Class 4 - September 6th, 2011

Today's class was focused on preparing our mind to be respectful towards other religions of the world, no matter how different they may be from our beliefs.  We may naturally look at other's religions and practices and say something like, "Wicca?!  Modern-day witches?  That's preposterous!  Who would ever practice something as unreasonable as that!".  Instead, we should view a person's religion from their point of view, returning to John Dunne's idea of passing over and coming back.

We began class with a prayer very nicely led by Stefano Belloni.  Afterwards, in a power-point/handout Ms. Egan presented to us, we looked over some things to avoid when passing over in order to study other religions with respect.  Some terms were Out of Hand Dismissal (viewing from a distance and mocking was seems foreign or complex, often using stereotypes), Museum Shelf Viewpoint Method (viewing something from a distance and seeing it as distant or unconnected to personal everyday life), Premature Assimilation (Making unreasonable generalizations or connections like 'Bhrahman is the Hindu Jesus'), and Idealization (Liking one part of a faith does not make you a member of that religion.  We glossed over some more outlandish (excuse the word) religions and practices to get the idea across on how to view a belief openly.  We finished class by working on a RAFT with a topic of Respectfully Approaching World Religions.

This lesson was all about not instantly labeling something ridiculous as crazy.  Something being different or unfamiliar doesn't make it wrong.  A great example are geniuses of history.  Just to name one:  Albert Einstein.

This may not connect directly to the theme of class, but when you look at this picture, you instantly assume the man is crazy.  You may never guess that this man was one of the greatest thinkers of all time, developing the theory of relativity among other things.  You're instant human reaction to this photograph is the mental process we were learning to avoid in class today.  He may look silly, but there is more sense to this man than you would expect.

As the theme of this class was properly studying things that may seem to us at first ridiculous, the first connection involves ridiculous-seeming things as well.  This video, in addition to being one of the finest British comedy sketches of all times, shows two people who at first may seem extremely silly or crazy, but after a while you realize they are both very serious about what they do and respect each other about it.

My second connection is more serious.  It is an article about Pope John Paul II respect for the Jewish church.  It references him placing a prayer note in the Western Wall, respecting Jewish tradition instead of saying, "Wha-What?!?!  Jesus isn't the Son of God?!  Ridiculous!"  John Paul II is a great example of how respectful and open we should be to other religions throughout the world.