The results of an interesting study published in the Journal of the American Medical Society reveal that religious beliefs have an impact on end-of-life decisions patients make with regard to intensive, life-prolonging care. For example, on average those Christians who believe fervently in miracles are more likely to want to prolong their lives in hopes of being the beneficiary of one.
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Jesus said, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?” (John 18.37b-38).
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“Despite suggestions that the economic recession might cause religiosity among Americans to increase, there has been no evident change over the past 15 months in either Americans' self-reported church attendance or the importance of religion in their daily lives. Forty-two percent on average have reported attending church every week or nearly every week during that time, and 65% have reported that religion is important in their daily lives. These results are based on an analysis of more than 425,000 interviews Gallup has conducted since January 2008.”
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Novelist Mischa Berlinski, whose 2007 debut novel Fieldwork contained religious themes and was nominated for a National Book Award, recently commented in an interview about his own religious views: “I don’t think my spiritual life has much to do with my writing life. I don’t think my [spiritual views] are particularly interesting to others, or even necessarily true” (quoted in Books & Culture, January/February 2008).
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It interests me that a fairly common barrier some people have to a more robust prayer life is reticence in praying to God for very personal, concrete matters. To pray for God’s will, courage, or peace? Sure, because they are broad and perhaps generalized kinds of prayers. But to pray for all the cancer cells to be gone from the body; to pray about personal finances in a month when it seems impossible to pay all the bills; to pray for a specific issue in one’s marriage… these seem to be to audacious, if not presumptuous. Doesn’t God have more important things to worry about – like world peace – then my little old problems and issues?
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While certain forms of Buddhist prayer practice may not be incompatible with Christianity, how one squares essential Buddhist theology with the Incarnation (and any number of other core Christian beliefs) is a mystery to me. That the data indicate this particular diocese is already moribund is not so mysterious to me. See link to news article below.
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Rodney Stark of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion and Gary A. Tobin of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research (cited above) consider data from recent study of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
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“Jesus was a Palestinian? That's what one public school textbook says. Although Jesus lived in a region known in his time as Palestine, the use of the term ‘Palestinian,’ with its modern connotations, is among the hundreds of textbook flaws cited in a recent five-year study of educational anti-Semitism detailed in the book The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion.”
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The recent Academy Awards gave me pause to consider the best films I have seen in the past year. Alas, it was not one of this year’s nominated movies for Best Feature Film. But it is one that won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2006: The Lives of Others. It is tempting to shy away from movies with sub-titles, especially when one is renting a DVD to watch on a television screen. This movie more than rewards the time and effort.
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