Late Night Thoughts

So, this is what confuses me about religion, among other things.

If Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God, and has divine power, they must also believe that he is all of those things for everyone else as well, correct? Like, we all have our "God," but that God isn't just ours, it has to be the same for every single person on this planet whether they believe in it or not.

I guess it's just a confusing topic. If Allah is the real God, then it's him I have been praying to and not Jesus, right?

I don't know. Who does? I guess we all have our beliefs and there really is no way to ever justify any of them as being correct. It's the dividing factor among humans and the number one cause of all conflict and war, I guess there's a reason for that right?

Ice Cube!

A pretty interesting article to check out on the famous N.W.A. rapper and his religious views.

Ice Cube apparently converted to Islam in the 90's, after he had already sold millions of copies of "Straight Outta Compton," because he wanted a religion that was just between him and God. He's not a regular mosque-attender and my guess is he hasn't made the Hajj yet, but good for Ice Cube if he made a choice and stuck with it.

Check out the rest of the article for a lot more information!

Ka'bah

While studying for the final (the cancelled final), I got stuck researching the Ka'bah and the Hajj. I realize that Mecca is an extremely vital place for Islam as a whole but I really didn't understand what the entire "lets walk in circles around this cube" thing was all about.

I guess what really interested me was what the cube was and if there was anything inside.

I learned that the cube is called the Ka'bah! It's originally believed to have been built by Abraham, even though it has since been rebuilt due to disaster and natural disaster. The cube is the house of God, and its believed to be the most sacred place on earth. It symbolizes so many things for Muslims all throughout the globe, and it's an obligation for able Muslims to visit it at least once during their lifetime.

The Ka'bah keys are owned by one family that has passed them down for generations!

AND!

Only a select few get to venture inside of the Ka'bah, but it's the only place in the entire world where Muslims are allowed to pray in any direction they wish.

Learn Islam! Thats an order!

I found an article today about a landlord who was involved in a dispute with a Muslim tenant. The judge heard the entire case, and then as part of the punishment, judge Paul Yee Jr. ordered the tentant to learn about Islam. The landlord was being prosecuted for allegedly pushing tenant down a flight of stairs after a series of allegations involving religion.

The judge and his actions are being investigated because of the punishment being unusual and what the article describes "an unconstitutional outrage."

Here's a picture of the man himself. Judge Paul Yee Jr.

Here's the article to check out. 

Interview With a Friend Pt. 2

For this post I decided to return to the theme of interviewing a friend about their religious background. In my opinion, you can learn a lot more about faith and practice from the people around you than you ever really could from textbooks or articles online. 

The last interview had a general theme because my friend was a councilor at a Christian summer camp, so I kind of knew what to ask and roughly how she would answer, but for this interview, I made sure to catch my new respondent completely off guard so that the answered couldn't be practiced or rehearsed. 

What is your own religious background? 

"I was raised protestant congregationalist. Basically confirmed in 7th grade, went to church a lot as a child, and not so much really now."

What was the confirmation process like as a protestant congregationalist?

"Basically, we had confirmation meetings once a week for a year where we were taught about scripture and related items."

How many people were in this group?

"Two, another kid from my school and I."

How do you think having a group that small helped your experience?

"I mean I got to know the pastor pretty well, and I never did the reading so I always got called out, and it was pretty awkward."

Nice man, do you think that that experience so long ago shapes the way you make certain decisions today?

"Not at all. Because I think now I have a better idea of what I believe."

Thanks 

The Well?

This past weekend I went to a church in downtown Boulder called "The Well."

It's main focus is creating a community, so the mass usually isn't started until everyone is done chatting in the main lobby area and makes their way into the actual area where mass is held. This being my first time, I had no idea what was going on and I was extremely reluctant to talk to anyone, so I just went in a played on my phone until around 11:09, when the mass finally began.

The service had a huge focus on music, similar to a lot of churches, and I actually highly enjoyed the message and stayed afterwards to talk with some different people.

The Well is relatively new and also relatively underfunded, thus their masses are held in a middle school auditorium with all of the necessary equipment loaded and unloaded from the back of a U-Haul truck before and after the service. It was really interesting to see that despite their lack of resources and capital, they didn't ask for much, and they still only had one goal in mind, which is to serve God.

Maybe it's worth checking out in the future for any of you guys.

Kairos Retreat

The Kairos retreat is probably the single most defining experience and memory that I can think of in my life so far. Kairos, in a dictionary sense, means "the perfect, or opportune, moment" and the retreat is a spiritual (often Catholic) four day retreat that takes place during your junior or senior year of high school.

Some of you may have heard of this retreat or even gone on it yourself, as it is pretty popular throughout the country. In my church, it's student led by 8-10 student senior leaders, and usually accompanied by 3-5 adults who supervise the time and make sure things flow smoothly. I went on the retreat as a junior, and then led the retreat twice as a senior. It really is way too powerful to go into much detail over, as I could (and probably would) turn this blog post into a novel, but I want the audience to get the gist of what happens on Kairos.

The retreat is compromised of a multitude of activities, but the main element are the eight student-led talks that are given throughout the weekend. The talks are:

Know Yourself

Faithfulness

Ideals

Study & Prayer

Christian Leadership

Sacraments

Love In Action

And there are four accompanying adult talks as well:

LifeGraph

God's Friendship

Results of God's Friendship

Obstacles to God's Friendship

These talks are the most important element of the retreat, each one can range from anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, and they are usually full of wisdom and profound theology. The talks always encompass some kind of hardship that the writer has faced and how their specific topic relates to their own life. The retreat gives kids a better idea of the faith that they claim to practice, and inspires them to choose for themselves what they believe. There are often tears shed, and small groups usually lead retreatants to feel compelled to share stories from their own lives as well. I could go on for days explaining the process or giving an overview of the talk I gave, but lets just save that for another time. If ya ever want to talk about it, or talk about anything, I'd love to chat.

Doubt, Cry, Trust, Live.

Heavyweight Matchup

Christianity vs Islam

Toe to toe for 12 rounds in the ring.

Kidding. But I did find an interesting article online comparing the two massive faiths and how they parallel and differ from one another.

Check it out here.

In summary, the main five points of the article are as follows.

1.) Christ's Kingdom was NOT of this world, and Mohammed's was.

2.) The Bible is vastly different than the Koran.

3.) Jesus is very different than Mohammed.

4.) Jesus teaches us to call God "Father," Mohammed would never do that.

5.) Christianity Teaches that God is love, Islam teaches that God is justice.

All these points seem pretty basic, but the article does a much better job of going into depth with each point. In my opinion, the final point is the one that really seems the most important and stands out to me. Love can be interpreted in so many ways, but justice even more so. It really kinda makes me understand how some radicals can rationalize horrific acts of violence in the name of their God.

Trump???

With all of the recent events and happenings floating around in the news with terrorism, it's no surprise that somehow it can all be used as a way for media and politics to generalize the blame to all Muslims. In a country that is founded off of freedom and the ability to practice whatever religion you please, it sure seems like our presidential frontrunner, Mr. Trump, has no recollection of anything called the constitution, because he believes that no Muslims should be allowed to enter the country "until the countries representatives can figure all this out."

What are you doing sir?????????

WHY ARE YOU STILL ON THE POLLS?????

I definitely don't want to bring politics into this class, but it seems to me that he really is forgetting about the fact that we the people have RIGHTS, and anyone should have the right to travel here legally to believe whatever they desire.

Sorry to anyone I may have offended politically, I really haven't researched enough on any of the candidates to have a serious opinion, but it seems the media just really likes to highlight on all the times Trump says something stupid.

You shoulda kept your name off of that beautiful building you own on the Chicago river, and maybe I'd like you more. It was kinda nice knowing it was pretty and not affiliated with you.

The Origins of Santa Claus

Keeping with the holiday spirit, and my personal excitement for Christmas, I decided to try and understand something a little better. Where does the legend of Santa Claus come from? Yes, sadly, it's pretty safe to say that the dude is not real, despite what you parents told you for the first decade of your life, and also despite ATT U-Verses new "Santa Tracker" that comes up on my TV every Christmas Eve while I'm trying to peacefully watch Elf.

So I did a little research to see where the big, jolly man in red and all his "ho ho ho's" comes from!
The most respectable and legitamate source I found was actually an article from the History Channel's website (I know, what better place to find history facts than the History Channel).

Heres a short quote summarizing it all up, "The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick."

You can check out the rest of the article here.

Merry Christmas!

The Origins of Christmas

The time of year is coming!!! We all look forward to the Christmas songs on the radio, the endless movies on tv, Elf on repeat on ABC family, and all other incredible nostalgic things that roll around during the holiday season that bring us back to our childhood.

However, how did December 25th come to be the day that was deemed as Jesus birthday over 2000 years ago? Was the modern calendar even in existence? All the questions are answered in this post from the Bible Archaeology Society, which apparently states that there really is no reference to the exact date anywhere in scripture.

Interview With a Friend

A dear friend of mine who lives down the hall from me in Farrand always talks about her Christian camp that she's been a part of for some time now. During the Christianity unit, we watched the film Jesus Camp, which sparked my interest in seeing if ALL camps are similar to the one we learned about in the film. I decided to conduct a short 5 question interview with her to gather what I can about her experience.

What is the name of the camp you attended?
"Camp Balcones Springs in Marble Falls, Texas."

How old were you when you first attended, and how long have you been going back?
"I was eight years old when I went for the first time, and I've been going back for nine years. Twice as a councilor."

Is Christianity a huge part of the camp? Or does the emphasis lie in other activities?
"There are lots of prayer points throughout the day, but mainly the camp is for fun recreational activities like volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, swimming and water sports, zip lining, and rock climbing."

Did you ever feel like you were being forced to pray or was everything pretty much voluntary?
"Everything seemed very voluntary, it was a lot like one person would lead the group in a short prayer on different occasions throughout the day, and then if you wanted to pay attention you could, you weren't forced to pray or anything like that."

Do you feel like your experience is pretty amongst Christian summer camps?
"Uhm, yea. I have a lot of friends who I met in councilor training who are actually councilors at other camps, and they all tell me that the camps are pretty much identical to each other."

Spiritus Retreat

In my Catholic Community, we have a confirmation obligation which is a one day retreat. This retreat, which is necessary to complete your confirmation, is a day long retreat called Spiritus.

Spiritus is held twice a year, every December and January, and can make an incredible impact on kids going through the confirmation process. Spiritus usually contains sophomores and juniors in high school with the occasional senior making the journey. With the 2015 Spiritus retreat coming this Sunday, I figured it might be worthwhile to explain what takes place on the retreat.

I went during my confirmation, and I also led the retreat as a student for two year (four retreats). It was honestly one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had. The retreat is led by a team of eight students and two adults, with both adults and six of the eight of the students giving a talk. These talks are written weeks in advance and usually contain some pretty incredible insight into some trials or tough times that the speaker has gone through, how they've learned from it, and how they saw God during their entire experience. The talks are meant to show the retreantants that God is much more than scripture or church attendance. He's someone you can talk to, and who is working all the time in your day to day life.

For a lot of these kids, the retreat is the first time that they really are able to realize this, and the change can be very profound for a lot of them. The retreat is also based off of the concept of St. Ignatius and Ignation Spirituality. It is held less than a mile from my house at the Bellarmine Retreat Center, which is one of only 26 Jesuit Retreat centers in the United States.

The retreat starts Sunday from 8am until 7pm. You can fly to Chicago and stop by if you want to see what it's like!

Harvey Carey

Harvey Carey is the senior pastor at the Citadel of Faith church in Detroit Michigan. He's originally a Chicago native, and has created countless youth ministries and initiatives in both the Chicago and Detroit areas, his impact really is immeasurable.

When I got back on Friday night last week, my friend Katharine told me about how she went, one year earlier, to see Harvey Carey preach at Willow Creek church during a midweek service. She couldn't have said a better word about her experience and the way the Carey preaches, so she invited me to come along to his service that just so happened to coincide with my journey home for Thanksgiving.

We went to the service on Wednesday night, and I was absolutely blown away. Harvey talked with such enthusiasm and passion about his faith. The topic was how Happiness differs from Joy, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. If anyone wants to hear more, ask! I'd love to share more about what his service covered, but I feel like a class blog really isn't the place due to people having all kinds of different beliefs.

Willow Creek Community Church

In my recent trip home, I took a few trips to Willow Creek. I had never really gone there for church, as I'm Catholic and have a home parish, but after including it in one of my recent essays, I grew an interest to go to a service. Senior Pastor Bill Hybels was scheduled to speak this weekend so I figured it was a perfect opportunity to see what makes him, and Willow Creek so special.

With their main auditorium holding seating for 7,000. A service there really is something to behold.

I got there a little early, so the picture does look a little empty, but by the time the service had started, it was almost completely full. 

Hybels talked about a Christian "roadtrip" using different places along the trip as an opportunity to discuss different important aspects of the faith, involving things like a bar, a concert hall, a home, the white house, and then ending back up at Willow Creek. The "road trip" was an interesting concept and hit on a lot of cool aspects of faith, it made me understand how, sometimes unlike the Catholic Church, the message is usually very clear cut and easy to understand. It isn't really a deciphering process. 

I'm definitely lucky to have a place like that close to home though. With over 150 new ministry initiatives, you can find almost anything you're looking for. I've had friends who have been involved since elementary school with programs for each age group. 

Jewish Celebration

I can fondly remember a memory that happened in middle school involving a friend named Bryce.

Bryce was turning 13, which marked the tradition of his Bar Mitzvah, and I remember he had a celebration at his house afterwards. I can fondly remember being extremely "middle school upset" about not being invited to that.

I was bummed out, and my seventh grade self was extremely sad about what kinda cool memories I was missing out on that I would later hear about on Monday.

Of course on Monday, just as I suspected, I heard all about how awesome of a time they all had, and Bryce said that he definitely mailed me an invitation.. But the memories still haunt me. Bryce bragged about how much money he was gifted by his family and friends, and we really kinda fell out after that.

We didn't talk since that week until our Junior year of high school, where he became a good workout buddy of mine. He definitely had become a nicer kid since then, and he would always crack jokes about his faith.

"If I hit 225x5 on this bench, they're gonna have to induct me into the Jew Hall of Fame."

New York Man Attacks Jews!

A New York Post article covers the December 1st attack in New York City. Apparently, a Muslim man walked, unprovoked, into a bookstore on the Upper West Side and yelled "Fuck you Jews!" before attacking a 52 year old man who was the manager of the store.

For me, this really just bugs me because of the fact that it was unprovoked and completely unnecessary.

People of all religions should be able to understand that their faith does not promote violence and should not accept violence. It makes me sad that, for no reason at all, someone would feel so compelled to walk into a store, shout profanity and attack the manager just because they share different beliefs.

Now, obviously, I wasn't there and I don't know if there's more to the story than the article reads, but I guess it just gets me hot and bothered.

Si Se Puede America Ferrera!

In an article I came across on The Jerusalem Post, I found out that the star of Ugly Betty and Gotta Kick it Up, America Ferrera, actually wanted to convert to Judaism during her younger years.

You can find the article here and read for yourself.

In short, America was on the Late Night show with Seth Meyers, where she told him about her past of growing up in area where almost every boy she had a crush on was actually Jewish! That drove here to want to covert, as well as the ability to have a bat mitzvah.

Keep on doing your thing, Ugly Betty!

Jewish Space History

An extremely accurate and historical video aiming to inform viewers of the extreme accomplishments and accolades that belong to Israel's Space Program.

Bernie Sanders

The democratic candidate from Vermont that seems to have an incredible following and immense support from the state of Colorado, Bernie Sanders, is actually Jewish! If elected president, he would be the 44th President of the United States, and the first of which to be Jewish.

In an article I came across on the NPR website, I found out that Bernie Sanders is indeed Jewish, even though he really doesn't bring that to his campaign or talk about it at all. The article focuses on his recent visit to Liberty University, a conservative Christian college, and how he spoke afterwards with the Mayor of the town and celebrated the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

Later on in the article, a good friend of Sanders' and a professor of religion at the University of Vermont said that he can see plenty of parallels between some of the main points of Sanders' campaign and the Jewish tradition. Especially when he talks about things like the need for equality, the need for economic opportunities, and the importance of valuing workers.

Feel the Bern. 

2015 URJ North American Biennial

In an article on Yahoo, I saw mention of an upcoming event called the 2015 URJ North American Biennial. It caught my eye so I decided to look it up and see what it meant.

After a quick google search, I found their website, and learned that it's the Union for Reform Judaism North American conference that takes place every other year.

The event itself, often referred to as just "the biennial," is a culmination or gathering of all kinds of Jews throughout the country who desire to come together to learn about their movement and enjoy all sorts of entertainment. Dancing, singing, prayer, and meals are all part of the event which also helps Jews from around the country come together to make decisions about the policies of the Reform movement.

There are speakers and guests from all over the world and within all types of professions, this year the "headliner" is the Vice President of the United States - Joe Biden.

This year, the event will be November 4th-8th in Orlando, Florida.

Interfaith

This past weekend I stumbled across an article about a faith service being held at a Temple that would be host for both Jew's and Catholics. You can read the article here. It's a short article accompanied by a video but it definitely appealed to me about a few topics that we covered in our last unit involving insiders and outsiders and empathetic objectivity.

I've never heard of this kind of service, but it definitely seemed amazingly interesting to me and I would have loved to be able to attend something like that if given the chance. 

Learning About Judaism From a Christian Perspective

As a practicing Christian with a solid Catholic foundation, I was really expecting to disagree or have conflict with a lot of the things that Jew's hold precious. On our visit to the synagogue I really wasn't sure what it was going to be like. Would there be pews like a church? Is it decorated to a theme? Who stands at the alter? Is there music? What do these people do during their worship?

All these preconceived notions and questions about the religion were torn down almost immediately after beginning our study into the religion and visiting Har Hashem. I realized that there seem to be some very strong parallels between the religion I've spent my life practicing and the one that is completely foreign to me.

I took this class because, just like in any choice you make or argument you have, it's always useful to be able to see things from a different perspective and understand what's going on in the minds of those who don't hold the same beliefs as you. In our short study so far I've already gained tremendous understanding and respect for the culture and religion as a whole. Synagogue had some things that seemed strange to me, like the mezuzah hanging from the doorways and the fact that if you drop the Torah you have to have the community fast for a certain number of days, but honestly, I learned a ton about how the processions work and it seemed like almost all of the questions I had were answered. I also noticed parallels in the seating arrangement, the honoring of the dead on the walls (Christians in intersessions), the main alter where the speaker stands, the worship and internal reflection, and also in the beliefs that Jews hold about acting out in times when a situation arrises, and praying to one God to guide them in their earthly journey and forgive them of the wrongs that they have done.

Overall in this class I really am enjoying learning things from a new perspective, as an active member in my Catholic Parish, I really wasn't sure how I would feel or what I would agree and disagree with. But I guess the most important part so far is just to take my own ego and feelings out of the equation and learn to have an open mind to new information.

Globe Med Club Discussion

On Wednesday night, my friend Jack asked me to attend a club with him. The name of the club is called Globe Med. Jack didn't really explain much besides the fact that it was a club centered around providing care for the around the world who are in need. But upon arriving I realized that the club also had a classroom like atmosphere with a goal of informing it's members about issues that different areas of the world struggle with.

The first meeting was centered around Nepal and the poor communities that Globe Med had been funding and will be continuing to fund. So as the club leaders began to describe Nepalian culture, they made it very clear from the start that their religion was a huge part of their identity as individuals and as a whole. Around 86% of the people of Nepal practice Hinduism, with another large portion being Buddhism and the rest scattered evenly.

I know we don't study much of the Hindu culture in our class, but something that interested me is that apparently in Hinduism, you don't necessarily have to believe in something. Rather, you just practice traditions and rituals. They used to the term 'orthoprax' instead of other religions which are 'orthodox.'  People follow these daily rituals and they become part of peoples every day lives, effectively becoming their culture. Each person practices these same rituals and traditions, and it binds them as a community, and each community sharing the same connection binds them as a people.

I just thought this was interesting and related to the topic we discussed during the first week of class about what is needed to have a religion. I learned that one of the largest religions in the world doesn't necessarily believe in a higher power.