More on the Texas BOE Curricula Rulings

"While the impact on the actual writing of textbooks may not be that dire the Texas Board of Education is clearly rewriting history to fit a conservative agenda and a Christian dominant worldview." (Religion Dispatches, 4/27/10)

For those who are following this story about the Texas BOE rulings on reconfiguring curricula that cater to a conservative-evangelical Christian perspective, there is a new article written by Lauri Lebo of Religion Dispatches that comments on the issues at stake here. The Texas BOE has went through with major rewriting and editing of critieria for Texas educational textbooks without even a hint of understanding of the 1st Amendment and the fact of prominent religious plurality and diversity in the U.S.

Check out Lebo's essay here.

New Ex-Offender Program Puts Religion Before State

"With budgets slashed, corrections officials are struggling to reduce the recidivism rate among ex-offenders. Chuck Colson’s new program steps into the breach, and hopes to bring down the wall separating church and state to help ex-offenders stay out of prison." (Religion Dispatches, 4/25/10)

Religion Dispatches writer, Mark Bergen, covers a story about a new program called Out4Life (part of Prison Fellowship Ministries, an evangelical prison ministry) to assist in getting recidivism rates down, to help offenders stay out of prison through helping them secure a job, go through rehab, and find a church community for support.

There is a bit of controversy about Out4Life because state-run and financially-burdened prisons are increasingly relying upon these religious ex-offender programs, which raises the question about the 1st Amendment issues of the separation of church and state.

Read the whole article at Religion Dispatches to get a fuller idea of the nature and practice of this prison ministry and the surrounding controversial issues.

(Image from Religion Dispatches website courtesy of Prison Fellowship Int'l.)

Sarah Palin and the National Day of Prayer

Rev. Welton Gaddy, host of the nationally syndicated radio program State of Belief and president of the Interfaith Alliance, has written a very inspiring and instructive essay about Sarah Palin and the National Day of Prayer that he read on last weekend's show and which appears in Religion Dispatches e-magazine.

Rev. Gaddy essentially denounces Palin's empassioned comments concerning a federal judge's ruling on the National Day of Prayer and that the U.S. is a Christian nation that "needs to get back to its Christian roots." He critiques her recent statements as uninformed and a-historical, since the fact that America is not nor has it ever been an officially Christian nation is quite well documented through sources such as statements or treatises formed by presidents Washington and J. Adams, not to mention the 1st Amendment's no establishment clause. Palin's statements were flippant, ignorant of the history of American culture and law, and simply pandering to a significant conservative (and largely evangelical-fundamentalist Christian) audience.

Here's a brief excerpt from Rev. Gaddy's commentary:

"Palin has thrown what we used to call in West Tennessee “a conniption fit” over the federal judge’s decision that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. While many of us applauded a judge who seems to understand the First Amendment’s religion clauses, some political pontificators and bandwagon religionists rushed to microphones to decry the further moral ruination of the nation. . .

"Palin did get one thing right in her Louisville speech. She said the Founding Fathers were believers. That is a true statement. Many of them were deists, but few of them were Christians by Palin’s narrow evangelical definition. However, the larger truth is that these were people, regardless of their religious identity, who had witnessed the abuse and violence that emerge when institutions of religion and government became entangled. . .

"The American people do not need the President of the United States to tell them when to pray or what to pray for. By definition prayer is personal and volitional. But neither do the American people need Sarah Palin stirring a revolt to get rid of the very principles that have assured efforts to guarantee civil rights to everybody and made our nation great." (Religion Dispatches, 4/22/10)

Read Rev. Gaddy's entire essay here.

Listen to State of Belief where Rev. Gaddy read this on air.

My Blog Article on TCPC eBulletin

The most recent eBulletin for The Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC) has published a blog article I wrote about recent findings in evolutionary biology and how these resonate well with religious faith and ethics.

Check out my blog article on my blog page or at TCPC.

Buddha Doc on PBS

Yesterday a new PBS documentary about the Buddha was shown. Filmmaker David Grubin conveys the story of the life of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) which is narrated by Richard Gere (a Buddhist and advocate of Tibet), which I feel is not only relevant for people interested in learning more about this monumentally influential figure in world history but also provides instructive insights addressing our times frought with turbulence, confusion, cultural diversity, and religious ambiguity.

The documentary features interviews with religious scholars on the Buddha and Buddhism as well as with practitioners and adherents of Buddhism (including a few monastic renunciants). Though a bit watered down for time's sake (and I do admit my prejudice as an extra-scrupulous perspective as a religious studies scholar), it's a great historical-cultural overview of the life of the Buddha and the origins of the great Eastern (and increasingly Western) spiritual tradition.

Watch the whole documentary online here.

Jesus in 3-D...

A new History Channel documentary claims to reveal the "real face of Jesus" by using the same computer technology that produced the big blue aliens in Avatar. Using the Shroud of Turin, a tattered piece of cloth that has the outline of a facial image that many people over the past century have suggested is that of Jesus of Nazareth, the documentarians have produced a three-dimensional moving image of a man based on the structure of the image on the Shroud.

Though I haven't yet watched the documentary, I plan to. Even though I'm doubtful about the Shroud of Turin actually being the burial-wrappings of Jesus, I'm actually interested in the subject matter mainly because of what I'll likely learn about the technology used to create a 3-D image of the man behind the Shroud. If nothing else, this documentary is sure to stimulate our imaginations.

Check out a Religion Dispatches article about the documentary.

Independent Documentary on Military Chaplains

In recent years there has been an ongoing debate depicted in many media outlets about religion in the military. The question has become: Are U.S. laws preventing soldiers from praying according to their own religious convictions? Or are military officials abusing their power and authority and violating the Constitution by trying to convert soldiers?

This debate indelibly involves millitary chaplains who are providing spiritual service and pastoral care to other soldiers. The question for chaplains is basically are laws preventing them from praying with soldiers according to their own faith tradition, or are chaplains misusing their authority by proselytizing and subverting the Constitution?

These issues and more are addressed in the new independent documentary called "Chaplains Under Fire," which gets behind the media headlines right to the quick of what military chaplains do and the intense church-state/religion-government tensions they actually face on a day-to-day basis.

Check out a review and get more info about the documentary here.

Read more at RNS.

Military Chaplain Influenced By Unity Teachings

Lysa Allman-Baldwin on Unity.org has recently published a blurb about an Army Chaplain by the name of Michael Beach who, as a Baptist minister, discovered Unity teachings online and became an advocate of Unity principles. He reports that, as a military chaplain, he's called to uphold religious freedom and support those who are in need of spiritual and emotional help. He says that, after reading about Unity and listening regularly to Unity.FM, he's even more able to stay spiritually centered and actually perform his chaplaincy duties even better.

Check out Baldwin's profile of Chaplain Beach at Unity.org.

The Hutaree Militia

Until the recent news stories broke covering the arrest of the nine members of the Hutaree Militia charged with "seditious conspiracy" (which has a maximum of life in prison, if convicted), I'd totally forgotten about this ultra-conservative, fundamentalist and militant form of Christianity. It seems that I've so surrounded myself in a progressive Christian bubble that, with the exception of the few news stories covered in the media wires I follow, I've been rather blind to these Christian-centric, extra-fervent militia groups.

For those who haven't been able to follow the media coverage, The Christian Soldiers of the Apocalypse (another name for the Hutaree) is an organization that believes that the end of history spoken of in Revelation and elsewhere in the Bible is imminently approaching, along with the appearance of the Anti-Christ who will be the inlet for Satan and the downfall of humanity. Thus, they, as well as all Christians, are obliged to know this and prepare by forming armies for Christ. This is part and parcel of a fear of all government and especially of what has been termed the New World Order, where all nations and peoples are united (and controlled) by a central command (which will eventually be the seat of the aforementioned Anti-Christ). Apparently, their rhetoric and preparation has caught the attention of the U.S. government, which is prepared to crack down this seditious conspiracy to overthrow the current government and establish a purely Christian system of governance, one which harkens back what they call the Colonial Christian Republic before the establishment of the U.S.A. (Source: www.hutaree.com)

This dangerously intolerant and divisive movement is not only an affront and radical distortion and misunderstanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the doctrines and values of the Church since the 1st century, but it's also a manifestation of the changing times we're living in. There have always been radicals (sometimes violent and hateful) on both sides of the spectrum, but it seems to have intensified lately due to the turbulent socio-political and economic situation. To me, this militant Christian movement is in the same categorical camp as militant fundamentalists in Islam or Hinduism or any other religion. Fundamentalism, as a reaction against the cultural changes and progression toward greater tolerance, diversity, pluralism, and equality, is grounded psychologically in fear and theologically in a misappropriation and misinterpretation of the inclusive and forbearing messages of the founders/leaders of the various religious traditions.

It's sad to see these violent and hateful movements develop and influence people toward intolerance of differing others, but the most we can do is to become more informed about the groups and issues, promote dialogue with religious and cultural others, and stand up to injustices, inequalities, and hatred wherever we experience them.

For an informative and thought-provoking essay on the Hutaree, apocalypticism, and fundamentalism see Chip Berlet's article at Religion Dispatches.

Above image from Religion Dispatches website.