Religion

Can AI Really Be Replacing Your Priest, Minister, Rabbi Or Imam?

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

AI, Religion, TECHNOLOGY

Can AI Really Be Replacing Your Priest, Minister, Rabbi Or Imam?

AI won’t be replacing your priest, minister, rabbi or imam any time soon. Early in the summer of 2023, robots projected on a screen delivered sermons to about 300 congregants at St. Paul’s Church in Bavaria, Germany. Created by ChatGPT and Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna, the experimental church service drew immense interest. The deadpan sermon delivery prompted many to doubt whether AI can really displace priests and pastoral instruction. At the end of the service, an attendee remarked, “There was no heart and no soul.” But the growing use of AI may prompt more churches to debut AI-generated worship services. A church in Austin, Texas, for example, has put a banner out advertising a service with an AI-generated sermon. The church worship will...

Nichiren Buddhism — How The Practice Sustained Tina Turner For 50 years

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion, VIDEO REELS

Nichiren Buddhism — How The Practice Sustained Tina Turner For 50 years

How the practice of Nichiren Buddhism sustained Tina Turner for 50 years. When Tina Turner, often dubbed the “Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll,” died at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, on May 24, 2023, at the age of 83, media headlines praised both her dynamism as a performer and her many career achievements. What many did not know is that for the past 50 years Turner had practiced Soka Gakkai International Nichiren Buddhism. Soka Gakkai is a lay Nichiren Buddhist organization that was founded in Japan in 1930. Today, the international organization is known as Soka Gakkai International, or SGI. This form of Buddhism was popularized in the United States through the organization known today as SGI-USA. Turner was introduced to the organization by Valerie Bishop, a woman whom her first husband, mus...

MLK Jr. Had A More Radical Message Than A Dream Of Racial Brotherhood

17Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion

MLK Jr. Had A More Radical Message Than A Dream Of Racial Brotherhood

Martin Luther King Jr. has come to be revered as a hero who led a nonviolent struggle to reform and redeem the United States. His birthday is celebrated as a national holiday. Tributes are paid to him on his death anniversary each April, and his legacy is honored in multiple ways. But from my perspective as a historian of religion and civil rights, the true radicalism of his thought remains underappreciated. The “civil saint” portrayed nowadays was, by the end of his life, a social and economic radical, who argued forcefully for the necessity of economic justice in the pursuit of racial equality. Three particular works from 1957 to 1967 illustrate how King’s political thought evolved from a hopeful reformer to a radical critic. King’s support for white moderates For much of the 1950s, Ki...

About The Byzantine Empire – White Supremacists And QAnon Enthusiasts Are Obsessed – But Very Wrong

5Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion

About The Byzantine Empire – White Supremacists And QAnon Enthusiasts Are Obsessed – But Very Wrong

From Charlottesville to the Capitol, medieval imagery has been repeatedly on show at far-right rallies and riots in recent years. Displays of Crusader shields and tattoos derived from Norse and Celtic symbols are of little surprise to medieval historians like me who have long documented the appropriation of the Middle Ages by today’s far right. But amid all the expected Viking imagery and nods to the Crusaders has been another dormant “medievalism” that has yet to be fully acknowledged in reporting on both the far right and conspiracy theorist movements: the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium – or more properly, the medieval Roman Empire – controlled much of the Mediterranean at the height of its territorial rule in the mid-sixth century. Centered in modern-day Istanbul from A.D. 330 to 1453, ...

Black Churches In Philadelphia Overcame Disease, Depression And Civil Strife

24Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion

Black Churches In Philadelphia Overcame Disease, Depression And Civil Strife

The Black Church is an institution that was forged in crises. Through slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation and the civil rights era, the network of places of worship serving traditionally Black congregations has seen its fair share of traumatic events. In 2016, the Rev. Robert Franklin, former president of Morehouse College, acknowledged as much in a speech on urban ministries: “Disruption is the question, but the radical love ethic of Jesus is the response.” And that was before 2020 delivered the COVID-19 pandemic, the related economic crisis and the global movement for Black Lives – forcing Black churches to find new ways to worship and serve their communities. As a scholar who looks at how the Black Church engages with the community, I believe looking at how the institution ...

Biden Revives Plan To Put A Black Woman Of Faith On The $20 Bill

27Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion

Biden Revives Plan To Put A Black Woman Of Faith On The $20 Bill

The Biden administration has revived a plan to put Harriet Tubman on the US$20 bill after Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary delayed the move. That’s encouraging news to the millions of people who have expressed support for putting her face on the bill. But many still aren’t familiar with the story of Tubman’s life, which was chronicled in a 2019 film, “Harriet.” Harriet Tubman worked as a slave, spy and eventually an abolitionist. What I find most fascinating, as a historian of American slavery, is how her belief in God helped Tubman remain fearless, even when she came face to face with many challenges. Tubman’s early life Tubman was born Araminta Ross in 1822 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. When interviewed later in life, Tubman said she started working as a housemaid when she was 5. ...

In Atlanta The Ebenezer Baptist Church Has Been A Seat Of Black Power For Generations

18Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion

In Atlanta The Ebenezer Baptist Church Has Been A Seat Of Black Power For Generations

The high-stakes U.S. Senate race in Georgia catapulted the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church back into the spotlight. For 135 years, the church played a vital role in the fight against racism and the civil rights movement. It was the spiritual home of the civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It is now the home of the state’s first Black senator – the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at the church. As a scholar of African American religion and Christian theology, I believe it is important to understand how the Ebenezer Baptist Church has been a seat of Black power and organizing for generations in Atlanta. ‘Stone of help’ Ebenezer Baptist Church, a predominantly African American congregation, was founded in 1886, nearly 20 years after the end of the Civil War. The pa...

Feeling Equal Empathy For Strangers And Family Alike And The Morality Of It All

23Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion

Feeling Equal Empathy For Strangers And Family Alike And The Morality Of It All

The year 2020 has been no stranger to suffering. In the midst of a global pandemic, widespread financial hardship and violence arising from systemic racism, empathy for others’ suffering has been pushed to the front and center in U.S. society. As society grapples to find its moral compass in a time of such hardship and strife, a critical question emerges: Whose suffering should one care about? When you ponder who is worth feeling empathy for, friends, family members and children might come to mind. But what about strangers, or people not connected to you through nationality, social status or race? As cognitive scientists, we wanted to understand what moral beliefs people hold about empathy and how these beliefs may shift depending on whom someone is feeling empathy for. Empathy as a for...

For More Than 60 Years The Black Church Has Been Getting ‘Souls To The Polls’

30Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, Religion

For More Than 60 Years The Black Church Has Been Getting ‘Souls To The Polls’

At Black churches up and down the U.S., religious slogans have been supplanted with another message in the run up to Nov. 3: Vote! The landscape of the 2020 general election has been dotted with efforts by the Black Church – churches that have traditionally had predominantly African American congregation – to encourage voter registration, mobilization and protect against efforts to suppress the vote. Under slogans including “Souls to the Polls,” “AME Voter Alert” and “COGIC Counts,” Black denominations and national bodies such as the Conference of National Black Churches have partnered with civil rights organizations including the NAACP in a concerted effort to increase voter turnout among African Americans. The push comes amid deliberate tactics to make it harder for Black and Latino A...

Far from being anti-religious, faith and spirituality run deep in Black Lives Matter

14Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion

Far from being anti-religious, faith and spirituality run deep in Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matters (BLM) has been portrayed by its detractors as many things: Marxist, radical, anti-American. Added to this growing list of charges is that it is either irreligious or doing religion wrong. In late July, for instance, conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan tweeted that BLM was “incompatible” with Christianity. He isn’t alone in that belief. Despite receiving the backing of diverse faith leaders and groups, BLM has been attacked by sections of the religious right. One evangelical institution felt compelled to issue a statement warning Christians about the movement’s “Godless agenda.” Other evangelicals have gone further, accusing BLM founders of being “witches” and “operating in the demonic realm.” Joining conservative Christians are some self-proclaimed liberals and ...