June 2009 Archives

In his latest Sightings column, religion scholar Martin Marty looks back at an eventful week and how the news coincided with religion and ethics.

The St. Petersburg Times has published a three-part investigative series focusing on Scientology leader David Miscavige.

Former executives of the church, including two of the former top lieutenants to Miscavige, allege a culture of intimidation and violence under Miscavige. Read the series.

TIME's Amy Sullivan broke the news this morning of the Obamas' choice of church: Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.

A number of factors drove the decision -- financial, political, personal -- but chief among them was the desire to worship without being on display.

UPDATE: Michael Jackson's public memorial is planned for Tuesday.

I'm keeping my ears open for details about Michael Jackson's funeral. I'll post an update when the news breaks.

Some have wondered whether MJ arranged for a Muslim burial. He reportedly converted to Islam last year but never publicly confirmed this. His brother Jermaine said at a press conference Friday, "May Allah be with you Michael, always."

In the meantime, don't miss this first-person account by MJ on why he loved the Sabbath.

It was his day for "pioneering" -- the term used for the missionary work that Jehovah's Witnesses do: "In my world, the Sabbath was the day I was able to step away from my unique life and glimpse the everyday," Jackson wrote.

This article in the latest issue of Religion in the News looks at America's fascination with super-sized Christian families and how TV producers tend to avoid the religious underpinnings that inspire these reality TV parents to reproduce in big numbers:

Of these eight families who opened their homes to TLC cameras, six are conservative evangelical (four specifically identifying with the Quiverfull movement), one is Catholic, and one Mormon. Most instantly became celebrities in the conservative religious world, where they go on lucrative speaking tours, sell books, and appear on Christian talk shows. Yet this celebrity status is just one more aspect of the families' religious identity never mentioned on shows purporting to show us the reality of their daily lives.

PBS officials decided last week to not allow new religious programming at member stations over concerns that the programming could violate the organization's nonsectarian status.

According to RNS, select PBS stations may continue broadcasting their current faith-based shows. The ruling would not affect news shows or documentaries. From RNS:

"The board has basically voted to insure that the religious programming that stations currently provide and that communities have come to rely on are able to stay on air," said PBS spokesperson Jan McNamara.

Only six of over 350 member stations broadcast religious programming, according to McNamara. At stake for at least three of the stations were long-running Sunday Masses, broadcast mostly to the elderly.

What role does religion play in fatherhood? You might think the answer is none if you read the July issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences.

That's the subject of religion scholar Martin Marty's latest Sightings column. Read on ...

After a neo-Nazi group adopted a section of highway in Springfield, Mo., to pick up trash, state lawmakers plan to rename that section of road after a Jewish theologian who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

But the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel objects to naming the half mile cleaned by the National Socialists Movement after her father, calling the plan "highly inappropriate and vulgar," the AP reports.

"I don't want Nazis stomping on a highway named for my father. What are they going to do then if they don't pick up the litter? The whole thing is disgusting," said Susannah Heschel, professor of Jewish history at Dartmouth College.

NPR religion reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty has concluded a fascinating five-part series on science and God. I'm still listening to it on podcast, but I encourage you to listen.

Bradley Hagerty, who spent a year exploring the science of spirituality for her book "Fingerprints of God," tackles the mystery of near-death experiences, how prayer may reshape the brain and how positive thoughts might help another person, among other phenomena.

"One of the great pleasures was interviewing people who have had spiritual experiences; it's not just the scientists," she says at the NPR Web site, noting that she talked with Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and people who were spiritual but not religious.

"One of the interesting things is what they described as a spiritual experience was basically the same: An encounter with light, an encounter with love, often an out-of-body experience. What that told me is spiritual experience is spiritual experience -- it's a human phenomenon and in fact, it may be divine."

In his latest Sightings column, religion scholar Martin Marty discusses recent controversial comments made by a popular Chabad rabbi on the treatment of Arabs.

Today's word, Nimrod, is described in Genesis as the "first on earth to be a mighty man" and as "a mighty hunger before the lord."

The U.S. Department of Education has released new data showing an increase in home schooling, particularly among families that are wealthy, white and well-educated.

As of spring 2007, an estimated 1.5 million, or 2.9 percent of all school-age children in the U.S., were home-schooled, up from 1.7 percent in 1999.

The agency found that 36 percent of parents said their most important reason for home schooling was to provide "religious or moral instruction."

About 21 percent cited concerns about school environment and 17 percent cited "dissatisfaction with academic instruction." Among the other reasons parents gave for homeschooling were family time, finances, travel and distance.

George Tiller was a long-time member of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kan., where he was shot and killed Sunday. The congregation is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, whose bishop issued this statement Monday. The church pastors have posted a statement, also.

Many anti-abortion groups have also reacted, condemning the shooting.

In his latest Sightings column, religion scholar Martin E. Marty keeps an eye out for evidence of anti-Catholicism among mainline Protestant and evangelical leaders in the wake of Obama's nomination of federal judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Read the full column at the jump.

Also, CT has a look at Sotomayor's religion-related cases, and the AP's Rachel Zoll considers what another Catholic on the court could mean.

The economic downturn is making it increasingly difficult for some clergy to relocate or even retire. Some congregations are choosing not to fill vacancies, or they call pastors who require smaller salaries.

The ELCA News Service has the story:

"People are not moving," said the Rev. Rudy W. Mueller, assistant to the bishop, ELCA Indiana-Kentucky Synod. "The whole call process seems to have slowed down to some degree."