This is a fascinating story that students will certainly enjoy and could even debate. In a forthcoming album, Lady Gaga appears with a full head covering, or burqa, and according to the Daily Beast, “sings provocatively about the Islamic full-body covering for women.” Did Lady Gaga go too far?  That depends on who you ask. Myriam Francois Cerrah, writing for The Independent, thinks that Lady Gaga’s burqa is good for Muslim women and makes an interesting argument. Noting that many... Read more

Did a Missouri priest perform a miracle and help save a 19 year old girl? Some believe he did. Watch the clip and read the story from the Huffington Post. Read more

How do the scholars define religion? Marx called it opium of the people.” Freud called it “an illusion produced by psychological projection.”  But others like Mircea Eliade, Rudolf Otto, and Ninian Smart had different ideas. I do a jigsaw using short readings about each of these scholars from Russell McCutcheon’s book, Studying Religion,  Students complete a chart with a little background on each scholar and a summary of their major ideas about religion.  In addition to the readings, here are several clips... Read more

These are Raelians, if you did not know. They want to rehabilitate the swastika, not as a symbol of hate but as one of peace for which it was originally intended. The swastika was indeed part of the early Vedic religion. According to this Guardian article, the Raelians were formed in 1974 by race car enthusiast, Claude Vorilhon, and say they have over 70,000 members. They are interested in scientific mortality and, according to The Guardian,, that is “why their... Read more

School starts in just a few weeks, so I thought that I would start posting some ideas for the first few weeks of  religion class.  In World Religions, we will begin trying to understand why we study religion. I ask students to read two short essays, one from the Academy of Religion, simply called “Why Study Religion?” and another by James Carroll, called “Why Religion Still Matters.” Carroll is a Boston Globe columnist and former Catholic priest. We discuss both... Read more

Ancestor worship.  Both the Japanese and the Chinese venerate their ancestors and the tradition dates back to at least the Zhou dynasty.  Here’s a modern holiday that celebrates ancestors.The Buddhist Festival of Souls, called the  Bon or Obon festival, occurs in Japan in July and in China in August. The Japanese believe that the souls of their ancestors return to their homes on earth. It’s their job to guide them and help them find peace. The Japanese usually hang lanterns... Read more

Secretary of State John Kerry recognized the importance of religion in politics and  foreign policy when he recently announced a new State Department initiative–a faith-based community office. Shaun Casey, professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, will head the office. Casey also advised President Obama’s presidential campaign on outreach to religious voters. According to the The Huffington Post, religious leaders have campaigned for such an office for a long time. You can read more about Casey and the... Read more

The Royal Society, a fellowship of some the most eminent scientists, has a great online exhibition of the Islamic roots of modern science from astronomy to medicine. Just click on one of the titles for the story. You can also download the exhbition catalog. All of this could make for a great webquest. Thanks to David Korfhage for tweeting the link. Read more

Eid al-Fitr is a two-day festival that marks the end of Ramadan for Muslims around the world. It begins, according to to the news clip above and the BBC, with the sighting of the crescent moon. The Guardian has a good story about the mechanics of fasting in extremely hot temperatures, “…how the body is able to cope in temperatures that have been higher than in Miami at times…” You can also find pictures about Eid al-Fitr at this slideshow... Read more

People will do a lot things for faith. Here, the BBC reports, four Buddhist pilgrims are trying to crawl from Gansu to the holy city of Lhasa, in an attempt to show their faith in the Buddha. Read more