Maher Kharma is president of the Islamic Society of Annapolis.

In a nutshell, Ramadan is one the five pillars of Islam during which Muslims fast from down to sunset through out the month. During Ramadan, Quran was revealed on Mohammed over 1400 years ago. Muslims observe Ramadan by abstaining during the days of Ramadan from food, beverages, intimacy, and by observing best manners. At the end of each of the 30 days, a voluntary night prayers takes place in the mosques. The end of Ramadan is marked by celebrating “Eid Al Fiter” or end of Ramadan feast.

While the physical aspects of Ramadan involves the act of abstinence, the fast includes much spiritual and moral benefits besides those physical ones. In assessing serious challenges that law makers and law enforcement authorities have to deal with frequently in order to stabilize the society, we realize that crimes, drugs, violence, alcoholism, and abuse constitute some of the top societal ills that drain societal resources and place major kinks in the fabric of a more peaceful society.

By large, such acts appear to be rooted in a lack of ability to exercise self control needed to stop one from breaking the law or from infringing the rights of others. For a Muslim, Ramadan comes to be a vehicle that he/she enters as an opportunity to develop better control over own emotions, and to restore superiority over what could be internal or external drivers of deviant behavior.

While the fasting month may be perceived as a time of physical hardship, a deeper look at what is behind the actual act of fast reveals many advantages that such an act of worship can produce not only for reshaping ones character, but as well as for creating a more harmonious society.

Continue reading "Guest post: Ramadan nourishes soul, citizenship" »

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Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

Two weeks ago, as the mercury soared to record highs across much of the United States, electrical demand rose with the temperature as air-conditioning systems ran full blast. Years ago, Baltimore Gas & Electric created a program called Peak Rewards, intended to help reduce demand when it neared capacity.

Roughly 453,000 customers (including the Menkens) were given remotely programmable thermostats with free installation -- and a catch: when necessary, BGE could shut off our air-conditioning compressors for 50%, 75% or even 100% of each hour during extraordinary situations. And for years, those customers were rewarded with monthly credits on their electricity bills during the summer months, whether or not the system was ever activated.

Friday of that week, the system was activated -- and people reacted as if they'd been coerced rather than given hundreds of dollars to participate in the program. Among the more intemperate [sic] remarks given to the Baltimore Sun: "What outrages me is there's no alternative for people in special circumstances."

There was, of course, always an alternative: not participating in the program. I'm not saying that it wasn't uncomfortable; our upstairs thermostat reported temperatures in the high-80s by 5 pm. But "Peak Rewards" was designed for times of peak demand, not when the outdoor temperature is 75.

It might not be the bargain we expected, but it was the agreement we made.

Even in circumstances like this one, we have to accept responsibility for the choices we have made. And personally, I still think we made the right decision!

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Categories: Culture, Guest Posts, Yaakov Menken
        

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

According to a new book from a professor at UCLA, the media's left-wing bias is so overwhelming and pervasive that the few balanced news outlets appear to have a conservative slant.

"It's like concluding that six-three is short just because it is short compared to professional basketball players," writes Professor Tim Groseclose. He asserts that by a neutral standard, Fox News and the Drudge Report are centrist, with perhaps even a minor left-wing tilt -- but due to the steep liberal bias of every other major outlet, "commentators mistake relative bias for absolute bias." From the article:

Groseclose opens his book quoting a well-known poll in which Washington correspondents declared that they vote Democratic 93 percent to 7 percent, while the nation is split about 50-50. As a result, he says, most reporters write with a liberal filter. "Using objective, social-scientific methods, the filtering prevents us from seeing the world as it actually is. Instead, we see only a distorted version of it. It is as if we see the world through a glass—a glass that magnifies the facts that liberals want us to see and shrinks the facts that conservatives want us to see."

If the liberal media tends to "shrink" conservative facts, this is true to a still more extreme degree with anything concerning religion. The Deseret News, the commercial paper of the Mormon Church, recently published a two-part series on news coverage of religion -- or the lack thereof. Journalists not only tend to be much more liberal, but much less religious, then the American population.

A 2002 survey (the most recent data available) of 1,149 randomly selected journalists conducted by the Indiana University found that 34 percent of journalists say they have no religious affiliation, compared with 13 percent among the general population who said the same in a 2002 Pew Research Center survey.

The journalists were also asked how important religion or religious beliefs were to them. Roughly a third (35 percent) said they were “very important.” By comparison, the figure among the general population, as measured that same year by Gallup, was nearly double at 61 percent.

Continue reading "Menken: Bias has consequences" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

The good citizens of San Francisco have managed to tear themselves away from a crippling state budget crisis long enough to place a ballot measure outlawing circumcision. Being represented by Nancy Pelosi would unbalance me, too, so I don't want to be too judgmental.

Nah, I do.

What is at stake here is nothing less than the choice between the French and American visions of the social good. Liberté or liberty, sometimes the choice is clear. In San Francisco it couldn't be any clearer.

Our revolutions took place within a stone's throw of one another, chronologically. But while the French sought to institute a creedal secularism, we set out a constitutional vision of church protected from state, and vice versa. Our experiment was a lot less bloody, and a lot more successful.

Fast forward to today and in France Muslim girls are prohibited from covering their heads in school. This approach reflects an understanding of secularism as a militant opposition to religion, a strict requirement of conformity to prescribed standards however much said conformity might violate the consciences of citizens.

When our founding fathers pointed us toward a novus ordo seclorum, they had in mind a worldliness that allowed a variety of religious movements to express themselves in virtually any way that wouldn't impinge upon others. So while we don't allow the recreational use of peyote our society allows it as an expression of Native American religious observance. We'll make you take off the veil for your driver's license picture, but we'll let you wear it in class. And we'll allow you to raise your children according to the dictates of your religion, unless doing so presents an imminent threat to the child's physical health.

How is this definition adjudicated? With care, and with great respect -- at least in this country -- for the deeply held religious convictions of the people involved. If there's no overwhelming medical reason to oppose a practice, we're going to defer to the scruples of our fellow citizens. We do so in part because we would want them to do the same to us; we do so in part because most of us have a hard enough time making difficult decisions for ourselves, let alone for others. But mostly we do so because to be American is to be free to exercise, or not, our religious beliefs, and to have that free exercise protected against the prejudices of our neighbors.

Continue reading "Poling: Plus ça change ..." »

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UPDATE: NPR President and CEO Vivian (no relation) Schiller has resigned. And I’ve renewed my WYPR membership.

The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

James O’Keefe has struck again. The guerrilla filmmaker, famous for posing as a pimp seeking tax advice from the Baltimore chapter of ACORN, managed to catch NPR’s top fundraiser Ron Schiller on tape expressing his contempt for vast swaths of America. NPR is no doubt relieved that Schiller had already left NPR for the Aspen Institute when the story broke.

NPR claims to be “appalled” by Schiller’s comments, describing them as “contrary to what NPR stands for.” As a longtime NPR listener and sometime (I was about to renew when Juan Williams got fired) member of my local station, I think this statement is patently absurd. There’s a reason you don’t see a lot of NPR tote bags at Tea Party rallies, just like there’s a reason you don’t see a lot of Fox News bumper stickers on Priuses. I do believe that NPR strives to be accurate and evenhanded, and that for the most part it succeeds. But it is also the case that its business model depends on the voluntary financial support of a demographic that by and large sympathizes with the sentiments Schiller expressed on tape.

What caught my attention about the story was Schiller’s description of the Tea Party as “fanatically involved in people’s personal lives and very fundamentalist Christian – I wouldn’t even call it Christian, it’s this weird evangelical kind of move.” If Schiller had listened to his own network’s coverage of the Tea Party, he’d have learned that the significant differences between its core libertarian impulses and the social conservatism of traditional Republican constituencies presented a tension that was more managed than resolved during the last election cycle. That such disparate factions are seen as similar by a person in such a senior position in such an influential media organ is troubling to me, but what is more troubling is the suggestion that evangelicalism is Christian fundamentalism gone wild.

If anything it’s the opposite, and perhaps Schiller just had his labels mixed up. For those of you just tuning in, evangelicalism as we know it today started in the aftermath of World War II when fundamentalists decided they wanted to follow Jesus without being a jerk about it. They held onto their high view of Scripture, their orthodox Christian theology, their belief that Jesus is good news worth telling and their commitment to follow him in every aspect of their lives. But they left behind the anti-intellectualism, the closed-mindedness, the insularity, the paranoia, the parochialism and the overall backwardness that they believed would consign fundamentalist Christianity to the ash heap of religious history. It used to be you could tell the difference between a fundamentalist and an evangelical by asking what he thought of Billy Graham: The evangelical loved that he was bringing people to Jesus, and the fundamentalist thought he’d gone apostate because he’d welcome the local Methodist (or Catholic!) bishop on stage with him.

Continue reading "Poling: On weirdness and evangelicalism" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Saturday saw the funerals of two men who took their own lives earlier this month. One was famous, the other known only among his family, friends and coworkers. I may well be the only person in the country to have known both, and I knew neither of them well enough.

I met Dave Duerson while in New Orleans for a conference in mid-November of 2009. Finding a cigar bar a few blocks down from my hotel, I settled in with a Romeo y Julieta. The TV was replaying the New England-Indianapolis game from Sunday night, the one where Belicheck went for it on 4th and 2 and lost. I made a comment or two to the mustachioed African-American gentleman next to men, but he was busy with his smart phone and didn't seem too sociable. But as we watched a crucial play, cigars smoldering, he suddenly broke out with the kind of analysis I'd heard only from the guys on TV.

"You really know your stuff," I said. He replied with practiced humility, "I used to play the game." Two minutes later I learned that I had been coughing up my very amateur opinions on a big game in the presence of an All-Pro safety elected to the Pro Bowl four years in a row, a member of the legendary "Super Bowl Shuffle" 1985 Chicago Bears squad.

Dave talked with pride about his children, and with sorrow about the failure of his marriage. He had come from a long line of Baptist pastors but converted to Catholicism to marry his wife Alicia, and between that and his success as a captain (and, later, trustee) at Notre Dame he spoke with profound affection about his Catholic identity even as he affirmed the spiritual force of his Baptist forebears. "I tell you what," he said as he ordered another Hennessy, "if I had it to do over again I'd go to Pope school. Those priests at Notre Dame, they drank more Chateau Lafite than I do, and I drank a lot of it." We exchanged a couple of emails the following week, and though from time to time I thought about dropping him a note I never did get around to it.

Continue reading "Poling: Two funerals, and one regret" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

This week I read two very different articles in two very different publications that made the same point crystal-clear: Sometimes when you are dealing with a difficult ethical question, a useful short-cut is to figure out what the jerks think and pick the opposing view.

The Jewish Times carried an article describing the conversion of state Sen. Jim Brochin from con to pro on the gay marriage bill that his committee moved out of committee this week. Brochin had opposed same-sex marriage in favor of civil unions, and indeed lost out on an effort to amend the current bill accordingly. Still, he now supports same-sex marriage, and if you take him at his word the credit for his switch goes to the anti-gay marriage activists.

"Ideally," he told the JT's Phil Jacobs, "I support civil unions, not marriage, but I can't side with these people." By "these people," he meant the activists who spoke up at his committee's hearing "calling gay people androids and pedophiles ... saying that gays were beneath us, that they were second-class citizens." However uncomfortable Brochin is with legalizing same-sex marriage -- a position he opposed publicly as recently as two weeks ago -- Brochin was more uncomfortable with "be[ing] on the side on the senate floor demonizing homosexuality." The bottom line for Brochin: "I'm not backing hate and divisiveness."

Public Discourse is a publication of a quite different sort, featuring heady articles that often involve traditional conservatives arguing with one another about topics from philosophy to religion to ethics to aesthetics. I confess that many of its articles sail well above my head, but I always work to understand the pieces written by Hadley Arkes, an esteemed professor of Constitutional law at Amherst College. (That a Williams grad thinks well of an Amherst prof speaks volumes in and of itself.)

Arkes wrote in response to a few recent pieces in Public Discourse arguing that lying is always wrong. Hang on there, Arkes said. If you're not careful with this sort of absolute proscription of telling falsehoods you're going to have to say that the people who hid Jews from the Nazis and lied to the Gestapo were guilty of an immoral act. What's more, you have to say that a moral person could never serve in a position of authority, say, the presidency, that requires complicity with the sort of disingenuousness that enables an agent to infiltrate a terrorist cell.

Continue reading "Poling: Guilt by Association" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is the pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

A church service was held at New Hope on Sunday morning. This would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that it wasn't supposed to happen.

As the weather predictions grew more and more alarming on Saturday night, I tore myself away from the "A Christmas Story" marathon on TBS to email some of our leaders to get their thoughts on whether we should call off services the next morning. The response among those close to email was unanimous, and I figured we'd get ahead of things and call it early.

For a lot of us with young kids, Saturday night can look a lot different if you're not planning to get up in time to get everybody off to church in the morning -- all the more so if you're serving and need to show up early. So I sent out the email, changed the website, changed the phone message and alerted the media. I knew I'd have to figure out how to combine two sermons into one, but I decided to put off thinking about that and enjoy the evening with family.

Come Sunday morning I was nestled all snug in my bed, imagining a winter wonderland outside but not bothering to confirm it by opening the blinds. Bad move. Around ten -- when our service usually starts -- my parents came to say goodbye and mentioned that the weather outside was anything but frightful.

Meanwhile, seven or eight folks had shown up for church.

Continue reading "On snow closings ... and the idiots who call them" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

It’s that time of year again, and if you’re dreading the prospect of throwing the same old discs into the changer while you tend to the roast, here’s a rundown of several 2010 holiday offerings.

The Good

Erin Bode: A Cold December Night

This disc is by far my favorite of this year’s new holiday music, and I think Erin Bode is my favorite discovery of the year. With a voice and style reminiscent of Norah Jones, Bode displays both greater musical range and a deeper sense of perspective. The opening track, “Skating,” which Bode co-wrote with backing musician Adam Maness, establishes the mood right away: comfortable but not lazy, relaxed but not apathetic, friendly but not garrulous, thoughtful but not brooding, cool but not self-consciously hip. Much credit is due to Bode’s band; Syd Rodway’s basswork establishes a musical foundation that flows when it needs to and sits still when it should. The entire ensemble seems to be taking the music seriously, themselves not too.

Bode’s album succeeds where so many other solo female holiday albums fall short: Shawn Colvin’s Holiday Songs and Lullabies is heavy and over-produced, Sarah McLachlan’s Wintersong is thin and over-produced, and Sara Groves’ O Holy Night bears an unrelenting intensity that just doesn’t fit the artistic form. This is an album I wanted to listen to again after it was done, and I’ve kept coming back to it as often as possible.

The December People: Rattle and Humbug

What would your favorite Christmas carols sound like if they were played by the bands you hear on classic rock stations? Bassist Robert Berry gathered some of California’s top session and touring rock musicians to produce “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” as it would have been played by Boston, “Angels We Have Heard On High” as Peter Gabriel would have done it in the ‘80s, and a ‘90s U2 rendition of “What Child Is This?” Santana gets aped on “Feliz Navidad,” of course.

Continue reading "2010 Holiday Music: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville. He is traveling in Israel with the Maryland Clergy Initiative, sponsored by the Baltimore Jewish Council and the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies.

JERUSALEM – I don’t know what I was expecting, but somehow it wasn’t what I expected.

Earlier this week I walked on the Temple Mount, the site where the first and second Temples stood. Today it houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. For all the controversy that surrounds it, the Temple Mount is a very peaceful place – it’s a broad plaza populated by tourists, most of them apparently on organized tours.

For years I’ve studied various biblical passages about the events that took place on this site; I’ve looked at pictures and satellite images and helicopter flyovers to try to get something useful in my mind’s eye. It looked from a distance about how I thought it would, but the feeling of walking on it was the feeling of walking on an alien world. That’s not all too unusual, as that’s what walking through the rest of Jerusalem felt like too. But whatever connection I may have with the place spiritually, theologically … I don’t know that any connection was an experiential reality for me.

Some of this disconnect may come from the fact that I know enough about the history of the place to know that there is virtually no place one can stand that is as it was in the first century. Jerusalem has changed hands a number of times since then, and as we walked through the tunnels next to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount we learned about the ways successive administrations carried out massive building projects that would be impressive today but are stunning in scope for a pre-industrial age. The result of these building projects, though, is that streets in the neighborhood aren’t at the same levels they were two thousand years ago. So in a couple of days when we walk the Via Dolorosa, the path of Jesus’ journey carrying his cross, we will not be walking the same stones he walked.

Continue reading "Poling: A mountaintop experience…maybe" »

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Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Things Clergy Would Appreciate You Taking Note Of

(a.k.a. Things We’d Like To Say But Don’t Because It Would Be Awkward)

In Good Faith readers may be aware that October is Clergy Appreciation Month. (One of my colleagues was surprised to hear this news; evidently at her synagogue every month is clergy appreciation month.) So I thought it might be useful to make readers aware of some things that we robed types would appreciate…specifically, things we have a hard time letting you know that we’d appreciate because it would be awkward to say so personally.

The following posts are the result of inquiries to dozens of clergypersons of various faiths, male and female, in various positions, from congregations of various sizes. They were assured of anonymity; if you think one came from your spiritual leader, the polite thing would be to chalk that up to coincidence and take heed nonetheless.

Work
• Just because I’m not physically at my desk doesn’t mean I’m not working. If I’m meeting a congregant for coffee, that’s work. If I’m meeting a colleague for lunch, that’s work. If I’m at the library researching a sermon (sermons usually take 10 to 20 hours to prepare, by the way), that’s work. If I’m at a conference, that’s work, even if the conference is someplace you’d like to go on vacation. If I’m at a denominational meeting, that really is work.

• If you see me out somewhere during the week, it’s nice for you to say hello. But don’t get into a 20 minute conversation; just because I’m alone doesn’t mean I’m not doing something worthwhile that requires my attention. This goes for dropping by my office during the week too. When we run into you at the grocery store, please remember we went there to buy milk and we have to get it home; we might not be able to have a long conversation about your grandson right then and there.

• We want you to talk to us about our sermons. Call us, email us, invite us to talk about them over coffee. Ask questions, listen, tell us what you heard. Read the text beforehand and let us know the questions it raises for you. Challenge us if you think we missed something. Give us your honest feedback, both positive and negative. But please be sensitive about the timing. Directly before we preach is not a good time to tell us what you want us to talk about. And directly after is not a good time to offer negative feedback. Apart from that, please bear in mind that sermons are designed to start conversations, not end them.

• “Well, you only work one day a week: ”Not funny. Never was, never will be.

Continue reading "Poling: If we might have a word ... (continued again)" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Things Clergy Would Appreciate You Taking Note Of

(a.k.a. Things We’d Like To Say But Don’t Because It Would Be Awkward)

In Good Faith readers may be aware that October is Clergy Appreciation Month. (One of my colleagues was surprised to hear this news; evidently at her synagogue every month is clergy appreciation month.) So I thought it might be useful to make readers aware of some things that we robed types would appreciate … specifically, things we have a hard time letting you know that we’d appreciate because it would be awkward to say so personally.

The following posts are the result of inquiries to dozens of clergypersons of various faiths, male and female, in various positions, from congregations of various sizes. They were assured of anonymity; if you think one came from your spiritual leader, the polite thing would be to chalk that up to coincidence and take heed nonetheless.

Congregational Life

· Buy life insurance. Funerals and bereavement are difficult enough for everyone involved without having to figure out who’s paying for the burial, and where a family can relocate now that there’s nobody to pay the mortgage.

· Our congregation cannot get involved in every worthwhile project our members are involved in. Don’t commit our congregation to your pet cause without asking, or you may end up putting everybody involved in a very awkward position. Instead, ask our leadership what can be done, but be prepared to hear that money and energy are already fully committed.

Continue reading "Poling: If we might have a word ... (continued)" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Things Clergy Would Appreciate You Taking Note Of

(a.k.a. Things We’d Like To Say But Don’t Because It Would Be Awkward)

In Good Faith readers may be aware that October is Clergy Appreciation Month. (One of my colleagues was surprised to hear this news; evidently at her synagogue every month is clergy appreciation month.) So I thought it might be useful to make readers aware of some things that we robed types would appreciate … specifically, things we have a hard time letting you know that we’d appreciate because it would be awkward to say so personally.

The following posts are the result of inquiries to dozens of clergypersons of various faiths, male and female, in various positions, from congregations of various sizes. They were assured of anonymity; if you think one came from your spiritual leader, the polite thing would be to chalk that up to coincidence and take heed nonetheless.

Part I: Boundaries

· Respect the reasonable boundaries we need to place around our own home and family life. Don’t call our cell late at night, or our home phone any time, unless it’s an absolute pastoral emergency. If you aren’t sure if it’s an emergency, it isn’t.

· Don’t tell us we “absolutely have to” read a certain book/see a certain movie/visit a certain museum. If we did everything we were told we had to do, we’d never get anything else done. Tell us what you experienced and what you liked about it, and let us decide whether it’s a must-see.

· If we inquire after somebody’s health, please don’t feel the need to provide exhaustive detail. We have not yet encountered the scenario where we have a pastoral need to know how many centimeters an expectant mother is dilated, or the percentage she is effaced.

· We have also not yet encountered the scenario where we have a pastoral need to view a surgical scar.

Continue reading "Poling: If we might have a word ..." »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is the Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Her tragic death notwithstanding, the career of Anna Nicole Smith delighted plastic surgeons, dieters and reality TV fans, not to mention readers of Playboy magazine and patrons of strip clubs. It was one of these last, J. Howard Marshall II, who became Mr. Anna Nicole Smith in the waning years of his life.

The facts are well-known to most readers: Ms. Smith, then 26, married Mr. Marshall, then 89, in 1994. Upon Marshall’s death 13 months later, his son E. Pierce Marshall contested Ms. Smith’s claim to half of his estate; the case ultimately wound up in the Supreme Court, which decided in Ms. Smith’s favor in 2006. Although both Ms. Smith and Mr. Marshall are now deceased, Mr. Marshall’s estate continued to pursue the matter, and the Supreme Court has announced that it will once again hear the case.

Oddly enough, this turn of events presents us once again with the reality that for a brief, shining moment, Ms. Smith replaced Michael Schiavo as the poster child for family values.

Obviously the disposition of a will can involve complicated decisions, and family tension is by no mean unknown in this sort of situation. Probate lawyers can explain all of the variables to anyone who’s interested in them, but the basic principle of law and the clear message of the Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling is this: If the choice is between a spouse and another family member, the spouse wins.

Much the same conflict was operative in the Schiavo case: Ultimately the courts decided that when Terry Schiavo’s husband and parents disagreed over her medical care, it was her husband’s right as her spouse to make decisions for her despite her parents’ disagreement with his choices.

Continue reading "Poling: Two Cheers for Anna Nicole Smith" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

It’s been a tough year to be an evangelical pastor with a small congregation. The two best-known examples are Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, and Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. The former is best known for protesting military funerals and running www.godhatesfags.com. The latter is known for a plan to burn copies of the Qur’an on Saturday to commemorate the 9/11 attacks.

Well down the list would be me. Like Westboro and Dove, New Hope is small and independent of a denomination. One difference would be that the only thing we burn is cigars when our guys get together to play poker.

There are plenty of other differences as well. But every time I turn on the news and hear about a small evangelical church that’s planning to burn copies of the Qur’an I realize that there just isn’t room for the reporters to describe it as “fringe,” or “cult-like” (see their “Discipleship Manual” at The Smoking Gun), or “nutty.” No, they have to call them something, so “small evangelical church” it is.

I’m getting a taste of what it’s like for many of my Muslim colleagues.

A couple of years back I asked a local Imam what he thought about the blasphemy laws in many majority-Muslim countries that prescribe the death penalty for those converting from Islam to another religion. He told me he thought it was outrageous. I referenced the passages in the Qur’an used to justify the practice, and asked why other imams would endorse it on that basis. “Because they’re idiots,” he said.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: I'm with stupid" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

The commentary page in this morning's Baltimore Sun carries a piece I wrote on the major gubernatorial candidates’ low levels of charitable giving, as first reported in the Sun over the weekend.

One issue that space didn’t permit me to explore was the question of whether one should give based on pre- or post-tax income. Some teach that we should give a percentage of our take-home pay, since that’s really the only money we have any control over. Others say that we should give a percentage of pre-tax income, since we are called to give of our “first fruits,” that is, of the first and best that we yield.

I incline strongly toward the latter view, for two reasons. Theologically, I can’t get past the idea that Uncle Sam would get his cut before God does. But from the perspective of personal responsibility, I think it’s essential for us to recognize that the big number on our pay stub is in fact what we’re getting paid — and that what we take home is that amount less the money that we have withheld as payment for other things.

In regard to some of those things we have no choice: our employers are required to deduct payroll taxes and to withhold income taxes. On others we do, and most of us should choose to have money withheld for retirement plans, health care and disability premiums, etc. Some employers even allow us to make charitable contributions directly out of our paychecks. But in all cases, the amount we take home is simply the number that ends up on our checks (or deposited directly in our bank accounts) after certain payments have reduced the amount we actually got paid. We might take home, say, $1000, but that doesn’t change the fact that we got paid $1,500.

Some people believe that the amount one gives should be reduced in accordance with the fact that some functions covered by the “tithe” as directed in the Old Testament are handled by government — after all, ancient Israel was a theocratic nation-state. Others respond that if you add up the various “tithes” commanded the actual amount God instructed his people to give is closer to 27 percent than 10 percent, and involves giving a combination of a portion of both income and assets.

Continue reading "Give it away, give it away, give it away now" »

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American in Maryland. A native of Pakistan, he arrived in the United States in 1980.

For a moderate Muslim who has lived continuously in the West for more than thirty-eight years, the protests against the interfaith center proposed for Lower Manhattan is a wakeup call.

It highlights a deep distrust of Muslims and of our moderate belief system. In my version of Islam, I share my God and prophets with the Christians and the Jews, and hold them in equal reverence. I firmly believe that our religion is determined at birth by God and we must respect all religions. The only role of religion in my life is to give me hope and help me become a good citizen.

I do not need to grow a beard but those that do for symbolism are exercising their personal freedom -- and, perhaps without realizing it, are helping the environment by not wasting the water and energy consumed in the shaving process. I do not need any intermediary to pray for me to God, and strongly believe in the absolute separation of church and state.

Save for a tiny minority, Muslims do not subscribe to the orthodox brand of Islam that mistakenly assumes that Muslims are superior to all others and all humanity must be converted to Islam. If God wants us all to be Muslims, he surely has the power to make us so.

As human beings, we have every right to be very angry with the 19 madmen who killed thousands of innocent civilians on Sept. 11, 2001.

Continue reading "Guest post: A Muslim perspective on the mosque" »

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Writer, public health professional and attorney J. Samia Mair of Baltimore is the author of the children’s books Amira’s Totally Chocolate World and The Perfect Gift.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, several mosques in the United States have been targeted either by anti-Muslim protests or by hate crimes. Some speculate that it is due to the controversy over the proposed building of the Cordoba House, a few blocks from Ground Zero. For example, a children’s playground was torched at a Texas mosque and the parking lot had obscene graffiti, defiling the name of God.

There also have been protests against a Kentucky mosque and California mosque. A Florida mosque was recently bombed, which officials described as terrorism.

On Friday, angry protesters from the group Operation Save America accosted worshipers at the Bridgeport Islamic Society in Connecticut. Among them was a 13-year-old who held up a sign stating “Islam is a Lie.” One protestor shouted “murderers” as he apparently shoved a placard at a group of young Muslim children.

The Anti-Defamation League calls itself “America’s prime resource for information on and responses to bigotry.”

According to its website, “The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens" (emphasis added).

To meet these ends, ADL states that it:

• probes the roots of hatred
• fosters interfaith/intergroup relations
• mobilizes communities to stand up against bigotry

Where is the ADL in fulfilling its stated mission to combat bigotry in this case? The answer should surprise you. In a recent statement, ADL took the unbelievable stand that although legal, it is wrong to build the Cordoba House near Ground Zero.

Continue reading "Guest Post: Ground Zero bigotry: The ripple effect" »

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Darcy Bisset is a member of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

I spent the better part of last fall reading through Anne Rice's Christ the Lord books with a group of friends (reluctantly at first -- when our discussion group voted, my pick lost). I found myself captured by the beauty of Rice's writing and impressed by the theological and historical care she took with her subject matter.

And so when I heard the news last week that Rice had announced she was leaving Christianity and was no longer Christian, I felt a twist of emotions. I was sad, because I thought the Christ the Lord books were brilliant and I wanted more from that voice.

I was sympathetic, because I've been in that boat, where some one or some group, purportedly speaking for Christianity, is saying something you think is SO WRONG and you want to wear a big button proclaiming "I am not with them!"

I was also incredulous because, well, did she not know about the Roman Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality and birth control when she joined up?

It kind of reminds me of when people get divorced after a few years of marriage, citing as "irreconcilable differences" a bunch of personality quirks about which they were fully informed when they decided to get married.

I decided that if Anne Rice can make silly over-reaching statements, then so can I. Therefore, on behalf of Christianity and Christians, I refuse to accept her resignation.

Continue reading "Guest Post: Memo to Anne: Resignation declined" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

I, for one, am glad to see that the Sun is selling enough advertisements to necessitate the abbreviation of wire stories. But I was disappointed to see that the piece in today's paper ("Man arrested on terror charges," page A10) relating the arrest of one Zachary Adam Chesser failed to mention the infamy he earned by threatening the creators of South Park for their depiction of Muhammad.

No doubt Chesser's alleged association with notable terrorist figures like Anwar al-Awlaki and Nidal Hassan had earned him a spot on the no-fly list (and a federal wiretap) before he put Trey Parker and Matt Stone in his sights. His defenders at the time tried to portray him as a harmless blogger, parroting his statement that he was simply observing (rather than threatening) that Parker and Stone might end up like murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

Chesser was picked up at JFK earlier this month when he allegedly tried to fly to Somalia in order to join up with the terrorist organization al-Shabaab, presumably not in the role of harmless blogger. Indeed, according to his own statements to FBI investigators, Chesser traveled with his infant son in order to deflect suspicion. Anyone who has attempted air travel with an infant knows that you don't do this unless you absolutely, positively, have to be there on an airplane. So clearly the guy was pretty serious.

What's especially sobering about this story is that Chesser is all of 20 years old. According to his interviews with the FBI, Chesser's commitment to the violent propagation of Islam was in considerable flux during the exactly two years between when he became interested in Islam and when he set off to another continent to join a terrorist organization. At times he was personally committed to violence, at times he was opposed; at times, Cuomo-esque, he supported others' violence but didn't want to perpetrate it himself.

Continue reading "Goin' after South Park? Goin' down to court" »

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Shaukat Malik is a certified public accountant who lives in Potomac. He is also an entrepreneur and a business and political strategist.

Extremist Islam has done so much damage to the Muslim image that during the 2008 U.S. presidential election opponents of Barack Hussain Obama tried to scare voters by declaring that he was a Muslim and supported terrorists.

President Obama’s being labeled as a Muslim for political advantage is a wakeup call for Muslims everywhere, as it clearly confirms the pariah status of the 1.2 billion people who were born in a Muslim home.

As a religion of submission and acceptance of other religions that gave refuge to the Jewish people running from persecution in Europe to Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia, today, unfortunately, it has been hijacked by the oil rich theocracies of Iran and the Middle East.

The great Rabbi Maimonides -- also known as Rambam – became leader of the Jewish community in Egypt in 1183 and was subsequently appointed physician to King Saladin’s vizier. He lived all his life in an Islamic society and died in Egypt. Harmonious co-existence between Muslims and Jews in 1183 confirms the existence of an Islam that was inclusive and welcoming to all, much like the United States of today. There is no reason why we cannot have Muslim states that are inclusive and welcoming to all.

The question we must ask is this. Let us imagine for a moment that Barak Hussein Obama is indeed a Muslim. Would this suddenly take away his intellect and his loyalty to the United States and transform him into an Osama bin Laden-like terrorist living in the White House?

No religion teaches you to harm another human being. The aim of all of the great faiths is to promote a just and fair society. We cannot say that Moses and Jesus were wrong and Prophet Mohammad is right. They were all God’s messengers who brought his message and wanted to spread peace, love and understanding.

Continue reading "Guest post: The image of Islam, under siege" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Every once in a while I encounter something that forces me to question some of my most deeply held beliefs. Sometimes it's being told about an experience I don't think ought to be able to happen. Sometimes it's a person doing something totally unexpected that somehow works out for the good. And sometimes it's a bunch of bigoted jerks disrupting a military funeral.

For a small church in Kansas, the Westboro Baptist Church has a presence that looms large over our area. Their 2006 protest at the Westminster funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder prompted a lawsuit which will make its way to the Supreme Court this fall. For those who are unfamiliar, WBC's membership consists primarily of the pastor's relatives, and its activities consist primarily of stretching the limits of First Amendment protections and going to court against their opponents.

This spring WBC announced that it would protest at the funeral of University of Virginia lacrosse player Yeardley Love at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. Apparently a young woman's violent death presented an opportunity to address the issue of pedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church by waving signs and shouting slogans with content unsuitable for a family blog.

I couldn't have been prouder that someone from our congregation was on site to hold up sheets and tarps to protect Love's family from seeing the WBC protesters (who, as it turns out, never showed). Much the same service was provided to Snyder's family by the Patriot Guard Riders, a corps of motorcyclists who fire up their Harleys at military funerals to drown out the voices of WBC protesters.

My libertarian streak runs deep and wide. Generally speaking I'm inclined to note that it's the right to free speech, not the right to not be offended, that is enshrined in the First Amendment. So on the question of offensive South Park episodes, as I argued on this blog several months back, a person who doesn't like how his prophet is being portrayed should change the channel rather than threatening violence against the show's creators.

So when people want to protest outside a political event, or a rock concert, or a Wal-Mart, or even an abortion clinic, I see that as an exercise of free speech that the people who don't like it have to tolerate anyway -- in this country, that's how we roll. To have true freedom of speech means to allow speech that is inconvenient, that is unwanted, that may be upsetting.

Yet at the same time there's a lot of sense in carving out space for civility and decorum in the midst of these freedoms in a few circumstances. And if there's any place where speech might legitimately be curtailed, I have to say as a pastor that it's at a funeral. I'd probably want to include weddings as well. It's not unreasonable for a free society to say, "You don't have the right to not be offended. But you do have the right to bury your son in peace," without people yelling across the street that his death should be celebrated as God's vengeance on America for its various moral failures.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Barbarians well outside the gates" »

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Writer, public health professional and attorney J. Samia Mair of Baltimore is the author of the children’s books Amira’s Totally Chocolate World and The Perfect Gift.

There is an old country music song called "I was Country, when Country wasn't cool." It reminds me of what it is like to be Muslim in America today.

In his new book soon to be released, A World Without Islam, Graham E. Fuller, former Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, states:

Muslims are now the object of intensified overt and covert suspicions, sometimes even discrimination on a de jure basis, on anything that smacks of security issues. Muslims in the West have yet to receive the benefit of public political correctness; their characteristics and culture remain open season for spoof, lampoon, derision, and hatred in ways no longer tolerated in Western society in respect to African-Americans, Jews, or Native Americans.

In other words, it is okay to hate Muslims.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress, recently stated “if you're not fighting for the civil rights of Muslim Americans, then you're not on the cutting edge of civil rights in America today.”

Yet, it is an historic time to be Muslim in America. And I’m glad to be part of it.

Being Muslim post-9/11 presents challenges but also opportunity. We have the opportunity to dispel the many misconceptions about Islam and address the outright lies. We have the opportunity to fulfill our duties to our neighbors and our communities, even though they might fail to fulfill their duties to us. We have the opportunity to act beautifully in the face of harsh treatment. In short, we have the opportunity to help determine the future of Islam in America.

Continue reading "Guest Post: I was Muslim when Muslim wasn't cool" »

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. A native of Pakistan, he arrived in the United States in 1980.

Muslims must accept the existence of other religions as God’s will.

God decides our religion at birth, and judges us based on how we followed our assigned faith. Generally, a child follows the religion of his parents; conversions are rare.

Abraham, Moses and Jesus were all good men and brought good messages of peace. We cannot reject their faith or message outright. The Quran confirms the messages in the Old and New Testaments. All of God's children are entitled to worship whatever faith God has chosen for them. There are many divisions between Muslims, yet they all pray to the same God. We should leave it to God to decide who is right and who is wrong.

Here is a verse from the Quran confirming the existence of other religions acceptable to God that have not been revealed to us. This would cover Hindus and Buddhists and the rest of humanity.

040.078
YUSUFALI: We did aforetime send messengers before thee: of them there are some whose story we have related to thee, and some whose story we have not related to thee. It was not [possible] for any messenger to bring a sign except by the leave of Allah: but when the Command of Allah issued, the matter was decided in truth and justice, and there perished, there and then those who stood on Falsehoods.

PICKTHAL: Verily We sent messengers before thee, among them those of whom We have told thee, and some of whom We have not told thee; and it was not given to any messenger that he should bring a portent save by Allah's leave, but when Allah's commandment cometh (the cause) is judged aright, and the followers of vanity will then be lost.

SHAKIR: And certainly We sent messengers before you: there are some of them that We have mentioned to you and there are others whom We have not mentioned to you, and it was not meet for a messenger that he should bring a sign except with Allah's permission, but when the command of Allah came, judgment was given with truth, and those who treated (it] as a lie were lost.

This verse confirms other messengers and the validity of their messages. Muslims are only 25 percent of planet Earth's population and should worry only about their own conduct and dealings with fellow human beings. Muslims cannot force conversion on the remaining 75 percent of the world, as they are non-muslims by God’s will and design.

Continue reading "Guest post: Other religions are God's will" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

No doubt my fellow In Good Faith readers have donned their tuques and opened up a can of Elsinore in honor of Canada Day, our northern neighbors' July 1st version of Independence Day. As my family has recently suffered at the hands of the land I often think of as America's Hat, I thought I'd invite the denizens of this blog to weigh in on the ethical question being hotly debated here at my grandmother's house in Milwaukee.

Back in the spring, somebody called my grandmother claiming that he was me, that he had been arrested for DUI in Canada, and that he needed her to wire bail money right away. My grandmother, a 95-year-old teetotaller, is sharp as a tack and wasn't going to fall for the scam, which has apparently been popular in recent months (Google "Canadian DUI grandson scam").

But the question arose whether she should have called my parents to let them know about the call. She figured that in the unlikely event this wasn't a scam, I would eventually have had to make them aware of my transgression. That was my business and my responsibility; she wasn't going to get involved. My parents felt she should have called them to let them know (and be reassured that I wasn't anywhere near Montreal at the time).

I'm with Grandma on this, and not just because I'm staying at her house right now. My view is that under normal circumstances if an adult family member calls another adult family member for help, the person called should keep that private while encouraging the person in trouble to let people close to him know that he needs help.

What do you think?

Either way, I blame Canada. If it weren't for the lovely honeymoon my wife and I had in Nova Scotia, and lobsters from New Brunswick, and mussels from Prince Edward Island, and the nice Mountie in Banff who patiently posed for a picture with my daughter the last time I was in the 51st state, and my Canadian friends, and Sarah McLachlan, and John Candy, and most of all Rush ... well, I'd be pretty bitter right now.

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. He left his native Pakistan in 1972 and has been living in the United States since 1980.

Western patience and capacity for continued spending on the Afghan war is running thin. The United Kingdom and other NATO countries are facing increasing opposition at home. The British Petroleum oil spill has added to the urgency for a speedy resolution in Afghanistan. We have reached a very critical stage in the Afghanistan war.

Creating a civil society in Afghanistan is a long-term project that may take a decade. Taliban rule of the 1990s, followed by nine years of continuous war and unrest, have destroyed local government and infrastructure necessary for bringing order to the ordinary lives of Afghans.

However, at least in Pakistan, where there is indeed an elected parliament, the politicians must earn their credentials and not allow critics to label them as useless rubber-stamp parasites hanging around for their monthly paychecks.

Time has come for Pakistan’s politicians to show maturity and counter criticism that they are inept, unqualified and unable to handle the problems of Pakistan. A free press in Pakistan has enough material for any politician to understand Pakistan’s important role in the war against terror and how it can directly influence the outcome of the war in neighboring Afghanistan.

Ordinary Pakistani citizens must be convinced that the war against the Taliban is their war, and not just America’s war. The Taliban has supported Al-Qaeda. The organization that carried out the 9/11 murder of more that 3,000 innocent Americans in New York cannot be allowed to establish its headquarters in Pakistan to kill innocent Pakistanis. The Taliban are no different from cancer cells and must be neutralized or eliminated.

Continue reading "Guest post: Pakistan must rally against Taliban" »

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The following was written by J. Samia Mair, Sister Eileen Eppig, and Ted Chaskelson on behalf of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Dialogue Group of Baltimore.

In the fall of 2007, Muslims and Christians from the Baltimore area established an interfaith group to learn more about each other’s religion and to promote understanding and peace on a wider scale. Later realizing that the discussion would benefit tremendously with the addition of the Jewish perspective, members of the Jewish community were invited to join.

Our participation in this dialogue has resulted in increasing appreciation of one another and our respective religious traditions; in praying for and otherwise supporting one another, and in raising our awareness of events that we might not have otherwise noticed.

Sadly, it is senseless killings that are the events that come -- more and more -- to the notice of the entire world. All three of our member religions are aware that a responsibility rests on all of them. None can say that such killings are problems for other religions, but not for us. The burden of responsibility rests on Jews, Christians and Muslims, to do what we can to end such killings. For this reason we have submitted a Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspective showing that all three religions call for an end to this violence.

Continue reading "Guest post: Interfaith perspectives on violence" »

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. A native of Pakistan, he arrived in the United States in 1980.

We have all seen the devastation of nuclear bombs as confirmed by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even today the good people of these two cities are affected by the nuclear radiation injected by these bombs. To be honest, the enormity of long-term devastation that a single nuclear weapon can cause is such that it prohibits their use.

Countries that possess it use it to scare would-be invaders, and each other. It is more like a permanent “Boo!”

Iran is a one-party Islamic theocratic state ruled by mullahs who follow the Shia brand of Islam. The mullahs control Iran’s oil revenues. By using an interlocking system of financial patronage they exercise complete control over a strong regular army and a large private army, the Basijs (religious police) -- estimates include 7.5 million men and 5 million women ensuring compliance with Islamic laws -- and a legislature whose candidates must be approved by the council of mullahs in Qom, Iran’s Vatican. Like the Soviet Union of past, Iran is a police state, in which you are under constant surveillance.

Still, Iran is much more democratic than, say, Saudi Arabia, as women are part of the workforce. But it is not a democracy, as opposition to the party of God is not allowed. The opposition we saw last year on the streets of Tehran -- which was only opposing election results and not the writ of Imam Khomeni, who has the same stature as Pope in the Catholic Church -- was quickly suppressed.

There is a long proxy war being fought between mainly Sunni theocratic Saudi Arabia and theocratic Shia Iran. This war is being fought through sponsoring Islamic parties, including the Hizbollah in Lebanon, which wish to establish theocratic states all over the Muslim world. The viciousness of this war is evident on the streets of Baghdad, where men have been executed in Shia and Sunni neighborhoods and their bodies dumped on the pavement.

The suicide bombers in Afghanistan are infused with a religious ideology that promises paradise to them and to all the innocent people they might kill.

Continue reading "Guest post: Why are we afraid of a nuclear Iran?" »

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. A native of Pakistan, he arrived in the United States in 1980.

The flotilla incident is an unfortunate accident born out of Israel’s need to maintain its naval blockade of Gaza and the activists' objective of breaking Israel’s blockade. Instead of abseiling from helicopters onto the lead ship, which resulted in the loss of innocent lives, Israeli patrol boats could have escorted the flotilla to port.

Hamas’s non-recognition of Israel and demanding the return of Palestinians to a pre-1967 Jerusalem is undiluted rhetoric and must be treated as such. Declaring Hamas as terrorists, naval blockades and tit-for-tat bombings have not yielded any positive results. They have effectively derailed the peace process. Gaza has essentially become an internment camp.
Blockades leave unhappy memories. We should not forget the British blockade of Palestine in 1945 that forced flotillas carrying Jewish immigrants from Europe to turn back.

We must remember that Hamas won the 2006 elections in Palestine. Hamas won 76 of the 132 parliamentary seats, giving the party the right to form the next cabinet under the Palestinian Authority's president, Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah. A reason for their victory was the corruption of the Fatah government.

In today’s unsettled world, beset by recession and America’s economy destroyed by Wall Street robbers and the BP oil spill, it is extremely important for Israel to take the lead in peace efforts. A peaceful Middle East is extremely important for winning America’s war on terror. Terrorist recruiters are celebrating the flotilla incident.

Continue reading "Guest post: An opportunity for peace" »

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Writer, public health professional and attorney J. Samia Mair of Baltimore is the author of the children’s books Amira’s Totally Chocolate World and The Perfect Gift.

Muslims are required to pray 5 times a day at specific times. For 4 of those prayers, there is a relatively lengthy period (hour or more) in which they can be done. For example, Muslims pray Fajr anywhere between dawn and just before sunrise. Maghrib, however, must be prayed shortly after sunset. During any given day, chances are that a Muslim living in the United States will not be at home or near a masjid (mosque) for all 5 prayers and therefore will be required to find a suitable alternative.

In Muslim-populated countries finding a place to pray is not an issue. There are abundant masajid (mosques) and no one would find it odd to see someone pull out a rug and pray in public. When I was in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj several years ago, people prayed everywhere—on sidewalks, in stores, and along hallways.

It’s not so easy in the United States. Every day, I need to review my schedule and decide where I am going to pray that day. Fortunately, the Baltimore area is rich in cultural and religious diversity; and in my experience, most people are respectful of others’ beliefs. There are places in the United States where I literally would be physically afraid to pray in public. Until recently, I have never had a problem in this regard. I have prayed in parks, parking lots, museums, restaurants, mall dressing rooms, and in storage areas. Most businesses have been extremely accommodating. Granted, there are some businesses where I felt uncomfortable asking to pray. But overall, finding a place to pray has not been too challenging here. It just requires planning.

Not long ago, I had my first hostile reaction. I needed to pray during a movie. Without asking, I found a quiet spot down a dark hallway and off to the side. No one was around when I started. During my prayers, I noticed a man’s shoes in front of me and slightly to the left. His presence was intrusive and intimidating. When I finished my prayer, he told me that I had “offended another customer” and company policy did not allow religious displays on the premises. He also refused to accommodate my request to find an alternative spot. Not at all satisfied with the interaction, I wrote several higher ups, including the president of the company, which is a national chain. I was informed that company policy did not prohibit me from praying and that if I ever needed to be accommodated at that theater again, all I needed to do was ask. As an extra conciliatory gesture, headquarters sent me eight complimentary movie tickets. Ultimately, I was more than satisfied with the outcome. But the experience made me think.

Continue reading "Guest post: Where Muslims pray" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

When the 2005 publication of the Mohammed cartoons in a Dutch newspaper made headlines, I felt torn. As a libertarian, I wouldn’t want to say it should be illegal to publish such cartoons. But as someone who tries to be sensitive to the religious views of others, I would also not want to publish them in order to avoid giving offense. Perhaps it’s cowardice for me to want a world where they can be published but where I don’t publish them.

The same angst returned for me when South Park’s portrayal of Mohammed in their 200th episode was censored by Comedy Central. A pornographic from the Bible, of all things, has resolved the tension for me.

A few years back I preached through the book of Ezekiel. For those unfamiliar with it, it’s one of the longer prophetic books in the Bible; it’s also one of the most outrageous. Not once but twice (in chapters 16 and 23, if you’re interested) God describes the unfaithfulness of his people with language that would make a sailor blush. Naturally, I was pretty fired up to preach these passages.

When I got to chapter 16, I was five minutes into my sermon when a family with young kids slipped into the back of the church and sat down without hearing the warning during our announcements that the sermon would be dealing with some R-rated material. Rapidly downshifting from R to PG, I still managed to get my point across. (But I never saw them again.) When I came to chapter 23, I gave strict instructions to the ushers not to let that happen again. I also made sure that folks were aware that the sermon that day would deal with some mature subject matter, providing warnings in our bulletin, in the announcements, and at the beginning of my sermon.

The sermon was not well received by everyone. One visitor contacted the senior pastor of the church that planted us to express her disapproval, and wrote a long letter excoriating me for…well, preaching the text that I had in front of me. She said she would not be returning to New Hope until we changed our ways. I had the good manners not to ask if that was a promise or a threat.

You won’t find these passages preached in most churches; most aren’t willing to go into that kind of territory, even when the Bible does. At New Hope, we believe that having a high view of Scripture means that we treat all of it as inspired — the red letters, the black letters, and the purple prose, too. And I must say that I feel no responsibility whatsoever for the offense our visitors took that day: They were made aware of what was coming three different ways. They were warned that they were about to be exposed to offensive material, so they really couldn’t complain when it happened as promised. Even if the [WARNING: Gratuitous male nudity ahead] Pompeiian fresco of Priapus was projected on the front wall of the sanctuary. Which it was.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: You bastards!" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

On Monday morning the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, a case that has the potential to set tremendously important precedents for the exercise of First Amendment rights. Or for the protection of people from discriminatory treatment. It depends how you see it.

In a nutshell, the situation is this: A Christian student group at Hastings, a law school in the University of California system, was denied recognition because it requires that members sign a statement of faith and abstain from "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle." Without recognition, the group was treated like any other non-campus group: No preferential scheduling of meeting spaces, no access to campus-wide email, no access to student organization bulletin boards, no (modest) allocation for expenses.

So, they sued. (Remember, these are law students. Really, what better way to make use of an expensive education than a test case that would ultimately go to the Supreme Court?) The students claimed the school was infringing on their right to free association (and exercise of religion); the school claimed the students could only constitute as a student group if it followed the school's non-discrimination policy, which the organization's by-laws transgressed.

It's a difficult choice: Should a publicly funded institution provide support to an organization that operates against its principles? Should an organization be required to compromise its principles in order to function as a recognized student group? Do we really want to live in a world where the Folk Music Society can’t kick out its treasurer for being photographed in the front row at a Black-Eyed Peas concert?

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Free to believe, you but not me?" »

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Categories: Christianity, Church and State, Guest Posts, Jason Poling, Law and Courts
        

Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. He left his native Pakistan in 1972 and has been living in the United States since 1980.

People of all faiths have fought each other in the past but that does not mean that animosity must survive in perpetuity. This is madness. Christians of the inquisition era victimized Jews and Muslims in Europe, but that has not stopped Jews and Christians from building bridges of understanding and sharing common values that promote the well being of everyone.

The whole world knows about the Palestinian problem, yet that has not stopped some Muslim countries from dealing and having diplomatic relations with Israel. This engagement and recognition has yielded peace dividends and allowed these states to focus on economic development and the well-being of their peoples.

Why has Turkey recognized Israel? The answer is not that complicated. Proud Turkey boasts the second largest army in NATO. It analyzed its own self-interest in joining the European Common Market and determined that recognizing Israel would help Turkish interests. Turkish people as Muslims are equally concerned about the plight of Palestinians, but this concern has not stopped Turkey from doing what is best for Turkey.

In its efforts to meet constitutional and legal requirements for membership in the European Union, the Islamic party in Turkey long viewed with suspicion by Turkey’s guardians of secularism – namely, the Turkish army – has emerged as a champion of democracy and reform. They have succeeded in presenting a brand of secular Islam that allows for separation of church and state with complete freedom of religion. This action does not mean that Turkey has lost its cultural identity or abolished Islam; on the contrary, it has given more freedoms to Turkish citizens to practice their cherished faiths.

This transformation has weakened the hands of autocratic forces led by adventurous generals who have toppled elected governments in the past. Turkey’s success can be used as a benchmark for all Muslim countries in different phases of democratization.

Like Turkey, Pakistan has a history of military intervention by adventurous generals who have in the past exploited a weak judiciary and an undereducated elected assembly to seize power. Through this process, Pakistan has been denied the economic and political success enjoyed by its neighbor and birth twin, India.

Why have many Muslim countries not recognized Israel?

Continue reading "Guest post: Children of Abraham" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Five years ago, Terri Schiavo was pronounced dead more than 15 years after a heart attack put her into a persistent vegetative state. The battles leading up to that conclusion originated in a struggle between her husband Michael Schiavo and her parents Robert and Mary Schindler over who would determine proper care for her; they eventually managed to involve all three branches of the federal government, and hastened the political demise of Sen. (and Dr.) Bill Frist's once-promising Presidential candidacy.

As I watched the story unfold like a slow-motion car wreck, I was struck by the difficulty of the ethical issues involved. Does a feeding tube constitute "extraordinary measures" used to sustain life? Some liken it to the technological intervention of a ventilator, while others consider it basic nutrition and hydration which no-one could humanely deny. Did the widely disseminated videos of Schiavo reflect genuine intelligent response to people known to her or simply an involuntary reaction to external stimuli? Was Schiavo a living human being, or simply a metabolizing organism? Did she begin to rest in peace five years ago, or twenty?

The profound ethical questions raised in this case will continue to be debated, as well they should. But as long as they are unresolved the more pressing question for most of us is how a situation like Schiavo's is to be handled. Schiavo's autopsy revealed that she had indeed suffered massive and irreversible brain damage, but decisions about her care had to be made without this evidence. Absent a clear advance medical directive, does her husband make decisions for her? Do her parents have the right to trump her husband? Do the courts have the right to trump both? Congress?

Every day difficult medical decisions are made without certain knowledge about what will happen, or what would happen if a different path were taken. And every day these decisions are made among differences of opinion as what the “right” — or at least best — choice is. At the end of the day someone must make the call, and we as a society must have ways of ensuring that the appropriate person is making these decisions when the patient is unable to and has not authorized someone else to.

Among the most important things we learn from Scripture about the nature of marriage is that every wedding involves two funerals. “A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Jesus commented on this verse, “So they are no longer two, but one” (Matthew 19:6). When I officiate at weddings I always point out that from that day forward the people being married are entering into a change in the very essence of their being: no longer will either be himself or herself apart from the other. (I then sign the marriage license, and hope to snag a few crab balls on the way out. They then spend the rest of their lives working that out.)

What surprised me the most about the controversy over the Schiavo case was that the same people who ordinarily defend traditional understandings of marriage — people who in the course of pastoral ministry and teaching emphasize to couples (and their parents) the importance of “leaving and cleaving,” who encourage couples to work out their problems rather than running to their parents, who really do believe that the two become one — were the ones who wanted Terri Schiavo’s parents, rather than her husband, to make decisions about her medical care. No doubt if the roles had been reversed, they’d have been taking loud and strong stands on the right of a husband to make decisions for his disabled spouse, and decrying efforts by the government and her parents to remove the feeding tube.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Terry Schiavo, five years on" »

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Categories: Catholicism, Church and State, Ethics, Guest Posts, Jason Poling, Law and Courts, People, Politics, Science
        

Brent Childers is executive director of Faith In America, a national nonprofit organization founded "to educate Americans about the harm caused when religious teaching is misused to justify prejudice, discrimination and violence against people based solely on their sexual orientation."

If the Texas State Board of Education moves to include mention of Phyllis Schlafly and Jerry Falwell in school textbooks, Faith In America hopes they will document how harmful their anti-gay actions have been to millions of gay and lesbian youth.

The Texas State Board of Education in a 10-5 party line vote approved some controversial alterations to what most students in the state and other areas of the country will be studying as history. After a public comment period, the board will vote on final recommendations in May.

According to an Associated Press story, it would mean not only increased favorable mentions of anti-gay activist Phyllis Schlafly but also more discussion about the anti-gay Moral Majority and Heritage Foundation.

The bigotry, prejudice and violence that has been justified and promoted by these so-called conservative groups has inflicted a horrific toll on the lives of gay and lesbian individuals, especially youth. It's unimaginable that millions of kids across this nation may now be taught that people who espouse and promote religion-based bigotry are to be looked upon as favorable.

History, time and time again, has judged such religion-based bigotry as harmful and unacceptable, whether such bigotry and prejudice was perpetrated toward American Natives, women or African-Americans. Apologies have been issued by the church and others for their role in promoting religion-based bigotry toward a minority group.

I recall how his own past bigotry and prejudice toward gay Americans was fostered and reinforced by Falwell and other anti-gay figures who for years used the religious and political arenas to promote the attitude that it's OK to be prejudiced and hostile toward gay and lesbian individuals.

Continue reading "Guest post: Document harm of anti-gay actions" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

The Anglican pastor and theologian Robert Farrar Capon notes, "Practically the only place where people now sing when they are cold sober is in church; and, to tell the truth, it sounds like it." Truth is, there aren't many places people sing together in any state of inebriation. Watch a European soccer match and you hear partisans lustily singing songs at each other, but here it seems that it's become too much to expect people to put their hands over their hearts at ball games, let alone sing along with the National Anthem. Sure, fans will sing along with their favorite artists at live concerts, but that doesn't really count.

Stop by an Irish bar on St. Patrick's Day, though, and you're in another world. I don't claim to be any sort of expert on the musical genre; I developed a mild appreciation back in college when two friends featured an "Irish Song of the Week" on a radio show otherwise devoted to political talk. While I was working in St. Paul one evening shortly after graduating, my boss handed me a twenty and told me I had to spend the evening somewhere other than the office; at the Half Time in St. Paul I met a duo that called themselves the Irish Brigade. (I didn't know at that point that pretty much every other band playing at Irish bars goes by that name as well.) Sean and Mike were either true Irishmen from Cork or able to sustain a convincing accent between sets as well as behind the microphone.

One evening I gave them a mix tape I'd put together featuring a mess of obscure singer-songwriters they'd never heard of but I thought they'd like. Apparently they thought I was the one on the tape, because the next time I saw them they asked me to play through a break between sets that weekend. I did so Friday night. I was not invited back on Saturday.

Still, every year as St. Patrick's Day approaches I dig out an old collection of Irish drinking songs entitled "Irish Drinking Songs" and spend a happy few days whistling "All For Me Grog" until my wife tells me to stop.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Thank God for St. Patrick's Day, Part II" »

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Categories: Christianity, Culture, Guest Posts, Jason Poling
        

The Rev. Jason Poling is the Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Those of us in the clergy have a strained relationship with the holidays enjoyed by the rest of our neighbors. Christmas for me is the day I recover from staying up late assembling Christmas presents after getting home from the midnight Christmas Eve service. Easter is the day I get up early to throw lamb in the oven so that after preaching I can serve it to several dozen international students, then go home and collapse. Thanks to an ill-considered dalliance with campaign politics in my youth I always associate July 4th with an all-day sweat earned by running up and down parade routes handing out stickers and candy. Even my birthday is usually a disappointment, falling as it does in the middle of December when nobody, including me, has time or mental bandwidth for anything but the demands of the holiday season.

So when my kids asked me last week what my favorite holiday was, I was glad to have St. Patrick’s Day coming up right around the bend. What’s not to like? I do have a wee bit of Irish ancestry on my father’s father’s mother’s side, not that any of us really needs it to celebrate March 17th. Like St. Patrick himself, I’m a good Trinitarian, so I offer my fellow In Good Faith readers these three points of appreciation. I begin with the fare.

The first beer I drank outside of a college dormitory was enjoyed at an Irish pub in Washington, DC after some friends and I had made the trek from New England to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Sitting with a pint in one hand and a cigarette in the other, I felt very grown up as I assaulted my senses with dark, rich smells and flavors. At the time I wasn’t aware that Guinness is actually less alcoholic than the keg swill to which I had grown too quickly accustomed; I just knew that it was a beverage that demanded respect, if not a knife and fork.

Since that day I have had Guinness in innumerable cities, from the sacrilegious joint in San Antonio that served it in a frosted mug to the “English Pub” at Epcot where I was allowed to repair while my wife chaperoned her youth orchestra around Disney World. Invariably I find my fellow Guinness drinkers to be a genial lot, whether they be introverts or extroverts (or progress from one to the other after a few pints). Three months out of college, having fled to St. Paul to avoid the embarrassment of an involuntary separation from my employer in Baltimore, I found solace and fellowship in a few pints and a few games of pool (and indigestion in the White Castle burgers I threw down on the way home).

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Thank God for St. Patrick's Day, Part I" »

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Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, a policy scholar at the the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, is a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States.

Have the military operations in South Waziristan, other tribal areas and Swat helped to create a strategic moment in the country’s struggle against militants? Will 2010 be decisive in reversing the tide of militancy after a deadly year that saw a record number of terrorist attacks and killings? Has military action scattered the local Taliban or irrevocably weakened the movement?

There are no easy answers to these questions in a fluid and fraught situation gravely affected by border volatility that is being heightened by the escalating war in Afghanistan. The consolidation of gains made by military offensives will depend on overcoming a sobering number of hurdles and resolving critical governance issues. This means a greater role for political rather than military actors in the transition to the post-conflict phase.

Militancy has been dealt a lethal blow but one that is not fatal yet. The necessary though not sufficient conditions have been created to turn the tide. The loss within six months of two leaders – Baitullah and Hakeemullah Mehsud – has left the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in confusion and disarray. The assault on the TTP stronghold in South Waziristan has degraded the organization’s capability. But its continued ability to strike in the mainland suggests it has more than just a residual capacity and is using its connection with other groups to orchestrate the attacks.

Among the daunting tasks ahead are to dismantle the militants’ ‘syndicate’ that remains intact, disrupt its supply line and flow of financial resources – which are also intact, and destroy its intelligence ‘assets’. Also critical is to halt the flow of recruits into the ranks of the Pakistani Taliban, even though this has been affected by its loss of physical space. That the threat may be becoming more dispersed is indicated by the nexus the TTP has established over time with proscribed organizations or their splinters beyond FATA.

Continue reading "Guest post: Turning the tide of militancy" »

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Apologies, real and imagined, Part III

The Rev. Jason Poling is Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Now that’s what I call an apology.

No "I deeply regret that the citizens of Baltimore have had to go through this ordeal with me," no sideways allusions to a prayer of confession for “any words or deeds of mine that may have” stigmatized Israel. This was the real thing.

In brief: All of you have every right to be mad at me, because I screwed up. I hurt a lot of people in a lot of ways, and I’m sorry. Nobody else is to blame for this pickle that I’m in. It’s my fault, and I’m sorry. I’m embarrassed, as I ought to be. So I’m taking responsibility for my actions, I’m doing what I need to do to try to fix what I’ve broken, and I’m doing so even though I don’t know if I’ll succeed. I know I need help and I’m getting it, as in right now, so I’m leaving to get more help. I’ll see you when I see you.

Some found Woods’ apology a bit too thorough — "the best words ... money could buy," as David Zurawik put it. Clearly his statement was not scribbled on the back of an envelope on the limo ride over; it reflected what must have been a long and arduous editing process. Woods had a lot to say, and his transitions between topics were often anything but smooth. No doubt there were times when he said (as all of us who’ve done any writing have done), “Well, I gotta have this in there and this is as good a place as any to put it.”

Was Woods’ apology ghost-written? One can only hope that the people with whom he has been working had a hand in coaching Woods on his apology. It was not by surrounding himself with people who had permission to speak into his life that Woods entered into a pattern of betrayal. The “money and fame” that made it easy for him to go after those “temptations” to which he felt “entitled” also made it easy for him to insulate himself from criticism.

But his statement bears every mark of being a painfully and personally wrought stake in the ground that is and will continue to be significant as a declaration of his understanding of the causes and results of his behavior, and his intentions to amend it. Certainly it is the product of the work he has been doing in rehab, and a frank posturing of himself as someone who is still very much in recovery. (And it was admirably frank without being inappropriate for something being broadcast live at 11:00 am.)

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Tiger, Tiger, shame burning bright" »

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Categories: Christianity, Culture, Ethics, Guest Posts, Jason Poling, People
        

Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. He left his native Pakistan in 1972 and has been living in the United States since 1980.

The capture of throat-slitting murderer Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, enforcer of Sharia and all things Islam, is great news for the people of Pakistan and the war in Afghanistan.

His arrest in Karachi confirms that Pakistan’s religious institutions have become safe heavens for these murderers. It is only natural for a mullah to support a fellow mullah in distress.

Pakistan's civil society must rise and identify Taliban and other extremist murderers living behind the veil of religion.

The name of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad – “the house of Islam” – was decided in early 1959, when there was no Sharia/ Hadood ordinance and not a single madrassa in Pakistan. Born as India's twin following British withdrawal from the Subcontinent, Pakistan was envisaged by its founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah as a separate land for Muslims; a modern state with complete freedom of religion. He never envisioned a theocratic state.

However, America's war against the Soviets, financed in part by the newly oil-rich and theocratic Saudi Arabia, facilitated the imposition of Sharia laws by a military dictator.
It is no coincidence that Taliban leaders educated at Madrassas in Pakistan take the title of mullah and will always find a safe house in religious institutions scattered all over Pakistan.

The religious establishment derives its relevance from the Hadood ordinance, which promises to one day establish an Islamic caliphate under a mullah.

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Apologies, real and imagined, Part II

The Rev. Jason Poling is the pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

On Wednesday we Christians begin the season of Lent. Starting with Ash Wednesday, we enter into a time of reflection, of self-examination, of confession, of penitence.

Or at least some of us do. Some are so put off by religious rigmarole that they will have no part of irrelevant rituals. Others think themselves above this sort of morbid negativism; they could not imagine singing along with Augustus Toplady’s classic hymn “Rock of Ages:”

Nothing in my hand I bring
Simply to the cross I cling
Naked, come to thee for dress
Helpless, look to thee for grace
Foul I to the fountain fly
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

Naked? Helpless? Foul? No, they say, I don’t think I’m that bad off. I’m not the best person, but I’m pretty good, and I don’t think I really need anybody else’s help.

But traditionally the Church has taken quite a different view: We are sinful from birth, we are sinful by our own choices, we are sinful by ingrained habit and that’s no surprise since everyone around us is too. We live in a world where the effects of sin are seen all around us, where the very institutions that sustain us are thoroughly shot through with human frailty at best, Infernal evil at worst.

As the great 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it, “Religion is very easily used to obscure rather than to reveal the primitive forces which control so much of human nature. Religion without a constantly replenished force of penitence easily becomes a romance which brutal men use to hide the real sources of their actions from themselves and from others.”

Therefore our church, like many others, will begin Lent with an Ash Wednesday service during which we will be reminded that we are dust, and to dust we will return. We will wear ashes on our foreheads as a reminder of our mortality. Mindful of the fact that our life is but a vapor, we will confess to God and to one another that when it comes to examining our consciences during the six weeks of Lent none of us will run out of material that ought to provoke repentance.

Of course, Christianity is not the only religion to focus the attention of devout on the reality of human depravity (original sin being, in the words of the great Roman Catholic apologist G. K. Chesterton “the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved” by the obvious reality of human experience). Our Jewish neighbors recite during Yom Kippur (day of atonement) services the Al Het, a prayer of confession arranged in acrostic format so as to accomplish the work of admitting sins “from A to Z.”

The Al Het is an impressive piece of liturgical work. In the Book of Common Prayer, we Christians are led to confess “that we have sinned by our own fault, in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.” Oftentimes we will allow for a period of silent confession after mentioning a few specifics. But in the Al Het the worshipper begs God’s forgiveness for “the sin we have sinned before You under duress or freewill, and for the sin we have sinned before You in hardness of heart” — and then likewise for 22 other pairs of sins.

So I was struck by the news that during Chanukah Jimmy Carter had offered an Al Het. President Carter has been an outspoken critic of Israel, and has been accused of anti-Semitism by many not ordinarily prone to throwing such a term around lightly. Most recently, his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid drew a furious response from Jewish leaders in Israel and America for likening the government of Israel to the racist government of South Africa under the National Party.

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. He left his native Pakistan in 1972 and has been living in the United States since 1980.

Infusing religion and nationalism can produce a people totally obsessed with their relgious identity. Many Muslim countries are suffering from the effects of this combination.

Religion of every denomination provides us hope and solace in moments of despair. However, whenever religion becomes the rallying cry of a nation’s system of government, it can easily become a tool for suppression of minorities and result in fascist states.

Imagine the United States and Europe declaring themselves Christian republics, with orthodox Christianity of the inquisition era enforced by the state. I think the Muslims of Europe and the United States, with populations of 37 million and more than 6 million, along with the Jews would find life a living hell.

The developed democracies and economies of Europe have experienced persecution under religion during the inquisition and learned from it. People were burned at the stake, thrown into burning oil and decapitated, all in the name of religion.

While the West has successfully reined in the power of religion after centuries of conflict and bloodshed by removing the state from the enforcement of religious beliefs, the Muslim world has been unable to accomplish this. Only Turkey has succeeded in some measure in its endeavor to join the common market.

Continue reading "Guest post: Religious law hinders Muslim countries" »

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Apologies, real and imagined, Part I

The Rev. Jason Poling is the pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Our long metropolitan nightmare is nearly over. Today marks not only the first day of a new administration in City Hall but the last day of the old one. Practically speaking, Sheila Dixon’s ability to exercise real power as Mayor ended with the announcement that a jury of her peers had found her guilty of misappropriating gift cards. But today the formal reins of power will be transferred to Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. The apostle Paul wrote to his lieutenant Timothy that “first of all, I urge that prayers be offered for kings and all those in authority,” words that all of us living in or near Baltimore would do well to heed.

But in many respects the more important terminal time for Sheila Dixon is not noon, when her successor will be sworn in, but 9:00, when she will be formally sentenced according to the plea agreement reached with prosecutors. Wednesday’s Sun carried an op-ed by Dixon that was remarkable only for its resolute refusal to take note of the elephant in the living room. There is nothing at all unusual about politicians singing their own praises and boasting of their accomplishments, but in the present context it had the feel of Tiger Woods telling his wife about the great putts he made on the tour last year.

Arising from Dixon’s conviction was the strong sense among virtually all constituencies that she owed the city an apology. Yet shortly after the jury’s verdict was announced in early December she offered a statement that bore only a faint resemblance to one: “I deeply regret,” she said, “that the citizens of Baltimore have had to go through this ordeal with me.”

She expressed regret, but she did not express any remorse for the ways in which her own ethical failings had put “the citizens of Baltimore” in the position where they “had to go through this ordeal.” You can regret all sorts of things without owning any personal responsibility for them — I will say, “I’m sorry” to someone whose pet has died, but we both know that I’m expressing sympathy rather than admitting guilt. But to express regret when remorse is in order…well, that’s basically saying that you’re sorry not for what you did but for getting caught doing it.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Regret, but no apparent remorse" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

It’s been said that if you give an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters an infinite amount of time they will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. Then again, this scenario may explain the genesis of the blogosphere.

There’s a basic principle to keeping blogs healthy: Don’t feed the trolls. Every blog has them, the people who delight in vituperative attacks on others (known as “flaming”), obnoxiously long screeds, and monopolizing the virtual conversation. But if you engage the actual content of his remarks, you will find yourself sucked into a black hole of back-and-forth posts involving bad logic, worse grammar and endless frustration. It’s a lot like arguing with a four-year-old: the minute you start, you’ve lost, because in doing so you have effectively declared that a rational adult ought to seriously debate the merits of sleeping under all of the blankets in the closet sorted first by color then by texture.

But there is a remedy: the universal shorthand “Dude, STFU” which translates to “Kindly be quiet.” This treatment, which only works if applied sparingly, essentially declares: “What you are saying makes absolutely no sense. Nothing good will come of discussing it with you. You’re annoying everyone on this blog. So cut it out.” Such an approach steadfastly and resolutely refuses to reason with the unreasonable, to join a battle of wits with the unarmed, to punch the tar baby.

Much the same principle applies to the outlying voices in our media landscape. There may have been some gaps in my seminary education, for I cannot begin to fathom how I might evaluate Pat Robertson’s claim that the entire nation of Haiti in the course of its battle for independence made a pact with the devil. What would be the text of such a pact? Would everyone in the nation need to agree to it? Every adult? A majority, or perhaps a super-majority? Would it need to be signed in blood? The mind boggles.

In much the same way, I have difficulty finding handles with which I might begin to grapple with other ideas promoted by Robertson: that Hurricane Katrina constituted an exercise of God’s wrath against New Orleans for its wickedness, or that 9/11 happened when God withdrew his protection from America when some obscure ACLU lawsuit was filed somewhere that morning and he decided he had simply had enough.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: A message for Pat Robertson" »

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. A native of Pakistan, he arrived in the United States in 1980.

We cannot name one country with Islamic laws that is a functioning democracy or a benchmark for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness except Turkey.

Muslim majority countries such as Pakistan have a history of thousands of years of customs and folklore shared with India that already plays havoc with the largely uneducated population in the rural areas. Unofficial patriarchal village juries made up of illiterate villagers will hand out and execute primitive punishments along the lines of a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye. Add to this outdated Islamic laws and punishments for, for example, adultery, blasphemy and women’s rights and you have created a living hell for women and minorities.

Because of the Islamization in Pakistan, carried out behind the veil of training Mujahedeen to fight the Soviet infidel, Pakistan has a large number of Madrassas and religious charities that share and support Saudi Arabia’s brand of Orthodox Islam. This was on display during the Lal-Masjid standoff against the Pakistan army in July 2007. These Madrassas and charities openly support the Taliban and al Qaida. It is interesting to note that a majority of the terrorists in prison have received their training in Pakistan.

The recent unrest in Malaysia over the use of the name “Allah” by Christians when referring to God has more to do with fear over losing members of the congregation to the Christian church than to Muslim sensibilities. Separate Sharia laws for Muslims, who make up 60 percent of the population, could open doors for al Qaida types to make inroads into Malaysia’s Muslim population.

The conflict in interpretation between the bible and the Quran over the holy trinity and the oneness of God as stated in the Quran is exploited by Muslim clerics to foment prejudice against Christians. It is clearly stated in the Quran that there is no compulsion in religion and that there must be complete freedom of religion. Muslims Jews and Christians are all children of Abraham and people of the book. A believing Muslim must submit to the will of God. It is God’s will that decides our religion at birth.

Continue reading "Guest post: Sharia laws have become a weapon" »

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In the months since we started In Good Faith, we've attracted readers and commenters from all over the world. Ties to the Baltimore area will be helpful in spotting some familiar faces in the video above (the list appears at the end).

I wanted to take a moment to say a sincere thank you to all who have stopped by, and particularly to those who have joined in the spirited debate taking shape on these pages. During this holiday season, we wish the very best to everyone of every faith, and no faith at all.

I expect to be posting only lightly over the next few days as I take time off to spend with my family. As my father would say: Talk amongst yourselves.

Best,
Matt

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. He left his native Pakistan in 1972 and has been living in the United States since 1980.

Gamal al Banna, a brother of the founder of Egypt’s Ikhwan al Muslimun -- the Muslim Brotherhood -- says “the veil is not an Islamic tradition, but a pre-Islamic one, when Arab women covered their heads and left the upper parts of their chest uncovered.” He thinks the relevant Quranic verse commands women to cover their chests, not necessarily their heads.

Unfortantely, the Arab world has gone where the Saudi conservatives wanted it to go. Nasserism in Egypt was followed by veiled female students at Al Azhar University in Cairo demanding the imposition of Shariah, and soon there were youths belonging to Gamaa Islamiyya willing to thrash women who refused to veil themselves in public. When the Arabs came to Afghanistan in 1996 to fight for the Taliban, the call for “true Islam” was already a slogan that was heard loud and clear in Pakistan. Ironically, “true Islam” usually applies to women and had begun spreading with General Zia’s Hudood Ordinance, ordaining that women anchors and announcers on PTV cover their heads. But the ulema on the right of Zia wanted more. In fact they wanted nothing short of a “shuttlecock”, a brutally punitive covering that renders women half blind.

Pakistan was reluctant to take the veil because of the embarrassing fact that Fatima Jinnah, sister of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Begum Liaquat Ali Khan were national icons without the veil. But the order of the Taliban affected many parts of the country nonetheless. After a few incidents on The Mall in Lahore, religious seminarians found that it was no use threatening Pakistani women to take the veil if the government was not willing and the Constitution allowed a woman to become head of government and state. But the environment was scary enough to force Benazir Bhutto to start fingering beads in public and Hasina Wajid of Bangladesh to wear a pious head-band. The Taliban whipped unveiled women in Kabul, but could not do so in Mazar-e-Sharif. When foreign-inspired Islamists began beating up unveiled women in the Ferghana Valley in Central Asia, no one really took them seriously. Neither Bangladesh nor Indonesia could have dreamed 20 years ago that there would be violence against unveiled women. Funnily, today the Pattani Muslims of southern Thailand -- “revived” after their leader paid a visit to Saudi Arabia -- proudly display prescriptive photos of a complete head-to-foot covering for women in a climate that is sure to suffocate them to death.

Bengali Muslim women complain that Bangladesh is falling under the interpretation by Maulana Maududi of a Quranic edict of the strict veil that was actually meant only for the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and that too in a specific case. To impose the veil, a country needs theocratic rule, but theocracy doesn’t tend to last, as happened in Afghanistan. In Iran, where it survives, an imposed veil awaits the day of release. In Turkey, which punishes women who take the veil, at least one Islamic party went around illegally punishing unveiled women in cities where it had won the local elections. But today the Islamic party in government wants to join Europe where France disallows the veil as part of its cultural policy. If Turkey joins the European Union, the Shariah will go, together with the veil and an interfering army!

By choosing the veil as a battlefront, the clergy has made a fatal mistake in the Islamic world. This is a battle it can never win because no one agrees on the nature of the veil prescribed by Islam.

AP photo

Continue reading "Guest post: The veil holds Muslim women back" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is the Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

I wouldn’t describe myself as a Disney fan, in much the same way that I wouldn’t describe Bob Ehrlich as a Martin O’Malley fan. But I was deeply impressed by The Princess and the Frog.

It wasn’t the animation, though having been exposed to far too many of Disney’s “dreck-to-video” offerings it was a pleasure to see an animated film produced with such care. Nor was it the story, with its predictable Disney-esque plotlines. It wasn’t even the brilliant minor comic figures, though they were outstanding: one of the virtues of animation is that characters may be literally overdrawn, achieving comic effect that would be tiresome in a formulaic live-action movie. (So that I don’t spoil anything for folks who haven’t seen the movie, let’s just say that the show was stolen by a firefly named Ray who could have been the love child of Sir Mix-A-Lot, Thomas Edison and the Cavity Creeps.)

No, I was most impressed by the quality of the film that will no doubt emerge as the most controversial: the spiritual. And I don’t mean spiritual in the “believe in yourself” sense that pervades so much of the Disney cosmology; this film features real-live demonic activity and otherworldly malevolence that deserves a G rating as much as the original (un-Victorianized) Grimm tales do.

The villain in The Princess and the Frog is, like every Disney villain, rotten to the core: egotistical, manipulative, deceitful and power-hungry. Yet while Dr. Facilier exhibits enough nastiness to frighten Disney’s core audience, what strikes real terror into the hearts of men is his shadow side …literally. We see on the screen not merely Dr. Facilier but what my Jewish friends would call his yetzer hara, the evil essence of his soul, portrayed as a shadow that manifests the true intentions behind his sneering grin.

Photo courtesy of Disney

Continue reading "Jason Poling: The princess, the frog and the demonic" »

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Christianity, Culture, Evangelicalsm, Guest Posts, Jason Poling
        

Maher Kharma is president of the Islamic Society of Annapolis.

Living in America, people came to realize one great thing that entices them to favor life in America over other places: the prevalence of the law of the land. When many countries around the world suffer corruption, bribery, inefficiency, the citizens of union see the super power of the law to be a protective gatekeeper of their rights, and a source of guidance that they can use when they go around taking care of their earthly business.

The dialogue that has erupted following the rise of the billboards carrying the statement “Are you good without God? Millions are,” has led many to think about the role that religion plays in our lives, and even to think if faith has a role in it. In looking back at the three Abrahamic religions, many commonalities arise: the claim of the followers that those religions are divine, moral-based systems, and a vehicle that followers are to use in order to secure peace of mind after death.

In recalling a recent discussion with a friend, he spoke about the days when people had to travel across the country without using maps or GPS systems. Thousands of miles of roads lay ahead of a traveler, from which one has to choose the one correct direction. Now, thanks to available technology, traveling has become much more convenient as it is no more a hit-or-miss kind of an experience. In the same manner, religions are intended to provide a road map for life. While humans do not land on earth with a manual, the manufacturer of humans provided the holy books to assure success and continuity of humankind in best possible format.

In attempting to encompass what religions provide humanity, it appears that much of known faith-based scriptures are intended to act as a platform for clarifying the rights of people on one another, obligations and responsibilities towards others, towards their wealth, life, intellect, as well as towards the most sacred resource humanity has, environment.

Continue reading "Guest post: God or no God" »

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Ed Buckner is president of American Atheists, Inc.

Claims abound that both Thanksgiving and Christmas are Christian in origin, but in fact both are grounded in non-Christian ideas and rituals that the churches have co-opted for their own purposes.

CHRISTMAS. Christianity is not the first, nor even the tenth religion to co-opt the Winter Solstice as their own holiday. For example, the Pagan festival of Yule (as in 'Yuletide') was a celebrated winter event centuries before Jesus' alleged birth. Indeed, nearly every tradition currently associated with Christmas has non-Christian roots. As an educational organization, American Atheists urges all Christians to ask their ministers why December 25 was chosen to celebrate Jesus' birth (enjoy the hemming and hawing).

WINTER SOLSTICE, The celestial event that started it all has been measured and celebrated since man first looked up. The solstice affects all life on earth, and the human traditions surrounding it are rich and plentiful. While Christmas is a Christian holiday, the Solstice is the real 'reason for the season', and it belongs to everyone.

A small, well-funded, and vocal minority of Christians are unhappy with the fact that their holiday has not totally eclipsed all others. They want all other celebrations squashed out, in an effort to make the season uniquely Christian, and organize protests and boycotts against any company which promotes an all-encompassing tolerant attitude ("Happy Holidays" vs "Merry Christmas"). American Atheists acknowledges that such views are only shared by an ignorant and bigoted minority of Christians, but at the same time we look to the more tolerant Christians to quell this attitude. As it is with Islam, the health and growth of Christianity depends on those within the church.

Atheists and others who demand strict separation of church and state seek only to prevent government agents from deciding, for anyone, whether or how to celebrate the season. The multitude of seasonal celebrations underscores the importance of the government's neutrality.

Atheists enjoy parties, celebrations, presents, and life. To those who celebrate America's diversity, we extend our heartfelt wishes for a wonderful season. To those who selfishly try to claim the whole season as their own, we wish a lousy one.

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Dr. Chris A. Brammer is pastor of Hampstead Baptist Church.

In the 1960’s there was a young school boy who refused to read the Bible in a classroom in a Baltimore public school. Rather than taking his turn to read the Bible, he threw the Bible out the window. Later in life, this self-proclaimed atheist had a change of mind and a change of heart. We had him speak at our church in 1993 to an overflow crowd.

Having personal knowledge of this man’s experience, I am not alarmed at the “new” atheism that is promoted by men such as Victor Stenger in his book, "The New Atheism," or Christopher Hitchens in "God Is Not Great." However, I am concerned about the promotion as to how it will damage young people who are seriously looking for answers and direction regarding life and eternity.

If the Baltimore Coalition of Reason wishes to have an affirmative answer to their question they will need to rephrase their thesis. Their question that is literally put before us is, “Are you good without God? Millions are.”

I would first need to ask, does anyone really know a million people, let alone know them all well enough to know that they are good people? We are not saying that they don’t do good things, but are they good people without God? Many good things have been done for selfish, self-serving, self-centered motives. These motives would certainly discredit any person’s good deeds from contributing to a reputation of being a good person; actually this person could be considered wicked -- for the religious or non-religious thinking person.

The question they should ask is, “Can you be good without believing in God?” The answer to that is an obvious yes. However, that does not mean that a person is good without God. This simply states that the good person doesn’t believe in God.

Continue reading "Guest post: Goodness without God?" »

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Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

Nofrat Frenkel made the news two weeks ago -- by getting herself arrested. In violation of an Israeli court order, she took out a Torah scroll in the area of the Western Wall consecrated for women's prayer, and prepared to read it.

Why is such an apparently benign, religious act against the law, worthy of arrest? When it isn't a religious act at all, but rather a political one, aimed to disrupt the prayers of those around her and to confront them with her agenda.

Frenkel begins her essay by speaking movingly, poetically, about the fervent religious sentiment of those praying at the Western Wall. She presents her case as if her wish were merely to join them. "The atmosphere at the Kotel, the feeling that all those women praying around me were also turning to G-d and pouring out their hearts to Him, inspires me with the joy of Jewish fraternity. Here is one place in which, shoulder to shoulder, all the hearts are calling to G-d."

Eventually, though, she exposes her true colors. "The Kotel," she writes, "is not a Haredi synagogue, and the Women of the Wall will not allow it to become such" [emphasis added]. In other words, she was not there to join sincere and pious women in universal Jewish fraternity, but to participate in a tiny group whose goal was to confront those sincere and pious women with their political message, and to deny them their place of traditional worship. She demonstrates a complete lack of the very "tolerance" for which she begs -- and inverts every relevant fact in order to make her argument.

Continue reading "Guest Post: The right to disrupt your prayers" »

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Attorney, author and professor David Neipert, a senior Fulbright scholar in law, is a former associate professor of international business at Belmont Abbey College.

It has been nearly two years since we asked EEOC to review Belmont Abbey College's policy on contraception and EEOC still has not issued a ruling on the matter. I considered responding to Rabbi Menken's last post but I would prefer to just wait and see how the matter resolves with EEOC.

I received an email critical of the Catholic church from a former student and have been reflecting on the overall picture and my decision to leave Belmont Abbey. I no longer want to be a part of that College but harbor no ill will towards the faith. There are enlightened Catholics who sponsored the voyages that discovered the world, made great breakthroughs in science (Gregor Mendel for example), and operate wonderful charities. For most of its history BAC was striving to be in that category and we were very proud to be part of it.

There is also an intolerant minority of Catholics who concentrate on rigid dogma rather than Christian behavior and smear any critic of the church. BAC seemed to be moving in that direction and so I quit.

Yet I cannot generalize. I once taught at the National University in Macedonia and lived only a few blocks from where Mother Teresa was born. Studying her life I have been inspired. Her example exists everywhere in the world where Catholics are. You can find the very best of Catholicism right across the highway from Belmont Abbey College. There the Catholic Sisters of Mercy have a hospital where they work with the horribly deformed children that almost nobody wants. They don't noisily claim to be "authentic" or conduct a nationwide publicity campaign; they just do god's work as best they can quietly every day. They have contraceptives in the health plan for their employees who want them and don't try to force their practices on anyone. They don't try to raise money by claiming to be defending religious freedom though they surely could use some funding. I suppose by Belmont Abbey College's definition of what is a proper Catholic the sisters are all bound straight for Hell because they pay for birth control pills, but I doubt that.

Continue reading "Guest post: Return to Belmont Abbey" »

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The last time our friend Christopher J. Doucot spoke at an Episcopal church was in 2004. He had just returned from Iraq, and gave what he describes as a “somewhat forceful sermon” critical of the U.S.-led invasion there.

A graduate of Yale Divinity School, a founding member of the Hartford Catholic Worker, and an instructor in sociology at Central Connecticut State University, Chris was told to keep it upbeat on Sunday -- All Saints' Day -- when he is scheduled to speak at St. James Episcopal Church in West Hartford, Conn.

When I was a kid, my understanding of the saints was that they were something like the cartoon superheroes I watched on Saturday mornings. They could fly, endure great suffering, go years without eating and heal people by praying over them. They were not real people.

As I got older, I began to see various athletes from Boston's professional sports teams as saintly – if not saints in the making. Carl Yaztremski of the Red Sox was the patron of the lost cause who never gave up. Terry O'Reilly of the Boston Bruins was the defender of the meek. He spent hours in the penalty box for busting the noses of any player from the opposing team who got in Wayne Cashman's way. Unfortunately, O'Reilly didn't confine his bellicosity to the ice. Once, in 1979, he climbed into the stands of Madison Square Garden to beat a New York Ragners fan with his own shoe.

Continue reading "Guest post: The vision of the saints" »

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. He left his native Pakistan in 1972 and has been living in the United States since 1980.

As a Pakistani American, I feel obligated to serve the United States in fighting terrorism through development and institution building. Allow me to offer my suggestions on controlling the Taliban/Extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Taliban Background: Who are the Taliban?

They are a byproduct of the Soviet war thirty years ago and received their training in Pakistani madrassas. The Taliban are igniting nationalist passions amongst the uneducated citizens of Afghanistan to stand up and fight outsiders -- read the United States, NATO and the Pakistani and Afghan governments.

The Taliban and Muslim extremists share their ideology with the orthodox brand of Islam practiced today in Saudi Arabia. Sharia/Hadood laws are the backbone of Taliban Ideology. The enforcement of these laws and setting up a government with a spiritual head/Caliph/Khomeni is the goal of these mad zealots. They would like to go back 1400 years and eat “Manna” for dinner.

Supported by drug-money and thugs, the Taliban are not as simple and ordinary as they appear. They have taken a leaf from the Inquisition in Christianity and use fear and public humiliation at the end of a gun to enforce their brand of made-up Islam.

While controlling Swat, these crooks used Robin Hood tactics by seizing land from wealthy owners and giving it away to poor tenants. Of course, the land was never theirs to give away in the first place, but through this fraudulent move they were able to convince some locals.

Pakistan’s involvement in the Soviet war allowed Pakistan’s military dictator Zia-ul-Haq the room to Islamicize Pakistan through fake referendums and, in the process, destroyed Pakistan’s secular character. This Islamicization process has been allowed to continue to this day, notwithstanding General Musharaf’s fake enlightened moderation slogan.

Please note: A Taliban-controlled Afghanistan cannot survive without support from extremist sympathizers in Pakistan.

How do we counter this?

Continue reading "Guest Post: Getting rid of the Taliban cancer" »

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Guest Posts, International, Islam, Politics
        

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

I am honored that Professor David Neipert, one of the faculty members who initiated the EEOC complaint against Belmont Abbey College, saw fit to respond to my earlier article on this topic. Given his personal involvement in this case, it is obvious that he begins with a far greater knowledge of its particulars, and I appreciate his sharing his perspective of the facts.

Here are the key points that he has made, to the best of my understanding:

1. The status of Belmont Abbey College as a religious institution is questionable. This is buttressed by the fact that the college "advertised itself as an equal opportunity employer and freely accepted funding that was not available to religious institutions." Additionally, the majority of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni are not Catholic.

2. The college offered coverage for these services for 26 years, "indicating that this was a change of a deliberate policy." It was then done immediately, unilaterally, and without discussion, and the college refused to negotiate.

3. It is not the eight faculty members, but the school, that is attacking religious freedom. "Forcing us to abide by a Catholic approved health plan makes no more sense than prohibiting a Catholic plumber from eating a Pork sandwich for lunch if he works at a Jewish hospital." Professor Neipert was assured that he would "not be expected to adopt Catholic practices and that not being Catholic would not affect my career in any way."

Let us address each of these in turn.

Continue reading "Guest post: Belmont Abbey, continued" »

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Attorney, author and professor David Neipert, a senior Fulbright scholar in law, is a former associate professor of international business at Belmont Abbey College.

I am one of the faculty members who asked the EEOC to review Belmont Abbey College’s policy on contraception. I write in response to the guest post of Oct. 15 by Rabbi Yaakov Menken ("Watch this case").

In the first paragraph Rabbi Menken states that Belmont Abbey College "is, without question, a religious institution, guided by the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church." In fact Belmont Abbey College has never been a particularly religious institution. The majority of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni are not Catholic. When I was hired I was assured by the then president, division head, and department chair that I would not be expected to adopt Catholic practices and that not being Catholic would not affect my career in any way. Without this assurance I would not have taken the job. The college then advertised itself as an equal opportunity employer and freely accepted funding that was not available to religious institutions. In fact the college actually went to the federal court of appeals arguing that it was not religious in order to obtain state funding. You can read the case yourself in any law library or lawyer’s office at 429 F. Supp 871. Does a truly religious institution deny that it is religious to obtain money?

Before the event made the subject of Rabbi Menken’s column the college had offered prescription contraceptives as part of its health plan for 26 years indicating that this was a change of a deliberate policy, not the correction of a casual mistake.

In the second paragraph Rabbi Menken states that, upon discovering that the college health plan covered abortion, sterilization, and contraception "William Thierfelder, immediately altered the plan." This is true and the plan was altered even though the faculty had already been through its benefits enrollment process and the college was contractually obligated to fulfill its written agreement to provide the benefits it promised for the rest of the school year. The proper time to make changes would have been at the next annual enrollment but the college chose not to provide the benefits. College procedure was for any change in employee benefits to be made in consultation with the staff and faculty welfare committees. This was not done. However, there was no move among the faculty and staff to restore the abortion or sterilization benefits. Many, however, wanted the college to reconsider the decision with regard to contraceptives. The overwhelming majority of employees, including the Catholics had no problem with them and had signed up to receive them at the invitation of the college only a few weeks earlier.

Continue reading "Guest post: Another view on Belmont Abbey" »

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Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

Belmont Abbey College is a small Catholic liberal arts college in North Carolina, serving nearly 1500 students. It was founded in 1876 by the monks of the Belmont Abbey, a monastery of the Benedictine Order. The school mission is "to educate students in the liberal arts and sciences so that in all things G-d may be glorified." It is, without question, a religious institution, guided by the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2007, the College discovered that its employee health benefits plan inadvertently included coverage for abortion, contraception, and voluntary sterilization. The college president, William Thierfelder, immediately altered the plan, declaring that the school "is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church." And at that point, several members of the faculty went running to the EEOC, charging "discrimination."

If you think that government agencies take the First Amendment seriously, you should pay close attention to this case. In March, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismissed the charge, stating that it was "unable to conclude" that the statutes had been violated. But then, in July, the District Director of the EEOC reversed course, and claimed that Belmont Abbey is discriminating against its employees. Why? The following is an unaltered quote: "By denying prescription contraceptive drugs, Respondent is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral contraceptives. By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women."

It is somewhat bizarre that the EEOC did not similarly refer to the lack of abortion coverage as "discrimination," since it is equally true that only females obtain abortions. But this is the least of the evidence that this is little more than an attack on religious freedom, using whatever spurious reasons might be found.

Continue reading "Guest post: Watch this case" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is the pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

For all the agonizing people do over theoretical ethical quandaries, few of us are likely often to find ourselves in genuine ethical dilemmas. Sure, we find ourselves in dilemmas, but our choice is usually between doing the right (but difficult, painful and/or costly) thing and taking a seemingly easier way out. Many of the dilemmas we encounter are self-inflicted: a husband looks at pornography and then must decide between confessing it to his wife (thus making her feel violated) or not (thus hiding something from her). We’re in a bad spot, but we put ourselves there, and we have ourselves to blame for having to lie in the bed we made.

The truly wrenching dilemmas, though, are the ones that are brought upon us by others. You see the neighbor kid smoking dope: Do you tell her parents? A coworker speaks abusively to you in a meeting: Do you object? A preacher delivers a sermon you know was cribbed from somebody else’s: Do you blow the whistle? In every case there are uncomfortable practical implications to either choice, and you’re aware that whatever path you choose will have negative consequences for you personally, but you have to choose. Even if you want very much to do the right thing, even if you work hard to keep your own interests from coloring your decision, it’s not easy. Beyond the harm inflicted by the bad behavior itself is the moral burden placed on those in a position to respond to it.

And sometimes you don’t have much time to make a choice. The adrenaline is flowing, the atmosphere is charged, the play is to you and you’ve got to make the call. This seems to have been the case for John Pontolillo, the Johns Hopkins student who encountered Donald Rice in his yard in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

That Mr. Rice was guilty at the very least of trespassing is beyond question; that he was preparing to commit more serious crimes is beyond doubt. “Even burglars,” the Sun editorialized today, “don’t deserve to be killed with a razor-sharp sword.” No, of course not; burglary is not a crime that merits the death penalty in civilized societies. (And in the uncivilized ones I’d still prefer a sharp sword to a dull one, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Facing a dilemma, sword in hand" »

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Categories: Culture, Ethics, Evangelicalsm, Guest Posts, Jason Poling, People, Politics
        

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

For what it's worth, I have never met any of those ensnared in the money-laundering scandal in Deal, NJ and Brooklyn, NY. Nonetheless, it's always embarrassing when you have a scandal involving several rabbis. Clergy are supposed to do better, right?

Of course, you have the defenders coming forward and pointing out that they were trying to help their institutions rather than personal gain, or even doing a favor for a guy who'd fallen on hard times -- only to learn the hard way that he was an FBI informant. All of that will come out in court, and it's pretty unlikely that some of them will see any significant time behind bars.

But all that doesn't matter. Clergy are supposed to do better.

Less than two years ago, there was a similar scandal involving a group of schools and institutions run by a Chassidic Rebbe in California. And he, having pled guilty to significant crimes, will likely begin serving his sentence shortly.

At a hastily-arranged seminar in business ethics early this week, this Rebbe made a surprise appearance. He offered no defenses, no justification for what happened. On the contrary, he admitted that what he did was wrong, what his organizations and people did was wrong, and must never happen again.

And he also took another step forward. He disclosed that together with a team of lawyers and accountants, his institutions had created a compliance plan to ensure that it would never happen again -- that everything done would be completely above board. And he publicly offered to share that plan with others.

Continue reading "Guest post: The financial watchman at the gate" »

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Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

“In the Mix” is the name of a monthly column by Julie Wiener, carried by The New York Jewish Week. Ms. Wiener, who is Jewish, describes herself as “married to a lapsed Catholic -- one who has encouraged me to become more involved in Jewish life.” But in her most recent column, she nonetheless grapples with her own discomfort at the thought of a rabbi entering into a relationship exactly like her own. As she puts it, “there’s something that feels, well, not kosher to me about intermarried rabbis.”

I am tempted to joke that I have been gifted with prophecy for the following prediction, but it is no laughing matter. I do predict that the Hebrew Union College, the rabbinical seminary of Reform Judaism, will be ordaining intermarried Rabbis within the next decade -- and my main concern, in terms of accuracy, is that I’m giving them too much time by half -- but that just stems from common sense and seeing the writing on the wall. To my knowledge, there has yet to be a deviance from Jewish law and tradition concerning which "a debate has swirled in progressive Jewish circles" which has not become normative "progressive" Judaism sooner or later, and usually sooner.

In most cases, the relevant conflict is between traditional Jewish values, and what today's Western society deems the morally superior position. Traditionally, men and women sit separately during prayers, men lead the service, men are rabbis, and homosexuality is prohibited.

In each of those cases, modern Western thought asserts that the contrary position is morally superior, and this becomes the position of liberal Judaism. To my understanding, similar conflicts -- and similar resolutions -- are found in the liberal wings of many other faith communities.

Continue reading "Guest post: The last taboo -- intermarried rabbis" »

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Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

Yesterday found me at the District Court of Maryland, Traffic Division, to fight a parking ticket. We had received a "Warning Notice" for failure to respond to a citation that we had never received, for our van being parked in a Transit Zone, in one of those neighborhoods in which you might be ill-advised to park in the most legal of spaces -- especially after dark, which, according to the time on the notice, it was. Mistakes happen, and the most likely explanation is that the wrong license plate number was transcribed from the citation onto the notice. Besides a compliment from the judge for having a "mean" hat (like many Orthodox Jewish men, I wear a black fedora, which he didn't want me to forget on the bench), he also gave me the Not Guilty verdict I was looking for (benefit of the doubt).

The experience was notable for a few reasons. First and foremost, the judge was (as the previous comments might indicate), very friendly and down to earth, very unpretentious. He was handling "non-incarcerable offenses" (his translation: "the only way you can go to jail is by doing something really dumb in this courtroom"), and was happy to show the friendlier side of the court system. Everyone appealing a ticket seemed to have some justification, and he was happy to give a Not Guilty to, for example, the obviously handicapped woman who was driving the wrong car on the day she was ticketed for using a handicapped spot. "Justice, justice shall you pursue..." but tempered with mercy. I was impressed.

He also told the following story, which happened to take place in the same neighborhood in which we were charged with parking illegally. He walks, he says, through all of Baltimore's neighborhoods, and on a Sunday morning a young man approached him on the otherwise-deserted street corner. "Hey man," he said, "want some weed?"

Continue reading "Guest Post: My day in court" »

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. He left his native Pakistan in 1972 and has been living in the United States since 1980.

At last, the people of Pakistan are convinced that the Taliban are traitors and must be eliminated. Now Pakistan’s elected National Assembly must validate the military action by the Pakistan Army in support of U.S. action. Unless and until the voters' representatives are seen and heard condemning the Taliban by passing a resolution, all action against the Taliban will be seen by many Pakistanis as America's war against terror.

Many lawmakers, especially those from the religious parties and the right, are sitting on the fence when it comes to openly condemning the mad Taliban. They see the National Assembly as a rubber-stamp body that is under the president, a legacy of the dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf.

Powers usurped by military dictators must be restored to the "people's house" to win confidence of Pakistani voters. A bill should be passed in the elected National Assembly authorizing the monitoring of all Madrassas and the conversion of all Madrassas to regular schools with the help of regional school boards in Pakistan using U.S. aid dollars.

Madrassas should no longer be allowed to become recruiting grounds for suicide bombers, Taliban and murderers hiding behind the “Burqa” of Sharia.

Continue reading "Guest post: How to defeat the Taliban, Part II" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

Unless there’s an onion involved, I don’t cry easily. But there I was, driving down the Beltway on the 4th in the family minivan, tears streaming down my cheeks as I told my kids about Independence Day.

You might attribute the tears to the frustrations involved in getting a couple of toddlers to understand anything about Independence Day beyond fireworks. Certainly I was wrapped up emotionally in the recent departure of one of our congregants for his first of two tours with the Marines in Iraq.

But I must have drunk the Kool-Aid back in civics class, because when I think about freedom, liberty, just government and all that good stuff, my thoughts fly to the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” Jefferson wrote, “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I still get a chill when I read those words.

Later on, studying theology in seminary, I came to realize that this notion has much deeper roots than the American founding and the Enlightenment that gave birth to it. In Genesis, we read that God created humanity in his own image; as image-bearers, we have agency, responsibility, will, choice — the things Jefferson (and Madison, and Locke, and so on) knew we have whether any particular government respects the fact or not. I realized that our word dignity, which encompasses so much of what’s at stake, ultimately traces back to the Greek theos: our dignity is our quality of bearing God’s image.

And so, Jefferson goes on to note, “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men.” It is the role of government, Jefferson notes, to ensure that these natural rights — these rights that are ours simply by virtue of being human — are protected. (Again, nothing new here; Augustine had much to say about these matters in his City of God, as I learned later on in seminary when I studied church history.)

Continue reading "Guest Post: The dependence of the independent" »

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Categories: Guest Posts
        

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

No, it's not what you think. I am not referring to a healthy (and Biblically-mandated) fear of G-d and his Ineffable Name, but an aversion to mentioning G-d as a motivating force in our lives. Joel Alperson, a past national campaign chair for United Jewish Communities, wrote about this in a recent op-ed entitled "Don’t fear ‘G-d,’ ‘Torah’ and ‘Judaism’ " published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He writes:

I’ve collected the mission statements of the largest 17 Jewish federations in North America, and not one mentions “G-d,” “Torah” or “Judaism.” Nor do the mission statements of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, Hillel, the National Council of Jewish Women, The Wexner Heritage Foundation, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, Hadassah and the Jewish National Fund. Of all the organizations I looked into, only United Jewish Communities mentions but one of the three words, Torah, in its mission statement.

Mr. Alperson's theory is that these terms are avoided because they are "more particularistic. Tzedakah [Charity], tikkun olam [Repairing the World] and klal yisroel [the People of Israel] are considered universal and inclusive terms." He bemoans this phenomenon, and considers this problem to be one with a uniquely Jewish angle. He believes that the reason these terms induce such discomfort is because communal organizations, aiming to serve the breadth of the entire Jewish community, are afraid of any mention of a term that might highlight our numerous and profound internal divisions.

He may be right. But at the same time, I am reminded of an article written over 20 years ago by Daniel Polisar, today the director of the Shalem Center, and at that time a fellow student at Princeton University. He described an experience in a class in Philosophy and ethics, in which the students were asked to respond sequentially to a classic question of moral and ethical behavior: when confronted by an assailant who orders you to murder another, on threat of your own life, what are you supposed to do?

Now as it happens, Jewish ethics offers clear and unambiguous guidance on this matter: "who says your blood is redder?" Thus the Talmud prohibits murdering another person, even in order to save your own life. And this is what Dan, when asked, proceeded to tell the class: that Judaism teaches us that G-d Commanded us to react this way.

Continue reading "Guest post: Fear of G-d's name" »

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Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. A native of Pakistan, he arrived in the United States in 1980.

Sharia laws are being used by terrorists to violate divine human rights.

Great Britain and France, as colonial powers, must share in the blame for not encouraging or allowing democracy to take root in Muslim countries. This is one reason why Sharia features so prominently in the legal systems of Muslim countries as the only acceptable form of justice. Autocratic rule, out-dated customs and lack of education prevented the judiciary in almost every Muslim country to develop a rule of law in which no one is above the law.

Almost every Muslim country except for Turkey has some form of Sharia incorporated into the constitution. Another reason for this inclusion is the legacy of a natural alliance between the clergy and a dictatorship. Both need each other for legitimacy. Even the Burmese military dictatorship had an understanding with the monks.

Through this alliance a dictatorship can suppress rights and freedoms taken for granted in democratic countries. A suffocating environment that stifles human development takes root, which is avoided by all prospective investors and visitors — unless they have no choice – leading to severe economic decline. Sharia is being enforced in Somalia today and the results are not very good.

Enforcers and supporters of Sharia say that things are economically bad because we are not following Sharia and God is angry. It is interesting to recall that some mullahs blamed the 2005 Earthquake in Pakistan on cable television.

Continue reading "Guest post: Reconsidering Sharia" »

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The Rev. Jason Poling is pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville.

As I prepare to celebrate my eighth Father’s Day (as an honoree) I join so many of my colleagues in realizing that I am turning into my father.

It’s the little things: eating food past the sell-by date, cutting dead limbs off of trees, hitting rest stops at the last possible moment. And energy conservation.

Fathers, I think, must have been the first conservationists. No doubt it was somebody’s dad who wondered aloud, and repeatedly, whether the cave needed the fire to be so hot.

And so I tromp about the house turning off lights and yelling at my kids about leaving doors open (Are you trying to air-condition the back yard?) and closing blinds on the east side of the house in the morning and on the west in the afternoon. I admonish my wife to load the dishwasher without rinsing the dishes first so we don’t strain the well. And let’s not get into septic system management.

Growing up I remember looking forward to my grandparents’ visits because the house would be heated above freezing and the fridge would be stocked with real milk instead of the powdered skim stuff my dad mixed up every few days in a harvest gold Tupperware pitcher. Until my dad installed an attic fan that sounded like a jet engine taking off and slammed every open door in the house we sweated the sheets every summer; the window fan in my room was supposedly set on low for respiratory health but I knew it was about the electric bill.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: My father, his father, Our Father ..." »

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Categories: Christianity, Guest Posts, Holidays, Jason Poling
        

Shaukat Malik is a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant from Potomac. A native of Pakistan, he arrived in the United States in 1980.

In Pakistan, the religious schools called madrassas were created during the Afghan war as factories for producing future mujahedeen to fight the Soviet infidels. It was a win for all parties involved. They were financed by Middle East money and America’s acquiescence.

Today there are thousands of madrassas scattered all over Pakistan providing lodging and shelter to poor children, who have nowhere else to turn. Each madrassa is like an orphanage run by fascist clerics.

Madrassas today teach hatred of non-Muslims using an orthodox interpretation of the Quran taught by self-serving mullahs lacking formal education. Brainwashed children graduating as clerics are taught to believe that salvation is only possibly by establishing an Islamic kingdom governed under their interpretation of Sharia law.

All actions -- training suicide bombers, storing weapons, harassing local citizens, beheading, whipping and stoning -- are justifiable in this struggle. madrassas share the Taliban’s ideology and are their natural partners and allies.

Continue reading "Guest Post: How to defeat the Taliban" »

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Rabbi Yaakov Menken is director of Project Genesis, a Jewish cyber-outreach organization based in Baltimore.

In the wake of the shooting attack at Washington's Holocaust Museum last week, many organizations issued public statements. Most of those were similar to these words from President Obama: "This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms."

Agudath Israel, the Jewish communal organization representing the interests of traditionally Orthodox Jews, issued a statement as well. Its statement, though, was different -- it consisted solely of an open letter to the young son of the security guard who gave his life defending the visitors to that Museum.

This letter's personal touch reminds us all that this was not only an outrage against the national consciousness, but an acutely personal tragedy as well.

To the Young Son of Stephen Tyrone Johns:

Your name wasn’t mentioned on the ABC-Nightline report where you were briefly interviewed after the tragic death of your father. But what mattered were your words, that your Dad was “a loving father” and your “hero.”

I want you to know that he is a hero to us too.

Your father died protecting people, young and old, of many races and religions, who had come to a very special place: the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He was the victim of a terrible hatred -- a hatred cut from the same ugly cloth as the hatred that killed my grandparents in Europe, a hatred the museum was designed to warn us about, and to help erase from the world.

May we soon see the day when such irrational hatred in all its forms will be erased from the world. And may you derive comfort, even as you mourn your terrible loss, from the fact that your father was not only a hero in your life but died a hero to the world.

 

Rabbi David Zwiebel

 

Executive Vice President

Agudath Israel of America

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The Rev. Jason Poling is the pastor of New Hope Community Church in Pikesville. He's writing today on marriage and the reality show Jon and Kate Plus 8.

In my line of work, I see marriages erode the way bridge inspectors see trusses rust. I have presided over dozens of marriages and, in a different way, a small handful of divorces.

Yet even I was taken aback by Monday night’s episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8. My free-spending habits have led my wife to take over the grocery shopping, but the occasional run for bread and milk has exposed me to the tabloid headlines about the Gosselins’ marital difficulties. Sure enough, the season premiere of the show about their family put this conflict front and center.

I felt physically uncomfortable watching the Gosselins’ marital problems unfold in much the same way I felt watching Steve Carell’s character on The Office take control of a diversity training session necessitated by his misconduct … except that The Office is faux-reality TV, and Jon and Kate Plus 8 is about real people whose real actions will have real consequences for themselves and for their eight children.

Continue reading "Jason Poling: Jon and Kate plus 9 million" »

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Categories: Guest Posts, Jason Poling