Center on Religion & the Professions

Improving religious literacy among professionals.

Religion and the News Media

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This case utilizes the following four articles. The situation described in the problem is hypothetical.

The journalistic coverage of religion is on the rise as the visibility of religion and spirituality increases in American society, politics and popular culture. The managing editors of the publications that printed the stories listed above have been inundated with reader feedback – both positive and negative. After seeing the volume and passion of the letters, the editors decide they must respond. Each editor asks the ombudsman to evaluate the stories to determine whether the stories were fair. Ultimately the editors want the ombudsmen to write columns on how reporters should cover controversial issues involving religion and diverse religious beliefs and practices with which reporters may be unfamiliar. The ombudsmen will also consider ways for reporters to minimize personal bias in reporting about religion.

Issues and Study Questions

  • Based on the overview above, what are the issues?
  • What are the beliefs at issue here?
  • Why did the readers support or object to the coverage?
  • What could the journalists do differently?
  • What do you feel the ombudsmen should do here?
  • Why was religion an issue in this situation?
  • What is the responsibility of the publishers in such a situation? What about other professions?
  • Do you think there is a “right” and “wrong” way to handle this situation? Why? Why not?
  • Have you faced similar issues in your own profession or personal life? If so, what were they? Were they resolved?
  • What can be learned?
  • Do you think education about religious literacy would have helped/harmed in this situation? How so?

Source: Religion and the Professions (General Honors 1030) taught by Dr. Jill Raitt, University of Missouri

School Nurse Conundrum

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Next week, Jack, a school nurse, is planning to check the students in his elementary school for scoliosis and vision, hearing and dental problems. The school has a large number of students who are the children of immigrants from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa. In a recent nursing workshop, Jack heard about transcultural health care. He wants to make sure he provides good care to the students. After the principal sent a note to the students’ parents telling them about these screenings, several parents expressed concern. The concerned parents were from the following traditions: Muslim, Hmong, Sikh and Christian Science.

Issues and Study Questions

  • Based on the overview above, what is the conflict?
  • What are the beliefs at issue here?
  • Why did the parents object?
  • What could Jack, the school or the parents do differently?
  • Why was religion an issue in this situation?
  • What is the responsibility of schools/nurses in such a situation? What about other professions?
  • Do you think there is a “right” and “wrong” way to handle this situation? Why? Why not?
  • Have you faced similar conflicts in your own profession or personal life? If so, what were they? Were they resolved?
  • What can be learned?
  • Do you think education about religious literacy would have helped/harmed in this situation? How so?

Source: Religion and the Professions (General Honors 1030) taught by Dr. Jill Raitt, University of Missouri

Mahmoud Buys a House

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Mahmoud al Qureshi has just arrived in the United States from Pakistan. He has an excellent job in a New Jersey company as an advisor on Middle East exports. He has found a home he wants to purchase in Jersey City but he cannot agree to the terms of the mortgage. Islam has defnite rules about taking and paying interest that prohibit Mahmoud from signing a mortgage contract with a Jersey City bank. He decides to talk to his imam about it to find a solution because Mahmoud knows that other Muslims in the U.S. have successfully bought homes without compromising their faith. When he talked with a Christian co-worker, he learned that before the middle of the 16th century Christians had the same problem.

Issues and Study Questions

  • Based on the overview above, what is the conflict?
  • What belief systems about money and debt do Muslims and early Christians have in common?
  • Why could Mahmoud not agree to the terms of the mortgages he has found?
  • What could he or the lenders do differently?
  • Why was religion an issue in this situation?
  • What is the responsibility of lenders in such a situation? What about other professions?
  • Do you think there is a “right” and “wrong” way to handle this situation? Why? Why not?
  • Have you faced similar conflicts in your own profession or personal life? If so, what were they? Were they resolved?
  • Do you think education about religious literacy would have helped/harmed in this situation? How so?

Source: Religion and the Professions (General Honors 1030) taught by Dr. Jill Raitt, University of Missouri

Enrollment open for religious literacy class

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May 28, 2009 – There are a few days left to enroll in “Religious Literacy for the Public and Professions,” a new online course offered through MU Direct: Continuing and Distance Education. The course (REL ST 3100) teaches students to engage and encounter religion in day-to-day life and in the professional workplace. Its primary goal is to examine religious diversity in private and professional contexts from a practical standpoint by examining a variety of case studies. The course is open to University of Missouri students who are absent from campus for the summer or unable to attend day classes and to nontraditional students.

Five seats remain available for the course, which is offered through the University of Missouri’s Department of Religious Studies. The course was created by the department and the Center on Religion & the Professions at University of Missouri. The instructor is Justin Arft. Students can register up to June 8 for the eight-week class, which runs June 8-July 31. MU summer registration is June 3-5. A late fee is assessed if registering June 5-8.

Textbooks for the course include “Religion and the Workplace” by Douglas A. Hicks and “How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook” by Stuart M. Matlins and Arthur J. Magida.

The Center on Religion & the Professions was founded in 2003 with a mission of improving religious literacy among professionals, to help them serve a diverse public. For more information about the Center, call (573) 882-9257.

CORP Newsletter – May 18, 2009

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News, Research, Calls for Papers and Events from the University of Missouri’s Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP)
May 18, 2009

Greetings! This will be our last edition of the newsletter before it takes a summer hiatus, but read on for current news and upcoming events, plus previews of some events coming up this summer and in early fall 2009. [Read more…]

KBIA interviews CORP director about hate group

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May 14, 2009 – National Public Radio affiliate KBIA interviewed Debra L. Mason, director of the Center on Religion & the Professions, on May 14 for a story about Westboro Baptist Church, which planned a protest in Columbia. In the wide-ranging interview, Mason addressed questions about whether the media should cover the group – known for its position against homosexuality and protesting at soldiers’ funerals – how they are related to other Baptists and whether they could be classified as a cult.

kbia
kbia2See more about the interview here.

In addition to directing the Center, Mason is executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association and is a professor of journalism studies at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She is a nationally recognized, award-winning and widely published specialist in religion journalism and has more than 25 years of professional reporting, research and teaching experience.

The Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP) aims to improve religious literacy among professionals, to help them serve a diverse public. It performs research and creates curriculum, resources and public programming to accomplish that goal. For more information about the Center, call (573) 882-9257.

CORP achievements featured in J-School newsletter

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May 12, 2009 – Recent accomplishments of the MU Center on Religion & the Professionsjournalismlogo are featured in the May 2009 Missouri School of Journalism Graduate Studies Newsletter. These include speaking engagements by Dr. Debra Mason, CORP director; large turnouts at recent CORP-sponosred events; and information about the new “Religious Literacy for the Public and Professions” class to be taught online this summer.

Download the newsletter at the Missouri School of Journalism Graduate Program page, under Graduate Publications. The article appears on Page 11.

The Center on Religion & the Professions, which works to improve the religious literacy of professionals, including journalists, is an affiliate of the Missouri School of Journalism.

MU professor's book on work and faith featured

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May 12, 2009 – Dr. Richard “Chip” Callahan‘s recent book, “Work and Faith in the Kentucky Coal Fields: Subject to Dust,” is this week’s Book of the Week in Books & Culture: A Christian Review, a Christianity Today publication. Callahan is an assistant professor in the callahanDepartment of Religious Studies at University of Missouri. With a primary interest in religion in America, Callahan’s research explores the sphere of work and labor, including how occupational cultures, settings and relations of exchange both inform and are informed by religion.

His latest book uses oral histories, folklore, folksongs and vernacular spirituality to tell the history of how early 20th-century coal miners and their families lived their religion in eastern Kentucky’s coal fields. It is published by University of Indiana Press.

TREE program extending outreach – UPDATED

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tree-logoApril 30, 2009 – The Teen Relationship Education and Empowerment (TREE) program has had several successful events in its first four months. These include a workshop with 10 churches represented, drama performances and others.

A faith-based initiative against teen relationship violence, TREE was founded in December 2008 with a $50,000 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. The grant went to a coalition of local churches, community health professionals and University of Missouri to create programming to help Columbia churches address teen relationship violence. Columbia’s Broadway Christian Church submitted the grant, with project development and administrative support from University of Missouri’s Center on Religion & the Professions.

The project kicked off with a Feb. 22 workshop with about 40 people gathering to learn about teen relationship violence, resources, and how religious communities can address the issue and help teens involved in violent relationships.

Recent local events include:

  • Rock Bridge Christian Church – Parent/teen program, March 29
  • Broadway Christian Church – Integration of “Choose Respect” video/curriculum into junior high “lock-in” event, April 4-5
  • Troubling Violence Performance Project performance for TREE members and supporters, April 15
  • Unitarian Universalist Church – Troubling Violence Performance Project performance for Our Whole Lives program, April 19
  • TREE participants attended Green Dot Prevent Strategy workshop with sexual and domestic violence educator Dr. Dorothy Edwards, April 21-23
  • Calvary Episcopal Church – Four-part series for their youth, April-May
  • Steve McMullen, RAVE (Religion and Violence E-learning) team leader from New Brunswick, Canada, presented on the RAVE project to participating TREE churches and supporters, April 25
  • Calvary Episcopal Church – Troubling Violence Performance Project visit to youth group, April 26

Upcoming:

  • Calvary Episcopal Church – Troubling Violence Performance Project performance, May 3
  • TREE representative speaks to the MU Council Against Violence Against Women, May 5, noon, Library Conference Room 159, University of Missouri

TREE representatives have additionally met with several church groups to talk about their event planning. Events are intended to grow from the February workshop and TREE resources, which include a lending library housed at The Communications Center, 1905 Cherry Hill Dr., Columbia. Participating churches and TREE representatives will meet again in June to share and brainstorm.

A Web site about TREE including links to resources will be available soon. New groups continue to want to be involved with the program, TREE Project Coordinator Kendra Yoder said.

The Missouri Foundation for Health grant was part of MFH’s Health Interventions in Non-Traditional Settings funding program, which provides two-year grants to faith-based and small secular organizations that address health needs in their communities.

Groups interested in building a TREE team for next year should contact Kim Ryan at (573) 489-2729 or kkgryan@juno.com or Kendra Yoder at klyd29@mizzou.edu.

Additional information:

Mason starts new blog

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April 23, 2009 – Debra L. Mason, director of the Center on Religion & the Professions, has launched a new blog on religion and the news. Recent posts feature topics such as religion and Facebook, media access to federal faith-based initiative leaders, and President Obama’s biblical literacy.

Mason is executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association and is a professor of journalism studies at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She is a nationally recognized, award-winning and widely published specialist in religion journalism and has more than 25 years of professional reporting, research and teaching experience.