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*During the civil rights movement, from what I understand, black churches often acted as community centers/places to keep communities cooperating.
*I think how ritualistic the Vulcans of Star Trek were was realistic, despite their obsession with logic. We like rituals. A big part of religion seems to be rituals.
*I wouldn't be surprised if, on average, Islam's opposition to alcohol is a good thing, as well as the charity encouragement.
Also during the Civil Rights movement, Jews made up a disproportionate amount of the white volunteers who provided support; such as riding the freedom buses in the South, registering blacks as voters, and picketing segregated establishments. Of course, this caused the Klan to enact even more violence against the Jews as well as the Black population in the South.
white middle class American believers wanted/pushed for/voted/ to force common sense the civil rights movement to work. Despite what others are trying to push on us. well, I am an atheist, but many of us are are.
It's mostly spirituality that does good, and that's the common thread through the ages and across the globe.
If religion does good, it's from the corporate aspects (what a group of people can do together). But you don't need any worship or deity for that.
It's best to separate the mankind/corporate from the spiritual/internal before placing congratulations or blame. It's possible to get it wrong in both directions.
Spirituality is not independent of religion. Religion provides the structure from which the seeker draws from the texts, which are ancient inspirations, the teachings that illuminates these texts, all of which provides the framework, support, methods, and instruction which are all necessary in one's journey.. While religion provides the community and structure, spirituality is an individual endeavor between the seeker and the divinity.
Because spirituality is individual, Religion provides the structure through which it cancan be actualized. The compassion is actualized through the structure that temples, churches, mosques, gurudwaras etc provides, such as cooking for the hungry, housing for the homeless, guidance for the lost. Spirituality also rests on devotion to the divinity which again is provided by religion and community.
Even Buddhists, who are considered atheists by some, chant
A focusing on one's own loving-kindness would be my take on it.
Yes. So, what is your take on so-called Tibetan prayer flags? I always have thought of them as a way of sending blessings to everyone around you. Technically they're not really prayers, but what would you call them?
Yes. So, what is your take on so-called Tibetan prayer flags? I always have thought of them as a way of sending blessings to everyone around you. Technically they're not really prayers, but what would you call them?
As a Theravadan I'm not familiar with them.
I just read the Wikipedia article about them, and this makes sense to me: "Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to gods, which is a common misconception; rather, the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all."
Yes. So, what is your take on so-called Tibetan prayer flags? I always have thought of them as a way of sending blessings to everyone around you. Technically they're not really prayers, but what would you call them?
I have seen them all along up and down the hills in Sikkim. I dont know if they are the same but these are for the spirits of the dead. Sikkim also has many viharas on top of hills where there is worship. It is a lovely country.
When I worked as a volunteer with the Food Bank, churches were the most common points of distribution that I saw personally, and churches have been the place where just about every wedding I've attended, including my own, have been held. Just about all funeral services too. The list goes on and on, but I'm not one to highlight only one side of the story, good or bad. About any story. Still, I'm also not one to only consider the bad and not the good. Not sure on the whole to which side most of these threads lean...
Also during the Civil Rights movement, Jews made up a disproportionate amount of the white volunteers who provided support; such as riding the freedom buses in the South, registering blacks as voters, and picketing segregated establishments. Of course, this caused the Klan to enact even more violence against the Jews as well as the Black population in the South.
You touch on an interesting subject here...
"When I talk generally with white Jews about why Jews are involved in social justice or civil rights or racial equality, they'll talk about this shared history of oppression.
And the problem is that American Jewish history and African-American history are 180 degrees opposite on that question. One of my African-American colleagues, he said, "If I ever go to a Seder and the Jews say that they know what it's like because they too were once slaves in Egypt," he's gonna punch 'em.
Because if Jews have to go back to ancient Egypt to get the slavery metaphor, then they've kind of missed that American Jewish history is a story of rapid social ascent, and African-American history is the legacy of slavery. That argument is insulting, and it's very elementary.
And, of course, I found that the people actually involved in the movement in the 50s, they knew that. And they were quite clear that they were not buying into that.
What's the second argument that people draw on?
The second argument is a sociological one, which is to say Jews experience social marginalization; blacks experience social marginalization. Since Jews understand what it is to be on the margins, they help blacks. The problem with that is that the civil rights movement didn't happen 'til the 1950s. In the 1950s, Jews were already in the mainstream. So if marginalization was the motive, then the movement should have started 50 years earlier.
Eric Goldstein at Emory, in his book, The Price of Whiteness, basically points out that Jews could only cross the racial line after they achieved whiteness, when they were no longer marginal. So that kind of undermines the sociology argument."
But I suppose we digress and again blur this line between who are Jewish people and what is religion...
Last edited by LearnMe; 06-13-2022 at 09:55 AM..
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