Art Project during Bible Study?

Freshman Stephanie Schauder expalins how art and interpretation can display different points of view on a single Biblical text.

Recently at Methodist College Fellowship we engaged in a new activity to explore our creative impulses.  First we listened to Ashley Thomas, the campus minister, read a Psalm out loud, each person listening for words or phrases that resonated most with them at that particular time.  Psalm 139 is a long passage with much room for individuals to choose very different themes to explore.  Once everyone had contemplated the verse, we got to play.  There were glue sticks and paper of every color.  There were no rules.  We were not restricted from talking, but there was not much dialogue because everyone was engaged in such deep concentration.  I began to rip up the paper as I contemplated the Psalm’s section about God’s incomprehensible knowledge.  For at least thirty minutes I ripped and crumpled and glued paper.   I am not sure what exactly I made when my creation was complete, but it seemed to represent the thoughts in my mind in a way I could never express them in words.

I had not paid much attention to what other people were doing throughout this process, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to share our creations at the end.  I was so startled that everyone seemed to take something completely different from this single verse.  We had images of hope, fear, and awe.  Some people chose to rip the paper into small bits, and some chose to use big chunks.  Some chose a two-dimensional display and some experimented with texture, crumpled paper, and pop-up images.  One person even modeled her creation on the same phrase that I did, but our results were entirely different.  In general, I was overwhelming impressed by the beauty of each person’s creation and the meaning behind it.

This exercise helped me to realize that even though we may all be reading the same text, our own beliefs, circumstances, and past experiences can lead us to interpret this text in completely different ways.  Even having this knowledge, it is still not easy to see exactly how our own thoughts and feelings can affect us.  Just as I was not able to convey exactly what was spinning through my mind as I created my image, I have to believe that my friends’ explanations of their images were only limited to the aspects they could articulate.  This activity was both a creative outlet, and an insight into the workings of the mind.  I often assume that other people reason the same way I do, but this exercise reinforced that we are wonderfully unique and insightful in our own ways.

The Art of Presenting Zen

Sophomore Gabe Perlow reflects on his visit to a Zen Meditation Center.

Finger snaps and cliché comments frequently accompany what folks find an insightful, illuminating statement made with simple language and laced with interesting paradox—and they call it Zen.  Before my trip out to a Zen center with the Chaplain’s Office, I was a frequent offender of such a glib reference to what I now know has been a significant component of an enormous number of people’s lives for centuries.  Our time at the Zendo, the name given to the building in which this particular variety of meditation occurs, was full to the brim with intriguing details about the daily life of Zen Buddhist practice.  I’ll point out a few highlights for the reader wanting to get to the meat of the matter, but I implore anyone interested to sit a while with one of the participants to get a more complete story.

I was most anxious about the presentation, to the point of cringing (hopefully just inwardly) when the Zen leader named Sandy shuffled into the Zendo.  What I feared was being offered I had wryly termed as “Zen for sale”, an amusement park style intro to Zen for the sake of entertaining us college kids.  What we actually received caught me off guard.  My fears were slowly dispelled as Sandy, in his way of speaking that was akin to a rivulet of water moving over dry sand, presented some basic pieces of the history of the practice.  He described the various schools of Zen that developed and became popularized, making particular mention of the transliteration/translation of the writings from Japanese to Chinese.  Another point he focused on was the sheer volume of primary literature and critical speculation that has made it through the ages.  Sandy did not make a pitch for Zen to be adopted by everyone in the world, nor did he attempt to summarize a practice that thrives on infinities in concept, and lifetimes of contemplation in reality.  He was perfectly happy to confirm the adorable proclamation of the daughter of the caretakers of the Zen center: “everyone is Buddha!”, without trying to condense the truth of that statement into a cheesy souvenir of an explanation.

During our stay, we participated in two meditation sessions consisting of alternating seated and walking meditation as well as chanting.  The guidance we had received unlocked for us to ability to use these sessions to discover what about the method resonated with us on a level unspoken.  While Sandy and his colleagues were happy to engage our most persistent and thorough questioning, they did not seem anxious to leave a lasting impression on us if we didn’t seek it.  What a relief.  To me, that showed humility, confidence, and spoke to the power of a school of thought that, unlike modern political parties and pop culture icons, does not feel the need to constantly redefine and reinforce its validity.  Zen indeed.

‘Woodstock For Atheists’: A Moment For Nonbelievers

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

March 23, 2012

Thousands of people are expect to descend on the Mall in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to celebrate not believing in God. It’s being called a sort of “Woodstock for Atheists,” a chance for atheists to show their power in numbers and change their image.

The “Reason Rally” could attract up to 30,000 people; organizer David Silverman says it marks a coming-of-age for nonbelievers.

“We’ll look back at the Reason Rally as one of the game-changing events when people started to look at atheism and look at atheists in a different light,” Silverman says.

Silverman, president of American Atheists, says this is a celebration, with famous atheists like Richard Dawkins, funny atheists like Eddie Izzard, and musical atheists like the rock group Bad Religion, who sings about “a careless creation where there’s no above …”

But the main point of the rally, Silverman says, is not to tweak the faithful. It’s to encourage closeted atheists to take heart.

“The message is that if you can come out, you can out come out,” he says. “And if you can’t come out, at least you’ll know you’re not alone, and maybe sometime soon you’ll be able to come out of the closet to your family.”

‘Coming Out Of The Closet’

Silverman says this is their moment, as important to atheists as the Stonewall riots were to the gay-rights movement four decades ago. But fellow nonbeliever Hemant Mehta says it’s not easy to reveal your nonbelief. Atheism has an image problem.

“Every time you hear the word atheist in the media, there’s always an adjective before it,” he says. “It’s always angry atheist, militant atheist, staunch atheist. It’s never happy, smiling atheist.”

Mehta, who writes a blog called The Friendly Atheist, says openly dismissing God in the most religious country in the West requires courage: You risk losing friends, family and even jobs because of your nonbelief. In poll after poll, he says, people say they don’t like atheists; one showed that people think an atheist is more likely to steal than a rapist.

“People have this notion that atheists are immoral, not trustworthy, unelectable,” Mehta says. “How do you change that at such a huge level? It starts by people everywhere just coming out of the closet as atheists.”

Mehta helps run an atheist charity, and he’s been invited to megachurches, such as Willow Creek near Chicago, to explain why he doesn’t believe in God. He says atheists need to take a page from the gay-rights movement: If people know and love an atheist, they’ll be less likely to stigmatize them.

Tension Within Movement

But not everyone thinks that’s the best approach.

“I’m not sure it is to atheists’ benefit to always present a kinder, gentler face,” says Greta Christina, a prominent atheist blogger and author of a new book called Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off The Godless.

Christina says there’s a tension in the movement. On one side are what she calls “firebrands,” such as Oxford biologist Dawkins, who has called some believers “staggeringly ignorant” and “insane.” On the other are the “diplomats,” such as Mehta, who deliver the same message of a Godless universe — but politely. Christina says every modern social movement — civil rights, feminism, gay rights — had the same tension, and you need both.

“We certainly want to let people know, again, we’re your friends, we’re your neighbors, we’re good people,” she says. “But I think it’s also to our benefit to let people know that we’re to be reckoned with, that we’re not going to let ourselves be doormats, and that we’re mobilized, we’re organized, and when people get us angry, we’re going to take action.”

For example, nearly 300 atheists will meet with staffers at the House and Senate this week, partly to lobby and partly to show their numbers.

Silverman, of American Atheists, says atheists have time and momentum on their side. He says the fastest-growing segment of religion in the U.S. is no religion — people who identify as atheist, agnostic or secular. Just look at Canada and parts of Europe, Silverman says; religion there is going “extinct.”

“I believe America is not far behind,” he says. “I believe in two decades, we will be in a position where secularism is the norm.”

That would be great, says Christina. But in the meantime, she has a more immediate goal. She wants to go to the Reason Rally and have a good time.

“This is going to be the event that you don’t want to have missed out on,” she says. “You don’t want 10 years from now to say, ‘I could have gone to the Reason Rally and I didn’t because I had to do my laundry.’ “

Just like Woodstock, she says. She only hopes it doesn’t rain.

Original Article: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/23/149021993/woodstock-for-atheists-a-moment-for-nonbelievers?sc=fb&cc=fp

Answers in Action

Freshman Kathryn Kemp explores the question, “Why Interfaith?” 

Since the time you first began to talk, questions have been inescapable.   Your first words may have included “mama, papa”, or some convoluted form of the family pet’s name, and surely your parents were in awe of how much you learned as well as making a point to tell every living relative.  But one day the show-stopping word came along that jumpstarted learning for the rest of your life:

“Why?”

While back then you were probably more concerned with the reasons why ice cream wasn’t a major food group rather than with the nature of the known universe, this pesky little question lies at the root of academic inquiry and the root of religious faith for countless people around the globe in our the search for ultimate explanations about the world around us.  Over four days in early October, I joined a group of fellow Davidson students as we abandoned the how’s and why’s of academics and instead dove into the realm of religion, faith, and ultimate questions.  Through visiting the various houses of worship in Washington, DC, I gained a renewed respect for the ways that all religious faith traditions provide not only an avenue for answers but a sense of connection, community, and purpose for each individual within their life.

In addition to exploring the Jewish, Hindu, Orthodox and Islamic traditions, we participated in multiple service projects throughout the city, including preparing food at a homeless shelter and volunteering at the elderly community center.  As I thought about how these projects connected to my own faith journey, I began to realize how service and action in the face of pain are inextricably connected to any expression of faith.  As we grow, face hardships, and recognize the struggles of others all around us, that pesky little question rears it’s head again; “Why does this happen?  How can such pain exist in a divine universe? Where was God?”

Well, maybe a better question is… where were we?

Often times having complete and infallible answers to these ultimate questions becomes so important in our minds that we forget that how crucial our own action is to their resolution.  We can ask and ponder all day long, but it is only in taking action for the good of others that we are truly responding to this divine challenge of humanity.  While wandering through the church that served as our our home base throughout the trip, I came across a passage posted on the wall which related perfectly to our journey in the city.  Written by Rachel Remen, it read: “Service rests on the basic premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose. Fundamentally, helping, fixing and service are ways of seeing life. When you help you see life as weak, when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole.”

Interfaith learning and action embodies this mission of service, as it honors the “whole-ness” of others, no matter their differences in daily hardships, cultural practices or religious views.  Revering the common connections within humanity is the foundation of compassion and of the healing process, and with this attitude of service we recognize that the work of our hands is a fundamental way we express the divine good.   Yes, at the end of the day, we might still have questions.   We might choose to answer them differently.  But rather than a pop quiz in which we hope to earn a gold star, faith is a journey, a holy mystery in which we all take part.  And it is often the hardships in life that force us to look past our own opinions, beliefs, and disagreements, and instead work together to end the struggle, honoring life as whole.

“Why” might you ask?

Because in order to overcome it, we all have to believe that love, compassion and community are stronger than anything that makes us different.

That’s why.

Plural in the USA

On January 12th-15th, three students of Davidson College (Gracie Dover, Alexis Grant, and Sarah Jordan) as well as Tae Sun Kim, the director of the Multicultural House, attended an Interfaith Leadership Institute with the Interfaith Youth Core to learn more about interfaith action and the Better Together movement. During one of the sessions, a guest speaker Hannah Minks sang a parody of Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.” “Plural in the USA” embodies the essence of the Interfaith movement. Make sure to check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrDVwj0y65s! Enjoy Interfaithing.

Institute of Southern Jewish Life

 The Institute of Southern Jewish Life was developed in 1986 to provide educational and rabbinic services to Jewish communities in the Sout as well as promoting the Jewish presence in a thirteen state region. Here is their January newsletter: ISJL January 2012 Newsletter. Make sure to check out the article on the third page about Tu B’shvat, a holiday occuring on February 8th, a Jewish Arbor Day. For more inforemation about the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, visit here.

Disproving Lofty Notions

Sophomore Jessica Annonio redefines her interpretation of the word “interfaith.”

The last morning of the Fall Break Interfaith Trip, I became a conglomeration of paradoxes. I was exhausted and invigorated from a weekend of sprinting from one activity to the next. I was simultaneously engaged and analytical of the houses of worship we visited, the individuals we encountered, and the service projects we performed. Yet I was left wondering what the purpose of our weekend was.  Prior to this trip, I theoretically knew the importance of interfaith cooperation—to promote tolerance across faith traditions—and I had hoped that this trip would provide some clarity to my confusion.

Then we went to CIFA, the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty, to learn more about the intersection of faith and politics. CIFA is a non-profit international government organization whose purpose is to bring together religious leaders and their followers within the same African nation for the good of the community. One of CIFA’s original initiatives involves coordinating Christian and Islamic  leaders in Nigeria to encourage their followers to use bed nets properly as the family sleeps to so as to prevent the spread of malaria; they are seeing remarkable success rates within this program. In addition, they are empowering women in rural Africa to become educated and equal with the men in the region. Plus they are coordinating several additional initiatives. The most incredible part? They have only been in existence for three years.

As soon as we rang the doorbell to their office located within the National Cathedral, I knew this was going to be an entirely different experience from the rest of the trip. A staff member shepherded us into the upper recesses of the cathedral, and we arrived in a rearranged conference room to a warm reception of snacks and drinks. Another staff member greeted us and invited us to make ourselves comfortable as he finished setting up the presentation.  Once it commenced, it was clear that he had put hours of careful preparation prior to our arrival. Halfway through a third staff member took over and finished the perfectly planned presentation. As it concluded, the remaining staff we had not yet met arrived, and we had the chance to ask any and every question we could think of for the next half hour. Through all of this, the team remained energized, upbeat, and well organized. In every response they gave it was clear that the entire staff is passionate about their work, and that they all strongly desired to be working for CIFA. Some were fresh out of college, some had given up corporate jobs, and others came out of retirement for this organization, and no one regretted their decision.

In my experience, the word “interfaith” comes with this lofty, abstract, and pretentious reputation. During this past summer when I said that I was gaining a greater interest in “interfaith action,” my family and friends would indicate with their quizzical looks that they needed a better explanation of exactly what I meant. Sometimes the search for a clear definition of interfaith is not much better because it includes other elusive words. It is hard to put a tangible definition on this abstract concept, let alone figure out how it could be applied to real life. But this is exactly what CIFA did. They managed to take this lofty and pretentious word and give it tangible, concrete meaning and get others to invest in their ideas over three short years. My experience at CIFA dissipated my sense of confusion and provided that sense of purpose I needed to obtain before the conclusion of this trip. It gave me a tangible result of what the passion of a few individuals could do within today’s globalized society. Finally, CIFA transformed my previous misconceptions of the lofty, abstract, and pretentious adjective “interfaith” into a tangible noun that is now accompanied by CIFA’s stories of working for the common good.

Chaplains Wanted For Atheists in Foxholes

The NPR Staff presented this article on their Radio Show, All Things Considered, on December 4, 2011.  

Retired Army captain and Iraqi war veteran Jason Torpy says the chaplains employed by the U.S. military can’t relate to people like him. He’s an atheist.

He’s also the president of a group that’s trying to get the armed forces to become more inclusive by  hiring atheist chaplains.  The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers wants the military to provide for the estimated 40,000 atheists,  agnostics and humanists who serve in U.S. forces.

Military chaplains, most of whom are Protestant Christians, are assigned  many secular advising duties, including marriage, family and suicide  counseling, Torpy  tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. They touch so many parts of service members’ lives, he says, they can help improve what he sees as an environment of exclusion.

“That lack of connection to atheist and humanist communities, the lack of recognition or support for atheists and humanists — that implication can be solved primarily through the chaplains’ corps,” he says.

Torpy says he has felt excluded in the military because of his beliefs. Once, before his unit deployed on a mission, the commander gathered everyone together for a Christian prayer.

“So I had to opt myself out of that situation, to out myself because this commander took it upon himself to have a personal religious activity in the midst of a military mission,” he says.

While some might wonder what role atheists could fill in the chaplaincy, Torpy says they would be able to do the same job as any other chaplain who assists someone with different beliefs.

“There are individuals that, they don’t have those traditional religious perspectives, and some of those individuals want to serve as officers in the military,” he says. “That’s how they want to serve the nation, to do chaplain work, and they can do that in a way that Christians can’t do it.”

So far, he says, he’s gotten a tepid response from the Chaplain Corps generals. They haven’t shown any interest in seriously pursuing his proposal, but they haven’t made a flat-out refusal.

“If they do that,” he says, “they’re saying that we are going to exclude and take no time to understand a certain subset of the population.”

The Greatest Gift

Junior Jennie Endersby explains the importance of Operation Christmas Child to her and to those that the program impacts.

On Reading Day Eve, a group of Davidson students and supporters of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Methodist College Fellowship spent four hours at the Operation Christmas Child processing center in Charlotte. This trip was the culmination of several weeks’ work of preparation and packaging. Yet this type of work was a fun and refreshing break from the end-of-semester studies.

Operation Christmas Child is a Samaritan’s Purse organization that distributes gifts to kids across the globe who otherwise would not receive presents for Christmas. These gifts come in the form of shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies, hygiene products, and other small items. In addition to the boxes, the kids receive “The Greatest Gift” booklet in their language that narrates some principal Bible stories. These kids can then choose to embark on a twelve-lesson Bible study, where they have the opportunity to learn about and accept Jesus as their Savior and receive a New Testament upon completion.

Personally, I have enjoyed packaging boxes for Operation Christmas Child ever since I heard about it three years ago. I respect that OCC is so meticulous, informed, and organized. At the processing center, every volunteer’s job is specific and necessary, from taping closed each box in an assembly line to bagging candy in a special station. In addition, each evening, the boxes in the center are prepared for two countries. Consequently, each box can be specifically inspected with those two places in mind. For example, boxes for some countries cannot include anything pig-related, such as a Winnie the Pooh toy, or anything bearing an American flag or the name USA. In general, food and chocolate, liquids, army-related toys, and money are taken out of boxes in order to protect the box and the child. However, I appreciate that these items are not thrown away but rather sorted and given to local shelters and charities. The money goes towards shipping the boxes. Moreover, one of my favorite parts of preparing for this event was shopping for boxes, putting them together, and personalizing each one with my own selected items for a specific gender and age. So I appreciate that rather than removing the specified articles, the inspectors must keep each box as they found it.

However, more important than the gifts themselves, these boxes instigate kids’ curiosity to discover the greatest gift of Christ’s sacrifice for humankind. As a result of the change in these kids’ lives, many of their friends and parents also start coming to church and eventually accept Christ. To know that each box has been made with love, prayed for, and knowledgeably inspected gives me faith that the box will bring nothing but good news to the child on the receiving end. I realize that our role in preparing these boxes is only the first step of this journey, but I thank God that I and other Davidson students and OCC volunteers can play any part in transforming not only these kids’ lives but possibly our own.

If you have any questions about the former article, contant Jennie here.                       For more information about Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan’s Purse, visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/.

Reflections, chronologically

Senior Austin Totty reflects on his experience of the Interfaith Fall Break Trip using poetry.

(9:47 am, Saturday)

In this place there is purpose.

Life to give to life desperate for it

and a piece of bread.

Smile at the old woman and her

grandchild, coloring.

(2:09 am, Monday)

In this place there is purpose.

Tired eyes and open ears until

two in the morning.

Union in distinction and submission

to difference.

(10:15 pm, Monday)

Happiness is chopping

1000 lbs of carrots

and a sandwich in the hand of a

retired boxer.

Truth is “I’m hungry”

in the eyes and

“how could we let this happen?”

in the gut.

(3:56 am, Thursday)

Purpose is weapons down,

together, different,

us, them,

grab a bagel and some coffee,

there’s work to do.