{"id":45,"date":"2010-05-03T10:43:10","date_gmt":"2010-05-03T10:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/05\/religions-summer-of-discontent.html"},"modified":"2010-05-03T10:43:10","modified_gmt":"2010-05-03T10:43:10","slug":"religions-summer-of-discontent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/05\/religions-summer-of-discontent.htm","title":{"rendered":"Religion’s Summer of Discontent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Word on the street is that the bomb placed in Times Square, near the<\/span><\/div>\n
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headquarters of Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, may be in response to a South Park episode that portrayed the prophet Muhammad in a bear costume. If true, and some fanatical Muslims believe that people ought to die because of a couple of jokes on a TV show, then it’s another nail in the coffin of the public’s respect for the usefulness of religion.<\/span><\/p>\n


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Indeed, this is religion’s summer of discontent. Humankind’s most<\/span><\/div>\n
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powerful impulse, to approach the divine, is being undermined by the
\ndirectionlessness of today’s great faiths. From ongoing violence in the name of Islam, which is the most serious of all modern religious sins, to priestly
\npedophilia, to the evangelical fixation on gay marriage to the near exclusion
\nof everything else, to Judaism’s impotence in purging materialism from its
\ncommunity, mainstream religion is being discredited, becoming increasingly
\nirrelevant to the lives of modern men and women.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main reason for the deterioration of modern faith is not its sins
\nof commission, but its sins of omission. People can forgive scandal in religion
\nso long as, the rest of the time, religion guides and inspires them. But
\nsecular people today see religion’s main goal today as self-perpetuation, more
\nconcerned with its timeless institutions than with the pressing needs of its
\nflock.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week I met with Pope Benedict in Rome after his Wednesday
\naudience, arranged by Gary Krupp of the Pave the Way Foundation. The substance
\nof the meeting received significant media play because of what I asked of the
\nPope. In essence, I pressed the pontiff, who graciously received me, to join in
\ncreating a global family dinner night on Fridays, something we have already
\nbegun with our ‘Turn Friday Night Into Family Night’ initiative. I presented
\nthe Pope with a dual-time Phillip Stein watch and told him it was set to the
\ntime zones of Rome and Jerusalem, signifying my desire to have him focus on
\nIsrael and the threat the Jewish people face from Iran who, with openly seek to
\nwipe Israel off the map. And second, the dual clock face is symbolic of my
\nrequest that he take the lead in our global campaign by calling upon all the
\nworld’s parents to give their children two uninterrupted hours every Friday
\nnight, inviting two guests, and discussing two important subjects with their
\nchildren.<\/span><\/p>\n

He nodded his assent and repeated twice, ‘We will work together.’<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

When the papal meeting was over we met with Walter Cardinal Casper,
\nPresident of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. I continued my pitch,
\nnow with the Cardinal, for the importance of the worldwide Church partnering
\nwith us to create an international family dinner night. The Cardinal, a close
\nfriend of Pope Benedict for more than forty years, strongly endorsed the idea
\nand related his memories of family dinners with his own parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

I made the case to the Cardinal that the pedophile priest scandal had
\nsignificantly undermined the Church’s standing as a champion of family. Many
\ninfluential American commentators were now skewering the Church for being an
\nall-boys club, run by men who do not marry and who had, in the imagination of
\nsome, been prepared to sacrifice the welfare of children in order to protect the
\nreputation of the Church. What better way to reverse this perception than to
\nuse the full power and reputation of the Church to address children’s core
\nneeds, namely, receiving the love and attention of parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Would this not be a new and positive narrative of the Catholic Church
\nas a champion of family, giving productive and useful advice as to how to
\nreinvigorate the parent-child bond?<\/span><\/p>\n

There are two kinds of children. One who receives time and love from
\ntheir parent as a gift, and the other who receives it, if at all, as something
\nthat must be earned. The former grows up steady and sturdy like a cedar,
\nfortified by the ongoing validation given to him by doting parents. The other
\nbecomes a crowd-pleaser, riddled with insecurities, always feeling that there
\nis nothing especially worthy about him and that he needs to perform and produce
\nin order to become special. I asked the Cardinal to help us populate the world
\nwith the first kind of child.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within the Vatican hierarchy I encountered priests who were all-too-eager
\nto discuss the current controversies facing the Church and who understood the
\nneed for the Church to re-emerge as a global champion of family. With the
\nChurch operating the world’s largest network of schools, hospitals, and
\norphanages, it is crucial that it also reach everyday mothers and fathers who
\nare struggling to raise purposeful children in a world that celebrates
\nnarcissism and fame.<\/span><\/p>\n

For many people religion offers ritual but no wisdom, dogma but
\npractically no self-help. And all the splendors of the Vatican will not save
\nthe Church from being anything other than a wonderful tourist destination if it
\ndoesn’t take the initiative and teach people to master life.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The irrelevance of modern religion is something being felt worldwide.
\nEuropeans especially have no time for religion. Secular Israelis feel the same.
\nReligion for them is a form of OCD, forever concerned with meaningless minutiae
\nwhile life’s larger issues remain unaddressed. In Israel religion is viewed as
\na parasite, living off the hard work of the secular people who built the state.
\nReligion is the Yeshiva which teaches meaningless texts while refusing to serve
\nin the army.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if religion is inevitably destined to be consigned by modern
\nWesterners to the ranks of the useless, then why are sophisticated and highly
\neducated people turning in their tens of millions to the Dalai Lama as their
\nhero? It remains a striking phenomenon that people who work on Wall Street and
\ngo to Harvard believe in a man who dresses in a sheet and believes he is the
\nincarnation of earlier spiritual teachers. The reason: the Dalai Lama addresses
\nmodernity’s greatest problem. We’re sinking in a morass of materialism that is
\nsuffocating our spirit and he shows you the way out.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pope has the largest microphone to the world and with it the
\ngreatest opportunity to heal marriages which are struggling to remain intact
\nand children who are in pain over lovelessness and neglect. An international
\nfamily dinner night would be a huge step toward religion becoming vital again
\nand toward the Catholic Church being seen in its true light, as a faith that is
\nfocused on protecting children and cherishing family.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is founder of This World: The Values Network. On
\nMay 14<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> he will publish Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life. Go to www.fridayisfamily.com<\/span><\/a>
\nto sign up your family as part of a global dinner initiative.<\/span><\/p>\n

–
\n– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/span><\/p>\n

*Follow
\nShmuley on TWITTER!  http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/RabbiShmuley<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

*Shmuley’s
\non Facebook! http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/facebook-shmuley<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

*Buy
\nRabbi Shmuley’s newest book THE KOSHER SUTRA at  http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/koshersutra<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

*Join
\nthe national “Turn Friday Night Into Family Night” initiative.
\n Go to www.FridayisFamily.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

*See
\nShmuley on the web at www.Shmuley.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>Terri Kayden<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
Director of Communications for Rabbi Shmuley<\/div>\n
201-221-3333 (office)<\/div>\n
845-709-0711 (cell)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word on the street is that the bomb placed in Times Square, near the headquarters of Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, may be in response to a South Park episode that portrayed the prophet Muhammad in a bear costume. 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