List of Possible Religions to Research

---

Try to select a religion from the following list,(not your tradition) those numbered 32-37 will be difficult to find Bibliography on). I will create the Teams (#?) from those of similar choice; six roles to a team

1. METHODISTS
2. LUTHERAN
3. CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATER DAY SAINTS
4. BAPTIST
5. BUDDHISM/and/ITS SPECIES
6. EPISCOPALIAN(ANGLICAN)
7. SOCIETY OF FRIENDS/QUAKERS
8. DISCIPLES OF CHRIST & CHRISTIAN CHURCH
9. GREEK ORTHODOX
10. PENTECOSTAL
11. MARIONITE UNIATE
12. CHURCH OF GOD
13. ROSTAFARIANISM
14. SHINTO
15. CONGREGATIONALISTS
16. UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
17. CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, SCIENTIST
18. 7th DAY ADVENTISTS
19. UNITARIANS
20. ORTHODOX JUDAISM
21. ISLAM
22. SALVATION ARMY
23. JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
24. PRESBYTERIANS
25. REFORM JUDAISM/and/RECONSTRUCTIONIST JUDAISM
26. SANTERIA/VODUN
27. REORGANIZED CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATER DAY SAINTS
28. SIKHS
29. AMISH / MENNONITES
30. ASSEMBLY OF GOD
31. CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM

THE FOLLOWING CAN BE CHOSEN ONLY AFTER THE ABOVE ARE TAKEN

32. NAVAJO/HOPI/PUEBLO-NATIVE AMERICAN(Check Tony Hillerman's writings).
33. SIOUX/CREE-NATIVE AMERICAN
34. REFORMED CHURCH
35. SEMINOLE/MIKASUKEE NATIVE AMERICAN
36. IMANI TEMPLE
37. MASONS(YORK AND SCOTISH RITES)
38. SCIENTOLOGY
39. UNITY
40. UNIFICATION

Hand in a slip of paper to the professor (on the 2nd day) with your name,date,class and your choice of three(3) religions, in the order of your preference. ONE TEAM TO ONE RELIGION, FIRST ONE TO REQUEST-FIRST CHOICE(if available and not already selected, professor will make the final decesion). Contents of TEAM presentation and Paper:

Outline

1)Explain the name of the religion;
2)if it was a breakoff or derrived from another(and in what way(s) of was it syncrenistic;
3)What are its beliefs;
4)What are its practices(i.e.rites or worship service(s))and moral values; and, report on your attendance at one of these services and it's outline and and content. Interview a minister(priest or rabbi),a lay member of that church.Hand in an address;the name of the minister; the time of the service you will attend(and when) and the books you have on the subject to Fr. Madden one week after your choice is approved.(Also,please include their Sacred Writings and Founder[s])

Spiritual Insights

Jung said:

"healthy religious expression is integral to the health of the soul, and if an individual tries to completely do away with religious expression, they will become sick. They must maintain a vital link to spirit and religious reality."

An Episcopalian Priest, Rev. Leo Booth, says(THE MIAMI HERALD, Fri.,Jan. 27,1995, Sect. 3-F)expresses the following insight:

"Many victims of abusive Christianity(whether through one's parents well intentioned,but perhaps misinformed or guided knowledge, or one's own guilts[from whatever source]},are angry with God and religion and do not want to have anything to do with either. But refugees from religion also give up on spirituality, the part of themselves which helps them feel connected to people and the world around them. In essence, they give up a large part of being human. Such spiritual disconnectedness, the authors [Milam and Harris],say leads to family violence and sexual dysfunction [perhaps, from the self inflected 'isolation', the PLOM syndrome [i.e. the Poor Little Ole Me], that leads to anti-social behavior and perhaps neurosis or psychosis."

He continues:

"a lot of unhealthy religious beliefs that keep people stuck in codependency and low selfesteem because they don't feel they have the power to change their lives. Whatever guilt and shame may look like, if they are tinged with a false understanding and practice of(religion) they become toxic. The childhood image of an angry, punishing God, or a knight-in-shining-armor God, or a Santa Claus God who does out blessings only to those who deserve them(which they picked up someplace from someone in error)prevents many adults from developing a healthy, mature, responsible relationship with God, says Booth, the vicar of an Episcopal church outside Los Angeles. When we don't get fixed, or get our rewards, no mater how good we are, we get mad at God or think of changing religions(running by changing people, places, things and locations, forgetting that we pack 'ourselves' in the bag for the trip and that when we get there we will be there just as we were). Such a childish image of God keeps people running from belief system to belief system, or causes them to walk away from God or region altogether."

The Rev. Tommy Watson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Perrine, cautions against intense individual spirituality the comes without obligations or the potential for guilt as an answer to the perceived abuses Both and the others above describe:

"...The Bible says when God looked down in the days of Noah, every man did that which was right IN HIS[HER] OWN EYES, and calamity followed. [Doing your own thing] doesn't work in running a HOME, in running a JOB, or when you're trying to have principles and values in life. People are not helped by saying there are no absolutes. They are helped by saying there is a God who will empower you (who created you and said that:"you were GOOD...") to help you keep those absolutes." (And BE of service to OTHERS)."

---

Fr. Madden / July-96