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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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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On Rosh Hashanah, Baltimore County Police Chief James W. Johnson has sent the local Jewish community a message of peace – and thanks.

In the video message, Johnson credits groups such as Shomrim, a citizens patrol organization formed five years ago by area Orthodox Jews, with contributing to a decline in crime.

“In the Pikesville precinct alone, for example, we have seen decreases in burglaries, robberies and auto thefts throughout this year compared to previous years,” Johnson says in the message, which appears on the website www.theyeshivaworld.com. “Participation in groups like Shomrim greatly contributes to the potential suppression of crime, making our streets safer.”

Rosh Hashanah began at sundown on Wednesday and continues through sundown Friday. The first of the High Holidays, it marks the start of the year in the Hebrew calendar.

City police have announced increased surveillance and patrols in the Jewish neighborhoods of Northwest Baltimore during the holiday after swastikas and other messages were spray-painted last month onto cars on Strathmore Avenue, Clarinth Road and Labyrinth Road.

Continue reading "On Rosh Hashanah, thanks from county police" »

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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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The holiest day on the Christian calendar is not the appropriate time to discuss allegations that the Vatican covered up child sexual abuse by priests, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien said Sunday.

O'Brien did not address the abuse scandal during Easter Mass at the Basilica of the Assumption, the oldest cathedral in the United States, and he touched on it only briefly during comments to reporters before the service, the Associated Press reports.

"Christ himself said, 'In the world, you'll have trials. But do not fear; I have overcome the world.' And that's where our focus is," O'Brien said. "Damage has been done. We're trying to repair that damage. We're trying to help those who've been hurt. But we go on; we're still a church. We still bring a positive message to our people and the world."

Pope Benedict XVI also did not acknowledge accusations that he perpetuated a climate of cover-up for pedophile priests, a scandal that threatens to overshadow his papacy and has led to calls for his resignation. At St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, a senior cardinal defended the pontiff from what he called "petty gossip" and hailed his leadership and courage.

In Baltimore, several congregants said their faith in the church's leadership had not been shaken by the allegations. But Rosemarie McManus said she was dismayed by what she called a worldwide crisis.

"It's disgusting. It's embarrassing. It makes me totally sad," said the 83-year-old music teacher, who said she had to hide her Catholic faith from the Nazis as a girl in her native Germany.

Continue reading "O'Brien: Damage is done; we're trying to repair it" »

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President Barack Obama received an enthusiastic welcome Sunday at the Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Southeast Washington, where he attended an Easter service with his wife and their daughters, The Washington Post reports.

"This is a monumental moment for us as a community," Pastor Michael E. Bell Sr. said during the service, the Post reports. He called Obama “the most intelligent, most anointed, most charismatic president this country has ever seen," and then looked at him and said: "God has his hands all over you."

Post reporters Eli Saslow and Hamil Harris described the scene:

The president clapped and stomped his foot to the beat. Michelle Obama, wearing a scooped-back beige dress, danced next to him. When the song finished, a woman from the choir grabbed the microphone and pointed to the Obama family, telling them that Allen's congregation liked to get up and move during the service.

"If you came in here to sit and be still, I'm sorry. Move down the street," said one associate minister, drawing a loud cheer. "Excuse me, first family, but we like to get crazy up in here. You might see shoes flying, hair flying. But we are praising the Lord."

It was the kind of spirited service Obama attended for years as a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and he did his best to blend into the crowd. He read along during the hymns, nodded his head repeatedly during the sermon and spent a few minutes bouncing the pastor's grandchild on his lap.

During one song, Obama nudged his older daughter, Malia, and tried to persuade her to dance. "Come on," he said. Then he swayed his shoulders and clapped his hands with exaggerated enthusiasm until Malia started to laugh.

Read the story at washingtonpost.com.

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Associated Press correspondent Yaniv Zohar has filed a report from Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Orthodox Christians celebrated the millenium-old holy fire ritual:

The sound of drumbeats and hymns and light from thousands of candles and torches filled Christianity's most revered shrine Saturday as Orthodox faithful celebrated Easter Week's holy fire ritual.

Orthodox Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried at the site where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands, and that a flame appears spontaneously from his tomb on the day before Easter to show he has not forgotten his followers.

Worshippers carrying torches or bundles of 33 tapers signifying the years of Jesus' life waited in excited anticipation as the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in the Holy Land, Theofilos III, removed his embossed gold-and-white mitre and descended with Greek Orthodox, Armenian and other Eastern rite clergy into the tomb.

After the flame appeared there, he passed it from inside the tomb to believers inside the church's main hall, who rushed to light their own candles and torches, illuminating the darkened church within seconds and filling it with smoke. Church bells pealed, and some of the faithful passed their hands through the flames they held, reflecting their belief in the fire's divine and beneficial nature.

Worshippers hoisted one of the clerics who had gone into the tomb on their shoulders after he emerged, waving a bundle of lit tapers.

"It's (a) very huge experience and it's a holy place," said a Serbian woman who identified herself only as Irena.

Continue reading "Orthodox Christians witness holy fire" »

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The Associated Press has moved an evocative Good Friday dispatch from Jerusalem:

The cobblestone alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City became moving forests of wooden crosses as Christian pilgrims and clergymen commemorated the day of Jesus' crucifixion, Good Friday.

Black-robed nuns filed past metal barriers erected by police as dozens of tourists in matching red baseball hats held up digital cameras. Some pilgrims carried elaborately carved crucifixes, while others had crude crosses made of two planks held together with tape.

Good Friday rituals center on the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Christian tradition says Jesus was crucified and buried before his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

While Catholics and Orthodox Christians follow different calendars, this year their Easters coincide and the churches are commemorating Good Friday together.

Watching as hundreds pressed through the narrow Jerusalem street called the Via Dolorosa — the "Way of Suffering," tracing Jesus' final steps — was Katy Fitzpatrick, 24, of Spokane, Washington. She said the event was both "exciting" and "a little overwhelming."

"It's a little intimidating, and the riot gear is a little intimidating too," she said of the heavy presence of green-clad Israeli police deployed to keep the peace.

Continue reading "Christians converge on Jerusalem for Good Friday" »

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Cardinals across Europe used their Holy Thursday sermons to defend Pope Benedict XVI from accusations he played a role in covering up sex abuse scandals, and an increasingly angry Vatican sought to deflect any criticism in the Western media, the Associated Press reports.

The relationship between the church and the media has become increasingly bitter as the scandal buffeting the 1 billion-member church has touched the pontiff himself. On Wednesday, the church singled out The New York Times for criticism in an unusually harsh attack.

Western news organizations, including The Associated Press, have reported extensively on the burgeoning scandal, and new details have emerged on an almost daily basis.

On Holy Thursday, Benedict first celebrated a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica dedicated to the union between the pope and the world's priests. In the late afternoon, he washed the feet of 12 priests in a ceremony symbolizing humility and commemorating Christ's Last Supper with his 12 apostles on the evening before his Good Friday crucifixion.

Although there were expectations by some that the pope would address the crisis, Benedict made no reference to the scandal at either ceremony.

Venice's Cardinal Angelo Scola expressed solidarity with Benedict in his Holy Thursday homily in the lagoon city, describing him as a victim of "deceitful accusations." He praised the pope as seeking to remove all "dirt" from the priesthood.

Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz said the church should take notice of individual tragedies and treat sex abuse cases very seriously, but at the same time, he criticized the media for "targeting the whole church, targeting the pope, and to that we must say `no' in the name of truth and in the name of justice."

And Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, speaking of Benedict's long years as head of a Vatican office that investigates abuse, said the future pope "had a very clear line of not covering up but clearing up."

Continue reading "Cardinals defend pope in abuse scandals" »

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President Barack Obama plans to mark the start of Passover with a private Seder in the executive mansion, the Associated Press reports.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama invited friends and White House aides to mark the Jewish holiday with a meal on Monday. The Obama aides started the tradition during 2008's primary campaign in Pennsylvania; Obama made a surprise stop to meet with staffers who were sharing an impromptu meal in a hotel basement.

The event continued last year at the White House with a small group of aides and advisers.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
Categories: Christianity, Faith Practices, Holidays, Interfaith, Judaism, People, Politics
        

In another sign of the rapidly changing relationship between the Catholic Church and the Irish, a judge in Limerick has ruled that the city’s pubs may open on Good Friday.

District Court Judge Tom O’Donnell ruled that the city’s 110 pubs may open next Friday, the day on which Christians remember the crucifixion of Jesus, because the city is set to host a major Irish rugby match expected to draw tens of thousands of visitors, the Associated Press reports.

The ruling comes amid a growing crisis over abuse in the Irish church. Earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of a bishop accused of endangering children by failing to follow the church's own rules on reporting suspected pedophile priests to police.

AP correspondent Shawn Pogatchnik describes the import of the ruling:

Such a judgment would have been unthinkable in the Ireland of old, where the Catholic Church enjoyed unquestioned authority from the public and deference from the government. Commentators were quick to suggest that Thursday's judgment represented a watershed in the shifting relations between church and state in this rapidly secularizing land.

"This could be the beginning of the end of Good Friday, because now legislation will have to be changed," said a jubilant David Hickey, one of the Limerick pub owners who successfully sued the state for the right to do business like any other Friday. "The option should be given to let publicans open if they want to and close if they want to. Today was a huge decision in that direction."

Continue reading "In a first, Irish pubs may open on Good Friday" »

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Israel's Chief Rabbinate is warning Israeli citizens to be on the lookout for pirate matzah and Jews are worried, the Associated Press reports.

A week before the start of the holiday of Passover, Israeli police raided a warehouse containing a 7-ton stockpile of matzah with fake kosher certificates, according to a statement from the rabbinate.

"I can't believe that someone would do something like that," Roy Wolf, manager of a leading matzah factory in Israel, told the AP after receiving calls from concerned customers.

Matzah is the flat, unleavened bread Jews eat during the weeklong holiday instead of regular bread. Matzah is made of flour and water and must be baked according to strict religious instructions, under supervision of a rabbi, to ensure that it does not rise like bread.

The unleavened bread is a main feature of the weeklong Passover holiday, commemorating the biblical exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The Bible says the fleeing people did not have time to bake ordinary bread, making do with flat, unleavened bread instead.

The rabbinate published color photos of the fake matzah packages ordering local rabbis to post the statement in synagogues and other prominent places to warn Orthodox Jews to avoid the faked product.

Continue reading "Israeli Chief Rabbinate warns against fake matzah" »

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

Over on the Midnight Sun blog the illustrious Owl Meat Gravy has offered a critique of some conventional understandings of St. Patrick. Although I'm a recovering political science major, I don't buy his imperial reading of the Saint -- "St. Patrick's missionary' work was a Roman-supported campaign, an act of political domination by Romano-Britons, probably with all the attendant brutality that comes with conversion at the point of a sword" -- because I think that picture better fits the practices of a later era when derivative hagiographies of Patrick (quite possibly conflating his life with that of another Christian leader, Palladius) were produced.

The institutional memory of Patrick, it seems, highlights his success in making disciples of Jesus especially among the women of Ireland. Patrick's own narrative (preserved in one of two extant works) recounts his kidnapping from Britain, six years of adolescence and young adulthood spent as a slave in Ireland, and a successful escape by boat prompted by a supernatural nudge toward the dock. But it doesn't stop there: Like the apostle Paul, who had a vision of a beckoning Macedonian, Patrick has a vision of an Irishman bearing a letter pleading with Patrick to come to Ireland.

A call to return to the place where he was enslaved, that’s no slouch as a plot turn (ineffective as it was in the third Matrix movie). And Patrick’s influence as an evangelist is rightly celebrated by those who celebrate that sort of thing.

But more significant, I think, and of more lasting importance, was Patrick’s firm stand against the Arian heresy that Jesus was and is not fully God. During Patrick’s time the Church came to agree on some vitally important theological tenets that survive in the great Creeds of the Christian Church and are still held today (at least on paper) by all Christian traditions. Although it is merely attributed to him, having been composed centuries later, the hymn known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” reflects the robust Trinitarian orthodoxy for which St. Patrick stood so firmly. Join me in enjoying a pint while you meditate on these words:

St. Patrick’s Breastplate
trans. C. F. Alexander, 1889

I bind unto myself today
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.

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

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Categories: Christianity, Culture, Holidays, Jason Poling
        

Bash Pharoan brings his campaign for recognition of Muslim holidays in the Baltimore County Public Schools to a meeting Monday of the school board’s calendar committee.

The president of the Baltimore chapter of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee issued an action alert over the weekend inviting supporters to the meeting:

The road towards recognition in a democracy is paved with hard work, persistence and community support. This is the 7th consecutive year that ADC Baltimore appeals the BCPS board of education for inclusion of the two Islamic holidays as school closing days, equal to the Jewish holidays. The school system closes on the Jewish holidays for religious reason and not a secular one. The calendar committee this year is the first stop in the making of school calendar. The committee members are educators and school supporters. They are members of the community and do respond to citizens requests. The school system needs to know that discrimination based on religious belief or national origin is wrong and is illegal. Your appearance Monday evening in support of granting the Islamic holidays as school closure days will be vital in the process of recognition.

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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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All Sheriff Joe Arpaio wants to do is spread some holiday cheer.

Trouble is, the Arizona lawman keeps getting sued by those pesky inmates over the Christmas carols he has been piping for hours at a time into the Maricopa County jail system during the holiday season.

Arpaio, who styles himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” was crowing over the dismissal of two recent lawsuits, brought by inmates who said the music forces them to participate in a religious celebration. They were the fifth and sixth such suits dismissed in the last two years.

Inmates “should stop acting like the Grinch who stole Christmas and give up wasting the court’s time with such frivolous assertions,” Arpaio told the Associated Press.

(An inapt allusion: Holiday music didn’t provoke the Grinch to litigation; it inspired him to change. He was making off with Christmas when he heard the people of Whoville sing. And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.)

Whether or not he’s America’s toughest sheriff, Arpaio is certainly the most notorious, having gained both an ardent following and a legion of critics by housing prisoners in tents in the Arizona desert, dressing them in pink, cutting meals from three a day to two and creating what he says are the world’s first female and juvenile chain gangs.

He has focused particular attention on arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants. Most recently, he has been accused of using his police powers to try to intimidate political opponents.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says music from all countries and faiths is played.

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Congregation Beth Simchat Torah of New York, which bills itself as the world's largest synagogue for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, announced on Tuesday that its Senior Rabbi, Sharon Kleinbaum, had accepted an invitation from President and Mrs. Obama to attend the White House Hanukkah reception on Wednesday.

"I am delighted to represent the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer communities at the White House in celebrating this holiday of freedom and liberation with President and Mrs. Obama,” Kleinbaum said in a statement. "The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community knows what it is to fight for equality and freedom and we are looking to President Obama to exercise leadership in this struggle. I am honored to be included and look forward to inviting the President and Mrs. Obama to CBST.”

In a release, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah said it is “committed to the idea that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Jews are wholly legitimate members of the Jewish people, are equally legitimate members of civil society, and have a unique and essential contribution to make to the life of Judaism and society. It is this commitment to social justice and gender equality that has also attracted straight and even non-Jewish adults to our community.”

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Dozens of people led by an Orthodox priest smashed a menorah in Moldova's capital on Sunday, using hammers and iron bars to remove the candelabra during Hanukkah, the Associated Press reports.

The five-foot-tall ceremonial candelabrum was retrieved, reinstalled and is now under police guard, according to the AP.

Police said they were investigating the Sunday attack but there was no official reaction from Moldova's Orthodox Church, which is part of the Russian Orthodox Church and counts 70 percent of Moldovans as members.

The Jewish community was thriving before World War II but there are now estimated to be just 12,000 Jews in the former Soviet Republic. Twenty years ago there were 66,000 Jews. Many emigrated to Israel.

The national government said in a statement that "hatred, intolerance and xenophobia" are unacceptable. The U.S. Embassy and the Chisinau city government also condemned the attack. City officials called on the church to investigate.

Jewish leader Alexandr Bilinkis called on the Orthodox Church to take a position over the priest's actions. The head of the church, Bishop Vladimir Cantarean, was at his mother's funeral in Ukraine on Monday and was expected to make a statement when he returns, the church said.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Baltimore's Mircale Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Pray at the Pump Movement, which organized "vigils of hope" last summer, now are turning their attention to Tiger Woods.

And President Barack Obama, whom they identify as "also vulnerable to womanizing."

And also NFL quarterback Michael Vick; Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, former Gov. Eliott Spitzer of New York; District of Columbia Councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry; movie star Mel Gibson and former Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho.

The church and the movement have scheduled an "URGENT CHRISTMAS PRAYER VIGIL" for Woods and the rest from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church, at 100 South Rock Glen Road. The press release follows.

BALTIMORE HOLDS URGENT CHRISTMAS PRAYER VIGIL FOR TIGER WOODS

Baltimorians call for the world and especially the media to turn to the Bible and follow its principles of love as they deal with Tiger Woods sex scandal

Public and especially concerned Godly golfers are urged to stop by and pray for Tiger

Continue reading "Baltimore church to pray for Woods, Obama" »

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Chabad Lubavitch will celebrate Hanukkah on Monday with a parade of cars carrying menorahs and playing music.

The procession, which is set to include a fire truck, a mitzvah tank and more than 70 cars, leaves from Rambam Yeshiva, across the street from Baltimore’s famed Hanukkah House. The private residence, which for decades has attracted visitors with lights, placards and decorated figurines during the holiday, has been put up for sale.

The parade leaves Rambam Yeshiva at 6:30 p.m. and winds through Park Heights toward the Festival at Woodholme Shopping Center on Reisterstown Road, where a storefront houses Chabad’s Hanukkah Wonderland.

Organizers suggest the Atrium on Smith Avenue, where the procession is expected to pass at about 7 p.m., as a good vantage point.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The widely circulated e-mail claiming that the Obama White House was putting up a "holiday tree," bereft of religiously themed ornaments, in place of the traditional Christmas tree has been roundly debunked (see factcheck.org and snopes.com, the latter of which includes video of First Lady Michelle Obama taking delivery of a clearly labeled "White House Christmas Tree 2009").

But a New York Times profile of Desirée Rogers, the currently embattled White House social secretary, suggests there was at least some discussion about backing away from Christmas tradition this year -- not as it involved the tree, but a Nativity scene.

When former social secretaries gave a luncheon to welcome Ms. Rogers earlier this year, one participant said, she surprised them by suggesting the Obamas were planning a “non-religious Christmas” — hardly a surprising idea for an administration making a special effort to reach out to other faiths.

The lunch conversation inevitably turned to whether the White House would display its crèche, customarily placed in a prominent spot in the East Room. Ms. Rogers, this participant said, replied that the Obamas did not intend to put the manger scene on display — a remark that drew an audible gasp from the tight-knit social secretary sisterhood. (A White House official confirmed that there had been internal discussions about making Christmas more inclusive and whether to display the crèche.)

Yet in the end, tradition won out; the executive mansion is now decorated for the Christmas holiday, and the crèche is in its usual East Room spot.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (128)
Categories: Christianity, Church and State, Holidays, People, Politics
        

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.

Posted by Matthew Hay Brown at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

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.

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When I was living in London 20 years ago, I was touched one Halloween when a British friend surprised me with a card to mark the holiday.

It was the first and only Halloween card I've ever received. Obviously, I didn't tell her that. She thought she was helping me to feel at home in her country by remembering a tradition from mine; why tell her that it isn't really a holiday for exchanging cards?

Since then, however, Europeans have become more familiar with Halloween. Which is why the Vatican has grown more vocal in its condemnation of the annual observance.

In an article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See says Halloween is a pagan celebration of "terror, fear and death." The official Vatican paper warns parents against allowing children to dress up as ghosts and ghouls.

(We're getting this from British newspapers, because we haven't been able to find the original story at the L'Osservatore Romano Web site.)

The article, headlined “The Dangerous Messages of Halloween,” quotes liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals as saying 'Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian” and urging parents “'to be aware of this and try to direct the meaning of the feast towards wholesomeness and beauty rather than terror, fear and death.'

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Categories: Catholicism, Culture, Holidays, International, Wicca
        

The current issue of the Baltimore Jewish Times has a nicely observed cover story about the murky future facing the Congregation of Israel, a small shul in the Eastern Shore hamlet of Pocomoke City that decided not to hold High Holiday services this year for the first time in its 130-year history. Managing editor Alan H. Feiler writes:

This evening, as the first faint traces of darkness fall on Pocomoke City — a picturesque but economically depressed town about 40 minutes southeast of Salisbury — Congregation of Israel’s humble, 60-year-old building will remain silent, solemn and empty at the start of Rosh Hashanah. Once a community of 20 to 25 Jewish families and considered the epicenter of Eastern Shore Jewry, Pocomoke City today has, at best, only an estimated handful of Jews.

“It’s really sad,” said Pocomoke City Mayor Michael A. McDermott. “A lot of the families had stores here and in other communities around here, and they organized this synagogue. But a lot of the families relocated or their children moved on, so it dried up. Having the synagogue in the city, even if it was lightly used, was unique. It was slowly ebbing away, but there’s a real sense of loss. We’ve lost a part of our heritage.”

Tammy Green and her family first stumbled upon Congregation of Israel while vacationing in Delaware during the High Holidays in 1972, Feiler reports. They have been back every year since.

“We wanted something intimate and different than our synagogue in Bethesda, and it’s become an important part of our lives,” she says. “Back then, there were three families to make sure that everyone had a home to go to for dinner, like an extended family. But the people started to die off. I don’t know what we’ll do this year for the holidays. [Congregation of Israel] is very close to my heart.”

Read the rest of the story at jewishtimes.com.

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On the eve or Rosh Hashanah, Jewish leaders in the United States are asking rabbis to emphasize the faith's ethical requirements in their sermons in response to recent financial scandals involving its members, the Associated Press is reporting.

Jews have been embarrassed the past year by the arrest of former Wall Street tycoon [Bernie] Madoff, who is serving a 150-year prison sentence for defrauding investors out of billions of dollars, and several rabbis who were arrested in July on money laundering charges, said Richard Joel, president of Yeshiva University in New York.

Widely distributed images showed them being led into the FBI building in Newark in rabbinical garb and handcuffs didn't help.

Locally, Rabbi Jay Kenneth Wagner, the assistant principal at Yeshivat Rambam Maimonides Academy of Baltimore, was indicted this week on charges of stealing more than $13,000 in school checks that he deposited into his own bank account,

"It's troubling," Rabbi Moshe Kletenik, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, which comprises about 1,000 rabbis in the U.S., Canada and Israel, tells AP reporter Victor Epstein. "Ethical living is as significant a part of leading a religious life as ritual law."

Read the rest of the Associated Press story here.

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Local Muslims are planning to fulfill their Ramadan obligation to help the needy on Saturday by giving a hot meal, clothing, health screening, contacts for job training and other assistance to more than 1,000 homeless people in Baltimore.

Organized in 19 cities nationwide by Islamic Relief, the annual Day of Dignity will be hosted locally by Masjid Ul Haqq at 514 Islamic Way. Since coming to Baltimore in 2005, organizers say, the effort has served nearly 3,500 people.

Initiated in Los Angeles, the event is now held annually in New York, Washington, Philadelphia,Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit and other cities.

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President Barack Obama is taking advantage of the start of Ramadan on Saturday to make another overture to the Muslim world. In a holiday message now on the White House Web site, he wishes Muslims Ramadan Kareem, and then details U.S. efforts to engage Muslims in much the same language that he used during his address in Cairo in June.

“Beyond America’s borders, we are … committed to keeping our responsibility to build a world that is more peaceful and secure,” Obama says in the new message. “That is why we are responsibly ending the war in Iraq. That is why we are isolating violent extremists while empowering the people in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is why we are unyielding in our support for a two-state solution that recognizes the rights of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. ...

“All of these efforts are a part of America’s commitment to engage Muslims and Muslim-majority nations on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect. And at this time of renewal, I want to reiterate my commitment to a new beginning between America and Muslims around the world.”

The complete transcript follows, after the jump.

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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.

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Categories: Christianity, Guest Posts, Holidays, Jason Poling