Category Archives: Religion

What is God?

30 Saturday Dec 2017

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Seated statue of El
Seated statue of El from Megiddo (1400-1200 BCE)
Photo Credit: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

 

The final post of my three-part series covers “Part Three: What is God?” of Reza Aslan’s book, God: A Human History. The author traces the evolution of the nature of God from God is one, to God is three, and later to God is all.

The ancient Israelites worshiped the Canaanite god El as their chief god presiding over a pantheon of lesser gods. The very word Israel means “El perseveres.” The god who became known as Yahweh first appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush. Around 1050 BCE when they established the Kingdom of Israel, Yahweh became their patron God. In the capital, Jerusalem, they built a temple to house the Ark of the Covenant, Moses’s covenant with Yahweh: the highest and strongest god over all other gods.

Moses and the Burning Bush
Moses and the Burning Bush – Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

 

In 586 BCE, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II breached the walls of Jerusalem, plundered the capital, and burned the temple to the ground. Survivors suffered a humiliating exile in Babylonia. That the Babylonian god, Marduk, was more powerful than Yahweh caused an identity crisis. Rather than accept the possibility of a defeated god, Israelite religious leaders rationalized that Yahweh was the one and only god who created light and darkness, brought peace, and created evil.

Yahweh of Judaism became the singular, eternal, and indivisible God who exhibits both the good and bad of human emotions and qualities. Continue reading →

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A Savior is born to us

22 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Guyana, Religion

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Nativity Play, Sacred Heart RC Church, Georgetown, Guyana
Photo Credit: Facebook Photo Album Sacred Heart RC School in Georgetown

[This is a re-post of my Christmas message 2011, the year I started my blog.]

 

My parents were not church-goers. They never forced me and my four siblings, baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, to attend Sunday Mass. But they made sure we got a good Catholic education by sending us to schools run by the nuns.

As a result of my religious school education, the Christmas Season was much more than time for family get-togethers; Santa Claus; exchanging presents; Christmas trees and decorations; and our traditional Christmas dishes and black cake. Christmas Day was the celebration of the birth of Jesus – the Savior born to us.

The Christmas Novena was an essential part of preparing for the coming of our Savior. During nine days before Christmas Day (December 15-23), I had to get up at four o’clock in the morning to be sure to get a good seat at the five o’clock Novena Mass. A religious custom of the early Portuguese immigrants from Madeira, the Novena has become a part of Guyana’s Catholic tradition.

I recall walking through drizzle towards the rear entrance of our parish church. The raindrops, slanted by the wind, glistened in the light streaming from the large open doorway of the church. When I entered the church, the choir in the alcove overhead, was singing Bemdita Sejaes, the traditional Portuguese hymn to begin the Novena Mass. I did not know what the words of the hymn meant, but it filled my soul with joy.

Christmas Eve Night, at 11:00 p.m. before the Midnight Mass, was the time for the highlight of the Christmas Season: the live enactment of the Nativity of Jesus at Sacred Heart Church on Main Street. (The church, built and funded by the Portuguese immigrants in 1861, burned to the ground on 25 December 2004.)

The year of my first son’s birth, the parish priest at Sacred Heart Church invited me and my husband to play the roles of Mary and Joseph. Our two-month-old son played Baby Jesus. Lying in the manger, he slept through the entire performance. I was relieved. Even a young angel, as she cuddled him at the end of the pageant, did not succeed in waking him.

As recorded in the Gospel of Saint Luke, on the night that Jesus was born, an angel appeared to shepherds guarding their sheep to tell them the good news. “Do not be afraid,” the angel told them. “Today…a savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Our planet is in dire need of a Savior. Christ our Savior empowers me to keep up the struggle in the face of injustice, adversity, and hopelessness… and to triumph.

Christ our Savior empowers us with love. Regardless of our religion or non-religion, love runs deep in the heart of each one of us. Let us manifest love. Love conquers all.

The Humanized God

17 Sunday Dec 2017

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Gobekli Tepe - Artist's rendition of construction

Artist’s rendition of the construction of Gobekli Tepe (c. 12,500 to 10,000 B.C.E)
By Fernando G. Baptista/National Geographic Creative
Photo Credit: National Geographic Magazine

 

The second of my three-part series covers “Part Two: The Humanized God” of Reza Aslan’s book, God: A Human History. The author traces the development of organized religion with its pantheon of humanized gods from its birthplace in the Ancient Near East to Egypt, Greece, and Iran.

For almost two and a half million years, we were hunters-gatherers. Then, some 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, we settled down, built villages, and began growing our own food and rearing animals. The discovery of the temple at Gobekli Tepe (Potbellied Hill) in eastern Turkey, widely recognized as the earliest religious temple, suggests that the birth of organized religion may have precipitated this dramatic shift. Based on archeological records, we know that the first domesticated animals appeared in this region around the same time the temple was under construction. What better way to feed a large workforce over several years?

Gobekli Tepe - T-shaped pillar with human hands and belt

T-shaped pillar at Gobekli Tepe with human hands and belt (c. 12,500 to 10,000 B.C.E.)
By Vincent J. Musi/National Geographic Creative
Photo Credit: National Geographic Magazine

Continue reading →

The Embodied Soul

10 Sunday Dec 2017

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ImageJ=1.31o min=0.0 max=65535.0

On September 11, 2001, a group of Islamic extremists struck America’s major financial center in New York. Since then, we have embarked on a “War on Terror” that has morphed into an assault on all Muslims, except for allied Muslim nations. This past week, our endless war of terror has pivoted to Jerusalem, the holy city of three of the world’s major religions by number of followers (World Atlas) – Christianity (2.22 billion), Islam (1.6 billion), and Judaism (13.9 million).

Within this context, I share with you in the first of a three-part series my synopsis of Reza Aslan’s book, God: A Human History. Like the author, I have “no interest in trying to prove the existence or nonexistence of God for the simple reason that no proof exists either way.” Whether you believe in one God or many gods or no god at all, I would like you to consider Aslan’s bold assertion that “it is we who have fashioned God in our image, not the other way around.”

In “Part One: The Embodied Soul,” Aslan investigates the origin of our belief in a soul, a byword for “spiritual essence” or “mind.” It’s a journey back in time to the emergence of our primitive ancestors, Homo sapiens (the wise human) – the “historical” Adam and Eve. According to archaeological records, Homo sapiens first appeared during the Lower Paleolithic Period, between 2.5 million and 200,000 years ago. Remains unearthed in burial mounds indicate that they buried their dead together with artifacts that must have been precious to them. Continue reading →

Brazil’s New “Sin-Free” Social Network

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Brazil, Family Life, Human Behavior, Religion

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Social Network Facegloria for the Christian Family

Welcome to Faceglória – Social Network of the Christian Family
The perfect Social Network for you to share Christian love and wisdom with others.
Source: Faceglória

For millions of us, Facebook has become the virtual space to connect and share with our family and friends, as well as to make new friends. But it has its downside, exposing us to haters and bullies, violence, pornography, and much more.

Three years ago in São Paulo, Atilla Barros, a Brazilian web designer, together with three other devout colleagues decided to change all that. On June 4, 2015, they launched Faceglória, an online social network “to facilitate communication between people who seek to preserve family principles, morality and respect between users who share the same faith, ideas, among other activities.” Continue reading →

Was I Worthy of Marriage?

02 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Family Life, Human Behavior, Relationships, Religion, Social Injustice, United States

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Battle for Same-Sex Marriage in the USA - February 2014Battle for Same-Sex Marriage in the USA – February 2014
Photo Credit: CBC News (Steve Helber/The Associated Press)

 

Since migrating to the United States, I have witnessed the redefinition of marriage from the union of one man and one woman to include same-sex couples. It was a victory for my gay brothers and lesbian sisters. But the battle is far from over. Of the fifty states of our Republic, only seventeen states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriages. (Learn more at the National Conference of State Legislatures website.)

In his letter of 19 February 2014, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, expressed support for the federal Marriage Protection Amendment introduced by Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas in the House of Representatives. “The amendment would secure in law throughout the country the basic truth known to reason that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” wrote the Archbishop.

The Archbishop, in his letter of 28 February 2014, further endorsed the State Marriage Defense Act of 2014 introduced in the Senate by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. The Archbishop noted: “Marriage needs to be preserved and strengthened, not redefined. Every just effort to stand for the unique meaning of marriage is worthy of support.”

The institution of marriage has evolved over the ages in keeping with the progress of humanity. In the early years of my parents’ marriage, the 1950s and 1960s, divorce was not an option. Marriage is a contract unbreakable only in death of a spouse. For over twenty years, until my siblings and I were old enough to take care of ourselves, my mother endured the verbal abuse and violence. By then, divorce had lost its social stigma.

The women’s liberation movement in the 1970s brought relief from subjugation. Women gained equal status with their marital partners. A senior high school student at the time, I decided not to marry and have children. I was not going to bring children into this world to suffer domestic abuse as I did as a child.

When the time came to reconsider marriage, I determined that I would not repeat my parents’ mistakes. My marriage would be based on love and mutual respect. Ten years later when my marriage crumbled in Brazil, I had to confront the specter of divorce. Laws designed to define and protect our rights under the marital contract turned me into a loser and a sinner. Reconciliation with my God took years.

Same-sex marriages did not destroy my parents’ marriage or my marriage. Long before same-sex couples clamored for equal rights under the law, the institution of marriage has failed to meet our needs as couples and parents. A Pew Research in 2010 revealed that 72 percent of all adults in the United States were married in 1960. This number fell to 52 percent in 2008.

Who am I to judge if my gay brothers and lesbian sisters are worthy to be joined in same-sex marriages? My marriage ended in divorce. Was I worthy of marriage?

No Magic this Christmas

22 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by in Festivals, Human Behavior, Religion, Social Injustice, United States

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Homeless and Hungry - United StatesHomeless & Hungry
Photo Credit: DoSomething.org

 

Since a kid growing up in Guyana, Christmas has always been a magical time of the year. My poor, working class parents always found a way to make Christmas a special time of the year for me and my four siblings. My happiest childhood memories are of our Christmas celebrations.

Following the world economic crisis of August 2008, I’ve been downsizing our Christmas celebrations, in keeping with our new socio-economic reality in the United States. Job security is a thing of the past. Joblessness, homelessness, and food insecurity are new experiences for the American middle class. The situation is no better for the working poor.

What’s also disturbing is hearing high-profile people in the media, in the business community, and among our government representatives blaming the poor for their poverty. In a number of cities across the United States, it has even become a criminal offense to feed the homeless in public spaces (National Coalition for the Homeless).

This Christmas, the magic finally fizzled out.

How can I celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ – born into a poor, working class family – when it is now a crime to be poor and homeless?

How can I celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ when the labor of the poor has little value?

How can I celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ when my value as a human being is determined by my buying power?

How can I celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ when millions of people across the United States and around the world do not enjoy the basic human rights needed for their survival?

Am I expecting too much of humankind? Are we incapable of doing what is morally correct when we wield power? Was Jesus’ coming all for nothing?

Reflections on Easter Sunday

31 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by in Relationships, Religion

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Kite Flying at Eater in GuyanaKite Flying at Easter – Interior of Guyana

Photo by James Broscombe 2010 (jmbroscombe.blogspot.com)

 

Easter Sunday. Christians across the United States and around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, three days after his death by crucifixion. In Guyana, the sky above the coastline vibrates with colorful kites of all shapes and sizes.

Growing up in a working class family in a British colony, I connected with Jesus’ life and world. He, too, came from the working class and lived in a country ruled by the foreign power of his day: the Roman Empire.

Accounts of Jesus’ teachings and work in the gospels of the New Testament reveal a man fearless in criticizing the excesses, self-righteousness, vanity, and hypocrisy of religious leaders in his community. They chided Jesus for mixing with bad-johns, women of ill-repute, people of other religions; and for disregarding their religious dictates. Through his actions, He made it clear that his mission was to serve the weak, broken, harassed, dejected, outcast, lost, abandoned, sick, and poor.

When his enemies brought to him a woman caught in adultery, a crime punishable by stoning to death, Jesus did not fall for their trickery. He made one request. The person who was free of guilt should throw the first stone. After the woman’s accusers walked away one by one, He did not lambaste her. Go home, He told her. Stop making such bad choices.

Jesus’ teachings continue to resonate with me. He advocated that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. A tough one that is. My neighbor might be a rapist, wife-beater, pedophile, drug dealer, pimp, thief… My list of undesirable neighbors is long. Life is complicated enough when relating with those I love.

As to loving myself? That poses another challenge. I grew up with parents who fought constantly with each other. If love existed, I could not sense it. It took me years to learn to love myself with all my failings and weaknesses. Only then could I begin to accept and love others with their own frailties.

As an adolescent, it shocked me that a good person like Jesus could be rejected, betrayed, and executed. Goodness repaid with evil intent. As an adult, I learned that this is the reality of our day-to-day lives, even when dealing with decent people.

It heartened me to learn that after Jesus’ death, his disciples overcame their fear of also facing execution, and came out of hiding. They carried on Jesus’ mission, declaring that He had risen from the dead. Persecution, imprisonment, and death did not deter them. Love had conquered fear. Love had prevailed. The life, work, and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth – a small village on the fringes of the Roman Empire – spread across the world and have endured to this day.

Easter Sunday reminds me that love will prevail wherever and whenever Darkness wields its iron fists. Today, my soul soars high with the kites over Guyana’s cities, towns, and villages.

My First Love: A Seminarian in a Fallible Church

17 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in Guyana, Religion

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Newly-ordained Catholic priest - Georgetown - Guyana - August 2010Guyana gets new priest after 15 years – August 2010

Source: http://www.catholicnews-tt.net

 

At thirteen years of age, I fell under the spell of a handsome seminarian. David Johnson (fictitious name), our landlord’s nineteen-year-old son, returned home on a month-long holiday from the Benedictine seminary in Trinidad. He captivated our young group of siblings and friends with Bible stories and spoke to us about treating each other with kindness and being respectful and obedient to our elders. On Sunday mornings, he took us to Mass at our parish church. Following his example, I became a devout Christian and began attending daily morning Mass.

When I blossomed into a fifteen-year-old, my admiration for the seminarian evolved into infatuation. I was in heaven the morning he took me to Church on his bicycle. Seated on the middle bar, his arms encircled me. Before Mass, while I sat in the pew, he knelt down in the pew behind me and whispered: “You have a beautiful neck.”

I was just an innocent teenager to him. He preferred chatting with my mother while she worked at her sewing machine. As the landlord’s son, my father welcomed him into our home.

After David’s ordination to the priesthood – when I then had to address him as Father Johnson – adolescent girls flocked to hear him say Mass. He became a magnet for attracting young people to the Church.

Years later while visiting my father, I could hear the heated discussion between our landlord and Father Johnson coming from their neighboring residence.

“You leaving the priesthood for a married woman?” The words of our landlord exploded with anguish.

Father Johnson left the priesthood; the woman left her husband and children. They got married and left Guyana. My first love left me with feelings of deception and betrayal. What had happened to his love for God and to serving Him? How could he choose a woman my mother’s age, and not me?

In hindsight, I realize that Father Johnson had made the right decision in leaving the priesthood to marry the woman he loved. He chose not to maintain a sexual relationship with her under a cloak of priestly celibacy.

Ordination does not bestow Catholic priests with immunity from desires of the flesh. But a chasm exists between adults engaging in illicit, consensual sexual intercourse and the sexual abuse of young boys and girls. Theirs is not simply a sin of lust; of fornication and adultery. Their sin defiles innocent young souls: a crime punishable by law.

Pope Benedict XVI has decided to step down as pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church at the end of February. As a Cardinal, cover-ups of pedophile and rapist priests occurred under his watch. (See synopsis of the documentary film, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, released by HBO on February 4, 2013.)

With many other scandals plaguing the Catholic Church today, will the next pope have the courage and humility to do what is right in the sight of God and expose the criminals in their midst?

The Magic of Christmas

23 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by in Brazil, Family Life, Festivals, Guyana, Religion, United States

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Christmas StarThe Christmas Star

For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him. Matthew 2:2

 

Our Christmas traditions demand a flurry of activities, some of which can be quite stressful. This year, I stayed clear of the frenzy at the shopping mall. My yearly gift-buying spree ended when the American economy crumbled in August 2008. Since my adult sons no longer believe in Santa Claus, I only put up a Christmas tree and decorations when my spirit craves the festivities.

When my siblings and I were kids, our mother did not put up the Christmas tree and decorations until Christmas Eve Night after we were all asleep. It was a magical moment to wake up on Christmas morning to find a tree with presents stacked beneath it.

In the United States, some homeowners go all out in decorating the exterior of their homes and yards. The Christmas lighting extravaganza holds its own magic for me. My childlike fascination for festive lights has never waned with age.

When it comes to food, every region and country has its own traditional specialties. In Guyana, I enjoyed eating pepperpot with bread at breakfast and black cake at teatime and in every home we visited during the Christmas Season. During the years we lived in Brazil, I carried on our Guyanese Christmas tradition of making black cake and, for breakfast, began having coffee with Panettone – an Italian sweet-bread popular in Brazil at Christmastime. My sons and I buy our favorite brands of Panettone at the Brazilian Shop in Culver City. As my sons no longer appreciate black cake, I have stopped making it and now enjoy the American Christmas fruit and nut cake. Christmas Dinner has its own magic when family members, living apart in faraway cities and countries, come together to share a meal.

A lot more happens during this festive season. There are parties and gift-giving in workplaces; school Nativity plays for those who have young children; Christmas caroling; Christmas Eve Midnight Mass; and a variety of festive shows. We even have Christmas songs and movies.

We can get so caught up in all our preparations, activities, and events that we lose touch with the essence of Christmas: a celebration of hope and joy at the birth of Jesus. You may or may not accept Jesus as Christ our Savior, but this spirit of hope and joy at Christmas was passed on to us through the generations in our traditions of giving and receiving, forgetting our differences, and letting our goodness shine through for all to see. Our transformation in revealing our inner light is the true magic of Christmas.