Must See Interfaith Film: "Pray the Devil Back to Hell"

Yesterday my friend John called to urge me to dash out and see a movie that he thought illustrated exactly what Interfaith Paths to Peace and its mission are about. So, I went to see it last night.

He was right.

The film is called "Pray the Devil Back to Hell." It's a documentary about how Muslim and Christian women in Liberia band together to stop a civil war ravaging that West African country during the middle part of this decade.

The women use every tool they can think of from withholding sex from their husbands to surrounding and barracading negotiators in a building at a stalled peacemaking conference until they bring peace to Liberia.

The film illustrates how seemingly powerless people can move mountains when they work together and show imagination, creativity and steadfastness of purpose.

The film is currently showing in Louisville at the Village 8 Theaters. It may only screen in Louisville for a few days. So, go see it if you can.

Here are details about the local screening. A link to the film's web site is at the end of this e-mail.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

No Rating
Length: 72 min
Plotline Summary
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell" is the gripping account of a group of brave women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-long civil war. The women's historic achievement finds its voice in a narrative that intersperses interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia together to recount the memories of a few of the women who were there. In 2003, Liberia was a country devastated by decades of political dislocation, humanitarian crisis, and street-to-street urban warfare. Charles Taylor, then President of Liberia, had emptied the country's pockets as creatively as any dictator in memory. His ascent to power led to the deaths of thousands of people and a nation in complete ruin. Out of the wreckage, more than 2000 Christian and Muslim women throughout the country began to organize and banded together in an effort to bring an end to the fighting. At great person risk, they protested creatively and persistently for peace in the worst days of brutal and protracted civil conflict.

MOVIE TIMES FOR:
Wed 29
Thu 30
Fri 1
Village 8 Cinema
(1:25 PM), (3:20), (5:35), 7:50 PM

Here's a link to more information about the film:

http://www.praythedevilbacktohell.com/v3/

What We Think of as a Religious Experience

I was having lunch today with my friend Melissa Bernstrum when I was moved to ponder what we think of as a "religious" experience.

Since we hadn't talked in a long time, we were catching up on things. Melissa told me that other than news of family and work the thing that was most on her mind was Tai Chi (an ancient Chinese form of what I would call movement meditation). Melissa practices (and teaches) Tai Chi several times a week.

(if you live in Louisville and would like to experience Tai Chi, there is a free offering from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays featuring Tai Chi master, Baba Serikali, at the Public Health Building at Preston and Gray)

She waxed enthusiastic about this meditation and said, "For me it's almost a religious experience."

I looked at her for a moment and said, "Melissa, from the sound of joy in your voice, I would say tht it IS a religious experience for you.

That just draws my attention to the fact that for some odd reason we don't think of things that connect us most deeply to our spiritual selves as "religious experiences." But they are.

Easter is a time to be especially mindful of our Jewish friends

Last night I took part in a Seder dinner marking the beginning of Passover for Jews.

Earlier in the day, I read an opinion piece in the Louisville Courier-Journal by Rev. Joe Phelps of Highland Baptist Church. In his article Joe talks about how some Christian groups are trying to surreptitiously present a Seder meal replete with Christian symbols as an authentic Jewish Seder.

This is unfortunate and dangerous.

Here's what Joe has to say:

. . . Healing in the holidays

By Joe Phelps
Special to The Courier-Journal

My friend Mark sent me an article last week describing a newly published book on Passover, innocuously titled Passover Family Pack: Everything You Need To Enjoy a Passover Seder Dinner. Problem is: it's a Christian book that "Christianizes" the various Passover symbols (the wine represents the blood of Jesus; the matzo represents his body; the three matzot represent the Christian Holy Trinity ... you get the idea). Unsuspecting Jews, beware.

Mark, who is Jewish, sends articles like this occasionally as a way to assure me that he's not a paranoid wack job when he speaks of being fearful of Christians targeting his faith tradition for takeover or annihilation, or when he says that the Easter season is his most dreaded time of year because "we'll get blamed for killing Christ all over again."

Mark is my soul brother. Though we come from different faiths, we share a faith nonetheless.

So I feel compelled at the outset of Christians' Holy Week to state the obvious: Using the death of Jesus to fuel anti-Semitism is flat wrong, perhaps even evil. "The Jews," as John's gospel calls Jesus' adversaries, refers to a certain segment of the religious leadership more worried about control than they were the ways of God. "The Jews" are not all Jews. Besides, Jesus (a Jew) made it clear that the mission of His followers was to love, forgive, reconcile. So to stir up anger against Jewish people today or to scapegoat all Jews in history is a bastardization of the central message of Christianity's leader.

Here's a link to the full article by Rev. Phelps.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904080448

My Jewish friends from time to time remind me that Judaism and Christianity are two separate religions. There is really no such thing as "Judeo-Christian." Jews have their own theology, beliefs and practices. Christians may see the roots of their beliefs in Judaism, but Christians should respect and honor our Jewish brothers and sisters for who they are.

So I call on all of my Christian friends to have a blessed Easter, but to at the same time honor our Jewish friends as they observe the powerful Jewish observance of Passover.

Native American/Catholic Spiritual Leader Jose Hobday deat at 80

A news alert from National Catholic Reporter:

José Hobday, Native American spiritual author, dead at 80
Franciscan Sr. José Hobday, an influential spiritual lecturer, author and storyteller, died April 5 at age 80 at the Casa de la Luz Hospice in Tucson, Ariz.

Hobday, a Native American, thought that Christians have much to learn from the Native American tradition, including how to make prayer more creation-centered, how to have a greater appreciation of the connection between the living and the dead, how to love and respect silence and cherish solitude, and how to place a greater emphasis on celebration. Native Americans, she once said, have a tradition of creating sacred space within the natural environment and then "giving it back."

She also spoke of our need to cultivate a love for the land in order to stop the destruction of its beauty. She said she saw the Divine present in the people she met, ordinary people doing everyday things: an elderly woman with cancer, a supermarket worker, a truck driver, cowboys, policemen and especially the poor and downtrodden people of world.

Here's a link to the full National Catholic Reporter story:

http://ncronline.org/news/people/jos%C3%A9-hobday-native-american-spiritual-author-dead-80

We can do something about the genocide in Darfur

Friends,

You might not know that there is an interfaith working group right here in Louisville addressing the human rights crisis in Darfur.

The group, called the Kentuckiana Interfaith Taskforce on Darfur (or KITOD) provides information about the Darfur crisis and also advocates for solutions.

Here's a message from our friends Bob Brousseau and Dave Robinson (leaders of KITOD).

The monthly meeting on Darfur is Thursday, April 9th at 7:00 p.m. in the Crescent Hill Public Library conference room (in the basement). The address is 2762 Frankfort Avenue.

Even more to talk about than usual (which is good and bad). By then we will have completed our Senate and House visits, and are planning our next initiatives as well as discussing options for moving forward given the recent developments.

We meet the 2nd Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. and sincerely look forward to seeing you there. Bring your ideas, enthusiasm and a friend! Contact one of us if you need directions to the library, etc. Feel free to forward this.

Thanks.
Dave Robinson
502-452-8197
Bob Brousseau
502-931-9371
Kentuckiana Interfaith Taskforce On Darfur (KITOD)
http://louisvilliansfordarfur.org

Thursday is Maundy Thursday...What does "maundy" mean?

I was talking to my friend Chris Harmer the other day and mentioned that Thursday, April 9, is Maundy Thursday. Chris wondered what the word "maundy" means, and I was embarrassed that I couldn't tell him. So I looked it up on dictionary.com.

The word relates to a ceremony performed by some Christians on the Thursday of Holy Week (the Thursday before Easter). As part of the ceremony, the celebrant washes the feet of several selected members of the congregation that is present.

This ceremony mirrors the act recounted in the Christian Gospels of how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples in an effort to show them the importance of a leader actually humbling himself or herself, and serving those he or she leads. Following the foot washing, Jesus commanded (mandated) His followers to follow His example.

It is this word mandate that thus gives us the word "Maundy" via the Middle English. Here's the definition from dictionary.com

maundy  

1. the ceremony of washing the feet of the poor, esp. commemorating Jesus' washing of His disciples' feet on Maundy Thursday.

2. Also called maundy money. money distributed as alms in conjunction with the ceremony of maundy or on Maundy Thursday.

Origin: 1250–1300; ME maunde ">mandātum command, mandate (from the opening phrase novum mandātum (Vulgate) of Jesus' words to the disciples after He had washed their feet).

Photo exhibit gives insight into the lives of monks

There's a wonderful exhibit in Louisville that may be going unnoticed...unless you saw last Sunday's Courier-Journal.

Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO, a monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown is an accomplished art photographer and published poet.

A selection of his photographs, documenting life at the monastery, opened last Friday in an usual setting: Bishops Hall in Dicoesan House adjacent to Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Louisville. The photographs reveal the deftness of someone who is familiar with both the finer points of photography and the intricacies (and ironies) of Cistercian monastic life.

Here's the link to the full Courier-Journal storystory:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904050434

Exhibit of Brother Paul Quenon's photos

Where: Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral,

421 S. Second St.

When: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays,

9 a.m. to noon Fridays; through May 15.

Information: 587-1354