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Exhibition: “The Sacred Feminine”

August 15, 2009 by Debra Mason

artemis2

This multi-media exhibition explores religious images of women in art from antiquity to the present. Artworks represent the Mediterranean, western Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, professor of religious art and cultural history at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, will give the keynote address. A wide range of media, including bronze, stone, wood, and terracotta sculpture, painting and textiles, will be showcased.

The exhibition features an exhibit, academic symposium, keynote speaker and additional related events. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Events 2009-2010 Tagged With: Add new tag, art, center on religion & the professions, Events, faith, multicultural, museum of art and archaeology, public, religion, religious literacy, sacred feminine, spirituality, university of missouri

Mason speaks to Kiwanis

June 17, 2009 by Debra Mason

June 17, 2009 – Debra L. Mason, director of the Center on Religion & the Professions, addressed more than 80 Kiwanis members during two recent speaking engagements. Mason spoke to a Columbia Kiwanis club on April 28 and to the Fulton Kiwanis Club on June 11, both on the topic of tdebramasonbloghe Center, religious literacy and the professions.

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

The Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP) was founded in 2003 with a mission of improving 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.

Filed Under: News 2008-2009 Tagged With: center on religion & the professions, debra l. mason, debra mason, public, religion, religious literacy, university of missouri

Online "Religious Literacy" course under way

June 17, 2009 by Debra Mason

June 17, 2009 – “Religious Literacy for the Public and Professions,” a new online course offered through MU Direct: Continuing and Distance Education, is under way. 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.

  • See more about the course
  • See more about MU Direct: Continuing and Distance Education

The course 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. The eight-week class runs June 8-July 31.

  • E-mail the instructor

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.

After the course is completed and assessed, a team from the Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP) will author a chapter for a monograph about the project that will be distributed nationally through the Institute on Religion in Curriculum and Culture of Higher Education.

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, contact Director Debra L. Mason at (573) 882-9257 or MasonDL@missouri.edu.

Filed Under: News 2008-2009 Tagged With: center on religion & the professions, class, course, Department of Religious Studies, faith, journalism, medicine, multicultural, Muslim, public, religion, religious literacy, science, spirituality, university of missouri, workplace

Muslim Cabbies

May 28, 2009 by Debra Mason

A case study of a dispute over Muslim cab drivers refusing to transport alcohol because of religious beliefs

In October 2006, a woman returning to Minneapolis from a trip to France was refused service by five taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The woman had two bottles of wine in her suitcase, and the taxi drivers were Muslims. Most observant Muslims avoid alcohol, based on verses in their holy book, the Quran, which calls intoxicants “abominations of Satan’s handiwork” (5:90:91) and orders them to abstain. The Muslim taxi drivers refused to have alcohol in their taxis.

At the time of the incident, an estimated three-quarters of the Minneapolis airport’s 900 taxis drivers were Somalis, many of whom are Muslim, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. The newspaper reported that potential customers carrying alcohol were refused taxi service about three times a day, with Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman Patrick Hogan saying, “It’s become a significant customer-service issue.” Some Muslim cab drivers also asked dispatchers not to call them to pick up passengers wanting rides to liquor stores and bars, a USA Today article reported. By 2007, an estimated 5,000 people had been denied service in the previous five years because they carried alcohol, according to airport taxi officials.

Moral obligation or discrimination?

The same month, a transgendered woman in Minneapolis interviewed by the Fox 9 television news said that on three occasions Muslim taxi drivers who came to pick her up refused to take her, and that she often waited for cabs that never came. “This is more than just religion, it’s flat-out discrimination,” she said. As many as half of the drivers of Minneapolis’ 2,000 cabs are recent immigrants – many Muslim, the news channel reported. The Twin Cities is home to the nation’s largest Somali immigrant community, many members of which fled their East African nation’s civil war.

Some Muslim cab drivers reportedly also refused to transport passengers accompanied by dogs, including assistance dogs for people with disabilities. Islam considers the saliva of dogs to be unclean, said Hassan Mohamud, director of the Islamic Law Institute at the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. Some Somali cashiers refused to handle pork products during store checkout. The Quran prohibits eating pork. Similar conflicts arose in Australia and Canada about the same time.

The issue highlights a conflict between rights to religious belief and practice and rights to service without discrimination. The boycotting drivers believed the airport should accommodate tenets of their faith. Others – from cab customers to Minnesota residents and national bloggers – felt the drivers discriminated against those who did not share their faith and aimed to impose Islamic law. Federal law requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for religious beliefs, as long as they don’t place an “undue burden” on the business.

Workplace conflict

By the time of the October 2006 reports, the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which regulates the airport’s taxi service, had been discussing possible accommodations with drivers over the issue for about two years (with some reports saying the conflict had been brewing at least since 2000). The commission agreed to have drivers use lights on top of their cabs to identify them as drivers who would not transport alcohol. Airport personnel could then direct customers to a different driver. But the proposal incited a public backlash, with more than 400 responses from the public, most against the proposal.

In October 2006, the commission rejected the proposal, meaning that cabbies who refused fares would have to move to the back of the taxi line, a delay of three to five hours.

Mixed response

Not all Muslims shared the views of the cabbies who refused fares. Temple University Islamic scholar Mahmoud Ayoub pointed out in a USA Today article that the objection in the Quran is mainly to consuming intoxicants, often interpreted as alcohol. And many Muslims own businesses that sell beer or serve pork, he said.

Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center said: “We tell taxi drivers, if you don’t want to do this, change your job. You are living in a country where alcohol is not viewed the way it is in your country.” Some Somali immigrants and advocates said they feared the conflict would sever relationships with mainstream groups and employers, and that Muslim employees were manipulated by religious extremists.

However, the Minnesota Chapter of the Muslim American Society, which backed the protesting employees, believed an accommodation of the drivers was appropriate. “More than half the taxi drivers are Muslim and ignoring the sensibilities of that community at the airport I think is not fair,” Hassan Mahamud, vice president of the MAS Minnesota chapter, said in a USA Today article. In 2006, MAS issued a fatwa or religious edict, saying that “Islamic jurisprudence” prohibits cab drivers from carrying customers with alcohol “because it involves cooperating in sin according to Islam.” MAS, which was founded by U.S. members of the Muslim Brotherhood, promotes the spread of Islamic influence through political parties and militant groups in the Middle East, according to a USA Today article.

Some Muslim cab drivers said the refusals were not a choice but part of their religion, and that drivers who knowingly transported alcohol would have to answer to God on Judgment Day. Some also framed it as a civil liberties issue. Abdisalam Hashim, a Somali Muslim and taxi manager, said in a USA Today article, “When I’m American, I have freedom to practice my religion and freedom to work anyplace I want to work. This is the way we address Islam. … We have the right to say this is how we do it.”

Response from non-Muslims during the conflict ranged from support for civil liberties and religious expression, to anger at the boycotting cabbies. “GET OVER IT, you are in America act like an American!’ a comment on one online bulletin board said. “Americans are not going to put up with this. If they won’t do the job they were hired to do … fire them,” a blogger posted. Eva Buzek, the woman with the wine whose story was told in 2006 and a Polish immigrant, said in 2007, “In my book, when you choose to come to a different country, you make some choices. I never expected everything to be the same way as in my homeland, and I adjusted. I never dreamed of imposing my beliefs on somebody else.”

Resolution?

In 2007, amid public complaints about lack of service, the Minneapolis airport commission approved a proposal to suspend airport licenses for cab drivers who refused service for reasons other than safety. This included a 30-day suspension for a first offense and two-year revocation for a second offense. “Our expectation is that if you’re going to be driving a taxi at the airport, you need to provide service to anybody who wants it,” Hogan, the commission spokesman, said in a Star-Tribune article. Some Muslim drivers felt the new rules persecuted based on religion.

Later in 2007, Muslim employees of three Twin Cities taxi companies offered to provide free rides to blind people and their guide dogs who attended a convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota. The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic relations, America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, backed the effort. CAIR members and some Muslim cab drivers said that reports of Muslim cabbies refusing rides to blind people with dogs were untrue and that drivers had been misrepresented in the media. The effort did not address other types of boycotts.

Issues and Study Questions

• Based on the overview above, what happened? Why?
• What could have been done differently? By whom?
• Would it have made a difference? What difference?
• Why was religion problematic in this situation?
• What is the responsibility of taxi drivers to the public? What about other professions?
• What, if anything, can be learned? How do we prevent such occurrences in the future? Should we?
• Are Constitutional rights, religious advocacy groups, and professional organizations sufficient to handle such problems? If not, who should address them?
• What would you have done differently, as a cab driver, a Muslim, a passenger, a non-Muslim, an airport official, a religious leader?
• Do you think there was a “right” and “wrong” position here? If so, whom do you believe was “right?”
• Have you faced similar conflicts in your own profession? If so, what were they? Were they resolved? How were they resolved?
• Do you think education about religious literacy would have helped/harmed in this situation? How so?

Compiled by Amy White

Filed Under: News Tagged With: alcohol, cab drivers, cabbies, case study, center on religion & the professions, faith, law, legal, multicultural, Muslim, News, public, religion, religious literacy, spirituality, taxi, university of missouri

The Ill Girl

May 28, 2009 by Debra Mason

Lia Lee, a young child of Hmong immigrants, has been brought to the emergency room of a California medical clinic. It took several days for the doctors to diagnose the case because the interpreter, a Hmong whose English was poor, was inadequate. The problem was made worse because the parents considered Lia’s illness to be both a threat to her health – hence their trip to the clinic – and a sign that she may be destined to be a shaman. The doctors prescribed a drug regimen. The parents said they understood how to administer the medicine, although they couldn’t understand English or read what was written on the bottles.

Issues and Study Questions

  • Based on the overview above, what are the issues?
  • What beliefs are at issue here?
  • Were the parents “noncompliant?”
  • What could the doctors/nurses do differently?
  • What do you feel the doctors/patient/parents should do here?
  • How could a social worker or skilled interpreter assist in this situation?
  • Was religion an issue in this situation?
  • What is the responsibility of the health care community 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

Filed Under: News Tagged With: case study, center on religion & the professions, class, conversation, faith, Hmong, multicultural, public, religion, religion news, religious literacy, science, spirituality, spiritualty and health, university of missouri, workplace

Prayerful Patient

May 28, 2009 by Debra Mason

Mrs. Albert is 83 years old. She has multiple medical problems that are quite real and that produce chronic, progressive pain and weakness. She is on a number of medications, and she is faithful to the regimen her doctors prescribe. Nevertheless, nothing the doctors do seems to help her. On the other hand, her faith helps her to cope and to maintain independence and the church-related activities that are so important to her. She told her doctors, “Whenever you pray, you get healing from God.”

Mrs. Albert’s doctor is impressed by his patient’s fortitude, and he wants to understand better the relation of health to religion. He has read articles by Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University, so he wrote to Dr. Koenig asking for some advice. Dr. Koenig’s answer regarding chronic pain and prayer has both medical and spiritual elements. Other doctors, however, disagree fundamentally with Dr. Koenig and explain differently the relation of Mrs. Albert’s prayer to her condition.

Issues and Study Questions

  • Based on the overview above, what are the beliefs and issues here?
  • If you were the doctor, what would you do differently?
  • Would the other doctor’s advice change how you treated your patient?
  • Is there an issue here, if Mrs. Albert is compliant in her care?
  • Was religion an issue in this situation?
  • What is the responsibility of the doctor 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

Filed Under: News Tagged With: case study, center on religion & the professions, churches, conversation, course, faith, medicine, multicultural, public, religion, religious literacy, science, spirituality, spiritualty and health, university of missouri, workplace

Animal Cruelty or Age-Old Custom?

May 28, 2009 by Debra Mason

John’s hometown, like many American municipalities, has enacted an ordinance that prohibits the killing of livestock animals, except by law enforcement officials, veterinary specialists, and licensed meatpackers and butcheries. The stated reasons for such an ordinance relate to public health and sanitation. Violations of the ordinance can result in fines, and in extreme cases, imprisonment.

John’s hometown has a significant Hmong community. Assume that members of that community legally purchased pigs or chickens and sacrificed them in public following the traditional Hmong procedure. None of the Hmong have the required license. Neighbors call the police, who issue a citation for violation of the ordinance. The Hmong explain that they were not aware of the ordinance, and that animal sacrifice is an age-old Hmong custom.

Barbara, prosecuting district attorney, and Juan, the lawyer for the Hmong, are developing the legal arguments for each side, which they will present to the presiding judge. If the Hmong stipulate that they are not licensed and did sacrifice the animals in public, how should the judge rule on their defense that the act is an integral part of the Hmong culture?

Issues and Study Questions

  • Based on the overview above, what is the conflict?
  • What are the beliefs at issue here?
  • If you were a leader/policymaker, would you recommend any suggestions or changes to the ordinance?
  • Why did the Hmong object to the ordinance?
  • What could the Hmong community members/city leaders do differently?
  • Why was religion an issue in this situation?
  • What is the responsibility of city government/county attorneys/Hmong attorney 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

Filed Under: News Tagged With: case study, center on religion & the professions, course, faith, Hmong, law, legal, multicultural, public, religion, religious literacy, ritual, spirituality, university of missouri, workplace

Faithful Reporting

May 28, 2009 by Debra Mason

Jeff Reynolds has been sent to do a follow-up article on an accident in Cairo, Ill. A school bus approaching a railroad crossing stopped as it must by law. A semi truck did not slow and struck the bus from behind, sending it into the path of an oncoming train. Eleven school children between the ages of six and twelve were killed and fifteen others were injured. The bus driver was also killed. The truck driver was slightly injured, was taken to the hospital, treated and released.

Jeff decided to interview parents of the dead and injured children. Several pairs of parents refused to talk with him; their pain was not a public matter, they said. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Buckton did agree to speak with Jeff. He went to their home for the interview. Mrs. Buckton showed Jeff a picture of Jenny, aged 8, their beautiful, intelligent, playful daughter, their only child. She wept and continued to speak about her wonderful, dead child. Mr. Buckton remained stolidly silent, arms crossed, eyes down. Jeff turned to him to ask what sustained him during this terrible tragedy? Mr. Buckton looked at his wife and then said that only their faith kept them from going to the truck driver’s house to confront him and perhaps, admitted Mr. Buckton, do him physical harm. He was angry, deeply angry, but he was controlling it and trying to find the strength to forgive the truck driver whom the Bucktons felt was responsible for their Jenny’s death.

“Where do you look for such strength?” Jeff asked.

Mrs. Buckton looked at her husband who said, “In our faith. Jesus forgave his executioners. I wonder if he could have forgiven them if they had killed his daughter?”

Jeff wasn’t sure what to do at this point. He knew that his editor was against any mention of God in the paper and especially against stories that seemed to support any particular faith. Jeff wrote the story of the Buckton’s struggle pretty much as they had told it to him.  The story appeared without any mention of faith, only of the Bucktons’ anger at the truck driver.

Issues and Study Questions

  • Based on the overview above, what are the issues?
  • What are the beliefs at issue here?
  • Should Jeff have mentioned religion in his story? If so, how should he have done so?
  • What could Jeff or his editor do differently?
  • What do you feel the newspaper/parents should do here?
  • Why was religion an issue in this situation?
  • What do you think the parents’/readers’ reaction was to this story?
  • What is the responsibility of journalists 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

Filed Under: News Tagged With: case study, center on religion & the professions, churches, class, course, faith, journalism, media, multicultural, News, public, religion, religion news, religious literacy, spirituality, university of missouri, workplace

The Ill Boy

May 28, 2009 by Debra Mason

The 7-year old son of African immigrants has a chronic disease. Although the condition is serious, it is easily treated with medications and changes in diet. The family frequently misses scheduled appointments. After six months of treatment, the child shows little improvement, and the American doctors have determined that the family is noncompliant. Translators have attempted to bridge the gap between the doctors and the family, with only limited success. The nurses wonder whether a well qualified social worker could help the situation. The hospital administrators are looking for a social worker with the skills and educational background to help improve the situation.

Issues and Study Questions

  • Based on the overview above, what are the issues?
  • What beliefs are at issue here?
  • Why were the parents “noncompliant?”
  • What could the doctors/nurses do differently?
  • What do you feel the doctors/admistrators should do here?
  • How could a specialized social worker assist in this situation?
  • Was religion an issue in this situation?
  • What is the responsibility of the health care community 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

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Add new tag, case study, center on religion & the professions, class, course, faith, medicine, multicultural, public, religion, religious literacy, spirituality, spiritualty and health, university of missouri, workplace

Religion and the News Media

May 28, 2009 by Debra Mason

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

  • “The Case for Intelligent Design”
  • “Greetings from Idiot America”
  • “Scientists Speak Up on Mix of God and Science”
  • “Spirited Debate”

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

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Add new tag, case study, center on religion & the professions, faith, journalism, multicultural, News, news article, public, religion, religion news, religious literacy, reporter, spirituality, university of missouri, workplace

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