I love this video from Busted Halo. Ever wonder what All Saints' Day has to do with Halloween? Or how a saint is named?
Jesuit writer James Martin, author of "My Life with the Saints," talks about these items and more.
Read about local All Saints' Day activities and remembrances here. Or, check out FlipSide's Halloween extra.
If you're staying in tonight, check out my FlipSide blog entry on the debut of "The Real Exorcist" on the Sci Fi channel.
The New Yorker's Margaret Talbot has a fascinating article this week about the high rate of teen pregnancy among evangelical teens. An excerpt:
According to Add Health data, evangelical teenagers are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestants and Jews. On average, white evangelical Protestants make their "sexual début" -- to use the festive term of social-science researchers -- shortly after turning 16. Among major religious groups, only black Protestants begin having sex earlier. ...
Carlisle Area School District caught some heat at its last board meeting for a decision to bar teachers from taking part in the student-initiated See You at the Pole prayer event last month.
School board members heard from critics, including an attorney with the Virginia-based Center for Law and Religious Freedom, asking the district to reconsider the decision next year, the Carlisle Sentinel reports.
Today, many Hindus observe the "festival of lights" known as Diwali:
Prounounced: dee-VAH-lee
The festival is one of the most celebrated in the Hindu diaspora. It symbolizes the victory of dharma, and good over evil. The word is a variation of the Sanskrit word "Deepavali" and refers to the rows of earthen lamps celebrants place around their homes.
Hindus believe that the light from these lamps symbolizes the illumination within the individual that overwhelms ignorance, represented by darkness.
The Washington Post today has reviews of three new books about religion and evolution:
-- "Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World," by Michael Dowd
-- "The Faith of Scientists: In Their Own Words," edited by Nancy K. Frankenberry
-- "Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution," by Karl W. Giberson
Religion scholar Martin Marty's Sightings column this week comments on religion in the presidential election: "We Can't Live Without It/We Can't Live With It."
An excerpt:
Are the exploitation and exhibiting of religion bad for religion? ... It's bad. Bad for the name of religion itself, for religious institutions, for a fair reading of sacred texts, for sundered religious communities, for swaggering religious communities which are too sure of themselves, for the pursuit of virtue, for extending the reach of religion too far. Devote one's years to the public dimensions of religious life and to the religious dimensions of public life, as my kind and I try to do, and one can only be saddened to see the distortions and selling-outs that blight the seasons. The broadly-defined religious forces and texts teach waiting and hope. Soon the waiting will be over. One hopes consciences, and not only emotions, will be stirred again.
"This I Believe" is an ongoing essay series about the personal beliefs, philosophies and core values that guide people's lives. The essays air regularly on NPR.
Today, a lawyer described his former self as the "typical Type-A: an ambitious Harvard lawyer on the rise who moves to Silicon Valley during the go-go years to help start and run a succession of companies. ... All head, no heart; all drive, no passion."
Randy Komisar started to search for where he mislaid that passion. He studied with a Zen teacher and reinvented his work around creativity. Today, he works with young entrepreneurs to help guide them and their ideas. Listen or read about his transformation.
You can also search the site and read all 46 essays submitted from people in York, Pa.
Local Roman Catholics are among those are calling for YouTube to yank a series of videos on its site showing a Canadian teenager destroying Communion hosts. RNS has a story.
TFP, a conservative Catholic group headquartered in North Codorus Township, and other groups are urging supporters to petition YouTube officials to remove what the Catholics consider sacrilegious videos.
According to RNS, the Quebec teenager named Dominique has posted more than 40 videos featuring him desecrating the host, the circular wafer that Catholics ingest during the Eucharist service. The clips show the wafers being burned, hammered, placed in a blender, fed to animals and flushed down a toilet.
Sarah Palin talked by phone with evangelical leader James Dobson for about 20 minutes while campaigning and expressed confidence that in spite of disheartening polls "putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4," the AP reported.
Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program aired the interview Wednesday.
From the AP: Republican vice presidential candidate Palin said she thought presidential candidate John McCain would implement the GOP platform if elected - "I do, from the bottom of my heart" - but McCain doesn't support the platform on three issues important to evangelicals: abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research.
A Reading, Pa., pastor will deliver the keynote address at the first state convention of the NAACP held in York County next week, YDR reported today.
The Rev. Bernie Manning, formerly of York, is pastor at St. John's Missionary Baptist Church and the son of Richard Manning, who helped found the York branch of the NAACP in 1940.
"We know how important the faith community is to the civil rights movement," York Chapter president Eric Kirkland said, noting that many of the original civil rights leaders were pastors.
The convention will be at the Holiday Inn Hippodrome in West Manchester Township.
In the same "Meet the Press" appearance where he endorsed Obama, Colin Powell questioned some Republican Party tactics this election and asked why it would be a big deal if Obama were Muslim.
Powell, an Episcopalian, is among the first major public figures to publicly question why it's a slur to call a candidate Muslim:
"I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America.
Michael Paulson of the Boston Globe notes that the false rumor that Obama is a Muslim is considered damaging to the campaign because of the animus toward Islam among the voting public.
A poll last year by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 45 percent of Americans said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who was Muslim.
Read Powell's full comment at the jump.
Mormon leaders announced plans this month to build the church's first temple in Pennsylvania in downtown Philadelphia.
Right now, local members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must go to the suburbs of Washington, D.C., where the closest temple is located (photo at right).
Only Mormons with current "temple recommends," or authorizations to enter one of the faith's 128 temples across the globe, may enter a temple.
The temple, considered "the House of the Lord," is where Latter-day Saints take part in ceremonies that lay out the purpose of life and make covenants to serve Jesus and their fellow man. The temple also hosts weddings and proxy baptisms for the dead.
Have you heard any preaching from the pulpit against racism in the voting booth?
Timothy Shriver at Religion From the Heart has an essay about how the turn to racism in the presidential campaign presents a "bold opportunity for American religious leaders -- a way to promote core religious beliefs and make themselves relevant at the same time."
This is more of an emergency that we may realize. Just last week, ugly crowd responses were reported at some McCain-Palin events. The Washington Post reported that one person at a rally shouted, "Kill him" about Obama while an African-American member of a TV crew had to be escorted from the building after being taunted with racial slurs.
No matter how you vote, Shriver says, "Shame on people of faith if we don't confront it with a united voice."
That famously large central Pennsylvania family chronicled on TLC's "Jon and Kate Plus 8" has published a book, "Multiple Blessings."
It discusses the Gosselins' test of faith as they faced infertility and the birth of their twins, now 8, and sextuplets, now 4.
Kate, 33, grew up in a nondenominational church, and Jon, 31, was raised Catholic. The family attends an Assembly of God church. Religion News Service has a Q&A with Kate.
The reporter didn't ask something I'd like to know: Do you worry about how growing up on national television will affect your kids?
More book stuff on The Book Buzz.
In case you missed the debate, Beliefnet has posted the transcript of the candidates' exchange on abortion.
The Wall Street Journal's Alexandra Alter has this story about "mystery worshippers."
"Department stores hire mystery shoppers. Restaurant chains bring in undercover diners to rate their food and service. Churches enlist Thomas Harrison, a former pastor from Tulsa, Okla., and a professional mystery worshipper."Harrison -- a meticulous inspector who often uses the phrase "I was horrified" to register his disapproval of dust bunnies and rude congregants -- poses as a first-time churchgoer and covertly evaluates everything from the cleanliness of the bathrooms to the strength of the sermon."
Pastors tell Alter that mystery worshippers offer insight into how newcomers judge churches -- advice they could use at a time when Mainline denominations continue to bleed members and nearly half of American adults switch religious affiliations.
In some cases, the stuff Harrison complains about might sound petty or insignificant; however, I've talked to a lot of folks who "church shop," and they do whine about extraneous weeds, water stains -- even having to walk too far from parking lot to pew.
October makes me think of hockey season ("youbecha"), and hockey makes me think of Canada. Here's your Canada-inspired Word of the Day, courtesy of Wordsmith.org:
(tuh-RON-toh BLES-ing)
noun
A form of religious rapture marked by outbreaks of mass fainting, laughter, shaking, weeping, fainting, speaking in tongues, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Toronto, Canada, where the phenomenon was experienced in a church in January 1994.
We're starting to see some religious writers responding to the foundering economy. Religion scholar Martin Marty's latest Sightings column takes up the point:
In one of Jesus' parables that comes to my mind daily, we read of an accumulator who built granaries and barns to store his treasures and made himself into a kind of god. Then he died, having built up those treasures, but not having been "rich toward God." What such richness might look like could be central in America's new spiritual search.
Read Marty's full column at the jump.
My editor and others in the office raved about this inspirational video featuring a choir in white gloves making creative use of a black light.
Check it out here.
New for the green-minded Christians out there, "The Green Bible" is available from publisher HarperOne.
"The Green Bible" (using the New Revised Standard Version) highlights Scriptural passages related to "creation care" in green, soy-based ink. Its pages are 10 percent recycled paper.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu provided the forward. Green-themed supplementary writings include essays by Brian McLaren, N.T. Wright and St. Francis of Assisi, among other scholars and leaders.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church will be the featured guest on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross today.
If I know Gross, she will surely ask Jefferts Schori (pictured) about the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh's vote this past weekend to leave the U.S. branch of Anglicanism and about a church court's decision last week to defrock the Philadelphia-based Episcopal bishop.
The pastor of the Adamsville/Yoe charge of the United Methodist Church here in York County, Pa., is organizing a central PA cohort of people interested in the so-called "emerging church."
The Rev. Marcy Nicholas has started a blog and planned the cohort's first meeting at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Round the Clock Diner, 222 Arsenal Road in Manchester Township.
From Nichols' blog:
"I don't know everything about the emergent church, but I do know that I long for authentic conversation, more dialogue about what it means to follow Jesus, to be part of a community that is working out what it means to embody the kingdom of heaven, to make meaning with others, to worship in a way that is both ancient/historical and indigenous/contextual, to find God where he is and join up with him there."
Well, I'm thrilled to say I became "Auntie Melissa" for the first time Friday. My new niece is Caitlin, a name which means "pure."
My husband's family is Roman Catholic, so in honor of Caitlin's eventual baptism I've chosen asperse for the Word of the Day.
Head to the jump for the definition of this verb, which has two very different meanings.
Two York County congregations have joined the Evangelical Covenant Church in recent years after leaving the United Church of Christ.
According to the denomination, St. Paul's Wolf's Evangelical Covenant Church in West Manchester Township can now claim the bragging rights as the oldest church in the Covenant.
Wolf's Church dates to 1763. Paradise Holtzschwamm Evangelical Covenant Church in Paradise Township, which joined the denomination last month, was formed in 1765.
Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for the Obama campaign, called the United Methodist Church the "sleeper" vote when addressing reporters at the Religion Newswriters Association recently.
Religion News Service picked up on the story (full disclosure: I'm married to this RNS reporter):
I don't usually comment on things such as news releases about campaign committees.
But something landed in my inbox today that says a United Methodist pastor from York has joined the Obama-Biden campaign's Interfaith Steering Committee in Pennsylvania.
The Rev. Drue Sherman, who served Aldersgate UMC in York Township from 1993-2000, is a recently retired pastor with the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Read the entire release at the jump.
I counted a single Pennsylvania church among those who participated in "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" on Sept. 28 -- the coordinated challenge to rules that ban politicking from the pulpit.
The Rev. Fran Pultro of Calvary Chapel on the King's Highway in Philadelphia endorsed McCain during his sermon:
"As Christians it's clear we should vote for John McCain," the Wall Street Journal quoted Pultro. "He is the only candidate I believe a Christian can vote for."
