Blogs about: Religion

One of the many gods and goddesses the ancient Aztecs of Mexico worshipped was Cihuacoatl. Her temple was dedicated to soldiers and mothers who died in childbirth, which makes sense — both are warriors, in their own way. While the world’s most common religions tend to get most of the media’s attention (often for political or even violent reasons), the diversity and creativity of human spirituality is incredibly challenging to suppress. Our beliefs form our identities; therefore, we hang on tenaciously.

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Art+fashion+religion=a richly textured show in Seville
Scribbler in Seville

Contemporary Spanish fashion designers’ interpretations of Zurbaran’s saints. Santa Casilda and a sketch of her modern-day modish equivalent by octogenarian Spanish fashion legend Elio Berhanyer. I’ve never been a big one for religious art – all those side-lit, mournful, downright spooky figures gazing heavenwards leave me cold. No emotional or spiritual connection. Probably not surprising, given that I’m an atheist. I can appreciate a good, solid, stone Gothic archway in a church, and maybe a lofty domed ceiling or some jewel-coloured stained-glass windows – the rooftop tour of the Cathedral was amazing – but paintings of angels, saints, Our Lord and His Mother? No, gracias. Give me a Picasso, Klimt or Bridget Riley any day. However when holy images are combined with something more to my taste, like frocks – well, that’s another matter altogether. Some genius had the idea of reinterpreting a series of works by Zurbaran, the 17th-ce

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Confessions of a Former Worship Leader
The Number Kevin

Corporate worship, about two years ago I walked away from it. Praise music on Sundays, youth on Wednesdays—after years and years, I said goodbye to it all. I didn’t loose faith, nor did I sin my way into shame, I just burned out. My feelings, my doubts, the weight of it all just bubbled up. Like so many others before me, I was hurt by the church and left because of it. Hurt, though, is part of any relationship; it’s what we sign up for. As time went on, I realized my hiatus was less about mending hurt feelings and more about uncovering hidden ones. This blog offers some food for thought about worship. Issues that bug me, stuff I’ve come to terms with. While I don’t wish to offend anybody, I do wish to start a conversation. So, here it goes. This Isn’t a Concert? Worship leaders deal with a lot of weird stuff. There’s this pressure, this weight. We’re told that God is the priority, that Jesus is the reason. “It’s not a performance,” we’re told. “It’s a Godcert.” Then,

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Death.
BLAG

If you’re all wondering where I’ve been since the last post, I’ve been sitting Chivas. For the uninitiated, “sitting Chivas” is a lot like when Jews “sit shiva” — a week-long period of traditional mourning for the loss of a close relative. The only difference is, of course, that sitting Chivas is when you sit and drink a bottle of whiskey. And no, it doesn’t have to be Chivas Regal-brand whiskey. The name is just a coincidence. Sitting Chivas is for people who are not religious, and therefore need another way to indulge in self-induced sensations of dread and guilt. Also, we don’t have to wait for a relative to die — any death can be a great excuse to sit Chivas! Exhibit A: the rabbit that always — I mean, used to — stare at my dog from the treeline in my family’s back yard. Relax: this still photo could have easily been a video of me trying to scoop him up with a shovel. Trust me, that was way worse. Y

Piłkarz wierzący czy niewierzący?
Stacja-alienacja

  W wielu opiniach możemy dziś spotkać się ze zdaniem, że piłka nożna to coś więcej niż sport. To religia, ekscytująca i porywająca tłumy. Nie bez przypadku stadiony piłkarskie nazywane są “futbolowymi świątyniami”, a w Argentynie furorę robi kościół pod wezwaniem Diego Maradony. Jednak takie porównania to jedynie swojego rodzaju przenośnia. Wielu dzisiejszych futbolistów z niebywałą powagą traktuje tematy wiary, łącząc jej siłę z wymiernymi efektami w postaci sukcesów na boisku. Miliony razy widzimy piłkarzy czyniących znak krzyża podczas wchodzenia na boisko lub wznoszących ręce i wskazujących na niebo w podziękowaniu niebiosom za właśnie zdobytego gola. Czy religia zatem faktycznie sprawia, że ci “wierzący” sportowcy mają większą szanse na odniesienie sukcesu?   Przed Euro 2012 popularna akcja medialna pt. “Nie wstydzę się Jezusa” zawitała do piłkarzy reprezentacji Polski.  Przed kamerami swe świadectwo dali Robert Lewandowski oraz Kuba Błaszczyko

Rock City
Carry the gospel with you
CACINA
Virtue Capitalism: The Current Problem of Profit Motive or, Using Vice to Make Money
The Christian Watershed
Faith, Not Religion.
Swamommy
St. Juliana Falconieri
The Holy Ones
June Book Pick: Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler
Proper Noun Blog
Angels With Ceramic Faces
thisisnotbangkok
ROHINGYA CHILDREN
mohdfirdausblog

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – A rohingya boy stands near wholesale market in Kuala Lumpur on Jun 11, 2013. Rohingya communities in the region reside in Malaysia. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statistics suggest there are 23,000 registered Rohingya refugees in the country, but human rights groups say the unregistered ones may be twice as many.(Mohd Firdaus/EyePress) KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – A rohingya boy stands near wholesale market in Kuala Lumpur on Jun 11, 2013. Rohingya communities in the region reside in Malaysia. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statistics suggest there are 23,000 registered Rohingya refugees in the country, but human rights groups say the unregistered ones may be twice as many.(Mohd Firdaus/EyePress)

Why I chose Dharma.
The Borderline Project

I didn’t turn to the Buddha’s teaching because I wanted to be cool. I had absolutely no intentions of becoming a Buddhist because I wanted to fit in. I’m definitely not a part of this new sub-culture  in America I keep hearing about; “What’s with these kids who think it’s cool if they put on some Buddha beads and walk around barefoot and go around telling everyone their Buddhist?” There was a comment made in my World Religions class the other day which honestly went straight through me. We had a visitor lecture to our class some of the Dharma; our visitor was a Sensei. “How do you feel about these new wave pop-culture groups using images of the Buddha and taking things from the religion for their own personal gain?” She answered, “I’m not sure I understand your question fully.” “Well there’s these hippie drug-addicts who think their Buddha’s just because their meditating, or they have a statue of

Mountain to Mahomet … June 19, 2013
Jonathots Daily Blog

(1917) I am the mountain. I am the obstacle in my own way. I am the big, fat pile of dirt, poking up, protruding on my own path, forbidding passage. I am the mole-hill which has become so overblown that my tiny mustard seed of faith needs to move it every single day. We do a disservice to everything true and holy when we believe that our problems lie outside ourselves. Government is not my problem. Religion is not my dilemma. Family is not my stumbling block. My problem is me and I am my own mountain. So as I head off to Mahomet, Illinois, tonight,  bringing my mountain, I am going to take three things into consideration. I refer to them as the basic ABC’s of human decency: 1. Act right. In other words, DON’T “be yourself.” When we bring our moods, we muddy the situation instead of finding a mode to mold our possibilities toward success. We all know how to act right–we just get bratty and refuse to participate. If you’ve forgotten how to act right, l

A Personal Note
Adventures with Religion

Hi everyone! So I’ve reached the point where all the material I had written, I have posted. I already have the topics of my next two essays prepared in the document, in which I write all these things. They likely will be posted soon, at least one probably tomorrow, as I will have some time this afternoon to work on it as opposed to work for Uni. (Priorities!) Usually, though, I like to let the text sit so I can, a day or two later, go back to them and proofread them for the millionth time to 1 – make sure I am getting across the message I meant to and 2 – to find any major grammatical  or wording errors. Questions will also come less frequently, as I have had less time to read my Bible as of late, but once I do, I promise to ask them. That, and, my discussions with friends, which often serve as a sort of catalyst for me to form questions and ideas for essays, recently have had largely the same topics, which I have already addressed in earlier posts. So, as a preview f

Once Again the Barefoot Bodhisattva
Bare Feet and Tea Leaves

I came upon the 37 practices of the bodhisattva yesterday. Coincidentally, I also managed to do some yoga and meditation after I got home. I’ve decided that if I don’t have a car and can’t go out as much as I’d like, I ought to cultivate myself at home. I’d like to cultivate silence and solitude in such a way that it becomes a refuge rather than a chore to have to be at home instead of going out at a whim. And so I read them. I am woefully remiss in my practice of compassion. So I need to cultivate the practice of compassion, and sitting in silence will be a good start. I need to return to the stillness of meditation without the looming presence of impending death hanging in the air. I haven’t really been able to meditate, not for real, since my father passed. I’ve figured out how to bike to the zendo, at least on weekends when I’m in town. I’ve pulled out my orange zazen pillow. It’s not in its corner, but it’s there wh

Legend
The Syncronized Life

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Thus we label him a legend. - Tumelo Ntja

Wedding Bells
worldalittlebetter

I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of a couple of friends about a week and a half ago. It was a long awaited event. They were supposed to get married the weekend before my husband and I did but then life happened. God had a different plan. Now, two years later we got to see the fulfillment of a promise. Two were made one and a new thing is beginning. Their relationship has had to wait and deal with separation. I pray these unpleasant experiences will only strengthen their marriage. Looking back on life, what seemed hardest in the moment seems to pale in retrospect. I can use those past experiences as stepping stones. I survived that; I can get through this. Friends and family are important also. In my life, when my husband is driving me crazy it helps immensely to have someone to talk to who knows my husband is a good man who sometimes makes people other than me crazy, someone who can talk me down without talking me out of my marriage. Marriage takes work. I drive my husband c

Right, Wrong, or Somewhere Inbetween
Abby Fahmi

There are certain things I’m adamant about. My faith in Jesus is one of those things. But I realize not everyone shares that faith. I’ve made a lot of mistakes talking about it with some people, and I’ve learned from that to listen better and not make dismissive assumptions, along with other tough lessons about how to talk to people who don’t share my beliefs. Mostly, I’m not going to go around being obnoxious about my beliefs, nor will I try to push my morality onto people who don’t share my beliefs. If you want to convince people of anything, you can’t be dismissive, you have to show them respect. It says so in the Bible. “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” 1 Peter 2:17 (NIV) Since I spend a lot of time on the internet, particularly reading blogs I find on Twitter, I’ve noticed some things that really disturb me. Especially because they’re things that a lot of C

THE OLD MAN IS GONE
papawilley

THE OLD MAN IS GONE John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” JOHN 8:39-47 All of us were born in sin and were therefore “by nature” the children of the devil. That’s the reason we sinned. Our sins don’t corrupt our nature, but our corrupt nature makes us sin. That’s why we must be “born again” and become new creatures (or a new creation) in Christ. The scriptures teach that everyone was born with a sin nature or old man. For the Christian, the old man is dead. We do not have a nature that is driving us to sin. If that it is the case, then why do we seem so bound to sin even after we experience the new birth? The reason is that our old man left behind what Romans 6:6 calls a body. Just as a person’s