Eye on Faith

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Mahalia Jackson: Speaking dreams to power

Mahalia Jackson has been most remembered for her singing - and therefore relatively few take notice of the pivotal role that she played within Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.

Mahalia Jackson (by Van Vechten)

This “Queen of Gospel” was born on October 26, 1911 in what is now called the Black Pearl section of Uptown New Orleans. Wikipedia reports that her three-room home there “housed thirteen people” – one of whom was family “patriarch” Rev. Paul Clark (a former slave). Mahalia’s father was a dockworker and barber who later became a Baptist minister. Mahalia “began her singing career at the local Mount Mariah Baptist Church.”

Jackson became part of the Great Migration when she moved north to Chicago in 1927. There her Gospel momentum rapidly increased. After meeting composer Thomas A. Dorsey (“Father of Gospel Music”), Jackson began a long-term musical association with him. Her signature song, Take My Hand, Precious Lord, was one that he had composed. Although she was frequently offered money to do so, “Mahalia refused to sing secular music, a pledge she would keep throughout her professional life.”

According to her 1972 New York Times obituary, Jackson was closely associated with the black civil rights movement during the last decade of her life. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had requested that she sing I Been ‘Buked, and I Been Scorned as a prelude to his 1963 March on Washington speech. Word has it that this did not start out to be King’s greatest speech; in fact, he was just about winding it up without even including the “I have a dream” passages.

Suddenly, Jackson’s voice once again rang out in the crowd. The Guardian reports that “she urged him:

‘Tell them about your dream Martin. Tell them about the dream.’” King was thus directly inspired by Jackson “to draw upon a version of a speech he had made many times before… which centered upon his dream of a society in which race was no longer a boundary to individual opportunity and collective strength.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalia_Jackson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/aug/21/usa.comment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Pearl,_New_Orleans

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1026.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Dorsey

Monday, February 6, 2012

Mark Twain's hagiographical predilection

God knows, Mark Twain isn’t primarily known for his religious fervor. He was a Presbyterian, perhaps because of these views that he held: You never see any of us Presbyterians getting in a sweat about religion and trying to massacre the neighbors. Let us all be content with the tried and safe old regular religions, and take no

chances on wildcat.

Sounds plausible in theory… However, these statements may somewhat contradict Twain’s more than 40-year preoccupation with Joan of Arc.

Wikipedia reports that Twain had dreamed since childhood of writing a book about Saint Joan. He claimed to have found a biographical manuscript about her during his adolescence. The book that Twain eventually wrote was completely titled Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte, and was presented as a “fictionalized version” of the work of Louis de Conte (Joan of Arc’s page). Not only was this book of Twain’s somewhat attributed to De Conte, but it was also billed as “a translation from a manuscript by Jean Francois Alden” (and additionally claimed to be “Freely Translated out of the Ancient French into Modern English from the Original Unpublished Manuscript in the National Archives of France”).

Which only goes to show that Twain’s preoccupation with Saint Joan was not only intense, but also complex…

In Twain’s own words (from his essay Saint Joan of Arc - which is included in the latest edition of Twain’s book about her): The evidence furnished at the Trials and Rehabilitation sets forth Joan of Arc’s strange and beautiful history in clear and minute detail… The personality which made it possible is one to be reverently studied, loved, and marvelled at, but not to be wholly understood and accounted for by even the most searching analysis.

When all his years of “searching analysis” were said and done, Twain had this to say about the endeavor: “I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished

me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others…” Such, indeed, may be the power of Sainthood.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

http://www.twainquotes.com/Religion.html

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stj05003.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Recollections_of_Joan_of_Arc

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Back to the Future Church

Magdalena (by Gheorghe Tattarescu)

At least one group is actively trying to move the Roman Catholic Church back to its more egalitarian beginnings.

The Future Church website states that this group’s vision includes “a return to the Church’s earliest tradition, modeled on the inclusive practice of Jesus, of recognizing both female and male leaders of faith communities” - as well as “a return to the Church’s early tradition of both married and celibate priests.” Other components of the Future Church vision include democratizing Catholic organization and worship, and allowing “regular access to the Eucharist” for every Catholic.

The overwhelming majority of Future Church members are

“Catholics in good standing.” These include nuns, priests, and lay people. Although not affiliated with a specific parish, the group considers itself to be parish-based (since the parish is usually the “primary place of worship”). Future Church asserts that “Jesus did not ordain anyone,” and that the practice of ordination began “decades later in church history.” The website quotes Luke 8:1-5 to show that Jesus did, however, have women disciples (i.e. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and "many others").

In a section titled Scripture Readings that Subordinate Women… Make Sure They Don’t Happen in Your Parish, the website lists the following passages: Ephesians 5:22-24, 1 Timothy 2:11-15, 1 Corinthians 14:33-35, 1 Corinthians 11:3-16, Colossians 3:18, 1 Peter 3:1-6, and Titus 2:4-5. Some of these passages now have U.S. Lectionary short forms that omit “verses which were reported to have caused widespread misunderstandings when proclaimed in some parishes.”

Future Church also urges that Catholics begin focusing upon “what the priest shortage means to them and their parishes.” This can be done through the formation of local dialogue groups. Awareness can be raised in this manner concerning the scope of this shortage, worship and communion in the absence of a priest, and “the history of celibacy in the Church.” Its website “call for national dialogue on the future of priestly ministry” explains: As in any family, we need to talk about our differences, our needs, our hopes and our dreams…

Resources

http://futurechurch.org/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Magdalene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joanna

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrhbearers

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Jana Riess: Not religiously up to snuff

(Exchanging Snuffboxes)

The phrase “up to snuff” is itself a bit suspect as far as religion is concerned. After all, assigning great value to the stimulating effects of sniffed tobacco is not in line with either temperance or discernment.

Nevertheless, Jana Riess sounds as if she is not quite up to snuff when it comes to religion. Worse than that, this Doctor of American Religious Studies bombed out on Sainthood (the gory details of which can be found in her opus, Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking

the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor – and if this title sounds creative, then check out these other ones of hers: What Would Buffy Do?: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide, Why the Heck Don’t Mormons Swear?: Musings on the Sacred and the Profane, and Sacred Envy: What I’ve Learned

from Other Religions).

With all this knowledge and creativity, how is it that Riess feels she flunked Sainthood? Well, first of all, for Riess – as for most of us – the spiritual honeymoon has long been over. In other words, that first-love type

relationship that occurred when Riess “connected with God as a teenager on a mountaintop on one inspired

snowy night years ago” has subsided into one that mimics a long-term marriage.

Riess therefore took steps to “fix” this by embarking upon a year-long plan of “taking on” one spiritual

practice per month. For example, February’s practice was a month-long, Ramadan-type fast. Although Riess didn’t physically “cheat,” this fast nevertheless revealed to her “how shallow” she was, and how she was “fasting for the wrong reasons…” She told NPR’s Michel Martin that March’s practice was “to find God through housekeeping.” Then there was her month of Christian vegetarianism – not to mention another month of Orthodox Jewish Sabbaths…

Although Riess hasn’t felt up to snuff regarding any of these month-long practices, the resulting awareness of her own spiritual shortcomings can nevertheless be a great gift. It can help pave the way to empathy for the shortcomings of others – in other words, to forgiveness.

Resources

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/up-to-snuff.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jana_Riess

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/06/144789994/flunking-sainthood-lessons-from-failure

Friday, February 3, 2012

Ninth Commandment: From 'shalt not' to 'cannot'

Pinocchio (by Enrico Mazzanti, 1883)

The Ninth Commandment (“Thou shalt not bear false witness”) implies that we have a choice.

Martin Luther, in his Ninth Commandment Large Catechism, gives many examples of how people choose to lie in one way or another. In Luther’s view, this Commandment not only applies to a court of law (or the pulpit), but also to everyday social interactions. In discussing the social “lying and evil speaking” that often occurs, Luther especially laments “the detestable, shameful vice of speaking behind a person’s back and slandering, to which the devil spurs us on…”

The good (?) news is that the devil might soon be up against a formidable opponent. It used to be that only folks like George Washington were incapable of lying. Nowadays, thanks (?) to scientific advances in the field of mind reading, people’s thoughts may no longer be their own private affair.

The Telegraph reported in September 2011 that these four mind-reading “breakthroughs” have occurred: (1) A University of Glasgow team has successfully decoded “brain signals related to vision”; (2) Utah University bioengineers were able to match computerized brain signals with specific words “up to 90 per cent of the time”; (3) Canadian scientists developed a method of

determining what physical action a person is about to take based upon brain-scan results; and (4) Toyota is

developing a “neuron helmet” that would monitor a cyclist’s “heartrate, speed and cadence to allow the rider to shift gears” via thought-power alone.

If all that weren’t enough to send shivers up the spines (and into the somewhat transparent brains) of less-than-righteous thinkers, PLos Biology is now featuring an article titled Reconstructing Speech from Human Auditory Cortex (translation: “Thinking Out Loud No Matter Who’s Listening”). Fast forwarding through the multisyllabic jargon yields this “Author Summary” conclusion: The results provide insights into higher order neural speech processing and suggest it may be possible to readout intended speech directly from brain activity.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie

http://www.ondoctrine.com/2lut0912.htm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8782214/Mind-reading-research-the-major-breakthroughs.html

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001251

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Cleveland Volcano: Beware the wrath of Chuginadak

Mount Cleveland (NASA photo)

Professor of Geosciences Erik Klemetti reports that Cleveland

Volcano’s active 2011 is literally threatening to spill over into 2012. Last year’s growth of a lava dome “in the summit crater

area” had plugged “the conduit” - causing major eruptions on

December 25^th and 29^th. Because another lava dome is now

gathering steam, Mount Cleveland once again threatens to blow her top.

This mighty stratovolcano is located on Chuginadak Island (one of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands – aptly named after the fire goddess Chuginadak). Although Chuginadak might sometimes get lonely (residing in a rather remote part of the world), she has plenty of international counterparts to commiserate with.

One Pacific soul sister would be the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele. According to Squidoo.com, Pele fled to the Hawaiian Islands after sleeping with her sea-goddess sister’s husband (a definite no-no, even by superhuman standards). Every now and then, Pele will fling some fire down to the ocean, just to keep the feud aflame (and afloat). When not engaging in such sibling rivalry, Pele turns her attention to the gifts that humans (who fear being treated as shabbily as Pele’s sister) bestow upon her. These gifts, which are generally left nearby Pele’s “fire pits,” include a wide array of tropical fruits.

And then there’s Vulcan, the blacksmith of the Roman deities. Sounds rather humble a task for a fire breathing god of his ilk – but, in actuality, that’s what’s kept his reputation alive for centuries. After all, the very name “volcano” honors his achievements. No less a poet than Virgil has extolled his virtues in this manner: “You can hear the echo of mighty blows on anvils, Ingots of iron hissing in the caverns, fire belching

from the furnaces – the home of Vulcan, and the name of that land is Volcania.”

Perhaps some skeptics are thinking that ancient “myths” such as these are long gone. These same skeptics might wish to steer clear of the Earth’s ring of fire. Sleeping dogs may lie still for a very long time, but when they awake they are hungry. Ravenous even… At that point, it might just pay to urgently petition the neighborhood fire deity.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Volcano

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/new-lava-dome-spotted-at-cleveland-volcano-in-alaska/

http://www.archaeology.org/9807/abstracts/volcano.html

http://www.squidoo.com/volcano-mythology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratovolcano

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Moore questions: Just what is spiritual counseling?

Numerous articles are reporting that Demi Moore is currently participating in spiritual counseling. (Many state that she’s “receiving” it – as if the process were a one-way flow.)

Hopefully, at least some readers of these articles are asking themselves the following questions: What exactly is spiritual counseling? How does it differ from other types of counseling? Is it the same thing as spiritual direction?

Spiritual Directors International (SDI) describes itself as “a learning community committed to advancing spiritual direction around the world.” The number one frequently-asked question on its website is, not surprisingly, “What is spiritual direction?” Explanations from many different faith traditions are given. These include some of the following overall descriptions: the process of accompanying people on a spiritual journey… helping people tell their sacred stories everyday… the contemplative practice of helping another person or group to awaken to the mystery called God in all of life… it is really quite ancient…

The reader is then invited to explore definitions of spiritual direction from these specific faith perspectives: Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Taoist, and Yoga. For example, the Islamic section includes this quote from Rumi: Whoever travels without a guide needs two hundred years for a two-day journey. The Jewish section includes this quote from Rabbi Jacob Staub: The object of spiritual direction is to cultivate one’s ability to discern God’s presence in one’s life… The Buddhist section includes this quote from Karin Miles: Through empathy and wisdom, the director skillfully leads the directee to know his or her inherent goodness…

In order to discover the elephant that is hiding within a block of marble, a sculptor must first carve away all that is not the elephant. Similarly, SDI helps the reader to define spiritual direction by also explaining what it is not. The website states that the spiritual director is neither a psychotherapist nor a financial advisor. Although these roles might appear similar at times, spiritual direction is described as including “a deity or higher power as a third partner in the process.”

The terms “spiritual direction” and “spiritual counseling” are often used interchangeably. Other similar terms include “spiritual companionship” and “spiritual advisement.” When the Catholic Community Forum posed this question: What is the difference between a spiritual director, a spiritual advisor and a spiritual counselor? – no definitive answer was given. Instead, perspectives such as these were offered: There may

or may not be a difference… and …nothing a psychologist, psychotherapist, or my psychiatrist could tell me or no matter how many hours I spend with them talking – has the same effect as confession…

Resources

http://global.christianpost.com/news/demi-moore-receiving-spiritual-counseling-68269/

http://www.sdiworld.org/what_is_spiritual_direction2.html

http://www.catholicforum.com/forums/showthread.php?33279-Spiritual-Director-vs.-Spiritual-Advisor-vs.-Spiritual-Counselor