Aug. 9, 2013 ---- Britt Towery column “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” The cartoon showed two bored office workers, idly gazing out the window, when one of them said, “Let’s go to California and start a new religion.” Fair or not, California has been a starting place for many religious-minded (and otherwise) folk to break out new ways to find and share the religion of their choice. More than three in four of Americans say religion is losing its influence in the United States, writes Dan Merica of CNN. It is evident that many Americans do not think this is a good thing. According to a Gallup survey 75 percent of Americans said the country would be better off if it were more religious. There may be some answers to why church attendance is slipping ever so slightly, and bored office or blue collar workers are looking for something more challenging. The last fifteen years books dealing with the history and reality of Christianity have become best sellers such as: Charles Kimball’s “When Religion Becomes Evil.” John D. Caputo’s “What Would Jesus Deconstruct?” “Water Into Wine” by Tom Harpur and Neale Donald Walsch’s three books on “Conversations with God: an uncommon dialogue.” Historian and scholar, Reza Asian, has just published a new biography of Jesus, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth,” Professor Asian was born in Iran and grew up in America. He accepted Jesus as his savior in his teens. (Later he returned to the faith of his fathers.) The book relates the author’s spiritual journey while understanding the peasants, priests, soldiers and their daily lives of Jesus’ Palestine. This biography seeks to separate the man from deity. I found the book an interesting read. It shares the epoch-making story through the writings of men who were there before, during and after Jesus. He says he wrote the book “in order to spread the good news of the Jesus of history with the same fervor that I once applied to spreading the story of the Christ.” “Ironically,” Asian writes, “the more I learned about the life of the historical Jesus, the turbulent world in which he lived, and brutality of the Roman occupation that he defied, the more I was drawn to him.” Reading this book and a couple of Tom Harpur’s books filled in a lot of gaps in my faith, hope and understanding of religion in general. These books increased my faith because of the honesty and enlightenment they brought. Harpur is a former columnist for the Toronto Star, an Anglican priest and a Rhodes scholar. Twenty-first century believers and unbelievers are questioning about Jesus, the Son of Man, just as they were from the beginning of his ministry. The first 300 years were filled with what we might call “denominations” today. Those with the historical-literalist approach won the battle of “views” and have been with us to this day. That could be one reason people are seeing little relevance in “church going” and want more than set-in-concrete, unquestioning blind observance in their faith: traditions, rituals, rites, demands, regulations, ceremonies and even “know-it-all” sermonizers. I began with a joke about guys starting a new religion. There is no reason to start a new religion, nor a new denomination. The world has more than enough of both. There are many reasons to grow up in our faith and know what we believe and why. Church-goers will find in spiritual growth the dimension that may be lacking. --30--

“Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” The cartoon showed two bored office workers, idly gazing out the window, when one of them said, “Let’s go to California and start a new religion.” Fair or not, California has been a starting place for many religious-minded (and otherwise) folk to break out new ways to find and share the religion of their choice. More than three in four of Americans say religion is losing its influence in the United States, writes Dan Merica of CNN. It is evident that many Americans do not think this is a good thing. According to a Gallup survey 75 percent of Americans said the country would be better off if it were more religious. There may be some answers to why church attendance is slipping ever so slightly, and bored office or blue collar workers are looking for something more challenging. The last fifteen years books dealing with the history and reality of Christianity have become best sellers such as: Charles Kimball’s “When Religion Becomes Evil.” John D. Caputo’s “What Would Jesus Deconstruct?” “Water Into Wine” by Tom Harpur and Neale Donald Walsch’s three books on “Conversations with God: an uncommon dialogue.” Historian and scholar, Reza Asian, has just published a new biography of Jesus, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth,” Professor Asian was born in Iran and grew up in America. He accepted Jesus as his savior in his teens. The book relates the author’s spiritual journey while understanding the peasants, priests, soldiers and their daily lives of Jesus’ Palestine. This biography seeks to separate the man from deity. I found the book an interesting read. It shares the epoch-making story through the writings of men who were there before, during and after Jesus. He says he wrote the book “in order to spread the good news of the Jesus of history with the same fervor that I once applied to spreading the story of the Christ.” “Ironically,” Asian writes, “the more I learned about the life of the historical Jesus, the turbulent world in which he lived, and brutality of the Roman occupation that he defied, the more I was drawn to him.” Reading this book and a couple of Tom Harpur’s books filled in a lot of gaps in my faith, hope and understanding of religion in general. These books increased my faith because of the honesty and enlightenment they brought. Harpur is a former columnist for the Toronto Star, an Anglican priest and a Rhodes scholar. Twenty-first century believers and unbelievers are questioning about Jesus, the Son of Man, just as they were from the beginning of his ministry. The first 300 years were filled with what we might call “denominations” today. Those with the historical-literalist approach won the battle of “views” and have been with us to this day. That could be one reason people are seeing little relevance in “church going” and want more than set-in-concrete, unquestioning blind observance in their faith: traditions, rituals, rites, demands, regulations, ceremonies and even “know-it-all” sermonizers. I began with a joke about guys starting a new religion. There is no reason to start a new religion, nor a new denomination. The world has more than enough of both. There are many reasons to grow up in our faith and know what we believe and why. Church-goers will find in spiritual growth the dimension that may be lacking. --30--

Are religious women still second-class? It has been, from time to time, a now and then concern of mine for the nuns, sometimes called sisters, of the Roman Catholic Church, whose headquarters in the Vatican, a suburb of Rome, Italy, do some of the finest work of any religion. All women in ministry in this devout organization continue to be second-class employees according to their own superiors. These women lovingly care for the sick, teach the young, and have never been accused of any form of child abuse. Last year the Vatican appointed an American bishop to rein in the largest group of Catholic nuns, saying that the sisters “had serious doctrinal problems.” (Laurie Goodstein, New York Times.) The nuns were reprimanded for publicly disagreeing with the American bishops – the Roman Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals. Being “a man of the cloth” once upon a time, all the religious doctrines, dogmas or traditional values, for me, have always been trumped by common sense. Common sense, which is anything but common, is seldom in the mix for religious leaders in Protestant and Catholic churches. This could be one of the reasons that religion is not making much of an impact on the present scene. Much of the good work the nuns do goes unnoticed, until long after they leave their “earth suit” for glories above, when they might be proclaimed a “Saint.” (But only if there are enough “miracles” credited to her ministry.) Women have been getting the blame for everything wrong since Adam, the coward, pointed to Eve and said: “The woman gave the forbidden fruit to me!” (The Roberts-Fisher song “Put The Blame on Mame, Boys” would be a good title for a book about the eternal plight of the so-called “weaker sex.”) Tis’ strange the Roman Catholics look askance at nuns while making much prayer to Mary, the mother of the historical Jesus. They cannot perform Mass. They take orders from priests, monsignors, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and papa, all of whom are men. On the web site CatholicEducation.org, Matthew Pinto writes: “Although the early Church allowed married clergy, the Church later came to see celibacy as a better example of the norm and model of Jesus’ priesthood.” (One thing Jesus never claimed was being a priest.) This Catholic website goes on to say: “Celibacy surely gains the Catholic clergy a hidden respect from many people.” The priesthood has been one of the most unfortunate inventions of the last 1000 years. They stand in for God; confession is to them; power grows as they “lead the flock.” In 306 A.D., the Council of Elvria decreed: “Bishops and other in ministry are to abstain completely from sexual intercourse with their wives. If anyone disobeys, he shall be removed from the clerical office.” The subject was violently debated for over 800 years until at the Second Lateran Council in the year 1139 sex and marriage was out for priests of the Roman Church. It was still a problem until 1322 when Pope John XXII decreed married men were forbidden from the priesthood. (Read the newspapers of the last 20 years for the results of such Middle Ages ignorance.) Sex has always been a “shameful” thing to Puritans and the Catholic male-dominated hierarchy. Why such fear? Who knows, possibly because a woman is involved? Which brings me back to why women in Roman Catholic society and culture are unworthy to lead? I thought I might have an answer to women being classified as lower than men, when most of them I have met remind me more of angels. Sometimes I think I can solve riddles, or problems, such as the saying: “Save America from Atheists (they are taking-over?); or “God Bless America” (why not the whole world?); or where did President Barack Obama find so many inept advisors? C.S. Lewis said in his book The Great Divorce: “A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and work it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.” --30--

March 8 Towery Fri. column, Bwd Bulletin & SA Standard-Times Child abuse more than a religious problem The world is getting a new pope. Pope Benedict XVI has resigned. He is the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415, seventy-seven years before Columbus “discovered” some Caribbean islands. The word Pope is from the Latin: papa, a child’s word for father. The Roman Catholic doctrine of Apostolic Succession claims the doctrine has its roots in the New Testament’s Simon Peter, the first pope. Actually there have been many popes who were disposed, coerced into resignation or abdicated (words apparently not applicable to Benedict XVI’s resignation last month). As reported, Joseph Ratzinger is now Pope emeritus, or just one of us pilgrims. The Vatican said his resignation was due to “Physical infirmity and advanced age.” There is much that could have influenced the pope to leave the power before his time. The Vatican ignored, as far back as 1975, reports sent to them on child abuse going on in some schools and parishes. Benedict knew of these complaints more than most. It had been his responsibly to handle those reports before he even became pope. But did nothing as far as we know. I personally understand why Benedict would yearn for an exit. He could have been the greatest of all the popes had he chosen the difficult and dangerous route of not just admitting and exposing, but rectifying the secrets hidden so many decades. I’ve created a musical idiom: Face the music by turning a mournful funeral drudge into a glorious new rhapsody. It was not until the 1990s that the tragic stories of abuse in American Roman Catholic churches became widely known. The bishops and various higher officials shielded priests accused of child abuse, then acted like Dick Nixon, franticly trying to cover it up. The cover-ups that followed were as bad, if not worse, than the sins committed on innocent children. And we need to note that abuse is not gender specific. Domestic abuse is far more common than in religions and/or churches. The institution of celibacy, is not as old at the Catholic Church. The custom began eleven hundred years after Jesus Christ was on earth. It is a pledge that requires the impossible of those who attempt it. “[Celibacy is] foolishness, even recklessness: of the way it warps the culture of the priesthood; of the unreasonable standard it sets.” (Frank Bruni, NYT, Feb. 25, 2013.) Back in 2007, Bob Allen wrote an article on ethicsdaily.com: “The Associated Press reported that three insurances companies receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by Protestant clergy.” Allen goes on to write that Protestant abuse has a higher annual average of “credible accusations” brought against Catholic clerics, as reported by the Catholic Church. These sex offenders are addicts. They are sick individuals and their crimes have nothing to do with religion. The beginning of the papacy has been shrouded in legend and a philosophy that depends on hearsay. The stories about a Galilean Jew named Simon Peter, a probably illiterate peasant fisherman, being the first pope is a tremendous reach. The legend came from wishful thinking and has never been documented. Claiming Peter died in Rome and the Vatican has his bones is amazing. (Additional questions for those interested: The infallibility of popes -- they are preserved from even the possibility of error. This was defined dogmatically 1,870 years after Simon Peter was fishing. The Immaculate Conception -- Jesus’ mother Mary was declared free of original sin by Pope Pius IX in 1854, making her a perpetual virgin. The New Testament does mention Jesus had brothers, not cousins.) Folks who disagree with this history do not know what they are talking about. For unique insight into this child abuse problem, see Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God.” --30--

March 8 Towery Fri. column, Bwd Bulletin & SA Standard-Times Child abuse more than a religious problem (648 words) The world is getting a new pope. Pope Benedict XVI has resigned. He is the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415, seventy-seven years before Columbus “discovered” some Caribbean islands. The word Pope is from the Latin: papa, a child’s word for father. The Roman Catholic doctrine of Apostolic Succession claims the doctrine has its roots in the New Testament’s Simon Peter, the first pope. Actually there have been many popes who were disposed, coerced into resignation or abdicated (words apparently not applicable to Benedict XVI’s resignation last month). As reported, Joseph Ratzinger is now Pope emeritus, or just one of us pilgrims. The Vatican said his resignation was due to “Physical infirmity and advanced age.” There is much that could have influenced the pope to leave the power before his time. The Vatican ignored, as far back as 1975, reports sent to them on child abuse going on in some schools and parishes. Benedict knew of these complaints more than most. It had been his responsibly to handle those reports before he even became pope. But did nothing as far as we know. I personally understand why Benedict would yearn for an exit. He could have been the greatest of all the popes had he chosen the difficult and dangerous route of not just admitting and exposing, but rectifying the secrets hidden so many decades. I’ve created a musical idiom: Face the music by turning a mournful funeral drudge into a glorious new rhapsody. It was not until the 1990s that the tragic stories of abuse in American Roman Catholic churches became widely known. The bishops and various higher officials shielded priests accused of child abuse, then acted like Dick Nixon, franticly trying to cover it up. The cover-ups that followed were as bad, if not worse, than the sins committed on innocent children. And we need to note that abuse is not gender specific. Domestic abuse is far more common than in religions and/or churches. The institution of celibacy, is not as old at the Catholic Church. The custom began eleven hundred years after Jesus Christ was on earth. It is a pledge that requires the impossible of those who attempt it. “[Celibacy is] foolishness, even recklessness: of the way it warps the culture of the priesthood; of the unreasonable standard it sets.” (Frank Bruni, NYT, Feb. 25, 2013.) Unfortunately Catholics are not alone in the seedy sin of sexually abusing innocent children. It is more rampant in Protestant church organizations than I ever imagined. Back in 2007, Bob Allen wrote an article on ethicsdaily.com: “The Associated Press reported that three insurances companies receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by Protestant clergy.” Allen goes on to write that Protestant abuse has a higher annual average of “credible accusations” brought against Catholic clerics, as reported by the Catholic Church. These sex offenders are addicts. They are sick individuals and their crimes have nothing to do with religion. The beginning of the papacy has been shrouded in legend and a philosophy that depends on hearsay. The stories about a Galilean Jew named Simon Peter, a probably illiterate peasant fisherman, being the first pope is a tremendous reach. The legend came from wishful thinking and has never been documented. Claiming Peter died in Rome and the Vatican has his bones is amazing. (Additional questions for those interested: The infallibility of popes -- they are preserved from even the possibility of error. This was defined dogmatically 1,870 years after Simon Peter was fishing. The Immaculate Conception -- Jesus’ mother Mary was declared free of original sin by Pope Pius IX in 1854, making her a perpetual virgin. The New Testament does mention Jesus had brothers, not cousins.) For unique insight into this child abuse problem, see Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God.” --30--