Separation of Church and State

Apparently the phrase "Separation of Church and State" does not appear in the United States constitution. It was introduced as a part of the first amendment as "the wall of separation between church and state." One of the first references to this idea is by Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, stating "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, [the people, in the 1st Amendment,] declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state." "In 1785, Jefferson drafted a bill that was designed to squash an attempt by some to provide taxes for the purpose of furthering religious education. He wrote that such support for religion was counter to a natural right of man:'... no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.'"
If the separation of Church and State is apart of our national constitution, then why was such a big deal made about Barack Obama possibly being Muslim? About his having a crazy pastor, Reverend Jeremiah White? Why is "under God" in the pledge of allegiance? Why is "In God We Trust" stamped on all of our coins and dollars? Why do people have to swear on the Bible in court? Why are all political speeches ended with "God bless America?" Why was prayer in school even an option? Religion and "polytricks" cross and conincide often and though politicians may like to assume that there is a separation between the Church and the State, there are many instances that prove otherwise. Actually, the only way that I can think of their separate is through the exemption of places of Worship in paying taxes. A Time magazine from January 1934 states, "Of the $20,000,000,000 worth of U. S. property exempt from taxation, nearly one quarter is owned by churches." If that was the cost back in the 1930's, the numbers must be astronomical now. This suppose separation does not appear consistent or in some cases, even legal.

This is a link to the website where I found the information on the Constitution

Time Article- Religion: Church Taxes

Baha'u'llah and the Processes of a New Religion

To me, the founding of a new religion seems to be a intense process wrought with persecution, prevention, and premature deaths. The new religion needs a founder, a person on whom to base basically everything. This leader needs to be charismatic and persuasive, and in most cases, leads by love instead of fear. In the Baha'i Faith, there was two leaders. The first was called the Bab and he was the precursor to Baha'u'llah, pictured to the left, who then became the head of the new faith. The Bab started the movement and predicted the leadership that Baha'u'llah would eventually produce. To prove the idea of love over fear, there were mentions of suicide in the book at the thought of followers being separated from Baha'u'llah, their leader. The span of the section assigned was over twenty four years, and it was not until near the end of that time that the Babis changed their title to the Baha'is in honor of their leader. It also took Baha'u'llah an extended period of time to announce to his followers that he was "He Whom God shall make manifest," an individual that the Bab had foretold of. The Baha'u'llah's self proclaimed title indicated a change in authority, but not in his actions. Baha'u'llah was always non violent peaceful, choosing to talk with his attackers, assassins, and protesters instead of accepting the protection he was always offered. His ways of peace inspired many of his followers. Baha'u'llah's barber was propositioned by Azal, his half brother, to kill Baha'u'llah and the barber almost killed Azal on the spot, but instead restrained himself because he knew Baha'u'llah would ask him why he had done it and he did not have a good enough reason. Baha'u'llah and his family were continuously forced to move locations, basically being asked to go into exile. In every place he went, Baha'u'llah influenced a large gathering of those interested in the Babis/ Baha'is faith, inspiring intense loyalty and dedication until the group was deemed to large and dangerous to be allowed to remain. The leader is a figure that the followers are desperate to learn from and imitate. Without a leader to cling to, new groups would be impossible. The fierce love and devotion shown to Baha'u'llah allowed for him to help benevolently control and inspire the Babis/ Baha'is faith. The continuous process of motivation, defense, and movement that Baha'u'llah, his family and followers went through shows that instigating a new religion involves dedication, immense effort, a charismatic leader or two, as well as bloodshed.

Rastafari Art

While reading the final chapters of Rastafari, the idea of the artwork of the Jamaican Rastas interested me. I was of course aware of the cultural effects that reggae has had on the Rastafari faith, as well as the rest of the world, but I was unaware of the important artistic works of the era. These were and still are important works, however, they are not as well known as the music of Bob Marley, at least to me. My initial thought for this blog was to show some of the art mentioned in the book, however, most of the works I researched are not easily accessible online. To the left is a sculpture by Edna Manley, entitled Negro Aroused was one of the only pieces of artwork mentioned in the book I could find. I am curious as to why the pieces of art are not visible on a common search engine, such as google. I am lead to dead ends in google books that have a brief reference to the works, as our textbook has. Other famous pieces of art appear; the Mona Lisa is plastered all over the Internet. The book explains that there are "dreadlocksed Jesus" and "black madonnas," indicating that cultural divides are breached when it comes to Rasta artwork. There are many non-Rastafarian artists who borrow images and symbols from the Rastafari culture to use in their work. A black madonna, by the way, is also called the Black Virgin and is the virgin Mary depicted as a black women. Why are these works that were heavily praised and deemed important in the book not available for others to enjoy, appreciate, and learn from?

The website of the National Gallery of Jamaica

Rastafari Symbols from the Video

Some of the symbols and traditions I caught from the video include the specific times of prayer the Boboshanti branch of the Rastafari faith observe are 3 am, 9am, and 3pm, and I am not sure of the significance of these times, but the individuals on the video expressed how religious (ha!) they were about the timing of these prayers. The colors red, yellow, green, and black were prevalent through, mainly on the homes. The people where clothed in red, with red turbans over dreadlocks. The signs around the village had bible teachings and encouragement for equality. They had black over white, and r over x. Both R and black represented righteousness while white and x were evil and wrong. They always made sure the "fire of life" was lit at the top of the mountain, as close to God as they could be. The people observed the Sabbath. The creators of the video had a similar design as is seen on the back of Bob Marley's "Exodus" cd cover, seen to the left. A verseion of the lion from the video, with the flag, or simiar object with the green, yellow, and red coloration is shown above.

The differences between the imagery of the Rastafari people I get when I listen to Marley and the actual images of the Boboshanti people involve basic ways of life. To the Boboshanti, the turbans are important, but to the sect that Marley believes in, the visible dreadlocks are more important. I had never really considered that there are sects that might live in shacks or may not have clean running water or that their livelihood comes at least partly from creating brooms. Marley's music makes me think more about a civilized nation that is working for more rights and equality. Maybe more along the lines of a middle class, especially with the popularity of Bob Marley? The views of the lifestyle, at least in comparison to the lifestyles I imagined, was the biggest difference, but now that I have more insight through the video, I understand that there are diverse sects of Rastafari who live differently.

here is a link to the website of the people who made the video

Bob Marley

So, after starting the reading about the Rastafarian ideals, I immediately thought of Bob Marley, and he is even quoted in our textbook. I'm a big fan of reggae, and he and the Wailers are masters and are the face of reggae. It is really hard to chose a song to show here, but I decided on "Exodus,"so here is a video and the lyrics via links-

Sorry, the ability to embed this video was removed, but here is the link to a video of Bob Marley performing "Exodus" live.

Here is a link to a page that has the lyrics to "Exodus"

and just for fun, this a link to Bob Marley's website.

Exodus relates to many of the topics we have been studying, from the original flight out of Egypt, to the pilgrimages to Jerusalem as expressed through the Psalms, to the latest movement from Israel to Ethiopia. Bob Marley sings, "We're leaving Babylon, We're going to our Father land." Depending on who is relating to this, it could mean a multitude of pilgrimages.

From his website, "Bob's story is that of an archetype, which is why it continues to have such a powerful and ever-growing resonance: it embodies political repression, metaphysical and artistic insights, gangland warfare and various periods of mystical wilderness. And his audience continues to widen: to westerners Bob's apocalyptic truths prove inspirational and life-changing; in the Third World his impact goes much further. Not just among Jamaicans, but also the Hopi Indians of New Mexico and the Maoris of New Zealand, in Indonesia and India, and especially in those parts of West Africa from wihch slaves were plucked and taken to the New World, Bob is seen as a redeemer figure returning to lead this."

Bob Marley is not afraid to discuss unsafe topics for modern music. "When you need to refer to a certain situation or crisis, there will always be a Bob Marley song that will relate to it. Bob was a musical prophet." claimed Judy Mowatt of the I-Threes, also found on his website.

If you have never listened to any of his music, you probably should. It is powerful and poignant.

Ethiopia

This version of the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba dwells mainly on the importance of wisdom. The importance that Ethiopia has is eventually expressed near the end of the story. The light that moved from Israel to Ethiopia could signify a multitude of things. Israel has always been considered the promise land and the Israelites were God's chosen people. The light maintained its position over Israel for a time to represent that idea, however, the light then moved to Ethiopia and stayed there, shining brighter "for it willed to dwell there." Ethiopia, in this reading, appears to be the new chosen place, the new promise land for the followers of God.

This idea is suprising to me because I had never even considered Ethiopia to be a strong religious power. I was unaware that it was a Christian state. This story counters that ignorance quite strongly, the vision that Solomon received was, to him, apparently directly from God. The sun followed the light of God, or was perhaps instructed by God to no longer shine on Israel. The story shows that the Israelites hated the Sun for ignoring them and this hatred permanently ruined their relationship with the Sun, which is a representation for the light of God. The Sun ends up illuminating the whole world, besides Israel. This does not really make any sense.

The light of God, without warning, decides that Ethiopia is more worthy than Israel and leaves that state forever. It does not explain what Israel nor what Ethiopia did to deserve their respective kinds of treatment. There had to be a distinct reason for God to completely and utterly abandon his chosen people. He basically indicated that his intention was to leave Israel forever. Does God mean the land, the people, their way of life, or a combination of all of them is upsetting him enough to move his light and love to Ethiopia? The fact that it was a dream and Solomon was more concerned with how beautiful the Queen of Sheba was in some ways undermines this apparent warning. Or is it a warning? If the Israelites change something will they not be banished forever into darkness? Or is this event inevitable? There was no timeline given for this light exodus either.

Conceptual Blending and Analogy

I was wondering while reading this article about the "obvious dissimilarity that enhances the learning efficiency," in relation to holding the champagne glasses while skiing and how, if at all, this could connect to religion. Maybe because religion itself is such an intangible thing that humans are trying to connect to in a tangible world. If there were more aspects of religion that were not based off of faith, would it be such a powerful force? Maybe because there can be no absolute proof to any religion or lack there of, it makes the reasons to believe in faith stronger, in a skewed version of reverse psychology.

Also the idea of the mirror network was interesting to me, "because the same organizing frame is common to all spaces in the network" which continues on to discuss the connection of blending. I think this could also fit into religion. If the "network" can be considered to be all religious and spiritual people, then there is a similar organizing frame that most of them can be categorized into. There are many different religions in the world, however, many aspects of them are "blended" and have many basic ideas in common. To put this into a perspective in relation to how I am thinking about this, imagine all the religions of the world in a huge ven diagram, with each religion having its own circle for its own specific conditions, yet sharing parts with its neighbors and ultimately, every other religion in the world. Just as a side note- I did just try to google a religious ven diagram and apparently they actually exist. Not to the extend I was hoping for, since most of the ones that showed up involved religion in comparison to politics and stupidity.

Cognitive Linguistics By Dirk Geeraerts

This is a book I found on google books that talks about mirror networks more in depth with the same conceits. The information starts on page 341 if the link does not go there directly.
Here is a link to the religion ven diagram.
I figured I would put it as a link in case it offends anyone.