Site Visit : Temple Beth El

Choosing an unfamiliar place within the small town of Athens, OH was a difficult task for someone with a diverse list of interests to do. Personally, I had to think about where I wanted to spend my time ‘culture watching’. There are many places that I have spent much of my time, like coffee shops, multiple basketball and football games freshman year, and three well known dining halls across campus. I had to think to myself where have I not spent time in Athens, and then it came to me, church. For the cultural immersion project, I spent three Sundays observing the Athens First United Methodist Church, each service being one hour long focusing on different areas each time. The location of the church is extremely familiar to me being that I live

My finance and I attended a Friday night Shabbat service. Shabbat is the Jewish Sabbath day; their day of rest. It begins on Friday and concludes Saturday evening. Shabbat allows time for members to focus on what it is important and that is: worshiping, reflecting on the week, and growing together. Depending on the day (Friday or Saturday) and week (1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th), the service may vary including the content of worship, it’s timing and style. The Shabbat service we attend took place on the second Friday of the month; it involved music, prayer and a sermon. As we entered Shir Takvih, we felt very welcomed; everyone was polite and answered any questions we had. After we received a copy of their translated prayer book (machzorim) we were directed to the designated place, where we were told that we could sit anywhere we like. The white painted room which was surrounded by big round windows had several roles of wooden fold up chairs. Not wanting to be a disturbance we sat in the back row. At the front of the room there was a bimah with an assortment of musical instruments on one side and a podium

When given the opportunity, I am usually open to and enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone. This project allowed me to do just that. For my religious visit, I visited Shaare Emeth, Reformed Jewish Synagogue on Saturday June 20, 2015 for their Shabbat Morning Worship Service at 11 a.m. It is located at 11645 Ladue Rd, St. Louis, MO 63141.

“A reform movement attempts to change limited aspects of a society but does not aim at drastically altering or replacing major social, economic, or political institutions… a revolutionary movement, in comparison, is a social movement in which participants are organized to alter drastically or replace totally an existing social, economic, or political institutions” (Defronzo 8).

Peoples Temple, which is recognized as the deadliest cult in American history, was founded in the 1950s by a man named Jim Jones in Indiana. The religion, previously known as Wings of Deliverance, was built on the goal of creating a congregation society that would overcome injustices, such as racism and poverty. Wings of Deliverance was first founded after Jones and his wife left Methodism because of the religion’s racial views. Though Jones had no theological training, he was a very charismatic and persuasive speaker, which enticed many people to his cause. After creating a following in Indianapolis, Indiana, Jones moved his people to Ukiah, California in fear of nuclear war. After two years on the west coast, his congregation grew from only

Reform has always been a prominent idea in the minds of people. Back in the 1700’s people wanted to reform the government, eventually leading to the American Revolution. And in today’s world many participated in a nationwide school walkout to try and reform gun laws due to the amount of school shootings that have happened recently. Reform is not a new concept; it has been around for ages. In American history, two of the biggest times of reformation were the Progressive Era and the New Deal Era. These two eras were both extremely impactful, however, how they came about and the nature of them are far from similar.

My site visit took place on the first of February 2013 I had the privilege of attending the candle lighting ceremony of the Judaism religion. To bring in the day called Shabbat ( a sacred day to the Jewish community) at the Chabad Center of Kendall and Pincrest they lit candles, sang songs, and recited words from the Torah that reminded them of the historical story of Shabbat. The Shabbat is the equivalence to the Christian tradition of the Sabbath, where the religious community stops to rest and ponder on the holy one. This establishment is a well-respected and reputable Chabad Lubavitch branch of the Jewish

How Orthodox and Reform Jews follow God’s Revelation in the form of the Torah is the primary difference between the two movements and is the impetus for the other differences between the two groups. The Orthodox tradition maintains that the Torah is God’s word and that it cannot be altered (Graber, 2013). Orthodox Jews believe that the Torah applies to both the past and future. The Reformist movement that has developed in the United States holds that the Torah was

The Mormon service I visited, had a few similarities but also a few distinct differences from the Catholic service that I am used to. Before this particular Sunday, I had never attended a Mormon service, nor had I spoken to anyone who believed in Mormonism or the “Latter Day Saints.” With that being said, I was welcomed much more openly than I had originally thought. Before entering, I was approached by two members of the church; two young women (sisters) between the ages of roughly 19 to 22. I arrived about an hour before service, that way I could ask a few people some questions, but the two girls beat me to the punch. They initially asked me if I had visited before and I responded saying that it was my first time, and I was attending as a student observer, with no intention of converting, but would love to learn about the faith. They nodded and proceeded to explain to me the reasons as to why they believed so strongly, and also a bit of background information on the faith. One of the girls, explained to me that there has been a lot of skepticism about Mormonism due in part to the fact that Joseph Smith Jr, was so young and how his explanation of “Moroni” (An angel no one had ever heard of), and his entire religion and the scripture used, “Book of Mormon,” could have just been a part of his imagination. The other girl told me how she was beginning to lose faith a couple years back, but she then regained it, after she experienced her own tests, and was able to get passed her

T.D Judah was an American railroad and civil engineer who was a central figure in the original promotion and design of the first Transcontinental Railroad. Being that he was the main engineer he did most of the land surveying before the actual plan was devised. He was determined to find the best route for the railroad over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In order to fund this massive project, Judah allied with the “Big Four”. The “Big Four” were: Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker. These men managed financing and construction of the CPRR (Central Pacific Railroad). Up until the Civil War era, travel and commerce were both slow and messy for individuals that moved westward and wanted to sell their products back to the East. In 1862 and 1864, Congress pushed through two acts called the Pacific Railroad acts that created the opportunity for the East to be tied to the West. Although this war during the Civil War, Southern Democrats were not apart of Congress, which left the Northern Republicans in charge of its completion. Within a short amount of time, the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Central Pacific Railroad Company received millions of acres of land, plenty of supplies, and large attraction in investments for the railroad 's development.

On November 22nd I went to Brooklyn Tabernacle with my best friend and her mother. I knew prior, going to this service would count as legitimate performance so much so that I could write a review on it since firstly, I remember whilst watching Obama’s 2012 inauguration ceremony on television that this church choir performed and phenomenally at that. I also knew the gist of what to expect in view of the fact that the two that I attended the church with, regularly attend Brooklyn Tabernacle’s Sunday service.

“If we can’t live in peace, we’ll die in peace. Die with respect, die with a degree of dignity,” -Jim Jones [6]. These were the very last words 909 people heard on November 18th, 1978 as they slowly came to their last day of life. Jim Jones, the leader of Peoples Temple, left his followers with many unfilled promises after many years of nothing but complete loyalty and dedication to this man that they idealized and respected every word he preached to them. The Peoples Temple offered the idea of a perfect utopia, where no one was judged, everyone was as one, but that was not the case at all. In fact it was quite the opposite and filled with manipulation, false hope, and murder — not suicide.

However, many Jews have adapted to the contemporary innovation of Reform Judaism, which rejects the belief of God sending an individual as the Messiah as opposed to an age. Reformers argued that the traditional messianic notion wasn’t necessary, as a Messiah essentially did not guide human beings instead, they would be directed by their own intellect and thereby humans would be able to achieve redemption. Consequently, many Reform Jews have incorporated the messianic initiative in their participation in community service and the continuation of Tikkun Olam (repair of the world), whereby humans are involved in bringing God’s work of Creation to full completion. It encourages humans to uphold their duties in ensuring the restoration of the world by performing their required Mitzvot.

I decided to go to a Baptist Church here in Miami. The reason that I chose Coral Park Baptist Church was because most Baptist Churches that I called here in Miami had the service in Spanish but Coral Park Baptist had an English service as well. I went to the eleven o’clock service on Sunday. The whole church itself was pretty big. There is the main temple that has the regular service in Spanish and then there is a whole other building that has separate classrooms where the English service is held and other Sunday school type classes are held.

Through the deliverance of a speech the former Pope Urban II incited Catholics all over Europe to take action in reclaiming the Holy city of Jerusalem from the Muslims in the Middle East. It was in this year,1095, that the beginning of the first, of nine, Crusades and thus the first series of religious wars between the Catholics and Muslims begun. The focus of this paper will remain on the Third Crusade (1189-1192 A.D)- more specifically the actions of ‘Islam’s Warrior Hero’ Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb who was better known to the English as Saladin- Sultan of Egypt. How did one individual gain the respect of both his Muslim followers and his enemies- the Catholic Europeans? Throughout history Saladin has been portrayed as a charismatic, honourable, virtuous and chivalrous man by the historians and chroniclers of the Middle East and Europe. Even the Europeans who sought to dislike this man due to his religious affiliations could not, as he encompassed all the qualities in which a great leader and a good ‘Christian’ was thought to possess.