Graduate Degrees in God

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from the Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2001 with a headline: “Religious studies take an egalitarian tilt,” date line: Goleta, California.The students call their major “religion on the ground.” One studies a singles group loving for love in the Los Angeles synagogue Friday nights.Another compares Hinduism and Christianity.His master’s thesis profiles Caesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers, as a religious mystic.A class schedule at the Religious Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, reads like a road sign in a global village.“Islam in America,” “Medieval Judaism,” “Early Christian Novels,” and “Shintoism,” along with related languages from Arabic to Ugaratic.Tucked inside the Humanities building, faculty offices are dotted with Buddhas and prayer rugs, ritual swords and a global selection of sacred texts, all facets of the larger picture.UC Santa Barbara’s religion studies program brings together the jumble of modern culture and reassembles it under the heading of religion.Although the standard university approach to the study of religion draws heavily from Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish traditions, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, American Indians and others get equal time here.And although some observers fear that this sort of broad egalitarianism can dilute all religions, many clearly see it as the future.The program has 70 students working toward graduate degrees and about 200 undergraduate majors.“It is very California,” says Barbara Deconsini, Executive Director of the AmericanAcademy of Religion.Instead of promoting any one religious faith, all are researched and analyzed says Wade Clark Rouff, head of the UC Santa Barbara department.Religion is studied by comparison.How is God different for a Hindu than say for a Jew?Rouff, a sociologist of religion is a prime example of how Santa Barbara’s program is different from most others.Rouff tracks contemporary trends in religion, particularly among baby-boomers and was among the first to notice their cafeteria approach to faith and beliefs.Catholics who allow for reincarnation and Jews who meditate with Buddhist teachers.The definition of religion here is broader than at other schools,” says Steve Lloyd Moffat, who studies Hinduism and Christianity, spending part of each school year, at a Greek Orthodox seminary in New York to deepen his understanding of that tradition.“Here religion defined as a way to create meaning through symbols,” he said.“As the country changes and a more diverse population enters public universities, programs built on Christian orthodoxies are coming to seem narrow, even insensitive.”Santa Barbara’s approach is by necessity moving into the main stream.

Tom:

Dave, I’ll pick up on this last statement.“As the country changes and a more diverse population enters public universities, programs built on Christian orthodoxies are coming to seem narrow, even insensitive.”Now we’ve got lots of different religions here and maybe you can help me out here.What’s gained by not just comparing one religion with another, but then mixing some?You know for example, the Catholics who allow for reincarnation, or Jews who meditate?How does that benefit people?

Dave:

Well Tom, “it’s very California” it says.

Tom:

Now you’re from California, so you know.

Dave:

Yes, I was born and raised.Instead, it says, instead of promoting any one religious faith….Well, I’m not interested in promoting any one religious faith.Let’s find the truth!Don’t promote anything until it’s the truth.

Tom:

I don’t find any of that in this article.

Dave:

No, there’s nothing in here about the truth.The idea is it’s a smorgasbord.You like this or that, let’s take our pick.But what’s the point?If truth does not exist, if this God who created the universe that we’ve been talking about, what is he, some kind of a silly putty God?You can mold him into everybody and anybody’s idea?He has no ideas of his own?

Tom:

I’m sure a lot of—well we know a lot of people believe that.It’s ludicrous.

Dave:

I mean this God who created this universe; I mean he put the atom together.It’s based on laws, the thing works!If it didn’t you wouldn’t know what was going to happen next when you put some things together in a test tube.No, it’s orderly; you recognize that in every area of life.But then when it comes to “religion,” oh, anything goes!Your opinion, my opinion….I often say to people, wait a minute, what does God have to say about this?”You better find out what God has to say about it and Paul in Romans 1 says he is preaching the gospel of God, not some religious idea.I don’t care what robes they wear, what fancy hats they wear, I don’t care about their tradition, I don’t care how long they’ve been around, these are human beings and unless they can show me authoritatively that what they teach comes from God, forget it!I’m not interested in the opinions of various religious scholars.How do we know it’s the gospel of God?Paul tells us, he promised it by the prophets.We have all these prophecies.You can’t deny the truth.Look Tom, it’s like I’m talking to—

Tom:

Now wait a minute, this is a university and you’d say well okay this is a university, you know.It’s paying lots of money, but let’s not offend people, let’s just go and feel good about things and gain some cultural understanding.But you have the Pope going to India, and what does he say to the religious population there?“We have come to better understand your spirituality which has meant much to the world.”Now does it matter that their spirituality, the Pope comes from a Christian perspective—

Dave:

Not really.Let’s say it’s not a biblical perspective.

Tom:

Well, no, but even from a orthodox Christian perspective, he’s looking at a spirituality that’s diametrically opposed, it contradicts—

Dave:

Absolutely.So now the Pope goes into the Buddhist temples, he deals with the Hindus, with the witch doctors in West Africa, with the voodoo priests and so forth.Oh, it’s okay, we’re all sincere, we believe in some higher power— Wait a minute!These are human ideas in order to get along with one another and not to make waves. But what does God say?And Jesus Christ said, “I am THE way, THE truth and THE life.No man comes to the Father, but by me.”Now either Jesus is a lunatic, a liar, or he is who he claims to be.And I think there’s only one conclusion you can come to.So look, all of this studying—okay it may be interesting, but the bottom line is where will you spend eternity?Who is this God?What does he say and what are his standards?We better find that out and just studying a smorgasbord of things isn’t going to help.It can bog you down.

Tom:

Yes and you see somebody might say well it’s good because if you know about someone else’s religion, you can dialogue with them, talk to them, you can gain some understanding—

Dave:

That’s okay.

Tom:

Yes, but up to a point, because this articles says well let’s not be narrow minded and claim that you have the truth.There can’t be truth in this venue.

Dave:

Yes, dialogue to what end.If truth doesn’t exist, forget it.If it does, let’s find out what it is.