"De-coding" the Power of Literature

We talked about questing, or searching for religious truth through the Internet, in class. We also found that often times these quests end with people finding information from people who feel the same way as they do about religion. I want to explore how literature aids, or halts questing for religious truth.

When people think of religion and literature, The DaVinci Code comes to mind. Its deep and detailed storyline was something that readers grasped on to. However, it was the book's controversial material that really put the book ahead in the race for religious truth. The controversy has created quite a stir among the religious. As we have learned

in class many study groups and religious classes have been created based solely on this book. Some have taken the popularity of the book and used it to create Web Sites that allegedly dispel the rumors and lay down the truth about Mary Magdalene and other DaVinci Code falsehoods. Below is an example of such a Web Site. The creator and content manager of this site have dedicated a large amount of time to "de-coding" The DaVinci Code. Most of the content is in response to the book and the claims that it makes about the Catholic church and Mary Magdalene. Such effort spent focused on proving false someone else's work seems like a waste of time and a bad idea if you want to convince people that the book is false.

To me, it is an example of the power of the medium of literature. Some put so much stock into fictitious literature that they spend most of their time trying to prove it is false (even though it is "fiction"), for fear of someone fostering ill feelings toward their beliefs. As my mother used say, "I wonder how much good people could people be doing with all the time they spend trying to prove other people wrong?"

The following video asks an interesting question:

(double click to view)

"How can a novel, a work of fiction, have such an impact?"

Exactly. A work of fiction. How does it have such an impact? And how has it cause you to hold a seminar for hundreds, maybe thousands, of people?

I don't know the answer to the questions above, but I do know that, in some cases, people are spending too much time worrying about this work of fiction and what it means to their faith.

On the other hand, I do feel that The DaVinci Code and other religious literature does do good among those that are "questing." At times, I am of the opinion that any press is good press for religion. Those who truly want to learn about the truth can be urged by books like The DaVinci Code and, through sincere research, can be educated and enlightened. Those who don't really care about religion and what the book says will take is as a good story, maybe accept some of the "facts" presented and move on.

With the explosion of the Internet at a tool for questing, what role does literature other than canonized scripture play in finding religious truth? Does religion benefit from any mention in literature or does some literature negatively affect it?

Eat, Pray Love and finding yourself through self serving spiritual journey

Eat, Pray, Love written by Elizabeth Gilbert, a very popular one this year, is a book full of religious content. What I found most interestingly religious about both the book, and the

recent movie, is the protagonist's search for spirituality by undertaking the adventure of her life. In one part of the book Gilbert does reach out to God in a prayer, and essentially prays for the first time in her life. She says, "Are you there God, It's me Elizabeth". She finds peace through this prayer on her bathroom floor and even claims to hear God's voice. I am very comfortable with this portrayal being a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day-Saints. It is very interesting to me that an author would expose herself enough in a popular book and reveal such a sacred experience. That is not my judgement call. How amazing it is that she did so though. It may just mean that those going through confusing, painful situations will kneel down at last attempt because of Eat Pray Love. Books and movies have so much power, they mold the social conciousness and have the ability to cause those who are touched to take action.

Another couple facets of her popularized journey, in my opinion, hurt tenets of religion that many of us find important in our lives. Elizabeth's confusion and consequent divorce lead her to a spiritual journey where she finds pleasure through food in Italy, Spirit through meditation in India, and a balance of the two in Bali. Of course she found herself again, she wasn't looking for anything else, or for anyone else's happiness. It was all about her. But my question is, d

id Elizabeth Gilbert Glamorize and Glorify leaving her husband? .In one part of the book she says, " The many reasons I did not want to be this mans wife again were too sad and personal. I equal parts loved him and could not stand him." Where's the part where she touches on the fact that we all experience that in marriage but find patience and compassion? Again, it's a little touchy that I'm making a judgement call here, but this facet of the book really emanated with me. This common social trend of divorce, was given the hollywood makeover. Not only divorce, but leaving your husband without a chance to speak, without trying to solve differences, in an entirely self serving manner. Oprah even gives Gilbert the hoorah when she gives her motherly, "OK" to Gilbert's love affair with a twenty-something actor during her divorce. Talk about the universal stamp of approval in consumers' eyes.

A book review on good reads.com, though, summed up my feeling. MelssaS said, " A responsibility towards a marriage and spouse is now considered an unwanted "obsession" and one's own pursuit of happiness supercedes everything else? If a man decided to dump his wife and family to flee to the Himalayas to meditate we wouldn’t be calling it a spiritual journey...we would call it irresponsibility." Go Girl.

Considering that divorce is a religious issue for most classical christian, jewish, and muslim faiths, I pose the question... Has media glorified divorce? Is it becoming more permissible because popular media figures participate in it? Step outside the LDS perspective of divorce and do we see something trending in media affecting society like a plague?

Apologies for the formatting. I have never blogged and the pictures are throwing off my text!!!!

Cullenism – Giving people religion they want

Religion and books is an interesting topic since most religions are built upon a religious text or scripture for established instruction. Chapter 7 of the “Religion and Popular Culture in America” discusses popular culture in religion. I would like to discuss books as popular culture as religion.

Cullenism as defined by Urban Dictionary: “A new religion based off of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. They believe that the Cullen's (also including Isabella Swan, Jacob Black, and all other characters) are indeed real, and they deserve to be worshiped. They believe that the author of the successful series is a prophet, and that the books are a series of holy books, and the "Cullenists", or "Cullenite" must read a bit of it every day. If you live your life well, in their belief, you will spend eternal life with the Cullen's.”

Ok, so the whole idea of Twilight actually being a religion is a bit of a stretch, and most Cullenist’s actually will state that they are a nondenominational and nonreligious group. Simply put they are fans who “cherish values of Twilight (not just how cute Edward is).”

Religion in America defines religion as “an integrated system of belief, lifestyle, ritual activities, and institutions by which individuals give meaning to (or find meaning in) their lives by orienting themselves to what they take to be holy, sacred, or of the highest value.”

Considering that the Twilight series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide, been translated into 38 different languages, and people gather together to discuss the book and wait for new installments/movies. Based on the Religion in America you could argue that Twilight is a religion.

Cullenism is a “seeker” church in the sense that it’s developed based on individual and unique orientation and interest. If Cullenism really is a new ‘religious’ movement, are people doing this because they find comfort with people that share similar ideas and interests? Based on the definitions of religion, could Cullenism be considered a religion?

So my main question is this: In this “new age of spirituality,” where people are becoming less spiritual and more secular, is it ok for people to create religion they want rather than adhering to traditional religion? Discuss.

What do you think about quest religion and how is the internet helpful in quest religion?

What do you think about quest religion and how is the internet helpful as a tool in quest religion?

This is my question for you to think about and answer as you read this post.

 I am focusing on "The New Individualism" section in Chapter 6 on pages 126-129 and more specifically quest religion because it was interesting to me.   

Quest religion, defined by the book (Religion and Popular Culture in America), is religious seeking motivated by dissatisfaction with existing answers.

So, it is an individuals' or a questers' search for answers.

A quester may or may not be a part of an exisiting religious community as they seek for truth by themselves. They're willing to explore the depths of other religious traditions in order to find the truth or answers to their questions.

The book states it well, "questing is a kind of religious indivualism, one that refuses to accept pat answers and accepted dogmas. "

So, I decided to be a quester because I think it is good for an individual to seek out knowledge for themself and to examine their belief system. And the internet is a great way to find, compare and synthesize information, especially in the subjest of religion. For this blog I went to these sites and challenge you to do the same. http://www.beliefnet.com/, http://www.bible.com/, http://www.quran.org.uk/, and http://www.mormon.org/.

Here is my discovery from beliefnet.com. I took the 20 question Belief-O-Matic personality test (it is under the tab for "faiths & prayer"and I have posted my top 13 results for what religion my thoughts and values best matched (see below).  I tied with a 100% match for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witness.  This was followed by 82% for Orthodox Judaism. Try it yourself.

 

On the bible.com they have a scripture of the day and one of the tabs was a prayer room. This is the prayer of the day:

"Dear Heavenly Father, I am thankful for all of the good foods that You created for our pleasure. They have been a blessing and I have enjoyed them. Lord, help me not to over-indulge and put too much emphasis on food. Give me a desire to eat things that are good for me and deliver me from those things that are not healthy for me. Since You created our bodies, I trust Your wisdom to know what things are best for me to eat. Forgive me for any lust for food, and may I eat those things that will cause me to have a healthy body so that I can serve You without illness and lack of energy. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen."

This Arabic text was on the home page of the quran.org.uk.  It is the scripture of the day.

[27:14] And they rejected those Signs in iniquity and arrogance, though their souls were convinced thereof: so see what was the end of those who acted corruptly!

This was one of the screen shots on the home page of mormon.org:

I enjoyed my quest and will pose my question again: What do you think about quest religion and how is the internet helpful in quest religion?

Blog your prayers, Tweet your scriptures, and Google to church.

Has it really come to this? The Internet is evolving every facet of our lives. It is becoming faster and wider spread than ever before. We can access it from personal computers, phones, and our televisions. With greater accessibility comes greater utilization. We use the internet to shop, socialize, study, and now more frequently worship.

I have only recently realized the extent of the Internet’s influence on religion. In our text book, it quotes a survey done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that claims, “a quarter of all internet users have searched the web for religious material” (pg. 124). Newer websites such as godtube.com and faithout.com are dedicated to faith based content. The following clip demonstrates the growing popularity of faith online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53wucE8muP4

Another news articles explains that more youth are turning to the Internet for religion.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/07/millennials-finding-religion-online/

If you didn’t take time to read the article, no worries, my emphasis is on the thought provoking conclusion of the articles that states “Young people are not only creating their own religious identities, they may also be changing the future of worship itself.” It seems religion to many is leaving the chapels and finding refuge in the individual. So, YouTube makes people like Antoine Dodson a celebrity, and GodTube makes people like me and you pastors of our own fold.

Ok, so we’ve briefly discovered that religion is finding a new home in the Internet. How can we compare this to the past? Can you think of another time religion evolved along with technology? The parallel is with the invention of the printing press in 1450. Our text states that “for the first time, everyone who was able to read had access to the Bible, making it possible for them to disagree with Catholic authorities and even the Protestant Reformers themselves” (pg. 125). The new technology was a catalyst in causing major reform and lead to dissent and the forming of a great number of new denominations.

Now, the Internet makes an incredible amount of information available to each of us. It also affords us the means to communicate our own message to others anywhere on the globe. With the impact of the printing press in mind, my question is, IS THE INTERNET CAUSING A SIMILAR REFORMATION TO THAT OF THE PRINTING PRESS? WHY OR WHY NOT?

Online Confessions

For those who are sick of the traditional method of going to your religious leader and confessing it's time to try a new tactic--online confession. There are several websites, including ivescrewedup.com, and mysecret.tv where people can go to confess their sins. (The second site asks you if you are 18 before you enter because some of the sins that are confessed are very sexual in nature.) In addition, you can read the confessions of others and ask for prayers on your behalf. I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading over the confessions because they are pretty depressing, but they are interesting.

The title page of mysecret.tv asks, "Are you living under the weight of a secret? No matter who you are or what you've done, God wants to remove your guilt and fear, restore you, and transform your life. You can take the first step toward healing right now by confessing your secret." It also quotes John 1:9 which states, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

IveScrewedUp.com has a simple subtitle that says "Confession is good for the soul."  Anyone who has been under any sort of stress from hiding a lie or other misdeed knows that it can be quite painful. Getting things off your chest does feel good. But will it have the same effect if you are blasting it out to the internet instead of going to personally visit a church leader and talk about it? What does this say about the way that we communicate?

In Chapter 6 of our book Greg Peterson talks about the impact of the internet on religion. He says, "Instead of liberating us from our bodies, the internet creates an alienation from our true, physical nature. Instead of community we get pseudo-community; instead of true religion we get a false idol." (p. 130) What do you think about this? Has the internet helped to create a greater sense of community for churches and religions? Or has it just allowed people to take a step back from their traditional religious community and search for answers individually online?

One more question. The philosopher Alfred North said, "Religion is what people do in their solitude." (p. 126) Do you agree with that? Or is religion an intrinsically communal activity?

Here is a link to an article CNN did on these online confession sites from a couple years ago.

I felt the Spurrit surrisly SO strong on facebook last night!

(The title of this post is to be read in the most terrible Utah accent you can muster. Please go back and read it again with that in mind. Many thanks.)

In the month of December, 2009, Americans sent over 10 Billion textual messages, according to Matt Richtel's New York Times series, “Driven to Distraction.” We send them to our friends, our family members, our co-workers, our business clients, and even our bosses. Facebook, Twitter and email all offer similar, instant communication to texting.

Many people – especially the older generations – complain that these social media are deteriorating people's abilities to develop good interpersonal skills to build meaningful relationships.

As social media has become more and more pervasive in our society, it has incorporated even some of the more personal and even sacred areas of our lives, including our belief systems.

With the advent of the Internet in the mid-1980s came the ability to quickly communicate with other people and even ministers of other faiths quickly jumped on the bandwagon, going so far as to develop Web sites that allow professionals in religion to collaborate with other professionals in their field. One such Web site is www.ecunet.org, which doubles as both an online meetingplace, as well as a collaboration center for professionals of religion.

Reverend Charles Henderson (http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/religion.html) first discovered this resource in the late 1980s and started using it to formulate his sermons. It even allowed, as the link explains, ministers to use others' sermons and then return to the forum after giving the sermon and give an evaluation of the sermon itself. Henderson cited ecunet.com as a great resource for his sermon preparation.

More and more people are using the beloved interwebs to share their beliefs. I (although slightly shamefully, for the mere reason that I consider it to be “succumbing to Mormon culture”) frequently post links to www.mormon.org (ps – have you seen the new mormon.org?! It'll blow your mind.) on my facebook because I want to share the gospel in a fast, convenient way with past acquaintances thousands of miles away who I am now not terribly close to, but still feel a moral duty to share the gospel with (that was a terribly constructed sentence. My most profound apologies.).

Similarly, the MTC has people working on mormon.org as “chatters,” answering people's questions and, in essence, teaching them the gospel. I have even heard of people being taught all the lessons through the chat function on mormon.org and being more than prepared for the baptismal interview, in which they participated and were subsequently baptized.

And the Church hasn't stopped there – select missionaries are now allowed to keep blogs and maintain facebook accounts about their work so they can hopefully access people whom they normally wouldn't be able to. Some are allowed to spend up to an hour every day working on their blog or facebook account.

A missionary facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001108500975&ref=sgm
Said missionary's blog: http://restoredtruth.wordpress.com/
And another's: http://www.dannytcook.blogspot.com/

The purpose of bringing up these social media is not to highlight the Church's new and innovative approach to missionary work – about which I am skeptical, by the way – but to bring to the surface my question: what role does real, interpersonal interaction play in someone's spiritual development? Is our use of social media affecting more than just our interpersonal relationships - could it also hinder our own spiritual development? Can those people who are “attending” church services online or chatting with a Church representative online have equally powerful spiritual experiences as those who physically attend church services or meet with missionaries? Does the electronic element of the spiritual development dull the power of the Spirit? Think of your personal studies that you have done online: when you read the scriptures online, does the Spirit communicate differently than when you are reading your leather-bounds?

I certainly have my own opinions on the matter, but I am curious to know your views and even hope to see some links to empirical evidence supporting your opinions.