its only procrastination when its not planned.

Finishing up my conclusion now and trying to organize my sources. Can't believe this is all coming to an end!

surely someone else in the class is doing the same thing right now...

accurate vs inaccurate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZz8svqtWn4

^true or false??

"baptists pound the pulpit and preach hellfire....some dont drink. They love picnics with fried chicken and go to church every wed night. they are self-righteous and believe in "mythological things"....

outsider perspective

Xbox commercial for asia

this video not funny to you either? maybe we don't understand other people's culture or humor.

redneck vs hillbilly~ why does the south appreciate one title but not the other?

moral decisions

Just a thought as I was reading over my past blogs over this semester...

The premises of moral decisions are based on various factors, including religious/spiritual, familial, cultural and societal morals. Based on these premises, it is questionable how government regulations can mandate an individual’s moral obligations and, thus law. Based on these premises, it could be concluded that a citizen should not be mandated to abide by laws that go against his or her moral convictions.


As I was watching Jay Leno last night with former President George W. Bush, I listened to him talk about heart warming memories and decisions relating to the 9/11 attack. But then he went on to talk about how the world would be "a better place" without Saddam Hussein--
my thoughts: everyone makes mistakes, and christians are no exception. However, what gives him the right to say who has more or less of a right to be living on this earth. If all sins are the same, like Christians believe, then why do the threats against his daughters justify why Bush would declare a man's life worthless?

my outline from here on out...

here is the outline from here on..

II.  Based on this tendency of  Southern Evangelical Christians, people outside the Southern “Bible Belt” may logically perceive them as outspoken, overbearing right-wing conservatives.

     A. how outsiders perceive Southerner’s religious beliefs - based on generalities such as racial prejudice, political, income, education (not ivy league), etc. ???

     B. how outsiders perceive Southerner’s religious practices

III. Southerner's actual religious practices and how they differ from others' perspective

     A. attend church - high incidence -attendance and size of congregation

     B. surveys indicate pray more

     C. participate in charity and tithing more

      D. religiosity -quote from Robert Putnam's book, American Grace -How Religion Divides and Unites Us Simon & Schuster, New York Copyright 2010, pgs. 26, 27. "Southerners are more religious than the rest of the country. " Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are the most religious states in the union with the bordering states just slightly less so."  The source was the Religious Landscape Survey, Pew Research Center. 

field situation

In order to obtain insight into the American Southerners’ religious beliefs and practices, it would be beneficial to briefly recap the historical evolvement of the Southern religions. According to Sam Hill, Professor Emeritus in Religion, the University of Florida, in his April 2009 lecture, “Tell About the South: Why Are They So Religious?” (http://.fsu.edu/Volume12/SamHill%20Lecture.html) there are several factors found in the origins of the South that have shaped Southern religion. Hill states, “With two elementary facts of southern history that set it off from the rest of the nation . . .first, the presence of a pervasively bi-racial culture, African and European. . .and second, the significant absence of European immigrant sectors of the population, with their distinctive cultures” with some exceptions, such as Italians migrating to Galveston, Texas and southern Jews in Florida’s coastal cities.

The South’s original religious roots came from the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. By 1700, other Protestant denominations of Quakers, Baptists and Presbyterians emerged. Other groups soon followed, including Methodists, Lutherans and Moravians. By 1739, the “First Great Awakening” swept across the American colonies, from New England to Georgia. This movement strengthened the small Baptist and Methodist congregations. Women especially accepted the teachings of the Awakening, although they were not allowed to preach. Bible teachings were preached to rich and poor people, educated and illiterate who were already churched and Blacks began the first Black Baptist churches. Preachers during this First Great Awakening highlighted Bible teachings that included equality among men and The American Revolution soon followed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Great_Awakening)

From the time of the American Revolution to afterwards, the motives of the white man converting the black man to Christianity were questioned. The idea was that the white man was introducing the black man to Christianity for servitude purposes. The Southern White churches apparently rationalized these actions based on the Biblical Genesis 9:24-25 passage that depicts Noah cursing Canaan, after his son from Canaan, Ham, disrespected him. The passage quotes Noah cursing Canaan to become the “lowest of slaves.”   

Once the Civil War ended and emancipation began, the blacks and whites no longer shared the same churches. Each formed their own separate congregations and simultaneously, each church membership increased notably. The churches during the South’s Reconstruction Period were flourishing. However, the content of the sermons were not about racial injustice or civil rights, but rather personal salvation and righteous living. The churches at this time were not as concerned with impacting social issues, except for supporting prohibition, stressing “appropriate” Sunday behavior, such as stopping Sunday mail delivery, and condemning worldly indulgences. Southern religion was moving past casual worship to being a form of active and participatory worship.  

By the early twentieth century, farming was yielding less financial support for the family and people were moving to towns and cities to seek employment. The Industrial Revolution ushered in textile factories and mill towns. Upper-class mill owners were building the churches and the larger denominations (e.g. Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterians) owned them. Their buildings were elaborate and their organizations sophisticated with trained preachers and community leaders as members. The middle class took issue with this and started their own churches including Pentecostal and new Baptist. The poor and black people also had separate churches. The larger denominations began forming publishing houses and central headquarters and provided supplies to other churches. Thus, by 1910, some of the smaller churches and denominations were perceiving exclusion by the larger church organizations.  

Yet, church membership and religious devoutness continued to grow in the South in the 20’s and 30’s. Growth was especially seen in some of the smaller sects, such as the Pentecostal and Assemblies of God congregations, despite the onset of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression with subsequent adverse affects on the Northern churches.(Religion in the South, edited by Charles Reagan Wilson, Copyright 1985. The University Press of Mississippi, pgs. 77-78.) 

The World War bringing the increase in U.S. births (i.e. “Baby Boomers”), family ties and church attendance continued to rise in the 1940’s and 50’s. Then, the 60’s and early 70’s brought about social changes with a decline in moral values that threatened the South’s conservative values. This, in turn, prompted further appeal for conservative evangelicalism. According to Robert D. Putnam, author of American Grace –How Religion Divides and Unites Us (Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2010, pgs 114-116), the civil rights movement, changing gender roles, Supreme Court decisions that widened the separation of Church and State and moral decadence/sexual permissiveness played some role in the rise of evangelicalism in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  This evangelical movement continues to active today.

To answer the question of how the Southern “Bible Belt” evangelical movement has continued to survive and grow throughout the decades, consideration must be given to the core beliefs of the evangelical members. Core to the religious beliefs of the Southern Christian evangelicals is the “Great Commission” spoken by Jesus and recorded in Matthew 28:19-20, which reads, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Whether the South was experiencing economic trials, social issues, war, or threats to its conservative values, their religious response was to outreach to society in an evangelical manner.

Why is my topic important:
like: Now is a period in time when our national security is threatened by foreign terrorism and,thus, it is imperative that we, as a nation, remain united. The unity of our nation must not be threatened by division among our own people because of contrasting views and prejudices. It is thus important to explore how the American South came to be associated with such stereotypical characteristics and who, today, may still hold these stereotypical views about the South. In addition, what stereotypical behaviors are detrimental and which are beneficial to the South’s profile and why?

SCRATCH THAT....and here we go again..

ok, my thesis was choppy and way too broad before. So I decided, Instead of just using my paper to outline how southern religion has progressed through history and how its lead to certain generalizations,  that i would reevaluate. I really thought about what specific topic within that context I could write about for 20ish pages...here is what I came up with.

what am i needing help with: am I doing ok at clearly defining what I mean or am i getting too wordy? should I define what an "outsider approach" is right of the bat, or is it obvious? 

 Intro and thesis/map:

“There is a society of abstract North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, though tradition states that they came from the east. According to Nacirema mythology, their nation was originated by a culture hero, Notgnishaw, who is otherwise known for two great feats of strength--the throwing of a piece of wampum across the river Pa-To-Mac and the chopping down of a cherry tree in which the Spirit of Truth resided.”

In the satirical investigation, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema, Horace Miner describes how an exotic culture, the Nacirema, “presents such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go.” The “magical beliefs and practices” of this society have been depicted by anthropologists and sociologists in attempts to subjectively examine the behaviors and practices of the American people. Although the satirical word play throughout the report simply makes the paper’s jargon seem quite humorous in retrospect, it also sparks an awareness of how the American lifestyle can be seen as ridiculous from an “outsider’s” perspective.

In modern American culture, there are many negative connotations surrounding various religious stereotypes.  For the sake of this paper, a stereotype is defined as particular representation or label that is specified by a general society. For example, many of the generalizations concerning southern Christianity cling to a hypocritical context and many of the perceptions of Judaism have to do with wealth and greed.  Likewise, common southern scrutiny about atheists revolves around the depiction of a brash liberal with hatred towards Christ. Regardless of whether these generalizations may be true or false for a particular person or group, I propose that there is a relevant application of these accusations in the distinction between insider and outsider views in southern religions. 

Throughout my paper, I will argue for a new direction surrounding the generalized views of Christianity, atheism and Judaism in regards to the outsider perspective. This direction will be presented through the relevance of how certain stereotypes are predominantly established through certain southern antics of how these accusations are received; either through taking pride in the designation, declining the claim or by proving it to be true with out realization. My perspective goes beyond the assumptions of what these religions really are. I will not attempt to argue for or against a certain religion or focus on the truth of any religion. I will present my point through the assumption that there are naturalize ways of approaching this subject at hand. First, I will simply make the distinction of what an outsider perspective really is and then I will dissect whether the outcome of an outsider perspective is actually attainable. Next, I will use the geographic generalizations of southern America to show how attempting to typecast through an unbiased outsider perspective can cause self-contradiction in the end. Through my resolution, I will lead to a broader understanding of the stereotyping within and about certain southern religions in America. 

work in progress

Rough thesis 

I will argue for a new direction surrounding the idealized views of Christianity in the south from an insider and outsider perspective. I will not attempt to argue for or against a certain religion or focus on the truth of any religion. My perspective goes beyond the assumptions of what southern religion really is. I will simply start with the implication that there are naturalized ways of approaching this subject at hand. My resolution will lead to a broader understanding to the establishment of and capitalization of modern southern Christianity within a historical context.

I know that I want to trace Christianity from Columbus (establishment of a new world for """freedom""" of religion, or at least how they want it) to present to show how christianity has turned into a capitalized joel osteen kinda thing. 

Has this religion always been "corrupted" or has it progressively been dissected by different denominations/perspectives throughout the years?

ethical decisions based on religious context?

In my medical ethics class, we are discussing the importance of religious context within the field of ethical decision making. 

John Finnis, author of "abortion and health care ethics", makes an argument that is based in a central way on Catholic thought. What role should religious principles and beliefs play in our ethical theorizing?

 Finnis argues that ethical theology in a manner that is quite independent of any religious premises. He supports that they are philosophical and scientific concerns that are decisively right for everyone but that they have nothing to do with our particular religious context. However, he does reference every human’s particular justifications of the four main principles: Autonomy, beneficence, non-malefience and justice.

I believe it is inevitable for our religious beliefs to play a large role in our ethical decision-making. Regardless of what you may believe about a particular god, many gods, or maybe no god at all, everyone has some particular considerations and specifications of what they believe about how the earth was made and what is in control of our destiny. Even if a certain individual does not claim to be “religious” at all, wouldn’t the choices pertaining to the context of what that person believes will affect where they go when they die have an impact on the moral obligations of that person?

challenging the relevance of historical context

Before the Bible belt...

Sensbach is drawing our eyes to focus on a more historically relevant justification of the south. He references Samuel Hill’s notion that the south has been rendered as historically a “limited-options culture.” He suggests, “Hardly any other aspect has the limitation of choices been more pronounced than in religion.” This is so true, the characterization of Christianity has been influenced and twisted by so many different industrialized classifications of denominations that our understanding of the religion has become merely an obstinate platform for justification and establishment among community.

However, Sencbach later proposes that the eighteenth century southern was hardly limited by options because of external influences. “The eighteenth-century South encompassed an even broader narrative of religious struggle, declension, and reinvention.” He continues to say that the eighteenth century was a obviously the most dynamic period in southern religious history. This is because the region was so receptive to their interactions with international influences. I found this historical evidence surprising because I had never realized the contextual significance of the religious transition in the south in that point in history.

Furthermore, the depiction of a “Christ-haunted” region interested me because I kept thinking about the two-fold relationship that Christians have in devotion to God. From one standpoint, we are “God-fearing” people; always eager to do the will of our Lord in fear of his mighty will. The other side of the relationship establishes the everlasting love and devotion that we receive unconditionally. So where is the line between the obedience of being “god-fearing” and the horror of a “Christ-haunted” area?

Everyone loves a hypocrite.

Truth be told, everyone is a hypocrite.

 

So when are we contradicting our own beliefs?

A controversial argument may be founded in the widely held familial/religious/cultural principle that a person should love their neighbor as themselves. However, when their neighbor abuses moral obligations by murdering, stealing or raping that person’s own homeland, as evidenced in recent national border investigative cases, should those moral obligations be precluded? Similarly, as the government mandates abortion for the personal rights of the adult citizen in certain states, should a professional be required to abide by those laws that are in direct violation of his or her personal spiritual/religious moral principles of human life at conception?