to watch the movie Smoke Signals for class. After watching it with my boyfriend, Brandon, we were able to analyze and review the movie. As a whole, I give this movie a 8.5 out of 10. 

American Indian children in Modern America and Canada

Today I read an Article entitled "Where are the Children". In this article from Indianz.com, I discovered that "48% of 30,000 children and youth in foster care across Canada are aboriginal" and thought to myself, why? As I continued reading, I realized that during the 60's and 70's state welfare

Hello from the Blogging world

Jambo!

My name is Liz Ehrler and this is my first blog!

This year marks my Junior year in college and Sophomore year at UWSP in the BFA Acting program. Along with taking many theatre classes, I need to take some GEN Eds, Religion in Modern America being one of them. For this class, I get to blog about my discoveries, ideas, and questions of religion in America.