Religion as a business

I started to wonder more about the link between religion and money after reading Taylor's thoughts on the "Godliness" of money and the way Pastor Mark runs his congregation at the Wasington National Community Church. Money and religion seem to be polar opposites. Money represents wealth, greed and the inherently impure while religion is all about holiness, spirituality, the immaterial and the sacred. The truth is, in today's world, whether we are a member of Pastor Mark's congregation or a Buddhist in rural Thailand, religion is a capitalist business, competing with other institutions for money, resources and members.

My sister traveled in Thailand this summer and spent three days in a monastery studying Buddhism. She was required to wear a plain white uniform at all times, could only eat two meals a day and spent 18 hours every day in standing, sitting, walking, silent and singing meditation. She was not allowed to use technology, speak to anyone, handle money, or engage in other "impure" activities. All of this was because Buddhism thrives on the basis of modesty, simplicity and humbleness. However, upon venturing out of the living area across to the temple where tourists are allowed, she was astonished by these huge lavish temples and shrines laden with gold, jewels and gift shops where plastic statues, coffee mugs and key chains of Buddha could be purchased. When my sister questioned a monk about the irony of this materialism infiltrating these sacred temples he spoke of the need for tourism so the temple would have enough money to maintain itself and its monks. He saw no irony or hypocrisy in this; only the inherent need to do what he must so that his religion could survive.

It was clear Pastor Mark understood that religion is a business and he needed money and technology to attract people to his congregation. However, it is also apparent that in this day and age where money means everything, even the most modest religion recognizes that it too, is a business.

Awkward interactions with Quad security

I'm an orthodox Jew. Every friday night, saturday morning, and saturday afternoon I walk to the campus Hillel for prayer services. This creates an interesting regarding the security measures at campus housing. I'm prohibited to use electicity on the sabbath and swiping my penn card to get into the quad would violate this restriction. Because of this, Penn allows the sabbath-observing students on campus to sign up for a list which grants them access to campus housing without having to swipe in. It's interesting to see how the different security people react to this. Some are extremely deliberate in checking the list to make sure your name is on it and ask for your penn card number. I was held up at Hamilton last weekend for about 15 minutes along with about 20 other orthodox Jews trying to get into the building. I would deem this the power trip reaction which is commonly see with flight attendants and librarians as well. It occurs when insecure people in the service industries are infused with what they view as substantial authority over temporarily powerless customers. Some security guards--the friendly ones--will allow any Jew they recognize to be allowed in without hassle. Others--the one who don't care--allow anybody with a yarmulke or long skirt in.

I heard one story about a guard who pretended to have memorized the sabbath security list and after asking a student their name would think for a few seconds and then allow the student through the gate. One night, when it came up to a certain student's turn he informed the guard that his last name was Stalin. The guard stroked his beard and turned his eyes upward, seemingly contemplating whether he remembered this name off the list. The student offered a helpful "You know...Joseph," and the guard let him through. One of my friends told me that he said good night to a guard and the guard started with a "God bless you," but thought it might offend for whatever reason and ended up saying "God- have a good night." My favorite experience with a security guard on the Sabbath however, occured when one of them gave me a huge bear hug, informed me that he was a born-again christian, and that he loves us. This made me feel special.

"We all want to make something that's going to live beyond us, but that thing shouldn't be a house or some other physical object. It should be a village that can continue to maintain itself. That sort of constant renewal is the only permanence we should wish to attain."

This was said by Martin Prechtel as recorded by Derrick Jensen in "Saving the Indigenous Soul." Although this refers to Mayan beliefs, it does highlight a predominant fear in American teens, particularly college students: permanence.

Change...it's good, it's healthy, and by all means...it's natural.

Sorry

I also found an interesting reference to religion in the media. While reading the news on MSNBC, I became intrigued with Mary Mohler's article "Stop Apologizing When It's Not Your Fault." She describes her habit of saying "sorry" when the word is not necessary, and uses statistics from studies to prove that many women share her plight, including me. I thought of this class and the blog after she compared this language addiction to a "ritual". As quoted from the article:

In this context, the apologizer is simply acknowledging the other person's experience. In other instances, the ritual exchange of apologies is the verbal equivalent of a handshake -- a way of closing the subject. "It works like this," says Dr. Tannen. "I apologize to you for A, then you apologize to me for B, and we've maintained our equal footing." Apologizing can also be a means to prompt an apology from someone else, she points out. "If I'm annoyed that you broke a vase I loved, I might say, 'I'm sorry I yelled at you for breaking the vase.' The real point is to get you to say, 'No, I'm sorry -- I should have been more careful.'"

I then began thinking about other "ritual" exchanges of words that women, especially teens, use commonly. Here is an example that I'm sure many will recognize:

Girl A: I am so fat/ugly

Girl B: No you aren't. I'm more fat/ugly than you are.

Today, this form of personal degradation is common, almost expected. Although I hesitate to call it a ritual, it does bear striking resemblance to the exchange that Mohler describes in her article. Think about it.

The full article can be found here

Meth-addict Moses

I was watching a police chase show on the Discovery Channel the other day, and the fugitive's name was Bret Moses. I stopped looking at the screen and just listened for a good 45 minutes to the program's melodramatic narration. I kept hearing things like, "Officers were hesitant to venture into the wooded area, for fear that Moses would emerge from behind a tree and open fire." Another memorable line was, "Finally, police were able to bring down Moses after a 3-day methamphetamine-induced shooting spree." Images kept flying into my mind of the Biblical, long-bearded figure of Moses jumping out from the woods with a rifle in his hand, popping pills the whole time. I found this all hysterically ironic, and it reminded me of our class. It seemed like a pretty funny example of the mingling of religion and the media.