jennashapiro

[jennashapiro]

The Washington Post’s article “Organized religion is losing its followers” by reporter Jennifer Rubin describes a secular shift in American politics. For the first time in American history, a survey has revealed that along with 23% of American citizens reporting they are catholic and 22.5% reporting they are evangelical Christians, a whopping 23.1% of Americans are reporting they have ‘no religion’. This is a massive leap in American secularism. Looking back into the 1970’s, only 5% of Americans then reported they had ‘no religion’ compared to today’s number being over four times that. While those who are religious still dominate the United States, secularism is on the rise. As discussed in class, 1960’s Americans were devoted churchgoers, while 2000’s Americans don’t go to church nearly as often. As a result, the less you go to church, the more likely you are to be Democratic. Non-religious political values tend to challenge Republican religious traditionalism. Therefore, as we see a rise in secularism, we should also see a correlating rise in liberalism. Modern day generations such as Millennials tend to most commonly be ‘nones’, or those who choose not to put themselves in an organized religion. While some may see this contemporary turn away from religion as the creation of society with no morals, secular individuals tend to have strong values, compassion, and a desire to help others, which is akin to what religion provides. While there may be less and less people going to church every Sunday, those who don’t practice a religion still follow their own core tenet of beliefs and give back to society in a new way. This is especially valuable when it comes to the 2020 election; a candidate that can reach out to religious devotees and simultaneously the values of rising secular nones may do the best in today’s political climate.

[jennashapiro]

Author Kate Eshelby of The Guardian’s article “Turning back time with the Amish of Ohio” explores the modern Amish lifestyle in Ohio’s Holmes County with a colony of 35,000 members. The Amish there use traditional horse drawn carriages to travel, and opt not to use technology such as the phone or television. They are described as simple, plain people who live away from the ‘complications’ of the modern world, but want people to understand and respective the way they choose to survive. They also avoid politics and the public eye as much as they can in an effort to avoid conforming to the world. In terms of religion, the Amish of Holmes County hold church services in home every week, switching off hosts amongst the community. Religiously speaking, the Amish are anabaptists who believe in adult baptism, essentially the choosing as an adult to be an official member of the Amish community. Eshelby also describes seeing a modern truck parked on the Amish property and is told that one of the Amish children is in Rumspringa, and is being encouraged to experiment and explore outside the tenets of the Amish community. Rumspringa is expected to be given up following adult baptism, and is offered as a sort of false choice for young Amish children to either accept the faith or give up family for technology. Just as we described in class, the Amish practice an unwritten code of conduct known as Ordnung, or German for order. They demonstrate obedience, humility and simplicity by the way they choose to live, and avoid explicitly conforming to the government’s wishes or those of the worlds. They avoid politics for this reason, but if they were involved, they would be pacifists. In their eyes, the teachings of God outweigh any government’s rules or laws.

[jennashapiro]

Within The Washington Times’ article “Students at Mormon-owned BYU urge honor code compassion”, author Brady McCombs covers recent protests from Mormon students at Brigham Young University. Students are currently protesting punishments and bans enforced at Brigham Young University for behavior such as drinking alcohol, growing facial hair, piercings, and premarital sex. Students are protesting through peacefully with chants and signs displaying quotes from the Book of Mormon such as ‘practice compassion’ and ‘stop playing God’. Many students claim bans and punishments of certain behaviors go against Mormon qualities of forgiveness. Some want the Brigham Young honor code to be altered while others simply want to reduce the severity of punishments for misbehavior, which are currently suspension and expulsion from BYU. At the moment, 10-15 students are expelled from Brigham Young University annually for simply violating the honor code. 

This current conflict at BYU is an example of a religion struggling to meet the needs and expectations of its younger, more progressive members. Mormons tend to follow a strict faith, with the intention of marriage in temple and the creation of a large family to pass down the religion. While they have been involved in politics during the recent years thanks to Mitt Romney, they tend to stay out of the political realm, which is why I found this article to be so interesting. Here is a case of Mormons protesting for their own civil rights at Brigham Young, a university devoted to traditional, conservative Mormon practices, with many Mormon students also fighting for their rights as members of the LGBTQ+ community, something not supported by the Church of Latter-Day Saints.  This, to me, is evidence of the forever changing political and religious world we live in. While traditions may have worked in the past, it doesn’t mean they are applicable for the future.

[jennashapiro]

Within USA Today’s article “Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s countercultural approach to Christianity is what America needs now”, author Kirsten Powers writes what is essentially an opinion piece on the necessary awakening of the Christian left, and how Pete Buttigieg can transform and draw upon American Christians. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of Indiana as well as a Democrat and veteran, is staunchly religious. Buttigieg is a devout Christian who is fighting his own prophetic battle against the religious right, who essentially make up a faction of Trump supporters. He claims however, that the 2020 presidential election is not so much a Democrat versus a Republican, but rather an election to redirect Christian faith. He proposes that American Christians focus more on what the Bible explicitly states, rather than divulging into things never mentioned such as abortion; Buttigieg instead encourages supporting the lower class, immigrants in need of help, and fellow American citizens in order to maintain a strong nation. He claims that in doing so, a Christian is following God’s message. He also suggests that Trump is likely not Christian, or devout at least, by way of his behavior and lack of humility. Overall, Pete Buttigieg is a very interesting candidate for the 2020 election. He combines religion and politics into what can only be an American fusion, highly representative of the Christian nation that the United States seems to be. By running for president, he is carrying the torch for the Christian left by displaying that Democrats too can believe in a God. In addition, he also is representative of an almost biblical metaphor for justice, an empowered Christian devotee potentially going up against somewhat of a false prophet, Donald Trump himself. This is just another example of the overwhelming power religion has in politics in America, and the large role it could play in the upcoming election.

[jennashapiro]

Within The Washington Post’s article “President Trump just tweeted support for Bible courses, but it’s already legal to teach about the Bible”, author Mark Chancey discusses President Trump’s recent support for religion in the public education system. On January 28th of this year, Trump tweeted: “Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible. Starting to make a turn back? Great!”. Trump’s tweet about the introduction of Bible courses displays a deep evangelical nostalgia for prayer and Bible study in public schools, something that was discontinued by Madalyn Murray O’Hair, an outspoken atheist who overturned prayer in schools with Murray v Curlett making its way to the supreme court. As we discussed in class, O’Hair was an advocate for atheism and all things not biblical. She was able to make her voice plain and approachable to a wide variety of people, and as an elite, she was able to successfully communicate to the listening masses. She however, did reinforce the idea that atheism was deviant and immoral through her personal behavior, showed the farthest-reaching limitations of atheism and shunned potential religious allies with her rhetoric. Today, atheists only make up 4% of the United States population, and are still looked down on, despised, and deemed inferior by many religious individuals. Bringing this discussion back to President Trump, he seems to understand his audience both at rallies and on twitter; Trump’s supporters are overwhelmingly evangelical, and he himself caters to them. By supporting Bible study in public schools, Trump is not expressing his own opinion, but rather what his devout evangelical supporters would like to hear. Just as religion can be separated from politics like the acts of Madalyn Murray O’Hair, it can also be used to influence politics in the same way Trump utilizes it.

[jennashapiro]

The Washington Post explores morals of justice and equality in the 2020 presidential race within their article “Senator Cory Booker formally joins presidential race with an echo of Martin Luther King Jr.: We can’t wait”. Inside the article, author Cleve Wootson describes how Senator Booker, a Democrat, has chosen to run his campaign on feelings of hope and positivity, paralleling religious leader and social activist Martin Luther King’s nonviolent strategies to achieve widespread racial integration. Booker’s more gentle approach to the presidency also is in sharp contrast with that of President Trump’s hostility and name-calling behavior, both in person and online. Interestingly, Booker has barely mentioned the fight against Trump in these early days of his campaign, instead opting to describe how he will ‘fight from the high ground to bring the country to higher ground’, very similar to the peaceful, nonviolent approach King took when fighting for racial integration. Based off of what we talked about in class, Booker seems to be attacking some of those triple evils that King often criticized and discussed, specifically the racism that President Trump has brought to the surface of America. He also seems to be advocating for a more loving and better nation, perhaps akin to King’s concept of the world house or of the beloved community, in which America becomes a community that loves and supports each other. Booker also describes how New Jersey, the state he represents in the senate, taught him a strong and defiant sense of love that ‘is essential to achieving justice’. This immediately aligns with beliefs and bedrock of the black church, in which justice and freedom are strongly emphasized values. In addition, King also describes his childhood as loving, which allowed him to visualize a loving God and a loving world, just in the way Booker describes a future America.

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In Yahoo’s article “California AG: Illegal Immigration Should Be Decriminalized”, author Mairead McArdle describes California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra’s liberal stance on illegal immigration and the topic of amnesty as a whole. Becerra said that those who crossed the southern border were not only not criminals, but that they hadn’t committed a crime that harmed another human being, directly or indirectly; he also claimed that the usually conservative use of the word ‘criminals’ to describe illegal immigrants was simply rhetoric used to manipulate people to fear illegal immigrants. Becerra’s response followed President Trump’s recent threats to Mexico to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country, something Trump claims is causing criminal activity and drug violence in America. Looking at what we learned in class, Becerra’s view on immigration and amnesty falls in line with Alvaro Huerta’s essay on illegal immigration. Migrants and amnesty is actually one of Huerta’s main talking points within his short compilation of essays on immigration, in which he mentions that he thought then President Obama should have granted amnesty for all immigrants who have not committed violent crimes. 

This topic speaks to me on a personal level. As someone who has grown up in Southern California, near part of the southern border, and lived here for all my life, I too support amnesty for migrants who have not committed violent crimes. It is clear to me as a resident that those who immigrate illegally here are not criminals, but rather human beings seeking a better chance at life for themselves or their families. Being that I also want the same things, I look at illegal immigration with a humanizing lens, with the intention of helping another individual. It seems Becerra and Huerta do the same thing in their desire to see amnesty granted to migrants who cross the border with no intention of harming another person.

[jennashapiro]

BBC’s article “Ilhan Omar: Muslim lawmaker sees rise in death threats after Trump tweet” is just one strong example of the Muslim community being marginalized in politics today, this time coming straight from the twitter account of the president of the United States. Just as we described the Muslim community in class as having to navigate hate and terrorist stereotypes in America, President Trump’s recent tweet proves this to be evident in our society today. Within BBC’s article, they describe how Trump tweeted an edited video clip with terrifying scenes from 9/11 interspliced with clips from Ilhan Omar, a Muslim congresswoman, giving a speech on Muslim civil rights post the 9/11 attacks.  As a result, it is clear Trump is suggesting that Muslims are a threat to the United States of America, and that all Muslims are not to be trusted. In addition, he is sending a message that condones the stereotype that Muslims are terrorists, something that supports his rather evangelical and christian agenda and audience. Since the tweet occurred, Omar has received many threats upon her life, in which people often reference President’s Trump video as a reason for despising and attacking her. Looking at Trump’s tweet and these death threats as a whole, it only shows just how difficult it can be to be Muslim in America. As mentioned in class, Muslims make up 1% of the American population, and struggle to evangelize with the stereotypes they face from other religions. Despite this, Ilhan Omar has become an elected congresswoman, fighting against the threats Muslims face in America. However, Trump’s tweet shows that all Muslims face marginalization, even those in congress. In addition, the numerous death threats Omar received suggest that Muslims will continue to struggle against stereotypes in the United States despite now having an elite role in running it.