The Importance of Understanding the Sociology of Religion

http://hds.harvard.edu/news/2016/01/20/importance-understanding-sociology-religion#

The Importance of Understanding the Sociology of Religion

Warren Goldstein is a sociologist of religion teaching at HDS. While his research aims to develop a critical sociology of religion as a "new paradigm" in the sociology of religion, he is more broadly interested in the development of a critical paradigm in the study of religion as a whole.

A new Settlement : religion and Belief in Schools

http://faithdebates.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/A-New-Settlement-for-Religion-and-Belief-in-schools.pdf

A new Settlement : religion and Belief in Schools

by Charles Clarke and Linda Woodhead 

Living with Difference: Community, Diversity and the Common Good

http://www.corab.org.uk/

Living with Difference: Community, Diversity and the Common Good

The report of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, convened by the Woolf Institute and chaired by Baroness Butler-Sloss.
It is titled "Living with Difference: Community, Diversity and the Common Good".

RE for REal report and Recommendations

http://www.gold.ac.uk/faithsunit/reforreal/

In a context of deep religious illiteracy in the UK, RE for REal explores the role of schools in equipping young people with the knowledge and skills to engage effectively with religion and belief diversity, in schools, in their communities, in future workplaces and in wider social contexts.

The project analyses the views of pupils, parents and teachers in secondary education and of employers, on what school leavers need to know about religion and belief in relation to the current religion and belief landscape, as evidenced in research and current educational policy.

It builds on the Religious Education Council’s A Review of Religious Education in England (2013) by providing a new evidence-base to support and facilitate continuing national discussions. By engaging protagonists in the field in a cycle of reflective analysis, it will further stimulate and facilitate wider debate around the future role and shape of RE in schools.

Below, you will find supporting documents to accompany our recent study:

Full report (PDF download)

Executive summary (PDF download)

Recommendations (PDF download)

RE for REal brings together views on what children need to know and understand about religion with research evidence on the real religious landscape and explores the gaps between the two. It is unique in that it will bring together key groups of influence to create a forum in which to discuss how to align these two in future policy and planning for schools.

IFN Interfaith Bulletin Oct-Nov 2015

http://www.interfaith.org.uk/publications/ifn-e-bulletin/146-ifn-e-bulletin-october-november-2015/file

IFN Interfaith Bulletin Oct-Nov 2015

Event Report: Atheism research at the 2015 IAPR World Congress

http://blog.nsrn.net/2015/10/19/event-report-atheism-research-at-the-2015-iapr-world-congress/

← Event Report: American Psychological Association Annual Conference

Event Report: Atheism research at the 2015 IAPR World Congress

Posted on October 19, 2015 by katieaston

In this post, Thomas Coleman discusses the conference the International Association for the Psychology of Religion (IAPR) 2015 World Congress (17th-20th August 2015). Coleman takes us on a tour of the conference, through panels of interest to him on topics of atheism, disbelief and nonreligious mystical, or transcendent, experience.

Review of equality and human rights law relating to religion or belief

Review of equality and human rights law relating to religion or belief

NEW PUBLICATION

Peter Edge and Lucy Vickers, Review of equality and human rights law relating to religion or belief (EHRC Research Report no. 97, 2015)

 

This EHRC report draws on a detailed analysis of primary and secondary sources of British law, wider research and policy literature, and four workshops of experts to explore the legal framework on religion or belief. It covers definitional issues, the legal protection for religion or belief, the balancing of rights, a duty of reasonable accommodation and the public sector equality duty. Key findings included that:

 

·        The current domestic law in this area is comparatively recent and addresses complex issues in a context where there is considerable difference of opinion as to how the law should be framed and applied. Given this, the law is generally clear and consistent.

·        The review indicates the definition of belief, particularly in equality legislation, merits further assessment. The broad definition currently being applied by the courts is unclear, which results in apparent inconsistencies between judgments, particularly at Employment Tribunal level.

·        The impact on domestic law of some specific issues which have been tested at European level remains unclear.

·        The primary focus of the case law to date has been on the relationship of the religious employee and their employer. However, the position of the religious employer and the religious service provider remains relatively unexplored.

·        The role of the public sector equality duty in integrating religion or belief equality into the day to day practice of public sector organisations remains largely untested.

·        The extent to which a duty to accommodate religion or belief (as practised in Canada or the USA) might be beneficial to employees and employers remains uncertain and different views are held about its perceived advantages and disadvantages.

 

The report is available at: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/publication/research-report-97-review-equality-and-human-rights-law-relating-religion-or-belief

-- 
Namo Amida Bu

Acharya Modgala Louise Duguid

Buddhist View on Evolution and Creation - - Khenpo Sodargye

http://buddhism.uk/events/english/buddhist-view-evolution-and-creation-khenpo-sodargye

Buddhist View on Evolution and Creation - - Khenpo Sodargye

Event type:

• Free

 City:

• London

 Date: 

22 Oct 2015

 Time: 

18.15 - 20.15pm

NATRE: RE Teaching: Beyond the Ordinary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzvZTFmp6qc

Published on Mar 20, 2015

Do you have the drive, interest and personality to teach one of the most diverse, questioning and relevant subjects in schools today?

Seen through the eyes of Lynsey Wilkinson, Head of RE at Redhill Academy near Nottingham and her students, the Beyond the Ordinary film shows how RE helps young people make sense of the world around them. The short film gives the teacher’s view on a subject, where the answers are rarely straightforward and sometimes raise more questions.

Beyond the Ordinary is a Religious Education Council initiative. Key partners involved in the project include the National Association of Teachers of RE, the Association of University Lecturers in Religion and Education and Culham St Gabriel’s Trust.

To find out more about the campaign visit www.teachre.co.uk/beyondtheordinary

Invented Religions

http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/podcast-carole-cusack-on-invented-religions/

Invented Religions

What is an “Invented Religion”? Why should scholars take these religions seriously? What makes these “inventions” different from the revelations in other religions? What happens when an author does not want their story to become a religious text?

War Remembrance in Japan's Buddhist Cemeteries

1. http://japanfocus.org/-Brian-Victoria/4353/article.html
2. http://japanfocus.org/-Brian-Victoria/4367/article.html

War Remembrance in Japan's Buddhist Cemeteries (1-2)

War Remembrance in Japan’s Buddhist Cemeteries, Part I: Kannon Hears the Cries of War The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue. 31, No. 3, August 03, 2015 Brian Victoria Abstract While the role of Yasukuni Shrine in both commemorating and eulogizing Japan’s wartime aggression is well known (and controversial), little to no attention has been paid to a similar role played by a number of Buddhist temples in contemporary Japan. For example, Kōa Kannon (Kannon for a Prosperous Asia) temple (興亜観音寺), located in Atami, a hot-springs resort south of Tokyo, is one such war-eulogizing Buddhist temple. This temple was initially established in the late 1930s at the initiative of Imperial Army General Matsui Iwane, supreme commander of the Japanese attack on Nanjing in December 1937, better known as the "Rape of Nanjing." In the postwar era, Kannon Bodhisattva, the Buddhist personification of compassion enshrined at Kōa Kannon, has gone on to become one of the main Buddhist figures employed throughout the country to comfort the “heroic spirits” (eirei) of all Japanese soldiers who died in the war while, at the same time, valorizing and eulogizing the war they fought in. In addition to Kannon-centric temples, the major Shingon sect-affiliated monastic complex on Mt. Kōya now plays a major role in the remembrance of the war dead, including an effort to transform convicted "war criminals" into national “martyrs” (junnan-sha), an effort backed by the current Japanese government. http://japanfocus.org/-Brian-Victoria/4367/article.html War Remembrance in Japan’s Buddhist Cemeteries, Part II:  Transforming War Criminals into Martyrs: “True Words” on Mt. Kōya The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue. 34, No. 3, August 24, 2015 Brian Victoria

HuffPost: The Top 5 Reasons to study Religion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-laderman/the-religion-pitch_b_7921450.html

The Top 5 Reasons to study Religion

It's not easy being chair of a religion department. August is an especially cruel month as we close out one academic year and start up a new one, and begin again to struggle with an increasingly vital challenge: recruiting and keeping more majors.

The Role of Faith in British Schools/Education

The Role of Faith in British Schools/Education

http://se-faithforum.net/national-events/conference-2015

INFORM AUTUMN SEMINAR

INFORM AUTUMN SEMINAR
Children, Minority Religions, and the Law

Date - Saturday, 17 October 2015; 9.30am – 4.30pm
Location – Clement House, London School of Economics 

Registration is now open and can be done using a credit/debit card through PayPal or by posting a booking form and a cheque payable to 'Inform' to Inform, Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE. Tickets (including buffet lunch, coffee and tea) paid by 28 September 2015 are £38 each (£18 students/unwaged). Tickets booked after 28 September 2015 will cost £48 each (£28 students/unwaged). 

What is in the best interests of a child?

All states who are members of the UN (except the United States) have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which requires the State to act in the best interest of the child. Since ratification, there have been several occasions when States have intervened in what was perceived as infringement of the well-being and/or rights of children living in religious communities. But have these states (or their local authorities) acted in the best interest of the child?

While there are documented cases where children have been neglected and/or harmed when raised within religious communities (both new and old), some minority religions argue that what society proposes (in its culture, education, medical provisions) is not at all in the best interest of the child, and aim to protect their children from such negative influences. Who should decide on what is in a child’s best interest? In this seminar we will concentrate on legal issues surrounding children in minority religious communities, from a variety of perspectives.

Provisional Programme 

9.30 - 10.00         REGISTRATION

10.00 - 10.15       Eileen Barker (Founder and Honorary Research Fellow, Inform) Welcome and Housekeeping

10.15 - 10.40       Amanda van Eck (Deputy Director, Inform) Introduction

10.40 - 11.05       Heiner Bielefeldt (UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief)Religious Socialization in Light of Article 14 of the Conventions on the Rights of a Child

11.05 – 11.30      Alain Garay (Lawyer in Paris, France) Children, Minority Religions and the European Court of Human Rights Case Laws 

11.30 – 11.55      TEA/COFFEE

11.55 – 12.20      Jean Swantko Wiseman (Twelve Tribes lawyer since 1983, USA) Germany to Twelve Tribes Parents: You can Get Your Children Back if You Leave Twelve Tribes

12.20 – 12.45      Tony Brace (Legal Department, Watch Tower Society) Jehovah’s Witnesses: Children, Blood Transfusions and the Law (Who Holds the Key or Controls the ‘Flack Jacket’?)

12.45 - 13.45       LUNCH

13.45 - 14.10       Roger Kiska (Senior Counsel, Deputy Director, ADF International) Judicial Dogmatism: Home Education and the Rise of Humanist Statism in Europe

14.10 - 14.35       David Waldock Reflections on a Tennis Shoe

14.35 - 15.00       TEA/COFFEE

15.00 - 15.25       Anat Scolnicov (University of Winchester) Children, Family and Community - A Clash of Rights?

15.25 – 15.50      Lorraine Derocher  

15.50 – 16.30      GENERAL PANEL DISCUSSION   

HuffPost: The Future of Buddhism: Race, Money, Mindfulness and the World

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yael-shy/the-future-of-buddhism_b_7225290.html

The Future of Buddhism: Race, Money, Mindfulness and the World

by Yael Shy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRDi7JpB8Pw&list=PL1C7C1A7B5BE4CAD0

The Conscious Universe - B. Alan Wallace

 

Published on May 20, 2012

Recorded at Unity Church, Santa Barbara, CA , Jan. 16, 2008
The Conscious Universe: Where Buddhism and Physics Converge

Physicists have long assumed that the universe is fundamentally composed of matter and energy and that life and consciousness are accidental byproducts of configurations of matter. But a growing number of distinguished physicists are now suggesting that consciousness may play a much more fundamental role in nature than scientists previously believed. In this lecture Alan Wallace will review some of the most provocative theories presented by such leading physicists as John Wheeler, Stephen Hawking, and Andre Linde that challenge many of the materialist assumptions based on outdated 19th-century physics.

http://www.alanwallace.org

Please visit http://www.sbinstitute.com/ for more information.

 

How a skeptical anchorman became a Buddhist, Dan Harris

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/10/living/harris-anchorman-buddhist/

How a skeptical anchorman became a Buddhist

Dan Harris, Special to CNN

This Burmese Nunnery Saved 200 Girls From Sex Slavery

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-froelich/this-burmese-nunnery-save_b_6318940.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular,buddhism

This Burmese Nunnery Saved 200 Girls From Sex Slavery

By Paula Froelich
Posted: 12/15/2014 2:20 pm EST Updated: 12/15/2014 2:59 pm EST

Buddhist nuns are everywhere among the streets of Myanmar -- of all different ages, some as young as 5. Dressed in pink loose-fitting shirts and pants with orange scarves, they have shaved heads and rely on alms to pay for their schooling, food, housing, and other basic needs.

Karen Armstrong on Religion and the History of Violence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6I-V3iNeFo

Karen Armstrong on Religion and the History of Violence 

Published on Jan 7, 2015

Filmed at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on 1st October 2014.

Is religion is to blame for most of the bloodshed throughout human history? Many would concur, but this is a view strongly countered by Karen Armstrong, one of the world’s leading thinkers on religion and spirituality. Armstrong is the former Catholic nun who abandoned her religious creed and has described herself as a ‘freelance monotheist’, while also taking inspiration from Buddhism. She has sold hundreds of thousands of books around the world and won huge audiences for her powerful oratory in which she challenges her listeners to reappraise their prejudices about religion. She has addressed the US Congress and Senate, and as a testament to her bridge-building abilities she has filled venues across the Muslim world, including Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, Singapore, Egypt and Pakistan where up to 5000 have come out to hear her.

She has written over 16 books on faith and the major religions, studying what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common, and how our faiths have shaped world history and drive current events.

She came to the Intelligence Squared stage to talk about her forthcoming book 'Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence'. Journeying from prehistoric times to the present, she contrasted medieval crusaders and modern-day jihadists with the pacifism of the Buddha and Jesus’ vision of a just and peaceful society. And she demonstrated that the underlying reasons – social, economic, political – for war and violence in our history have often had very little to do with religion. Instead, Armstrong celebrated the religious ideas and movements that have opposed war and aggression and promoted peace and reconciliation.

La Repubblica Blog: The Pope and Dalai in the eyes of Beijing by Raimondo Bultrini

La Repubblica Blog: The Pope and Dalai in the eyes of Beijing by Raimondo Bultrini

English Translation by Raimondo Bultrini & Francesca Paoletti of Papa e Dalai agli occhi di Pechino

“One thing is certain: that the commitment to peace by Pope Francis is indubitable. But for what reason did the pontiff not meet the Dalai Lama?” This is what Il Giornale [translator’s comment: this is a mainstream Italian newspaper] asks after the announcement that the Vatican is “snubbing” – to quote the words of the Guardian – the Tibetan leader. “There are no official reasons – writes Il Giornale – The background could be the relationships (which today are still very tense) between Beijing and the Holy See, with the claim by the [Chinese] government to nominate the bishops (this has become a common practice), totally ignoring the approval coming from the Pope. But negotiations are ongoing and, soon,relations could improve. For this, Tibet’s reasons can wait …”
I found this text in front of me while I was trying to answer the same questions. Why does the Pope, who is so inclined towards social outcasts and the victims of injustice, not receive a man who was forced to escape from his country as a refugee, one of the many that – according to Bergoglio’s words – are living on the sacrifice of Christ himself?
OK, the Dalai is a “refugee” holding a Peace Nobel Prize, he has had good fortune in terms of fame, not only as the representative of an oppressed culture, but also as a wise one coming from a different religion, Buddhism, who has so far given advice that was able to change millions of lives. Nothing compared to the multitudes of the followers of Christ’s message. But still he is the victim of a huge injustice, such as was the expropriation of his country, of his home, depriving him of the contact of those people that, after generations, still love him and are loved in return, despite all Chinese attempts to conquer minds and hearts of the Tibetans. If the Italian government, instead of the Lateran Treaty, had imposed on the Church the seizure of all goods and the submission of the Pontiff to the Party of the Duce [Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party], it would not have been a nice thing. So out of mutuality, between persons who believe in the freedom of faith, an embrace of solidarity with the Dalai Lama, just like those given to leaders of other religions and to Muslims, would have been universally appreciated. But certainly not by China.
Now, we can assume that the Pope might be moved by the compassionate intention not to hurt Beijing, especially – as Il Giornale reminds us – while there are currently delicate discussions going on, but for sure this leaves many others disappointed. Especially because the Catholics in China do not have much hope left for a treatment different from that reserved to the Tibetans, should they actually choose to go under the patronage of the Pope and not only or no longer under that of the United Front Department, Section for Religious and Ethnical Affairs of the Communist Party.
We do not know what image Pope Francis has of the religious situation in China and the consequences that befall individuals and movements that may pose any threat to the power control of the Party and the State. The Falun Gong and its annihilation with torture, killings and mass arrests of followers are a warning from history. Since the Vatican well knows what the persecution of priests and devotees means in the same People’s Republic, it can therefore also imagine why, in turn, the highly spiritual Tibetans look for support, from an entity of perhaos moral and ethical “infallible compassion” such as the head the largest body in the Western Church.
The Vatican only need observe the photos and videos on social networks where you can see the Chinese tourists entering the monasteries and temples with shoes on, throwing the butts of cigarettes around, taking selfies with two V fingers amidst devotees and monks who meditate or prostrate themselves to the Buddha. Sure, they are cting in a gentler fashion than the soldiers of the PLA did when they razed religious buildings and statues and trampled the rosaries and prayer wheels of the devotees, and sometimes still do, according to reports from human rights groups and Tibetan exiles.
But in today’s China, there are more subtle ways to denigrate a religion and with it the love that binds the people to their current spiritual leader. To this end, China is supporting a group that accuses the Tibetan leader of committing injustices against the devotees of a certain deity of fierce aspect called Gyalpo Shugden or Gyalchen. This organization, which is headed by an old lamawho was expelled years ago from his monastery for “severe violations of religious bond with the Buddhist community,” is so rich they can ship hundreds of peoplearound the world in order to demonstrate in the street and accuse the Dalai Lama of being a liar.
There is evidence of payments made by the followers of this erudite scholar and recognized heretic, Kelsang Gyatso, to organize the travel of the wandering protesters. Gyatso, the founder of the “New Kadampa Tradition”, whose aim is to revitalise the tradition of the original school to which the Dalai lama still belongs. With a luxurious seat in England and hundreds of centers in America and other countries where they practice the worship of Shugden, considered powerful and effective against all enemies inside and out, but that according to the Dalai Lama, is a source of discord and tension between the Tibetans from its origin to the time of his fifth predecessor, in the seventeenth century. The operational arm [of the NKT] in the current international anti Dalai campaign is the Western Shugden Society, laterly renamed the International Shugden Community, and their first public appearance, with the same tenor of those of today.was in 1996, during a protest in central London,
It ‘s a story full of intrigue and mysteries, including a triple murder in Dharamsala in India the year after that first demonstration in England, near the residence of the present Dalai Lama. A group of Tibetans who belonged to the same cult and was – at that time officially – connected to the NKT, was investigated and has not yet been acquitted in the investigation based on the substantial evidence of a plot to assassinate the director of the local school of Tibetan Dialectics, who had sided with the Dalai [Lama] against this practice considered so “dangerous”. In the assault, three monks were killed by stabbing them. Among the nvestigation papers were seized a list of authorities of the then Tibetan government in exile, the Dalai lama at the head, to be eliminated. A risk that according to intelligence Tibetan exiles still exists today.
Since there were no other “tracks” plausible, the culmination of the investigation of the triple murder focused inconclusively on the role of the association owned by a group of Tibetan monks and lay people of a district in New Delhi, the Dorje Shugden Devotee’s Charitable & Religious Society, passed into the background. Yet it would have been important to get to the bottom of this, as it was its adherents that opened up for the first time to the Chinese the opportunity to realize the benefits of their special version of Tibetan Buddhism, based on the worship of a spirit which, ideally, is on their side and not that of the enemy, the “separatist” Dalai.
Starting in the days just after the triple murder in February of 1997, the Chinese authorities granted special privileges to practitioners of Shugden (the killers entered China via Nepal despite an arrest warrant being still pending), and invite them regularly to political and strategic consultations on how to reduce the influence of the Dalai Lama in Tibet. In exchange for this, they offer help in building yet more new temples dedicated to their “Buddha” Shugden, while Tibetans urging people not to follow this worship, as recommended the Dalai Lama, are even arrested as happened in these current hours to the 77-year old Jamyang Tsering.
At the international level, the current media strategy of the International Shugden Community is much subtler and employs millions of posts on social networks and invitations to the followers to participate in the campaign “Dalai lama stop lying” via twitter or more directly in places where demonstrations that are taking place in several places in the world visited by the Tibetan leader.
China naturally observes this, rubbing its hands together at this controversy which aims to undermine the figure of the Tibetan leader right on his personal strong point of human rights. The Dalai explained his position many times on this subject and there are hundreds of gigabytes of online documents and testimonials from his own voice as well as books by scholars such as Georges B.J. Dreyfus and the Dolgyal Shugden Research Society (‘Dolgyal Shugden: A History’).
In this way, even the experts of the Vatican can investigate the background of this case and catch here and there a glimpse of the kind of strategy of defamation and denigration that China could take to downsize, just like the Dalai Lama, even the Pope of Rome.
For example, some more recent history, and equally embarrassing for the Catholic Church as that Tibetan spirit-demon, could re-emerge, history which has as protagonists Pope Bergoglio and other priests during the darkest period in modern Argentine history. In 2000 a court in Buenos Aires wrote in the judgment against three former soldiers sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two progressive priests, that the church hierarchy had “closed its eyes” to that double murder. Those were the years when the current pope was leading the argentines Jesuit order (1973-1979), at the top of the Catholic hierarchy who were asking the faithful to act as "patriots".
Bergoglio remained officially silent even during the kidnapping of two other priests of his congregation, who were accused of conniving with the opponents of the regime while they were working in the slums. The Pontiff has always denied that he abandoned his men and instead always said that he helped several times the priests of the underground resistance. But he refused twice to act as a witness in related lawsuits, until in 2010 when he decided to appear in front of the judges and the lawyers said he had been overly “evasive”.
The accusations, from which Bergoglio has always been acquitted, are relatively important in the past of a monk of flawless faithfulness to the ideals of the Church. But when making agreements with men of power, such as for sure are the Chinese politicians negotiating with the Vatican, there are many surprises to be encountered. Considering all this, St. Peter’s hierarchs would have been well advised to reconsider their decision to renounce the meeting with the Dalai Lama only in order not to offend Beijing. If one day it could deem useful, the mud of those years under the generals in Buenos Aires could come back to the surface and the Pontiff would find himself – just as the Dalai Lama –at the centre of a controversy built up by others and backed up by the religious Department of the Communist Party.
For even in Chinese they say: “Defame, defame, something will remain”.
Originally published at La Repubblica Blog: Papa e Dalai agli occhi di Pechino (14 Dec. 2014