2020rels390bresponder-blog

[2020rels390bresponder-blog]

Post 6

https://religionnews.com/2020/02/18/in-a-first-the-democratic-party-may-be-inching-toward-a-jewish-candidate/

In the article ‘Pride and peril as Democrats inch toward first Jewish nominee,’ by Yondt Shimron, is an informative piece that I thoroughly enjoyed as it allowed me to question how a Jewish president might affect all of the U.S., but like the article mentioned that we have had a Catholic president and also we have even elected an African American president. So why does electing a Jewish president have so much negative impact for some individuals. As I read this article about the possibility of a Jewish president and how there may be anti-semantic rallies as retaliation, I am just astonished that our country still harbors this kind of nature. Even after the fight against segregation and the kind words Martin Luther King Jr has spoken of this globalized world, our country is still harboring racist and closed mind individuals. In the recent lectures of our class, we have done a review of the voting patterns and religion in American politics and it was made aware to me that the Jewish community is progressive and liberal. However, this article depicts that many will retaliate against these democratic nominees, Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg. Is not our country a place that embraces religious freedom yet there is so much opposition to the thought of having a Jewish president, too much prejudice? In addition to this fact, the article highlights the fact that Sanders appears to be more of an atheist because he does not do traditional practices that an orthodox Jew would do. So is the fact that he is of Jew origin matter in that case. It is a bit ridiculous because, by his communities’ standards, he is not Jewish enough, while Bloomberg may be more of what the Jewish community will vote for. I resonated with the piece because after our readings and lectures on MLK Jr’s actions, I was struck with the fact that our country is globalizing but there needs to be more actively involved individuals to persuade and get more individuals on board to be a more unified country, not one filled with separate groups. Unified we are stronger than apart is the message we should send, furthermore, why can’t a Jewish president be a possibility, our country is the land of the free and any U.S. citizen should be able to have the liberty to run for president. As to the concern of the public about old-age-semantic stereotyping of Jewish as socialist, it is ridiculous to base off their knowledge on stereotypes and look at the facts and understand what each candidate has to offer as they take the courage to stand and campaign to become a leader of our nation. I mean look at our president today, Donald Trump was a businessman foremost and also an entertainer yet he managed to win the campaign for the presidency. Sanders and Bloomberg have the right to campaign and fight to the end for the presidency. I selected this article because it connects to our lectures on how groups vote and especially because Sanders has shown his influence towards the young and educated group of voters and we can see his appeal to them, not focusing on his religious affiliations.

[2020rels390bresponder-blog]

Post 5

https://www.pewforum.org/2019/12/16/the-digital-pulpit-a-nationwide-analysis-of-online-sermons/

In the article ‘The Digital Pulpit: A Nationwide Analysis of Online Sermon,’ it was illuminating and interesting about how modernized our world is becoming when a mere decade ago we lack such advance technology that is now in the palms of our hands. I was thoroughly surprised about how similar yet different the four main branches of Christian groups conduct their sermons (Catholic, evangelical Protestant, mainline Protestant, and historically black protestant). As a fellow Catholic, I was quite surprised to know that our priest gives brief sermons compare to the three other groups. However, from observation and word of mouth I was not to unaware as to the lengthy sermon preachers of the black protestant church gives. However, one thing that brought good questions to mind is what certain preaching these churches preach, as the article puts it, is it all fire and doom or is it more towards love and acceptance? The research done though was a bit flawed in that it was set for the time in Easter and this is time more centered around the second Passover and so the sort of sermons gives will revolve around the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. Either way, what came out of the research was the common words used in the sermons and how common it was. For evangelical Protestants, we could see that they tended to use “eternal hell” and  “trespass…sin.” These terms tend to connotate a negative feel although we do know from the class that evangelical protestants are more about sin and reconciliation, so it is logical to understand in the times of Easter we can see their need to express the importance of not sinning and reconcile with God. It is consistent with our class material and even in our modern society, the evangelical protestant will tend to abide more to the scripture then stray and allow outside words to influence them. As for what Catholic priest sermons went, we were mainly given terms about one of the main beliefs they practice, the resurrection of their savior, so the answer as for what was preached was mainly one of worship and simply encouraging its followers to grateful for what the savior has done for them. In the mainline Protestant group, the terms most used were “disciple…betray” and “United Methodist” it is also a key in that they were simply addressing their followers and preaching the main event Easter Sunday, we cannot discern if their message was of good or bad connotations. Finally, we focus on what term was most used by the historically black protestant preachers, which turned out to be “powerful hand” and “hallelujah…come.” These terms are indicating some positive connotation because hallelujah is a term connected to joy and worship in the Christian faith. Overall in all these religions, I found it resonating to our class because I could compare what each faith certain practices are and understand how strict or forceful or gently the teaching of their faith was translated to the followers, I found the terms used to be interesting and from my experience, I believe the catholic church is evolving and teaching more about acceptance and simply being grateful to be alive.

[2020rels390bresponder-blog]

Post 4

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/21/among-religious-nones-atheists-and-agnostics-know-the-most-about-religion/

In the article ‘Among religious ‘nones,’ atheist and agnostic know the most about religion,’ by Dalia Fahmy, posted on the Pew research website, we question the reason as to why non-religious individuals are capable of carrying the more knowledge about other religions. I also pondered about why an atheist would, those who are without a god, care to know more about religions focus around their God(s). I was also wondering as to where could these people who became or declared themselves as atheists came from. Were they raised atheist or agnostic or did they renounce their previous religion? Were these people influenced by the atheist movement in the 1960s led by Madalyn Murry O’Hair? Even if they are perceived as a notorious group who were labeled as unholy in those times, I think their group now may be more liberal and interested in uniting our society and ignoring differences. Of the 32 multiple choice questions given out about half of the questions were answered correctly by atheist and agnostics while nones answered about a third of them correctly. In class, we also discussed this topic and it was quite baffling that these individuals that care not for following any specific religion could be so knowledgeable not only on the Christian faith by those of Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism. Along with the questions it was uncanny how many atheists were on par with protestants when it came to the question about which faith believed that salvation came through faith alone. I am impressed with their expansion and how they incorporate the knowledge of other religions into their memory bank. They have taken it upon themselves to know little facts like exactly what yoga is part of Hinduism or that Ramadan is a holiday in the Islamic religion. It is clear in this survey and what we have learned in class that these religiously unaffiliated groups that atheists are more tolerant and open-minded something that we’ve heard Martin Luther King Jr trying to preach, a globalized world. Their open-mindedness is exactly what MLK Jr envision for our country and if we analyze the survey answers we can see that atheists and agnostics were very knowledgeable of most every religion questioned about in the multiple-choice conducted. Since our class discussed the nature of atheist contrary to spectacles about how people without a God could only be considered ‘evil’ were dispelled and these individuals are just forward-thinking people who could be the future leaders because they push for more tolerance, they are more liberal, and have more realistic goals. If religious individuals could look past the fact that these individuals do not have a God, they could see the potential of moving forward and creating a more globalized society, as MLK talked about, and hopefully creating more equality and just country to be proud of.  As time passes the only way we are moving on is with individuals who have acquired more education and understand people as a whole, never excluding differences due to prejudices or what religions dictate. In general, this article has just given a picture of what is to come and how we may just become a globalized society if they group of religiously unaffiliated continue to grow, incorporate and teach others their point of view on the world.

[2020rels390bresponder-blog]

Post 3

https://www.pewforum.org/2020/01/22/what-americans-know-about-the-holocaust/

In the article called ‘What American Know About the Holocaust,’ posted by the Pew Research center, it informs us about how knowledgeable our country is about the horrific event that occurred around world war II. In the article, it makes speculations about the certain response, that are not back up by enough information, that hint at those being unkind or cold towards Jews. In our class, we discussed how this travesty was heartbreaking and that in the horrible event resulted in many Jews revoking their faith and become atheist. The article explains that some individuals have only a surface knowledge about the Holocaust and many only associated it with the war and not having to deal with the Jews being murdered and annihilated. I was disappointed by how either people choose not to acknowledge the event or maybe in someway the education system did not stress the importance of the horrible event to history. My connection of this article to the material we have covered in the class was that it is clear we may only have a brief knowledge of how Hitler decided to cleanse the world of Jews but we may not know in-depth details as to how many suffered and died or how Hitler came into power. I was intrigued as to how little some are informed about the event. About two-thirds of the responders of the survey knew what Nazi-ghettos were, including me, which is disappointing when we think about this because it is a shame that we do not know the extent of the travesty that occurred. What more is that the lack of knowledgeable individuals who do not acknowledge or simply do not know about the details could ignore the impacts left behind and it is just an event that should be used to teach people about how they could be more open towards differences and speak against oppressive and individuals who express hate out of prejudice reading this article made me question if our education system is simply glazing over the overall Holocaust as just a tragedy in history and merely speak about it instead of going in-depth and explaining the very beginning and how the whole mess began. In addition to our education system, this conducted survey hinted that many who didn’t respond could have possibly been individuals who claim the whole holocaust false or exaggerated by the Jews, which is crazy to think that the holocaust as a hoax. It was also noted in this research that more individuals who were unaffiliated with religion (atheist, agnostic, and nones) were more knowledgeable just as we had discussed in class. This piece of information that we derived from the conducted survey means that the unaffiliated have more inclination to have this knowledge. Maybe the number of nones(mostly college undergraduates, young adults) increasing in the U.S. will be good because they tend to have a more liberal view on the world and their experiences in their years of education may be able to influence the masses on the importance of carrying on the knowledge of the tragedy of the holocaust as a remembrance and a lesson so that our country can avoid any such future tragedy.

[2020rels390bresponder-blog]

Post 2

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/world/middleeast/coronavirus-religion.html

In the article, “In a Pandemic, Religion Can Be a Balm and a Risk”, by Vivian Yee, we witness the outcome and effect that the pandemic and spread of the coronavirus has had worldwide. As we have observed times of crisis are tough and bring out the question if believers should continue believing in their God or fully immerse themselves in their faith. In a similar situation from our lectures, we were privy to observe a similar crisis during segregation and Martin Luther King Jr’s work as a preacher to use their times as a way to unify all those facing injustice. However, our situation with the virus being transmitted rapidly when people congregate have just worsened the outcome, devoted believers have been spreading the disease to more unknowingly. Religious individuals have been stubborn reasoning that if it was their time then it was their time and causing them to in turn infect others unknowingly since they continued to gather with others for their religious purposes. It had come to the point where governments have had to step in and restrict traveling anywhere, religious pilgrimages, and closing places of worship. This was justified because as research was conducted and noted that religious congregation, especially in Iran, is where the worst outbreaks occurred. This sense of no longer having a place to congregate is devastating to some individuals because as we discussed in class, a religion to someone is like the gateway to a community where people feel like it is their home. To be denied such liberties have caused some to turn to their religious leaders that may use ludicrous ideas as a way to ward off the virus. People a now blindly following their religious leaders, like in Texas a preacher was spreading the word on telemedicine and how he could cure his believers through the screen. People are lost and feeling trapped and some will continue to go out, like in Iran believers are going to Shiite Muslim shrines and licking them to ward off infections, which is unbelievable since it’s been explained that the virus is transferred via contact with others and this action to lick a shrine that may already have come in contact with someone who’s already been infected is just baffling. The actions that believers of different faiths have taken are unthinkable, some in India have gone as far as to drink cow urine to stave off the coronavirus! The article has highlighted just how many are devoted to their faith and in our times,  we are granted the technology to stay in touch and many religious figures have taken that to their advantage to keep in touch and help their followers through our crisis. If anything, this crisis may affect how our younger generation will think and maybe it may have an effect on the number of nones present in the U.S.s population. The pandemic will be a wakeup call and affect the way we think from this point on and whether people embrace their faith or reject it.

[2020rels390bresponder-blog]

Post 1

https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/ 

Reading the pew article called “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace,”  it deeply connects to the class in that we acknowledged the radical changes in just a decade. In this small amount of time, our current society has evolved to leave behind religious practices and create our belief system, the cafeteria method. This creation of our own beliefs is what we are commonly seeing in this new generation. The article places an emphasis on this group called “nones”. These are individuals that have no religious affiliations and have steadily been on the rise since the last survey, conducted through the Pew Research center, in 2009. In 2019 we can see a huge increase in this group. Today it’s been recorded that about 65% of American adults that claim to be Christian and from 2009 it has gone done by 12%. While the number of people who are Christian decreases, we are also seeing an increase in religiously unaffiliated (nones, atheist, or agnostic) from 17% in 2009 to about 29% in 2019. In our class, we have gone and discussed our once conservative society being more open-minded and forward-thinking, in generally becoming more accepting in these modern times. We discussed in class that in the group of religiously unaffiliated is consisted of young adults and college graduates. I think this huge shift in less religious practice is the availability of more education the younger generation receives, causing them to question the practices that their religion follows. This collection of data and the question ask in the article, what faith do you believe in and how often do you attend or follow religious practices, is an indicator for true believers. Furthermore, this article revealed how more political leaders are claiming to be none, about one-third of democrats have been revealed to be none. It was recorded that the numbers of nones are growing faster among democrats than republicans. This revelation has caused the religious groups to be on the fence when it comes to electing political leaders. As a result, voters and citizens are more cautious when deciding on representatives and whom to follow because they question these individuals in the democrat party in whether they have some moral code or something to direct them since they have selected to have no religious affiliation. So, citizens are not able to understand that in this day and age there is a less conservative population and the young adults, future leaders, are exposed to more knowledge and we as college students are valuing the differences and are more accepting. In my opinion, as a college student, I do question where I stand in my religion and the teachings and practices. However, in my experiences, I have come to rethink some opinions shared in the Catholic faith and have decided to not accept. Since I want to carry on living in a way that I am more accepting and have decided to incorporate a little of the cafeteria method and understand others and respect their beliefs just a Martin Luther King Jr wanted and preached.