Today, my newspaper carried a story (Kuruvila, Matthai, “Why 53% of Americans have changed their faiths.” San Francisco CHRONICLE, 28 April, 2009, page A1) about how we Americans say we choose (or inherit) a religious affiliation, and how many of us change that choice.
• 28% of Americans have left their childhood religion through conversion or abandonment of institutional religion altogether.
• 25% may change religions, e.g., Protestant denominations, as they move, marry, and make other life changes. About 9% return to their original faith tradition.
• 16% of adult Americans – 1 in 6 – don’t affiliate with organized religion. About half of those – 1 in 12 -- who are former Christians, become unaffiliated because “they believe religious people are hypocritical, judgmental, or insincere.”
• More than 3/4 of those who change their religion do so by about age 24; and few change after age 50.
According to Kuruvila’s story, “Carlo Busby, co-owner of Sagrada Sacred Arts, an Oakland [CA] store that caters to spiritual exploration, ...[says]... people become more rooted in their own faith if they explore another tradition and realize that other traditions have developed similar responses and yearnings.”
I’m one of those who left my “childhood” religion (Protestant denomination) like many youngsters. And when I returned to religious institutions as an adult, I found another denomination. And later, still another. Meantime, I had seriously explored Catholicism and Judaism. Catholicism has the ritual trappings I found very attractive when I was younger. And Judaism has that feeling of permanence that comes with being both a faith tradition, and a way of living in a community which I had not found in Christianity.
Have you done something like this? Have you changed your affiliation because you’ve married into another, or because you’ve relocated, or because you’ve been “called” to another way?
Perhaps it’s only an artifact of my personal circle of friends, but I know only one person who converted into Judaism from Christianity, and that as a result of marriage. I have met one or two who have converted to Islam. I personally know no one who has left Islam or Judaism for Christianity. Yet, it’s easy at some level to understand how such conversions, or re-affiliations might happen.
Still, even those who leave organized religion altogether probably don’t really change their orientation, but only their outward “label.” They could be the ones seeking a “spiritual but not religious” experience. Of the many of us who stay but change our affiliation, we probably don’t change our basic faith. After all, the three Abrahamic faiths do share fundamental beliefs: God is all powerful. God is responsible for all circumstances. God will judge our actions during our lives, sending some souls to hell and others to heaven/paradise. We worship God when we care for one another. These basic things don’t change.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Endowments
Have you ever set up an endowment? Considered a planned giving program? People in Christian and Muslim (and other) societies have been giving charitable gifts since the beginnings of their faiths, at least because their belief systems taught them to give. Moreover, basic concern for less fortunate people would promote such giving in some people. Christians have always been taught to give, to help the poor and the needy. For example, see Luke 14:12-14, wherein we’re reminded that our rewards for giving to those in need are in heaven:
“When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors – for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death.”
Muslims too learn to give. Two citations in the Qur’an relate to this:
2:215: They ask you about giving: say, "The charity you give shall go to the parents, the relatives, the orphans, the poor, and the traveling alien." Any good you do, GOD is fully aware thereof.
and
9:60: Charities shall go to the poor, the needy, the workers who collect them, the new converts, to free the slaves, to those burdened by sudden expenses, in the cause of GOD, and to the traveling alien. Such is GOD's commandment. GOD is Omniscient, Most Wise.
Most of us, as individuals, give a little of what we have to others. We make donations, and contributions to favorite causes as memorials, celebrations, and as part of our daily routines. Some wealthy individuals might feel an obligation, resulting from their wealth, to give lavishly: Those who have much, have an obligation to give much.
I recently was given Amy Singer's book, CONSTRUCTING OTTOMAN BENEFICENCE: AN IMPERIAL SOUP KITCHEN IN JERUSALEM (SUNY Press, Albany: 2002), an interesting discussion of organized charity as it developed in Jerusalem in the 16th century. As a vehicle for giving, any person might establish a waqf, what we would call an “endowment.” The word means essentially that the item endowed is no longer available to sell or transfer in any other way. Singer discusses this process at length. These endowments would be established for pious purposes (those found in the Qur’an citations above). Basically, the person making the endowment must own the item being endowed and there must have no outstanding liabilities against the item. The item of property – it might be a building or a room, an orchard or a tree, a mill or a bath house, a slave, a horse, ...- would be put into service to generate income for the support of the beneficiary. Beneficiaries could be institutions and people, as named in the Qur’an.
Some other interesting facts:
• Cash endowments existed in the Ottoman society. Contrary to teachings of the Qur’an, cash endowments could earn interest. However, these were not allowed in Arabic – speaking societies.
• Christians and Jews could establish endowments too in the Ottoman society.
• A manager of the endowment was responsible to ensure the productivity of the endowment. He oversaw upkeep, repair, etc.
• Endowments stipulated that when the beneficiaries expired the revenues and remaining value would go to the poor. As Jesus said to Mary, “The poor are always with you.”
Next time you see a “planned giving” symposium set up for your congregation, take a moment to consider just how long people of faith have been giving, and sharing their wealth and property with others in need.
“When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors – for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death.”
Muslims too learn to give. Two citations in the Qur’an relate to this:
2:215: They ask you about giving: say, "The charity you give shall go to the parents, the relatives, the orphans, the poor, and the traveling alien." Any good you do, GOD is fully aware thereof.
and
9:60: Charities shall go to the poor, the needy, the workers who collect them, the new converts, to free the slaves, to those burdened by sudden expenses, in the cause of GOD, and to the traveling alien. Such is GOD's commandment. GOD is Omniscient, Most Wise.
Most of us, as individuals, give a little of what we have to others. We make donations, and contributions to favorite causes as memorials, celebrations, and as part of our daily routines. Some wealthy individuals might feel an obligation, resulting from their wealth, to give lavishly: Those who have much, have an obligation to give much.
I recently was given Amy Singer's book, CONSTRUCTING OTTOMAN BENEFICENCE: AN IMPERIAL SOUP KITCHEN IN JERUSALEM (SUNY Press, Albany: 2002), an interesting discussion of organized charity as it developed in Jerusalem in the 16th century. As a vehicle for giving, any person might establish a waqf, what we would call an “endowment.” The word means essentially that the item endowed is no longer available to sell or transfer in any other way. Singer discusses this process at length. These endowments would be established for pious purposes (those found in the Qur’an citations above). Basically, the person making the endowment must own the item being endowed and there must have no outstanding liabilities against the item. The item of property – it might be a building or a room, an orchard or a tree, a mill or a bath house, a slave, a horse, ...- would be put into service to generate income for the support of the beneficiary. Beneficiaries could be institutions and people, as named in the Qur’an.
Some other interesting facts:
• Cash endowments existed in the Ottoman society. Contrary to teachings of the Qur’an, cash endowments could earn interest. However, these were not allowed in Arabic – speaking societies.
• Christians and Jews could establish endowments too in the Ottoman society.
• A manager of the endowment was responsible to ensure the productivity of the endowment. He oversaw upkeep, repair, etc.
• Endowments stipulated that when the beneficiaries expired the revenues and remaining value would go to the poor. As Jesus said to Mary, “The poor are always with you.”
Next time you see a “planned giving” symposium set up for your congregation, take a moment to consider just how long people of faith have been giving, and sharing their wealth and property with others in need.
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