The Religious Language Newsletter
Volume 9, Issue 1 -- January/February 2008
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The Religious Language Newsletter (available by e-mail only) is written and published every other month by Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D. (linguistics), from the Ozark Center for Language Studies (OCLS), at PO Box 1137, Huntsville, AR 72740-1137. For additional information, or to unsubscribe, please e-mail ocls@madisoncounty.net.
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In This Issue: Editor's Note; Network Input; Quotes & Comments; VideoNote: _Knocking_; Cyberspace; Notes on the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" Phenomenon

#Editor's Note

Thank you for your renewals, for your donations, and for all the materials that you've been sending me; I'm grateful.

#Network Input

1. In the last issue I discussed the article by David Van Biema in the 9/3/07 issue of _Time_ (pp. 37-43) about Mother Teresa, titled "Her Agony," and Karen Stroup sent a long and thoughtful response, from which the following is excerpted:

"I was very interested to read your thoughts on the _Time_ article on Teresa... I have done a fair amount of research on her over the years; I've also trained and practiced as a spiritual director. But I have interpreted her writings so differently from this article that I wanted to write and see whether I am truly alone and so, apparently, misguided.

I know very well that Teresa had a very long period of what spiritual directors (following Ignatius of Loyola) call 'desolation.' But I have to wonder if it's fair to call it 'doubt.' She continued to pray, to go to mass, to do her very difficult work. She continued to behave as if she believed in God. ... I think she was a magnificent woman, contradicting William James, who called her 'silly' and 'hysterical.' Apparently Teresa didn't need to put her fingers in Jesus' wounds, didn't need to have those visions on an ongoing basis. I'm sure she would have PREFERRED those things, and they would have made her life much easier and much more enjoyable, but she was tough enough that she didn't HAVE to have them. ... But really . . . shouldn't Teresa get credit for living so faithfully when it didn't FEEL good?"

2. I had also said "I must first say that I consider it outrageous that Mother Teresa's request for her secret letters to _remain_ secret was ignored; their publication is, in my opinion, inexcusable. Other people decided for her that her wish for privacy could be set aside for the sake of what her experience might 'teach us'; shame on those who made that decision."

And Elizabeth Barrette wrote....

"I agree; that was outrageous and inexcusable. First, because it violated the trust she placed in other people. Second, because the justification is faulty: the information in the letters may not be assumed true, relevant, or complete for anyone but the intended recipient(s). It's not how she phrased things to other people. Had she chosen to discuss her private doubts with the world -- which she did not -- she would have chosen phrasing appropriate to a mass audience."

#Quotes & Comments

1. Recently, thanks to Rebecca Haden, I had the opportunity to read A.J. Jacobs' book _The Year of Living Biblically_ (Simon & Schuster 2007), in which a young man who is a secular Jew and an agnostic decides to try for one year to live according to the multitude of rules in the Bible. I found it interesting, and I recommend it, although the interest was diminished somewhat for me by the fact that Jacobs found so many ingenious strategies for getting _out_ of having to "live biblically."

But there was a section on page 276 that really got my attention. The author and his wife, like many couples, spent a considerable amount of time in silly arguments, leading to scenarios where the wife says "Tell me _one time_ when I've been wrong!"; and Jacobs -- although convinced that she's frequently wrong -- can't think of a single example. He therefore starts making a list of her errors -- a list titled "Stuff" -- in his PDA, so he'll always have an example right to hand. He soon realizes, however, that this is an exceedingly unbiblical thing to do, and he decides that he not only has to erase that file, he has to confess its existence to his wife. And he writes...

"When I show Julie my list, she looks at it for a good 10 seconds without talking.
Then she laughs.
'You're not angry?'
'How could I be angry?' she says. 'It's just so heartbreaking that you need this.'
'Well, I have trouble remembering things in the moment.'
I take the Treo back from her, highlight the 'Stuff' list, then press delete. I feel good. I've cleaned the slate on my Treo, and I've cleaned the slate with Julie. I know it may seem like a small thing, but the 'Stuff' incident made me realize my worldview is too much about quantification. It consists of thousands of little ledgers. ... When I forgive, I file the other person's wrongs away for possible future use. It's forgiveness with an asterisk."

There's a fine review of the book, written by Gordon Marino, at http://tinyurl.com/28dt4d . And here's a quote from a review by Jana Riess titled "It Is Written," on page 9 of the 11-12/07 issue of _Books & Culture_:

"Despite his confusion about the Bible's quirky mishmash, Jacobs comes away, like any pilgrim, changed by his experience. From his beginning as a person who says he never uttered the word 'Lord' unless it was followed by 'of the Rings,' he now describes himself as a 'reverent agnostic,' who, though he is unsure about God, recognizes the existence of the sacred in prayer and in each life."

I very much like that phrase "reverent agnostic"... and I will always remember "When I forgive, I file the other person's wrongs away for possible future use. It's forgiveness with an asterisk."

2. Because of an alert from one of my LiveJournal bloggers -- whose name, to my shame, I have lost -- I bought a copy of Canadian poet Lorna Crozier's fine and startling book _Apocrypha Of Light_ (McClelland & Stewart Ltd. 2002). It will give you an idea of the sort of poetry this book contains if I just quote two very short samples...

**From the section titled "1. The First Woman" in the poem "Original Sin," on page 21, with Lilith as the narrator:

"That was my first argument with God.
The second: I wouldn't lie placid
as a hooked and fatty fish under Adam,
my wings pinned back. For punishment
God banished me and turned my sister into bone..."

**And from "Lot's Daughters," on page 30:

"From Sodom's gates our father
brought two strangers home.
...
I thought him wrong to call them angels
until I buffed their feet to brightness."

3. From "Reverend Charlie Jackson," by John Uhl, pp. 68-70 in the current (#58) issue of _The Oxford American_, on pp. 68-69:

" 'Wrapped Up and Tangled Up in Jesus,' first recorded by Jackson in 1970, is the story of a fish caught on a hook, its hopeless twisting and turning, and Jackson's hope for the Lord to 'hook me one day,' too. His voice is gravelly and severe as he sings of how Jesus finally 'came into my soul' and set a fire burning 'all up in my bones.' But when the chorus begins, and Jackson's stern guitar riffs loosen into chords, the song becomes lyrical, even jubilant, 'Jesus got his hook in me! I don't wanna get loose! Jesus got his hook in me! ... Wrapped up -- tangled all up in Jesus! And I don't wanna get loose!' ... The structure of "Wrapped Up and Tangled Up in Jesus' is similar to several other records Jackson made... each of which begins with an anxious, guitar-driven sermon about the burdens of physical existence before giving away to an exuberant refrain. ... What sets 'Wrapped Up and Tangled Up in Jesus' apart is that it depicts the Holy Spirit's descent as a violent invasion of the soul. Indeed, the music only becomes exultant _after_ Jackson has submitted to an ominous, overwhelming force... "

This article isn't available online, but if you'd like to order a copy of the issue -- it's the splendid annual Music Issue, and comes with a CD -- you can do that at http://www.oxfordamericanmag.com/currentissue.cfm .

4. On page 29 of an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali by Rogier van Bakel [pp. 27-34 of the 11/07 issue of _Reason_ and online at http://www.reason.com/news/ show/122457.html ], Hirst Ali says:

"I accept that there are multitudes seeking God, seeking meaning, and so on, but if they reject atheism, I would rather they became modern-day Catholics or Jews than that they became Muslims. Because my Catholic and Jewish colleagues are _fine_. The concept of God in Jewish orthodoxy is one where you're having constant quarrels with God. Where _I_ come from, in Islam, the only concept of God is you submit to Him and you obey His commands, no quarreling allowed. ... Jews should be proselytizing about a God that you can quarrel with. Catholics should be proselytizing about a God who is love, who represents a hereafter where there's no hell, who wants you to lead a life where you can confess your sins and feel much better afterwards. Those are lovely concepts of God."

The stance that Hirst Ali takes is radical, and would be in direct violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I can only hope that she is wrong.

5. The Fall 2007 issue of _Image_, pp. 52-61, had an interview conducted by Bradford Winters titled "A Conversation with Walter Brueggemann." On page 55, in response to "What, in your mind, are the qualities of a prophetic calling today, and are there figures in or out of the church who seem to manifest it?", Brueggemann says:

"Prophets are people who, because of their roots in the theological tradition and because of some emancipatory experience in their own life, refuse to accept the definitions of reality that are imposed upon us by the socio-economic political power structure. In ancient Israel the prophets refused to accept the royal-priestly ideology of the Jerusalem establishment... Now... it seems to me that the parallel task, in the capitalist superpower empire of the United States which in the rhetoric of civil religion claims God's legitimization, is to say that that operation is not really a carrier of God's future and is more likely to be idolatrous and lethal than not. ... Any number of people can be cited as carrying on that prophetic tradition -- the most obvious being Martin Luther King Jr."

And on page 59, where the question asked is "If, as you suggest, the church is at risk of perilous assimilation into mainstream culture, what can it do to remain effectively in, but not of, that culture?", Brueggemann answers:

"The most important thing we have to do in the church is to tell people that's the issue. Most church people haven't thought at all about the urgency of the church or the risk that the church is facing... We have merged the promise of the gospel with the American dream, and the big task is to pull those two things apart, which of course people resist. ... People see no contradiction between the surge of empire and the gospel. That contradiction has to be named."

[_Image_ is a quarterly, and is $39.95 a year from the Center for Religious Humanism, 3307 Third Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119. Selected materials from each issue are available online at http://www.imagejournal.org .]

6. The 11-12/07 issue of _Books & Culture_ (pp. 14-15) has an excellent and enjoyable article by Mark Noll titled "Praise the Lord: Song, culture, divine bounty, and issues of harmonization." Samples from page 14:

"As much as hymn singing has always been one of the most effective builders of Christian community, it has also always been one of the strongest dividers... In the early decades of the Reformation, Calvinists broke with Lutherans over several important matters, but one was existentially apparent at every gathering for worship: the singing. Lutherans sang hymns that with considerable freedom expressed their understanding of the gospel... and they often sang them with choirs, organs, and full instrumentation. Calvinists, by contrast, sang the psalms paraphrased and with minimal or no instrumental accompaniment.... However natural it may now seem for Protestant hymnals to contain both Luther's 'A Mighty Fortress' and Kethe's 'Old One Hundredith,' in fact it took more than two centuries of contentious Protestant history to overcome the visceral antagonism to 'non-scriptural' hymns that prevailed widely in the English-speaking world."

[And Noll goes on to say that it took even longer to settle the question of whether there should be choirs and musical instruments, and to describe some of the "battles over song (that) littered the historical landscape."]

"This long history of both solidification and division raises an important question: What explains the power of song so powerfully to shape, anchor, encourage, disturb, unite, divide, and distract Christian communities?"

Noll points out, accurately, that the question is too large to answer adequately in a brief essay. But he does say that "at least part of the answer is that singing is a deeply rooted expression of culture" and he offers an interesting discussion of that proposition. Highly recommended.

7. I am often greatly disappointed in _Sojourner's_; it seems to me that there's less substance with every issue. However, the 11/07 issue is perhaps a sign of a new trend in the opposite direction; it's a "special issue on books and theater," and I found it both interesting and useful. It has an excellent article by Walter Brueggemann titled "What Would Jesus Buy?", about Reverend Billy [Talen] and his "Church of Stop Shopping"; it has an article by Brian McLaren titled "The Stories We Tell Ourselves" that opens on page 16 with "Any society or civilization at any given time lives by a dominant framing story, a story that gives its common life a coherent shape and direction" and goes on to explore the question of why our framing stories aren't working. And it has an article by James Martin SJ titled "Dramatic Faith," on pp. 32-35 [excerpted from Martin's book, _A Jesuit Off-Broadway: Center Stage with Jesus, Judas, and Life's Big Questions_], from which I'd like to quote here. On page 33:

"Like any good playwright, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John needed an eye for narrative structure -- an understanding of where to place a miracle story and where to place a saying of Jesus, for example -- as well as a good ear for dialogue and clever turns of phrase. If you study the texts carefully, you can see how the later gospels used the earlier ones and subtly altered the structure of the story to meet the needs of their communities. ... Sometimes it almost seems that the evangelists were writing specifically for the stage."

And on pp. 33-34: "It is not difficult to imagine people in antiquity applauding after hearing the miraculous ending to the story... The evangelists told their stories so well that we are reading their tales 2,000 years later."

My thanks to Patricia Mathews for the copy. If you're willing to go through a brief free registration process, you can read the articles above at http://www.sojo.net /index.cfm?action=magazine.contents&issue=soj0711 .

8. The 11/7/07 issue of _USA Today_ had an article about the difficult decisions now facing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as they try to put together their new set of guidelines "intended to offer believers guidance when they vote." It's titled (awkwardly) "Bishops to guide voting faithful on life questions" and written by Cathy Lynn Grossman. The primary question, Grossman writes, is "whether a politician's stance on working for the 'common good' can outweigh his views that are not in line with the church on abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage." And she adds that this will be the first time they have ever had to "hash it out in public debate." I'm not sure what this means, or where the "public debate" will be taking place, and a Google search hasn't led me to any additional information. Your input would be welcome.

9. Thanks to Douglas Dee for a review of Richard Dawkins' _The God Delusion_, by Daniel C. Dennett, on pp. 64-66 of the 12/06-1/07 issue of _Free Inquiry_, titled "Off Come The Gloves." On page 64, after telling readers that he won't be trying to be a "disinterested reviewer," Dennett offers this very interesting paragraph:

"We agree about most matters and have learned a lot from each other, but on one central issue, we are not (yet) of one mind: Dawkins is quite sure that the world would be a better place if religion were hastened to extinction, and I am still agnostic about that. I don't know what could be put in religion's place -- or what would arise unbidden -- so I am still eager to explore the prospect of reforming religion, a task that cries out for a better understanding of the phenomena and, hence, a lot more research than has yet been attempted."

And on page 66, discussing _The God Delusion_:

"Sometimes, he [Dawkins] just cannot conceal his mounting impatience with the arguments he has obliged himself to consider, and when his disrespect, or even contempt, shows through in spite of his strenuous efforts -- I know just what he's going through -- he must surely lose many readers. Good riddance to them? Well, no, this is a problem. Serious argument depends on mutual respect, and this is often hard to engender when disagreements turn vehement."

9. My thanks to Diana Cook for sending me Mark M. Smith's book _Missing The Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History_ [University of California Press 2008]. This quote is from page 105...

" 'Tactility,' argues David Chidester, 'is the fundamental bond of religion.' _Religion_ has its root in _religare_, meaning 'to bind,' and that idea of tactility, of connections, covenants, and contracts informed religious faith and its history in America. Seventeenth-century Puritans claimed God's touch -- specifically his hand -- in divining their history, leading them, by hand, across the sea, and undertaking in America the 'great work in hand.' For Chidester, 'This tactile imagery culminated in the central symbol of covenant,' the bond between God and his people, a bond at once pleasurable, painful, and thoroughly haptic. God's hand had helped the Puritans establish 'elbow room' on the continent..."

10. And my thanks to Frances Green, who sent me the "Feedback" feature from page 64 of the 12/2/06 _New Scientist_, which had some religious-language humor to offer. Like this:

"Apologies to readers who have had enough of... religious mondegreens (18 November), but we can't resist one last outing for the theme. ... [A] friend tells us that his mother believed as a child that God was a priest called Father Harold Witchart ('Our Father Witchart in heaven, Harold be thy name'), a belief that was reinforced by the fact that there was a resident of her Dorset village called Mr. Witchart. ... To finish on a funereal note, Luela Palmer thought the words she heard as a coffin was lowered into the ground were: 'Glory be to the Father and to the Son, into the hole he goes.' "

#VideoNote

_Knocking: Fundamentalism and freedom meet at the front door. The untold story of Jehovah's Witnesses_; documentary by Joel P. Engardio and Tom Shepard. 64 minutes; $29.95 plus $5.95 postage. Information (and ordering link) at http://www.knocking.org .

I recommend this DVD. It's beautifully made, and offers a wealth of information; it comes with an excellent 48-page study guide; and it includes 3 full hours of video "extras," including a Lecture Series. It offers stories of two very different Jehovah's Witness families; it provides a concise history of the denomination and discusses its core beliefs. I was particularly impressed to learn that Jehovah's Witnesses in concentration camps during World War II were offered their release if they would simply sign a "Declaration of Renunciation" of their faith, and that almost no one among them accepted that offer. (The text of that document is included in the study guide.)

I think the simplest way to give you an accurate impression of the contents of the DVD is with a few illustrative quotes. First, from the Summer 2005 issue of the _Knocking Documentary Newsletter_:

"The aim of KNOCKING is to give a general, non-Jehovah's Witness audience a fair look at a religious group that has long been misunderstood and relegated to cartoonish stereotypes. KNOCKING uses the real life stories of real families to humanize Jehovah's Witnesses. But we don't shy from criticism. ... We show both the ups and down, including what it is like for Witnesses who have unbelieving or opposing family members, and how divided families can find common ground. For instance, the young man who undergoes a groundbreaking bloodless liver transplant has opposing family members who come to the hospital to see first-hand how the new bloodless technology works."

From page 23 of the study guide:

"The village of Stratton, Ohio, enacted an ordinance requiring door-to-door canvassers to register their names and details of their activities with the mayor's office before entering private residential property. A U.S. Federal District Court and the Court of Appeals upheld the ordinance. Before the Supreme Court, attorneys for Jehovah's Witnesses argued that the ordinance violated the First Amendment protection of anonymous pamphleteering and discourse as a time-honored way for political, religious, or social groups to campaign for their cause. In an 8-1 opinion, the Court agreed."

And from page 36 of the study guide:

"The Bible... is the inspired, infallible Word of God. It contains 'the truth' -- everything humans need to know to please God and gain eternal life. The Bible explains how the human family had a perfect start, how evil began, and how God will restore perfect conditions to the Earth again. Although everything in the Bible is true, it contains much symbolism and not all passages should be taken literally."

Finally, I recommend a review and accompanying interview by David Ian Miller, titled "Finding My Religion," at http://tinyurl.com/yrtrnq .

#Cyberspace

1. In Religion BookLine for 10/03/07 [at http://www.publishersweekly.com/ article/CA6486523.html ], by Lynn Garrett:

"_The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality_, by André Comte-Sponville...
At first blush 'atheist spirituality' may sound like a contradiction in terms, but French philosopher Comte-Sponville makes a compelling argument for a profound dimension of experience that is god-free. His idea of spirituality also bears no small resemblance to Eastern spirituality, and the philosopher-author does not hesitate to cite great Eastern thinkers in this catalogue of references to great minds grappling with important questions. We can do without religion and without God, the author argues, but we can't do without fidelity and community. Comte-Sponville's humanism is deeply traditional, but the red flag 'atheist' will undoubtedly affront religious traditionalists. That's unfortunate, because the author's style of arguing is civil and witty, unlike a lot of public discourse on this subject. ..."

2. Quote from LJ-er bookery...

"In _Good Omens_, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman measure prayer on a scale of zero to one alps.

'They were welded into one enormous, seamless belief, compared with which that held by Joan of Arc seemed a mere idle notion. On any scale of mountain moving it shifted at least point five of an alp. (It may be worth noting here that most human beings can rarely raise more than .3 of an alp (30 centi-alps). Adam believed things on a scale ranging from 2 through to 15,640 Everests.)' "

3. "Conditioned by a hundred years or more of secularism, we distrust religious language and the religious impulse. In becoming religious, we are asked to exchange our modernist lens, which seems so reliable and sure, for something that feels quite older and less reliable. Yes, in many ways, the religious way of looking at the world has been better tested... That is, long before there were pills for depression, mythology and religion -- the narrative way of knowing our existence -- were helping people pass through the stages of life and all its travails. There is something deeply powerful in this narrative way of knowing..."

That comes from Gary Eberle's book _Dangerous Words: Talking About God in the Age of Fundamentalism_, quoted in a blogpost by religion professor James F. McGrath titled "Dangerous Words," at http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/ 2007/10/dangerous-words.html .

From the publisher's description of the book, at http://tinyurl.com/2dy9eu:

"Religious language, Gary Eberle notes, can be the linguistic equivalent of nitroglycerine. A little three-letter word like God, for example, is so complex, so intertwined with various identities, so ultimately undefinable, that using it can be like throwing a hand grenade, regardless of your intentions. Others have noted the linguistic problem in religious discourse, but no one has approached it in Gary Eberle's way: taking a few of the more problematical words and wrestling with them until he comes to understand their history and etymology deeply. Getting there with him is fun, but it also provides a sound foundation for anyone involved in the culture wars today, by tracing the meanings of the words that cause so many problems for us, and in some cases revealing surprises. For example, through his scholarship we discover that the Fundamentalist movement in fact arose out of modernism and the Enlightenment, which its proponents so often decry. Over the course of the book, the author examines the following problematical, lightning-rod words, one per chapter: truth, modernism, fundamentalism, myth, religion, tradition, God, and silence. He concludes in his final chapter, "Silence," that the way religious discourse can best proceed is when its partisans, on both sides of the issues, understand the limitations of words as they debate them."

[It is of course not true that no one has approached the "linguistic problem in religious discourse" in the way Gary Eberle has. Consider, for just one example, _Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith_, by Kathleen Norris.]

My thanks to Wib Smith for pointing me to James F. McGrath's "Exploring Our Matrix" blog and the "Dangerous Words" post.

4. In an article titled "Believing in resurrection" in the 10/30/07 issue of the _Jerusalem Post_ (available online at http://tinyurl.com/2ywm39 ), Avi Shafram wrote:

"That the unveiling of a new Reform prayer book didn't elicit applause from the Orthodox world was hardly surprising. ... The essence of the Jewish religious heritage does not change; the very premise of Reform theology (and, as has become increasingly evident, Conservative theology no less) is that Judaism can be redefined according to the wishes of contemporary Jews."

And he goes on: "In a nod to... die-hard Reform 'traditionalists' (a word rather turned on its head in this context), Mishkan T'filah still suggests that the phrase 'He Who gives life to the dead' be understood as 'a powerful metaphor.' But -- and again, small changes can hold larger significance -- the editors' note adds that the resurrection of the dead 'may be taken literally' as well. ... As the deep Jewish scholar and thinker Rabbi E.E. Dessler wrote, the only reason we consider the germination of a seed to be natural and resurrection of the dead miraculous is because we are accustomed to the former but not the latter."

The 9/3/07 _NY Times_ also had an article on the new prayer book, titled "In New Prayer Book, Signs of Broad Change." Of that change, it says:

"Traditional touches coexist with a text that sometimes departs from tradition by omitting or modifying some prayers and by using language that is gender-neutral. References to God as 'He' have been removed, and whenever Jewish patriarchs are named -- like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so are the matriarchs -- like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. The prayer book took more than 20 years to develop and was tested in about 300 congregations.

And...

"There are four versions of each prayer laid out on a typical two-page spread. ... On the right page is the prayer in Hebrew, the transliteration of the Hebrew prayer into phonetical English, and a more literal translation. On the left-hand page is a more poetic translation of the prayer, followed by a metaphorical or meditative passage reflecting on the prayer... Rabbis who prefer to lead a more traditional service can choose a prayer from the right-hand side of the page, while those who prefer a more alternative approach can choose from the left side."

That's an interesting pair -- "a more traditional service" versus "a more alternative approach." You can read the complete article (after free registration) at http://tinyurl.com/2dubev .

5. From _Religion BookLine_ for 11/14/07, in a brief review of _Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up_, by John Allen Paulos:

"Few of the recent books on atheism have been worth reading just for wit and style, but this is one of them: Paulos is truly funny. ... In this short primer ('just the gist with an occasional jest') Paulos tackles 12 of the most common arguments for God, including the argument from design, the idea that a 'moral universality' points to a creator God, the notion of first causes and the argument from coincidence, among others. Along the way, he intersperses irreverent and entertaining little chapterlets that contain his musings on various subjects, including a hilarious imagined IM exchange with God... 'Why does solemnity tend to infect almost all discussions of religion?' Paulos asks, clearly bemoaning the dearth of humor. This little book goes a long way toward correcting the problem, and provides both atheists and religious apologists some digestible food for thought along the way."

The archives of _Religion BookLine_ are available online at http://www.publishersweekly.com/eNewsletterArchive/2287.html .

6. I want to recommend an article by Gil Gaudia titled "About Intercessory Prayer" -- an article with harsh words for research that has been done or might be done on the healing effects of such prayer -- at http://www. butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=282 . Gaudia writes:

"In order to carry out a confirmatory experiment -- one that would leave no possibility of an alternative explanation -- the investigator would have to produce evidence of an effect that could only be explainable by a force unknown to science -- the intervention of a deity or its agent. ... For example, one very simple experiment, the results of which would leave little or no doubt about the effectiveness of intercessory prayer, could involve the regeneration of an amputated limb. All that would be required is an adequate sample of amputees as subjects and a sizeable number of believers who will earnestly pray over them. These should not be hard to locate. The investigators could employ as many uiversities and people as possible ... to pray every day for a year that at least one amputee would have a limb regrown, and then, at the end of that year, examine all the thousands of amputees for signs of regenerating limbs. ... When a single limb has thus been observed to have been regenerated, then we will have seen unequivocal evidence for the power of prayer."

And also....

"Intercessory prayer is a request to God to change his or her mind about the already established plan for the universe and make it go another way. Of course, this implies that a perfect deity's plans, which would (by definition) have to be perfect, should now be altered at the urging of an imperfect being. This is logical reason enough to refute the possibility of intercessory prayer's effect... "

The tone of the article edges a bit toward the polemic, but Gaudia's case is carefully built and the argumentation is thorough and clear.

7. Cyberplaces to visit: "The Dawkins Effect: How The God Delusion Mainstreamed Atheism," at http://pandagon.blogsome.com ; "13 Grandmothers Share Their Earthly Wisdom," at http://www.womensnews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3398/context/cover , suggested by Cindy Brown.

#Notes on the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" Phenomenon

Thanks to all of you who sent me alerts to the 11/16/07 AP story titled "Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster," at http://tinyurl.com/226udg . Which said:

"When some of the world's leading religious scholars gather in San Diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. They'll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose growing pop culture fame gets laughs but also raises serious questions about the essence of religion. The appearance of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the agenda of the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting gives a kind of scholarly imprimatur to a phenomenon that first emerged in 2005, during the debate in Kansas over whether intelligent design should be taught in public school science classes."

The scholars involved insist that they don't consider the topic a joke, and that it "cuts to the heart of one of the thorniest questions in religious studies: What defines a religion?"

Wikipedia offers a very thorough article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Flying_Spaghetti_Monster , with a witty graphic showing the FSM touching Adam's outstretched hand with "His Noodly Appendage"; I recommend it. Here are some samples:

"The Flying Spaghetti Monster (also known as the Spaghedeity) is the deity of a parody religion called The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its system of beliefs, 'Pastafarianism.' The religion was founded in 2005 by Oregon State University physics graduate Bobby Henderson to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution."

"In November, 2007, three talks involving the Flying Spaghetti Monster are scheduled to be delivered at the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting in San Diego. The talks include titles such as, 'Holy Pasta and the Authentic Sauce: The Flying Spaghetti Monster's Messy Implications for Theorizing Religion'... "

"The religious text of the Pastafarian religion is called the Loose Canon. In place of the Ten Commandments, it contains the Eight I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts. The official conclusion to prayer is 'RAmen'... "

And finally, "In December 2005, Bobby Henderson received a reported USD $80,000 advance to pen _The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster_. Henderson said he plans to use the proceeds from the sale of the book to build a pirate ship, which which he may travel the world in order to convert heathens to the Pastafarian religion. The book was released on March 28, 2006... "

Why a pirate ship? Because one of the Pastafarian beliefs is that "lack of pirates causes global warming."

When I taught a unit on Religious Language at San Diego State University, my students were both surprised and outraged to learn that in the U.S. there were no control mechanisms in place to "validate" religious language, and no laws against just starting up a church your own self and writing documents for it that you can freely claim are its sacred writings. [This was decades ago, yes. Youngsters today would not be surprised; whether they'd be outraged or not, I'm not certain. Probably not.] I explained to them that the only legal hurdle in existence for would-be founders of religions has to do not with theology but with taxes. Then, and still today, if you want for your church the tax-exempt status that other churches have, you have to convince the Internal Revenue Service that it meets a set of IRS criteria. Googling for that set will get you this list from IRS Publication 1828, _Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations_:

* A distinct legal existence.
* A recognized creed and form of worship.
* A definite and distinct ecclesiastical government.
* A formal code of doctrine and discipline.
* A distinct religious history.
* A membership not associated with any other church or denomination.
* An organization of ordained ministers.
* Ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed studies.
* A literature of its own.
* Established places of worship.
* Regular congregations.
* Regular worship services.
* Schools for the religious instruction of the young.
* Schools for the preparation of ministers.

Churches don't have to meet all 14 criteria, and there's no rule saying precisely how many must be met. The IRS has the last word, however. It gets to define the terms -- like "distinct" and "recognized" and "regular" and so on. It decides whether an applicant meets a given criterion. And it decides how many criteria a given applicant must meet.

Copyright © 2008 Suzette Haden Elgin
All rights reserved

Contact: ocls@madisoncounty.net