I've been thoroughly enjoying my "Western Religions" class this semester, and it really makes me want to visit houses of worship for other religions! Have any of you ever visited temples, mosques, or other types of churches? I want to know :)
happy thursday,
Kelsey
I also took a religions class while in los angeles, and it was so interesting! I visited a thai buddhist temple, where the monks all sat around reading newspapers and talking on their cell phones when they weren't on meditation "duty."
ReplyDeletei visited a muslim mosque, covering my head was new to me. there, the men kneeled in the front of the room and women kneeled in the back of the room in order to pray to allah. the imam talked about forgiveness and following the message the man who sang the call to prayer gave a mini speech to the crowd telling them they should all watch the new TV show he was in, which aired that evening. (i was tucked away in the visitors corner, fyi).
i visited a "FAME" church (First African Methodist Episcopal church) where the music was vibrant and colorful and where I was welcomed as "sister."
i visited another church in LA attached to "The Dream Center," and there i witnessed a worship rock band like i had never witnessed a worship rock band before. celebrities were sighted in the "audience" and everyone was distracted by their presence.
i spent a lot of time (a semester) researching in LA's "little India," where I talked with a Hindu woman on several occasions about the religious roots from India and how they are being lived out in america.
over the course of my life, i've entered many various christian churches of varying denominations and beliefs and worldviews.
i think it's really important not to be ignorant of belief systems "out there" other than your own. i would encourage everyone to head out into your community and visit places of worship you normally would never walk into. seeing with your own eyes the individuals who practice different religions can give you a love and respect for those individuals, even if your own beliefs differ from, or even clash with, theirs. getting to know "the other" helps to guard you against passing judgment, and in the end, it should really strengthen your own faith to learn about other ones.
I haven't. I wish I have. I am very curious about other religions and love researching them, but I guess I just haven't had the opportunity to actually ever go into one of their places of worship. I don't really know how to "go about it" or even where to find them. I'm sure it'd be easier now that I live where people are a little bit more colorful. I'll have to try it out.
ReplyDeletePerhaps one of the most eye opening experiences I've had is hanging out with a group of outspoken atheists. I love seeing Christianity from an outsider's perspective. Basically, they are very, very critical of anything we base our beliefs on. Anytime I ever mention one of Christianity's favorite authors (C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, etc.), they'd refer me to a criticism by an author refuting any and all arguments made.
I'm not sure if it's necessarily healthy or not to be around such "devout" atheists. I surely wouldn't recommend it to anyone that doesn't have the strongest convictions or that have any doubts within themselves. But, I enjoy it. Normally, it feels like nothing more than being part of a debate team, each party trying to make a point, whether they themselves believe it or not, just to present an argument. But, in they end, it teaches you to see Christianity from the other side of the fence. It teaches you to see why the doubters doubt. If we don't know why the doubters doubt, what hope do we have in witnessing to them?
But yeah, visiting other places of worship is definitely on my list of things I have to do soon. Especially a Buddhist temple. I'm pretty jealous that you guys get to use taking a class on it as an excuse to go into them. I don't know why they would let me..
I have visited a Buddhist temple back in Indonesia. My dad was a Buddhist and he brought me there as a way to talk me into it. I remember there were lots of statues but the one my dad always referred to was this bodhisattva called Kwan Im (or Kwan Yin/Guanyin). She was almost always depicted as female and she was kind of the bodhisattva of compassion. Anyways my dad, my grandparents, and basically all his family venerate her the most.
ReplyDeleteThe other entity whose statues are everywhere is this man with a red face and long beard (http://bagicerita.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/sangharama-bodhisattva-guan-yu/). I'm more familiar with this one because my dad had many of his statues at home, he placed it in almost every room (even in my room but I secretly removed it). He said this deity was a warrior, a general or something like that.
I haven't been to a mosque, not here, and definitely not in Jakarta. Back there in Jakarta, the tension between Islam and Christianity was quite intense so I was afraid and never dreamed of going to a mosque. Here in Orange County I heard that they allow visitors but I've never visited, I guess I still carry the old fear in me.
@Amanda: I totally agree with you to explore other religions and beliefs and worldviews. It really does strengthen our faith in the end because it allows us to see Christianity from many different angles. I appreciate what Jesus has done even more after I explored other beliefs. I see that what He offers is way better than any of those religions combined. And clearly He is one unique individual that the world's major religions wanted to claim Him as their own.
@Matthew: I think even though you haven't visited other religious places you have experiences with the atheists, right? Wherever you spend time with them you're actually in their place of worship (humor me on this one) because they "worship" their own reason (since they hold it as the utmost authority in making life's decisions), and in many cases they worship their own body and all kinds of sensuality pertaining to it.