Texas Faith 136: A cup of coffee and other holy rituals

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

Every faith has its rituals. Hopefully these help put us in the mind of being with God and make us more present in our prayer.
Our lives have their little rituals too.
In a recent article,Rabbi Patrick “Aleph” Beaulier wrote about the ritual of a morning cup of coffee.
The coffee is a pleasure certainly, but it is also a moment set aside, at best, for a little peace, perhaps silence and reflection. These moments apart are important to our lives as people of faith, as people who are trying to draw ourselves nearer to God. We have our rituals in our religious ceremonies too, often freighted or filled with symbolism and intended, in their own way, to draw us away from the run of our thoughts and into the peace we hope faith will bring.
How can our little daily rituals bring us closer to God? How can we make sure that, in everyday moments, we are building our path to the divine?
 

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

In the Bhagavad Gita Śrī Krishna states in the ninth chapter that the art of doing everything for His sake is the perfection of yoga. In fact this is the perfection of life. To be 24 hours a day engaged in consciousness of Krishna, God. Our daily habits play a huge role to cultivate this consciousness. Upon waking a bhakta first chants the Lord’s holy names and bows with his head down before even leaving the bed. Followed by an early morning shower to not only keep the body clean but to refresh one’s consciousness. Kirtan and prayers begin at the temple at 4:30 am followed by a 2 hour session of meditation. Then again there is kirtan at 7 am followed by a class on the ancient Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. The bhakta follows a similar program in the evening as well, creating a sandwich of transcendental experiences.

 
Speaking of sandwiches this brings up another related topic. Everyone has to eat but food is not simply something for the belly, food is often a practical means to express love. Who better to love than the supreme loveable, Krishna? God is the root of everything, by watering the root all the leaves can be satisfied. Therefore the bhakta does not eat any food that cannot be first offered to God with love. Thus they abstain from eating animals. So not the act of eating can be a spiritual engagement but even the shopping, the cooking, and prep work as well. This is the art of Bhakti, to learn the ancient and blissful science of doing everything in the service of God.
 

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

Texas Faith 135: When is a city ban on feeding the poor an infringement on religious liberty?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

When is a city ban on feeding the homeless in a public place an infringement on religious freedom?

In Florida, a 90-year-old WWII veteran was arrested for feeding the homeless at a public park. He’s been doing it for over 20 years through a program called Love Thy Neighbor. But a new ordinance in Fort Lauderdale has put a mountain of obstacles in the way, making it virtually impossible for the group to operate as it has.

(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

On one side are local businesses that fear feeding the homeless in a conspicuous place was bad for business and tourism. On the other side are advocates of Love Thy Neighbor who say the group is within its constitutional rights. The city tried to balance the interests of both sides with rules aimed at moving such homeless programs into houses of worship or private property. But the organization wants to continue feeding the homeless as it has, in a seaside public park.

   The clash between religious rights and the public interest is a common story line. We’ve weighed in on the dustup in Houston in which the city tried to subpoena the sermons of evangelical ministers opposed to a gay-rights ordinance. And every week, it seems, there’s a new report in which the advocates of religious liberty decry a rule or action at a public school.

Religious liberty isn’t absolute. There’s no right to hold a serpent-handling service at Disneyland. Or to shout “fire” in a crowded church because your religion told you to. Or to build a megachurch in a city neighborhood with a parking lot for only 10 cars.

In the case of feeding the homeless in Fort Lauderdale, the name of the organization is from a biblical injunction. Its mission is an act of faith. And if some businesses are inconvenienced or tourists would prefer not having to see the homeless by the beach, whose rights should prevail?

That’s this week’s question: Is a city ban on feeding the homeless in a public place an infringement on religious freedom?

 

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

 

Every body needs a head. So similarly, every society needs saintly intellectuals for guidance. Leadership without such guidance is like a body without a head. Leadership is like the arms of the social body which provides protection and business class is like the belly which facilitates the distribution of goods. All parts of the body are important but the head is the most important for it is the head of body that provides intelligence.

Intelligence means the ability to accommodate and manage two opposing values. It also means the ability to discriminate that which is śreyas, of long term substantial benefit, and preyas, immediate or short term gratification. The short term benefit of commerce is important but it is considered shallow in comparison to charity which can have long lasting or even eternal benefits.

Krishna states that charity, when done properly, even purifies great souls. To completely ban charitable distribution of food in relation to the value of commerce is sign of the lack of saintly intelligent guidance among our leaders.

 

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 134: How should we incorporate faith into a secular political world?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

The writer Karen Armstrong recently noted that it was through bitter experience the west learned to separate the state from religion and wonders why Muslims have "found it impossible to arrive at this logical solution to their current problems."

"Why do they cling with perverse obstinacy to the obviously bad idea of theocracy? Why, in short, have they been unable to enter the modern world?"

We've all asked these questions so often. If only these extremists would lay down their arms and embrace plural, diverse societies, they would see the benefit.

But as Armstrong so clearly writes, the path to our sort of secular and plural society, where we try to divide politics and religion, has been anything but bloodless.

"If some Muslims today fight shy of secularism, it is not because they have been brainwashed by their faith but because they have often experienced efforts at secularisation in a particularly virulent form. Many regard the west's devotion to the separation of religion and politics as incompatible with admired western ideals such as democracy and freedom."

Acknowledging this past is important, even if it is unlikely to impress fanatics and extremists.

Perhaps more helpful questions for us are these: how do we, as people practicing and preserving our faiths, segregate the political from the spiritual in our own lives? What lessons can we offer those who want theirfaith to infuse all elements of their lives and are skeptical of a society and political system that calls for secularism? Are we fooling ourselves that we can have both? Are we cheating one aspect of our lives, spiritual or civic, to serve the other? - Dallas Morning News

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

The mature fruit of the concept of separation of church and state is realized when the leadership guides by being God-conscious examples. The original intention of the concept was not to deny or ignore God, but rather to inhibit the government from forcing a particular sectarian religion. However our founder fathers have put forward this propaganda, "In God We Trust." In governmental decisions one is forced to deal with metaphysical subjects, such as rights. A human, an embryo, nor an animal's right to life cannot be established by mere science. It is therefore necessary to approach the such subjects with metaphysical wisdom and mercy from God.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 133: Falling into Sin

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.
Most of us agree on the difference between right and wrong. It is wrong to steal; it is wrong to commit adultery; it is wrong to kill.
The parameters of right and wrong are widely shared in most civil societies. But we often find ourselves, in the practice of everyday life, justifying little wrongs with the balance that we do greater good in some other area. And some of us, over time, begin to justify greater and greater wrongs as we accustom ourselves to lives of what we might call sin.
Think about how this happens in an individual. Is this the spiritual battle we are meant to fight, the push back against the slide into doing wrong? What draws the soul or mind toward sin, and what is the defense against it? - Dallas Morning News

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

The third chapter of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is verses 37-43 concisely address this issue. That the soul is compelled by lust, the desire to enjoy the temporary, because it false identifies the self with the temporary.  "As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.  Thus the wise living entity's pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.  The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.  Therefore in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.  The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.  Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence [Kṛṣṇa consciousness] and thus - by spiritual strength - conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust."
To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 132: Is religion to blame for the conflicts around the world?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

The military crisis in Iraq is typically described in religious terms – a millennia-old conflict between Sunni and Shia. No doubt the sectarian divide has fueled tensions and defined the war. It has given critics ammunition to argue against sending more troops into a religious civil war. There is an emerging view that we should just stay out and let the parties fight it out themselves, as they have done for hundreds of years.

For some, it’s hard not to blame religion. Religion is often in the frame of modern conflicts. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict predated the creation of the modern state of Israel. The civil war in Ireland pitted Catholics against Protestants. Religious tensions in Nigeria divide the country between the Muslim north and the Christian south. Hindus and Muslims oppose each other in South Asia. The conflicts in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo involve Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim followers.

Religion seems to be connected with violence virtually everywhere. Critics of religion are quick to put the blame on religion. Advocates of faith counter with religion’s record as a force for peace. One 18^th century writer said we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

As people of faith, how to we talk with those who say religion is to blame? How do we respond when someone asks if religion has succeeded in any of its efforts to unite mankind?

When a critic points to conflicts in Iraq, across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe and says religion is to blame – how do we respond?

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

Due to a lack of spiritual intelligence, ignorant persons misidentify the eternal self with the temporary body and mind.  Such illusion does not only include ideas such as, ‘I am White’, ‘I am Black’, ‘I am American’, ‘I am Democrat,’ but also the illusion also includes ideas of, ‘I am Hindu’, ‘I am Christian’, ‘I am Muslim.’

For the person who has received spiritual training understands that, ‘I am not this body but rather I am an eternal soul.’  Therefore a spiritually wise soul does not discriminate against others based on temporary bodily designations but rather sees the soul proper.

“He who sees systematically everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything or any being.

One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?” - Śrī Īśopaniṣad 6-7

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 131: In love and marriage, do different faiths really matter in America?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.
Recently, I attended the beautiful wedding of two friends, one from a Jewish family and one from a Christian family. The ceremony largely followed the Jewish tradition with occasional mention of the bride’s Christian upbringing.
I began to wonder, witnessing this blending of two people into one couple bound under God, what place separate faiths really serve in our society. If we are honest, there is no justifying the fundamental difference in belief between Christians and Jews or the other major faiths. But in cases like these, it is our cultural homogeneity that is more important than the tenets of our faith.
Given that, what does faith really mean in circumstances like these? Is faith or religion simply ceremonial? Or are we overcoming divisions in the name of something greater – that is – love?
Read our panelists’ responses below.

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

Marriage is not just about an attraction of two parties but also those two parties working together to help each other to attain true happiness.  True happiness is found by connecting beyond the temporary to the Supreme Being.  Because marriage relates to that progressive spiritual advancement in the service of God, considerations of compatibility should not be ignored.  The spiritual ideology, or how we see ourselves at our core, and how we individually apply such spiritual ideology must be taken into consideration.  Incompatibilities certainly exist within those of the same tradition.  Therefore it is important in all cases to see that both parties can properly help each other's growth towards true spiritual happiness.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

Texas Faith 128: How should we suffer?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

The Lenten season is closing now in Holy Week. It comes around each year to remind Christians of Christ’s suffering and the suffering that we all endure in life. But, of course, the question of suffering extends to all faiths and is experienced by people regardless of religion.

David Brooks wrote recently in the New York Times that, in a culture chasing happiness, it is suffering, and suffering well, that truly defines us.

We suffer, and people suffer around us, in so many different ways. Some of it is widespread, the suffering of whole societies under war. Some of it is deeply personal, the death of a loved one or a divorce or a financial collapse. Whatever the circumstance, suffering can be profound.

How can faith sustain us through suffering and how should suffering inform our faith? Is suffering essential to being whole as a human? And what does it mean to accept suffering rather than reject it?

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

Suffering comes about as a karmic reaction for past deeds to encourage the self to not act against the laws of nature. Because a saintly person realizes that he is not the body, he does not identify with sufferings related to his body and mind.

A simple example is man who works hard and is very attached to his car, when the car gets damaged he practically feels pain. Another man, perhaps extravagantly wealthy, in the same circumstances does not feel the same pain as the man with great attachments to his car.

Therefore, those who are spiritually rich with practical realization of the self beyond the body do not suffer like those who are in the bodily conception of life.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 127: In faith and gender politics, what does submission mean — as in, submissive spouse?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

When Sarah Palin ran for vice president, as Hillary Clinton considers a race for president and with Wendy Davis actively engaged in a bid for governor, one aspect of that culture war is what it means in religious terms to be submissive – most notably, a submissive wife. A recent USA Today article notes the subject is popping up these days, preached from the pulpit, pontificated about in a spate of new book releases and prominent on the agenda of next month’s Southern Baptist leadership summit. “All seek to answer the question of whether wives are 100 percent equal partners or whether ‘biblical womanhood’ means a God-given role of supporting their husbands — and, in turn, knowing their husbands are honor-bound to die for them, if necessary.”

Biblical references to husbands leading their households have long invited interpretations that sound to many people a lot like inferiority. Where’s the equality in submission?  And yet Cynthia Rigby of the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and a member of the Texas Faith panel noted in the USA Today story, the Scriptures came out a world where women couldn’t own property and could be divorced by their husbands saying the word three times. In that world, holding wives up as “holy and without blemish” was a radical idea, she said. In her upcoming book, “Shaping Our Faith: A Christian Feminist Theology,” Rigby explores the idea biblical submission and its implications in the wider public debate.

With gender politics is so much part of our public debate, how do we interpret the idea of submission? What does submission in a religious, political and modern cultural sense really mean?

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

In order to have a stable culture stable family life is necessary.  If there is irreligion in the form of divorce it breeds lack of faith and stability in the children along other degrading qualities.  Submission by the wife is a psychological tactic for a peaceful and strong marriage.  Men in general like to feel that they are in charge.  If a woman can give him that illusion, that he is the leader, the relationship can be more strongly supported from the danger of break up.  In a traditional Vedic marriage the wife is the queen at home and the husband in the king in public.  Because of this ancient social science there is hardly any divorce in India and outside of the modernized urban areas it is practically non existent.

Ultimately one is to become submissive to God.  The material world is a place where souls go who have ego problems.  Those of us in the material world have a tendency to lord it over others.  Because a good and peaceful family life is conducive towards dharma and spiritual life, a spiritual aspirant will try to cooperate with their spouse towards that goal.  The idea is that pleasure and happiness comes by serving the whole just as watering the root of the tree supplies water to its leaves.  Similarly a spiritual relationship is free from mentality of getting something out of another but rather to work together to serve the whole.  When a couple truly serves the root with love, they, the leaves, become nourished and satisfied.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

Texas Faith 126: How do we forgive?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

Three days after police found the body of 17-year-old Ivan Mejia in the woods in Garland, his father, Flavio, offered forgiveness to those responsible for the young man’s murder. It was the family’s first public statement.

Two of Ivan’s classmates are in custody for the murder, something police say occurred because of a fight over a girl.

Forgiveness is central to so many faiths. But how do we forgive? And what does forgiveness do for the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven? Can true forgiveness come so quickly as the Mejia family offered it, or must it come through time and grief?

Below is Flavio’s statement.

First, we want to thank you on behalf of our family for
respecting our privacy and our silence. We want Ivan to be remembered as a good servant of society who sought the well-being of others and gave a friendly hand in very humble ways and without pretensions. Also he held in high esteem his faith and his passion for Jesus.
It is because of the faith that we profess and that we instilled in Ivan that we hold no grudge toward the people involved in this unfortunate event. We pray for their families because we understand that just like us they are going through a very unpleasant time. We thank God for his strength, for his care
of our family. We thank from our heart our congregation El Lugar de Su Presencia, the community, friends and relatives who have been of help and blessing in these moments that are so difficult for our family.
We have the certainty that our Ivan lived each moment of his life impassioned by his Creator and we know that he did it as a good soldier of Christ. Like the word says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.”
Thanks for your attention. We bless you in the name of Jesus.

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

In the Vedas is said that the beauty of a saintly person is their forgiveness.  It is the quality of those who trying to advance their spiritual consciousness.  It is described that that the chief of all demigods, Brahmā achieved that post because of his superb quality of forgiveness.  Krishna, God Himself, becomes please with those who are forgiving. 

This quality of forgiveness is realized when one understands that God is the supreme controller.  One should not be upset with the instruments of one's own karma.  So for one's own pains a person should be tolerant.  This is personal forgiveness, if others are harmed a person should do their part to protect. This is especially in regards to those who are in leadership, who have the duty and nature to protect others.  Such persons should not avoid corrective methods for the abusive behavior of the unrepentant. 

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 125: What’s the balance between religious freedom and freedom from discrimination?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

When Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced she was vetoing a “religious freedom” bill that targeted gay men and lesbians, she said religious liberty remains a “core value” in Arizona. But, she added, “So is non-discrimination.”

The debate over the Arizona bill – and similar proposals under consideration elsewhere – highlights the tension between two competing and deeply held American values: the right of people to practice their religion vs. the right to be free from discrimination. It’s a balancing act, and not an easy one.

It is at the heart of the debate over the Obama administration policy requiring businesses to provide health insurance for their employees that includes forms of contraception. It’s central to the argument by supporters of the Arizona bill that a baker who opposes same-sex marriage shouldn’t be required to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. Both sides make a claim on liberty.

Clearly, nobody’s advocating that the government sanction, say, the right to deny service to black people at a lunch counter – regardless of whether the owner says it violates his religious beliefs. At the same time, nobody’s saying a Jewish caterer must work the Nazi rally, even if the Nazis claim they’re being discriminated against.

The question is, as a matter of public policy, how to reconcile competing rights? How do we protect both the religious rights of one person (which may involve discriminating against some people) and the deeply held right to be free from discrimination? What’s the balance and how best do we achieve it?

As expected, our Texas Faith panel of experts on faith and public policy – theologians, activists, clergy, scholars – don’t agree. And in so doing, they offer provocative, thoughtful reasons. If you think you know what side you’re on, read our Texas Faith panel and think again.

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

To be merited rights is a metaphysical concept.  There is no scientific or secular logic that procures rights upon an individual.  Therefore this subject must be approached metaphysically with logic and reason.

The first question is: what is it that is being granted rights?  If there is no logical understanding of the self or individual, then we cannot progress further.

In an American history we had slavery because it was said that dark-skinned people did not have souls. But where is the logic in that?  By simple analysis one can see that the symptom of the soul or self is consciousness.  As soon as the soul leaves the body, that body no longer carries its beauty and luster. That same symptom of consciousness is equal whether one is a man or a woman, dark-skinned or light, or human or animal.   All feel pain and pleasure.   However, because our society’s understanding of the self and consciousness is lacking depth, a large foolish section of society makes claims that animals are without souls and therefore without inherent rights.

Another large and equally foolish section of society will make claims that the unborn individual is also without rights.  This is all because there is no clear understanding of the self which is the foundation of the discussions of rights.  But there are books, such as the Bhagavad Gītā As It Is, that deal with this subject with such clarity that it can shock most people.  Such clarity is necessary to govern social structures in a progressive way.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 124: Is it crazy to pray for your team to win the Super Bowl?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

Two things Americans take seriously are religion and football. With the Super Bowl set for Sunday, here’s a question: Why do so many people pray for their favorite sports team to win? Is it just a ritual? An act of faith? Or a hedge, just in case?

A new survey finds that half of American sports fans say they believe God or a supernatural force is at play in the games they watch. That includes Americans who pray for God to help their team (26 percent), think their team has been cursed (25 percent) or more generally believe God is involved in determining who wins on the court or in the field (19 percent).

So is God the 12^th man on the field at kickoff when the Broncos and Seahawks meet in the big game this weekend? The Great Odds Maker in the Sky?

The Public Religion Research Institute finds that football fans are the most likely to pray for their own teams to win. About one-third say they ask God to intervene in games. When it comes to whether God rewards religious athletes with health and success, about half of Americans say yes, about half say no. The belief that God will help religious athletes was most prominent among white evangelicals (62 percent) and non-white Protestants (65 percent). When it comes to the religiously unaffiliated, only about 20 percent feel that way.

So why do so many Americans pray for God to help their team? Or believe that God rewards religious athletes?

Do they really think God works this way? Or like Pascal’s wager, do people figure — hey, I’ve got doubts, but what if it works, what if it’s true? Why not be on the winning side?

We put that question to our Texas Faith Panel and the result was a funny, thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining set of answers from some of the smartest people on matters of religion and faith in Texas. It’s not so easy as you might think. Some of the answers might surprise you.

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

The Supreme Lord is not an order supplier waiting to commanded at a whim.  This survey illustrates that many in the world are very ignorant in regards to the position of God.  We are His servants and He also loves to serve us.  How does God like to serve us?  He helps those who are seeking Him get closer.

"To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me." Bhagavad Gītā As It Is 10.10.   Because of illusion, people misidentify the body as the self and become absorbed in the gains and failures that are related to this body.  Thus one falsely thinks himself to be related to a particular group or nation.

In bodily consciousness one thinks himself to be Black, White, heterosexual, homosexual, Republican, Democrat, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or being related to a particular team that they identify with.  In this illusion one imagines that the gains and failures of those different groups are in relation to themselves.  However the self is actually spiritual, eternal, and unaffiliated with the things of this world.

The ephemeral gains for our vehicle, the body, do nothing to bring satisfaction to the self, the soul.  Thus God has no interest in fueling one's illusion but happily reciprocates with those who try to connect with Him beyond the Matrix.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 123: Why are religious hostilities on the rise across much of the world? What, if anything, can be done about it?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

A new poll finds that religious hostilities have increased in almost every major region of the world. Perhaps not surprisingly, the sharpest increase was in the Middle East and North Africa, most likely an after effect of the 2010-11 political uprisings known as the Arab Spring. But the Pew Research Center study also found a significant increase in religious hostilities in China and the Asia-Pacific region.

Todd Slater

Some numbers in the new report: a third (33%) of the 198 countries and territories included in the study had high religious hostilities in 2012, up from 29% in 2011 and 20% as of mid-2007. Here’s the link: http://www.pewforum.org/2014/01/14/religious-hostilities-reach-six-year-high/

The study looked at efforts by governments to ban particular faiths, prohibit conversations and give preferential treatment to some religious groups at the expense of others. Those haven’t changed significantly. But acts of overt hostility toward religion – religion-related armed conflict or terrorism, mob or sectarian violence, harassment over attire for religious reasons or other religion related intimidation or abuse — have increased.

Incidents of abuse targeting religious minorities seen as offensive or threatening to the majority faith are up. In Libya, for instance, two worshippers were killed in an attack on a Coptic Orthodox church. Harassment of women over religious dress occurred in nearly a third of countries in 2012 (32%), compared to less than one-in-ten (7%) as of mid-2007. And mob violence related to religion occurred in a quarter of countries in 2012 (25%) – double the number from five years earlier.

So what’s happening here? Is this just a cycle, a phase? Or is it something else? The power of religious faith to divide as well as to unite has a long history. But clearly in the last few years, people are increasingly using religion for negative and destructive ends in many places.

Why are religious hostilities on the rise across much of the world? What, if anything, can be done about it? Our Texas Faith panel weighs in:

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

The cause of any type of injustice is ignorance.  Specifically people misidentify the body at the self.  Therefore, in ignorance, one thinks oneself to be White, Black, Asian, Republican, Democrat, male, female, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, as so on.  The solution to injustice is knowledge of the self and practical application.

It is not that one needs to know just theoretically that one is not the body but the soul within.  One must have a process to practically experience it.  That individual who experiences himself beyond body is self satisfied and thus is peaceful and happy.  A society of individuals who have no self knowledge will never be happy.  Therefore peace and happiness is concomitant of actual spiritual knowledge, everything else is ignorance, despite that it may have a religious appearance.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 122: Can you have morality without the existence of God?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

When President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty exactly 50 years ago, advocates called it the moral obligation of a wealthy nation. Johnson said he was doing it not because it was efficient or helpful or politically expedient (which, of course, it was for liberals), but because it was right. The idea of advancing public policy in moral terms is hardly new. The Civil Rights movement invoked a moral imperative in its quest of public policy. Social conservatives want a government that reflects values they consider fundamental and unchanging. The impetus of President Obama’s health-care initiative and its various government precursors was, at least at some level, a moral one.

Robert Barron, a Catholic priest, notes in a column that one of the most common observations made by opponents of religion is that we don’t need God in order to have a coherent and integral morality. After all, aren’t there plenty of good, moral people who don’t believe in God? But supporters of religion warn that without God, there’s moral chaos.

Barron suggests removing God is tantamount to removing the ground for basic good, and once the basic good has been eliminated, all that is left is the self-legislating and self-creating will. Thus, he says, people of faith should be wary when atheists and agnostics blithely suggest that morality can endure apart from God.

So what is the relationship between morality and the existence of God? Can you have one without the other?

For all the talk by politicians and policy advocates about the morally in advancing various programs, good government typically means managing a competition between various secular interests in a way that benefits the common good. It’s about reaching a consensus in the community. It’s relative. But can morality ever be relative? And if not, doesn’t that mean it requires, at its heart, something absolute — like God.

What is the relationship between morality and the existence of God? Can you have one without the other?

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

Morality requires spiritual vision. For example if there is accident on the highway, what should be cared for first? The passengers in the car or the car itself? Similarly, a person with spiritual vision will know what is of greater importance, the body, or the soul within the body. That person who is in ignorance cannot see the soul and thus cannot make proper moral decisions.

"The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this. The endeavoring transcendentalists who are situated in self-realization can see all this clearly. But those whose minds are not developed and who are not situated in self-realization cannot see what is taking place, though they may try." -Bhagavad Gītā As It Is15.10-11

It is just like someone who is not trained in automobile repair. He can see the car and the mechanic can see the same car but he will not be able to see what the mechanic sees unless he has been trained to see it. Thus it is mechanic who can make decisions rather than the ignorant person.

"The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle priest, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater." -Bhagavad Gītā As It Is 5.18

Thus a moral person who has spiritual vision does not condone harm to anyone regardless what their race, species, or position within or out of a womb, if such harm is for personal gratification.

 

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 121: Is Christmas a religious holiday or a cultural one?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

A new Pew Research Center Religion and Public Life survey reports that 90 percent of Americans — or almost all of us — celebrate Christmas in some fashion. The study shows that most still view it as a religious holiday, but certainly not all. In fact, only a slim majority consider it a religious holiday.

Interestingly, there appears a sharp generational difference in the way Americans see Christmas. According to Pew, Americans under age 30 are far more likely to see Christmas as a cultural holiday. Likewise, they are less likely to attend religious services at Christmas or to believe in the Virgin Birth.

The survey also reports on the similarities in the ways Americans celebrate Christmas. Most of us observe the holiday with families and friends.

You can read more about Pew’s Christmas survey at this link.

And here’s the question for this week:

How do you view Christmas: Is it a religious holiday or a cultural one?

And, if you like, share how you plan on observing the day, if it is one you will observe.

Read on for a variety of answers from our panelists:

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

In the Vedic tradition, religion, culture and everyday life are intertwined. The Sanskrit term Dharma means "The constitutional nature of an object."

Sometimes this term is misinterpreted as religion. However, a person can change their religion but they cannot change their dharma.

For example, the dharma of sugar is that it is sweet, the dharma of fire is that it is hot. It is not fire if it is not hot.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam teaches that the dharma of the self is to serve and love God. This nature of desiring to love and serve someone or something is always present in a person and is properly situated when directed towards God.

A follower of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and the Bhagavad Gītā dedicates every action as an offering unto the Supreme. Thus ordinary things such as cooking, eating, and even sex to produce children are seen in relation to Krishna.

That is why it is called Krishna Consciousness because one is consciously and lovingly engaging their mind, body, and self in the service of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Krishna.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 120: Does a white Christmas mean Santa and Jesus have to be white?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

A cable television anchor named Megyn Kelly told viewers last week that Jesus and Santa Claus are both white men. At issue was a Slate article written by a black writer titled “Santa Claus Should Not Be A White Man Anymore.” The context of the piece was the tendency of cultures to view important figures in the most familiar and comfortable light. On her Fox News program, Kelly took issue with the writer.

“Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change. Jesus was a white man, too. It’s like we have, he’s a historical figure that’s a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?”

Both sides pounced. Liberal web sites and late-night comics lampooned her. Conservative web sites defended her. Saturday Night Live did a skit featuring a black Santa. The debate went viral on the Internet. Kelly subsequently suggested she was joking and cast herself as a victim of identity politics. Clearly, her facts were flawed. Jesus was a 1^st Century Jew who was likely dark skinned and Santa Claus is a mythological figure whose historical antecedent was from Turkey.

People believe what they are prepared to believe. What’s interesting was the passionate reaction to the remarks. Why the fierce dustup? Why did the idea that a white Christmas means Santa’s white cause so much consternation? What did this episode say about the way we see the world and our willingness — or reluctance – to see things in different ways?

Our Faith Panel weighs in thoughtfully (and with a few fireworks) on history, ethnic identity, political correctness and the virtues of faith and the holidays:

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

This is example of the disease of the bodily conception of life, a case of mistaken identity.   Our body is always changing in this life.  The body we had as child is no longer around and the current body that we have is composed of completely different cells and molecules.  It is a vehicle and we are the passenger.  As a passenger we have existed before the vehicle and shall exist after the vehicle's destruction.  Yet by the deluding power of avidya we ignorantly see the body as the self.  In this illusion we try to fulfill the needs of the self by placating the desires of the external vehicle, the subtle mind and physical body.  We may give the body comforts and give the mind profit, adoration, and prestige.  Yet despite such attempts towards satisfaction one remains not satisfied.  Only by loving connection to the Supreme does the self experience fulfillment.

Change directed towards the factual self is of value.  Ideologies for or against change based of the temporary bodily conception of life are of no real consequence.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 119: How do you assess Nelson Mandela’s complex legacy?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

How do you assess the complex legacy of Nelson Mandela?

There are so many ways to get into this question. So, let me start with these three quick summaries of his long journey:

In a powerful and controversial move as president, he set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission after apartheid officially ended. The commission allowed those who testified about crimes in the apartheid era to step forward and tell the truth without fear of retribution. The sins of the past were acknowledged in exchange for individual amnesty.

On the other hand, Mandela was part of a group in the early 1960s that decided to take up arms against the apartheid government. They decided that rising up militarily against their oppressors was the best strategy. Of course, that was not the non-violent approach that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Mahatma Ganhdi embraced.

And then there was this revelation in Bill Keller’s obituary of Mandela in the New York Times:

Mr. Mandela said he regarded his prison experience as a major factor in his nonracial outlook. He said prison tempered any desire for vengeance by exposing him to sympathetic white guards who smuggled in newspapers and extra rations, and to moderates within the National Party government who approached him in hopes of opening a dialogue. Above all, prison taught him to be a master negotiator.

There are many aspects of his long, storied and complicated fight for justice. So, let me stop here and ask you:

What do you make of Nelson Mandela’s complex legacy?

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

Undoubtedly his most powerful contribution is "culturally many, spiritually one."

It is a fact that on the bodily level, all people are different. But those who can see the spiritual spark in other beings, as beings that are qualitatively one with oneself, they can make great progress in moral standards and leadership.

Those who have no inkling of this information may try to do good but only succeed in hurting others. For without such vision what is there to unify us?

There will always be a group discriminated against because of the color of their skin, their sex, their species, their position within or outside the womb. The understanding of how we are all spiritually one, that the symptoms of life indicate the presence is the soul, is the beginning of spiritual life

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 118: Aren't we all searching for community and wonder? How would you describe your search for meaning?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

This Sally Quinn essay from The Washington Post struck me as a provocative piece. In writing about the search for meaning in our lives, she describes an anti-pastor, an anti-gay atheist and Billy Graham at the end of his career.

The piece is worth the read if only for the part about the “tattooed Lutheran pastor, weight lifter, stand-up comic, former alcoholic and drug addict and hard-swearing Nadia Bolz-Weber.”

At the end, Quinn, in talking about the search for meaning, asks: Aren’t we all searching for community and wonder?

How would you answer that question?

How would you describe your search for meaning?

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

The nature of the self is sat-cit-ānanda, eternity, knowledge, and bliss. Our present body is not sat-cit-ānanda. It is called asat for it is perishable. It is acit, full of ignorance, for we have very meager knowledge of this world and practically no knowledge of the spiritual world. And nirānanda, for instead of being full of bliss it is full of misery. All miseries of this world arise from this temporary body and mind but one who remembers Krishna, God, at the time of death, attains a sat-cit-ananda body.

It is our very nature to be full of bliss. Because the highest bliss to be known is from loving relationships, we seek community and love. However, because the body is temporary the relationships remain temporary and thus they cannot satisfy the self and also they create anxiety. In addition to that, the love found in this world is not pure and most often it is tainted with selfishness.

Because our nature is to be fully conscious, we are not only bliss-seeking but also knowledge-seeking. But our instruments of information are dependent on so many factors. Our eyes only see when there is light. Our ears and nose function when there is air. We are so ignorant that we are not even consciously aware as to how we are digesting food or whether there is cancer somewhere in our body.
Meaningful life is found when we act according to our nature. When we, the eternal, lovingly connect to the Supreme Eternal, Krishna.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH 117: Why does the nation still pause 50 years after JFK’s death?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

At the end of this week, Americans will pause to observe the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death. We in Dallas particularly will be in the middle of the observation. The assassination, of course, happened here. And Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has put together a gathering at Dealey Plaza to commemorate the anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination.

Earlier, this panel discussed the impact John Kennedy had on Catholicism. Let’s now look at the Kennedy impact in another way.

Why is it that the nation still pauses 50 years after his death?

The country has never really looked back on the assassination of any our other leaders, except perhaps that of Abraham Lincoln. So, is this just part of the Kennedy mystique?

Or does this national moment of reflection say something about an innate human need to have princes we look up to, even if the scriptures warn against putting one’s faith in princes?

Or are we pausing because we still wonder what might have happened if an assassin’s bullet had not put the country on a different course?

Or was it only one assassin? I think so, but the open question for some creates a giant sense of mystery around his death. Is that why we keep focusing on November 22? Does the mystery draw us in?

Or do we stop to reflect because he was having an impact on the country that was suddenly aborted?

Or here’s one more thought: Is November 22 now mostly a media creation?

Obviously, there are many different angles here. And there are many more. But from your perspective:Why does the nation still pause 50 years after John Kennedy’s assassination?

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

We are surprised that the thief known as Death does not discriminate. One may have the best medicine and doctor but that does not guarantee safety. Nor is there such a guarantee for a child of loving, protective parents. Nor can the man on the sturdiest boat be assured of his safety.

When death comes, the Secret Service will not be able to shoot him, nor will one's guard dogs bark him away. It doesn't matter how much organic food or vitamins you take. Nor does it matter how much you jog. Whether you are the president or the Pope, Death is still an equal opportunity employer. Those with spiritual wisdom do not fear death. They understand it as simply a change of dress.

This weekend I performed the funeral of a 19 year-old girl. This was a strong reminder of the most surprising thing in this world. We have seen others before us pass away but none of us really think death will happen to us.
Rejection of death actually hints to the nature of the self. We do not want to die because the very notion of it is unnatural. Why? Because the self is eternal, so the notion of death goes against our very nature.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

TEXAS FAITH: What words of religious faith should politicians really hear and heed?

Dallas Morning News,

Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

Dick Thornburgh, former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. attorney general, gave a speech last month entitled “The Role of Faith in Public Service.” In it, he said not only that his religious faith was important to him as a lawyer, governor and cabinet member under two presidents – but also that he tried to keep “a particularly instructive passage of scripture” in mind. It was Micah 6:8, a well-known passage for many Jews and Christians: “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”

In his speech, Thornburgh explained why he tried to keep that particular passage in mind.

As a prosecutor, Thornburgh said the idea of justice meant making a good-faith effort to combine the toughness necessary to govern with a compassion for people in need. Of kindness, he said: “This admonition encompasses the highest claim upon those of us in public life – that of assisting others.” As for walking humbly, that sometimes means admitting when you’re wrong.

Every faith and spiritual tradition has its verses, phrases, expressions, central ideas. The Bible, the Torah, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, Tripitaka, myriad religious texts and spiritual beliefs – each has what Thornburg calls a “particularly instructive passage” providing guidance for people in public life.

The Faith Panel took up the question —What single passage from your faith tradition would you recommend to elected officeholders and those who advise them? Their answers were varied, similar, extraordinarily diverse and amazingly consistent.

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

"Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues." Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 3.21

People require leaders who can lead by their practical example. A leader who smokes cannot teach his followers not to smoke. Therefore honest persons do not take the position of leadership without first behaving above moral scrutiny. A leader must not only be an exemplary example but also their leadership should be guided by transcendental wisdom. If the leader does not have a complete understanding of the self he will not be create a peaceful situation. For only the self-realized are peaceful and satisfied.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.