LiturgicalCredo.com’s Blog

The Times of London posted an interesting article about Tiger Woods at TimesOnline, which included a good quote about the golfer’s religious life:

Woods does not talk much about the fact that he meditates, something he learnt from Kultida, his mother, who is a Buddhist. “In the Buddhist religion you have to work for it yourself, internally, in order to achieve anything in life and set up the next life,” he said. “It is all about what you do, and you get out of life what you put into it. So you are going to have to work your butt off in every aspect of your life. That is one of the things that people see in what I do on the course.”

Two things are important to me in this quote. First, it expresses the value of meditation in training one’s mind to focus: “you have to work for it yourself, internally, in order to achieve anything in life.” Second, it expresses a view of salvation and afterlife: “[to] set up the next life.”

I have to admit on the second part, I like the Reformed Christian idea that says you cannot work hard enough to set up the next life, therefore accept grace through faith!

On the first part, however, I wonder if some people will confuse the views of salvation and the afterlife with the discipline of meditation. Or, if some will dislike Woods’ views of salvation and the afterlife so much, they’ll dismiss the discipline of meditation. That would be a bad idea. Some research suggests that meditation strengthens the brain.

An article in the June 2007 edition of Men’s Journal addressed meditation techniques in which a person would relax and focus on a repeated phrase. “When Harvard researcher Sara Lazar recently compared the brains of American meditators to a control group, she found that parts of the cortex responsible for attention were on average 5 percent thicker,” according to the article.

And that’s just a piece of the research that’s available on things related to the mind, the brain, focus, attention, and mental discipline. (The emerging field of neurofeedback directly relates to some of these issues; in some cases, neurofeedback helps participants create a meditative focus.)

“Parents and teachers tell kids 100 times a day to pay attention, said Philippe R. Goldin, a Stanford University researcher, last year in a New York Times article about “mindfulness training” in schools. ”But we never teach them how.”

Certainly non-Buddhists will want to proceed with caution, but there is some evidence that certain types of meditation and focused attention will be beneficial in ways that have nothing to do with views of salvation and the afterlife.

Meanwhile, I really like the following segment from this post by Pastor Jimmy Fuller of Harbour Lake Baptist Church in Goose Creek, S.C. (complimenting a Baptist — might be a first for this blog!):

Speaking of golf, I watched Tiger woods lose his first golf tournament of this season last weekend. I must say that I was disappointed that he didn’t win. Though Tiger and I would disagree theologically, he, a Buddhist and I, a Christian, I have to say that I admire many things about him. First of all I salute him on the basis of his character. He is a great role model for kids and adults alike when it comes to character. And his character came from a great relationship with his mother and father as he was growing up, particularly his father Earl Woods. Tiger said about his dad, “My dad has always taught me these words: care and share. That’s why we put on clinics. The only thing I can do is try to give back. … it works, it works.” Someone asked tiger about being a role model and he commented, “I think it’s an honor to be a role model to one person or maybe more than that. If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person’s life in a positive light, and that’s what I want to do. That’s what it’s all about.” And when it comes right down to it, all of us are role models to someone—our children, our family, or friends, our neighbors. We should never treat that as though it were a small matter. We influence them either positively or negatively, but influence them we will. And our influence on others will have a definite impact on the lives of those know and love. Remember, “Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” (Gal. 6:7)I also admire Tiger for his work ethic. He didn’t get to be the number one ranked golfer in the world by being lazy and irresponsible. He worked at it. He spent (and still spends) long, disciplined hours on the practice range honing the skill and talent that God has given him. And why?—Simply to be the best. Tiger was quoted as saying, “That’s why I’ve busted my butt on the range for hours on end and made changes to get to this point where I’m able to compete at the highest level in major championships. That’s where you want to be.” There is no doubt that Tiger desires to be the best. We too should desire to be the best at what ever we do. It honors God, it honors our family, and it honors us individually. I am teaching my grandchildren to say and believe someone is going to be the best—it may as well be me!

I really liked that last line: “someone is going to be the best — it may as well be me!”

-Colin Foote Burch

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From the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America:

“Dispensing with dirge-y ballads and long musical bridges to nowhere, Accelerate clocks in at a frenzied 35 minutes, with five of the 11 tracks zooming by in under-3-min., leave-the-room-and-you-missed-it blurs. It sounds less like a recent R.E.M. album than three men fleeing the scene of a recent R.E.M. album.”
-Josh Tyrangiel, writing in the April 7 edition of Time

Order Accelerate.

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Here is an excellent post about science and faith — better than my own post today about evolution, creationism, and Intelligent Design.

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Hot button! 

“[S]exual hypocrisy is fairly widespread. That might not be a bad thing; after all, it is said that the man who isn’t a hypocrite has either no sin or no morals. You might argue that if the former is impossible, hypocrisy is preferable to the latter.”

Read the full article by Arthur C. Brooks, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, here.

Then click the comment button here to tell us what you think.

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Even though Intelligent Design’s moment in the public spotlight seems to have passed, what follows is a clarification of the I.D. position from the Winter 2008 edition of Salvo, a magazine that mostly retreads old-school Christian apologetics.

It’s not that I buy into so-called I.D. I have been persuaded of an evolutionary view through the work of Dr. Francis C. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, and oddly enough, a convinced Christian who came to faith through reading C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Everyone, of any point of view, should read Collins’ book The Language of God.

But for basic clarity and fairness, the I.D. position needs to be understood on its own terms, not as thinly veiled creationism.

Here are three points that Salvo made, worth understanding if you care about understanding the debate:

What I.D. is Not

“I.D. Is Creationism:” You’ve no doubt heard this one numerous times. In reality, this is flat-out false. The average creationist believes in a young earth, biblical literalism, and the complete absence of evidence for evolutionary processes. The I.D. proponent, on the other hand, rejects — or at the very least suspends speculation on — all three of these convictions, maintaining only that there are reasons to conclude that life was designed; how it was designed or by whom both lie beyond the I.D. theorist’s field of inquiry.

“The Opponents of I.D. Are Evolutionists:” Wrong again. It is primarily the scientific naturalist — or Darwinist — with whom I.D. advocates take issue. The difference? Scientific naturalism is a philosophical position that assumes an entirely materialistic origin to the universe — a faith claim for which Darwinists have no proof whatsoever — while evolutionary theory is a multifaceted set of assertions that attempts to account for the present diversity of life here on Earth, some specific aspects of which most I.D. scientists accept as fact.

“I.D. Is a ‘God of the Gaps’ Theory:” The contention here is that I.D. merely offers holes in evolutionary theory as evidence for God. Once again, this is a gross mischaracterization. The science of I.D. is not simply to study gaps in evolution but to study products of design — to examine biological phenomena to see whether they exhibit the characteristics of design beyond a shadow of a doubt. I.D. scientists only appeal to an intelligent designer because that is where their research points. It is absolutely not a default position.

That second-to-last sentence sounds disengenuous. I imagine there are not many in the I.D. movement who had no inkling of a designer prior to their research. That being said, researchers and scientists frequently begin with assumptions.

The bigger point, I think, is that there is a big difference between young-earth creationists and Intelligent-Design proponents.

I bet if the I.D. proponents had made their approach through philosophy and the history of ideas, rather than science, and allowed their work to gain credibility on the university level and then trickle down, in its own way, to secondary education, they might have gotten further.

After all, as the folks at Salvo said, “Scientific naturalism is a philosophical position….”

And even Collins believes God kicked it all off; the award-winning physicist Paul Davies describes something like God behind the beginning of the universe; John Polkinghorne is an acclaimed physicist who happens to be an Anglican priest, too.

Read The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

-Colin Foote Burch

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In Google ads, sometimes a keyword — any keyword — from a given Web page will be automatically plugged into an advertisement. Here are two cells from a Google ad I saw today, copied from a page with anti-cult information:   

What if there was a conservative Christian organization that stated its opposition to the ideas of progressive groups – and then praised the intellectual strength of those same groups and lauded the professional achievements of the groups’ leaders? Wouldn’t that be a mark of thorough-going love, blessing, and tolerance, without compromising one’s own beliefs?

I’m referring to the words of Jesus Christ: “Love your enemies. Bless those who persecute you.”

Those commandments were never, ever, obeyed in the public rhetoric of the largest religious-right groups — while some of those Christian-conservative leaders still tell us how important the Bible is. This reveals the real purpose of the Bible in many religious-right groups. Put it this way: “If your only tool is a hammer, everything is a nail,” as a friend of mine, Dr. Archie Johnson, likes to say. The Bible is a hammer in many such groups, and people with differing views are the nails (not created beings who also bear the image of God).

Furthermore, for many churchgoers, “blessing” someone involves prayers and statements rather than practical action, so publicly complimenting worthy (even not-so-worthy) human opponents will probably never happen.

Other religions are having problems with tolerance, and in other countries, religious intolerance goes beyond words.

“Hindutva [Hindu nationalist] extremists stormed two Easter Sunday services and beat at least 16 Christians, including two pastors, in Karnataka’s state capital of Bangalore and in Shimoga district,” reported Compass Direct News on Tuesday.

Of course it’s not just India. Violence happens within the cultural confluences of our times, in places like The Netherlands. Today, in this Wall Street Journal op-ed column, Peter Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote:

The Netherlands is bracing for a new round of violence at home and against its embassies in the Middle East. The storm would be caused by “Fitna,” a short film that is scheduled to be released this week. The film, which reportedly includes images of a Quran being burned, was produced by Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament and leader of the Freedom Party. Mr. Wilders has called for banning the Quran — which he has compared to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” — from the Netherlands.

After concern about the film led Mr. Wilders’s Internet service provider to take down his Web site, Mr. Wilders issued a statement this week that he will personally distribute DVDs “On the Dam” if he has to. That may not be necessary, as the Czech National Party has reportedly agreed to host the video on its Web site.

Reasonable men in free societies regard Geert Wilders’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, and films like “Fitna,” as disrespectful of the religious sensitivities of members of the Islamic faith. But free societies also hold freedom of speech to be a fundamental human right. We don’t silence, jail or kill people with whom we disagree just because their ideas are offensive or disturbing….

In 1989, when so-called artist Andres Serrano displayed his work “Piss Christ” — a photo of a crucifix immersed in a bottle of urine — Americans protested peacefully and moved to cut off the federal funding that supported Mr. Serrano. There were no bombings of museums. No one was killed over this work that was deeply offensive to Christians.

Criticism of Islam, however, has led to violence and murder world-wide. Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie over his 1988 book, “The Satanic Verses.”…

While numerous Muslims have moved into the Netherlands in recent years, the ultimate source of social and cultural change springs from the commitments of individual hearts. When real violence occurs, like the slaying of the Dutch filmmaker Theodoor van Gogh at the hands of an angry Muslim in 2004, it’s almost impossible to imagine how the call to love enemies and bless persecutors should relate to one’s obligation to protect child, spouse, and neighbor. Public policy gets sticky and difficult to navigate. But maybe there is some room on the margins of our experiences to risk loving and blessing people who represent a possible theat. That’s one way to get to someone’s heart, where real changes take place.

-Colin Foote Burch

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While Sen. Barak Obama has been under fire for his relationship to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action.org says the media seems to have missed the considerable “pastor problems” of Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Read Wilson’s post here. In one respect, what Wilson is saying sounds unlikely and extreme. Then again, he references articles in Mother Jones, The Nation, Harper’s, and The Los Angeles Times, as well as an upcoming book.

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Based on a review posted at The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, this book might have some interesting perspectives and conceptual tools for thinking critically about our times: Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends (Baker Academic, 2007). The review, written by Paul Macdonald of Bucknell University, is available here.

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