Monthly Archives: February 2018

And We’re Off!

26 Monday Feb 2018

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I get to start this dieting/exercise journey on a rainy Monday, so yeah, very motivating…

I’m clocking in heavier than I thought at 179 lbs. I was 150 this past summer, but I led stress eating over take me with school work. And with lack of time, exercise was impossible. I literally worked on school work as soon as the kids went to bed until midnight or later each night. And having two jobs takes away all hours of daylight, weekends, and then some.

This diet thing has got me thinking about aesthetic philosophy. Is beauty and fitness a social or personal concept? Is it objective or subjective? Obviously, this type of analytical dissection of reality is a flawed artifact of Western thinking. And there is truth to each aspect regarding aesthetics.

In my mind, I have a general idea of what healthy looks like for me. Frankly, as long as I can look down without feeling discomfort in my neck, as well as not have a potbelly in my T-shirts, then I’m pretty OK with my weight and size. So we’ll see where this journey goes. I will update this once a month on progress, that way I don’t annoy anybody about bickering and complaining about how hungry I am or how tired I am.

Thanks!

Lessons from Religious Visits/What Christianity Can Learn From Other Religions

26 Monday Feb 2018

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As I traveled quickly through several religions of the world, I learned numerous lessons about people and religions in general. I also gained a renewed appreciation for my own Christian heritage. I hope to just quickly summarize it all here.

  1. Community as Identity – Religion isn’t simply about believing a certain set of doctrine or practicing certain rituals. It is about how a certain community contributes to your identity. Most of the groups I visited had a particular language that bound them together, even if that language was confined to the religious texts themselves: Hinduism – Gujarati and Hindi; Judaism – Hebrew; Buddhism – Vietnamese; Islam – Arabic. Even Christianity had a designated language for many centuries, Latin (Vatican II helped end this in the last century, but Protestantism broke away centuries ago). These groups were often sets of families or immigrants. Religion helped bind these people together and define a part of who they are.
  2. A Generation is Absent – There were very few teenagers at any of these religious services. Badi Ali, on our drive back to the Islamic Temple, pointed out that the American school system prevented many youth from joining Friday prayers. Kim told me that Buddhism in the area was effected by a laxity of belief and adherence, primarily from American value of individualism and a tendency towards apathy. Although the synagogue I visited was large enough for nearly two hundred people, there were barely fifty people there and only two or three teenagers.
  3. We Are Ignorant – All of these faith groups exist in the same cities and yet, very few people even realize this. I introduced the Baha’i Faith to many people by having to explain what the religion was about. There are fears of these separate groups, especially in evangelical Christian circles, but these fears could be put at ease through lovingly reaching out and getting to know people in these different groups. But this would inevitably lead to issues of proselytizing, so it is difficult to make such interaction possible.

What Christianity Can Learn

  1. From Hinduism – diverse methods of worship and teaching; use drama and videos alongside music and preaching; break up the message by interjecting other elements.
  2. From Judaism – everyone participates, no matter their age or if they come in late; teach children your heritage and traditions; go out of your way to welcome outsiders and help them understand the teachings.
  3. From Buddhism – bright colors and a taste of natural beauty goes a long way; love others and be patient with those who fall away; lessons can be taught through art, especially statues; the aesthetics of a building creates an atmosphere of  transcendence.
  4. From Islam – radically embrace different people, especially immigrants; there shouldn’t be black churches, white churches, hispanic churches – there should be one group of people intertwined in worship; reverence – there is high value in group silence and respect.
  5. From Baha’i – all persons are equal and should be treated so in practice and speech, not just in theory; home visits foster a great spirit of unity and equality; they are able to reach out more with less money because they do not pay salaries among other things (the house church movement has already learned this!).

What’s to come?

Honestly, I am not sure what I will do next. I am juggling a few ideas. I plan on attending a Seventh-Day Adventist church, Mormon church, and Jehovah’s Witness’ Kingdom Hall soon. But I want to keep reaching out beyond Christianity, perhaps to a local Wiccan group I have found online. I am taking a two month break from school so I at least plan to go to bed early, read Nietzsche, and start a diet to lose 25 lbs.  Any ideas are welcome, but I can’t commit too much – I want my lazy break!

Feature Image: Immanuel – Image:Symbols of Religions.JPG, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3966889

Happy Vietnamese New Year!

18 Sunday Feb 2018

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I took my daughter with me to the New Year’s celebration at Chua Quan Am where I did my visit for Buddhism a few weeks ago. I ran into Kim too! This time around, the temple was busy and loud. I walked my daughter around outside to check out the statues and the koi pond. From my previous visit, I was able to tell her what most of the statues meant and that was a dad-score moment for me.

The evening started off with introductory drumming and then the Flower Dance. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good video because I was sitting right where the dancers started and behind where there were facing the entire time.

After that dance, there was a short (30 min) service. My daughter kept asking me about the smell (incense) and what everyone was saying. I explained that they were praying and likely giving thanks for the previous year and the next since it was New Year’s. The temple handed out paper pamphlets with the words for chanting, but it was all in Vietnamese. If you have never tried to read Vietnamese, just know that your vowel sounds will change – and quickly!

Then came the drumming again and we knew it was almost time for the dragons! What we weren’t expecting was the longest firecracker I had ever heard. At least half of all ~150 people in that room had their hands over their ears. The rest needed their hands for their phones. Then the dragons came in and excitement filled the air even more! It’s hard to describe the atmosphere we experience because, at least for me, it was so easy to get lost in the moment. Just getting to see the wonder on my daughter’s face was amazing for me. And knowing that she was getting to engage in a culture she never would have on her own, well to me that is priceless.

As the dragons dance, children come up and “feed” dollar bills to the dragons for good luck. At the end, everyone had a chance to bull a token treat from the trees near the altar. I held my daughter up and she was able to grab one of the high ones. We got home after midnight and still managed to make it to school/work on time in the morning. Pretty good for a kindergartener!

Link to Chua Quan Am site (you’ll need a translation tool): http://www.chuaquanam.com/

The short video shows part of the Dragon Dance and the long video has the entire firecracker explosion and start.

My Baha’i Home Visit

17 Saturday Feb 2018

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Sign outside of the home I visited.

Baha’i’s strongly believe in home visits. You might call them a fellowship, a study session, or just a get-together. Whatever you want to call the home visits, I walked into a home full of Persian hospitality. My hostess, Hayedeh, comes from Iran and it was reflected by her home. As I got out of my car, she called out a welcome from her carport. I was the first to arrive. She walked me into her house, through the kitchen, and into a living room with a raised ceiling. Couches and chairs sat in a rectangular shape on top of a crimson, patterned Persian rug. In the center was square coffee table with pink orchids in the middle. Beside it was a bowl of green pears and oranges along with fine china plates.

Hayedeh’s husband, Wayne, was sitting in one of the chairs as I walked in. He stood up, shook my hand with a friendly smile, and introduced himself. We talked about the assignment at hand briefly and Hayedeh explained that we were waiting on another person to show up, and Mrs. Marcus arrived very soon after that. For this particular home visit, there would only be four of us.

Hayedeh read from the Kitab-I-Aqdas, the most holy book of the Baha’i. She had asked what I wanted to talk about and told her my paper would be over the concept of salvation so the passages focus on that. We each took a turn reading. Hayedeh then stepped out of the room and returned with a full tray of tea. I mean the complete works – sugar bowl, saucers, beautiful tea cups, and tea spoons. I was nervous that I would spill cause a mess or break something! It was hot so we mostly held onto it while we discussed concepts together.

We began to discuss the passages and what salvation was within the Baha’i faith. Instead of a personal salvation that gets one into heaven, Baha’is believe that salvation is a process and that it is for humanity as a whole. The goal is equality, love, and peace for all men and women on earth, regardless of any constraining social setting he or she may have. Wayne told me that there is a concept of heaven, but that it is not the same as I may think about it. All of creation is temporary; everything is impermanent. History is progressing towards the perfect creation that God intended the Earth to be. Heaven and hell are not physical locations, but states of nearness to God (1).

As we finished our teas and moved onto other topics, Hayedeh brought out vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberry puree she had made that day. It was delicious! The group of us began to discuss the influence of science on religious thought, especially creation. I mentioned how much I loved the photograph, Pale Blue Dot, and how it makes me really appreciate how small and yet important we humans are. We also discussed the newest Baha’i Temple built in Santiago, Chile. Hayedeh and Wayne had a Baha’i magazine with pictures of the building. One from night time is the featured image and the one below is from the day time.

Bahai_Templo

New Santiago, Chile Baha’i Temple by FOPF – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54900697

Each Baha’i Temple has nine doors, they told me, one for each major religion. Inside, there is one common meeting room, which represents how all of the faiths merge into one. Naturally, this led me to ask about their structure and normal services. Baha’is strongly encourage home visits because of the personal nature of them. There are no clergy and Baha’i Centers are used for community events. Really, Baha’is can meet anywhere and it is up to the organizers to decide what takes place.

Hayedeh took up the crystal dishes after we finished the ice cream. But she wasn’t done yet! Next, she brought up freshly cut pineapple. I took a few, but had to insist that I was full at this point. The conversation shifted to personal matters such as what jobs we had and about the recent snow that had temporarily shut down our area. Wayne asked me a few questions about my personal beliefs and told me his story of conversion from Christianity to Baha’i. He attributed the old preaching of “hell fire and brimstone” in his youth as a strong reason he left Christianity. Baha’i offers hope and a goal that everyone on earth can work towards – social justice and global salvation.

After about two hours, it was time to leave. I gave my farewells and began my half-hour drive back home. Hayedeh followed up with me in an email just the other day letting me know about future events in case I wanted to bring my wife to any of them. I think I’ll write back now. Thank you all for taking your time to read these posts. It has been an incredible journey exploring these different faiths first-hand. There are more faiths out there though and I hope I can add them to my experiences as well.

Special thanks for the Featured Image of the new Baha’i Temple in Santiago, Chile by Tiago Masrour – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53054032.

Works Cited

(1) “Heaven and Hell” What Bahá’ís Believe. http://www.bahai.org/beliefs/life-spirit/human-soul/heaven-hell. Accessed 13 February 2018.

Making Peace With the Religion of Peace (My Trip to the Islamic Center of the Triad)

13 Tuesday Feb 2018

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Friday prayers, Jumu’ah Khutbah, are communal prayers within Islam. At the Islamic Center of the Triad (ICT), over 250 men and women come to pray together each week. I made arrangements to attend this past Friday through Badi Ali, the president of the ICT.

As I drove towards the road that the Masjed is on (Masjed means the place of prayer, Badi told me), a police car with blue lights flashing sat at the intersection. I immediate worried that the road was blocked off, but, to my relief, he was only directing traffic along with other volunteers from the center. I turned away from the ICT and parked a good walking distance away. There was a constant flux of men walking towards the center, so I added myself to their number. One of the men directing traffic greeted me with “As-Salaam Alaikum,” to which I only smiled. I didn’t quite catch what he said, but after hearing it dozens of times, I picked it up. It is the way Muslims greet one another – “peace be upon you” – and reflects the positive use of language as Allah gave to man.

I was actually a little confused about the location because the website showed an image of the mosque that the center was raising funds to complete construction on. What I saw was a large warehouse building with a roll-up garage door in the center, wide open to those coming in. I stepped in and noticed men in the distant corner already sitting, but many more were coming in and out of a bathroom to my left where ritual washing, wudu, was taking place. Wudu involves three washings of the hands, arms, face and head, mouth, nose, and feet. I stepped over to the right and placed my shoes on one of the large wooden shelves, as I suspected I would need to do before I arrived. I spotted a young man who entered when I did and so I crossed my fingers that he spoke English, which he did good enough. I explained what I was there for and that I needed to find Badi. He asked me to sit while he did his wudu and then he went to get Badi for me.

As I sat facing the entrance, I watched many men enter and shake hands with as many other men as they encountered. Behind me was a large poster of the mosque they were funding to build. It said “Whoever builds a mosque for Allah, then Allah will build for him a house like it in Paradise.” To my left, at the entrance to the main prayer room (I was in the overflow area), was a large box with openings for giving to ICT. I was struck by a large box on top of a room to my far left. The closer I looked, it appeared to be shaped like a coffin and had “GAZA” painted on it. As I continued to look around the room, wondering how out of place I was, in walked Badi.

He shook my hand and I walked with him to the shoe rack. While he was taking his shoes off, he told me if I prayed, I could sit with him. I told him I didn’t know how to do it correctly, but he simply said that I could just follow him. We walked into the prayer room and I finally understood why the men were sitting the way they were. The carpet had distinctive lines, about six or more inches wide, that point towards Mecca. I sat down next to Badi on one of these lines. The young man who helped find Badi for me was immediately in front of me. Badi pulled out his phone and opened his Quran app and told me that the readings were from Surah Al-Kahf that day. But barely a few seconds had passed and he said that he must be quiet now. If fact, the quiet, reverent attitude is what stood out to me the most. I had never been in such a large crowd and experienced such a silence.

A man in the crowd stood up and gave a call to prayer. As he did so, an African man came to the front and took his place to read from the Quran, I cannot remember what country Badi said he originated from. That is the second thing that struck me. There were so many different countries and races represented in that room together. It was a beautiful site to see so much diversity joined together. Arabic filled the air as the man began reading. It felt like it went on for a long time, but it may have just been my legs getting uncomfortable. We were all sitting cross-legged and adjusted as we needed to. Inside, I was feeling quite timid. I did not want to do anything that may viewed as offensive, so I tried to stay still. When that man finished reading, a young Middle Eastern man stood up and gave a brief message in English on generosity.  Then there was more reading by the former man in Arabic.

Then came the moment I was most nervous about – the bowing. Everyone stood up and my heart began to race. I am a middle-class, white, American, Christian-raised male. There were certain misconceptions I knew about and tried to push from my mind, but I was afraid I would mess up and offend someone. There was a calling out in Arabic and a response. I wasn’t sure what was just said, but I tried to imitate the sound. Another call in Arabic and everyone reached down and put their hands on their knees, this is called ruku. As we held our position, silence rang out. There was a call again and we stood erect. I wondered if the women on the other side of the wall were doing the same thing we were. Another call and everyone shifted to the floor into the sujud bowing position. Silence again. Then another call and we all stood up. This was repeated; the silence during the prayer was only broken once by an interrupting phone, promptly silenced. Then, the service was over with some concluding announcements.

Badi told me he wanted to introduce me to some people. “Some” is the wrong word. He introduced me to so many people, I thought I was in a political campaign. There were men from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and several other countries and they all greeted each other with smiles, laughter, and occasional hugs. I then rode with Badi to a nearby Dunkin Donuts where he bought me a coffee and doughnut. We sat with two men from ICT we happened to meet there and discussed a variety of topics. The most intriguing to me was the discussion of Jannah, heaven. Two more men joined us as we talked. After nearly an hour, it was time to leave. Badi drove me back to my car at the Center. On the way we discussed the administration of ICT, the safety concerns Badi had for his people (thus, the police that stayed on site), and the message he will be bringing this coming Friday on the use of bad language.

I cannot say that everyone I met made me feel comfortable (some looked rich and powerful), but the majority did. I now understand why Muslims say Islam is a religion of peace. I am thankful for the experience and look forward to visiting Badi again when they inaugurate their new mosque.