Is there a specific part of the brain for feelings of spirituality? Many lines of evidence suggests it is the temporal lobes. Dr. David Comings, a renown human geneticist, neuroscientist and physician proposes that spirituality is genetically hardwired into a specific part of the brain, is pleasurable, is critical to the evolution and survival of man, and will never go away. Understanding the biology of the spiritual brain can help us to develop a rational spirituality where are rational brain and spiritual brain can live in peace.
ROCHESTER, MINN. — The press that followed a recent visit by the Dalai Lama to the Mayo Clinic focused primarily on the spiritual leader's comments about the Chinese crackdown on protest in Tibet. It isn't hard to imagine why. The meeting's contentious international backdrop — a conflict underscored by the sidewalk appearance of a strangely polished crew of 50 or so pro-Chinese demonstrators mounting a lonely crusade to tarnish the cause of Tibetan autonomy — was an easier tale to tell than the less easily digested topic of the daylong event itself.
The oversight was unfortunate, because the case being made during the April 16 colloquium titled "Investigating the Mind-Body Connection: The Science and Clinical Applications of Meditation," seems far more destabilizing than the political movement in Tibet.
It's one thing to ponder the irony of a professional-seeming protest in defense of a government that does not allow protest. It's quite another thing to witness the brain trust behind the brand more associated with Western medicine than any other giving forum to the emerging science of mindfulness training, acceptance, positive thinking and compassion. The first cause is about political change. The second is cosmological.
The Buddhist meditative tradition
The Dalai Lama's prescription is that of the Buddhist meditative tradition: selecting and focusing on positive mental states such as compassion, gratitude and joy, while challenging negative mental states such as anger, jealousy, anxiety and a distracted state of being. In practice this means daily meditative practice intent on clearing mental clutter and developing more clarity of attention and moment-by-moment awareness.
The Dalai Lama has long believed that so-called mindfulness meditation has beneficial effects on human health and well-being, and thanks to research conducted by Davidson and others, we now know that the brain and body do indeed change for the better as a result of such practice, and through measurable physiological pathways more complex than had previously been imagined.
Researchers have known for years, for example, that a bilateral brain region known as the prefrontal cortex, or PFC, is involved in developing responses to emotionally laden thoughts, and that the way we respond to the events and thoughts in our lives is often determined by whether the brain draws on the rights side of our PFC or its left. Operating below the level of awareness, the right side of the prefrontal cortex responds to problems with an eye toward punishments and avenues of withdrawal, while the left side processes thoughts which are generally positive and tuned to rewards. Damage the left prefrontal cortex and depression increases; those who tend to preferentially use the left side of their prefrontal cortex tend to get over problems faster than do those who process emotion-laden thoughts from the right. Significant for the discussion of physical health, those who preferentially use the left prefrontal cortex show lower baseline levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
The dangers of chronic frustration
A separate area of research has linked chronic frustration with disruption of your heart-rate variability, which, sustained over time, the body begins to recognize as its baseline state, bringing about an inhibition of the vital bodily calming mechanism that is your parasympathetic nervous system. Feel frustrated long enough and your body ceases to calm itself.
By wiring EEG sensors to the heads of Buddhist monks and those attempting to meditate for the first time, then examining brain activity as expressed on functional MRI images, Davidson and Kabat-Zinn have learned that meditation employs the left prefrontal cortex — some monks he has studied have greater left prefrontal orientation than ever previously observed — and that over time, meditative practice can change the orientation from the right to the left of those who take up the activity. Brain circuitry is not fixed, in other words. To the contrary, said Davidson during a research-based session at Mayo, "the brain is the organ that is built to change in response to training. Happiness, compassion, and clarity of attention are the product of skills, and these skills can be enhanced through mental training."
After hearing the case that meditative mental training can help people stay healthier and recover more quickly from illness, the Mayo audience of 350 or so faculty and staff entered more culturally problematic territory — subject matter that seemed to be talked around as much as it was examined. In short, while medicine is beginning to take seriously the notion that the cultivation of compassion and mindfulness is beneficial for physical health, medicine as practiced today is often antithetical to the very mindfulness and spiritual "present-ness" sought after in meditative practice.
An East-West paradox?
The clinic may have established a "mind-body" Department of Integrative Medicine and gathered with earnest enthusiasm to hear from the top names in mind-body research, but Mayo is nothing if not the face of Western medicine in all its dichotomous cleaving of the spirit from the biology, both in culture and practice. The medical embrace of meditative compassion would seem to face a paradox: The grueling rise to the highest levels of medical specialization does not appear conducive to regular breaks for contemplative meditative practice, nor does the culture of omnipotence, authority and spirit of conquest within medical training seem a smooth fit for the sense of acceptance embodied in Buddhism.
The bad news came in large part from Roshi Joan Halifax, a Zen priest and medical anthropologist whose remarks suggested that embracing the Buddhist prescription will likely require more than stocking the patient information center with brochures on the value of meditation. For example, the Dalai Lama's thoughts on death are clear: "I think the most important thing," according to a Web collection of his sayings, "is to try and do our best to ensure that dying person may depart quietly, with serenity and in a peace." Caregivers of those at the end of life experience high rates of burnout, said Halifax, due to the "moral stress" brought on by the damage done to this peace by conflicting agendas of medicine in the face of death.
"A lot of clinicians feel reluctant to speak openly about the trajectory of an illness," she said, "with death being the end of the road." Halifax described the multipronged source of the physician's moral stress that leads him or her to avoid the dying: interventions which cause pain and suffering, lack of communication about the goals of care, and "the prolonging of dying through technology." While she acknowledged their role in transitory illness, flashing a picture of an iconic string of ICU life preserving tubes and machinery, she said simply, "This is our nightmare, to be put on a respirator."
Cultivating compassion, wisdom in the face of death
Halifax advocated helping physicians and caregivers in "cultivating compassion and wisdom in the presence of death." The ability to "presence pain and suffering without pitying, consoling or denying," said Halifax, requires "a quality of attention that is panoramic, perceptive and nonjudgmental." While meditative practice would seem to develop the skill in question, hanging over her argument was a question that went unasked: How likely are these skills to be developed in medical training, much less the culture and bureaucracy of large medical centers like Mayo? Research may support the benefits of meditative practice for patients, but if they are to care for the dying and gravely ill, physicians would appear to need an extra dose the same medicine. Is the Buddhist tradition even possible within the umbrella of Western medicine?
"Allow yourself to experience that futility," she said when a Mayo doctor from Brazil asked how he should handle his negative emotions that gave rise when watching patients in his homeland die unnecessarily due to a lack of resources. "To be with things as they are. There is still a resource that is there — your presence."
For the Mayo brothers, looking down from nearby oversize vintage photos upon the gathering, this could not have seemed a stranger request for the heirs to their legacy. Nor could the answer given to a similar question a few minutes later — and which had been put to Mattieu Ricard, a French-born monk from Katmandu and a subject of Davidson's EEG experiments on the brain activity of expert level meditation.
"Transform your attitude to the suffering person," said Ricard, who has spent more than 10,000 hours in contemplative meditation. "Let your heart become a mass of brilliant white light, and the suffering becomes dissolved in it."
The nature of compassion and suffering
After a lunch-hour break, the audience stood silently to greet the Dalai Lama, a sometimes impish figure who held forth bare-armed and robed from an armchair in the center of the stage. Answering questions put to him by Goleman and later the audience, the Dalai Lama alternated from English to long statements toward his interpreter, presumably in Tibetic, touching on the nature of compassion and suffering and its intersection with medical care. He rambled at times in a way that indicated no worries about social pressures like staying on message, making easily digestible bullet points, winning over his audience — and yet winning over his audience regardless.
He explained his position that the human dilemma is one whereby anger and attachment — while useful if a transitory emotion in species throughout the animal kingdom — are given undue extension by the human skill for imagination, with negative results.
"This is where the problems arise," he said. "Because of this, we need a special effort to increase our affection."
He called compassion "an immune system for the toxins of the mind." He also, early in his remarks, slipped in mention of the problem at hand, a statement that sparked no shortage of nervous laughter in the highly credentialed crowd.
"In Tibet we have a saying," he said. "The physician is a great scholar, but his medicine is not effective because his heart is not that good."
Paul Scott is a freelance writer based in Rochester.
More doctors recommending dose of God for their patients
Tribune staff report May 2, 2008
You might think a hospital sounds like an odd place to launch a spiritual quest. But for some patients, that's precisely where they find religion.
In fact, some doctors even rely on divine intervention to assist them in the healing process.
Tribune reporter Joel Hood's story this week about a continuous prayer week held in Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital illustrated how some hospitals recognize and embrace their role as a spiritual destination.
Dr. Yong Kim was one of the staff recruited to pray. An elder at his Korean Methodist church, Kim spent several hours praying for his patients' recovery. He told Joel that prayer is vital to a patient's recovery.
Kim is one of a burgeoning number of doctors who factor prayer into treatment, said Dr. Robert Klitzman, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. In interviews with 50 doctors, Klitzman learned that many are oblivious to patients' spiritual needs until they become patients themselves.
Has the threat of a serious illness prompted you to reassess your relationship with God? Do your doctors tend to your spiritual well-being too?
Sarhad, a registered trust, plans to institute a university of music that can ease tensions globally through its unified diversities and dispersal of universal knowledge on music
Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one- was the anthem Lennon sang to galvanise the counter culture movement. He believed that music could raze boundaries and lived and died for the belief. That belief now has found wings and a prayer again half a world away. Sarhad, an organisation working for peace in militancy-hit regions, wants to concretize this healing power of music, embody it in buildings, house it in a campus and nurture it with citizens all across the globe.
Working since 1997 for promoting peace, rehabilitation of victims of violence (specially in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir) and reconstructing ruptured spirits, Sarhad, now wants to create a university of music where universal knowledge of music could pass freely inside and outside the country. Sanjay Nahar, president of Sarhad, is ready to invest his energies, resources and soul to see his dream transmogrify to reality.
"...I got together with other members of Sarhad on an enterprise of working towards an institute which would be devoted solely to the study of music in all its forms, subjects, genres – folk , western, pop, rap, rock and what have you, from all across the world. Music has played a great role in our tradition, culture, history and spirituality, for whatever reasons, say prayer, leisure, offering, poetry and of course pacification. It is the one divinity that transcends regional contours to assume celestial dimensions. It touches the soul. And there is no institute that studies music and only music irrespective of its origin and nationality. The truth is, music has no nationality. It belongs to the world and is one despite all its variances,” he says, “and we do not have any place where all its aspects can be united for research, study, promotion and dissemination globally, without any discrimination.”
For the same, Nahar got together with eminent personalities like Dr Mahmood Rahmaan who has been the vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and also the chairman of the Finance Commission in Kashmir which deals with betterment of Kashmir as a people's state and mapping the backward areas. “India has been a virtual storehouse of knowledge and music and we will build on this idea. The project of a university is in its conceptual stage. There are so many universities in the country. We do not want to add just another. We hope to create a place thriving with a cosmopolitan outlook and the multi-lingual characteristic of music. It will not belong to a country but the world, secular, global and moral,” says Rahman, Sarhad’s mentor.
Getting specific, Nahar adumbrates a skeleton plan. “We are seeking help from a lot of people with reference to this. We already have land near Wagholi in mind. The ideation has been completed. The legal work and architectural processes will begin by the end of June. We hope to have laid the foundation of the university in about a year,” says a hopeful Nahar.
In February 450 churches celebrated Charles Darwin’s birthday with sermons arguing that religion and evolution do not contradict one another.
Called Evolution Sunday, the event grew out of a project organized by Dean Michael Zimmerman and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. They wrote an open letter signed by nearly 200 clerics in response to a 2004 resolution by the Grantsburg, Wisconsin, school board requiring that biology classes incorporate “various models or theories” of the origin of life. Later that year, the Grantsburg board backed down a bit, modifying its curriculum resolution to stipulate that “students shall be able to explain the scientific strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory.”
Noting the ongoing evolution wars in the United States, Zimmerman decided to expand the project beyond the borders of Wisconsin. The result was “An Open Letter Concerning Religion and Science,” which has received endorsements from 10,000 clergy members around the country. Most endorsers hail from relatively liberal mainline Protestant denominations. (There were just seven endorsements from Southern Baptists, almost all of whom were associated with hospitals or academic institutions.)
The open letter declares: “We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as ‘one theory among others’ is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children.” So far, so good.
The letter goes on to draw a distinction between “two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.” Religious truth, according to the letter, is “of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.” The divines seem to be reaching for the proposed accommodation between science and religion devised by the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould.
Gould argued that science and religion are two “nonoverlapping magisteria.” According to Gould, “if religion can no longer dictate the nature of factual conclusions properly under the magisterium of science, then scientists cannot claim higher insight into moral truth from any superior knowledge of the world’s empirical constitution.”
But can this formulation survive the continuing scrutiny of religion by science? While it is true that science has nothing to say about whether souls are divinely infused into people, religion is still part of the world’s empirical constitution.
I have no doubt about the ability of religion to “transform hearts.” Religion motivates the charitable works of the Salvation Army; it helped President George W. Bush stop drinking; and it inspired 19 Muslims to slam airliners into buildings. It is an undeniably powerful force in human lives. Something that has such a far-reaching influence cannot escape the scrutiny of humanity’s most powerful techniques for uncovering the facts of the world.
According to Gould, “The net of science covers the empirical universe: what is it made of (fact) and why does it work this way (theory). The net of religion extends over questions of moral meaning and value.” Possibly because he despised evolutionary psychology and sociobiology, Gould was comfortable making this distinction. But in a sense, values are facts about human beings and as such can be studied by scientists. Today researchers into evolutionary psychology, neuroeconomics, genetics, and other fields are elucidating the sources of human morality and how it functions.
Dean Hamer, a biologist at the National Cancer Institute, even claims to have found “the God gene,” which affects how certain mood-regulating chemicals are transported in people’s brains. This variant of the VMAT2 gene seems to make people who have it more susceptible to spiritual beliefs.
Of course, theology is still a long way from being reduced to biochemistry. Scientific research into the sources of religious belief is just beginning, so any of the current findings could be rejected or revised as further evidence becomes available. Nevertheless, the magisterium of science is surrounding and constricting the magisterium of religion. Zimmerman’s letter declares, “We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator.” It may well be that that same capacity for critical thought eventually leads us to understand how the universe and humanity came to be in such a way that God fades away, and we no longer need to believe in Him.
There is no doubt that the state of Israel with its over 7.2 million citizens has great achievements. First of all, it is rare to find a state that has succeeded to make out of people, who were dispersed through centuries in different parts of the world, a renewed nation. In this process, it successfully absorbed through the years waves of immigrants (close to three million) who came to build a new life—and many arrived after experiencing trauma.
From the beginning the emerging society succeeded in developing a democratic structural system in a region where authoritarian regimes are the rule rather than exception. With the years, this society developed a tradition of freedom of information and media openness, with daily newspapers, many other types of publications, a few TV channels and many radio stations, all carrying vivid debates about Israel and the world. In addition, the Israeli public has openings to various world channels of commutation, including Arab ones, to absorb information and knowledge. During the last decades the society also witnessed the accelerated development of civil society that consists of hundreds of NGOs which raise many different issues and serve as a place for involvement and participation. These trends also indicate a positive ongoing process whereby different excluded societal sectors enter political and social arenas and expand the scope of issues that the society debates.
Also many of the founding fathers, being influenced by socialistic ideas, established a state that took the responsibility for the weak, sick, elderly and needy. Thus Israel enacted already from the beginning a wide range of social legislation and set up extensive social programs for all Israeli citizens and especially for the needy to provide them with a broad range of benefits and assistance. In 1995 The National Health Insurance Law came into effect. This law assures provision of a standardized basket of medical services, including hospitalization, for all residents of Israel. Israel's extensive medical network and high doctor-patient ratio are reflected in the low infant mortality rate (4 per 1,000live births) and high life expectancy (82.2 years for women, 78.5 for men). This reflects a high standard of medicine in Israel and high-level training for medical professions, including a very advanced research level.
Similar achievements should be noted in education, in spite of the recent setbacks. School attendance is mandatory from age 5 to 16 and free through age 18, though less than half obtain matriculation which serves as a passport for higher education. Higher education with over 270,000 students is well regarded and plays a pivotal role in the development of the country. The universities are well known and developed and serve together with other R&D (research and development) institutions as vehicles for scientific achievements and technological development. Today, the percentage of Israelis engaged in scientific and technological inquiry and the amount spent on R&D in relation to its GDP are among the highest in the world.
The described achievements are related to economic success. After having enjoyed for many years one of the fastest GDP growth rates of all world economies, Israel is now continuing the economic recovery that began in 2003. Israel’s GDP has been rising at about 5 percent a year, per capita income reached about $21,000 (in 1980 it was about $5,500), unemployment has steadily decreased to 6.6. percent in 2007, inflation is under control, and foreign debt has been eliminated, with Israel becoming a creditor in recent years and very attractive to international investors. This was achieved with very tight budget control and cuts in public expenditures.
International level strides have been made in the fields of medical electronics, agro-technology, telecommunications, fine chemicals, computer hardware and software, food processing and solar energy. Hi-tech industries, which accounted for only 37 percent of industrial product in 1965, grew to 70 percent in 2006 ($29 billion plus another $5.9 billion of hi-tech services) and almost 80 percent of hi-tech products are exported.
In noting the half full glass it is necessary also to look at cultural achievements. The society succeeded in developing out of a dying language a culture that can pride itself on many positive indicators: writers whose works are translated into many languages, films getting awards in major festivals, plays that are performed on prestigious stages of the world. Some 2,500 titles are published annually and may be found, alongside republications of classics and imported books, in many bookshops in every town and city.
All these achievements are taking place under conditions of continuous threats and dangers. Israel is coping with a conflict that broke out prior to its birth. Through the years of its existence Israel has fought at least six major wars and suffered from ongoing hostile violent activities and terror. To be successful in withstanding its enemies, Israel invested enormous efforts in satisfying its security needs, and at present it has the strongest and best equipped army along with becoming a regional power which has great influence over the events in the region.
The Empty Half of the Glass
In discussion about the half empty glass I would like first to highlight two colossal failures of Israeli society and then to elaborate on more specific major defaults.
The first failure consists of the fact that since the establishment of the state many hundred thousands of its citizens (it is estimated about 800,000, but no one can provide a validated figure) emigrated to various countries in the world, mainly to United States, Canada, Germany, Australia and even to Russia. Although the emigration was done in different periods and because of different reasons, this number is staggering and indicates that the state did not succeed in creating satisfactory conditions for its citizens.
The second colossal failure relates to the continuation of the occupation of the territories conquered in the Six Day War in 1967. This occupation underlies many of the problems that Israel is facing and has many negative implications on life in Israel. The continuation of the occupation of the territories touches first of all on the security problems and on the moral soul of the state. The fact that the occupied territories were settled by Jews adds special folly. This act not only negates international law but also constitutes one of the biggest barriers to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict peacefully. In addition, it is estimated that directly and indirectly Israel spent through the years at least 100 billion shekel to build the infrastructure, settlements, and roads and maintain their security, which violate both the Fourth Geneva Convention and Israeli laws. This act will either bring an end to the nature of the state the founding fathers dreamed about, or Israel will have to spend almost a similar amount of money to pay compensation to those who will have to leave their homes, feeling alienation, frustration and anger.
Looking deeper into the crises that the society is going through, I will identify the most serious problems that in my view and in light of my values pose a challenge to the state of Israel today.
The Dominance of Neo-Liberal Policies
When neo-liberalism was questioned for its severe consequences in various parts of the world, Israeli society accelerated its attempt to institute this economic-social policy—a move that began already in the 1980s. With the celebration of the sixtieth birthday the outcomes of this policy are well known. The state is diminishing its role in the life of the citizens, abandoning social responsibility towards them but favoring the business sector. Through the years the government has been decreasing its expenditure on education, health and welfare and as a result these systems are constantly deteriorating and require increased personal spending, which still does not provide the solution to the destructive policies. Also, the economic growth is not equally beneficial to all classes. Over the past twenty years, income inequality has been rising and social disparities have grown to the extent that Israel is now ranked second in the Western world (after the U.S.) in terms of growing gaps between rich and poor (at present one percent of the citizens account for 60 percent of the wealth in Israel). This widening gap between rich and poor coincided with a significant narrowing of the middle class in Israel and a dramatic increase in poverty, even among the working families. In 2007 24.7 percent of Israelis in general and 35.8 percent of the children were found to live below the poverty line (in 1998 only 22.8 percent of the children lived below this line).
Dysfunction of Liberal Democracy
Although the state of Israel succeeded in establishing a well-functioning structural democracy it still suffers from many deficiencies, especially with implementing democracy's spirit and its values (human and civil rights, respect for the law, equality, treatment of minorities, and preserving basic freedoms). One of the major problems is the disregard of laws and ethics practiced by the public at large and even by the state institutions and leaders. A diagnosis of the situation is presented by jurist Moshe Negbi, who describes the process being undergone by the Israeli political culture in recent years as “a slope leading from a government of laws to a banana republic”. A specific example can be seen in the report by attorney Talya Sasson, appointed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to investigate the functioning of the state institutions with regard to building outposts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She concluded that public authorities such as ministries, the Israeli army, and the settlement division of the World Zionist Organization, as well as municipalities, used their authority illegally to actively assist and/or did not prevent the establishment of the unlawful enterprise. A recent report shows that about one third of the settlements were built illegally according to the Israeli law. In addition, according to the reports of Israel's state comptroller governmental institutions are plagued by protectionism, politicization of the public service, and use of public resources to advance personal-political interests. In this vein of special danger, close connections are observed between the government, capital and mass media, as well as penetration of criminal groups into party centers and the extensive economic and political power of several dozen very wealthy families. Furthermore, a study that was recently carried out determined that Israel ranks sixth among developed countries around the globe in terms of the scope of its black market.
This failure is related to the deterioration of Israeli leadership in the last decade. The leaders have been accused of corruption, lack of accountability, lack of vision, and manipulation of the public and as a result they have been losing the trust of the society members. In a recent survey it was found that 86 percent of the citizens state that the government is not dealing adequately with the country’s problems and 68 percent believe that the people running the country are motivated by personal interests rather than the public good.
Another deficiency with which the Israeli democracy must cope is the growing political power and influence of anti-democratic groups. The centers of these groups within Jewish society are found mostly in the ultra-religious sector, which rejects democracy both as a value and as a mechanism for governing. This view is expanding as about half of the public reject the democratic system. On another level, the trend of undermining democracy is reflected in steady and continuous attempts to undercut the legal system and especially the Supreme Court (even by the present Minister of Justice) by trying to limit its functioning and politicizing its control.
Moral Deterioration
The problem of democratic deficiencies is related to the deterioration of the moral values and standards in the state of Israel. Beginning with the internal problems, corruption has been on the increase dramatically through the years. While in 2001 Israel was in sixteenth place among the world states in the Transparency International Corruption Perception, in 2007 it fell down thirtieth place. In the last decade all the prime ministers, some of the ministers and over a dozen lawmakers were accused in various affairs of corruption. In addition, trafficking by migrant workers became an industry with a staggering annual turnover, officially estimated at no less than $300,000,000 annually. This includes illegal trafficking of women for sex as Israel became one of the major sex trade centers in the world. Moreover, various practices towards them by the mediators, the employers and even the government indicate a consistent violation of human rights.
Institutionalized Discrimination of Arab Minority
Problems of democratic dysfunction are also reflected in the way Israel is treating its Arab citizens, who are an indigenous minority. Israel is probably the only current state among the developed countries that is practicing institutionalized and cultural discrimination of the Arab minority, including legal discrimination. This discrimination has created, in essence, an ethnic democracy and not a liberal democracy—a reality in which structural preference is accorded to the dominant Jewish majority.
Formal discrimination of Arabs by Israeli law and practices is not only restricted to symbolic areas, but is inseparably linked to continuous discrimination in every aspect of life. As a result there are continuously growing gaps between Arabs and Jews in socio-economic and living conditions in all major areas of life such as housing, health, education, land, welfare, employment, and more. The governmental Orr Commission Report, published in 2003, presented for the first time an official recognition of the depth of discrimination and institutional exclusion experienced by Israel’s Arab citizens since the establishment of the state. The report stated that, “the state and all of its governments have failed to cope deeply and with the difficult challenges posed by the existence of a large Arab minority within the Jewish state. The governmental handling of the Arab sector is mostly characterized by neglect and deprivation. The establishment has not demonstrated enough sensitivity to the needs of the Arab sector and has not done enough to assure equal allocation of state resources also to this sector. The state has not done enough, and has not tried enough, to grant equality to its Arab citizens and remove manifestations of discrimination and deprivation”. A special failure is the substantial support of the discriminative practices by Jews in Israel and normative discourse of Arab delegitimization. For example in 2007 it was found that about 45 percent of the Jews in Israel deny existence of Arab discrimination in Israel; about 56 percent of them supported full equal rights between Jews and Arabs, citizens of the state, but only 22 percent support political equality for the Arab minority and about 55 percent support a governmental encouragement of Arab immigration from the state.
The Ruthless Outcomes of Occupation
In my view the most salient sign of the democratic and moral deterioration of Israeli Jewish society is the lasting occupation. During the years of the Israeli occupation, a deep-rooted system of dual sets of legal norms developed in the West Bank: one for the Jewish settlers and one for the Palestinian population. These dual sets enabled the establishment of a system of segregation, discrimination and control on ethnic grounds in the occupied territories, with all the negative implications.
Through the years many thousands of Palestinians, including civilians and children who were not engaged in any violent activity against Israel, were killed or injured by the Israeli forces. More than 600,000 of the Palestinians were arrested through the years of occupation, many thousands spent years in prisons and as detainees, many were tortured, some were expelled and their houses demolished. Many aspects of Palestinian collective and individual lives are controlled by the Israelis and through the years this has had an immense negative effect on the development of their economic, societal and political infrastructure. According to UN 2007 report 57percent of the households in the territories live in poverty. In principle, this occupied population lives without basic human and civil rights under continuous humiliation and discrimination that cannot be accounted for by threats to the security of Israel. As examples it is possible to provide about 100 checkpoints and several hundred roadblocks that turn the lives of the Palestinians into a miserable experience, or the fact that many of the settlements and the outposts were built on private Palestinian land confiscated under false pretexts, or the attempts to build security the fence well beyond the green line in order to take hold of more Palestinian land.
One may claim that this behavior is a result of the threats that the Jews in Israeli society experience because of Palestinian goals and violent behaviors, and another one may claim that it is a necessary element of occupation and that Israel does not differ from other occupying states through the ages, and in fact is more restrained. These arguments, even if they are partially valid, cannot account in my view for the scope and extent of the violations of the Palestinian human and civil rights.
Influence of Religion
Israel is a state which did not separate itself from religion. This has an immense effect on the personal lives of the citizens and violates basic human and civil rights. For example, matters of marriages and divorces as well as of conversion to Judaism are under the monopolized responsibility of Orthodox Jewry. This monopoly creates tremendous problems for many of the citizens of Israel and especially for those who came in the last wave of immigration from the former USSR.
Of special importance is the fact that the ultra-religious sector is growing, with at least two implications. The majority of this sector does not serve in the army, constituting over 11 percent of the potential conscripts, and a substantial portion of this sector (over half of the men) does not work, relying on external financial assistance.
Objections to Peace
In contrast to the well accepted and shared belief among Jews that Israel never missed an opportunity to embark on the road to peace, the accumulated evidence indicates that Israel missed opportunities to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict peacefully and more than once carried out intransigent policies. Examples range from the refusal of Golda Meir to engage in negotiations with Egypt about the cease fire, or to accept the 1969 Rogers Plan, ignoring the possibility to try to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by various security institutions in 1967, the rejection of the London agreement with Jordan in 1987 by Itzhak Shamir, the decision to declare and treat Arafat as a non-partner after the failure of the Camp David meeting in 2000, ignoring the Saudi plan initiated in 2002, up to rejections of the Syrian attempts to begin negotiations in the recent years. Moreover as the stronger side in the conflict it is Israel that has much more power to move the conflict towards its peaceful resolution, but this supremacy rarely is translated into actions.
Conclusion
This essay aims to present the problems Israel is facing and encourage World Jewry to be aware of the challenges that preoccupy the great majority of their brothers and sisters in Israel, get involved in the debates and be part of the struggle about the direction Israel should take in view of the current crises. This involvement should be of great importance for the Jews of the world who would like to see Israel as a center for world Jewry, as an example to other nations, and as a place that in moment of emergency they will be able to find their refuge.
World Jewry cannot blindly observe Israel and disregard the problems that it is facing. Israel, on the other hand, should stop the unacceptable and detrimental practice of asking blind support for the Israel which is implied by the term “he/she supports Israel” and viewing any criticism as being anti-Israeli. This relates also to the frequent practice of hiding and omitting the problems that Israel is facing before the Jewish visitors, especially the tens of thousands of youth who come every year to Israel. On the contrary, I believe that supporting Israel means seeing Israel with all its achievements and deficiencies—and then engaging in the ongoing debates and striving to create a better society, which is the best indication of love and care. This is a true nature of patriotism. The clash over the future of Israel is a crucial struggle. Jews of the world should not stand as passive bystanders but be part of the forces that shape the nature of the place where our children and grandchildren live and yours may live in the future.
Daniel Bar-Tal is a professor of political psychology at Tel Aviv University
--This spring, The Harris Poll® has asked Americans about nine areas in their lives that contribute to their overall happiness, and has created a National Happiness Index with the intention of tracking changes in happiness in the United States over time. This year's index stands at 35 (out of a possible 100).
Following are some of the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,513 adults surveyed online between March 11 and 18, 2008 by Harris Interactive®. This survey was conceived and developed by Harris Interactive and was not commissioned by any organization. Harris Interactive worked closely with MBA students at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in developing the survey questions and in the analysis of the results.
Religion
People who describe themselves as “very religious” are among the happiest of people. Those who say they are “very religious” come in ten points higher than America as a whole on the Happiness Index (45% compared to 35% are considered “very happy”). In contrast, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who describe themselves as “not religious” were measured at that level of happiness.
A similar difference is noted among people who say they “pray or study religion at home” on a daily basis compared to less often. Over four in ten people (43%) who engage in “daily” prayer or religious study are very happy. In comparison, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who “never” pray or study religion at home have a comparable happiness level.
Ethics
Ethics also appears to affect happiness levels. Just under four in ten people (37%) who are “never or rarely pressured to act unethically” are very happy according to the Index. Only about one-quarter (26%) who are pressured to act unethically “all the time” or “often” are very happy according to the Index.
Age
Older people tend to be happier according to the Happiness Index. Less than one in three (29%) in the 18 to 24 age bracket are very happy according to the survey, compared to almost one-half (47%) of people age 65 and older. The survey results also show a clear trend in increasing happiness between those two age groups.
Other Findings
The various components of the Happiness Index also reveal some issues relevant to national politics and people's personal finances. While some of the findings from the happiness survey will be discussed in greater detail in The Harris Poll #47, to be released April 23, 2008, some highlights are:
Almost three-quarters (73%) of people say they feel their “voice is not heard in national decisions that affect (them).”
Almost four in ten Republicans (39%) are very happy compared to about one-third of Independents (34 percent) and Democrats (33%).
About two-thirds of Americans (65%) say they “frequently worry about (their) financial situation.”
More people without any credit card debt are very happy (38%) than people who have any amount of credit card debt (32%).
So What?
Although this data does not establish causal relationships among the various factors studied, it does raise some provocative possibilities. One possible explanation of the correlation between religion, ethics, and happiness, could be that people who struggle with personal relationships, financial pressures, and other stressful challenges feel more ethically pressured, more unhappy, and more disillusioned with religion. On the other hand, another plausible explanation is that people find relief and happiness in their religious faith despite such challenges and frustrations in life. It's also possible that people who practice their religion faithfully have a better developed ethical framework, feel more confident in unethical environments (or perhaps avoid unethical pressures altogether), and experience greater happiness as they live according to their convictions.
The trend of increasing happiness with age is also interesting. One explanation could be that younger people are more pressured with finances, time, and relationships. This might be due to a perceived or real need to establish their independence. Potentially satisfying relationships with family, friends, and God may suffer as a result. Another possibility might be changing expectations and perceptions with age, which would affect how older people assess their sources of unhappiness and happiness. Finally, maybe happiness does not really increase with age. Perhaps the age-related differences noted in the data are instead related to fundamental differences in each generation's attitudes, values, or environment. For example, maybe the circumstances in which younger people are currently being raised are fundamentally more stressful, less religious, and less ethical than for previous generations.
Methodology
This Harris Poll® was conducted online within the United States between March 11 and 18, 2008 among 2,513 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. A full methodology and data tables will be made available at www.harrisinteractive.com.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms.
Just inside Rabat's walled medina - with its market stalls selling fake Gucci sunglasses and bzeghir, traditional Moroccan pancakes - stands the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, an octagonal building resplendent with bougainvillaea and a fountain. This is the seminary where a revolution is under way. Two hundred student imams sit in long rows in disciplined silence as their tutor, Hussein Ait Said, addresses them. All the students are wearing robes and have a copy of the Koran on their desk, but 50 of them also have handbags and, more surprising still, a pair of white slingbacks is just visible in the fifth row. These are the women who are training to be mourchidat - female priests - the second intake at the seminary.
The mourchidat (meaning 'female guide') first made news in April 2006 when the Moroccan government announced with great fanfare that the first 50 had graduated. Funded by the government, the initiative is part of a wave of liberal reform begun by King Mohammed VI in 2004. 'This is a rare experiment in the Muslim world,' Muhammad Mahfudh, the centre's director, says. The mourchidat will help women with religious questions, with their education and give support in schools and prisons. The long-term hope is that by working face-to-face with the community, they will help foster a more moderate Islam.
In the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, the female student priests are taking a morning break. More than 400 women applied for the 50 places. The prerequisites are an exam, an interview and a BA. Candidates are also required to have a life grounded in the Koran, by which is meant memorising it, and an understanding of tajwid, the art of Koranic recital. Men have to know the entire text by heart; women, half of it. Once accepted on the course, students are given a grant of 4,000 dirhams (£360) a month. To rent a room in a shared house, as many students do, costs about a quarter of that. The youngest woman on the course is 22 - 'baby mourchidat!' - the oldest nearly 40. Lessons include Islamic studies, psychology, sociology, computer skills, economy, law and business management, plus three hours of homework a day.
The seminary where the mourchidat are taught is inside Rabat's walled medina Men and women learn side by side, but only men will be able to lead prayers. Does she mind? 'No, because it is from our religion,' Haddad replies. 'We are not shocked or belittled by this.' How do the men treat you? 'There is distance, manners in our relationship.' Any criticism? 'If there is, they don't say it to our face…' She pauses and smiles, 'so perhaps…'
Women have come a long way since pre-independence days, but Morocco is still a divided society: one where some women are modern, educated and forging ahead in high positions in politics, business, medicine, law - about 25 per cent of professionals are women; yet nearly 70 per cent of women are illiterate (89 per cent in rural areas) compared with 41 per cent of men, according to 1999 government figures.
In some rural areas, a woman who is beaten or abandoned by her husband with no means of livelihood has only one course of action: words 'of spiritual impact' to her husband are written on a piece of paper by the local imam. The woman then keeps the piece of paper, hoping it will somehow change her husband's behaviour.
The idea for the mourchidat was first discussed in 2003, but its roots go back to 1999, when Mohammed VI came to the throne. He promised a new era of openness and democracy after the 38-year repressive dictatorship of his father, Hassan II. First to go was the palace harem - some 40 women. Next was the interior minister, Driss Basri, who had run Hassan's security system for 20 years, and was feared and detested like no other. The king also remodelled himself as a champion of women's rights, approving modifications to the Moudawana, the family code, in 2004, including raising the age of marriage from 15 to 17.
But the landmark event that paved the way for the mourchidat took place in 2003. In a radical break with tradition, the king invited a woman - el Mekkaoui - to give the Ramadan lecture at the royal palace in Rabat, attended by members of the government, high-ranking military officials and foreign ambassadors. It was the first time a woman had even been allowed to enter the room, let alone permitted to speak.
But in Morocco the monarchy has all the power, and the parliament plays a marginal role. The true power is in the hands of the people close to Mohammed VI. And the two other people instrumental in the formation of the mourchidat are senior advisers to the king: Professor Abdelhadi Boutaleb, a well-known Islamic authority; and Ahmed Toufiq, the minister of Islamic affairs. Boutaleb publicly stated his support of women's rights soon after Mohammed VI came to power in late 1999. Islam, he noted at a public meeting of the Woman's Network, a coalition of some 200 volunteer organisations, was a 'message of renewal and reform', and he cited verses that demonstrated that Islam advocated the equality of men and women - 'It is true that a bird needs two wings to fly.'
On graduation, each mourchidat is assigned a mosque, which can be anywhere in Morocco, although the ministry in charge aims to find somewhere close to their families. The mourchidat offer spiritual advice and teach women the Koran, but also discuss more contentious gender-related issues - about sex, women's health, what to do if your husband beats you - issues that women would not dream of asking an imam. They are paid 5,000 dirhams (£420) a month, and work long hours, both in and outside the mosque.
Since the introduction of the mourchidat, Turkey has also challenged traditional Islamic gender roles with the appointment of 450 women as preachers - or vaize. The Diyanet, or Directorate of Religious Affairs, which controls the Islamic faith in Turkey but also tries to improve women's rights, sees the appointment of female vaize as a crucial step forward.
But many Moroccans see the mourchidat as 'government propaganda', particularly those from one Islamic movement, the Justice and Charity Association. There are two main political Islamic organisations in Morocco: the Justice and Development Party (PJD), which takes part in elections; and the Justice and Charity Association, which is tolerated by the government but banned from mainstream politics because of its open hostility to the monarchy. (Both these groups have publicly condemned violence and castigated terrorists who attacked the World Trade Centre. But just as forcibly, the two organisations condemn 'American terrorism'.) Marvine Howe, the author of Morocco: The Islamist Awakening and Other Conflicts, points out that the Justice and Charity Association, 'is of overwhelming importance. It's the strongest party in the country, even though it isn't actually a party.'
Justice and Charity supports feminist ideals (its spokesman is the charismatic activist Nadia Yassine), seeing Muslim women as being liberated through the original teachings of the Prophet, and not by imitating a Western model of emancipation.
'We've been carrying out a programme of education and training for women in Morocco for more than 20 years in mosques,' argues Maryem Yafont, 37, the head of Justice and Charity's women's section, who says that her party has long had women acting as informal mourchidat.
To the great embarrassment of the government, several mourchidat from the first intake to graduate turned out to be supporters of Justice and Charity. 'Now the ministry carries out inquiries to find out if they [students] belong to our movement or not,' Yafont says, 'so they have to keep it secret.'
Back in the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, Zakia Haddad is about to resume morning lessons. Haddad is to be tested on three verses from the Koran, in front of a large group of male students. But she is not nervous. 'There is a big difference between an imam and a mourchidat,' she says. 'Women have more patience,' she laughs, 'they are more generous, and because women are mothers they are more nurturing, more giving - like a mother among people, that is what our role is from God.'
Discovery of the God Module Results in New Field of Science: Neurotheology
Saturday, April 19, 2008 by: Barbara L. Minton
(NaturalNews) During the concentration of prayer, the encompassing peace as we draw near death, a mystical revelation, or the sense that God is talking to us, we experience the most intense experiences of our lives. Since the beginning of time, people have imbued such experiences with religious significance. But in recent years, scientists have begun to explore this spiritual realm, asking their own questions about what goes on in our brains during these extraordinary events. They have been coming up with some fascinating answers that have given birth to a new field of brain science: neurotheology, the cognitive neuroscience of religious experience and spirituality.
Early Studies and Results
In a vanguard experiment on the physical sources of spiritual consciousness, Michael Persinger, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and psychology at Laurentian University in Canada, isolated an area of neurons in the brain's temporal lobes that repeatedly fire bursts of electrical activity when one contemplates God or has feelings of spirituality. Attempting to try to stimulate these bursts, Persinger isolated an area near the front of these temporal lobes, the amygdala, an almond shaped organ that infuses events with intense emotion and a sense of meaningfulness.
He then passed a controlled electrical current through coils on the head of his 80 subjects, creating a magnetic field that mimicked the firing patterns of the neurons in the temporal lobes. This resulted in an induced spiritual experience. The subjects reported an "opiate-like effect with a substantial decrease in anxiety, a heightened sense of well-being" that gave them the sense of not being alone. This sense was described by some as a religious experience.
At the same time While Persinger conducted his experiments, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Ph.D., director of the Brain and Perception Laboratory at the University of California at San Diego, also tuned in to the cosmic consciousness. He announced that he had discovered the 'God Module' in the brain which could be responsible for man's evolutionary instinct to believe in religion.
Ramachandran and his team studied the brains of people with an unusual type of epilepsy that affects the brain's temporal lobes. The study compared epileptic patients with normal people and a group who said they were intensely religious. Electrical monitors on their skin, a standard test of activity in the brain's temporal lobes, showed that the epileptics and the deeply religious displayed a similar response when shown words invoking spiritual belief.
According to the Ramachandran led research team, the most intriguing explanation is that the seizures cause an over-stimulation of the nerves in a part of the brain dubbed the God module. "There may be dedicated neural machinery in the temporal lobes concerned with religion. This may have evolved to impose order and stability on society." The results indicate that whether a person believes in a religion or even in God may depend on how enhanced is this part of the brain's electrical circuitry.
The idea of a single God module is regarded by most scientists, including Ramachandran, as too simplistic. A Canadian researcher, Mario Beauregard, and his student used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brain activity of Carmelite nuns while they were reliving the experience of unio mystica, an intense sensation in which they report feeling the presence of God.
With fMRI imaging, changes in blood flow in the brain may be monitored in almost real time. This allows researchers to see which regions of the brain become more or less active in different conditions. Beauregard observed that the nuns' ecstatic state was associated with a distinct pattern of activity in several areas of the brain. The researchers concluded that "mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems".
Other researchers have probed the experiences of people with temporal lobe epilepsy with interesting results. In Switzerland, Olaf Blanke and his colleagues found that electric stimulation of specific brain regions can trigger repeated out-of-body experiences. Although these experiences are somewhat common, they were not rigorously studied until Blanke came upon a case of a woman he was treating for epilepsy.
A part of the woman's brain near the junction point of the temporal and parietal lobes was stimulated with an electrode, producing the experience. Every time that part of her brain was stimulated, she described the experience as floating above her own body and watching herself.
Brain Mechanisms and Religious Experience
Shahar Arzy, a colleague of Blanke's, purposed that the junction between the temporal and parietal lobes may have played a part in some of the pivotal events in world religions. As Arzy and co-authors pointed out, many of the world's religions feature revelation experiences that take place on mountains. Many non-religious, non-mystic mountaineers have also had similar experiences while in the mountains. Time spent at high altitudes may affect the brain, according to Arzy, and "facilitate the experience of a revelation".
Arzy suggests mechanisms that could be involved in this experience. High altitudes have a significantly reduced level of oxygen which can affect the temporo-parietal junction. Stays at high altitude, particularly in solitude, might lead to low resistance to stress and loss of inhibition.
History is full of charismatic religious figures. Could any of them have been epileptics? Were the visions of Bible characters like Moses or Saint Paul reflective of temporal lobe epilepsy? There is no way to know.
Researchers suggest that these issues may have played a part in one of the mystical phenomena of ancient times, the oracle of Delphi. George Papatheodorou, an emeritus professor of geology at Patras University, and his colleagues examined the narrow cave where the Delphic priestesses were believed to have delivered their messages. They found high levels of methane, ethanol and carbon dioxide in the cave's air. "The site lies on a fault where gases leak out. These gases cause an oxygen reduction that induces a mild hypnotic state that could well produce hallucinations," he told the Greek Kathimerini newspaper.
Brain Mechanisms and Near-Death Experiences
Neurophysiologist Kevin Nelson, a researcher at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, is exploring the powerful spiritual phenomena of the near-death experience. His results have led him to believe that these experiences may be dream-like states triggered by stress and a common sleep disorder known as sleep paralysis. When people with this condition begin to awake, part of their brain stays in the random eye movement (REM) phase of sleep. They experience inability to move, resulting in frightening hallucinations.
Nelson studied 55 people who experienced near-death phenomena in a range of circumstances, including heart attacks, traffic accidents, and fainting spells. He found that about 60 percent of them reported symptoms of sleep paralysis. In a matched group of 55 healthy volunteers with no near-death experiences, only 24 percent had symptoms of sleep paralysis. Nelson concluded that his findings "anticipate that under circumstances of peril, a near-death experience is more likely in those with previous REM intrusion".
Possible Conclusions
According to the Ramachandran team, it is not clear why such dedicated neural machinery for religion may have evolved. One possibility they saw was the encouragement of tribal loyalty or reinforcement of kinship ties and the stability of closely knit clans. These scientists emphasized that their findings in no way suggest that religion is simply a matter of brain chemistry. "These studies do not in any way negate the validity of the religious experience of God," the team cautioned. "They merely provide an explanation in terms of brain regions that may be involved."
As Ramachandran has said, "We are only starting to look at this. The exciting thing is that you can even begin to contemplate scientific experiments on the neural basis of religion and God."
A Populist Shift Confronts the U.S. Catholic Church
Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times
Page one of two...please click on "external link" for complete article
To say she was a practicing Catholic would be an understatement. For years, Maria Aparecida Calazans was a mainstay at her Long Island church, joining dozens of fellow Brazilian immigrants for the Portuguese language Mass on Sunday mornings. She and her husband, Ramon, were married at the church. Their two daughters were baptized there, and every Friday she attended a prayer meeting that she had helped organize.
But six years ago, her husband went to a relative’s baptism at a Pentecostal church in a warehouse in Astoria, Queens, and came home smitten.
The couple made a deal. “We would go to the Pentecostal service on Thursdays and to Mass on Sundays, and then we would decide which one we felt most comfortable with,” Mrs. Calazans said.
Within 40 days, they had given up Roman Catholicism and embraced Pentecostalism, following the path of the estimated 1.3 million Latino Catholics who have joined Pentecostal congregations since immigrating to the United States, according to a survey released in February by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
“I feel whole here,” Mrs. Calazans, 42, said one recent Sunday in the Astoria sanctuary, the Portuguese Language Pentecostal Missionary Church, as she swayed to the pop-rock beat of a live gospel band. “This church is not a place we visit once a week. This church is where we hang around and we share our problems and we celebrate our successes, like we were family.”
As Pope Benedict XVI completes his visit to the United States on Sunday with a Mass at Yankee Stadium, in a borough that has been home to generations of Latinos, he does so facing something of a growing challenge to the church’s immigrant ranks.
For if Latinos are feeding the population of the church, many have also turned to Pentecostalism, a form of evangelical Christianity that stresses a personal, even visceral, connection with God.
Today, it has more Latino followers in the United States than any other denomination except Catholicism; they are drawn, they say, by the faith’s joyous worship, its use of Latino culture and the enveloping sense of community it offers to newcomers. As the Pew survey revealed, half of all Latinos who have joined Pentecostal denominations were raised as Catholics.
They are part of a global shift. Pentecostalism, the world’s fastest-growing branch of Christianity, has made such sharp inroads in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, that in an address to bishops there last year, Pope Benedict listed its ardent proselytizing as one of the major forces the Catholic Church must contend with in the region.
Catholic leaders and experts on the church in the United States say that the impact of Pentecostalism has been less dramatic here. Still, the pope has urged the nation’s bishops to make every effort to welcome immigrants — “to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials, and to help them flourish in their new home.” And any number of Catholic clergy and laypeople have conceded that the church needs to work harder at reaching, and keeping, its Latino flock.
“That some of the newly arrived Latinos are drawn to Pentecostalism is certainly reason for concern,” said the Rev. Allan Figueroa Deck, the executive director of the Office for Cultural Diversity, which was created last June by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to help the church adjust to its changing ethnic makeup.
“But we can counter that with the kind of music we use, with the sense of celebration that we bring to our worship, the spontaneity and some of the popular customs that are not part of the official liturgy of the church. We’re doing some of that, but we could do better.”
The Pentecostal church in Astoria vividly shows what Catholicism is up against. It offers enough activities to fill a family’s calendar: services on Sunday and Thursday, youth group meetings on Friday, a Bible study group on Wednesday and all-night prayer vigils throughout the year. Then there are the birthday and engagement parties, to which every congregant is invited.
The church, on the second floor of a stucco building opposite a nightclub and three blocks from the subway, is half house of worship and half community center. It ministers primarily to a single immigrant group, Brazilians, in the group’s language, Portuguese — much as the ethnic urban parishes founded by European Catholics did more than a century ago.
Book Review: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope
April 22, 2008 reviewed by Todd Friesen
Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope by Brian McLaren Thomas Nelson
Brian McLaren may not eat locusts or wear clothing made of camel's hair. But in Everything Must Change, this modern-day prophet issues a piercing critique of a U.S. church which, he says, too often serves as a force of "domestication, resignation, pacification, and distraction" rather than "liberation and transformation." All the while, a perfect storm of global crises gathers ominously on the horizon. But like the prophets of old, McLaren balances his warnings of impending doom with a compelling invitation "to defect" from the world's "suicide system" and to join Jesus' nonviolent insurgency of peace, generosity and sustainable living.
McLaren taught college English for 18 years and pastored the nondenominational church he founded in Spencerville, Maryland, for 24. In the past decade he has become a leading voice in the Emergent church movement and a prolific and sometimes controversial author. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the "25 most influential evangelicals in America." Everything Must Change is a sequel to an earlier book, The Secret Message of Jesus (2006), in which he focused on the kingdom of God. In his new book, McLaren asks: "What would change if we applied the message of Jesus—the good news of the kingdom of God—to the world's greatest problems?"
This book's most significant contribution is its incisive look at the competing "framing stories" of our world and of Jesus Christ. McLaren argues that the world's crises are being driven by a powerfully destructive and covert narrative. This story tells us that we are godlike creatures who are free to live without moral or ecological limits and that we exist merely to consume products and experience maximum pleasure. The devastating consequences of this story are becoming increasingly evident in our families, communities and environment.
McLaren convincingly argues that Jesus exposed and confronted this suicidal story, which already existed in his own day, and offered a radically different one. His new framing story tells us that we have been created not "to shop" but to live in loving relationship with our Creator, one another and creation. This new narrative gathers us into faith communities that proclaim and embody God's liberating and nonviolent love. It leads us not to escape our troubled world but to engage its crises so God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Evoking September 11, McLaren provocatively writes that the followers of Jesus are called to "fly airplanes of generosity into towers of need and plant improvised encouragement devices [IEDs] by roadsides and in neighborhoods everywhere."
In a book so focused on the dominant systems of our day, I found it surprising that McLaren mentions only once the New Testament's theme of principalities and powers (Colossians 1), and then only tangentially in his closing chapter. His analysis of the destructive potential of our world's structures would have been strengthened if he had integrated this crucial concept.
McLaren clearly recognizes that it is going to take more than a book to inspire American Christians to engage the urgent global crises of our day. It will require a profound transformation in our worship life, in what we sing about, and in the kinds of sins we confess each Sunday. With some fellow musicians, McLaren has recorded a CD called Songs for a Revolution of Hope to begin to fill this vacuum. He is also trying to connect with the younger, media-savvy generation by posting clips about his book's central ideas on YouTube and maintaining a Web site (www.deepshift.org) as a venue for further conversation.
As a pastor of a congregation in Chicago's wealthy suburbs, I found this book tremendously compelling, challenging and troubling. Everything Must Change left me asking two questions: What does defection look like when it is practiced by faithful Christian communities in the United States? And where in our nation are Jesus' followers actually making radical changes commensurate with the urgent crises we face and providing one another with the mutual support necessary to sustain this new way of living? McLaren's most recent work begs for its own sequel.
Todd Friesen is lead pastor of Lombard Mennonite Church in Lombard, Illinois.
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