Discrimination against Muslims in a NYC school

Be sure to read this fascinating article about a school in NYC intended to promote cultural awareness and sensitivity between Arab and non-Arab children that has faced so much anti-Islamic activism that its principal has been forced to step down. Excellent glimpse into the subtlety of American attitudes towards Islam.

Oh hai! Can haz Revelashunz!

Here is the Bible, translated into lolcat. http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

"At start, no has lite. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz."

[For further illustration of lolcat, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcats. ]

The Pope's Visit

For anyone interested in religion in the modern world, you have the opportunity at the moment to explore a ton of media coverage in response to Pope Benedict's upcoming visit to the United States, the first of his papacy. I'm pretty sure Jesus and his followers would have had a hard time envisioning the Pope saying mass in Yankee Stadium (though I suppose the Roman Colosseum and Yankee Stadium really aren't that different), and I thought I would also post an image of the new Pope-mobile (a bullet-proof Mercedes in honor of the Pope's German heritage), which I'm really sure the first Christians wouldn't have been able to imagine. Here's a NYTimes article on Benedict's most recent comments about the sex abuse scandal in the US church

Christianity

If someone with the equivalent of Jesus' social status, from a region of the world equivalent to Galilee, were to begin teaching a social and political message similar to Jesus' in the modern world (stick with Europe, the US or Latin America), how would that person be received by others? What does your response tell you about the influence of Jesus' ideas?

 

 

It is hard to say how a message like Jesus’ would be received by the western world today.  First, someone preaching a message similar to that of Jesus would have certain advantages—i.e. global communication, laws of religious tolerance.  It would be easy to spread his message, and I’m guessing he would not have to worry much about crucifixion.

However, religion is not the major force and focus that it was in Jesus’ time.  Serious religious devotion and practice in America is scarce relative to other countries, and it is not focused to one religion.  With significantly less religious attentiveness, it would be hard for a religious message to grow the way Jesus’ did.  It would also be difficult to pull people from their many different faiths and unite them under a common teaching.  Furthermore, religion has an increasingly negative connotation in America, what with political correctness.  The youth especially is struggling with and diverging from their inherited beliefs, and religion altogether.  Social revolutions generally take root in society’s youth, but I think a rising religious leader would be met with hostility.

            America’s secularism could, however, be used as an advantage.  Given that Christian morality is an underlying foundation of western culture, a message of charity and forgiveness is easily applicable to western society.  With a message as compatible to western culture as that of Jesus, it would be easy to inspire the godless masses of the US.  It is human nature to look to a higher authority for guidance, especially when in a lowly state.  America has an ever-growing lower class that would easily be predisposed to a utopian message of forgiveness and charity.

            Jesus’ message grew so influential partly by chance, making it hard to speculate what would happen today.  Though it is certain that Jesus preached to the poor and gained followers in his time, his exact message has been lost to the scripture written after his time. Christianity as a religion was not created by Jesus, but established by his followers from his teachings.  It is mostly thanks to Paul and the Jerusalem Church, which interpreted and structured the teachings of Jesus, that Christianity is a functioning religion.  Ultimately, its widespread popularity was dependent on political acceptance as well.  With such a circumstantial rise to success, who can say what could have been, or what could be now?