“Lord, Save Us from Your Followers” takes a look into the contentious world of the Christian faith.
(NewsUSA) - Although nine out of ten Americans claim a belief in God, public expression of faith is more conflicting than ever.
Even as discussion of religion floods the media like never before, the rhetoric is divisive and hyper as the 2008 elections loom on the horizon. Fed up with the angry, strident language filling the airwaves that has come to represent the Christian faith; author, director, and follower Dan Merchant set out to explore the collision of faith and culture in America.
“To me, the division of America, this separateness, isn’t getting any of us anywhere,” writes Merchant. “And both sides are making the same mistake - they think the so-called ‘culture war’ is a winnable war. Some think, eventually, one side will win out over the other. I don’t see it that way. I’m concerned that calling it a Culture War presumes a few things, like if it’s a war, there is an enemy. This kind of adversarial posture serves to further entrench us in our own positions. The sad fact is our country is polarized because we like it. It’s much simpler to pretend the world is black and white. An ‘us vs. them’ attitude is simpler than critical self-reflection and allows us to blame the other.”
Merchant’s journey, which actually begins in famine-ravaged Ethiopia, opens a panoramic view of how God’s people are viewed by everyday Americans and the world-at-large. From the man-on-the-street blitz of “Bumpersticker Man” to the controversial and moving “Confession Booth” at Gay Pride Day, Lord, Save Us from Your Followers delves into all the hot-button issues with candor, humor and balance. With exclusive interviews with comedian/senatorial candidate Al Franken, former Sen. Rick Santorum, noted evangelical Tony Campolo, conservative radio host Michael Reagan and others, no stone is left unturned in this engaging, unpredictable and challenging look at the conflict over religion in America.
Dan Merchant is an award-winning television writer/producer, novelist and frequent church attendee. Merchant has been happily married for 20 years and is the father of two teenage boys.
For more information, visit www.lordsaveusthemovie.com.
The Rev. Sally Bingham is the godmother of the environmental movement in the religious community.Back in the 1990s, when religiously based environmentalists were still viewed as nature worshippers, she founded Episcopal Power & Light. Now called Interfaith Power & Light, the nonprofit organization has 27 chapters across the United States, including North Carolina. The mission of the organization is to mobilize a religious response to global warming through the promotion of renewable energy and conservation.
Bingham, the president of Interfaith Power & Light and the environmental minister at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, met with 20 religious leaders at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Raleigh last week. She said religious communities have made remarkable strides in addressing the intersection of faith and global climate change, and she encouraged them not to give up.
“You clergy need to talk about it,” she said. “I think it should be in every single sermon.”
We caught up with her on the occasion of Earth Day on Tuesday to ask her about the progress religious people have made on the issue.
Q: How are churches becoming more active in environmental issues?
A: Environmental issues were once political issues. They didn’t belong in the church. Now it’s integral to mainstream religions in ways unimaginable five years ago. … We’re seeing changes in the liturgy to reflect care for creation. That’s huge because in the Episcopal Church there’s a deep tradition that resists change.
I am seeing clergy take this responsibility seriously enough to actually say that care for creation belongs with love, justice and peace. You hear the term “JPIC,” or justice, peace and integrity of creation. It’s putting care for creation on parallel with love, justice and peace … We have a green mosque in Washington, D.C. We have hundreds of Protestant churches with solar panels on the roof. We have two large cathedrals with geothermal systems — in Boston and in Cleveland, Ohio. The Catholic Cathedral in Los Angeles in solar.
Q: How has Interfaith Power & Light changed?
A: We now have an office in San Francisco and a staff of seven. We coordinate this national campaign. That means we help the state programs get started … One of the important things we do is make sure the Interfaith Power & Light campaign doesn’t get sidetracked. We don’t want to be viewed as the Sierra Club at prayer. We’re not political. We’re not Republicans or Democrats. Our message is rooted in theology. It’s different from an environmental organization. We want to be seen as conservative people coming from a theological perspective. We don’t love trees more than people.
Q: What is the spiritual message you offer?
A: I see it as part of the commandment to love God and love your neighbor. If you love your neighbor, you don’t pollute your neighbor’s air. We are called to serve one another. If you see that your behavior is harming your neighbor and your neighborhood, other species, flora and fauna, or the next generation, it’s a direct disobedience to the commandment. Jesus said what you do to the least of these you do to me. If vulnerable and poor communities are harmed by our behavior, we’re insulting God.
Read More:News & Observer
A mathematician applies reasoning to arguments for a higher being’s existence
Who isn’t an atheist (or agnostic) these days? The Celebrity Atheist Web site (celebatheists.com) lists hundreds of movie stars (Angelina Jolie and Woody Allen, for example), business tycoons (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett) and scientists (Steven Pinker and Steven Weinberg) who don’t believe in God. Books by nonbelievers abound. The biologist Richard Dawkins came out with “The God Delusion” a little over a year ago, and Christopher Hitchens jumped on the bandwagon recently with “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” These writers not only don’t believe in God, they are downright hostile toward God.
The latest book debunking God has a lighter tone. John Allen Paulos aims to prove — with logic, dry wit and a mild manner — that God does not exist. Despite his less rancorous approach, Paulos is dead set against the idea of God. “Why postulate a completely nonexplanatory, extra perplexity to help explain the already sufficiently perplexing and beautiful world?” he asks.
Paulos, a mathematician at Temple University, is a very good writer, who spices his clear prose with touches of humor. In this book, he lines up 12 arguments for God. Then, using well-honed mathematical reasoning, he shoots them down. A few of the arguments for God’s existence are arcane, making the arguments to disprove them difficult to follow.
One ontological argument, for instance, comes from Descartes’ idea that God is a perfect being. Since he (Descartes) is not perfect, then the idea of perfection must come from something outside him — an external perfect being: God. Paulos points out that the only way such a proposition can be proved is for its negation to lead to a contradiction. But no contradiction of Descartes’ statement follows from God’s not existing. Maybe not, but both argument and counter argument seem slippery and unconvincing.
A stronger argument for God is called “the argument from presupposition.” Paulos outlines it as follows:
“(1) In presenting its divine narrative, a holy book presupposes God exists. (2) People read and come to accept the narrative. (3) The narrative must be true. (4) Therefore God exists.”
This argument is so straightforward that it has been summarized on bumper stickers: “God said it, I believe it, and that settle’s it.” The sentence includes, Paulos notes, a “telling apostrophe.” Paulos easily exposes the flaw in this argument. “Claiming that a holy book’s claims are undeniable because the book itself claims them to be is convincing only to the convinced.”
And there are plenty of the convinced around — from pious politicians to celebrated scientists. Francis Collins, the former head of the Human Genome Project, is one prominent scientist who has publicly proclaimed his belief in God. In “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief,” Collins revealed the source of his deeply religious views. They stem, he wrote, from the concept of a “Moral Law,” a major component of which is altruistic behavior. Collins believes that the Moral Law is contrary to all natural instincts and must come from God.
Paulos calls these views “the universality argument.” What’s considered moral or immoral, he writes, is strikingly similar across cultures. Unprovoked murder, for example, is condemned by all societies. Many believers, like Collins, conclude that these similarities in behavioral codes must come from a single source — God. Therefore, God exists. This is a serious effort to establish the existence of God. It was put forth first by C.S. Lewis, the respected British writer and scholar, in his book “Mere Christianity.”
Read More:News & Observer
Muslim extremism, Christian fundamentalism blamed
BURGESS HILL, ENGLAND - Every morning on his walk to work, high school teacher Graham Wright recited a favorite Anglican prayer and asked God for strength in the day ahead. Two years ago, he stopped.
Wright, 59, said he was overwhelmed by a feeling that religion had become a negative influence in his life and the world. Although he once considered becoming an Anglican vicar, he suddenly found that religion represented nothing he believed in, from Muslim extremists blowing themselves up in God’s name to Christians condemning gays, contraception and stem cell research.
“I stopped praying because I lost my faith,” said Wright, a thoughtful man with graying hair and clear blue eyes. “Now I truly loathe any sight or sound of religion. I blush at what I used to believe.”
Wright is now an avowed atheist and part of a growing number of vocal nonbelievers in Europe and the United States. On both sides of the Atlantic, membership in once-quiet groups of nonbelievers is rising, and books attempting to debunk religion have been surprise bestsellers, including “The God Delusion,” by Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins.
New groups of nonbelievers are sprouting on college campuses, anti-religious blogs are expanding across the Internet, and in general, more people are publicly saying they have no religious faith.
More than three out of four people in the world consider themselves religious, and those with no faith are a distinct minority. But especially in richer nations, and nowhere more than in Europe, growing numbers of people are saying they don’t believe there is a heaven or a hell or anything other than this life.
Many analysts trace the rise of what some are calling the “nonreligious movement” to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The sight of religious fanatics killing almost 3,000 people caused many to begin questioning — and rejecting — all religion.
“This is overwhelmingly the topic of the moment,” said Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society of Britain. “Religion in this country was very quiet until Sept. 11, and now it is at the center of everything.”
Since the 2001 attacks, a string of religiously inspired bomb and murder plots has shaken Europe. Muslim radicals killed 52 people on the London transport system in 2005 and 191 on Madrid trains in 2004.
Many Europeans are angry at demands to use taxpayer money to accommodate Islam, Europe’s fastest-growing religion, which now has as many as 20 million followers on the continent. Along with calls for prayer rooms in police stations, foot baths in public places and funding for Islamic schools and mosques, expensive legal battles have broken out over the niqab, the Muslim veil that covers all but the eyes Read More: News & Observer
