Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan reports:

A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.

Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God.

Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."

"That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press.

Mohler said feedback has come through e-mail and comments on blogs and other websites since he wrote an essay to address questions about yoga he has heard for years.

"I'm really surprised by the depth of the commitment to yoga found on the part of many who identify as Christians," Mohler said.

Continue reading "Southern Baptist leader: Yoga not Christian" »

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A Malaysian court fined 12 Muslims on Tuesday and sentenced one of them to a week in prison for illegally protesting the construction of a Hindu temple and parading a severed cow's head, the Associated Press reports.

The protest last August stoked tensions among Malaysia's three main ethnic groups — the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian minorities, most of them Buddhists, Christians or Hindus who have complained that their religious rights are often sidelined in favor of Islam.

The 12 men were among scores of Muslims who marched with a bloodied cow's head from a mosque to the central Selangor state chief minister's office to denounce the state government's plan to build a Hindu temple in their largely Muslim neighborhood.

The cow is the most sacred animal in Hinduism.

All 12 pleaded guilty in a Selangor district court to a charge of illegal assembly and were fined US$320 each, said defense lawyer Afifuddin Hafifi. They faced up to a year in prison and a fine for the charge.

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A decades-long dispute between Hare Krishnas and the Los Angeles International Airport over soliciting donations appears to be nearing a resolution, as the California Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday over whether the airport is a public place, the Associated Press reports.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness of California argues that the airport is much like a public park, and should therefore be open to solicitors.

California's other major airports are supporting Los Angeles' position that airports are private property. Such a finding would support a ban on solicitations, which airport officials say are security risks and impede travelers.

The Hare Krishna group sued in 1997, but the case goes back to 1974 when the religious organization first began soliciting donations at the airport commonly referred to as LAX.

Since then, airport officials complain that numerous other groups and individuals have flocked to LAX to solicit donations.

The Los Angeles City Council passed a law in 1997 prohibiting the receiving of donations at the city-owned airport. The council later changed the law to allow solicitations in designated areas until the initial federal lawsuit was filed.

Lawyers for the city argue that they always had the right to prohibit such behavior but their authority increased even more after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when airports were required to tighten security.

Continue reading "Calif. high court to rule on Hare Krishnas at airport" »

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The Associated Press has an interesting story on Taqwacore, a movement of Muslim and Hindu punk bands among the American children of Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants.

Datelined Wayland, Mass, the story by Russell Contreras begins:

Artwork from the Punjab state of India decorates the Ray family home. A Johann Sebastian Bach statue sits on a piano. But in the basement — cluttered with wires, old concert fliers and drawings — 25-year-old Arjun Ray is fighting distortion from his electric guitar.

For this son of Indian immigrants, trained in classical violin and raised on traditional Punjab music, getting his three Pakistani-American bandmates in sync is the goal on this cold New England evening. Their band, The Kominas, is trying to record a punk rock version of the classic Bollywood song, "Choli Ke Peeche" (Behind the Blouse).

"Yeah," said Shahjehan Khan, 26, one of the band's guitarists, "there are a lot of contradictions going on here."

Deep in the woods of this colonial town boils a kind of revolutionary movement. From the basement of this middle-class home tucked in the woods west of Boston, The Kominas have helped launched a small, but growing, South Asian and Middle Eastern punk rock movement that is attracting children of Muslim and Hindu immigrants and drawing scorn from some traditional Muslims who say their political, hard-edged music is "haraam," or forbidden.

The movement, an anti-establishment subculture borne of religiously conservative communities, is the subject of two new films and a hot topic on social-networking sites.

The artists say they are just trying to reconcile issues such as life in America, women's rights and homosexuality with Islam and old East vs. West cultural clashes.

"This is one way to deal with my identity as an Arab-American," said Marwan Kamel, the 24-year-old lead guitarist in Chicago-based Al-Thawra. "With this music, I can express this confusion."

Continue reading "Muslim, Hindu punks spark musical movement" »

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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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Adherents of the world's major religions are urging political leaders, businessmen and individuals to renounce short-term gains and greed, telling a U.N. climate conference in Bangkok that reversing global warming is a moral duty, the Associated Press reports.

"Stewardship and reverence for creation are central tenants of all faiths on Earth," said the Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change, endorsed by prominent adherents of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism and handed to U.N.Climate Chief Yvo de Boer on Wednesday.

The declaration came as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warned that global waming could cut food production in poor countries by 21 per cent by 2050, and the Asian Development Bank said it could lead to a surge of migration into the region's already crowded cities.

"The food and energy security of every Asian is threatened by climate change, but it's the poor - and especially poor women - who are most vulnerable and most likely to migrate as a consequence," Asian Developlment Bank Vice Pesident Ursula Schaefer Preuss said in a statement.

Negotiators from around the world at the two-week conference are working on a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. They are working on an agreement for a major climate forum in Copenhagen in December.

Religious leaders chastised governments for placing national advantage ahead of preserving the human species and negotiators for lacking a sense of urgency.

Continue reading "Faith leaders urge U.N. action on climate change" »

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So concludes Newsweek’s Lisa Miller, after reviewing recent polling data. She’s not referring to immigration or conversion, but ways about thinking of religion:

The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."

Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing. Thirty percent of Americans call themselves "spiritual, not religious," according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has long framed the American propensity for "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not picking and choosing from different religions, because they're all the same," he says. "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, that's great, too."

Read more at newsweek.com.

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Categories: Christianity, Culture, Hinduism, Interfaith
        

Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others will gather in Washington on Wednesday for what organizers are calling the largest faith-inspired mobilization for health care reform.

Rabbi David Sapperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Sayyid Syeed of the Islamic Society of North America, the Rev. James A. Forbes Jr. of Riverside Church in New York and others will speak at an “interfaith service of witness and prayer” to “express strong unified support for health care reform,” according to press materials. Organizers are predicting a turnout of nearly 2,000 people representing 40 faith organizations.

The event is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. at Freedom Plaza, just west of the White House. It will be preceded by a health fair offering free health screenings beginning at 4 p.m.

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