August, 2003 (Vol. 18, No. 10)

For some time now, there has been a strong pressure on Pakistan’s religious schools (madrassas) to change their ways, since they have been widely seen as having contributed to the development of radical forms of Islam.

In a major turnaround, madrassas run by Maulala Fazalur Rehman’s Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam group will be modernizing their syllabus to remove the Taliban taint they have carried for almost a decade, reports the Indo-Asian News Service (Aug. 1; http://www.eians.com).

This is particularly significant since “Rehman is considered the brain behind the Taliban, which had emerged in the mid-1990s from the madrassas run by the Jamiat.” The move is reported to follow rounds of meetings between officials of the Education Ministry and representatives of the schools. The course duration should be expanded by two years (to six years) and the syllabus should include some modern subjects, including information technology, English, mathematics or social studies.

It is also planned to train the teachers in order to update their knowledge. The moves may affect the curriculum of some 2 millions students.

— By Jean-François Mayer

The Yezidis, an ancient religion based in the Kurdish region of Iraq, are entering a period of greater freedom after years of repression and loss of their tribal lands.

The Sydney Morning Herald (July 26) reports that many Yezidis were swept up in Saddam Hussein’s anti-Kurdish crackdown of the 1980s. More recently, the tribal religion lost more than 60 villages when Sunni Muslim Arabs transplanted from the south took them over. But most of the Arabs fled shortly after the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, leading the group’s hereditary ruler, Emir Tasseen Sayid Ali Bak, to believe that the region and its capital Shekhen will now be incorporated into the nearby Kurdish autonomous zone.

Part of the reason for the Yezidis repression has been the misunderstanding that they are devil worshippers. Actually, they believe that God created seven angels to serve him, but that when tested only one remained loyal. There are thousands of Yezidis in Turkey, Syria, Georgia, Russia, Germany and Australia.

The American hotel tradition of placing a Bible in guests’ rooms is changing as these establishments broaden their menu of religious reading material to please the new diversity of guests.

USA Today (July 10) reports that the Bibles placed in hotel rooms for over a century by the Gideon International ministry has become “an unwitting brand standard” that is being challenged by the desire of some hotels to offer their guests options that range from the Bhagavad-Gita to the Book of Mormon. In deference to the Marriot’s founders, these hotels now supplement the Bible with the Book of Mormon.

The Society for the Promotion of Buddhism has placed gratis copies of the Teaching of the Buddha in more than 2,300 hotels across the U.S. as part of a program that also includes 53 other countries. Washington, D.C.’s Madison Hotel will reopen with each guestroom having a windowsill decal pointing toward Mecca — an amenity mainly found in the Middle East.

Religious themes and motifs are evident in the new wave of superhero movies, “from last year’s Spider-Man to this year’s Daredevil and, most recently, X2, the sequel to the 2000 film X-Men,” reports the National Catholic Register (July 13-19).

The movie X2 features a super-strengthened “mutant” character who prays the rosary, views his suffering as a test from Jesus and refers to faith as an alternative to anger. The hero in Daredevil confides the truth about his double identity to a priest and goes to confession. In Spider-Man, the hero’s aunt is seen praying the Lord’s Prayer.Steven Greydanus writes that these “elements of real-world religion in this new wave of superhero films are in a way in keeping with the spirit of the heroes’ Marvel Comics origins.”

Unlike DC Comic superheroes, such as Batman and Superman, where Characters live in imaginary cities, such as Gotham, Marvel characters have traditionally been closer to our own world . . . and real religion has long been a part of their world.”

For instance, in the X-Men comic books, the popular character Nightcrawler was imagined from the outset as a believing Catholic. Gredanus adds that while cruelty and violence exists in the films, these movies represent a change from the way “religion in action movies has often been relegated to psycho killers.”

(National Catholic Register, 432 Washington Ave., North Haven, CT 06473)

There is a growth in both visibility and presence of Judaica and Zionist books and related products in the evangelical Christian marketplace judging by the recent Christian Book Association (CBA) conference in Orlando, Fla.

The e-newsletter Religion Bookline (July 22) reports that one of the most heavily trafficked exhibits was the Tent of Meeting union display. Organized by Barry Rubin, president and CEO of Messianic Jewish Communications, the Tent housed nine different firms under a single, quasi-biblical canopy and was the first time CBA had ever had a combined display of Judaica merchants.

Rubin’s own stall had two plaques asking passersby: “Do You Have Your Messianic Jewish Section Opened Yet?” Asked how many visitors answered that question affirmatively, he said, “About half the people who have come by. It’s Christians looking for their Jewish roots. He added that the biggest sellers are “The Jewish Bible” and “The Jewish New Testament,” followed by books about the ritualizing of time, like haggadahs for Christians.” One San Diego Christian bookseller says that the interest in Judaica has increased every year during her tenure and is now a standard part of her inventory.

She added that about half of the chain of Berean stores now stock Judaica and Zionist materials. Responding to this trend and to the trend toward conservatism in general, New Leaf Press has just opened a new division, Balfour Books, which was making its debut in Orlando. The division will publish both Jewish and Christian authors. The newsletter adds that patriotism was also a big theme in Orlando. The Presidential Prayer Team, a national organization of almost three million citizens pledged to support the president with daily prayer, announced a new partnerships with several Christian book and music publishers. J. Countryman will publish two titles: “The Presidential Prayer Team Devotional” and “The Presidential Prayer Team Prayer Journal.”

Pope John Paul II’s teachings on gender difference and sexuality seems to be a main attraction for the small but growing movement of  young adults drawn to conservative Catholicism.

In First Things magazine (August-September), Bronwen Catherine McShea  reports that at Harvard and other Ivy League colleges, there is a phenomenon of young people converting or returning to traditional Catholic practice and beliefs. At Harvard, “student attendance has been significant at daily masses, regular Confession, and Rosary groups both at the College and at the Law School,” as well as growing prolife involvement.

McShea’s reporting of this trend is anecdotal [although surveys have shown some conservative beliefs and attitudes among a segment of younger Catholic clergy and laity], but her explanation of the motivations of many of  these converts and returnees may be significant. “What I find particularly striking about many of my peers in this veritable young Catholic movement at Harvard–particularly the young women among them–is their fervent rejection of modern liberal conceptions of sexual difference, sexual relations and family life . . . They also support the Church’s stance that women cannot be ordained as priests, seeing in it a recognition that men and women [have] distinct natures, body and soul . . .”

The “beauty of orthodoxy” for these young people is revealed in Pope John Paul II’s teachings on contraception and gender difference, known as the “theology of the body.”

(First Things, 156 Fifth Avenue, Suite 400,  New York, NY 10010)

Twenty five years after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints lifted its prohibition against blacks serving in the priesthood, the issue of race still haunts Mormonism.

In his new book All Abraham’s Children (University of Illinois Press, $36.95), sociologist Armand L. Mauss chronicles how the LDS church has long struggled between its early teachings and traditions which linked various racial lineages to righteousness and its universalistic thrust, viewing all people as God’s children. The main plot of the book is that the universalistic tendency won out in the church, largely through missionary encounters with diverse races, but remnants of the older church still exert some pull.

Mauss writes that the LDS church finds itself in the unique position of being among the least racist and anti-Semitic churches in the U.S (particularly after the 1978 ruling), judging by surveys of members’attitudes, while also harboring century old beliefs that create problems for black Mormons. Mauss notes that church officials have cultivated a good working relationship with black leaders and groups; the commitment of the church to genealogical work among blacks has been a particularly success.

But when the LDS church rescinded the prohibition against blacks in the priesthood, it didn’t condemn the teachings justifying this exclusion: that blacks are the cursed descendants of the Old Testament figure Cain. The remnants of this belief among many white Mormons has alienated many African-Americans from the church, according to Mauss..Although there are few hard statistics to cite, he writes that Mormon missionary work among blacks has not thrived and there is a significant black drop-out rate.

The independent Mormon magazine Sunstone devoted much of its March and April issues to matters surrounding the lifting of the priesthood prohibition, particularly looking at the way the older racial beliefs still live on in some quarters. Mormon books and pamphlets carrying these racial teachings are not difficult to find at most LDS bookstores.

For instance, Elder Bruce R. McConkies’ book “Mormon Doctrine” is a common source of church teachings for Latter Day Saints, but the current edition still includes information on blacks and the priesthood and the “mark of Cain” that is based on old understandings. Mauss concludes in his book that older racial beliefs may persist in the same way that sympathy for polygamy held strong among  many Mormons long after the practice was discarded by the church.

(Sunstone, 343 N. Third West, Salt Lake City, UT 84103-1215)