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Atheism in the News: The Church Fires, Bible Swaps and Why Atheists Might Be Smarter Than Most
I mentioned the arsonists that officials were searching for in a few posts, so I thought I’d revisit the topic now that the two men believed to be responsible for the Texas church fires (not including the recent one in Temple) have been arrested. But it’s also been sort of a busy week for Atheists: there’s been a bible for porn swap at the University of Texas San Antonio, and a new study released that suggests liberals and atheists might be smarter than most people.
Associated Press reporter Schuyler Dixon reported that the arsonist suspects Jason Bourque and Daniel McAllister grew up attending church together in East Texas, but there were materials related to atheism and devil worship found at Bourque’s home. Here’s part of Dixon’s story:
Even as authorities closed in, one of the two suspects in a string of east Texas church fires attended a Sunday service and went to a Baptist ministry on his junior college campus for a free meal.
Such activity wasn’t unusual for 19-year-old Jason Robert Bourque, a former Eagle Scout and high school debate champion who grew up in a small church not far from 10 others that authorities believe have been set ablaze since Jan. 1.
But officials say they found weapons and books detailing atheism and devil worship during a pre-dawn raid at a home where Bourque was arrested Feb. 21. In a separate raid in San Antonio, authorities captured Daniel George McAllister, Bourque’s childhood friend from First Baptist Church in tiny Ben Wheeler.
Bourque and McAllister, 22, each face one count of felony arson for a fire at Dover Baptist Church near Tyler, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Dallas. They are suspects in nine other church fires that were ruled arsons and three attempted church break-ins, according to court documents.
Both men are being held on $10 million bond. They could face life in prison if convicted.
The story goes on to say that the motives for the church fires aren’t clear. But my guess would be that anyone who believes in God read the line about the atheism and devil worship materials and drew their own conclusions.
Speaking about drawing conclusions, the “Smut for Smut” bible-swap campaign at UTSA seemed mean-spirited. You don’t have to believe in the Bible, but why equate it with pornography?
Which brings me to the London School of Economics study, which essentially equates faith with paranoia. It makes sense, because scientists tend to lean on the atheist side. Still, it seems only to widen the gulf between atheists and believers to suggest that people who believe in God do it because they’re paranoid. Here’s a little more context from
the author of the study, evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa, in a quote from Science Daily:
Similarly, religion is a byproduct of humans’ tendency to perceive agency and intention as causes of events, to see “the hands of God” at work behind otherwise natural phenomena. “Humans are evolutionarily designed to be paranoid, and they believe in God because they are paranoid,” says Kanazawa. This innate bias toward paranoia served humans well when self-preservation and protection of their families and clans depended on extreme vigilance to all potential dangers. “So, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to go against their natural evolutionary tendency to believe in God, and they become atheists.”
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Race and religion in the anti-abortion movement
This article in the New York Times made me think about my reporting on a local anti-abortion group’s 40 day vigil outside of local clinics that provide abortions last fall.
Most of the women who arrived at the Austin Women’s Health Center were black. When I walked inside to attempt to get a comment from the clinic’s staff (they had no comment), the women in the reception area were all women of color. In contrast, the small group of anti-abortion protesters were all white. I hesitate to draw any conclusions from that small sample of people — after all, I was there on one day out of the 40 and there were a few other clinics participating in the vigil.
But the New York Times piece points to a national trend I thought the activists mentioned to me because I’m black, not because it was a new angle for the anti-abortion movement:
Across the country, the anti-abortion movement, long viewed as almost exclusively white and Republican, is turning its attention to African-Americans and encouraging black abortion opponents across the country to become more active.
A new documentary, written and directed by Mark Crutcher, a white abortion opponent in Denton, Tex., meticulously traces what it says are connections among slavery, Nazi-style eugenics, birth control and abortion, and is being regularly screened by black organizations.
Black abortion opponents, who sometimes refer to abortions as “womb lynchings,” have mounted a sustained attack on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, spurred by a sting operation by young white conservatives who taped Planned Parenthood employees welcoming donations specifically for aborting black children.
“What’s giving it momentum is blacks are finally figuring out what’s going down,” said Johnny M. Hunter, a black pastor and longtime abortion opponent in Fayetteville, N.C. “The game changes when blacks get involved. And in the pro-life movement, a lot of the groups that have been ignored for years, they’re now getting galvanized.”
When I talked to Sheri Danze and others outside of the clinic, they mentioned that Margaret Sanger had a plan to wipe out black people via abortion. While I took notes respectfully, it sounded like an extremist version of history that might take years to verify. So I disregarded that and wrote about what was verifiable. I honestly also felt like I was being baited, like they wanted me to lead any stories with the fact that abortion providers are not only, in their opinion, morally corrupt, but also racist.
The historical cultural mistrust blacks have of doctors and the medical system is easy to tap into, since there are documented cases of flat out bias in the health care system. Harriet Washington wrote a book, “Medical Apartheid”, which talks about this extensively, but the basic idea is that because of medical experiments on black people like the Tuskegee Experiment, blacks have a tendency to shy away from care unless they deem it absolutely necessary.
Still, the cultural divide in the recruiting of black churches and abortion opponents might be underscored by an economic one. Studies have shown that abortion in the U.S. has declined, but there have been increased among low-income women who are black and Latino. This cultural argument in the anti-abortion movement also interests me because it might be the few places of activist overlap between traditionally black churches and predominately white churches. As black history month draws to a close, I’ve been thinking about what seems like a permanent gap between the world of black churches and other houses of worship, and what it will take to bridge that gap.
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Millennials and miracles: What young folks believe
Young people don’t go to church as much as Baby Boomers or the Generation X crowd, but they still believe in miracles. They answer questions about their faith in a way that suggests that they’re more spiritual than religious — but they pray as often as current church elders did when they were young. Most important, perhaps, is that Americans between 18 and 29 are increasingly unaffiliated with a specific denomination or church.
These are the findings of a recent Pew Forum study that suggests millennials (or those born after 1980) are among 79 percent of more than 35,000 Americans polled in 2007 who believe in miracles. Though there is evidence that young people are “less connected to religious institutions,” Pond said, “That doesn’t meant they’re entirely secular, it just means they’re thinking about religion differently.”
That reminded me of an earlier Pew study that showed that Americans like mixing beliefs: Christianity, astrology, reincarnation and more. Young people, it turns out, are more likely to create their own brand of spirituality if they have a belief system at all. But in some ways, Pond said, they’re also as traditional as their forebears.
“While young people attend religious services less often, there’s also a flipside,” said Allison Pond, a research associate with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “In other ways, they’re fairly traditional, like in their belief in heaven and hell and their belief in miracles. Prayer is a great example,” she said. “The number of young people who say they pray everyday now is almost identical to the members of Generation X who said the same thing when they were in their twenties.”
Pond also said that the fact that young people aren’t affiliated “can’t be overstated.” According to the forum’s data, in 2008, 26 percent of young people were unaffiliated, meaning they aren’t necessarily associated with a denomination or they classify themselves as atheist or agnostic.
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Is there a “God gap” in U.S. foreign policies?
Today’s Washington Post has an article about a two-year study that suggests the U.S. needs to focus more on religion in its foreign policies.
Here’s a little more from the Post:
American foreign policy is handicapped by a narrow, ill-informed and “uncompromising Western secularism” that feeds religious extremism, threatens traditional cultures and fails to encourage religious groups that promote peace and human rights, according to a two-year study by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
The council’s 32-member task force, which included former government officials and scholars representing all major faiths, delivered its report to the White House on Tuesday. The report warns of a serious “capabilities gap” and recommends that President Obama make religion “an integral part of our foreign policy.”
Thomas Wright, the council’s executive director of studies, said task force members met Tuesday with Joshua DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and State Department officials. “They were very receptive, and they said that there is a lot of overlap between the task force’s report and the work they have been doing on this same issue,” Wright said.
The article is one of a few published this week that cast attention on about President Obama’s relationship with faith. The Boston Globe published a story Sunday on his increasing privacy over his spiritual life. Soon, the year-old Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will be releasing recommendations for the president to consider relating to, among other things, how church-state separation issues are enforced.
I’m certain that atheists and agnostics would have an issue with the report’s suggestion that we need more religion in our policies. But I also think that it’s likely that this emphasis on religion might lean away from less traditionally Western religions — like Voodoo in Haiti, for instance. What do you think?
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Grace Covenant Church, adjacent to the plane crash site, will hold services Sunday
Grace Covenant Church, which sits adjacent to the site of yesterday’s plane crash, still plans to have an adoption conference and Sunday services this weekend. Church staff posted a map of an alternate route for congregants on its website and suggests that church members keep visiting the website in case of changes between now and Sunday.
Two things will be different:
1. The frontage road will continue to be blocked at the 360 bridge through next week. From north 183, you need to turn right on 360, go down the hill and make a U-turn. Then, come in by way of the Jollyville Road access. The only exit path will be south on Jollyville toward MOPAC.
2. Echelon III, where we hold our adult communities, will be closed through the weekend. Classes that meet there will not meet unless the class directors set up to meet off campus.
A note from the executive pastor, Ray Anderson, is also posted on the church website:
You probably have heard by now that a small plane flew into one of the Echelon Office Buildings. It was not the one next to the Cornerstone Building or the one we use for our Adult Communities on Sunday. We had some volunteers and staff in the Cornerstone building and workmen in the Worship Center at the time of the explosion. They felt the blast in those buildings. No one was injured.
Police have blocked off all access roads to the church at this time. We have cancelled all activities at the church for the evening. This includes Celebrate Recovery, AWANA, band practices, and a shower.
We are making our facilities available to the police and rescue workers by providing restrooms and water. The Unit Director for the nearest HEB brought water bottles for us to distribute.
We will keep you informed as we can. At this point, unless it is necessary, please don’t flood the church office with calls. The church offices may not be able to be open tomorrow, if they block our access to the office. We will know more as this unfolds.
Should this affect us being able to have church on Sunday, we will do all we can to get the word out. At minimum, there will be some limits to where we can park in the Echelon lots.
Pray for the people that were in the building at the time and their families. Pray that we would have an opportunity to service the police, fire, and rescue workers.
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The aspects of Buddhism Tiger Woods forgot
I have watched snippets of Tiger Woods’ public apology today and I’ve been intrigued by the fact that he seems to have intentionally underscored the principles of Buddhism that seem less about ethical conduct and more about “restraint.”
Here’s an excerpt from the full transcript:
Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years.
Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes and unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught.
I was just talking to Ethan Nichtern, the founder of the Buddhist-influenced Interdependence Project, this morning about the fact that Buddhism is more of a tradition than a faith. That’s one of the reason that Buddhist meditation can be (and has been) embraced by Christian ministers. So there’s that piece.
The other part is that, yes, Buddhism teaches about craving. What Tiger didn’t mention was the fact that Buddhism also asks that those who follow the tradition refrain from sexual misconduct. I guess he didn’t want to go there, considering he didn’t mention sex once in his apology, even though that’s what this is all about.
Nevertheless, this is a good opportunity to mention that Nichtern, who lives in Brooklyn, will be speaking tonight at the Shambhala Center. Tomorrow, he’ll lead a day-long retreat. He’s in town to visit the newly created Austin chapter of the Interdependence Project.
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Book Review: ‘Til Death or Distance Do Us Part
Although Valentine’s Day is behind us, black history month is not yet over and I have been musing this February on the constant barrage of stories I always read about black marriage and love, or rather, the lack thereof.
I won’t bore you by linking to the stories, but I’ve been keeping a mental list of the statistics on black men, women and marriage for about a decade. The popular culture narrative around black marriage, specifically, goes something like this: Most single black men in America are in jail. Most single black women are educated and make more money than black men and therefore, if they want to marry a black man, they’re better off seeking a man in prison if they expect to marry before they turn 40.
An Essence Magazine writer and editor, Demetria Lucas, explains it in more detail here. Here’s another offering from NPR.
After months of reading discussion after annoying discussion of how unlikely it is for two black people to marry one another or stay married this day in age, I read Frances Smith Foster’s latest book, “Til Death or Distance Do Us Part” which examines antebellum America and the oft-quoted origins of African-Americans’ fraught relationship to marriage. By examining the Afro-Protestant press, books and letters by free blacks in the South, Foster makes the point that despite notions that black people didn’t get married often during slavery because they might be sold to different plantations, the truth is more nuanced.
It’s rare that a book combines the story of African American faith with the history of romantic relationships in this country, and in that sense reading Foster’s work was refreshing. It was also, for me, an education. I was unaware, really, of the extent to which the black church community was a pivotal part of the passage of Proposition 8, the California measure that made it clear that same-sex marriages were not valid or recognized by the state.
But when she writes that there was a 70 percent approval rating for Prop. 8 among African-American voters, though, it makes sense. (This is particularly timely as I’ve been thinking about Kelefa Sanneh’s wonderful piece in the New Yorker about Tonex, the gospel singer who recently declared his homosexuality despite the fact that many mainstream black gospel singers and churchgoers have turned their backs against him because of his honesty.)
Foster writes that opponents of Prop. 8 “underestimated the role religion plays in African American politics and ideas about marriage…In the 21st century, we tend to stress marriage as a legal contract with enormous practical implications. But historically, Afro-Protestants have also believed that marriage is a divine mandate. Laws can say what they will, but African Americans have long insisted on their own definitions and recognitions of marriage. This has been part and parcel of their determination to be free to love whom and how they wish.”
Ultimately, Foster makes the case that the story of fraught black love has, in many cases, become a more powerful myth than anything else. It’s impossible for one book to undo years of black history that suggest otherwise, but at least Foster makes an effort. Some side notes about the tradition of jumping the broom and media coverage of black marriage that don’t quite fit in with the rest of the book are a bit distracting. But overall, Foster does a fabulous job of countering the common narrative around black relationships with an encouraging account of enduring love that dates back even before slavery for more black couples than we ever hear about.
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A new understanding of where Texans stand on evolution
In case you’ve been wondering where your fellow Texans stand on evolution, the Texas Tribune has just published the results of a poll they conducted with the University of Texas. The headline is “Meet the Flintstones,” which I love, but the data is even more interesting. Thirty percent of those polled, for instance, think we walked the earth when dinosaurs were around.
Intrigued? Here’s more:
Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”
Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs? Three in ten Texas voters agree with that statement; 41 percent disagree, and 30 percent don’t know.
The piece goes on to discuss how thoughts on evolution shake out among Republicans and Democrats. In case you wonder how Texans’ thoughts compare to those of people in other states, the Gallup poll has published lots of data here.
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Author of “The God Virus” to address the Austin Center for Inquiry
I haven’t visited the Austin Center for Inquiry yet, but this sounded like an interesting talk for the Austin atheists and agnostics to know about.
Here’s the press release:
AUTHOR OF PROVOCATIVE NEW BOOK ON RELIGION TO ADDRESS CENTER FOR INQUIRY AUSTIN
Austin , TX —- Dr. Darrel Ray who has written an exciting and provocative new book entitled, The God Virus, has been invited to address the a Austin Center for Inquiry. Dr. Ray is a highly regarded psychologist and student of religion and a popular speaker about the psychology and culture of religion. He is the founder of Recovering Religionists (www.recoveringreligionists.com) a nation-wide self-help group for those who have left the confines of religion. Dr. Ray’s lectures are regularly attended by believers and non-believers alike. Dr. Ray will deliver his lecture at 1 PM on Sunday, February 21 at the Austin History Center , 810 Gaudalupe. Dr. Ray’s normally attract overflow crowds to his nation-wide lectures. Those interested in attending should contact Dr. Ray at darrelray@thegodvirus.net or visit www.centerforinquiry.net/austin.
In his presentation, Dr. Ray explains that Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and Dennett opened the door to a hard nosed look at religion in our society but no one seemed to be using their concepts to explain the psychology of religion and its practical effects on people. Dr. Darrel Ray stepped into this gap to discuss religious infection from the inside out. How does guilt play into religious infection? Why is sexual control so important to so many religions? What causes the anxiety and neuroticism around death and dying? How does religion inject itself into so many areas of life, culture and politics? Dr. Ray explores this and much more in his book, The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture. This second generation book takes the reader several steps beyond Dawkins, et al. into the realm of the personal and emotional mechanisms that affect anyone who lives in a culture steeped in religion. His presentation style is fast paced and interactive. He uses examples that anyone can relate to and gives real world guidance in how to deal with and respond to people we who are religious among our families, friends and coworkers. For further information and to order The God Virus, please visit: www.thegodvirus.net or one can order the book from Amazon.com. For information about Dr. Ray’s lecture series, please e-mail darrelray@thegodvirus.net
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What will you give up for Lent?
Today marks the beginning of Lent for the nation’s estimated 224 million Christians. Bishops in the UK have urged those observing the roughly 40-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter to fast from technology and go on a “Carbon Fast.”
Though local church leaders I’ve spoken to say that most people think of Lent as a traditionally Catholic season, Rev. John McMullen at the First United Methodist Church said something interesting when I asked him about Lent. “I think there’s a return to sacramentalism across the church and the importance of church seasons,” he said. “We’re seeing that in very significant ways. I can’t ever remember an Ash Wednesday service from when I was a child. This year, we’ll be having three. There are other churches that are having at least two services. I think people want to be a part of something lasting. In a world full of constant change, we want something lasting to hold on to. It gives us a chance to reflect on our present in a long historical tradition.”
Pastor Jacob Vanhorn, at Soma Austin, has been urging his church members to fast — either one meal a day or whatever prayer reveals to them about what works in their lives, he said — and blogging about it at the church website. Are you fasting this year? If not, have you decided what you’ll be giving up?
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Do they talk about sex at your church?
A report released this week suggests that most religious leaders skirt around issues of sexuality from the pulpit and that they could be doing more to help parishioners navigate matters of sex and sexual orientation.
“Sexuality and Religion 2020: Goals for the Next Decade” was published by the Religious Institute, a Westport, Conn. non-profit. It says that while 60 percent of Americans belong to a congregation, 70 percent of mainline Protestant churches never or seldom discuss issues of sexual morality. In the words of Tim Palmer, a spokesman for the Institute, “There is a disconnect between religion and sexuality in America.”
Part of the disconnect starts in seminaries, where the next generation of pastors and clergy often don’t have to take classes or seminars dealing with the overlap between sexuality and religion, according to the report. In the next decade, the report calls for seminaries to add more sexuality and religion education for future ministers and become more effective advocates of sexuality education.
Local seminary professors and pastors say that while there have been some seminars and efforts to provoke healthy conversations around sexuality in churches, there is some fear among pastors that talking about sex in church would be alienating to their congregants. But increasingly, as there are more frequent discussions about same-sex unions in the mainline churches, it seems harder to avoid addressing these issues from the pulpit.
Why do you think sex doesn’t come up much at church? It’s an interesting question, especially since we can probably all agree that sex and sexuality saturate our culture, from advertisements to music.
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Haiti judge recommends release for Baptist missionaries
A Haiti judge has decided that the 10 Baptist missionaries being held there on charges of child kidnapping should be released from custody.
The story says that Judge Bernard Saint-Vil heard testimony from families who willingly gave their children to the missionaries. It’s unclear when his formal recommendation to the prosecutor in the case will be accepted or rejected. But if the missionaries are released from jail, that doesn’t mean they can leave Haiti until there’s a final ruling in the case.
But now that the missionaries will get out of jail, The Christian Science Monitor asks a good question: will the attention on Haiti’s 300,000 children who live in “virtual slavery” wane? Considering the enormity of Haiti’s issues, my best guess is yes.
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Archbishop Aymond and the Saints
When I spotted Austin’s former Bishop Gregory Aymond, now the Archbishop of New Orleans, on television at the NFC Championship game, I wondered where he’d show up at the Super Bowl. And sure enough, cameras captured him beaming on the field during the festivities in Miami. I was more focused before the game on the hubbub over the Tim Tebow/Focus on the Family ad, which turned out to be less inflammatory than I’d imagined. I should have been listening more closely to Aymond’s thoughts on why the Saints were going to win.
The Catholic News Service ran this story about his thoughts on the significance of the Saints’ Super Bowl win, which he says is “not just a football victory.” Here’s an excerpt of that story:
“The spirit of the city has changed,” he added. “It’s another sign that God is faithful.”
Archbishop Aymond celebrated a Mass Feb. 7 for New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson and his wife, Gayle, and relatives, friends and team officials at their Miami hotel before the Super Bowl.
“All week long, people have been asking me, ‘Who will win the Super Bowl?’” the archbishop told the 300-member congregation, all dressed in Saints’ black and gold.
“And it’s obvious, of course. History gives us a glimpse as to the answer,” he said. “We know historically that many of the saints of old went into battle for the faith. And when they did so, they rode on colts. In the battle, the colts got wounded, but the saints had victory in eternal life. So, the Saints will win.”
That was a couple of days ago, which means it’s ancient news on the Internet. But the Saints’ Super Bowl win has clearly added more joy to the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, which will be ongoing until Fat Tuesday on Feb. 16th, the day before Ash Wednesday, when Christians will officially begin the 40-day season of Lent.
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After recent church fires, officials seek arsonist
The suspicious East Texas church fires yesterday have led officials to pursue more actively what they believe is a serial arsonist.
There have been several church fires in East Texas that have been ruled arson since Jan. 1. If last night’s fires are ruled arson, it will bring the total number of churches in the state that have burned so far this year to 10.
Just before the two most recent church fires yesterday, a fire at the First Baptist Church in Temple, which burned Jan. 19, was deemed arson on Jan. 29. This AP story about the string of church fires offers a really good chronology of the blazes.
DPS is offering $25,000 for information leading to an arrest in connection with the fires. Anyone with information about the fires can call (903) 675-0061 or (903) 675-0062. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is also seeking leads on information about what they believe is a serial arsonist and is asking anyone with information to call 888-ATF-FIRE.
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The Baptist missionaries charged with kidnapping: What should happen?
Reading stories about the 10 americans charged with kidnapping Haitian children after the Jan. 12 earthquake has made me wonder what their fate should be. Particularly in light of reading about a long history of child trafficking and exploitation in Haiti, even before the earthquake. The Miami Herald has a really informative story in their paper today.
It says, in part:
Even before the Port-au-Prince earthquake left as many as 300,000 children homeless — and before the spotlight fell on 10 Idaho missionaries charged with kidnapping Haitian kids — Haiti was a country where children were commonly reduced to a commodity. They were smuggled across the border as cheap labor, peddled for black-market adoptions, abandoned by their parents or forced into servitude, records and interviews show.
Certainly, I can understand a group’s potential good intentions to help the thousands of children who may now be parentless. The challenge is determining how to judge a group that goes into an ailing country and decides that they know the meaning of salvation better than anyone there. What can an appropriate sentence be for a group bent on “saving” children — either physically or spiritually, which appears to be a subtext when you’re talking about missionaries in a place where Vodou is practiced?
By the way, I thought it was interesting that the American Baptist Churches USA, which says it has 1.3 million members found it important to distance themselves from the group when the news broke. Here’s a release that arrived in my inbox with the subject line: “Important Correction to Media Reports about Baptists Arrested in Haiti.” I didn’t see any stories that mentioned the American Baptist Churches specifically, but maybe this was front-end damage control:
The 10 people arrested for child trafficking in Haiti are not members of churches affiliated with American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA). Some media sources have labeled these individuals as American Baptists. While the people involved are Baptists from the United States, they are not members of the denomination known as ABCUSA. ABCUSA currently has missionaries doing ministry in Haiti, but they are not involved in this incident in any way.
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Book Review: Devotion by Dani Shapiro
Devotion, Dani Shapiro’s latest memoir about her search for a meaningful spiritual life is a genuine, down-to-earth version of her peers’ journeys toward enlightenment. Hers is a journey that blends faith “complicated with” Judaism and Buddhism, with writing that makes you wonder if she’s an optimist or a pessimist.
Shapiro is an East Coast Jew whose faith was strong in her youth but wavered as adulthood gave her fewer reasons to believe in its scope. The grief that comes with losing her parents is the doubting force that sends her searching. The backdrop of her acceptance of doubt includes the rare illness of her son, Jacob, her new life in Connecticut after 9/11 and the tension between the comfort she finds in the tradition of her father’s Orthodox Judaism and the present.
She finds herself at Kripalu, a meditation center where yogis find a kind of peace in the Buddhist tenets of metta and connecting to their breath. If this sounds familiar, it is. In the ways that Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love are laugh-out-loud funny, Shapiro’s writing is true to the experience of searching and memory. She writes:
What would happen if I opened the books? If I opened myself - as an adventurer, an explorer into the depths of every single day? What if - instead of fleeing - I were to continue to quiver in the darkness? It wasn’t so much that I was in search of answers. In fact, I was wary of the whole idea of answers. I wanted to climb all the way inside the questions and see what was there.
What I appreciate about Devotion is that Shapiro’s honesty is beautifully telling and her attention to detail (both in the physical realm and in the spiritual landscape) is resonant. She manages not to be too precious or to take herself too seriously. Here, she talks about encountering a woman who looked askance at Shapiro with her family:
As she glanced up at us, I was aware of what we looked like, as a family. With my long blond hair, I must be the shiksa wife of a Jewish man, and here was our little blond son. I had an irrational desire to announce my Jewishness. Raised Orthodox! Grew up kosher! Two sinks, two refrigerators, no kidding!
That same kind of wit is matched with the levity of her desire to believe in something greater than herself, even when she’s not sure it’s possible:
To put down roots - to live in one single spot long enough to see the world sprout up around you. To watch the empty space outside your window become a sapling - and that sapling become an old, stately specimen. To give birth to a village. To be surrounded by the world you’ve created. To be governed by a belief so strong that nothing - not sadness, nor anger, nor grief - can shake it. To believe in God.
Devotion carries the Eastern charm explored in Gilbert’s tale, complete with the monkey mind and restlessness that can send any story about meditation spilling over into trite territory. Fortunately, she avoids cliche. The only jarring aspects of her memoir, in fact, are Hebrew passages that aren’t always translated which give the effect of reaching a bit too narrowly into her personal past.
She mostly connects readers to a narrative that tells a universal story, and in these sentences, it is a reminder that she may know the right words, but we don’t and in the scheme of things, it may not really matter enough to include them. In a book of 243 pages that covers such well-mined but interesting material, those distracting sentences are hardly anything. The book is well-done and a brave story of looking for faith. While Shapiro doesn’t come up empty, she doesn’t exactly find answers that satisfy - a narrative that many can probably relate to.
Slate published an excerpt of the book yesterday, and you can read it here.
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Medical team working with Hill Country Bible Church volunteers in Haiti returned today
I received this press release as an update to this story about the Hill Country Bible Church putting together a medical mission in a matter of days last week:
Central Texas medical team in Haiti returns to Austin Friday
One of the two Central Texas medical teams in Haiti will return to Austin Friday morning. The seven medical professionals, who have been in Haiti since last Sunday, leave eleven other Central Texans behind at the Mission of Hope Haiti to continue with relief efforts. They are scheduled to arrive at ABIA on a Continental flight from Houston at 10:18 am. A second Central Texas medical team will leave for Haiti on Saturday from Fort Worth on a donated corporate jet. Their transportation is provided by CARE, Corporate Aviation Responding to Emergencies, a group coordinated by Jet Quest in Georgetown. These corporate jet owners are donating use of their private planes to assist in the relief effort. The plane will return to Ft. Worth with the eleven medical team members and several Hill Country Bible Church members from the first group.
“We are excited to provide a second (of many) medical team to Mission of Hope in order to ensure continuity of care for these patients, ” said Jennifer Kinman, COO of Texas Orthopedics. The second team will include ER doctor Mehal Mehta, MD; Tyler Goldberg, MD, Texas Orthopedics; Ellen Hatridge, MD, Austin Anesthesiology Group; internal medicine/wound care specialists Mahalia Smith, MD; Matthew Crawford, DO, Texas Orthopedics; Robert Knox, RN, Texas Orthopedics; Amy Romer, RN; Kelly Harris, RN; Jan Walters, RN, Austin Pain Associates/Stonegate Surgery Center; Tim Reese, RN; Sharon Depmore, LVN, Texas Orthopedics; Chris McAteer, CST, Austin Pain Associates/Stonegate Surgery Center; and Jehona Tafilaj, CST.
The surplus medical supplies donated by the Austin community last week that could not fit on the two planes traveling Haiti arrived at the Mission for Hope today. The shipment was made possible by Gibraltar, Hope for Haiti and Heart to Heart transport planes. These supplies will not only help the second team provide care at the mission, but will provide medical care for Haitians for months to come.
Hill Country Bible Church continues to accept donations for Mission of Hope Haiti. This organization, which has been serving Haiti for over a decade, has the infrastructure in place to meet needs for food and medical care. “The work of many volunteers and the donations from the Central Texas medical community have made it possible for MOH Haiti to have a fully functional hospital, pharmacy, central supply, post-operative care and a warehouse,” said Amy Baker, Communications Director for Hill Country Bible Church. “They have also developed a strong relationship with the U. S. Comfort, the Navy Medical Ship, and were able to transport a child who needed eye surgery to the ship so he would receive excellent care.”
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Ahead of the Super Bowl, a clash of religion and football
Anyone who pays even remote attention to sports knows there’s a solid connection between faith and football. Much was made of Colt McCoy’s faith, which he mentioned after the Longhorns’ BCS championship game loss to Alabama. A recent piece in the Baptist Standard titled “Gridirons, goals and God” refers to sports as “one of the most outwardly religious sectors in American society” though it seems that football is specifically connected to Christianity more than other major sports. Former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy has written extensively about his Christian faith, praying in the locker room with the team before games and how his faith helped his family deal with his son’s suicide in his memoir, “Quiet Strength.”
And as the New Orleans Saints head to Super Bowl XLIV, there have been all kinds of heavenly references to the team’s first appearance in the big game. But it will be University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow who will inject the most overt religiosity on the Feb. 7 game when his anti-abortion ad sponsored by Focus on the Family is scheduled to air. The Reuters story about the controversy the ad has caused says more:
The plans to air the ad, sponsored by a conservative Christian group called Focus on the Family, could see the polarizing issue of abortion rights dropped squarely in the midst of National Football League’s premier event.
It would be the first time that Focus on the Family, a politically influential evangelical group founded by James Dobson, has bought air time during the Super Bowl — the ultimate prize of the advertising world with 30-second spots going for up to $3.2 million.
The Wall Street Journal has a great roundup of blogs that talk about the ad, which will feature Tim Tebow and his mother. It says, in part:
Tebow relishes being a role model. The devout Christian does missionary work, wears eye black with Biblical verses and promises to remain a virgin until marriage. In the commercial, by the conservative group Focus on the Family, Tebow’s mother, Pam, will recount how she ignored medical advice to have an abortion when medical problems threatened her life and gave birth to Tim, her fifth child.
It’s not clear if this is the first time a religious ad featuring a prominent college football player has aired during the Super Bowl, but I wonder if the presence of this ad among some of the most watched commercials that air all year is evidence of a greater critical mass of anti-abortion sentiment or something else.
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Vatican selects Houston area bishop Joe Vasquez as new Austin bishop
In his first appearance as Bishop-Elect of the Diocese of Austin, Bishop Joe S. Vásquez said this morning that he was excited to be chosen to lead in the state capital.
When he got the call from Pope Benedict XVI ten days ago, he said he had a mixture of a feelings. “I’ve been in Houston for eight years, so leaving is bittersweet,” Vásquez, 52, said this morning. Moving to Austin will also allow him to move closer to his family in Abilene, he said.
Vásquez has been serving in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston since 2002, and prior to that, he was a priest for 17 years in the San Angelo Diocese. He will be installed as the new bishop for the Diocese of Austin in March.
His selection comes a week after Msgr. Michael Mulvey, who was selected to be diocesan administrator in August 2009, was named to lead the Corpus Christi Diocese. Vásquez will be the permanent replacement for former Bishop Gregory Aymond who left Austin in August after he was chosen to be archbishop of the New Orleans archdiocese.
Mulvey, Diocesan officials and former Bishop John McCarthy gave Vásquez a standing ovation after he was introduced. Bishop-elect Vásquez will be the fifth bishop of Austin and the first Mexican American to lead the diocese.
Vásquez said that as he gets to know the Austin Diocese, “I ask for your prayers and your patience. I entrust myself in the Shepherd, our lord, Jesus Christ and ask for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
“I wish to thank Pope Benedict XVI for the confidence he has placed in me in naming me shepherd of the Diocese of Austin,” Vásquez said. “I also offer prayers of gratitude this day for Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph A. Fiorenza and the priests, religious and laity of the Archdiocese for forming me as a bishop. Most of all, I give thanks to God for the gift of priesthood, which has brought me such joy for 25 years. I trust in the Holy Spirit to enlighten me for this next step in my journey.”
Vásquez, was born in Stamford, Texas, to Juan and Elvira Vásquez. He attended Stamford and Abilene public schools, according to a biography posted on the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Website. He earned a bachelor’s degree in theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston in 1980 and he attended St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston during the same time period. He attended Gregorian University and North American College in Rome between 1980 and 1985.
Vásquez was ordained as a priest in June 1984 for the Diocese of San Angelo. He worked at St. Joseph Church in Odessa for 12 years and then went on to work at St. Joseph Church in Fort Stockton for 10 years.
He was a pastor at St. Joseph Church for five years before he was ordained as an auxilary bishop in the Houston area archdiocese in January 2002.
The Austin diocese serves an estimated 500,000 Catholics in Central Texas. By comparison, the Houston-Galveston archdiocese serves about 1.3 million Catholics.
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Poll: Most Americans are prejudiced against Muslims
In the aftermath of Pat Robertson’s comments about Haiti, there have been a handful of stories about religion in the Caribbean nation. Despite the fact that an estimated 80 percent of Haitians are Catholic, the “Voodoo connection” has led to all kinds of racially-loaded insinuations that Haiti is essentially cursed by darkness.
But pagans and Vodou initiates are not alone in the prejudice they face.
Gallup Poll results released this morning show that almost half of all Americans — 43 percent — say they feel some prejudice against Muslims. That’s just slightly less than the 52 percent of Americans who in the wake of the Fort Hood shooting were concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism in the West, according to the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. You can read the whole report on religious perceptions in America, with an emphasis on views about Islam here.
I wonder if there’s a poll in the works to look at America’s views on Afro-Creole religious and spiritual traditions. Based on the articles I’ve read over the past week, I should hope so. Our tendency to demonize religions other than those we believe in, (or don’t, in the case of atheists) is something worth looking at again and again.
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Austin missionaries are safe in Haiti, relatives say
Relatives and friends of Suzi and John Parker, Austin missionaries who have been working in Haiti that had not been heard from in days, have sent along an email that Suzi wrote from Haiti. Someone copied and pasted it into a comment on another blog, but i’m going to add it here, so that others might read what she has to say about conditions there. I received this email from her nephew Hunter Pankey. He wrote that the family had been waiting to hear solid information for days. “I have always known them as very strong people, spiritually and emotionally,” Pankey wrote. “They keep proving it to me with things like this.”
The text of the email from Suzi Parker is below:
Friendds,
I Using som,eone’s computer without using a bright screen, so I cannot tell aobaUt my mistakes. I will send one msg to all, so some information will not mean anything to you.
Hopital Ste. Croix is standing. John and I are fine. The administration collapsed under the guesthouse, and our apartment collapsed under the story above. We have nothing we brought with us to Haiti, but since we have done a lot of cleaning in the gusthouse and hospital, we can find what we really need. Someone who was here gave me some shoes, and I foiund another pair or reading glasses that will work, so I have what I need. John was caught under the wreckage for about 4 hours, but shortlthe roof above was supported y the lintel of the slinding glass door, which held up te second floor, so he was uninjured except for a small cut on the top of his head.
Everyone connected with the hospital is alive except that we have not heard from Mario.. Several people lost members of extended family. Alber’s daught was injured but is fe, will recover fully. He saddest news is tat Marie Yves has died. In the earthquake. Motr and Chrislet are fine. The Ste. Croix church is cracked, I don’t know how badly. Eye clinic looks fine. Pere Kerouin’s house looks OK, Pere FanFan’s house looks OK with some damage, Pere Pierre’s house is damaged, but stll standing. Doctor’s quarter’s and penthouse are fine. If we can get it open, John and I may try to move in there for a while.
At night we sleep in the yard behind the hospital where the bandstand was. It has fallen, as has the Episcopal school. Thee are 2-300 people who sleep in that field at night. They sing hymns until almost midnight, andn we wake up to a church service, with hymns, a morning prayer, and the apostle’s creed. The evening sky is glorious. In the field there is a real sense of community. Of course, we are the only blancs there. A group from FondWa arrived in Leogane today and will sleep there tonight. Janine the head cook brought John and me spaghetti from her home in Darbonne 8 miles away. We shared with the group from FondWa. They have some money so they went out and bought rice, etc, and we will eat tonight. People have shared with us and we are getting a chance to feel how the Haitians really live.
The injuries we have seen at the hospital are enormouse, skulls exposed, one woman died in the yard. Another women’s leg was cut vertically to the bone, with muscles showing. Doctors worked and saw over 300 people with cuts, fractures, etc. Today they are not, but worked hard every day since the quake.
Of course, we have seen looting. The end wall of the guesthouse by the shared drugs fell and it was open to the outside. My friends can imagine how I shouted down about 20 looters in the guesthouse. Righteous indignation works wonders, as does a tiny bit of pushing people to get out. John and I do not know our plans. We need to talk with the board, but have no phone. We have Joey’s phone, with battery that needs charging. Our idea is to stay as long as we can be helpful, then get out of the way.
I have never understgood joy in the midst of suffering, but now I do. The caring I have seen, the help we have received from the Haitians, the evening songs and prayers. Are wonderful. The people will survive, though many will die. Please pray for us. And pray that we and the hospital can be of help to the people here.
Suzi
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I only have to say one thing. Atheists don’t believe in the devil. That is just the stupids thing I have ever heard. Does this author even know what atheism is? Anyone can claim he or she is any title, but it doesn’t mean it’s the right
... read the full comment by NA | Comment on Atheism in the News: The Church Fires, Bible Swaps and Why Atheists Might Be Smarter Than Most Read Atheism in the News: The Church Fires, Bible Swaps and Why Atheists Might Be Smarter Than Most
Three comments, in mixed order:
First, the study isn’t worth the attention it’s getting. In addition to all of the other problems with IQ, the variance here simply isn’t notable. This is a weak correlation and little more.
... read the full comment by Matt Dillahunty | Comment on Atheism in the News: The Church Fires, Bible Swaps and Why Atheists Might Be Smarter Than Most Read Atheism in the News: The Church Fires, Bible Swaps and Why Atheists Might Be Smarter Than Most
Unfortunatly, the wrong women are choosing to have abortions. Our educated and self sufficient African American, White and Hispanic women are having far fewer children that those who are unemployed, homeless and without health care. I will never understand
... read the full comment by ATX360 | Comment on Race and religion in the anti-abortion movement Read Race and religion in the anti-abortion movement
Sheri claims “pro-choicers but do little themselves except write a big check to PP to keep their conscience clear and keep the poor from being born, while most of the pro-lifers I know do alot to help the women and children live and thrive.”
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