Is blogging like praying?

...We only do them when we're not busy and when we have something to say.

Skimpy skirts and eternal life

On the eve of the biggest holiday in Chantara's year, Black Friday, I was reminded of a shopping mystery. I recently did some holiday shopping of my own (and by "holiday", I mean shopping for myself, but doing around the holidays) and purchased a few items at Forever 21.

For those of you who don't know, Forever 21 is a miracle on earth. Its a store that is jam packed with so much merchandise that you cannot go in without 1) spending at least an hour combing through the merchandise and 2) buying at least 4 things (which will cost you around $30.) The clothes are super trendy and not well made, but even a girl of my advancing age and preppy tastes can find something there. So can club kids, budding fashionistas, pre-teen Carrie Bradshaw wannabes, and many, many more.

Today, as I was folding up the bag to reuse on another occasion (big ups to recycling!), I was reminded of a mystery that I never have solved. On the bottom of the signature Forever 21 plastic shopping bag, there is a little bit of text that if you didn't know any better is an imprint of the color of the ink used, or the batch number for the printing of the bag. But, no...for most they will recognize the ink on the bottom of that trendy, sometimes slutty clothing store bag to be - a Bible verse. And not just any Bible verse, John 3:16, the "Gospel in a nutshell":

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever
shall believe in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

I didn't even need to look it up, because I recited it dozens and dozens of time at Sunday School growing up. So the question I'm sure you're asking yourself right now is the same as I had. "Why is that there?"

Is Forever 21 owned by an evangelical Christian, much like Jessica Simpson's dad, who just wants to bring small clothing to the world? Logically, it seems that if someone was devoted enough to print that on millions of bags that little teeny-boppers (and some budding professionals) will be carrying around, that that same person probably wouldn't approve of half of the clothes that his own store is selling.

Well, thanks to the internet, we have an answer, from the New York Sun's article entitled "Evangelism in Fashion." Like usual, their author addressed the issue first and with much more literary flair than I.

P.S. In-n-Out Burger does it too...

Obama: Heaven Sent?

Its hard to discuss something these days that does not involve the election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. One of the first questions I thought of after last week's historic election was - was Obama a gift from God? Its not out of the realm of normalcy to ask that question. After all, many conservative Christians believed that George W. was selected by God. In fact, W himself thought so.

I had a debate with someone several months back about how the Obama campaign was trying to portray Obama as the Messiah (a.k.a. Jesus). My argument was that I highly doubt the campaign was intentionally doing it. If any comparisons to Jesus were made, they were only because Jesus himself is an amalgam of common themes of revolution, change, and redemption.

Call me crazy, but I can see how some people believe Obama is ordained by God to lead our country. I can't believe I'm saying that, because when people said that about W, I thought they were nutso. After all, what else could explain the financial meltdown that so greatly contributed to his landslide victory, if not God's intervention? ***Editors note: (Iif you really want to know what caused the U.S./world financial crisis, This American Life did a great episode entitled "The Giant Pool of Money" that explains it.)***

A look at what Obama's targeting for his first few weeks in office certainly seem divine. He's already planning on closing Guantanamo Bay, where many have been wrongfully imprisoned for years without any sort of Constitutional (and arguably any civil) rights, and giving those detainees fair trials within the U.S. It's also speculated that he will immediately reverse some of W's executive orders that allow oil drilling in the national parks.

I think rather than him being sent from God, its probably more likely that he's just a good follower of God. Someone who knows how to truly mesh his faith with his job. Not just someone who *says* he does.

God wants you to vote

So few things in life am I as passionate about as voting. So I am going to use this arena to stump for a second... but not for any particular candidate (although I am very HOPEful for some change...).

I want everyone reading this to go out and vote.

If you believe in religion or science... if you believe in community or money... if you believe in elephants or donkeys or green things (i have no idea what their mascot is.... a leaf?)... if you believe in the future or the past... if you simply believe... YOU MUST GET OUT TODAY AND VOTE!

And to put this into religious terms... it is a moral duty to vote. Take pride in what God has given us and take responsibility for it.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! (got it? now stop reading and go vote!)

Halloween: the Forgotten Religious Holiday

I love Halloween, as does Ginger. Costumes, candy, trick or treating... there is NOTHING bad about this holiday. Of course, growing up, Halloween was not a welcome holiday in my parents' household.

There were many years where my mom decided that trick or treating and getting dressed up was not in accordance with Islam. I was allowed to get dressed up to go to school, but once I got home the costume had to come off and I was stuck watching bad Halloween specials on tv (they never showed "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" ON Halloween when I was a kid). Of course, there were several years where my parents would head out for some event or another on Halloween (not holiday related) and us kids would sneak out with our pillow cases to be filled with candy.

This was always backed up at Sunday school by our teachers who would caution us against going trick or treating and celebrating Halloween because it was against our religion. While Halloween may have started as a pagan holiday, it has long lost that meaning. I mean, do we really think that ancient pagans intended me to get recycled peanut butter kisses when I went out trick or treating? While those peanut butter kisses may have been produced during the time of the pagans (does ANYONE actually like those things?), they were not intended to be forced upon children generation after generation after generation.

Maybe we need to bring Halloween back to its roots and find some pagans to teach us how. Of course then my mom would be completely justified in ruining my dreams of candy filled pillow cases....

Music to the Soul

So I had a similar instance of divine intervention as our friend Yusuf's. Admittedly, it may not have been quite as cool, but it was still something. So I will admit to everyone out there, I watch the CW. I probably watch it more than someone in their late 20's should. Well, as of late they have had these commercials that just list the names of shows and what time they are on... nothing fancy, nothing special. Except for the music.

Anyone who has known me since my pre-law school days will know that in my natural state I am somewhat of an audiophile... okay I am completely an audiophile. (Law school has seriously dampened my obsession, but it still lingers in the background.) So when I hear a song that catches in my head, I HAVE to have it. This CW commercial played music in the background... simple music, no words. It was incredibly catchy, even in its 15 seconds of play. Talking to my fiance (who is a great enabler of my music addiction), I could not even recreate what the music sounded like because the instruments were so unique. It was driving me crazy. I kept running searches on Google and other search engines trying to figure out what the song was.

I started to hit rock bottom. I was jonesing for the music bad, real bad. I found my prayers being tainted with pleas to God to find the song. I laid awake in bed at night, staring at the ceiling and making deals with God to figure out what the song was. It looks like the Big Guy heard my pleas and decided to indulge me.

After several weeks and searching I began to give up and concentrate on other aspects of life again, like school. While conducting a marathon research session in the law library I was listening to my new iPhone (something I think Ginger should profile as something God owns stock in), when all of a sudden I heard the faint beginnings of some music. It rang familiar in my head... the excitement began to build. But surely, I could not have owned the song all along. The music kept playing... I listened with anticipation... and there it was, the familiar guitar chord repeating. It took all the energy I had not to get up and start laughing like a maniac at the miracle I was experiencing. Apparently, I had downloaded the song (which was Great DJ by the Ting Tings) from iTunes on one of their free Tuesday downloads and just had never really listened to it (come on, I have like 4,000 songs on my phone). I said a small thankful prayer to God and ran to share the news with Ginger, who was not as impressed, but nonetheless it was my miracle from God.

Which leads me to another point I am going to touch on quickly, since it probably deserves its own post. Super religious people who don't believe music is kosher/halal/down with God. There are plenty of extremist Muslims who say that music is against the religion. I would imagine that there are similar folks in other religions as well. Now I understand the concept that things that take you away from God are not good things... but seriously, I do not think listening to Death Cab for Cutie makes me a bad Muslim. If I listened to the Jonas Brothers, that probably would, but I am safe on that point. Music is a good way to unite people and bring them together. It is not something that needs to be rallied against. The Mullahs who outlaw western music in the Middle East are sorely going about it the wrong way... but outlawing it, they are making people want it more. If they would just hand out free Rihanna albums, no one would want to listen to her anymore. Maybe that is the secret to getting rid of the Jonas Brothers....

Religulous and the Quality Threesome

So I was the lucky guy who got to take Ginger and Eli to Religulous last night. Two important qualifications to that statement: 1. When I take a girl to a movie, she still pays. What else can you expect from a feminist Jew? 2. Quality threesome? You decide.

Religulous is funny. The problem with religulous is that it tries to have a point. Bill Maher going around arguing with Biblical Literalists provides for funny moments and an interesting, if not narrow, expose on fundamentalism.

But then Religulous tries to have a point. It has three points. Two of them are good, but then the bad point eats the good points and then the movie ends.

First the good points. The first good point of the movie is that it sucks that atheists are marginalized. Maher points out that about 16% of Americans identify themselves as atheist, but that this demographic has no political sway while much smaller demographics, Jews, blacks, unions, etc., have tons of sway. The analogy between ethnic minorities and atheists as a interest group isn't a great one, but, still, the point is well taken. Atheist-phobia, like some other phobias, is just another narrow-minded, squeamish intolerance.

The second good point is that people should be humble when attempting to answer life's difficult questions. Does God exist? What happens when we die? Is there a destiny heading towards Armageddon? The answers to these questions should be 'humility' and little more. If people realized that faith was based on their personal intuitions, not on some capital t-Truth, people might be less willing to die and kill over religious matters.

The problem is with Maher's third point: religion really sucks. In fact, religion will cause the end of the world. Religulous, after being pleasant for like 90 minutes, degrades into a Clock Orange style say 'religion' over and over again while showing disturbing images, namely mushroom clouds, to convince the audience that religion is bad.

This bad point swallows the good points for a couple reasons. First, while it may convince some atheists to come out of the closet by being so outspoken, Maher more than anything makes atheists look like people who hate religion. Making 'intolerance' intrinsic to atheism makes atheism seem like bad news bears. Plus, as pointed out by Ginger, by labeling religious progressives as enablers of religious fundamentalists, Maher leaves no room for a viable religious left. It can't be good for spreading peace, tolerance, etc if fundamentalists necessarily have a monopoly over religion.

Maher's general distaste for religion also jacks his point about humility. Maher states astutely that people should answer the big questions with humility. The problem is that Maher, when dialoguing with various people throughout the movie, doesn't ask what people think happens after death, etc. He instead focuses on the silliest parts of the Bible, the talking snake in the Garden of Eden, Jonah and the whale. Of course, Biblical Literalists can't say that Jonah didn't get eaten by the whale and then stupidly go on about miracles and whatever. So Maher's questions do provide a good attack on fundamentalist literalism. But, honestly, how many people's religious identities center around Jonah getting swallowed by a whale? Maher sets up straw men and dodges taking an intimate look at the way people actually grapple with difficult questions.

Also, for God's sake, it is not humble for Maher to declare that religion should die while showing nuclear bombs going off in the background. Militant atheism can be pretty dangerous too (see Mao, Stalin, et al). At the end of the day, religious people and atheists shouldn't be dicks.

That pretty much counts out Bill Maher.