Book: Deep & Wide - Andy Stanley

In my last position my desk was behind the customer service department in our office. I was kind of sort of but not really considered a part of that department because otherwise it was just me, myself and I in my own little department. So I spent most of my employee to employee interaction time with them.

Some of them are friends, some not so much.

For a while there was a woman in the front row who was very very Super Christian. But in an obnoxious way that grated on everyone around her. Because I am a terrible person I would occasionally bait her - not to start a fight but to try and draw out specifics of her beliefs. Partially because (like I said) I'm a terrible person. But also because it was completely obvious that this was a woman who had faith but little knowledge about history or theology or any of the things that I think are actually slightly important in any religion.

Here's the thing: it's apparently perfectly acceptable to just go, 'I have faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior' without having any freaking clue what that *actually* means. I have a friend who, until a couple of months ago when I told her, had NO IDEA that Jesus was God in Christian theology. She didn't believe that Jesus was God's son in the say, Zeus/Hercules manner but she also didn't know that Jesus is believed (in Trinitarian theology which is the branch that she theoretically belongs to) to be a part of a Trinitarian God. And this isn't just an isolated case - I know that there are more people out there who claim to be Christian that know mostly bupkiss about the history of the church (including Jewish history since that's what Christianity came out of - my God, how many people are *shocked* when they hear someone say 'Jesus was Jewish' or that he wasn't a blonde haired blue eyed Caucasian!) or the basics of theology.

They parrot 'Jesus died for my sins' or 'I am covered in the blood of the Lamb' and that they have a 'close personal relationship' with Jesus. But they don't know anything else. They follow their pastors because the pastors have personality or they preach a message that offers these people wealth and happiness.

And this hurts me and I can't stop poking at it when I see it.

It makes my head hurt. Seriously.

*looks at these people* HOOOOWWWWWW?????

Which is a really round about way of getting to this book. It was when this woman was trying to explain to me how her church was not a denomination but also not non-denominational and failing and also how her 'pastor' never went to a seminary but just 'felt the call of God' and started this church. She was reading this book and told me how this was their church model and this would explain it all. So I threw it on my wish list and figured I would get around to it eventually. And then I got it as a present for Christmas! :D

So it is, essentially, an exploration of how Stanley's church, North Point, works and the author/pastor trying to show other pastors how to apply their methods so that these other churches can have the success that North Point apparently enjoys. It's one of those megachurches and therefore I have automatic disdain for them I'm prejudiced, okay?

Since I'm not a pastor or interested in being one there was a lot of the book that while interesting was not really relevant for me. Which is not the fault of the book I'm just not the target audience but I went in knowing that. Still, it's very interesting to see the mentality of these people laid out.

"God responds to our private acts of righteousness. Jesus uses the term reward to describe his response. Ever had an answer to your prayer? What happened to your faith?...That person's faith got bigger, didn't it?

"The same thing transpires when individuals begin giving for the first time. Percentage giving is an invitation for God to get involved in our personal finances. The percentage isn't the issue. I tell new believers to pick a percentage and start there. The point is to learn to trust God financially. When people experience God's faithfulness in the realm of their personal finances, their faith expands. Money loses its grip. They are no longer possessed by their possessions."

"On the giving side of things, we are very upfront with the importance of what I refer to as priority, progressive, percentage giving. Priority as in: give first, save second, and live on the rest. Percentage as in: choose a percentage and give it consistently. Progressive is a challenge to up the amount by a percentage every year. While I'm a big believer in tithing, people who have never given away a percentage of their incomes are not going to begin with 10 percent. Sure, some will. But if you are going to teach people to tithe, you may have to start with some baby steps."

While Mr. Stanley purports to be against the prosperity gospel that so many of his megachurch/evangelical tv personality peers preach (and I don't know enough about him to gainsay this so we'll take him at his word) I find these passages trouble me.

On the one hand, the emphasis on giving before making sure that you have enough money to cover your bills or emergencies is just...not smart. It's not. I don't care that that makes me seem like I have less faith than those who just throw their money at a church or a Christian charity or whatever and trust that God will take care of them.

I'm a big believer in that old cliche, 'Trust God but tie up your camel.' There are so many people who have incredible amounts of faith but haven't got a pot to piss in. Because, in part, they haven't used the brains and the resources that God gave them to make their lives liveable. Meanwhile megachurch pastors and televangelists have million dollar homes and are asking their congregations for more and more and more. The disparity between the religious leaders of our day (and leaders of the past as well) and Jesus should be impossible to ignore. He did everything that he did with nothing.

'Well, but he's God!'

Maybe. But the people of his time didn't know or believe that. They followed him because of his message and because of how he lived out what he taught. Not because he had the nicest ass in Jerusalem or his robes were the best or his sandals blinged out.

And on the other hand, these passages and other parts of this book have just driven home how much of a business religion is. It's all about getting people into your building so that they can give you money so you can keep doing fancy programs and nicer surroundings and this that and the other thing so you can attract more people so they can...and the only people getting anything consistently out of this are the pastors at the top who seem to get rich in these set ups.

I mentioned something about this last night to Heather and she pointed out that this is why so many people are people of faith but no religion. But that's only a temporary solution in my mind. It's *hard* to have faith and no people around you who share in and support you. Humans are herd animals at heart. We want to be with others like us. We need human contact. How long do you think people last without a community to support them?

Faith leads to religion and religion in modern times is a business.

And oh, hey, remember that rant at the beginning that I was like 90% sure had nothing to actually do with the content of the book? Heh. I totally forgot this line:

"I'm partial to hungry, ignorant Christians myself. The kind who are content to love Jesus and the people he died for."

Love is awesome. Whoo! I would much rather have Christians running around showing love to everyone rather than judging them by standards that they themselves don't even live up to. Which seems to be what a large portion of Christians do these days. But it's the 'ignorant' part that kills me. Ignorant Christians will swallow anything that a charismatic pastor tells them and assume that because he can find a verse in the Bible that seems to back him up that it's all good.

I can't stand ignorance.

Also, if you love someone, don't you want to know more (everything) about them? How can someone love Jesus and be content with ignorant?

One of the things that really grates on me that has less to do with theology is the fact that his church makes people make a three minute video before they're allowed to be baptised. This video chronicles this persons journey to the point of baptism and I guess hearing the convert story is uplifting but I'm just putting myself in that place and knowing that I would not do it. I would leave and find a different church rather than do that because my story is mine and there's a level of forced soul barring involved here that I don't like.

There's also the tie in that they do the baptisms directly before they start asking the congregation for money. Emotional manipulation right before an appeal. 'Look at this trick I performed! Give me more money so I can keep doing it!'

I do think that some things could be learned by churches from the care that this church takes in making sure that they're always ready and aware of their guests. From the descriptions that are given the staff goes out of their way to pay attention to first time visitors, to bring them into the congregation with that first visit.

Most churches (all the ones I've ever visited) don't do this. They may ask if they have any first time visitors (not all of them even do that) but that's about it. I can't tell you how many churches I have walked into and out of without anyone even saying hello to me.

Actually, funnily, the only place I've ever been acknowledged or asked if I was new was at the local mosque. To be fair it's a small community so I think I stood out but the simple fact of that one man stopping and asking me if I needed help or direction *did* make a good impression.

So, all in all. Well written book and I believe that people who followed this model would have successful modern churches. They're just not churches that I would attend or have any interest in. And it's kind of made me sad, reminding me of how impossible it is to have a faith community free of the business-model kind of religion we have today.

Excerpt of Actual Conversation I Had With My Trainer Last Night

Me: ..."for the upkeep of the mosque, like part of the tithe in church goes-"

Her: "Mosque? What's that?"

*internal me*: o.0 Seriously?

Me: "It's like the Muslim church, the building where they go to worship on Friday's and have other events. Anyway-"

Her: "Oh, the gold dome places."

*internal me*: confused puppy head tilt

Me: "Well, yes, mosques tend to have domes as an architectural feature but not all mosques have domes and not all of them are *gold* and not all buildings with domes are mosques."

Her: "There's three of them in town!"

Me: "No, there's only one mosque in town. I've been there, it's right down the road from my office. It's a small community."

Her: "No, I've seen them. Three buildings with gold domes. I've seen the one on your road."

Me: "No, there's only the one. Trust me, I've looked. And it doesn't have a golden dome. The dome is a brassy color, so maybe if the sun hits it right it shines, but it's not gold. Not even a little. The other buildings you're thinking of are probably Catholic or Orthodox churches. They have domes sometimes."

Her: "I think they're mosques. They're the only ones I've ever seen with the domes."

Me: "You're wrong." :p

Luckily my trainer and I have the kind of relationship where I can just tell her that she's wrong good naturedly. Because she is.

Speaking of mosques though, you all should check out this site when you have time to kill:

Islamic Arts and Architecture

I just keep going through it and being kind of in love with the gorgeous architecture.

Day 28: I still have a problem with this and I don't have a horse in the race

Okay, I've been trying to figure out how to say what I want to say and it's just not coming out quite right.

Yesterday Heather posted a link to an article about woman only mosques in China. These are mosques where even the imam is a woman - no men at all. However, one of the mosques that was talked about is not (in my opinion) an actual mosque because it's still led by the male imam in the mosque 100 meters away. So the building is a part of the mosque, but not it's own unique mosque, see?

And yes, I would think that having their own building is most likely nicer and far roomier than many women's spaces that I've heard of in basements or second floors or tiny rooms off to the side, but here's my issue:

There seems to be, from what I hear from men and women who are Muslims (so this isn't just my opinion), a tendency to shunt women out of the majority of mosques in the world. They're not afforded the same opportunities for leadership within the mosque community, their opinions and needs aren't taken as having as much weight as their male counterparts and they are relegated to second-class in many instances. This is, perhaps, a function of the belief that women don't *have* to attend prayers at the mosque like men do and so why should time/effort/money be wasted on facilities for them?

Still, women do want to attend services at the mosque, at least jumah in many cases, and so there are these token spaces that are woefully inadequate and not kept as nicely as the spaces for the men. Again, this is me going off of what I have read from Muslim men and women. I've only personally been to one mosque, one time, and while the space was significantly smaller than that designated for the men, it was not as bad as some of the stories I've heard. It was beside the space for the men, separated by sliding glass doors that had been mirrored on the men's side so that they couldn't see in but the women could look out and watch the imam as well as hear him through the speaker system. Anyway.

So these women (and the same set up occurs in the US and Canada from what I read) have a separate building that is only for them. They're responsible for the upkeep, etc. and so it's a nice place for them to go and pray. Which, I would think, would encourage more women to go more often. And that's a good thing, right? Right.

But is having a separate building a step in the right direction?

I just can't help but feel, looking at it from the outside, like I've said, that it's just a further separation between men and women. Now the women aren't even in the same building. They've been shunted *further* from the imam who is supposed to be a teacher to them.

It feels like an extension of the 'out of sight, out of mind' mindset.

For anyone interested, here's the original article: China's Women-Only Mosques and a second article, China's Female Imams, that was linked by a reader in the thread.

Yet Another Random Post - Question Time

Am I the only one who remembers things that bugged her at the time way, way after the fact and chews over them and chews over them until she decides to bring the question to the general public?

Probably. And yet here I am, inflicting it on all of you!

Okay. So, as some of you may recall a while back I girded my loins, etc. and got over my social anxiety enough to actually go to the local mosque. I've talked about it a couple of times.

Anyway. One of the things I didn't mention was this: I sat near the back and there was a woman between myself and the sliding doors that formed the barrier between the men's section and the women's section. During the service she had cracked it open, presumably to hear better (there was a perfectly functioning speaker in the room and the imam wore a mic so we could all hear, don't misunderstand). During the actual prayers one of the children in the room started to cry and the mother (being busy with salaat), let the baby keep crying.

One of the women to the *other* side of me wanted me to reach across the woman to my right (the side with the door) to shut it (so the crying didn't bother the men I guess). Only I felt as though I couldn't because there was not enough space for me to actually walk around the praying woman to get to the door. The room was not cramped, but the way everyone had seated themselves took up the front part of the room and there was no space behind where we were sitting - we were up against the rear wall of the room.

And I felt there were two things against me trying to time reaching around this praying woman to close that door. One - it would be rude. I'd inevitably wind up bumping into her because my arms are short (I'm a short person!) and I wasn't that close to the door. Two - I seem to recall something about it being very rude (at the least) in Islam to walk in front of someone who is praying. That second could be wrong, but that's what I was thinking at the time. That it would be really rude to get up, scoot between the row of chairs in front of us and this woman trying to pray, close the door then have to scoot back to my seat.

So that's my question. Was I right to not close the door? The baby was crying, yes, but it didn't seem to bother anyone on the men's side. No one turned and shot glares at the barrier or anything. They were all praying and there were little boys running around behind the men praying too. And also, am I right about it being rude to walk in front of someone praying unless, say, there's some sort of life or death emergency? Outside of Islam, even when you have a Christian or someone else who is praying where there's clearly a ritual involved it strikes me as incredibly rude to just sort of stroll in front of them. I only mention the ritual aspect because it can be hard to tell a Christian is praying sometimes, since there aren't always movements or gestures involved and they can just look like they're sitting there enjoying the weather. So you have no way of knowing, see?

Delayed Thought/Question About the Local Mosque and the Women There

I know, I know. You all thought we were done with this topic. You heard about it a million times while I was wittering and being a nutter, and I said I was done, so why am I talking about it again? I know. Sorry? :)

I dreamt about my visit to the local mosque last night. Nothing weird or freaky, just a replay basically. But it reminded me of something that I thought was strange but forgot to mention when I was originally talking about the visit.

So I was in the women's section, which is a room side by side with the men's section. It's separated by sliding glass doors and the lights are kept turned off so that it turns the doors on the men's side into mirrors, basically. There was a speaker so we could hear the imam and we could see him as well if we turned our heads to the side. From what I hear of other mosques, all and all not the worst set up ever. The room seemed clean and it was cool enough, no broken a/c or stained carpets that I saw.

It was weirder than I thought it would be, being separated but it wasn't an awful little space is what I'm saying. There was plenty of room for the number of women that were there. All of which bears on my question/observation.

When it came time to pray, only one of the women did so. You could look over and see the men praying, the movements everyone is familiar with for salat. But only one of the women did the same. The others all just sat there, quietly. I assume that they were praying without making the movements. Oh! I stand corrected. One of the older women who sat was making the motions with her hands. And I believe, as I recall, that it is allowed to make changes to the prescribed movements allowing for illness, infirmity and the like. And some of the women it was clear that that was likely the case, as in the woman who was obviously making the motions that she could. But what about the young ones? Like I was saying, the space wasn't anything fancy, but it seemed to be perfectly adequate space wise and it wasn't *dirty*, so why would the women, seemingly collectively, not pray in what I understand as the correct fashion? Is there some facet of Islamic practice that I'm forgetting? Or is it maybe because women aren't required to attend jumah?

And we're done.

So, I heard from the imam at 1:30 this morning. Or, that's when he sent the email. I got it this morning when I went online to balance my checkbook, etc. I wore as close to hijab as I could get - an ankle length skirt that's very loose and flowey and a higher collared sleeveless shirt. I brought a long knit coat to wear over it, with sleeves that go down to my wrists. I also, though the imam didn't mention it, brought along a scarf, just in case I needed to wear one. And I wore my new wedge sandals for ease of getting out of.

I got there, was kindly directed to the women's entrance by a very nice gentleman (who also said that I'd done well with the clothes, but yes, I should put on the scarf too) and slipped in to sit in the very back.

The women's section is side by side with the men's section, though it's much smaller. The 'barrier' is a set of six sliding glass doors that make up that wall. They leave the lights off inside the women's section, I'm guessing to make the 'wall' more opaque. But there's no problem seeing because of the light that comes in from the men's section as well as from the door into the hall which is left open. There's a speaker that pipes in the imam, and you can see him through the wall as well.

I don't really know what else to say. It was interesting, but I didn't feel anything. Much as I've been away from going to church lately (though I haven't talked about it, Susanne knew I hadn't been going. Maybe she's just psychic!), I still remember feeling the rightness of going to the Greek Orthodox church that first time. While religion should not be based on whether or not we feel good about it, it is a factor. I think, though I wasn't aware of it when the idea seized me, that this was a last hurrah. Islam has continued to fascinate me (obviously), and I think I've been holding back making the decision for Orthodoxy because of lingering doubts over whether or not I gave Islam a chance. I think, somewhere in my head, I was still waiting for that bolt of lighting and I couldn't give up the notion until I'd been to the last place of religious worship I hadn't made it to. And that was the mosque. I've been there, I've done that, and while it was an interesting and pleasant experience, that's all it was. I've given Islam a chance, not just by visiting the mosque, but by studying it. I don't believe it's true, and that remains a fact.

So I'm done. I've already decided to start going to the gym in the afternoon on Sundays, rather than the mornings like I have been, which means that I can start going back to Holy Trinity. It'll mean some adjusting, but I think it'll work out okay.

BEGIN PANIC

It's done, it's sent, I can't get it back..................

*flail*

Draft of Letter to the local imam aka Amber is a nutbar

I am nauseous. Okay? Actually, physically nauseous stressing out over this. Welcome to my insanity!

I mean, clearly, the vote is in favor of just getting it done. Actually, most of you have voted for 'Why the hell are you still bugging us with this?' :D. So here's what I've got. Critique? Advice? Am I a total nutbar? Is there anything I should add? Subtract? *flail* Help meeeeeeeeeee

Hello, (or should it be more formal? Dear Sir? or maybe Dear Mr/Imam Subedar?)

I am interested in finding out if there is a date and time where it would be appropriate for me to visit your mosque and observe a prayer service. I am most interested in being able to attend a Friday service, if that would be possible.

I am a Christian who has been interested in learning about other religions for my entire life. I have been studying Islam, through the internet and books, for a number of years but did not realize until recently that there was a mosque any closer than Fort Myers. Book knowledge is fine, but I think it is difficult to really know a religion unless you are able to experience at least a part of it.

I found your email address while trying to find a contact person for the mosque. I apologize if this is not the correct way to get in touch with you, and appreciate your time.

Thank you,
Amber Freeman

Also, how stalkery enabling is the new 'location' function? Who would do that?

God Save the Queen! and the mosque thing again.

Or, uh...whatever they say. So I accidentally got up in time to watch William and Kate walk down the aisle. Her dress was gorgeous! Except for the train. I'm not a big train fan on wedding dresses. I mean, it was lovely and all, just not my thing. And we won't talk about how I DVR'd the event on two different channels so I can watch it all later. Because I don't care, really. Not British, don't have a monarch. And maybe that's the problem. The Kennedy's are all dead, and they were our 'royalty'. So now we need another family like that.

Anyway...

So I think I found an email address for the Imam of the local mosque. I tried to go back to the page I found it on today, but it appears to be having some difficulties. Anyway. Would it be appropriate to email the Imam directly? I wouldn't just email a priest directly...or is that just me?

Another thing is that there's this site called Why Islam that has this 'service' where you can email or call them and they will try to set up a visit to a local mosque. So.

Here's the thing. I'm obsessive. Not OCD, though I joke about that. Just obsessive. I get an idea and sometimes it sticks and it won't go away. At all. This has all the signs of being that.

Fear Mongering

My gym has tv's set up in front of the treadmill/bike/eliptical section, so people can watch while they sweat. One of the tv's is set to Lifetime, two are set to some sort of sports channels, and one is set (eternally), to Fox. I tune my little radio into the Fox tv, because the others are likely to put me to sleep, and Fox has the bonus of pissing me off so much that I pedal REALLY HARD like I'm kicking Glenn Beck in the head. So it's good for me, in that sense. :)

You know what message I get from Fox?

MUSLIMS ARE SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RUN AWAY! FEAR THEM! THEY ALL WANT TO KILL US AND EAT OUR BABIES! Everything they do or say is a plot to get you and crush you and everything you love and send us all back to the stone age!

That's it. That appears to be the entirety of their news contribution. Muslims = bad. All of them. Admittedly, Glenn Beck is more obsessed with socialists and communists than Muslims, but the news programs that I see are all about the Muslim 'problem'.

They do it just to frighten people. Get people scared enough, and worried enough about the 'sekrit' enemies that are lurking just behind every door, and they'll let you get away with anything. Seriously, have we learned nothing from history? The easiest way to marginalize a group is to convince the larger amount of the populace that they can't be trusted. That they have secret agendas and loyalties that run counter to the 'nations'. Then you can start taking away their rights and their freedoms, and no one will say 'boo', because they're all scared of them!

The thing that really brought this to a point was last night when I was watching the Daily Show. It's a 'fake' news show, but not so much. Because the stories that they report on are true. They've been covering this whole mosque thing up in New York, and also covering Fox's coverage. And they played a bit from a Fox show where they were going on about the funding for the community center and mosque, and how 'this man' that was one of the main supporters is tied to this that and the other terror organization/mosque/whatever. They make him out to be this shadowy, evil seeming person. They never mention his name, or show his picture. Well. Turns out, 'this man', is the Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Who also, as it so turns out, owns the second largest majority share of News Corp, which owns Fox News. Which explains why they never said his name or showed his picture. Because if they did, people might google him and find out that he's evil, but his money's still good for Fox. Also, News Corp owns a 9% stake in bin Talal's media conglomerate. So the two are in business, and not just superficially.

But Fox won't say that, because it might make people question how bad can this guy be, if you're working for him? And how sad is it that we have to get the facts from a 'news show' on Comedy Central? I like Stewart's suggestion. If we really want to stop funding the 'terror/victory' mosque, stop watching Fox.

All that being said, for the love of God, people, just let them build their freaking community center! Is it going to have a mosque in it? Sure. Wanna know why? Because Muslims have to pray 5 times a day! It's easier to have a mosque in a building where there are going to be a lot of Muslims, each and every day! Christian organizations build chapels or prayer rooms, or what have you into their buildings! The Muslim's have been using this building for a year already.

I'm so fed up with people who just hate. It's like a freaking disease.

Book: The Face Behind the Veil

My latest non-fiction read has been The Face Behind the Veil by Donna Gehrke-White. It's a collection of 2 - 6 page stories of American Muslim women. There's a total of 50 stories, and I think that the author did an excellent job of getting a fairly broad cross-section of women. She breaks the book up into five sections, The New Traditionalists, The Blenders, The Converts, The Persecuted, and The Changers.





In the first section, The New Traditionalists, the women are usually second-generation Muslims in America, people whose families immigrated. Many times, they're the first women in their families to wear hijab. One of the women tells the story of how the murder of her uncle (he was a cab driver and the crime was unrelated to religion) prompted her to take the 'plunge' as it were to wear her hijab. It was something she had wanted to do for a while, but the painful hammering home of the fact that life could end at any moment gave her the strength to go ahead.





In The Blenders, the women are those who do not wear any form of hijab, for one reason or another. Most don't believe that it is required. They say that the veil was only for the wives of Mohammed, and so long as they dress modestly, the don't believe in the hijab (in the sense of head covering). A few don't wear it because they are afraid of how they will be treated, of harassment and loosing their jobs.





In The Converts, there are, of course, the stories of American women who choose Islam for one reason or another. Two of them, one a black woman, and one of Asian descent, became attracted to Islam because they saw it as inclusive, and anti-racist.





The Persecuted, of course, are the stories of women who have had to flee their homelands and seek refuge in America. Most from political strife, but one or two from abusive husbands. The one I remember best (or worst), is a woman with three children who fled Afghanistan (under the Taliban) after her husband was shot in the store he ran in town. Other townspeople dragged his body home. There was no reason, no explanation. She still, years later, has no idea why her husband was murdered. Or the Afghan woman whose husband and oldest son were 'arrested' for unknown reasons. She fled the country with her remaining children, making it, eventually, to the US, where she has forged a life for them and is (thankfully) awaiting her husband and son to join her. For some reason, why, she doesn't know, they lived.





The Changers are women who are working to change (duh) the way Muslim women are treated, within their own faith. They all agree that the problems are cultural - that the degradation and abuse of women is not a part of Islam, but something that has become so entrenched, that many people wrongly treat it as though it is. They're working to change the conditions of the women's sections of mosques. Some of them have prayed side by side with Muslim men, some work as judges, social workers, politicians. They're working to prove that their hijab, their faith, doesn't keep them from doing what they want.





So. The stories range from heart rending (I'm thinking of a women whose husband gained custody of their children, after abusing her and them, and has taken them to Egypt. An American judge thought he was 'better suited' to care for them.) to happy and uplifting. I think the authors point, her idea, was to show that they're 'just like us'. Their lives are neither wholly horrific or shiny and perfect. They have their ups, their downs, trials and joys. But in the end, they're just women of faith, struggling through the world.





Just like us.

Physicality in Worship

First off, today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.

So, have you hugged your angel today? ;)

Okay, so that's probably only funny to me, because I did a post a while back titled 'Don't Hug the Angel' - which was all about how angels are not fluffy bunnies of love like some people think.

On to the post!

We, as human beings, have been given both bodies and souls and minds. It's not enough, in my opinion, to worship God *only* with your soul and mind. The body (since we're the only created beings who get all this) *must* be involved.

I see too much of this:

People just sitting in their pews, as if their mere physical presence in a church is enough. I don't think it is. Part of what attracted me to Catholicism, and part of what I appreciate in Orthodoxy and Islam as well, is that your body is engaged in the act of worship.

Now, of course, as I go along, things change, and I wish that there was *more* physicality in Catholic worship. I wish we could prostrate in Mass. I wish we didn't have *pews* and had an open floor plan like a mosque or some (older) Orthodox churches.

Since, however, we *do* have pews, I just prostrate to my little hearts content in private worship at home. :)

I usually wind up like these women kneeling in sujood (only I like to think my butt isn't that high, but it probably is...):

There is, of course, a *wrong* way to throw your body into worship, like these lovely Pentacostal people here (it was one of the only ones I could find that didn't involve snake handling):

Look, I'm 90% sure that none of these people have ever participated in a Sabbat or other pagan ritual. If they had, they'd realize the frenzy they work themselves up to is almost exactly what happens in *so many* of them.

Also, 'praying hands' vs. orans. I fall on the side of orans.

To me, it feels like this: With my hands clasped, I feel like I'm *begging*, and *clinging* to myself and my troubles, my wants. When I lift my hands up, I'm *offering* to God. Offering everything - myself, my problems, my desires, my life.

So I typically look similar to this young woman when I pray:

Though I don't hold my hands in front of my face like she's doing.

Aannnddd...on a vaguely related note. Why do all Muslim prayer outfits look like they're made out of bed sheets? They all have these little patterns on them that literally make you look like you took a sheet and wrapped it around yourself. Why?

Our Local Mosque

This is an artists rendering of the mosque before it was constructed. It's from Beay Light Construction Company, Inc. I can't find a photo of the mosque in its completed state, but it was finished last year sometime. From what I can see, driving by, it looks basically like this.

So, goofing off at lunch, I found pictures of our local mosque. It's down the street from where I work, but I've never been there. And I'm in a sharing mood...

First is a link to a photo essay by a local reporter/writer/photographer, Malcolm Brenner.

The Mosque: A Photo Essay obviously, all the pictures on there are his. Though I have to quibble, the mosque isn't in Punta Gorda. Maybe zipcode wise it is, but it's physically in Port Charlotte. Not that that makes any difference...

This is a picture of the mosques roof. They don't seem to have a minaret, unless it's behind the dome...then again, I don't know that minarets are *required* on a mosque, just that they all seem to have one. The photo is by Sarah Coward (for the local paper), another local photographer.

This is a local woman at the mosque. I don't know if she was there to pray or what. This was also taken by Sarah Coward for the local paper. Malcolm got to photograph the mens side of the mosque, Sarah the womens side. But the paper published only a few of her pics.