tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9684236.post114605826873508396..comments2023-10-16T06:10:24.969-04:00Comments on Julie Unplugged: Karen Armstrong RepriseAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00088119765077193302noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9684236.post-1146143252494791002006-04-27T09:07:00.000-04:002006-04-27T09:07:00.000-04:00Hello, Julie, a fellow Cincy-ite here, I found you...Hello, Julie, a fellow Cincy-ite here, I found your blog by link hopping.<BR/><BR/>I belong to a contemplative prayer group that is largely nuns, and a few of them went to hear Karen speak (I was at Bart Campolo's discussion group, if this occurred on Tuesday night).<BR/><BR/>The nuns talked in our prayer group about the similarities between religions, but in illustrating this with the use of prayer beads in Catholism and other religions, I feel they hit on a chink in the theory ~ I'm Protestant, and do not use beads when I pray. Nor do the Jews that I know. <BR/><BR/>What about us? Are we to be left out of the world's religions unifying, if we don't buckle down and produce beads for prayer? <BR/><BR/>It tends to be a trait among religions and religious thought to segregate and divide without perhaps realizing they're doing so. Which is what Jesus meant, I suppose, when he mentioned that he would end up pitching brother against brother.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, good blog. Thanks for sharing.Christine Boleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11898338520193338598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9684236.post-1146108166703048282006-04-26T23:22:00.000-04:002006-04-26T23:22:00.000-04:00Thanks, Julie, for the details of Armstrong's pres...Thanks, Julie, for the details of Armstrong's presentation. I wish I could have been there. I really enjoyed reading "The History of God" a few years back. I need to dig in to some of her other books. Is there a Xavier web site that posts info on such events? I already had Tuesday night booked by the time I heard about the talk.<BR/><BR/>Her observations about using rituals and disciplines for maintaining health is interesting - I've heard some similar angles regarding the detailed regulations in the Torah. One person went as far as to say that with mankind in a "young" stage, God needed to provide these rules and regulations for their own protection. Not sure I buy that one :-) Also, it seems that at some stage the original reasons for a particular practice may no longer be valid, and it is time for a faith to reshape it's traditions.<BR/><BR/>I know what you mean about trying to quit religion/spirituality and not being able to - kind of like flypaper sometimes.<BR/><BR/>Sounds like the issue of transformation within Islam has some parallels with the need for transformation within Christianity. And I agree that religious and personal freedoms and freedom from privation play huge roles in the shape that faith takes on. <BR/><BR/>Any idea what characterizes your professor friend's "truer version of Islam".Chuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11530201411426535300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9684236.post-1146059136195636432006-04-26T09:45:00.000-04:002006-04-26T09:45:00.000-04:00When we had our cheese and crackers, I wondered al...When we had our cheese and crackers, I wondered aloud to our professor friend how it is that a billion Muslims don't "get it" about Islam while the professors and academic community of the west seem to see it in a much more favorable light.<BR/><BR/>He said what I've heard others say - that reformation of Islam will come from the west, not from the east. There is a famous quote (I forget by whom) that says that you will find Islam in Paris but no Muslims while you will find Muslims in Cairo but no Islam.<BR/><BR/>The point is that practice of the faith in the host countries where faith is the institutionalized law of the land seems to be less accurately perceived and practiced than it is in the west where it is a minority faith.<BR/><BR/>This begs the question: what about the west fosters a truer version of Islam? And of course we can see immediately that part of it is being in countries where there is freedom of religion, freedom of the press, speech, widespread education (of men and women) as well as freedom from privation (being poor undermines much in life and creates a hardship mentality in relation to the powers of the country - so if religion and state are married, it's easier to see both as at fault).<BR/><BR/>Still the main point my professor friend made was that Islam is beautiful when practiced correctly and that it is very difficult to imagine what it would take for the entire Muslims world to be transformed.<BR/><BR/>The first night of the series, Farroq Kathwari (CEO Ethan Allen) said that the first task of the Muslim world is to re-educate its own people. While the west is culpable in creating social and economic conditions that have made these countries continue to be "one down" in their global status, the onus for reshaping how Islam is understood and practiced is on Muslims. Additionally, the stereotypes that the Muslims have of the west are just as inaccurate as ours are of them. I appreciated his saying this outright.<BR/><BR/>Karen did not say outright that we are responsible for the problems of interpretation of the faith among Muslims, but she did make a strong connection between our history of colonialism and economic exploitation of the region that have created corrupt governments that have then perpetuated wrong thinking about the faith itself, which then is reinforced by western prejudice and foreign policy that causes fundamentalism or militantism to be attractive interpretations of the faith. This nuance made some sense to me and I'm glad she gave it.<BR/><BR/>Finally (wow, this is getting too long), I think what came home to me last night was that perhaps what precedes real change is changed expectations. If we begin with the idea that Islam is not a religion of violence and we stop fighting a "war on Islam" itself, perhaps we will begin to foster and support those expressioins that are more moderate and that can have some kind of ripple effect.<BR/><BR/>I'm more convinced than ever, though, that I'll be long dead before we see a drastic change in how the faith is understood and applied around the globe.<BR/><BR/>But change can begin with me, as they said in the sixties. :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00088119765077193302noreply@blogger.com