Chapter 35: Jesus Appeared To Babaji

In chapter 5 of Jesus Behaving Badly, Mark Strauss addresses the facts about salvation and what it is. In this book, it highly talks about the term “salvation” because it’s a gift from God. To receive this, we must let God into our lives and see what he has planned for us, but what’s good about this is it’s free and we don’t have to buy anything.

Patel’s life has been a spiritual journey that has helped him to fulfill his yearning for a religious identity, and his personal experiences have shaped his opinion in regards to interfaith acceptance. Patel had many inspirations, however, his first religious inspiration was Dorothy Day. In his novel, Patel reflects upon when he read an excerpt from The Call of Service by Robert Cole, and how he was instantly drawn to Dorothy Day, a catholic that spearheaded the Catholic Worker movement. Patel gained knowledge on Dorothy Day and recognized why Cole “spoke of her in absolute awe” (Patel, 2007, p. 48). The admiration Patel had for Day truly uprooted his yearning for interfaith acceptance, and was significant enough to lead him towards the founding of the Interfaith Youth Core organization. Early in Patel’s life he had attended the URI Global Summit at Stanford, and this had created “a rare space… an open conversation about faith, diversity, and service” (Patel, p. 72-73). The URI Global Summit is major in regards to Patel’s life because the summit also led him to create the Interfaith Youth Core, and this organization has a similar structure to that he had experienced at Stanford that day. Religious pluralism was first experienced by Patel at the URI Global Summit and this exemplifies that pluralism was something he wanted to pursue and spread in a religious aspect. America would be accepting of differences in faith if its citizens were more knowledgeable and open minded to change, like Patel has been throughout the majority of his

Swift Bird’s use of metaphors and emotionally-charged language draw your mind’s eye to the essay as it paints a picture of the modern Christian faith and all of its flaws. He compares its morals to that of his own faith as he describes the way the Christian men treat the Indian men. Rather than approaching them with love and compassion the Christians approach the Indians with prospects of business and conversion. The Indian men agree to work when they see that it will allow them to provide for their families and their people. However, the Christian men offer the logging deal with nothing but numbers in mind – numbers concerning money and the members of their church. In this way, the Christian men are more interested in

What conversion meant for missionaries and Native Americans often differed. Thus the reasons for converting varied as well. Within the Memoir of Catharine Brown, A Christian Indian of the Cherokee Nation, Rufus Anderson A.M. presents the life of the first Indian convert through the eyes of a devout government missionary.(Anderson) Conversely, the documents Camilla Townsend includes in her book American Indian History: A Documentary Reader “Gandeaktena’s Decision to Become a Christian” and “A Jesuit’s Story of the 1639 Smallpox Epidemic” present the theory of linked phenomena which influenced religious missionaries’ and Native Americans’ approach to conversion.(Townsend 50-54) As Townsend articulates in her introduction of Gandeaktena’s story

(realsikhism.com) Sikhism and Hinduism were connected in a way. They both followed the same beliefs and values. But after a while the Sikhism culture decided to disconnect from Hinduism because of how the society was treating women and even men for that matter. The Sikh Gurus wanted to create a new way of life for the women, they started to lay down rules and goals they wanted to achieve. The one thing the Gurus wanted to make sure of is that the principle of universal equality between men and woman was set in place.

His encounter with diversity, whether that be in the form of romantic relationships, family, friends, the Catholic Workers, the “hippies” at Stone Soup, or his clients and colleagues at IFYC, helped form his views on pluralism. The belief that many religions could coexist without the need to hail a single religion as the all-powerful. That they could in turn work together towards the common good. Patel illustrates an example of this through one of his staff members, April. April came from an Evangelical Christian background, but was disappointed in where their morals stood.

Like every religion, Sikhism had a beginning that started in a moment and developed in a period of one man’s lifetime. The dissatisfaction of the religious and social circumstances of that time led to the rise of a new faith. Guru Nanak is the founder of Sikhism that always preaches devotion and remembrance of God. Sikhism is characterized by equality of mankind, denounces superstitions and beliefs in eternal truth. It is a unique spiritual platform based on equality for all, fraternal love and virtues. The Sikhs follow the teachings of Guru Granth Sahib, which is their holy book. Guru Nanak travelled vastly spreading the message of one God who dwells in every one of us (Singh, 2012). During the 15th century, when Guru Nanak was born, India was in a political and religious turmoil. There was tension between Hindus and Muslims whose religious beliefs are different and could not co-exist (Dhillon, 2006). The introduction of Sikhism created a synthesis between the two and the belief that we all worship one God. Guru Nanak preached the message of one God who dwells in all His creations in South Asia and other regions. Sikhism to date has vastly

As a first generation Indian-American, I am no stranger to being a part of a distinct community while observing two unique cultures. Traveling to India exposed me to a dynamic population with rich diversity comprising of numerous languages and differing religions. Though these individuals may have had differing customs from their neighbors, there were similar ambitions to conquer grinding poverty. This poverty can be clearly noticed by seeing citizens sleeping on floors of a railway station, or the lack of air conditioning in searing hot weather. The frailty and mortality of the human condition was starkly visible in India. As a fellow human, I was humbled not only by the lack of privilege and opportunity of many citizens, but also by their

Maintaining Cultural Identity in “This Blessed House” Culture is a very important part of the human identity, maintaining steadfast religious beliefs, for example, throughout an entire lifetime is difficult.. Moving to a new country and trying to establish pieces of your native culture is something far more challenging. In “This Blessed House,” penned by Jhumpa Lahiri, a man deals with the bombardment of Christianity on his Indian culture and the strong influence it has on his wife. The story delves into a new house, previously occupied by Christians, or so it appears from the artifacts found all around the house.

The first articles, for example, have already opened my eyes to the movement of Christianity’s popularity. It fractured the cornerstone of my stereotypical idea of what a Christian looks like. A Christian may be anybody and, sadly, I was surprised by this. This led me to wonder how much any religion may differ among its followers when the ethnicity and regions are changed. I had not even cared to contemplate the ideas already presented in class but enjoyed the experience of knowledge being thrust upon me. As with biblical heritage, in which, I have used my knowledge of the bible long after the class finished, I am enthusiastic to the idea of learning something that could be applied to my everyday life. This class may differ, though, as the concepts learned may be applied to other religions, whereas, studying the bible was only good for

On occasion, authors approach cultural subjects as historians. However, Huston Smith limits the historical facts to stay focus on the values of the religions (Smith 10,12). Having an history filled book can cause readers to lose interests in his discussion. To keep the numbers down, Smith picks the religions that most people acknowledge and would share the most common themes in their life (11). He is passionate about his studies, and he wants the audience to find their own appreciation for religion. To accomplish this, Smith simply states that,”This is a book about values”(12). Some books describe a certain faith’s good and bad qualities and can sometimes put more emphasis on the bad if the

Hypocrisy, itself, is a vexed topic; combine that with religion, it becomes controversial. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” brings up both topics in a short story featuring a man and his experience leading up to creating a deal with the Devil, supposedly granting him the power to detect others’ sins. Hawthorne’s story will be discussed on a deeper, analytical level, drawing from the similar ideas argued in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. While both texts bring up the idea of hypocrisy in Christianity, one is more accurate than the other in portraying an objective assessment. Before endeavoring into the arguments of Hawthorne and Douglass, it is imperative to first make it clear on what these two writers’ consider as “good” Christians.

Given illustrates the internal factors for example Christianity being “overly ambitious.” /77 gruman/ The majority of the work is focused on political policies that contributed and how “ decline had began with the rise of Christianity.” /209 jones/

Pleased with his work St. Xavier teaching was heading to a positive outcome, even towards baptisms for the villages. The locals believed in St. Xavier teachings and they took their sick relatives for his blessing. St. Francis got God’s message across and converted many natives to Christians. In his final text he said he found this to be easy in India, the natives picked up quickly on the religion.

On Sunday, February 21, Billy and I joined Arjun's father in his trip to the Hindu temple in Orlando—we had to wake up earlier than usual for a Sunday but it was for good cause. We arrived at the temple in Orlando just before 10AM for a prayer service that was difficult to