here we go

global learning perspectives ...

Why in hell are exorcisms still so popular?

THE CONVERSATION
30 NOV 2015 AT 06:48 ET  

At Texas State University, I teach an honors course called “Demonology, Possession, and Exorcism.” It’s not a gut course. My students produce research papers on topics that range from the role of sleep paralysis in reports of demonic attacks to contemporary murder cases in which defendants have claimed supernatural forces compelled them to commit crimes.

In fact, talk of demons isn’t unusual in Texas. The first day of class, when we watched a clip of an alleged exorcism at an Austin Starbucks, many of my students said that they’d seen similar scenes in the towns where they’d grown up.

Just an exorcism at a Starbucks in Texas.

In 2014, an exorcism took place outside of a Starbucks in Austin, Texas.

A few students even admitted their parents were nervous that they’d signed up for the class. Maybe these parents worried their kids would become possessed, or that studying possession in the classroom might make demons seem less plausible. (Perhaps it was a mix of both.)

Either way, these parents aren’t a superstitious minority: a poll conducted in 2012 found that 57% of Americans believe in demonic possession. Nonetheless, demons (invisible, malevolent spirits) and exorcism (the techniques used to cast these spirits out of people, objects or places) are often thought of as relics of the past, beliefs and practices that are incompatible with modernity. It’s an assumption based in a sociological theory that dates back to the 19th century called the secularization narrative. Scholars such as Max Weber predicted that over time, science would inevitably supersede belief in “mysterious forces.”

But while the influence of institutionalized churches has waned, few sociologists today would claim that science is eliminating belief in the supernatural. In fact, in the 40 years since the blockbuster film The Exorcist premiered, belief in the demonic remains as popular as ever, with many churches scrambling to adapt.

Exorcism’s golden age

So why has exorcism made a comeback? It may be that belief in the demonic is cyclical.

Historian of religion David Frankfurter notes that conspiracy theories involving evil entities like demons and witches tend to flare up when local religious communities are confronted with outside forces such as globalization and modernity.

Attributing misfortune and social change to hidden evil forces, Frankfurter suggests, is a natural human reaction; the demonic provides a context that can make sense of unfamiliar or complex problems.

While Europeans practiced exorcism during the Middle Ages, the “golden age” of demonic paranoia took place in the early modern period. In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands were killed in witch hunts and there were spectacular cases of possession, including entire convents of nuns.

Read the rest of the article here.

...................

Similarly, Catholic exorcists in Mexico held a “magno exorcisto” in May 2015 aimed at purging the entire nation of demons. The mass exorcism was partly motivated by the drug wars that have devastated the country since 2006. But it was also in response to the legalization of abortion in Mexico City in 2007.

During one Mexican exorcism, a demon (speaking through a possessed person) confessed that Mexico had once been a haven for demons. According to the four demons identified in the exorcism, hundreds of years ago, Aztecs had offered them human sacrifices; now, with the legalization of abortion, the sacrifices had resumed.

Divided over demons

In the Baylor Religion Survey, 53% of Catholics said they either agree or strongly agree in the possibility of demonic possession. Twenty-six percent disagreed or strongly disagreed, and the rest were undecided. Progressive Catholics still regard exorcism as an embarrassment, and there are also increasingly vocal atheists and skeptics eager to cite the practice of exorcism as an example of the absurdity of religion. But in countries like Italy and the Philippines, there is active demand for more Catholic exorcists.

................

Joseph P Laycock, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Way of Ecstatic Devotion

PENTECOSTAL SERVICE

The Fundamentalists

 - Religion or Lunacy? (Part 1 of 3)

White Christians no longer a majority

Pew: White Christians no longer a majority

By Nick Gass

11/23/15 12:36 PM EST

Updated 11/23/15 01:04 PM EST

White Christians now make up less than half of the U.S. population, largely receding from the majorities of most demographic groups, with one notable exception: the Republican Party.

According to the latest results from Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape survey published Monday by National Journal's Next America project, just 46 percent of American adults are white Christians, down from 55 percent in 2007.

Story Continued Below

At the same time, according to the report, the share of white Christians identifying as Republican has remained steady, even equal with the share of the party that carried President Ronald Reagan to his 1984 reelection. Nearly seven in 10 white Christians — 69 percent — identify with or lean toward the GOP, while just 31 percent do the same with Democrats.

Among nonwhite Christians, meanwhile, 32 percent identify with or lean toward Democrats, and just 13 percent do the same with Republicans.

In less than a decade, the gap in Christian identification between Democrats and Republicans has increased by 50 percent. According to the data presented, in 2007, 88 percent of white Republicans and 70 percent of white Democrats identified as Christian, an 18-point disparity. By 2014, 84 percent of white Republicans identified as Christian, but the share of white Democrats identifying as Christian fell by 13 points, to 57 percent, a 27-point gap.

Pew conducted the massive survey by telephone between June 4 and Sept. 30, 2014, interviewing 35,071 Americans, with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/poll-white-christians-population-216154#ixzz3sQOn2kbl

There IS good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it is worth fighting for ...

My fav movie scenes Lord of the rings "There is some good in this world and it's worth fighting for"

Uploaded on Aug 29, 2008

....This is a scene from Lord of the rings 2nd part i.e. The two towers... The Frodo and Samwise are on the seemingly impossible task of destroying the ring...

Global Awareness Perspectives Survey

Please help me evaluate the effectiveness of the Global Awareness portion of this course by taking this short survey


Create your own user feedback survey

Marcus Aurelius in the Gladiator

Gladiator - The four virtues according to Marcus Aurelius 

 Uploaded on Jun 22, 2010 Director : Ridley Scott Stars : Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris.

 

What are the four virtues?

Wisdom
Justice
Fortitude
Deference

Luther's view of the "Human Problem"

Joseph Fiennes & Benjamin Sadler in "Luther"

Uploaded on Jul 8, 2011

Clip from "Luther" (2004) showing Martin Luther (Joseph Fiennes) preaching and lecturing, followed by a meeting with Georg Spalatin (Benjamin Sadler), trusted advisor and secretary of Frederick III of Saxony, also known as Frederick the Wise (Friedrich der Weise).

The Human Problem

What is it about Boromir's temptation to take the ring that is so uniquely Christian in its orientation?

Uploaded on May 29, 2010

Boromir was honourable and noble; he believed passionately in the greatness of his kingdom and would have defended its people to the very last. Boromir's great stamina and physical strength, together with a forceful and commanding personality, made him a widely-admired commander in Gondor's army: he was made Captain of the White Tower, and quickly became Captain-General, also bearing the title High Warden of the White Tower. He was also heir apparent to the Stewardship. Boromir led many successful forays against Sauron's forces, prior to his journey north to Rivendell, which brought him great esteem in his father Denethor's eyes.

Fallen - Frodo/Sam

Uploaded on Aug 2, 2009

Description:

The majority of this video focuses on Frodo/s disappointment/failure of "falling" into temptation with the ring by following its will (like putting it on). Frodo is slowing beginning to lose everything because of the rings power and although he does try his best he does fall into submission to the ring. Frodo doesn't realize that the ring is taking him (sometimes) so Sam argues with Frodo to try to get him to see that the ring is changing him (that's where the "I told you so" comes in). I felt the lyrics really told the story more then anything which is why I decided to add some text to the video, I hope you all understanding what I was trying to interpret. Enjoy!

Song: "Fallen" by Sarah McLachlan

Concept of God in Islam - Dr Zakir Naik

https://youtu.be/bar3a3_J3XY

Great Spirit: Native American concepts of Deity

https://youtu.be/1Qw5bM6pxtA

Concept of God in Hinduism

Concept of God in Hinduism

https://youtu.be/W9Fezg2Ss5E

Sufi dance meditation by Vidhi Shunyam Bogdanovska

Here is an example of the Sufi dance ritual ....

 

 To see it on YouTube, click here:  https://youtu.be/yEdCXRGJuM8

There are also examples of sacred dance rituals or forms of worship in Judaism and Christianity

HASIDIC Jews Sing & Dance ~ (Get HAPPY NOW!)


Native Americans: This video is amazing and breathtaking


Christians "Dancing in the Spirit":  Tree of Life and Holy Spirit Ministry, Dancing in the Anointing

Santeria Dance in Cuba 2012

The Agnicayana Ritual in India 1975-1976

Wikipedia:

 "The Atiratra Agnicayana is the piling of the altar of Agni. It is a Śrauta ritual of the Vedic religion and is considered to be the greatest ritual as per the Vedic ritual hierarchy. It has been claimed as the world's oldest surviving ritual.


The practice of this ritual was generally discontinued among Brahmins by the late Vedic period, during the rise of Jainism and Buddhism in India. Nevertheless, a continuous, unbroken 3,000 year tradition has been claimed to exist among a few Nambudiri Brahmin families in Kerala, South India."

 

 In 1975 Indologist Frits Staal documented in great detail the performance of an Agnicayana performed by Nambudiri Brahmins according to Samaveda tradition[5] at Panjal, Kerala.[6][7] The last performance before that had been in 1956, and the Nambudiris were concerned that the ritual was threatened by extinction. It had never before been observed by outsiders. The scholars contributed towards the cost of the ritual, and the Nambudiris agreed that it should be filmed and recorded. The ritual was performed from 12 to 24 April 1975. An effigy was used to symbolize the goat sacrifice, due to overwhelming opposition by animal protection groups

Junípero Serra's brutal story in spotlight as pope prepares for canonisation

Who the hell was Junípero Serra? He was the Franciscan priest who established Franciscan missions up and down the California Coast to convert Native Americans to Christianity and to 'civilize' them.
Pope Francis intends to make him a Catholic Saint, a process called "canonisation." Does he deserve that honor? Read this fascinating story in The Guardian magazine about the pros and cons of canonisation for Padre Serra.

The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/pope-francis-junipero-serra-sainthood-washington-california

....................................................................................................................................

Generations of American schoolchildren have been taught to think of Father Junípero Serra as California’s benevolent founding father, a humble Franciscan monk who left a life of comfort and plenty on the island of Mallorca to travel to the farthest reaches of the New World and protect the natives from the worst abuses of the Spanish imperial army.

Under Serra’s leadership, tens of thousands of Native Americans across Alta California, as the region was then known, were absorbed into Catholic missions – places said by one particularly rapturous myth-maker in the 19th century to be filled with “song, laughter, good food, beautiful languor, and mystical adoration of the Christ”.

What this rosy-eyed view omits is that these natives were brutalized – beaten, pressed into forced labour and infected with diseases to which they had no resistance – and the attempt to integrate them into the empire was a miserable failure. The journalist and historian Carey McWilliams wrote almost 70 years ago the missions could be better conceived as “a series of picturesque charnel houses”.

Click here to read the rest of this story

Children receive their First Holy Communion from Pope Francis in Havana, Cuba 2015

Pope Francis is in Cuba right now and will arrive in the United States later. I found this youtube of him performing a ritual in Cuba. What kind of ritual is it?

 

Lord of the RIngs - Gandalf vs Balrog (Crisp 480p)

Joseph Campbell, a famous scholar of Mythology, wrote a book called "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." He says that the most common of all ancient myths is the "hero myth" in which a heroic figure faces death and danger on behalf of his people, and even dies or descends into a places of darkness in order to conquer evil. What are examples in  religions of the hero myth?

Here is a modern form of the hero myth taken from Lord of the Rings ...

Nella Fantasia

Nella Fantasia are the lyrics that Sarah Brightman wrote to the melody of "Gabriel's Oboe" from the soundtrack of The Mission


 

Bellow is the English Translation:

 In My Fantasy
 In my imagination I see a fair world,
Everyone lives in peace and in honesty there.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like the clouds that fly,
Full of humanity in the depths of the soul.
 In my imagination I see a bright world,
Even the night is less dark there.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like clouds that fly.
 In my imagination there exists a warm wind,
That breathes on the cities, like a friend.
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like clouds that fly,
Full of humanity in the depths of the soul.

 Taken from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/nella-fantasia-my-fantasy.html#ixzz3ljKFuAhp

a "crash course" on Confucianism

2,000 Years of Chinese History! The Mandate of Heaven and Confucius: World History #7

(this is very good, it's short AND he is funny!)

 

The Bridge of the Spirits (full documentary)

Published on Apr 26, 2013 In the region of the Ivory Coast there are still ancient jungles, such as the Tai jungle, and leafy forests which are home to different ethnic branches of the Mande group. The most characteristic of these are the Dan, who are related to the Guere. 

Sacred Power?

Check out this video and comment on what you think about it. Are these manifestations of Sacred Power? Why or why not?

Which academic discipline (Phenomenology, sociology, anthropology, history or psychology) would you use to to an analysis of this group or these practices?

Watch closely the man in the suit 22 seconds into the video. Does he go up or down at first?

Have you ever experienced anything like this?




Compare what you see in this video with some of the miracles of Jesus. What is similar? What is different?

Luke 5:12-15 (pay special attention to 14 "tell no one")

Luke 8:49-56 (also notice verse 56 - "he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened")

Matthew 9:27-31 (again, read verse 30 - "Jesus warned them sternly 'See that no one knows about this'")

Are there any ethical guidelines to how sacred power should be used? What are the dangers of sacred power?

Spread of World Religions

the global spread of World Religions

https://fbcdn-video-e-a.akamaihd.net/hvideo-ak-xat1/v/t43.1792-2/11386295_10152949763304071_1383062057_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjE1MDAsInJsYSI6MTY2NX0%3D&oh=deca9b244cb2307c0a4e8f5cb762c421&oe=55A5A828&__gda__=1436919830_274468473e52ce51fe2b9c5538f56abf

Armed Anti-Islam Protesters Rally At Phoenix Mosque

This is fascinating ....

Mideast’s worst case: A ‘big war’ pitting Shia Muslims against Sunni

This is the "big one" I have been talking about in class; a religious civil war

Mideast’s worst case: A ‘big war’ pitting Shia Muslims against Sunni

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/06/10/269371/mideasts-worst-case-a-big-war.html#storylink=cpy

BY ROY GUTMAN

McClatchy NewspapersJune 10, 2015 

ISTANBUL — The Middle East crisis that peaked one year ago Wednesday when the Islamic State captured Mosul may result in the breakup of Iraq and an indefinite continuation of a war in Syria that’s already out of control, analysts say.

Yet still worse things could happen.

“The conditions are very much like 1914,” says Michael Stephens of the Royal United Service Institute in London. “All it will take is one little spark, and Iran and Saudi Arabia will go at each other, believing they are fighting a defensive war.”

Hiwa Osman, an Iraqi Kurdish commentator, was even more blunt: “The whole region is braced for the big war, the war that has not yet happened, the Shiite-Sunni war.”

U.S. and foreign experts say the U.S still has not developed a strategy for dealing with the Sunni extremists who now hold more territory Iraq and Syria than one year ago. President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged that the U.S. strategy in Iraq was a work in progress. “We don’t have, yet, a complete strategy, because it requires commitments on the part of Iraqis as well,” Obama said at the close of the G-7 summit in Germany. “The details are not worked out.”

The experts criticize America’s detachment from the four wars now under way in the region. And they say the Obama administration is banking on Iran to stabilize the region, a very dubious course.

Read the rest of the article here

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5180799892953439453#allposts

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/06/10/269371/mideasts-worst-case-a-big-war.html#storylink=cpy

Martin admits he was wrong

A former student (agnostic) from my REL2011 class contacted me and asked me what I thought about the role of compassion and mercy in Christianity. He was troubled by conversation with his Christian friends about Bruce Jenner's transformation into Caitlyn and their condemnations of it as "sin." He wanted to know what I thought.

I told him that in classic orthodox Christianity, there is an understanding that we have all sinned, and that all sins are more or less equally sinful, but that the most insidious sins are the sins of the heart; such sins as self righteousness, pride and judgment. These are the sins that Christ vigorously confronted in the religious leaders in Matthew 23.

Then I shared with him this video clip from the 2003 film LUTHER.


 

REL2011 - Ethics (Chapter 12)

This is an excellent Prezi presentation from a group in my REL2011 class, Summer A, 2015

Fed Up With Islam and Sectarianism, Some Iraqis Embrace Zoroastrianism

Confused and disheartened by the religious and ethnic divides in Iraq, Kurds, especially, are turning to a faith that dates back 3,500 years.

By Alaa Latif

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq — One of the smallest and oldest religions in the world is experiencing a revival in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. The religion has deep Kurdish roots—it was founded by Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, who was born in the Kurdish part of Iran 3,500 years ago, and the religion’s sacred book, the Avesta, was written in an ancient language from which the Kurdish language derives.

In this century, however, it is estimated that there are only around 190,000 believers in the world. After Islam became the dominant religion in the region during the 7th century, Zoroastrianism more or less disappeared.

Until—quite possibly—now.

For the first time in over a thousand years, locals in a rural part of Sulaymaniyah province conducted an ancient ceremony on May 1, whereby followers put on a special belt that signifies they are ready to serve the religion and observe its tenets. It would be akin to a baptism in the Christian faith.

The newly pledged Zoroastrians have said that they will organize similar ceremonies elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan and they have also asked permission to build up to 12 temples inside the region, which has its own borders, military, and Parliament.

For the whole article, click here

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/31/fed-up-with-islam-and-sectarianism-some-iraqis-embrace-zoroastrianism.html

8 - Types of Deities

We are on Chapters 8, 10 and 11 this week, today I will go over Types of Deity


 

Sacred Scripture

Chapter 6 from Livingston's "Anatomy of the Sacred" on the importance of sacred scriptures in world religions







http://prezi.com/xga_sazxd7vm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Will the Dalai Lama reincarnate?

It is one of the most sensitive political issues in China: who has authority in Tibet? Many Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama and support his goal of greater autonomy from Beijing.

But to Chinese officials, the exiled spiritual leader is a traitor.

The role of Dalai Lama has been filled for centuries through "reincarnation". The current Dalai Lama, the 14th, turns 80 this year, and Beijing is keen to control the process of finding the 15th.

But the present Dalai Lama has said the role will one day end. Better to have no Dalai Lama than "a stupid one".

So, will he reincarnate? The BBC World Service

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-32032790

i cant take it anymore and I wont, im done!

Chapter 2, Indigenous Religions

This is taken from Robert Elwood, "Many Peoples, Many Faiths" on World Religions

Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists?

This is a current events news item sent to me by Rolando in REL3308

  Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists? 

By Farouk Chothia
BBC Africa

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13809501

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram - which has caused havoc in Africa's most populous country through a wave of bombings, assassinations and abductions - is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state.

 Boko Haram promotes a version of Islam which makes it "haram", or forbidden, for Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with Western society.

 This includes voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers or receiving a secular education.

Boko Haram regards the Nigerian state as being run by non-believers, even when the country had a Muslim president - and it has extended its military campaign by targeting neighbouring states.

Definitions of Religion

1 The Study of Religion REL 2011, from James Livingston's Anatomy of the Sacred

The World's Religious Heritage

Chapter 1 of Elwood, "Many Peoples, Many Faiths" REL3308, World Religions

Here is the full Prezi, next  I will post a narrated version but it cuts off before the last few slides ..

America’s Changing Religious Landscape - Pew Research Center

America’s Changing Religious Landscape

Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow

Changing U.S. Religious Landscape

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/

Paleolithic Cave Paintings

AS much as 35,000 years ago; they reveal an affinity for the numinous or "Something more"

... From the Washington Post

The world is expected to become more religious — not less

The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion has been growing steadily in recent years. But in coming decades, religiously unaffiliated people are expected to make up a declining share of the world’s population, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center.

Other than Buddhists, all of the world’s major religious groups are poised for at least some growth in the coming decades.

By 2050, the number of Muslims around the world will nearly equal the number of Christians. Pew projections suggest that Muslims will make up nearly one-third of the world’s population of about 9 billion people.

“The culture of the West is going to become increasingly nonreligious at the same time the culture in the Global South persists in being religious,” said David Voas of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. “Repercussions will be global.”

The world could see a growing divide between the religious and nonreligious, which could have implications for global economic development, said Jack Goldstone, a professor of public policy at George Mason University.

Sociologists jumped the gun when they said the growth of modernization would bring a growth of secularization and unbelief, Goldstone said. “That is not what we’re seeing,” he said. “People want and need religion.”

Read the rest of the article here 

Religious humor and hell

Man: You've brought religion into my life.

Woman: Really? How?

Man: Until I met you, I didn't believe in Hell.

final thoughts

Dear class, It has been a true pleasure and an honor for me to teach you about methods of analysis of religion this semester.There were some extraordinary young people in my three classes and our class discussions were priceless!

If you can take some time, would you please consider posting your thoughts about what you learned from the four films and the class discussions?

What new perspectives did you get on religion? Your own faith? or your own skepticism?

What might you do differently in the future regarding your own faith (be it religious or secular) or people of other religions?

Thank you!

Joseph Holbrook

Contemporary Challenges to Religion

Chapter 15 of Livingston, The Anatomy of the Sacred

Malcolm X (Denzel Washington) with Sam Cooke

sniffling and holding back tears as I finish "Malcolm X" (Denzel Washington) with my students ...

Secular Modernity and Religious Revitalization

This is taken from Chapter 14 of "Anatomy of the Sacred" by Livingston.

Questions for review

 What doctrine in both Protestant and Islamic Fundamentalism contributes to their resistance to innovation or new interpretation?

Describe what factors in the modern world have contributed to the secularization process that has narrowed the scope of religion in some societies. What has caused scholars to have second thoughts about this thesis?

Characterize common features of the new Protestant Fundamentalism in America and radical Islam.

Describe the characteristics of American Fundamentalists’ premillenarian view of history? What is its religious and social significance?

New evidence for the psychological and developmental benefits of spirituality

The Spiritual Child: The New Science on Parenting for Health and Lifelong Thriving 

by Lisa J Miller

In The Spiritual Child, psychologist Lisa Miller presents the next big idea in psychology: the science and the power of spirituality. She explains the clear, scientific link between spirituality and health and shows that children who have a positive, active relationship to spirituality:

* are 40% less likely to use and abuse substances

* are 60% less likely to be depressed as teenagers

* are 80% less likely to have dangerous or unprotected sex

* have significantly more positive markers for thriving including an increased sense of meaning and purpose, and high levels of academic success.

Combining cutting-edge research with broad anecdotal evidence from her work as a clinical psychologist to illustrate just how invaluable spirituality is to a child's mental and physical health, Miller translates these findings into practical advice for parents, giving them concrete ways to develop and encourage their children's--as well as their own--well-being. In this provocative, conversation-starting book, Dr. Miller presents us with a pioneering new way to think about parenting our modern youth.

~ Sufi saying: 3 gates before you speak

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Animated

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave - Alex Gendler

Published on Mar 17, 2015 View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/plato-s-all... Twenty four hundred years ago, Plato, one of history’s most famous thinkers, said life is like being chained up in a cave forced to watch shadows flitting across a stone wall. Beyond sounding quite morbid, what exactly did he mean? Alex Gendler unravels Plato's Allegory of the Cave, found in Book VII of "The Republic." Lesson by Alex Gendler, animation by Stretch Films, Inc.


 

http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/23/plato-allegory-of-the-cave-ted-ed/

Punctuation is powerful

okay, lets pause for a brief and humorous English punctuation lesson:

Today on March 24, 1980,

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24

On this day, March 24, we remember with heartfelt thanks the ever-faithful witness of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdémez and the Martyrs of El Salvador:

Almighty God, who didst call thy servant Óscar Romero to be a voice for the voiceless poor, and to give his life as a seed of freedom and a sign of hope: Grant that, inspired by his sacrifice and the example of the martyrs of El Salvador, we may without fear or favor witness to thy Word who abideth, thy Word who is Life, even Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, be praise and glory now and for ever. Amen

(Collect from Holy, Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints)

What ISIS Really Wants

This is a great article on the religious ideology behind ISIS. Although it is a long read, it gives a clear view of how apocalyptic and fundamentalist religious interpretations can affect politics and even be the source of brutal religiously motivated violence. ~ Professor Holbrook

The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. 

It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, 

among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. 

Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.

---

Graeme Wood

MARCH 2015

Published in The Atlantic

Go to this link to read the whole article: thealantic.com

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/?utm_source=FB0305_1


Below are a few quotes

Apocalypse
"The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), follows a distinctive variety of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of Judgment matter to its strategy, and can help the West know its enemy and predict its behavior. Its rise to power is less like the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (a group whose leaders the Islamic State considers apostates) than like the realization of a dystopian alternate reality in which David Koresh or Jim Jones survived to wield absolute power over not just a few hundred people, but some 8 million."

Medieval
"The most-articulate spokesmen for that position are the Islamic State’s officials and supporters themselves. They refer derisively to “moderns.” In conversation, they insist that they will not—cannot—waver from governing precepts that were embedded in Islam by the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers. They often speak in codes and allusions that sound odd or old-fashioned to non-Muslims, but refer to specific traditions and texts of early Islam."

Salafi Islam
"The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, “the Prophetic methodology,” which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail. Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it. We’ll need to get acquainted with the Islamic State’s intellectual genealogy if we are to react in a way that will not strengthen it, but instead help it self-immolate in its own excessive zeal."

Purification by murder
"Following takfiri doctrine, the Islamic State is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people. The lack of objective reporting from its territory makes the true extent of the slaughter unknowable, but social-media posts from the region suggest that individual executions happen more or less continually, and mass executions every few weeks. Muslim “apostates” are the most common victims"

Early Islam
All Muslims acknowledge that Muhammad’s earliest conquests were not tidy affairs, and that the laws of war passed down in the Koran and in the narrations of the Prophet’s rule were calibrated to fit a turbulent and violent time. In Haykel’s estimation, the fighters of the Islamic State are authentic throwbacks to early Islam and are faithfully reproducing its norms of war. This behavior includes a number of practices that modern Muslims tend to prefer not to acknowledge as integral to their sacred texts. “Slavery, crucifixion, and beheadings are not something that freakish [jihadists] are cherry-picking from the medieval tradition,” Haykel said. Islamic State fighters “are smack in the middle of the medieval tradition and are bringing it wholesale into the present day.”

The caliph is required to implement Sharia. 

"Before the caliphate, “maybe 85 percent of the Sharia was absent from our lives,” Choudary told me. “These laws are in abeyance until we havekhilafa”—a caliphate—“and now we have one.” Without a caliphate, for example, individual vigilantes are not obliged to amputate the hands of thieves they catch in the act. But create a caliphate, and this law, along with a huge body of other jurisprudence, suddenly awakens. In theory, all Muslims are obliged to immigrate to the territory where the caliph is applying these laws. One of Choudary’s prize students, a convert from Hinduism named Abu Rumaysah, evaded police to bring his family of five from London to Syria in November. On the day I met Choudary, Abu Rumaysah tweeted out a picture of himself with a Kalashnikov in one arm and his newborn son in the other. Hashtag: #GenerationKhilafah.