tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/sacred-22752/articlesSacred – The Conversation2024-03-27T12:37:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259652024-03-27T12:37:57Z2024-03-27T12:37:57ZEaster 2024 in the Holy Land: a holiday marked by Palestinian Christian sorrow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584385/original/file-20240326-22-4jhbih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C51%2C5604%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus Christ.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansEaster/d33a91bd48b94dd7b7cae10a29bdeef0/photo?Query=%20Church%20of%20the%20Holy%20Sepulchre%20easter&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=901&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=29&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, Christians from across the world visit Jerusalem for Easter week, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/following-jesuss-steps-millions-christians-via-dolorosa-walking-wrong-way">walking the Via Dolorosa</a>, the path Jesus is said to have walked on the way to his crucifixion over 2,000 years ago. Easter is the holiest of days, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Holy-Sepulchre">Church of the Holy Sepulchre</a>, the site where Jesus is believed to have died, is one of the most sacred sites for Christians.</p>
<p>But not all Christians have equal access to these sites. If you are a Christian Palestinian living in the city of Bethlehem or Ramallah hoping to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem, you have to <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240325-israel-bans-palestinian-christians-from-jerusalem-on-palm-sunday/">request permission from Israeli authorities</a> well before Christmas – without guarantee that it will be granted. Those were the rules even before Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-latest-02-28-2024-5fb126981031984395a228598fa9e4a9">launched an attack on southern Israel</a>. The Israeli response to the Hamas attack has resulted in even more <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/11/middleeast/west-bank-restrictions-violence-intl-cmd/index.html">severe restrictions on freedom of movement</a> for Palestinians in the West Bank.</p>
<p>The site where the Bible says Jesus was born, in Bethlehem, and the place he died, in Jerusalem, are only about six miles apart. Google Maps indicates the drive takes about 20 minutes but carries a warning: “<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Church+of+the+Nativity,+P635%2BP2C,+Bethlehem+Territory/Church+of+the+Holy+Sepulchre,+Jerusalem/@31.7444436,35.1267403,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x1502d87be687c8f9:0xd060c37bd524261c!2m2!1d35.2075288!2d31.7043034!1m5!1m1!1s0x150329cf1c246db5:0x2d04a75cfc390360!2m2!1d35.2296002!2d31.7784813!3e0?entry=ttu">This route may cross country borders</a>.” That is because Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, which is under Israeli military occupation, whereas <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/22/how-does-israels-occupation-of-palestine-work#:%7E:text=Israel%20occupied%20the%20West%20Bank,were%20the%20capital%20of%20Israel">Jerusalem is under direct Israeli control</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/justicestudies/about-us/directory/abusaad-roni.php">human rights scholar</a> and Christian Palestinian who grew up in Bethlehem, I have many fond memories of Easter, which is a special time of gathering and celebration for Christian Palestinians. But I also saw firsthand how the military occupation has denied Palestinians basic human rights, including religious rights.</p>
<h2>A season of celebration</h2>
<p>Traditionally, Palestinian families and friends exchange visits, offering coffee, tea and a cookie stuffed with dates called “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/11/522771745/maamoul-an-ancient-cookie-that-ushers-in-easter-and-eid-in-the-middle-east">maamoul</a>,” which is made only at Easter. A favorite tradition, especially for children, is taking a colorfully dyed hard-boiled egg in one hand and cracking it against an egg held by a friend. The breaking of the egg symbolizes the rise of Jesus from the tomb, the end of sorrow and the ultimate defeat of death itself and purification of human sins.</p>
<p>For Orthodox Christians, one of the most sacred rites of the year is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Holy-Fire">Holy Fire</a>. On the day before Orthodox Easter, thousands of pilgrims and local Christian Palestinians of all denominations gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Greek and Armenian patriarchs enter the enclosure of the tomb in which Jesus was said to have been buried and pray inside. Those inside have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IpyPCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT285&lpg=PT285&dq=%22From+the+core+of+the+very+stone+on+which+Jesus+lay+an+indefinable+light+pours+forth.+It+usually+has+a+blue+tint,+but+the+color+may+change+and+take+many+different+hues.+It+cannot+be+described+in+human+terms.+The+light+rises+out+of+the+stone+as+mist+may+rise+out+of+a+lake+%E2%80%94+it+almost+looks+as+if+the+stone+is+covered+by+a+moist+cloud,+but+it+is+light.&source=bl&ots=l47MXGss14&sig=ACfU3U3c3GuHU35fJ_j6Uxpnf8zITGO9gA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiW4d74n5KFAxVGCTQIHUNrAgsQ6AF6BAhKEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false">reported</a> that a blue light rises from the stone where Jesus lay, and forms into a flame. The patriarch lights candles from the flame, passing the fire from candle to candle among the thousands assembled in the church. </p>
<p>That same day, delegations representing Eastern Orthodox countries carry the flame in lanterns to their home countries via <a href="https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/aircraft-fleet-brings-easter-holy-fire-to-orthodox-communities">chartered planes</a> to be presented in cathedrals in time for the Easter service. Palestinians also carry the flame using lanterns to homes and churches in the West Bank.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cMlvI5-Ah00?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Christians celebrate the Holy Fire under Israeli restrictions in 2023.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Deep roots in the Holy Land</h2>
<p>Palestinian Christians <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/Sociology-of-early-Palestinian-Christianity/oclc/3609025">trace their ancestry</a> to the time of Jesus and Christianity’s founding in the region. Many <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9781">churches and monasteries</a> flourished in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other Palestinian towns under Byzantine and Roman rule. Throughout this period and into the modern day, Christians, Muslims and Jews <a href="https://www.iis.ac.uk/learning-centre/scholarly-contributions/academic-articles/muslim-jews-and-christians-relations-and-interactions/">lived side by side in the region</a>. </p>
<p>With the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, the <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/decline-of-eastern-christianity-under-islam-from-jihad-to-dhimmitude-seventh-twentieth-century/oclc/33276531">majority of Christians gradually converted to Islam</a>. However, the remaining Christian minority persisted in practicing their religion and traditions, including through the rule of the Ottoman empire, from 1516 to 1922, and to the present day.</p>
<p>The establishment of Israel in 1948 led to the expulsion of <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=17079">750,000 Palestinians, over 80% of the population</a>, which is referred to by Palestinians as the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">nakba,” or the catastrophe</a>. Hundreds of thousands became refugees throughout the world, including many Christians.</p>
<p>Christians accounted for about <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-204267/">10% of the population in 1920</a> but <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/#people-and-society">constitute just 1% to 2.5%</a> of Palestinians in the West Bank as of 2024, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25112">because of emigration</a>. Christians in the West Bank belong to multiple denominations, including Greek Orthodox, Catholic and various Protestant denominations.</p>
<p>Thousands of Palestinians rely on the pilgrims and tourists who come to Bethlehem every year for their livelihoods. Two million people visit Bethlehem annually, and more than <a href="https://www.bethlehem-city.org/en/the-city-economy">20% of local workers are employed in tourism</a>. Another important local industry is carved olive wood handicrafts. In 2004, the mayor of Beit Jala, which borders the city of Bethlehem, estimated <a href="https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/Beth_Rep_Dec04.pdf">200 families in the area</a> made their living from carving olive wood. Christians around the world have <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/christmas-journey-olive-orchard-nativity-180326957.html">olive wood nativity sets</a> or crosses carved by Palestinian artisans, a tradition that has been passed down through generations.</p>
<h2>Impact of the occupation</h2>
<p>The neighborhoods of the occupied West Bank have been fragmented by the building of over 145 illegal Israeli settlements. Both Christian and Muslim Palestinians face huge barriers to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jsa.2019.0003">accessing holy sites in Jerusalem</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men wearing long green garbs walk in a procession and one in the center holds a tall crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Israeli policeman stands guard during a March 1997 procession of Franciscan monks led by traditionally dressed guards coming out of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MIDEASTJERUSALEMEASTER/95dacad9cce0da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=%20bethlehem%20holy%20week%20guards&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=733&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=0&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Peter Dejong</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bethlehem is encircled by several Jewish-only settlements, as well as the <a href="https://pij.org/articles/1042/the-impact-of-the-separation-wall-on-jerusalem">separation wall</a> built in the 2000s, which snakes around and across the city. Across the West Bank, over 500 checkpoints and bypass roads designed to connect settlements have been built on Palestinian lands for the exclusive use of settlers. As of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-02-02/israeli-settler-population-west-bank-surpasses-500000">Jan. 1, 2023</a>, there were over half a million settlers in the West Bank and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The highways and bypass roads cut through the middle of towns and separate families. It is a system that former <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2007.tb01647.x">President Jimmy Carter</a> and numerous human rights groups have described as “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-jerusalem-israel-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-83b44a2f6b2b3581d857f57fb6960115">apartheid</a>.” This system severely restricts freedom of movement and separates students from schools, patients from hospitals, farmers from their lands and worshipers from their churches or mosques. </p>
<p>Additionally, Palestinians have a different license plate color on their cars. They can’t use their vehicles to access <a href="https://apnews.com/article/a0c47ad493fb4b31a444bfe432194f2e">private roads</a>, which restricts their access to Jerusalem or Israel.</p>
<p>Going far beyond separate roads, Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to a separate legal system – a military judicial system – whereas Israeli settlers living in the West Bank have a civilian court system. This <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/">system</a> allows indefinite detention of Palestinians without charge or trial based on secret evidence. All of these restrictions on freedom of movement disrupt the ability of Palestinians of all faiths to visit holy sites and gather for religious observances.</p>
<h2>Prayers for peace</h2>
<p>The barriers to celebrating Easter, especially this year, are not just physical but emotional and spiritual. </p>
<p>As of March 25, 2024, the number of <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/health-ministry-in-hamas-run-gaza-says-war-death-toll-at-32-333-fd31aa61">Gazans killed in the war had surpassed 32,000</a> – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234159514/gaza-death-toll-30000-palestinians-israel-hamas-war">70% of them women and children</a>, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/22/israel-arrested-over-7350-west-bank-palestinians-since-war-on-gaza-began">arrested 7,350 people in the West Bank</a>, with over 9,000 currently in detention, up from 5,200 who were in Israeli prisons before Oct. 7, 2023. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/palestinian-christians-and-muslims-have-lived-together-in-the-region-for-centuries-and-several-were-killed-recently-while-sheltering-in-the-historic-church-of-saint-porphyrius-216335">Israel bombed the world’s third oldest church</a>, St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, in Gaza in October 2023, killing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/20/gaza-church-strike-saint-porphyrius/">18 of the more than 400 people</a> sheltering there.</p>
<p>Christian Palestinians in the West Bank <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/15/bethlehem-cancels-christmas-display-martyrs-israel-hamas/">suspended celebrations</a> for Christmas in 2023 in hopes of bringing more attention to the death and suffering in Gaza. But the situation has only worsened. An estimated <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unrwa-situation-report-82-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem-all-information-22-24-february-2024-valid-24-february-2024-2230-enar">1.7 million Gazans</a> – over 75% of the population – had been displaced as of March 2024, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/middleeast/famine-northern-gaza-starvation-ipc-report-intl-hnk/index.html">half of them on the verge of famine</a>.</p>
<p>Many Palestinians have long turned to their faith to endure the occupation and have found <a href="https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.70464">solace in prayer</a>. That faith has allowed many to hold on to the hope that the occupation will end and the Holy Land will be the place of peace and coexistence that it once was. Perhaps that is when, for many, Easter celebrations will be truly joyful again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roni Abusaad, PhD does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Christian Palestinian human rights scholar who grew up in Bethlehem writes about the special time of Easter, but also about the restrictions on Palestinian Christians.Roni Abusaad, PhD, Lecturer, San José State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251522024-03-11T12:24:50Z2024-03-11T12:24:50ZRamadan will be difficult for those in Gaza or other war zones – what does fasting mean for those who might be already starving?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580797/original/file-20240309-20-1w4qtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C11%2C3730%2C2144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinians gather at the area where aid was distributed in Gaza City on Feb. 19, 2024.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-struggling-with-hunger-gather-at-the-area-news-photo/2015671793">Karam Hassan/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ramadan in the Gaza Strip this year will be anything but “normal.” </p>
<p>Malnutrition and disease are claiming dozens of lives. The Gaza Health Ministry said on March 6, 2024, that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/famine-gaza-hunger-israel-hamas-war-rcna141891">at least 20 people had died</a> of malnutrition. Many others, it said, were “dying silently,” unable to reach medical facilities.</p>
<p>According to humanitarian organizations, the proportion of people in Gaza deprived of food <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/06/colleagues-starvation-gaza-no-precedent-famine">exceeds any other place in the world</a>. </p>
<p>What meaning can the holy month’s fast have for those who have nothing to eat? </p>
<h2>Ramadan and the Quran</h2>
<p>Fasting in Islam requires believers to abstain from certain acts that are necessary for sustaining life – mainly eating, drinking and sexual – from dawn to dusk. But it is not just about food. It also requires that people abstain from lying or criticizing others behind their backs. </p>
<p>Muslims access “the sacred” primarily through the Quran, which is recited collectively from cover to cover in <a href="https://gulfnews.com/uae/ramadan/ramadan-2023-all-you-need-to-know-about-taraweeh-prayers---when-why-and-how-to-perform-it-1.1618320387277">communal night nighttime vigils during Ramadan</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://keough.nd.edu/people/mahan-mirza/">As a scholar of Islam</a> and as a practicing Muslim, I often think of how Islamic scripture describes the purpose of this sacred month. “Fasting is prescribed to you,” <a href="https://quran.com/2/183">says the Quran</a>, “that ye may learn self-restraint.”
The revelation of the Quran to Muhammad commenced in Ramadan, and Muslims take this time of the year to renew their connection to God’s words. </p>
<p>Fasting in Ramadan was prescribed in 624 C.E., the second year of Islam. This was shortly after the Prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Mecca to Medina in today’s Saudi Arabia to escape persecution. This episode, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Hijrah-Islam">known as the Hijra</a>, came to mark the first year of the Islamic calendar. </p>
<p>While Muslims may fast voluntarily throughout the year, it is mandatory in the month of Ramadan. Sick or pregnant people, as well as travelers, must make up missed days. The chronically ill or elderly must make amends by feeding others. </p>
<p>Fasting in Ramadan is believed to rejuvenate spiritual strength. The <a href="https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1690">Prophet Muhammad said</a> the mere ritual of fasting without inner transformation results in nothing but hunger.</p>
<p>“Goodness does not consist in your turning your face towards East or West,” <a href="https://quran.com/2/177">the Quran cautions</a>, in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/qiblah">reference to the orientation</a> that is required in ritual prayer. Rather, goodness consists in caring for the neighbor and stranger. These are principles that <a href="https://www.acommonword.com/the-acw-document/">all religions have in common</a>. </p>
<h2>Ramadan and charity</h2>
<p>In Muslim culture, Ramadan is experienced primarily as a month of prayer, ascetic practice, family life and generosity. A select few engage in a practice known as “<a href="https://www.zakat.org/on-ritual-retreat-itikaf">i’tikaf</a>,” a voluntary retreat in partial seclusion at the mosque, typically during the last few days and nights. </p>
<p>A highlight of Ramadan is increased acts of charity and the feeding of others. Many mosques offer meals, which is believed to be an act of particular virtue at sunset to facilitate breaking of the fast, at this time of the year. Muslims often pay their <a href="https://www.muslimaid.org/what-we-do/religious-dues/ramadan/zakat-facts/">annual mandatory alms known as zakat</a> during Ramadan in order to reap the special rewards of this month. </p>
<p>Islamic educational and humanitarian organizations increase their appeals for donations every year in Ramadan, and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2022/apr/11/ramadan-2022-around-the-world-in-pictures">rhythm of life in Muslim communities transforms</a> with pre-dawn family meals, lazy mornings, working afternoons and communal feasts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several children and adults share a meal while being seated in a circle on the floor where a number of dishes are placed in the center." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580575/original/file-20240307-28-ap9at8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A family living in a tent breaks their fast during Ramadan 2021 in Deir Al Balah, a city in Gaza, on April 19, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tawfik-al-akraa-and-his-family-are-seen-during-the-iftar-news-photo/1232406941?adppopup=true">Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ramadan in Gaza</h2>
<p>The meaning of Ramadan in a war zone is poignant for Muslims who are suffering directly. War is neither prescribed nor prohibited during Ramadan. <a href="https://sunnah.com/abudawud:2406">Muhammad urged</a> his troops to break the fast when entering into battle in order to preserve their strength. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Badr">Battle of Badr</a>, the first of many military confrontations under Muhammad’s command, which became a turning point in early Islamic history, took place in Ramadan. </p>
<p>For those who witness that suffering on screens from the comfort of their homes, the question of moral responsibility still remains. Muslims who seek to fulfill <a href="https://quran.com/2/3">God’s command</a> are “to spend out of what God has provided for them” in worthy charitable causes in Ramadan. Many of them will ask what more could be done to feed the hungriest of hungry in the world, who are <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/80-of-world-s-hungriest-people-live-in-gaza-palestine/3156190">now in Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>Religions help us come to terms with our mortality. They help us make sense of life beyond this life. In a time of war and famine, when death is near, <a href="https://quran.com/50/16">Ramadan can remind us that God is nearer</a>: “closer than the jugular vein.”</p>
<p>For countless innocent victims of all ages and every gender who are breathing their last – in the direst of circumstances and the deepest of anguish – this thought can be a source of solace, if not joy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mahan Mirza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ramadan encourages acts of charity. This also poses a question for many Muslims as they consider what more could be done to feed the hungriest in the world, many of whom are in Gaza.Mahan Mirza, Executive Director, Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, and Teaching Professor of Teaching Professor of Islam and Global Affairs, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213992024-02-13T13:22:45Z2024-02-13T13:22:45ZWhy having human remains land on the Moon poses difficult questions for members of several religions<p>Sending human remains to the Moon on the first commercial lunar lander, Peregrine 1, on Jan. 8, 2024, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-remains-are-headed-to-the-moon-despite-objections/">along with scientific instruments</a>, caused a controversy.</p>
<p>Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, objected, saying that “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/05/world/peregrine-moon-mission-navajo-nation-objection-human-remains-scn/index.html">the moon holds a sacred place</a>” in Navajo and other tribal traditions and should not be defiled in this way. The inside of the lander was to be a kind of “<a href="https://elysiumspace.com/">space burial</a>” for remains of some 70 people. Each of the families had <a href="https://www.celestis.com/experiences-pricing/">paid over US$12,000 for a permanent memorial on the Moon</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">professors</a> <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/mathew-schmalz">of religious studies</a> who have taught courses on death rites, we know that death rituals in the world’s religions have been shaped by millennia of tradition and practice. While these ashes didn’t make it to the Moon because of a <a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=PEREGRN-1">propellant leak</a>, their presence on the lander raised some important religious issues: Beliefs about the polluting nature of the corpse, the acceptability of cremation and the sacredness of the Moon vary across traditions. </p>
<h2>Jewish death rituals and purification</h2>
<p>In ancient Judaism, certain activities were believed to be polluting, rendering a person unfit to participate in prayers and animal sacrifices offered exclusively at the Temple in Jerusalem. There were many ways in which one could become ritually unclean, and each level of pollution was cleansed by an appropriate purification rite. <a href="https://www.religiousrules.com/Judaismpurity03corpse.htm">Direct contact with a human corpse</a> was believed to cause the most intense form of pollution; even touching a person or object that had been in contact with a corpse would cause a lesser level of defilement.</p>
<p>After the Romans <a href="https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/destruction-second-temple-70-ce">destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E.</a>, Jewish religious practice changed dramatically, including rules about purification. These days, after a burial or visit to a cemetery, many Jewish people wash their hands to wash away negative <a href="https://outorah.org/p/64492/">spirits or energy</a>.</p>
<p>In Judaism, the bodies of the dead are to be buried or entombed in the earth. Cremation of human bodies, <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/510874/jewish/Why-Does-Judaism-Forbid-Cremation.htm">rejected for centuries</a>, has become more popular but <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/judaism-on-cremation/">still remains a controversial option</a> due to the older tradition of respect for the body as a creation of God – to be buried intact and without mutilation.</p>
<h2>Christian death rituals over the centuries</h2>
<p>Before Christianity developed in the first century C.E., <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9497-3_1">Roman civil religion</a> stressed the need to separate the living from the dead. Corpses or cremated remains were interred in burial places outside cities and town – in <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/city/necropolis">the necropolis</a>, literally a city of the dead. As in Judaism, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4314/actat.v26i2.52569">any visitor needed purification</a> afterward. </p>
<p>As monotheists, Christians rejected belief in the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, including the <a href="https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Selene.html#:%7E:text=SELE%E2%80%B2NE%20(Sel%C3%AAn%C3%AA)%2C,371%2C%20%">Moon goddess called Selene or Luna</a>. They also refused to participate in Roman state religious rituals or activities based on pagan polytheism. Decades later, after Christianity became the official imperial religion, Christians moved the <a href="http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01019">remains of people they considered holy into towns and cities</a> to be re-entombed for easier veneration inside churches.</p>
<p>During the medieval period, ordinary Christians desired to be buried close to these saints in anticipation of the resurrection of the body at the second coming of Christ. Graveyards around the church were <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501753855/standing-on-holy-ground-in-the-middle-ages/">consecrated as “holy ground</a>.” In this way, Christians believed that the departed might continue to <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-medieval-pilgrimage/burial-ad-sanctos-SIM_00143#:%7E:text=Burial%20">benefit from the holiness of the saints</a>. Their bodies were considered sources of spiritual blessing rather than causes of spiritual pollution.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A relief showing a corpse being placed in a coffin as people stand around, one holding a tall crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fourth-century Christian burial depicted in relief at the Shrine of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro, Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/9691_-_Milano_-_S._Ambrogio_-_San_Vittore_in_Ciel_d%27oro_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_25-Apr-2007.jpg">G.dallorto, Attribution/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Increasingly today, cremation is considered acceptable, although the Catholic Church requires that cremated remains <a href="https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/bereavement-and-funerals/cremation-and-funerals">must not be scattered or partitioned</a> but buried or placed elsewhere in cemeteries. </p>
<p>Unlike some other religions, neither Judaism nor Christianity considers the Moon divine or sacred. As part of God’s creation, it <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-easter#:%7E:text=The%20">plays a role</a> in setting the religious calendars. In both Jewish and Christian spiritual writing, the <a href="https://blog.nli.org.il/en/jewish_moon">Moon is used as a spiritual analogy</a>: in Judaism, of the majesty of God, and in Christianity, of Christ and the church.</p>
<h2>Islamic beliefs on burial</h2>
<p><a href="https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2018/11/01/respect-for-the-dead-under-islamic-law-considerations-for-humanitarian-forensics/">Cremation is strictly prohibited in Islam</a>. After death, the deceased is <a href="https://www.islamicity.org/5586/preparation-of-te-deceased-and-janazah-prayers/">ritually washed, wrapped in shrouds</a> and brought for burial in a cemetery as soon as possible.</p>
<p>After a <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-1-the-janazah-prayer-for-those-left-behind">funeral prayer</a>, led by an imam or senior member of the community, the deceased is buried – usually without a coffin – with their head oriented toward the holy city of Mecca. The soul of the deceased is <a href="https://zamzam.com/blog/life-after-death-in-islam/">said to visit their loved ones</a> on the seventh and 40th days after death. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://quran.com/en/fussilat/37">Quran warns against worshiping the Moon</a>, as was done in pre-Islamic culture, because worship is due to God alone.</p>
<p>In September 2007, when the first Muslim astronaut from Malaysia got ready to go into space, the Malaysian National Space Agency <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2007-09-20-islamic-body-rules-on-how-to-pray-wash-die-in-space/">published religious directives</a> on burial rituals for Muslims in space. These directives said if bringing the body back wasn’t possible, then he would be “interred” in space after a brief ceremony. And if no water was available in space for the ceremonial rituals, then “holy dust” should be swept onto the face and hands “even if there is no dust” in the space station. </p>
<h2>Hindu and Buddhist funerary practices</h2>
<p>Hinduism is a diverse religion, and so funeral practices often vary according to culture and context. Most commonly, death and the period following a person’s death are associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/006996689023001007">ritual pollution</a>. Because of this, the deceased should be cremated within 24 hours after death.</p>
<p>The cremation of the corpse cuts the ties of the soul, or the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/atman">atman</a>, to the body, allowing it to move on to the next level of existence and eventually be reincarnated. The ashes are collected and placed into an urn on the third day after cremation and immersed in a body of water, ideally a sacred river such as the Ganges.</p>
<p>Within Hinduism, the Moon has played an important role in conceptualizing what happens to the dead. For example, the ancient Hindu texts describe the spirits of the virtuous dead as entering Chandraloka, or the realm of the Moon, where they experience happiness for a time before being reincarnated.</p>
<p>In the many forms of Buddhism, death provides an opportunity for mourners to reflect <a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-death-rites/">on the impermanence of all things</a>. While in Tibetan Buddhism there is the tradition of “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/29757283">sky burial</a>,” in which the deceased is dismembered and left to the elements, in most forms of Buddhism the dead are usually cremated and, as in Hinduism, the corpse is considered polluting beforehand. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person lighting a candle at an altar, painted in red color, with white flowers in two vases and incense sticks in a small pot." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ritual being performed at a Thai funeral ceremony.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/funeral-watering-ceremony-thai-cultural-ritual-royalty-free-image/1831759719?phrase=buddhist+cremation&adppopup=true">Surasak Suwanmake/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In older forms of Buddhism in Nepal and Tibet, the Moon was understood to be <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38344#:%7E:text=Worship%20of%20the%20moon%20god">identified with the god Chandra</a>, who rides on a chariot. The Moon is also one of the nine astrological deities whose movement provides insight for reckoning individual and collective futures.</p>
<h2>Difficult questions</h2>
<p>In response to the Navajo objection that landing ashes on the Moon was a defilement, the CEO of Celestis, the company that paid for capsules containing the ashes, <a href="https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/biden-administration-to-consult-with-navajo-about-human-remains-on-the-moon/">issued a statement</a> stressing that launching containers of human ashes to the Moon is “the antithesis of desecration … it’s celebration.” </p>
<p>In the end, the question was moot. Peregrine 1 <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/15/world/peregrine-moon-lander-failure-nasa-scn/index.html">never made its soft landing on the Moon</a> because of an engine malfunction, and its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67962397">payload was destroyed</a> after entering the atmosphere. </p>
<p>As more people decide to send their ashes into space, however, religious conflicts are bound to arise. The key concern, and not just for the Navajo Nation, will be how to respect all religious traditions as humans explore and commercialize the Moon. It still remains a problem today here on Earth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two scholars who study death rituals explain that the corpse is considered spiritually polluting in many religious traditions, while the Moon holds a sacred place.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossMathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2094722023-07-25T12:23:14Z2023-07-25T12:23:14ZWomen can now undertake Islamic pilgrimages without a male guardian in Saudi Arabia, but that doesn’t mean they’re traveling alone – communities are an important part of the religious experience<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538621/original/file-20230720-33531-ec3kdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C6%2C1013%2C760&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">American Muslim women on pilgrimage at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iqbal Akhtar</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Saudi Arabia has changed its decadeslong rule that <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-hajj-umrah-women-no-male-guardian-required">mandated single women be accompanied by a male relative</a> when performing an Islamic pilgrimage, facilitating the participation of thousands of single Muslim women in the Hajj in 2023.</p>
<p>The new rules don’t apply just during the Hajj. Women can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2021.1930878">perform the Umrah</a>, known as the “lesser pilgrimage,” or other <a href="https://spaceandculture.in/index.php/spaceandculture/article/download/1102/448">routine pilgrimages such as ziyarat</a> that can be undertaken any time of the year to Islamic holy sites, without a “mahram,” or male guardian. </p>
<p>The fact that women can now travel unaccompanied is part of a campaign by the political leadership of Saudi Arabia to improve the rights of women in the kingdom, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170701490849">Western societies view</a> <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/apjur5&div=6&id=&page=">as oppressive</a>. </p>
<p>My research looks at issues of identity and “<a href="https://templetonreligiontrust.org/covenantal-pluralism/#:%7E:text=The%20philosophy%20of%20covenantal%20pluralism,as%20equally%20true%20or%20right">covenantal pluralism</a>,” which refers to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2020.1835029">mutual obligations that different faith communities have toward one another</a> to support the pursuit of each one’s spiritual truth. I focus on the geographical area that encompasses the Indian Ocean, and I argue that these changes need to be viewed within a larger historical context and as they relate to Muslim women’s engagement with the sacred sites of Islam. </p>
<h2>Saudi Arabia and the West</h2>
<p>There is no Quranic injunction against women’s traveling alone. Nevertheless, in some patriarchal societies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2017.1293920">where sexual harassment is common</a>, restrictions are put on women irrespective of religious affiliation.
Currently, Islamic medieval-era injunctions are applied in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. </p>
<p>However, Saudi Arabia is an exception. Conservative Sunni Muslim countries often see the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, <a href="https://www.sciencegate.app/document/10.4018/978-1-4666-4749-7.ch014">as the bulwark against</a> Western secularization. <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191835278.001.0001/acref-9780191835278-e-91">Medieval Islamic laws</a>, such as capital punishment for apostasy, are used to give an appearance of authoritative piety in present times.</p>
<p>Indeed, the cities of Mecca and Medina are visible manifestations of piety. To enter the holy cities is to be transported into a ritual space of sacred time based on the Muslim call to prayer, in which pilgrims from around the world unite in the idealized Prophetic vision of a nation of faith. It is not a world of punctual appointments set by a work schedule. Rather, worshippers serve God through devotion in prayer in accordance with the ancient Islamic prayer timings set by the rhythm of the Sun and Moon. </p>
<p>Colonization created a dichotomy within the world where Islam was often seen to be the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/islam-and-the-west-9780195090611?cc=us&lang=en&">opposite of the values of the West</a>. Keeping women segregated from male worshippers, and viewing that separation as an expression of piety, is part of the rejection of Western norms while legitimizing the Islamic credentials of the Saudis both domestically and internationally. </p>
<h2>Insider perspectives</h2>
<p>Generally in mosques around the world, women and men worship separately. To some it may appear to violate the norms of Western egalitarianism, but it’s an ancient practice meant to encourage a spiritual intimacy and fellowship. </p>
<p>Until now, single women who did not have a male relative to escort them to the Two Holy Mosques – Al Masjid Al Haram in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina – would join an organized tour group of women. Their accommodations, meals, sermons and prayers would be organized together. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the holiest site in Islam – the mosque in Mecca – is circular, and historically men and women have worshipped openly together with few, if any, barriers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People walk around a black cubic structure along circular rows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538576/original/file-20230720-25-k8khvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pilgrims walk around the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SaudiHajj/9af9be3fcf7140e4bbda5c893e1d44c5/photo?Query=hajj%20circular&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1167&currentItemNo=7&vs=true">Saudi Ministry of Media via AP, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These barriers, erected for women in Saudi Arabia in the 20th century, are being removed in accordance with the older <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Feminism_and_Islam/PygUCgAAQBAJ?hl">prophetic tradition of women’s independence</a>. For example, the first wife of the Prophet, Khatija, was an independent businesswoman who initially hired the Prophet as an employee for her trading caravans.</p>
<p>What is also important to consider is that whereas the Hajj is the preeminent Muslim pilgrimage, additional sacred sites exist for Shiite pilgrimage in countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria. In these countries there is no mahram rule, though the threat of violence in Iraq and Syria means that both male and female pilgrims who visit from abroad come in groups.</p>
<h2>Community and camaraderie</h2>
<p>Islamic pilgrimages are global gatherings of Muslims organized into groups, communities and families in which the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14766825.2021.1953046">individual’s identity</a> is a dynamic one. The ultimate truth in Islam is the unity of God, and a Muslim pilgrimage is a manifestation of that unity through integration and service to the community. In this integration, the individual ego is subsumed through a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mystical_Dimensions_of_Islam/EMLYeqhKEokC?hl">communal religious experience</a>, which can be ecstatic. </p>
<p>Additionally, Islam is a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Heart_of_Islam/oAbB52U0icgC?hl">religion of right action</a> in which individuals find realization by integrating into the community. The communal model of pilgrimage helps them go through a physically demanding schedule of ritual observance and creates camaraderie, that continues beyond the pilgrimage. </p>
<p>The changes to the mahram rule allowed single Muslim women to join the Hajj pilgrimage in 2023. Over <a href="http://www.hajjreporters.com/hajj-2023-over-4000-indian-women-to-perform-hajj-without-male-guardian/">4,000 women from India</a> performed the Hajj without a male guardian. Nonetheless, community participation remains important, and most women do not actually travel alone. A majority of women join groups that share the same language, rituals and cuisine to facilitate navigation of the foreign world of Muslim religious tourism. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44364151">reshaping, reinterpretation and reconstruction</a> of Islamic pilgrimages has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/technology-remains-at-the-heart-of-the-hajj-206267">going on for centuries</a>; this time, women are leading it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iqbal Akhtar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A religion scholar argues that the communal nature of Islamic pilgrimage helps worshippers go through a physically demanding schedule and creates camaraderie that continues beyond the pilgrimage.Iqbal Akhtar, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1850922022-07-11T15:32:08Z2022-07-11T15:32:08ZSome people treat Disney as sacred. Does that make it a religion?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470644/original/file-20220623-51658-q2jdih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5472%2C3656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many critique Disney adults as being victims of exploitation because Disney merchandise and trips to the parks come at a steep price.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Raoux)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/some-people-treat-disney-as-sacred--does-that-make-it-a-religion" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Disney has been making the headlines lately, but it hasn’t been about blockbusters. Recently, people have been up in arms over a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8911662/disney-apologizes-employee-interrupts-marriage-proposal-paris/">ruined Disney park proposal</a> and a couple who opted to have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/internet-loses-mind-couple-said-minnie-mickey-wedding-instead-food-rcna32228">Minnie and Mickey at their wedding instead of food</a>. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/11/1104056661/disney-adults">news articles</a> and social media users were quick to say that for some folks, Disney is a religion — citing <a href="https://www.routledge.com/God-in-the-Details-American-Religion-in-Popular-Culture/Mazur-McCarthy/p/book/9780415485371">mythologies, symbols, rituals, community</a> and regular expensive pilgrimages to the park as central reasons. </p>
<p>But just because many people treat Disney as sacred, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a religion. </p>
<p>Religion is an incredibly difficult thing to define, yet most people assume they already know what it means. You know it when you see it, right? The problem is, under this logic, anything and everything could be considered a religion. </p>
<p>Practically speaking, there’s nothing wrong with this. The world will not fall apart. But the problem for those of us studying religion is if everything’s a religion, then what are we really studying? </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gyZlAfuJE-k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Disney adults talk about being banned from dressing up at Disney parks.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-25243">my own work</a>, I study the ways in which people use popular culture to bring meaning to their life. More than ever before, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/unaffiliated-religious-nones/">people are identifying less and less with a religious tradition</a>. This leads some people to look for meaning and identity in the things they love most: like <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1465620">baseball</a>, <a href="https://www.harrypottersacredtext.com/">books</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bending-not-breaking-an-avatar-the-last-airbender-podcast/id1486277624">television</a> and even <a href="https://www.beyoncemass.com/">Beyoncé</a>.</p>
<p>My goal here isn’t to argue against those who consider Disney their religion. But I want to challenge how words like religion are used so we can come to a better understanding of what it might mean to treat the Disney parks as sacred.</p>
<h2>Not just for kids</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32bqx9">Religion is not a universal category</a>. It is a category that was <a href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/1593">used by Christian colonialists</a> to determine who was similar to the colonists and who was not. And, by extension, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo13657764.html">who was human and who was not</a>. </p>
<p>I think it is possible to approach <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-are-disney-adult-fans-2021-8#what-are-disney-adults-1">Disney adults</a> with empathy and understanding without necessarily calling their relationship to Disney religion. </p>
<p>What’s more interesting is that Disney is being incorporated into important life events, and the ways in which it is <a href="https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/753369740/kraftland">meaningful to people</a>. </p>
<p>Disney products — movies, shows, etc. — like any product of popular culture, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctv1xxsd3">have always</a> reflected and contributed to whatever’s currently happening politically and religiously.</p>
<p>In response to the wedding and proposal controversies, religious studies scholar <a href="https://forward.com/news/505141/what-can-disney-adults-teach-us-about-religion-a-lot-according-to-this-professor/">Jodi Eichler-Levine</a> argued that “people tend to dismiss Disney” because it’s for kids and it’s fake. But, as she says, “even if the people in the costumes are fake, the emotions are real.” </p>
<p>What Eichler-Levine said reminds me of my Dad who, without fail, will cry every time he sees the Disney World fireworks show. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Happily Ever After fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Paying a hefty price</h2>
<p>Religious studies scholar Linda Woodhead <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2011.544192">argues that religion can be</a> understood in five ways: as culture, identity, relationship, practice and power. </p>
<p>Some people who love Disney incorporate it into important cultural events, while others wear paraphernalia as an expression of identity. Some people come to develop a close relationship to the brand through regular park attendance and by being a part of the Disney-loving community.</p>
<p>I think when people say Disney is a religion, they mean that some people treat Disney as sacred. French sociologist David Émile Durkheim <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41360/41360-h/41360-h.htm#Page_36">defines sacredness as</a> a category communities ascribe to certain things based on how they treat them.</p>
<p>Many critique Disney adults <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/disney-adults-tiktok-hated-internet-1370226/">as being victims of exploitation</a> because Disney merchandise and trips to the parks come at a steep price. Such critiques could also be applied to the history of exploitation in Christian traditions. </p>
<p>Before the Protestant Reformation, Catholic Church leaders asserted that in order to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/purgatory-Roman-Catholicism">avoid time in purgatory</a> after death, congregants <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/indulgence">needed to pay indulgences</a>. Doing so would cleanse them of their sins so they could bypass purgatory and secure a place for their soul in heaven — some religious leaders came to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther/The-indulgences-controversy">conclusion this was exploitative</a>.</p>
<p>But even today this sort of exploitation <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/9/1/15951874/prosperity-gospel-explained-why-joel-osteen-believes-prayer-can-make-you-rich-trump">is still happening</a>.</p>
<p>I see a big similarity between the previous example and Disney asking consumers to pay a hefty price to come to the parks in order to experience Disney’s magic with their own eyes, ears and yes, <a href="https://www.thedailymeal.com/travel/secrets-disney-parks-gallery/slide-18">even their nose</a>! Similarly, historic religious leaders made believers pay a hefty price to secure their place in paradise after death. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, under capitalism, people are going to be exploited every day. </p>
<p>Disney isn’t arguing that by spending money at their parks your soul will be saved. So by this logic, if some people treat Disney as sacred, is it a big deal?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah McKillop does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People are increasingly identifying less with religious tradition and are looking for meaning and identity in the things they love most.Hannah McKillop, Doctoral Student in Religious Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1848142022-06-17T14:00:28Z2022-06-17T14:00:28ZWiccan celebration of summer solstice is a reminder that change, as expressed in nature, is inevitable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469289/original/file-20220616-23-iljeu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C20%2C4500%2C2970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For Wiccans, celebration of summer solstice is a spiritual practice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participants-during-kupala-night-celebrations-the-slavic-news-photo/1221587700?adppopup=true">Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Summer solstice, a time when the northern hemisphere will <a href="https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-summer-summer-solstice">experience the maximum hours of sunlight</a>, takes place on June 21 – and will be celebrated by followers of Wicca, a form of contemporary Paganism, with a holiday known as Litha. </p>
<p>On this day the North Pole is at its greatest tilt toward the sun, creating the longest day and the official beginning of summer. As a <a href="http://www.helenaliceberger.com/">sociologist of religion</a> whose research has focused on contemporary Paganism, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=S1kXj-gAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I</a> know that for Wiccans, it is a day of celebration and joy at the light’s full return. </p>
<h2>The fertile Goddess of midsummer</h2>
<p>Wiccans observe eight sabbats, or holidays, throughout the year. The year begins with Samhain, which is considered the Wiccan New Year, followed by Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh and Mabon. These form what is called the “Wheel of the Year.” Each sabbat celebrates what is happening at that moment in nature. Midsummer, the pinnacle of light, is the time for <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">celebrating nature’s growing fertility</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A chart listing the eight Pagan festivals known as sabbats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wheel of the year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://pendragon343.com/sabbats-ext.html">The Pagan Sabbats</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As part of the ritual that marks each sabbat, <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">the earth and the divinities are venerated</a>. A central “myth” of every sabbat is the changing relationship between the God and the Goddess, who may have different aspects or be represented in several forms. For example, Diana may represent the Goddess in youth, Demeter the motherly aspect of the Goddess, and Hecate the crone. </p>
<p>Each sabbat celebrates a different aspect of the relationship between the Goddess and God. For most Wiccans this myth is viewed as symbolic of the ongoing cycle of life and in nature. The growth from youth, to adulthood, to old age, to death and then to the continuing cycle of new birth or rebirth. </p>
<p>The Goddess is viewed as eternal, but her form changes throughout the year: from a young woman, to a mother, and eventually a crone in fall; then back to a young woman the following spring. The God dies and is reborn, moving from child to lover to dying again each fall, which Wiccans believe ensures the growth of crops. Some Wiccans view the deities <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297251/drawing-down-the-moon-by-margot-adler/">as archetypes or symbols</a> while others see them as actual spiritual beings.</p>
<p>At Litha the Goddess is described as full with child and the God is seen as at his most virile. The image celebrates fertility, strength and growth in nature and in the participants’ lives. The fertility in people’s lives <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/wicca-history-belief-and-community-in-modern-pagan-witchcraft/oclc/1290055418">can take several forms</a>, such as the focus on what they have realized in the past year or what is still developing that they hope will come to fruition by the fall harvest. </p>
<h2>Creating sacred space during rituals</h2>
<p>All sabbats begin by creating sacred space, mostly outdoors when the weather permits. This is done by those leading the ritual walking around an area, chanting as a form of prayer and sprinkling the area with water and salt, which are believed to be spiritually cleansing. </p>
<p>Representatives of the elements – earth, air, fire, water – respectively associated with the four directions – north, east, south and west – are carried around the circle as well. For example, a crystal, a feather, a lit candle and a shell might be carried around the circle. All participants are asked to imagine a sphere of light over the circle and <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">spirits or divinities associated with each of the directions are invited into it</a>. There is then a reading or poetry about the season and what it means in nature and in people’s lives.</p>
<p>In midsummer celebrations a bonfire is lit and people jump over it, <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/litha-rites-and-rituals-2561483">holding a wish for the summer</a> in their minds. These can be personal wishes for the participant’s own growth or health or that of someone dear to them, or it can be for the protection of Mother Nature, such as wishing for rain if there were a drought or the end of flooding if there were floods. </p>
<p>These rituals can be performed alone or with others. Even those who normally practice alone <a href="https://uscpress.com/Solitary-Pagans">often join with others for the sabbats</a>. </p>
<h2>Change and nature</h2>
<p>At Yule, the sabbat that celebrates the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter, one is always reminded that from this day forth the light will be growing. Similarly at Litha, participants are reminded that from this time forward there will be a decrease in the light. </p>
<p>The focus is not only on the holiday and what it means immediately in nature and for the participants, but understanding it within the turning wheel of the year. It is a reminder that change is inevitable and normal even if it is sometimes enjoyable and at other times less so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen A. Berger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For Wiccans, midsummer, with the maximum hours of sunlight, is the time for celebrating new life.Helen A. Berger, Affliate Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1180142019-05-30T00:59:28Z2019-05-30T00:59:28ZWhat Israel’s new election reveals about the struggle over Jewishness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277077/original/file-20190529-192405-mhh4oj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C2915%2C1790&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Israel-Politics/3ecc7b6f417e40aab42035bd25ce540b/3/0">AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Benjamin Netanyahu has hit a snag that could derail his chances of becoming the longest-serving prime minister in the history of Israel. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/prospect-of-new-israeli-vote-looms-as-netanyahu-struggles-with-coalition/2019/05/29/9155b71a-8171-11e9-b585-e36b16a531aa_story.html">Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition</a> and dissolved parliament on May 29. That means Israel must hold <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/hours-left-to-deadline-netanyahu-races-to-dissolve-knesset-live-updates-1.7302559">fresh elections</a>, which are scheduled for Sept. 17.</p>
<p>Netanyahu is the leader of the Likud party which received a majority of votes in April’s election. Unlike the U.S., in Israel people vote for parties, not candidates. The winning party is then invited to form a governing <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/hours-left-to-deadline-netanyahu-races-to-dissolve-knesset-live-updates-1.7302559">coalition</a> with other parties. </p>
<p>So, what got in the way of Netanyahu’s government? I’d say it was a struggle over what it means to be Jewish. </p>
<h2>Ultra-Orthodox Jews and the draft</h2>
<p><a href="https://pages.uncc.edu/joyce-dalsheim/">I’m an anthropologist</a> who studies questions of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7yPXLxnf46YC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=Dalsheim&ots=tln3OXTLeu&sig=dkZnctzSobrNQjyO6yHOt-BcQ6Q#v=onepage&q=Dalsheim&f=false">religion, politics, identity and conflict in Israel and Palestine</a>. </p>
<p>For some time now, there has been a <a href="http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp104.htm">conflict regarding the Haredim, ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp104.htm">Haredim</a> are strictly observant Jews who have struggled to hold on their traditions. They are followers of a range of theologies and many different rabbinic leaders, associated with particular Jewish communities in different parts of the world. </p>
<p>For members of the Haredi community studying the sacred texts is paramount, a commandment, and <a href="https://en.jerusaleminstitute.org.il/.upload/haredcom.pdf">a means of protecting the continuity of the Jewish people</a>. The Haredim secured <a href="https://www.tau.ac.il/law/barakerez/artmarch2010/36.pdf">certain promises</a> from Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, prior to the establishment of the state in 1948, that would protect their community and their way of life. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://jppi.org.il/new/en/article/podcast/episodes/e1/#.XO6dP5NKgWo">agreement</a> exempted young Haredi men from military duty that is compulsory for other young Israelis, as a way for the Haredi community to study Torah, a practice central to their way of life. </p>
<h2>Compulsory draft</h2>
<p>While the Haredim make up a <a href="http://jppi.org.il/new/en/article/aa2018/part2/identity/pluralismsurvey/#.XO6dwpNKgWo">small percentage</a> of the Israeli Jewish population, about 10%, their numbers are growing. And, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137479501_5">animosity toward them</a> has also grown over time.</p>
<p>Secular Israelis complain that Haredim <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13621020802015388">take advantage of social welfare but do not contribute</a> to the military or the economy. Haredim often have large families, and because many of the men are primarily engaged in studying Torah, their wives work to support their families. The families often <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/212-percent-of-Israeli-population-lives-below-the-poverty-line-new-report-575883">live below the poverty line</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277078/original/file-20190529-192383-1q25kkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277078/original/file-20190529-192383-1q25kkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277078/original/file-20190529-192383-1q25kkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277078/original/file-20190529-192383-1q25kkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277078/original/file-20190529-192383-1q25kkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277078/original/file-20190529-192383-1q25kkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277078/original/file-20190529-192383-1q25kkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as Haredim, celebrate the holiday of Purim.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Israel-The-Ultra-Orthodox/710a2edfe3514fd2869f7c8a59786036/30/0">AP Photo/Kevin Frayer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recently many politicians – both on the right and left – have moved to capitalize on anti-religious sentiment among secular Israeli Jews. They have called to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-passes-controversial-bill-to-draft-orthodox-men-in-first-vote-1.6240660">include Haredim in the draft</a>.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/world/middleeast/netanyahu-israel-lieberman-coalition.html">controversy played a key role in Netanyahu’s failure</a> to form a governing coalition. </p>
<p>The party of Netanyahu’s former minister of defense, the right-wing politician Avigdor Lieberman, proposed a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-the-ultra-orthodox-military-draft-bill-dividing-netanyahu-s-natural-allies-1.7137165">bill</a> in the Israeli parliament to draft Haredim. </p>
<p>Israeli Jewish and Druze men are conscripted for <a href="https://www.indexmundi.com/israel/military_service_age_and_obligation.html">three years, at the age of 18. Women are required to serve for two years</a>. Following mandatory service, the reserve service obligation is up to age 51 for men and age 24 for women. </p>
<p>The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, consists of 120 seats. In order to form a government, Netanyahu needed at least 61 members in his coalition. Lieberman’s Israel Beitenu party held five crucial seats. </p>
<p>Thousands of Haredim protested <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ultra-orthodox-anti-draft-protesters-block-jerusalem-roads-30-arrested/">against the bill</a>. </p>
<p>In my opinion, Netanyahu’s failure came down to a struggle over what it means to be Jewish and who has control over Jewishness in the self-proclaimed Jewish state. What counts as being Jewish in Israel shifts and changes all the time. But “Jewishness” is determined by the state and people are <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/israel-has-a-jewish-problem-9780190680251?q=Dalsheim&lang=en&cc=us#">“kept Jewish”</a> by marriage and family law, and laws about keeping food kosher and about keeping the Sabbath.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-lieberman-just-snatched-netanyahu-s-election-victory-1.7297726">analysts suggest</a> that this was just a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-lieberman-must-be-prime-minister-for-netanyahu-s-crisis-to-be-resolved-1.7299750">political power play</a> on the part of Lieberman. </p>
<p>That may be true, but in my view, the issue over which he chose to make this power play is significant.</p>
<h2>Nation and religion</h2>
<p>Many scholars think of this situation as a reflection of a <a href="https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8322.12392">broader conflict between the religious and the secular in Israel</a>.<br>
Guy Ben-Porat sees it has a question of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=nlnjU0qqXSYC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Ben+Porat,+secular&ots=SHnoB5Yfx2&sig=eNGzFt1aUhxDuYM3TdsfSlUsXBY#v=onepage&q=Ben%20Porat%2C%20secular&f=false">“unfinished secularization</a>”.</p>
<p>Most contemporary democracies, including the U.S. and India, enshrine some form of “separation of church and state” in their constitution. But <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/stlulj43&div=54&g_sent=1&casa_token=&collection=journals&t=1559156899">Israel does not have a constitution</a>, and because Jewishness is both a religion and a nationality, the two have become intertwined. </p>
<p>In the United States, secularization means protection of religion from state interference. In Israel, however, it primarily means finding ways to prevent <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/articles/6114">religious influence on civic matters</a>. </p>
<p>Some scholars and activists suggest passing laws to separate religion from state, but <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/israel-has-a-jewish-problem-9780190680251?q=Dalsheim&lang=en&cc=us#">I’m convinced that the problem is deeper</a>. </p>
<p>Westerners tend to think of national belonging and religious belonging as separate aspects of identity. A person can be a Catholic American, or a Dutch Protestant. There are American Jews and French Muslims. </p>
<p>In Israel, nation and religion are at once separated and conflated in the figure of the Jew. As a result, Israel must <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/israel-law-review/article/law-and-religion-in-israel/AE1856BD8D7703652FA36C53DAAC8B1E">maintain a Jewish population</a>. </p>
<h2>Israel as ethno-national state</h2>
<p>Today in Israel, secular Jews <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-number-of-jewish-couples-opting-to-marry-outside-rabbinate-in-israel-1.6172194">struggle to get married</a> in ways that suit their worldview. Only Orthodox marriage ceremonies are officially recognized, so secular couples <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/This-Normal-Life-Wedding-in-Cyprus-the-modern-Zionist-irony-473569">often travel abroad to get married</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277080/original/file-20190529-192339-1mlov4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277080/original/file-20190529-192339-1mlov4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277080/original/file-20190529-192339-1mlov4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277080/original/file-20190529-192339-1mlov4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277080/original/file-20190529-192339-1mlov4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277080/original/file-20190529-192339-1mlov4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277080/original/file-20190529-192339-1mlov4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Jewish woman wears a prayer shawl as she prays during the Jewish holiday of Passover in front of the Western Wall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Mideast-Israel-Women-of-the-Wall/8510c7a065934c748081a8ca765c1e0a/19/0">AP Photo/Ariel Schalit</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Women struggle to pray in public places in ways that reflect their beliefs. When they want to pray at the <a href="https://www.womenofthewall.org.il/">Western Wall</a>, the holiest site in Jerusalem’s Old City, they are prohibited from carrying a Torah scroll or wearing a prayer shawl. </p>
<p>At times people struggle to make a living because of state laws that forbid work on the Sabbath. If Jews engage in the labor of milking their cows or goats on the Sabbath, according to the state sponsored rabbinical authority, the milk produced cannot be sold as kosher. In strict <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DaYd-ZxxqboC&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=desecrate+the+sabbath&ots=ze_0ZSu6wv&sig=tu31H-hmhRC6A9HW2fO4iCBYrtE#v=onepage&q=desecrate%20the%20sabbath&f=false">interpretations of Jewish laws</a>, it is believed that prohibitions on work will prevent Jews from desecrating the Sabbath and thereby keep people “Jewish.” </p>
<p>As I say in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/search?q=Dalsheim&cc=us&lang=en">my forthcoming book</a>, some people are not considered Jewish enough and are made to convert by the official state rabbinate in adulthood. Others, like the ultra-Orthodox, are considered too Jewish, and are asked to study Torah less and serve time in the national army. </p>
<h2>Challenges of a modern nation</h2>
<p><a href="http://jppi.org.il/new/en/article/aa2018/part2/identity/pluralismsurvey/#.XO7ggZNKgWo">Most Israelis identify</a> as secular or traditional Jews. Secular Israeli nationalists or Zionists have put their <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/unsettling-gaza-9780199751204?cc=us&lang=en&">faith in human sovereignty</a> over the concept of one true sovereign of the universe. They support the establishment of the state, its government and laws. </p>
<p>Many of the ultra-Orthodox are <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/T/bo20852544.html">foundationally opposed to Zionism</a>. For them, human beings should not interfere in God’s work, and so there should be no Jewish state until the Messiah arrives. According to Jewish thought, God promised the land of Israel to the Jewish people. But for the Haredim, that promise cannot be fulfilled by human intervention in God’s work, which is how they understand the Zionist project.</p>
<p>Understanding this division may help explain why a law that required serving in the armed forces rather than studying the Torah was a snag too big for Netanyahu to unravel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118014/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joyce Dalsheim receives funding from the Luce and ACLS foundations for this fellowship year.</span></em></p>Young Haredim men, who are strictly observant Jews, have long been exempted from Israel’s compulsory military service. A disagreement over stopped Netanyahu from forming a government.Joyce Dalsheim, Association Professor of Global Studies, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1137022019-03-19T10:45:24Z2019-03-19T10:45:24ZWhat is the significance of Friday prayers in Islam?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264462/original/file-20190318-28475-nedo6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslims praying in a Chicago mosque following the shooting in New Zealand, on Friday, March 15.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Mosque-Shooting-Sanctuaries-No-More/25413c31406d425c80f8c74188be4ed9/1/0">AP Photo/Noreen Nasir</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following the terror attack on two New Zealand mosques last week, many Muslim communities across the world <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/irl/mymosque-new-zealand/">gathered as usual for their most important weekly ritual</a> – Friday prayers. </p>
<p>In the past few years, Muslims have been attacked and killed while praying, many times on a Friday. Worshippers have been targeted in countries such as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30250950">Nigeria</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/07/04/pakistan.mosque.blast/">Pakistan</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/world/middleeast/mosque-attack-egypt.html">Egypt</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/11/23/Bomb-attack-on-mosque-kills-26-Afghan-troops-during-Friday-prayer/1261542990965/">Afghanistan</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/world/middleeast/suicide-bombing-saudi-arabia-shiites-sunnis-yemen-mosque.html">Saudi Arabia</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-10/two-killed-75-injured-by-twin-mosque-bombing-in-libyas/9418602">Libya</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28900340">Iraq</a> and <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/explosion-hits-kuwait-shia-mosque-during-friday-prayers/article7358023.ece">Kuwait</a>. </p>
<p>Muslims pray five times a day every day, but the most important prayer of the week is “jumah,” or the day of gathering, on Friday. </p>
<p>So why are Friday prayers so central to the Islamic faith?</p>
<h2>The religious significance</h2>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://www.callutheran.edu/faculty/profile.html?id=raslan">scholar of Islam</a> who researches and writes about Muslim ritual practices. The Qur’an invokes the importance of Friday as a sacred day of worship in a chapter called <a href="http://al-quran.info/#62">“Al-Jumah,”</a> meaning the day of congregation, which is also the word for Friday in Arabic.</p>
<p>It <a href="http://al-quran.info/#62">states</a>, “O you who believe! When you are called to congregational (Friday) prayer, hasten to the remembrance of God and leave off trade. That is better for you, if you but knew.” </p>
<p>Muslims believe Friday was chosen by God as a <a href="http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2011/08/22/the-rulings-related-to-friday-prayer/">dedicated day of worship</a>.
In addition to the prayer itself, which is shorter than the usual midday prayers, Friday services include a sermon, usually given by a professional male Muslim clergy member in Muslim majority countries, but in the West, they are also given by a male lay community member. </p>
<p><a href="http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2011/08/22/the-rulings-related-to-friday-prayer/">Muslim men are required</a> to attend Friday prayers as long as they not traveling, while women <a href="http://aboutislam.net/counseling/ask-the-scholar/acts-of-worship/can-women-perform-friday-prayer/">are given the option</a> to attend, given their traditional role in the household when Islam was established. </p>
<p>In some countries, such as <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/kerala-muslim-women-group-to-move-top-court-seeking-women-entry-in-all-mosques-1930611">India</a>, <a href="https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/32949/i-was-not-allowed-to-enter-memon-mosque-in-karachi-because-i-am-a-woman/">Pakistan</a> and <a href="https://iwpr.net/global-voices/tajik-women-fight-mosque-exclusion">Tajikistan</a>, women are not usually permitted to pray in mosques whereas in countries like Iran and Kenya, <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/22/gender-differences-in-worship-attendance-vary-across-religious-groups/">they attend in larger numbers</a>. In almost all mosques, men and women pray separately. In some places women are behind the men in the same room and in others, women are in a different room or behind a barrier. </p>
<p>In the West, many women choose to attend prayer if they can get time away from work or other duties. In Los Angeles and elsewhere in North America and Europe, women lead their <a href="http://rsn.aarweb.org/articles/friday-prayer-their-own">own Friday prayer services</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2011/08/22/the-rulings-related-to-friday-prayer/">To prepare for prayers</a>, Muslims bathe, apply perfume and brush their teeth to make their appearance pleasant to their fellow worshippers.</p>
<p>The Prophet Muhammad spoke of the value of praying in congregation rather than individually, <a href="http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2011/08/22/the-rulings-related-to-friday-prayer/">promising spiritual rewards</a>, such as answered prayers and forgiveness for one’s sins. Attending Friday prayers, the Prophet said, is <a href="http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2011/08/22/the-rulings-related-to-friday-prayer/">equivalent to one entire year</a> of praying and fasting alone.</p>
<p>A song by U.S. Muslim singer Raef Haggag describes how Muslims prepare and perform jumah prayers and their benefits. It provides a light but serious message about the significance of Friday prayers, especially for Western Muslims.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m0MqT-S9fiI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Song on Friday prayers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The tradition of prayer</h2>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/jun/24/when-weekend-start-saudi-arabia">Muslim majority countries</a>, such as Egypt, Iran and Pakistan, include Friday as part of the weekend, with Saturday sometimes being a holiday, and Sunday being a regular workday. </p>
<p>On this day, many Muslims spend the day with their families, attend the prayer and also relax, although practices can vary. Commercial activities always continue after Friday prayers, but in Muslim-majority countries, most people get the day off. </p>
<p>Many people who do not have time to attend the mosque during the week will make a special effort to attend during Friday prayers. </p>
<p>In countries where the call to prayer is projected from loudspeakers, entire cities will be <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-richard-dawkins-doesnt-get-about-the-muslim-call-to-prayer-100576">saturated with their sounds</a>. Sermons too are often publicly broadcast, and in many cities, including in Western countries <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2011/04/07/on-a-mat-and-a-prayer">such as France</a>, congregants overflow into the streets around mosques. </p>
<p>Crowded cities are often empty and quiet, up until the prayers, after which they are full of people enjoying their day off. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7TGS560TkRc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Friday prayer practice in Cairo.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the United States, Muslims have to receive <a href="https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=e3a833eb-73d6-4dfe-ac7e-bd42284715f8">special accommodation</a> from their workplace to visit a nearby mosque. Some workplaces such as universities, hospitals or corporate offices, allow employees to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WjM5DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA28&ots=34Bacmd7a9&dq=muslims%20organize%20jummah%20prayers%20at%20workplace&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q&f=false">organize their own Friday prayer</a> on site. </p>
<p>As a religious ritual that goes back to the practice of the Prophet, Friday prayers hold a special place for Muslims.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113702/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rose S. Aslan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Last Friday, Muslims were killed while praying at two mosques in New Zealand. For Muslims, Friday is the day of gathering, the most important prayer day of the week.Rose S. Aslan, Assistant Professor of Religion, California Lutheran UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1050182018-11-12T22:08:01Z2018-11-12T22:08:01ZPioneering sociologist foresaw our current chaos 100 years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248278/original/file-20181202-194935-12i0ftp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Emile Durkheim who taught at Sorbonne University is considered a founder of modern sociology.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Globally, we are currently experiencing tremendous social and political turbulence. At the institutional level, <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976825">liberal democracy faces the threat</a> of rising authoritarianism and far-right extremism. At the local level, we seem to be living in an ever-increasing <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/My-Age-Anxiety-Dread-Search/dp/0307269876">age of anxiety</a>, engendered by precarious economic conditions and the gradual erosion of shared social norms. How might we navigate these difficult and disorienting times? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/durkheim/">Emile Durkheim</a>, one of the pioneers of the discipline of sociology, died 101 years ago this month. Although few outside of social science departments know his name, his intellectual legacy has been integral to shaping modern thought about society. His work may provide us with some assistance in diagnosing the perennial problems associated with modernity.</p>
<p>Whenever commentators argue that a social problem is “structural” in nature, they are invoking Durkheim’s ideas. It was Durkheim who introduced the idea that society is composed not simply of a collection of individuals, but also social and cultural structures that impose themselves upon, and even shape, individual action and thought. In his book <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Rules-Sociological-Method-Emile-Durkheim/dp/0029079403"><em>The Rules of the Sociological Method</em></a> he called these “social facts.”</p>
<p>A famous example of a social fact is found in Durkheim’s study, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58095.Suicide"><em>Suicide</em></a>. In this book, Durkheim argues that the suicide rate of a country is not random, but rather reflects the degree of social cohesion within that society. He famously compares the suicide rate in Protestant and Catholic countries, concluding that the suicide rate in Protestant countries is higher because Protestantism encourages rugged individualism, while Catholicism fosters a form of collectivism. </p>
<p>What was so innovative about this theory is that it challenged long-standing assumptions about individual pathologies, which viewed these as mere byproducts of individual psychology. Adapting this theory to the contemporary era, we can say, according to Durkheim, the rate of <a href="https://suicideprevention.ca/page-18154">suicide</a> or mental illness in modern societies cannot be explained by merely appealing to individual psychology, but must also take into account macro conditions such as a society’s culture and institutions. </p>
<p>In other words, if more and more people feel disconnected and alienated from each other, this reveals something crucial about the nature of society.</p>
<h2>The shift from premodern to modern</h2>
<p>Born in France in 1858, the son of a rabbi, Durkheim grew up amid profound social change. The Industrial Revolution had drastically altered the social order and the Enlightenment had by this time thrown into doubt many once-taken-for-granted assumptions about human nature and religious (specifically Judeo-Christian) doctrine. </p>
<p>Durkheim foresaw that with the shift from premodern to modern society came, on the one hand, incredible emancipation of individual autonomy and productivity; while on the other, a radical erosion of social ties and rootedness.</p>
<p>An heir of the Enlightenment, Durkheim championed the liberation of individuals from religious dogmas, but he also feared that with their release from tradition individuals would fall into a state of anomie — a condition that is best thought of as “normlessness” — which he believed to be a core pathology of modern life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244410/original/file-20181107-74778-1j04oo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244410/original/file-20181107-74778-1j04oo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244410/original/file-20181107-74778-1j04oo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244410/original/file-20181107-74778-1j04oo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244410/original/file-20181107-74778-1j04oo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244410/original/file-20181107-74778-1j04oo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244410/original/file-20181107-74778-1j04oo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emile Durkheim, professor and founder of French Sociology, at the Sorbonne, in the Guizot amphitheatre, in early 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nubis.univ-paris1.fr/">Nubis Digital Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For this reason, he spent his entire career trying to identify the bases of social solidarity in modernity; he was obsessed with reconciling the need for individual freedom and the need for community in liberal democracies.</p>
<p>In his mature years, Durkheim found what he believed to be a solution to this intractable problem: religion. But not “religion” as understood in the conventional sense. True to his sociological convictions, Durkheim came to understand religion as another social fact, that is, as a byproduct of social life. In his classic <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Elementary-Forms-Religious-Life/dp/0199540128/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1541542635&sr=1-1&keywords=elementary+forms+of+religious+life"><em>The Elementary Forms of Religious Life</em></a>, he defined “religion” in the following way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden — beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The sacred and the quest for solidarity</h2>
<p>For Durkheim, religion is endemic to social life, because it is a necessary feature of all moral communities. The key term here is sacred. By sacred Durkheim meant something like, unquestionable, taken-for-granted, and binding, or emitting a special aura. Wherever you find the sacred, thought Durkheim, there you have religion.</p>
<p>There is a sense in which this way of thinking has become entirely commonplace. When people describe, say, European soccer fans as religious in their devotion to their home team, they are drawing on a Durkheimian conception of religion. They are signaling the fact that fans of this nature are intensely devoted to their teams — so devoted, we might say, that the team itself, along with its associated symbols, are considered sacred.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244407/original/file-20181107-74760-1e41xag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244407/original/file-20181107-74760-1e41xag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244407/original/file-20181107-74760-1e41xag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244407/original/file-20181107-74760-1e41xag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244407/original/file-20181107-74760-1e41xag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244407/original/file-20181107-74760-1e41xag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/244407/original/file-20181107-74760-1e41xag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Emile Durkheim.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>We can think of plenty of other contemporary examples: one’s relationship with one’s child or life partner may be sacred, some artists view art itself — or at least the creation of it — as sacred, and environmentalists often champion the sacrality of the natural world. </p>
<p>The sacred is a necessary feature of social life because it is what enables individuals to bond with one another. Through devotion to a particular sacred form, we become tied to one another in a deep and meaningful way.</p>
<p>This is not to say that the sacred is always a good thing. We find the sacred among hate groups, terrorist factions and revanchist political movements. Nationalism in its many guises always entails a particular conception of the sacred, be it ethnic or civic. </p>
<p>But, at the same time, the sacred lies at the heart of all progressive movements. Just think of the civil rights, feminist and gay liberation movements, all of which sacralized the <a href="https://theconversation.com/millennials-abandon-hope-for-religion-but-revere-human-rights-90537">liberal ideals of human rights and moral equality</a>. Social progress is impossible without a shared conception of the sacred.</p>
<p>Durkheim’s profound insight was that despite the negative risks associated with the sacred, humans cannot live without it. He asserted that a lack of social solidarity within society would not only lead individuals to experience anomie and alienation, but might also encourage them to engage in extremist politics. Why? Because extremist politics would satiate their desperate desire to belong. </p>
<p>Thus we can sum up the great dilemma of liberal modernity in the following way: how do we construct a shared conception of the sacred that will bind us together for the common good, without falling prey to the potential for violence and exclusion inherent to the sacred itself?</p>
<p>This question which preoccupied Durkheim throughout his entire life — remains as urgent today as ever before.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Galen Watts receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA). </span></em></p>Emile Durkheim helped to lay the foundations of sociological thought and theory. He spoke of our current condition as being influenced by social structures and institutions.Galen Watts, PhD Candidate in the Cultural Studies Graduate Program, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1011172018-10-04T20:05:34Z2018-10-04T20:05:34ZFriday essay: popular music’s search for the sacred in a secular world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236797/original/file-20180918-158237-1yyh2cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nick Cave performing with The Bad Seeds in Budapest in June. His song lyrics, with those often melancholy, churchy organ chords, are dripping in references to what might be called sacredness. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zoltan Balogh/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most rancorous, persistent and <a href="http://nma.gov.au/blogs/inside/2010/03/26/child-sex-abuse-and-the-church/">polarising dualisms today</a> is, arguably, that between the secular and the sacred. Sacred and secular are capacious categories, but in the field of lived and popular culture, such terms are being transformed kaleidoscopically, with the songs of Nick Cave, Hozier, and many others exploring the sacred embedded in very human, secular contexts. </p>
<p>So what happens if we unpack our individual relationship to that dualism? Do the safe walls we have, possibly, built around ourselves, either against religion (or more broadly, the sacred), or against atheism, stand unbudgeable, untouchable? There’s always that middle ground, agnosticism. But do we feel the need to open the gates, prepared to hear our own clichés fly: “Australia is such a modern secular nation”; religion, isn’t that an opiate?; “priests are all pedophiles”; “nothing’s sacred anymore”; “thanks to my Catholic childhood, but no thanks …” </p>
<p>Well, guess what? The enquiry into sacredness is not over, it’s just beginning for the 21st century, and in wildly, playfully, wonderfully disparate modes and places. Enter Nick Cave, that dark prince of early punk music, now striding restlessly back and forth between punk and popular. His song lyrics, with those often melancholy, churchy organ chords, are dripping in references to what might be called sacredness in a secular world. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-australian-teens-have-complex-views-on-religion-and-spirituality-103233">New research shows Australian teens have complex views on religion and spirituality</a>
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<p>Take, for example, the wry, self-deprecating lyrics of his popular song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnHoqHscTKE">Into my Arms</a>: “I don’t believe in an interventionist God / But I know, darling, that you do / But if I did, I would kneel down and ask Him …” </p>
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<p>Or the lyrics of a lesser-known song, <a href="https://genius.com/Nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds-brompton-oratory-lyrics#note-7268620">Brompton Oratory</a>, which takes as its scene the beautiful old church in central London, where a dispirited lover sings to himself, to his absent love, and to a God who is transposed across the absent lover:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Up those stone steps I climb<br>
Hail this joyful day’s return<br>
Into its great shadowed vault I go<br>
Hail the Pentecostal morn. <br>
The reading is from Luke 24<br>
Where Christ returns to his loved ones<br>
I look at the stone apostles<br>
Think that it’s alright for some<br></p>
<p>And I wish that I was made of stone<br>
So that I would not have to see<br>
A beauty impossible to define<br>
A beauty impossible to believe<br>
A beauty impossible to endure<br>
The blood imparted in little sips<br>
The smell of you still on my hands<br>
As I bring the cup up to my lips<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The music of Brompton Oratory juxtaposes a restless, walking, syncopated rhythm and the moody tones of the church organ. In Cave’s by now famous metaphorical merging of flesh and spirit – “the smell of you still on my hands/As I bring the cup up to my lips” – the singer presses imaginatively, movingly, against the border between death and life, worldly and spiritual love. </p>
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<p>Hope and belief merge too, because the sacred here does not equate with dogma, religion, or institution (though the Oratory’s steps are hard, and the apostles are made of stone), but rather with the raw, recognisable longing of one who desires rather than knows, who yearns both spiritually and in the flesh.</p>
<p>Cave’s 10th album, The Boatman’s Call (1997), where these two songs appear, is immersed in sacred and secular intertwined, two lovers knotted together, wrapped in each other’s arms in mutual need, suspicion and recognition. Have a look at the lyrics to <a href="https://www.nickcave.com/lyrics/nick-cave-bad-seeds/boatmans-call/kingdom/">There is a kingdom</a> or <a href="https://www.nickcave.com/lyrics/nick-cave-bad-seeds/boatmans-call/idiot-prayer/">Idiot Prayer </a>. The idiot in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWi9pOw3Fak">latter poem</a> has faith, but also doubt. He hopes for heaven and yet sees hell all too viscerally:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This prayer is for you, my love<br>
Sent on the wings of a dove<br>
An idiot prayer of empty words.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Imagination is one route towards the sacred, but it so often crumbles into “empty words” in Cave’s ecstasies. This blend of lyric rapture and melancholy is familiar if you are a Leonard Cohen fan too. In Cohen’s 1984 song <a href="https://genius.com/Leonard-cohen-hallelujah-lyrics">Hallelujah</a>, so exquisitely rendered by Jeff Buckley, as well as by John Cale and many others, sacred possibilities are embedded in a lyric of high desire and doubt:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now, I’ve heard there was a secret chord<br>
That David played, and it pleased the Lord,<br>
But you don’t really care for music, do you?<br>
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth,<br>
The minor fall, the major lift,<br>
The baffled king composing hallelujah…<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cohen’s complicated sexual and spiritual meditation does not shy away from the entanglement of the sacred and the secular (material, sexual, bodily) urges of human life: “There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)/That’s how the light gets in” (Leonard Cohen, <a>Anthem</a>). His hallelujah is “not a victory march/It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah.”</p>
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<p>“That’s muzak now, isn’t it?” my partner groaned, as I played Buckley singing his version. And it is. But read Alan Light’s 2012 book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13547619-the-holy-or-the-broken">The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of ‘Hallelujah’</a> for a gripping account of the journey of the song into popular culture.</p>
<p>Irish singer Hozier’s <a href="https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/hozier/takemetochurch.html">Take me to Church</a>, covered by Ed Sheeran and others, sings of a he and a she enthralled with each other, making sense of what is human, clean, innocent, generous, in terms that collapse the sacred and the secular.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No masters or kings when the ritual begins<br>
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin<br>
In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene<br>
Only then I am human<br>
Only then I am clean<br>
Amen, Amen, Amen<br></p>
<p>Take me to church<br>
I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies<br>
I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife<br>
Offer me that deathless death<br>
Good God, let me give you my life</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But Hozier’s video for the song (one of two videos, the other a balletic production) is of a he and a he, a gay relationship, which presents another twist to our understanding about why the dualisms of right and wrong, embedded in heteronormativity, must be questioned. The video presents a confronting narrative of persecution and violence against gay sexuality. At the same time, it is a lover’s paean.</p>
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<p>The chorus’ “Amen, Amen, Amen” is sung against the visual images of brute hatred and destruction, producing a complex response to the injustice of “the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene”. </p>
<p>Yes, the dualisms of sacred and secular, right and wrong, which fuel homophobia still motivate many cultures, with their need to hierarchise, dominate, or exterminate the other.</p>
<p>But Hozier’s song holds on, through images of total violence, to the beauty and rapture of lovers finding the ground for a love which “dares not speak its name”, still, in many places.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-quran-the-bible-and-homosexuality-in-islam-61012">Friday essay: The Qur’an, the Bible and homosexuality in Islam</a>
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<h2>Relating to difference</h2>
<p>How far have we come from the rigid linguistic and lived dichotomies that shape people’s identities, that police who they can love, that dictate what we should find sacred? Perhaps it’s not a question of “how far have we come”, but of the fecundity of our processes that seek to understand and learn from difference. </p>
<p>Cultures seek sameness, likeness, but more and more, globally, we need to relate to difference, to keep trying to comprehend how different skins, different histories, different sexualities, different beliefs might find openness in living together. That quest for enlightened attitudes to difference speaks into what is at the root of both sacred and secular approaches to living on the earth.</p>
<p>It is a continuing conundrum that in this so-called secular nation of Australia we cannot find fuller and richer ways – politically, religiously - of acknowledging past violence and failure, of moving forward into places where differences are proudly enunciated, rather than nourishing the roots of hatred and dismissal of the other. This conundrum is highlighted when we consider relations between white and Aboriginal Australia. </p>
<p>How often have I heard (white) academics making welcome to country pronouncements, acknowledging Aboriginal sacred relations to place and country, but then in more ways than one eschewing, for themselves, the category of the sacred?</p>
<p>What is it that makes one people declare its sacred relation to ancestors and country, and another people so committed to a modern, secular existence – the material, or hyper-capitalist, or individualistic – while cohabiting the same country? </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236788/original/file-20180918-158246-1ls8p67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236788/original/file-20180918-158246-1ls8p67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236788/original/file-20180918-158246-1ls8p67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236788/original/file-20180918-158246-1ls8p67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236788/original/file-20180918-158246-1ls8p67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236788/original/file-20180918-158246-1ls8p67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236788/original/file-20180918-158246-1ls8p67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236788/original/file-20180918-158246-1ls8p67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Queensland’s Innovation Minister Kate Jones (centre right) and entrepreneurs watch an Indigenous welcome to country performance on arrival at the 2018 Myriad Festival in Brisbane in May.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Peled/AAP</span></span>
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<p>It was good, therefore, to hear recently of Australian academic David Newheiser’s current research project, Atheism and Christianity: Moving Beyond Polemic, emerging from a team at the Australian Catholic University’s Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry. </p>
<p>Yes, the Catholic institutional context of ACU might raise some immediate questions about the nature of real debate in this evaluation of atheism. But listening to the reach and openness of this project is fascinating and uplifting (for more, go to ABC Radio National’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/spiritofthings/should-christians-and-atheists-get-along/10040020">The Spirit of Things</a> podcast). Old, cold dualisms are tumbling in this piece of research into the interrelatedness of belief in both atheism and Christianity.</p>
<p>And in relation to our joint life in Australia, racially and spiritually, Aboriginal people today are addressing the present Prime Minister, asking that he hear their claims to sovereignty and deep, historical, sacred relations to culture, country and language. The words of that enormously popular 1991 Yothu Yindi song <a href="https://genius.com/Yothu-yindi-treaty-lyrics">Treaty</a> still ring out.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now two rivers run their course<br>
Separated for so long<br>
I’m dreaming of a brighter day<br>
When the waters will be one<br></p>
<p>Treaty Yeh Treaty Now Treaty Yeh Treaty Now<br>
Treaty Yeh Treaty Now Treaty Yeh Treaty Now<br></p>
<p>Nhima djatpangarri nhima walangwalang<br>
Nhe djatpayatpa nhima gaya’ nhe marrtjini yakarray<br>
Nhe djatpa nhe walang gumurrt jararrk gutjuk</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>With its wonderful, 1980s guitar riffs, the song still holds up, still provokes dreams of “a brighter day/When the waters will be one.”</p>
<p>Of course “one” here doesn’t suggest homogenization, a cloaking of all difference, a refusal to acknowledge racial distinctions, languages and cultures. There are two rivers, different languages, the need for a treaty between different worldviews; but there is, equally, a dream of harmony and respect, a hearing of the others’ voices, a reflective displacing of the dichotomy “us and them”.</p>
<p>In political reality there is, of course, still a great divide, a hierarchy of black and white, of them and us, pre-modern and modern, colonised and coloniser. But there is also lyrical, even utopian, hope. A moving beyond dualisms listened to by many in the music of Yothu Yindi, Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter, and the transcendent Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-dr-g-yunupinu-took-yolnu-culture-to-the-world-81676">How Dr G.Yunupiŋu took Yolŋu culture to the world</a>
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<p>In his monumental and widely influential 2007 work <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/824412.A_Secular_Age?from_search=true">A Secular Age</a>, theologian Charles Taylor wrote of the West’s history of belief and secularism, up to the current moment where, in what he describes as the secular wasteland: “… young people will begin again to explore beyond the boundaries”, eschewing the disembodying of spiritual, celebrating “the integrity of different ways of life”. </p>
<p>Today, flesh and spirit are in new forms of exploration, popular music soaring in the updraught.</p>
<p><em>For an extended discussion of Cave’s lyrics see <a href="http://dro.deakin.edu.au/view/DU:30101010">Lyn McCreddin’s essays</a> in Lovely Creatures: The Best of Nick Cave, and the Bad Seeds (1984-2014) or in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6304923-cultural-seeds">Cultural Seeds: Essays on the Work of Nick Cave,</a> (2009). eds. Karen Welberry and Tanya Dalziell.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lyn McCredden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The enquiry into sacredness is not over, it’s just beginning for the 21st century, and in wildly disparate modes and places. In music, Nick Cave, Hozier and Dr G. Yunupingu have led the way.Lyn McCredden, Personal Chair, Literary Studies, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/866062017-11-01T22:37:17Z2017-11-01T22:37:17ZCrop circles blur science, paranormal in X-Files culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192709/original/file-20171031-18693-14unifg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An intricate crop circle spans a diameter of more than 45 metres in a barley field close to Barbury Castle near Wroughton, England, about 130 kilometres west of London, in 2008. The circle is noteworthy for its complexity, representing the first 10 digits of the mathematical constant pi, or 3.141592654.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lucy_Pringle_Aerial_Shot_of_Pi_Crop_Circle_-_panoramio.jpg">Lucy Pringle</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Crop circles are some of the most beautiful, mysterious and controversial landscape phenomena in the contemporary world. They are found around the globe, appearing in countries with large areas of agricultural land. They are also central to a shift in culture with investigative approaches that mimic science and increasingly make the <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaalexander/13-episodes-of-the-x-files-to-watch-this-hallowe-1030w">paranormal mainstream</a>.</p>
<p>Unlike UFOs, ghosts and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sasquatch-court-bc-1.4375801">sasquatches</a>, crop circles are tangible — people can touch and walk into them. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/12/surge-crop-circles-caused-drone-users-police-say/">At least 30 appeared in England last summer</a>. In British Columbia, crop circle formations appeared in Vanderhoof, about 100 kilometres west of Prince George, in 1998 and 2001. </p>
<p>Crop circles and what people do with them represent one aspect of <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/geography/news-and-events/news-archives/news-2015/20151113-paul-kingsbury-sshrc-grant-awarded.html">my ongoing four-year research project</a>, which explores the recent growth of beliefs, practices and experiences related to the paranormal. My fieldwork studies investigative paranormal groups in the Vancouver area and paranormal conferences across North America and England.</p>
<p>Recent literature in the social sciences on <a href="http://www.paranormalculturesresearch.com">paranormal cultures</a> argues that despite the rise of a secular, post-religious society, paranormal discourses are becoming increasingly significant in <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Co-habiting-with-Ghosts-Knowledge-Experience-Belief-and-the-Domestic/Lipman/p/book/9781409467724">people’s lives</a> in the West.</p>
<p>Because the <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/paranormal">paranormal</a> refers to “events or phenomena… that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding,” researchers have long acknowledged that the paranormal intersects with “normal” everyday life. </p>
<p>Recently, however, as a result of a paranormal influence in popular culture, the rise of new spiritualities and commodities associated with them — such as cauldrons, healing crystals and online psychic services — researchers have begun to question describing interest in the paranormal as subcultural or countercultural, rather than mainstream. </p>
<h2>Paranormal goes mainstream and scientific</h2>
<p>Investigative organizations and international conferences that mobilize paranormal feelings, knowledge and practices are central to the merger between the paranormal and the mainstream. </p>
<p>Drawing on the models and techniques that mimic conventional science, these conferences and organizations are open to the public and have led to the democratization of paranormal investigation and availability of paranormal experiences.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The 1990s TV series, <em>The X-Files</em>, which followed FBI agents investigating strange phenomena, has regained popularity and returned to production amid rising interest in the paranormal.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Researchers — especially in the humanities — acknowledge the relevance of the paranormal. Yet enduring skepticism in the social sciences about the legitimacy of the claims about paranormal phenomena and experiences has resulted in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-07-26/scientific-crop-circle-research-held-back-by-ufo-links/7660712">a lack of critical studies</a> on how people are actually engaging with the paranormal.</p>
<p>Academic research has already acknowledged the importance of local paranormal groups and international conferences that engage paranormal phenomena — in particular ghosts, UFOs and <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cryptid">cryptids</a> such as sasquatch. Yet we know very little about the relationships between these groups and conferences, as well as why and how they shape people’s everyday lives.</p>
<p>My study helps explain how paranormal organizations and conferences are contributing to these sociocultural changes. </p>
<h2>Rationality conflicts with crop circles’ mystery</h2>
<p>Crop circle research or “cereology” exemplifies the tension between the ordinary and extraordinary.</p>
<p>No matter what one understands to be the cause of crop circles, whether they are all human-made or involve aquifers, ley lines, divine feminine energy, ancient sacred sites, ball lightning or even UFOs, crop circles bring to the fore a mysterious disconnection between language and the visible, as described in Jean-François Lyotard’s book <em><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8468070-discourse-figure">Discourse, Figure</a></em>. </p>
<p>The French philosopher argues there is an unstable relationship between linguistic meaning and units of signification, that is, the visible patterns of words, dreams, symbols and visual art. Because there is no inherent meaning in any given signifier (meaning always relies on another word and a wider context), and art and symbols are conceptually opaque by default, they necessarily defy easy rational understanding.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192744/original/file-20171031-18700-13qz7po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crop circle enthusiast from Dublin lies on the ground to connect with what he believes are sacred energies in a crop circle in Wiltshire, England, in July.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Paul Kingsbury)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Case in point: Events at the <a href="http://temporarytemples.co.uk/event/summer-lectures-crop-circle-conference-2017">2017 Summer Lectures Crop Circle Conference</a> in Devizes, England, illustrated the difficulty of researching crop circles.</p>
<p>One day during the conference, I went to visit a crop circle with fellow researchers only to find a sign on a gate to the property: “Crop circle closed.” The person representing an organization that liaises between farmers and crop-circle researchers was not present. Because we could not proceed without trespassing, we got back into the car.</p>
<p>Back at the conference, an argument erupted over the behaviour of some researchers who had ignored the “Crop circle closed” sign, climbed over the fence and walked to the crop circle. </p>
<p>For one researcher, this transgression was troubling because it exhibited the crass consumption of what he believed was a sacred phenomenon. Another researcher, who had ignored the sign, replied that he respected this opinion, but felt the crop circle was “calling out” to him and that it would be more disrespectful to ignore the pull of the sacred. </p>
<p>The researchers had differing views on whether a “Crop circle closed” sign, which demarcated a boundary, should be obeyed or whether it was an inappropriate obstacle to the “call” of the crop circle.</p>
<p>The tension between the appearances and meanings of crop circles also informed the tricky patience demanded in a <a href="http://web.mit.edu/4.299/Students/diop/relevant.html">sacred geometry</a> workshop. As participants drew lines with compasses and protractors, they struggled to accurately reproduce the complex patterns of crop circles, losing small pieces of pencil lead and struggling to keep their compasses from slipping on the paper. Conference organizer Karen Alexander said the exercise gave the participants a better appreciation and intimate understanding of crop circles. </p>
<h2>Interpreting paranormal cultures</h2>
<p>As a part of my work, I explore the tensions between the visual and language, focusing on the complexity of crop-circle landscapes where enthusiasts struggle to navigate toward, inside and away from crop circles. </p>
<p>Lyotard aligns these events with “figural space” — elusive elements that disrupt and exceed the capture of language. Crucial here is how crop circles — unlike ghosts, UFOs and sasquatches — are highly tangible signs. But what they mean and what they are remains a mystery. </p>
<p>Despite claims by “<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/crop-circles-the-art-of-the-hoax-2524283/">circle-makers</a>” that they are <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10217151/Crop-circles-demystified-how-the-patterns-are-created.html">human-made</a>, the sheer size and complexity of the circles belies a 100 per cent human-made explanation. </p>
<p>According to researchers at the conference, hoaxers, when questioned about how they were able to make 80 or so perfectly round circles without breaking or snapping cereal stalks, are unable to reproduce the patterns and ignore the researchers’ questions.</p>
<p>Furthermore, finding and getting to the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/26540-crop-circles.html">crop circles</a> — navigating narrow and winding English countryside roads and locating their exact whereabouts in large fields of wheat or barley — is no small feat.</p>
<p>Like all the other paranormal investigation cultures I have studied so far, crop circle research blurs the distinction between the everyday and the extraordinary. Beyond this, one cannot discount the importance of geography in the micro-spaces of fields and conference venues. The regional nature and extent to which crop circles are landscape phenomena incites many people’s desire to shape their encounters with the sublime.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Kingsbury receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Crop circles are global phenomena gaining attention as paranormal culture becomes mainstream, along with a hybrid approach that emulates scientific investigation.Paul Kingsbury, Professor, Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/710632017-01-18T11:03:29Z2017-01-18T11:03:29ZWhy the legacy of Shakers will endure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152739/original/image-20170115-11800-jpgxq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sister Frances Carr, left, and Brother Arnold Hadd of the Shaker Village sing during a rehearsal on Sept. 13, 1995. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Adam Nadel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Monday, Jan. 2, <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2017/01/02/one-of-last-shakers-in-maine-dies/">Shaker Sister Frances Carr died</a> at the age of 89. She had been a Shaker for almost 80 years and passed away at the Shaker community at <a href="http://maineshakers.com/">Sabbathday Lake</a> in Maine. </p>
<p>Through my own research interest in the area of Christian rituals, I have developed an interest in the Shakers and Shaker history, especially related to the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UHUP_-cBln0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=shaker+experience+in+america&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij09nq3L_RAhVmslQKHd_pCUQQ6AEIHDAA#v=snippet&q=%20era%20of%20manifestations&f=false">“Era of Manifestations”</a> in the mid-19th century. That was the period when the Shakers performed elaborately choreographed forms of ritual dance and sang sacred songs during their Sunday worship (usually open to the public). </p>
<p>And so it was with a pang of sorrow that I read Sister Carr’s obituary. She had been a member of the community since 1937, when the Shakers (<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/christianity/protestant-denominations/shakers">who called themselves</a> the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing) had taken her in as a 10-year-old orphan. </p>
<p>According to one point of view, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UHUP_-cBln0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=shaker+experience+in+america&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjk7oXXy73RAhWDWSwKHejxDdsQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=establishment%20local%20autonomy&f=false">Carr was the last Shaker</a>. In the mid-20th century, as the number of Shaker villages dwindled to two (Canterbury in New Hampshire and Sabbathday Lake in Maine), members of the Canterbury group felt strongly that the church should be allowed to die out. They insisted that Shaker membership had been closed since 1965 and that no new members would be accepted by either remaining Shaker community.</p>
<p>However, the members at Sabbathday Lake stressed the autonomy of each local community. Quietly, a few younger people became associated with the Maine community in the 1960s through the 1980s. The two remaining members of this community, Arnold Hadd and June Carpenter, are <a href="http://maineshakers.com/vocations/">listed as members today</a>. </p>
<p>Regardless of which side one might take, the death of this “last” Shaker is at least the symbolic close of an era. At one point in time, Shakers were quite a notable element in the religious and cultural life of United States. Even today, from my perspective, Shaker insights and way of life have much to offer.</p>
<h2>The history of Shakers</h2>
<p>To begin with, the “Society of Believers” grew steadily in the United States from 1774, the year their founder, the English visionary and preacher Mother Ann Lee, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UHUP_-cBln0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=shaker+experience+in+america&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij09nq3L_RAhVmslQKHd_pCUQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=mother%20ann%201774&f=false">arrived in New York</a> with a few of her followers. </p>
<p>At first met with some resistance and even violence, Mother Ann started public preaching, prophesies, and Spirit-inspired singing and dancing. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UHUP_-cBln0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=shaker+experience+in+america&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij09nq3L_RAhVmslQKHd_pCUQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=mother%20ann%20life%20christ&f=false">She insisted</a> that Christ had already returned “in glory” from the dead, as he had promised in the gospels. She urged those who accepted this truth to respond by confessing their sins and then gathering together to live new lives in more perfect societies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152738/original/image-20170115-11812-eayear.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152738/original/image-20170115-11812-eayear.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152738/original/image-20170115-11812-eayear.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152738/original/image-20170115-11812-eayear.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152738/original/image-20170115-11812-eayear.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152738/original/image-20170115-11812-eayear.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152738/original/image-20170115-11812-eayear.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Dec. 23, 1978 photo of Eldress Bertha Lindsay, left, and Gertrude Soule decorating their artificial Christmas tree at Canterbury, New Hampshire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Believers dissolved their marriages in order to live in <a href="http://hancockshakervillage.org/shaker-history-faqs/">communal villages,</a> practicing strict celibacy as “brothers” and “sisters.” Those who had children allowed them to be raised by the community; they also took in orphaned and unwanted children. </p>
<p>They held all of their goods in common, made their own clothes, constructed and invented their own tools and architecture, and lived their days according to a specific order in work and prayer. Apart from one <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p247.html">urban community in Philadelphia</a>, composed largely of African-American Shaker women, Shaker villages were agricultural communities, self-sufficient for the most part, supporting themselves by selling their produce and crafts. Most notable of these were <a href="http://blog.library.si.edu/2015/04/tis-a-gift-to-be-simple-but-to-have-a-splendid-garden-buy-shaker-seeds/#.WHkjy_krJSY">packaged seeds</a>, a joint venture of several Shaker communities marketed as the Shaker Seed Company.</p>
<h2>Decline of the community</h2>
<p>For almost 100 years, <a href="http://elib.hamilton.edu/shaker-communities">Shaker communities</a> grew and expanded in the eastern United States. In the first part of the 19th century, there were more than 20 Shaker communities <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/shaker/shakers.htm">housing some 6,000 members</a>, concentrated largely in New England and New York but scattered in other states as far west as Kentucky and as far south as Florida.</p>
<p>However, during the second half of the 19th century, the Shaker movement began a long decline. American society was going through a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UHUP_-cBln0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=shaker+experience+in+america&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij09nq3L_RAhVmslQKHd_pCUQQ6AEIHDAA#v=snippet&q=shakers%20civil%20war&f=false">period of rapid transformation</a>, sparked both by the Civil War and the impact of the Industrial Revolution. </p>
<p>Against this backdrop, many elements of Shaker life seemed at best antiquated (for instance, their determined rejection of “the world”) and at worst repellent (especially their insistence on mandatory celibacy). The number of aspirants wishing to join dropped and people began to leave Shaker communities. The remaining Shaker population was rapidly aging.</p>
<p>Slowly, Shaker village after Shaker village closed and the land was sold to local towns or private individuals. One example is the <a href="http://www.shirleyhistory.org/shaker.htm">Shaker village in Shirley</a>, Massachusetts, which was repurposed as a boys’ reform school for decades (1908-1972); some of the land was then used for a new prison. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152737/original/image-20170115-11800-1gr54qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152737/original/image-20170115-11800-1gr54qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152737/original/image-20170115-11800-1gr54qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152737/original/image-20170115-11800-1gr54qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152737/original/image-20170115-11800-1gr54qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152737/original/image-20170115-11800-1gr54qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152737/original/image-20170115-11800-1gr54qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A June 8, 2015 photo of an archaeological dig at the Shaker village in Enfield, New Hampshire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://theconversation.com/what-shaped-kings-prophetic-vision-71252">AP Photo/Jim Cole</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sections of 15 others, including Sabbathday Lake, were preserved as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/shaker/sitelist.htm">historical sites</a> through the National Parks Service, and are still open today for tours and workshops.</p>
<p>A few Shaker songs, originally used during ritual dances or prayer services, <a href="http://www.bostoncamerata.org/nAmericanVocalist.html">survive in folk and classical music</a> such as composer Aaron Copland’s <a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/milestones/991027.motm.apspring.html">“Appalachian Spring.”</a> One, <a href="http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/JosephBrackettSimpleGifts.htm">“Simple Gifts,”</a> is <a href="http://www.hymnary.org/tune/simple_gifts">still taught</a> and sung in schools, churches and by professional musicians.</p>
<p>Today, most people use the term “Shaker” in the same way as they would “Amish,” as an adjective designating a simple, “hand-crafted” style of design in clothing or furniture, like Shaker sweaters or Shaker furniture. </p>
<h2>Lasting legacy</h2>
<p>But regardless of whether or not the Shakers’ actual communities survive the 21st century, many believe their influence has shaped and will continue to shape American thought and culture in more than one way.</p>
<p>Members of the society, for example, were <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=y26U8TUVPq0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=mothers+first+born+gaughters&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK0obDzL3RAhUGjiwKHRH_C_sQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=mothers%20first%20born%20gaughters&f=false">early proponents of gender equality</a> , based on the fundamental teaching of Mother Ann that all believers were radically united in Christ’s second coming (<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=y26U8TUVPq0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=mothers+first+born+gaughters&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK0obDzL3RAhUGjiwKHRH_C_sQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=mothers%20first%20born%20gaughters&f=false">not without some internal struggles on how that should be best expressed after her death</a>). Christ was already present, they believed, within each of them and among them as a community; therefore, harmony was a key element in the structuring of all Shaker communities. </p>
<p>Teams of both sisters and brothers served in leadership roles as Elders and Eldresses, and Mother Ann continued to be the touchstone figure for all of the communities. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=y26U8TUVPq0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=mothers+daughters+shaker&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1ofDL3L_RAhXhilQKHST_B78Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=mother%20ann%20lee%20important%20figure&f=false">Narratives about Mother’s life</a>, words and actions, collected at various points during the Shaker experience, continued to highlight her venerated position as suffering woman, formidable prophet and spiritual mother.</p>
<p>Believers were also determined pacifists, holding that warfare was antithetical to true Christianity. Throughout the history of the United States, they refused to serve in the military and protested against conscription. During the Civil War, they were <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=mGrxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77&lpg=PA77&dq=shaker+pacifists&source=bl&ots=xXBgVY1UBC&sig=16i8rM92HvDT6tpuw-77OExogWY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjrkvSyv73RAhVCrRQKHS7pBsI4ChDoAQgzMAg#v=onepage&q=shaker%20pacifists&f=false">among the first groups</a> to receive <a href="https://www.sss.gov/consobj">conscientious objector status</a> or an official exemption from military service based on their religious beliefs, along with the Quakers. </p>
<p>Members of the society stressed a simplicity of lifestyle, expressed in a strong sense of responsibility and adaptability in their daily actions and decisions. They accepted both “science” and “religion” as part of God’s truth, and so <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Yh18lhH-ytwC&pg=PA215&lpg=PA215&dq=shakers+science+and+religion&source=bl&ots=EraFETxs4a&sig=KsGAYDWLr9OobjoZSQ5grzzLlzY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjClpi1x73RAhVBJJoKHSPqCX0Q6AEIPjAG#v=onepage&q=shakers%20science%20and%20religion&f=false">never rejected technological advances</a>, just the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UHUP_-cBln0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=shaker+experience+in+america&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij09nq3L_RAhVmslQKHd_pCUQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=shakers%20united%20christ&f=false">materialism that tended to come with them.</a> </p>
<p>They abhorred waste. Visitors and guests at mealtimes were reminded to “Shaker their plate” or to take what they wished but <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vJbVtm0AGnYC&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=shaker+your+plate+saying&source=bl&ots=_sVD6HyY65&sig=tKF_hE2M74i7ZH5SITv_cGhCVhc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM2LLNyL3RAhUCGCwKHSX_AYcQ6AEISTAJ#v=onepage&q=shaker%20your%20plate%20saying&f=false">leave no uneaten food on the plate</a>. Shaker buildings were simple but practical; furniture was plain but sturdy, and designed for convenient storage. Believers were considered to have “well ordered” farms, and were efficient and “scientific” in their methods, <a href="http://web2.uconn.edu/economics/working/1997-02.pdf">not afraid to adapt their methods to differences in agriculture</a> in different states and environments. </p>
<h2>Why death is necessary for fullest bloom</h2>
<p>Certainly, there are elements of the Shaker gospel and “harmony” that simply do not carry over into the 21st century, such as the insistence on mandatory celibacy for all members or the expectation of visions from diverse spirits. </p>
<p>But Shakers’ rejection of “the world” does offer us today some insightful reflections on contemporary issues such as their pacifism when confronted by terrorism; their mutual love and respect in the face of gender and racial divisions; and their cheerful blending of prosperity and simplicity as a response to the wasteful nature of many materialistic cultures. </p>
<p>Like the seeds they once nurtured and sold, the Shakers were themselves seeds and catalysts in American society. And as noted in the <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=4926419">Gospel of John</a>, in the New Testament,</p>
<p>“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” </p>
<p>Marked as it may be by sadness, perhaps their inevitable individual “death” is necessary in order to reach their fullest bloom and bear their richest fruit within the culture that survives them and cherishes their memory. </p>
<p>Their vision of a human society united in harmony with one another and with the natural world can offer many lessons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Shakers prioritized harmony and a simple lifestyle. They were among the earliest proponents of gender equality.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/509532015-11-18T18:37:35Z2015-11-18T18:37:35ZRe-illuminating the sacred<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102393/original/image-20151118-14214-1qscblc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Exterior of Light of the World Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The church bulletin lists a call for volunteers for a new ministry: Design for the Light. As explained by the <a href="http://lightoftheworld.org/">Light of the World Christian Church’s</a> reverend, Dr. David A. Hampton:</p>
<blockquote>This ministry will focus on using design to better communicate the message of God and to help beautify the church. Amen.</blockquote>
<p>Being trained within academic traditions of secular post-Enlightenment humanism, I am ambivalent about this call for design to serve the church. On one hand, the words of Daniel Kantor from his book, <a href="http://danielkantor.com/new-book.html">Graphic Design and Religion</a>, echo in my thoughts:</p>
<blockquote>Commercial design often projects illusions through selective or idealized truths. Design for religion must be concerned with shattering illusions and revealing truths. Design, in the end, is about beauty, which is ultimately about honesty, about God, and our response to the divine.</blockquote>
<p>My two weeks re-exposure to African American Christian culture reminds me how Christianity remains a source of strength, compassion for others, and a catalyst for social justice in America’s black communities. It is a source so strong that according to <a href="http://blackdemographics.com/culture/religion/">black demographics</a> 87% of African Americans are Christian.</p>
<p>Yet the other hand, I consider all the times when practitioners of religion have failed in its truths. Christians have used God to justify the enslavement and genocide of <a href="http://www.kingscollege.net/gbrodie/The%20religious%20justification%20of%20slavery%20before%201830.pdf">African</a> and <a href="http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/american-indians/resources/bartolom%C3%A9-de-las-casas-debates-subjugation-indians-1550">Indigenous</a> peoples in the past. Today, God has been evoked to justify the demonising of Muslims, homosexuals, transsexuals, and women who choose to terminate their pregnancies.</p>
<p>Wanting to avoid binaries of good/bad Christianity, I recognise the hypocrisy in my ambivalence about design and the Christian religion. I have praised the design for the faiths of Aboriginal Dreaming, Indian Hinduism (in spite of the problematic cultural nationalism of <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/what-hindutva-seeks/">Hindutva</a>) and Islam, and Chinese Buddhism.</p>
<p>Perhaps my lack of religious intimacy with them enables me associate these beliefs more with sacredness, of which I am more accepting, than with religion, of which I am sceptical. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102391/original/image-20151118-14241-mwttfq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102391/original/image-20151118-14241-mwttfq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102391/original/image-20151118-14241-mwttfq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102391/original/image-20151118-14241-mwttfq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102391/original/image-20151118-14241-mwttfq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102391/original/image-20151118-14241-mwttfq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102391/original/image-20151118-14241-mwttfq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102391/original/image-20151118-14241-mwttfq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I deeply believe that design will meet its true promise when designers engage in design for the sacred.</p>
<p>American religion and politics scholar, Matthew Francis, makes <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2014.976625">a case</a> for distinguishing between religion and sacredness in the study of terrorism:</p>
<blockquote>Unlike common usages of religion, often used unquestioningly as an essential quality of people or things, it is the process of setting things apart that makes actions, beliefs, or values sacred, not the things in and of themselves. So, a piece of bread might be deemed to be sacred because of the belief that it is the transubstantiated body of Christ and therefore has symbolic (and for some people actual) properties which mark it out as separate from normal bread. It is the beliefs of the social network that make communion bread sacred, nothing else. Likewise, whilst for some freedom of speech is a sacred right, for others it is just another ideal, no less subject to criticism than others, much like the right of one person one vote.</blockquote>
<p>His argument that things are <em>made</em> sacred resonates with the project of design, or more specifically design anthropology. My seventh principle of design anthropology states:</p>
<blockquote>The ultimate criteria for success of any Design Anthropology engagements are the recognized creation of conditions of compassion among the participants in project and in harmony with their wider environments.</blockquote>
<p>These conditions of compassion and harmony are achieved by endowing people and the environments with sacredness. Beyond our churches, mosques, temples, and sacred groves, how can we expand the sense of interconnections among all things by expanding the realm of the sacred?</p>
<p>Reframing Daniel Kantor’s project of design for religion, we can adapt his ten principles for the design for the sacred and apply them to that which we consider to be profane:
</p><ul>
<li><i>Leave room for mystery.<p></p>
<p></p></i></li><li><i><i>Be concerned with shattering illusions and revealing truths.<p></p>
<p></p></i></i></li><li><i><i><i>Prepare the viewer for prayer, self-discovery, and reflection and encourage the viewer to make internal shifts.<p></p>
<p></p></i></i></i></li><li><i><i><i><i>Consider the needs of the community and encourage communal consideration and common beliefs.<p></p>
<p></p></i></i></i></i></li><li><i><i><i><i>Strive to open up symbols and deepen their meaning.<p></p>
<p></p></i></i></i></i></li><li><i><i><i><i>Encourage pause and reflection.<p></p>
<p></p></i></i></i></i></li><li><i><i><i><i>Be an expression of hospitality and thus willing to offer things that may not be necessary or practical.<p></p>
<p></p></i></i></i></i></li><li><i><i><i><i>Be concerned with giving beauty, truth, mystery, and hospitality.<p></p>
<p></p></i></i></i></i></li><li><i><i><i><i>Draw upon timeless traditions so as to echo the timelessness of the sacred and divine.<p></p>
<p></p></i></i></i></i></li><li><i><i><i><i>Be prepared to open our eyes to an authentic reality that is both immanent and transcendent, genuine and attainable.</i></i></i></i></li><i><i>
</i></i></ul><i><i>
Below are some examples of design works that I think meet those principles.<p></p>
<p>In advertising, the 2014 TVC Thai Life Insurance commercial, Unsung Hero, hits all ten principles for design for the sacred.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uaWA2GbcnJU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Unsung Hero, a 2014 Thai Life Insurance advertisement.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In architecture, the Living Root bridges of Meghalaya, India achieve a sense of timelessness, mystery, reflection, and communal consideration.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102387/original/image-20151118-14214-1rym5sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102387/original/image-20151118-14214-1rym5sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102387/original/image-20151118-14214-1rym5sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102387/original/image-20151118-14214-1rym5sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102387/original/image-20151118-14214-1rym5sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102387/original/image-20151118-14214-1rym5sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102387/original/image-20151118-14214-1rym5sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102387/original/image-20151118-14214-1rym5sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Double living root bridge in East Khasi, Meghalaya, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arshiya Urveeja Bose/Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Australian architecture, I would <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-koorie-heritage-trust-re-centres-indigenous-communities-by-design-47531">mention again</a> the fit-out of the Koorie Heritage Trust as meeting the principles.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102390/original/image-20151118-14217-kumuyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102390/original/image-20151118-14217-kumuyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102390/original/image-20151118-14217-kumuyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102390/original/image-20151118-14217-kumuyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102390/original/image-20151118-14217-kumuyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102390/original/image-20151118-14217-kumuyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102390/original/image-20151118-14217-kumuyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102390/original/image-20151118-14217-kumuyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Koorie Heritage Trust gathering table.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Tunstall</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In graphic design, Norway’s new banknotes leave room for mystery, prepare the viewer for reflection on boundaries, open up and deepen the meaning of Norwegian sea coasts, encourage pause and reflection, are concerned with beauty, truth, mystery, and hospitality; and echo timelessness.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102388/original/image-20151118-14183-qm1huz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102388/original/image-20151118-14183-qm1huz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102388/original/image-20151118-14183-qm1huz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102388/original/image-20151118-14183-qm1huz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102388/original/image-20151118-14183-qm1huz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102388/original/image-20151118-14183-qm1huz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102388/original/image-20151118-14183-qm1huz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102388/original/image-20151118-14183-qm1huz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Snøhetta’s 2014 Norwegian banknotes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snøhetta</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What other designs have you seen in which the profane has been made sacred by meeting Kantor’s principles?</p></i></i><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
‘I deeply believe that design will meet its true promise when designers engage in design for the sacred.’Elizabeth Dori Tunstall, Associate Professor, Design Anthropology, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.