Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God: "After viewing 'The Nativity Story', analyzing your chosen Christmas carol, and reading Philippians 2:1-7, reflect on the meaning of Christma..."


I chose the Christmas carol, “Joy to the World”. In the first stanza it is talking about how the world should be happy for the Lord, Jesus has come. “Let earth receive her King”, in this verse I think earth could have meant earth itself or Mary. It also suggests that every heart on earth should prepare him room. This implies the scene where Mary and Joseph find the manger. Then, it talks about how both the heaven and nature sings, which means they are all joyful for the lord, Jesus to come.
In the Philippians, it talks about Jesus’ attitude; how he never forces himself to think he was equal with God. Instead, he sacrificed himself for the nature.
Christmas is a time when God came down to earth in the form of flesh, as a human. He comes down to be the savior of his people.
In the Christmas carol Jesus is described as the “Lord” and “King”. The scriptures describe him as a human being who’s love comforts people, never forcing himself to think he was equal with God, and always put others first, while being humble.
The verse of “Joy to the World”, “Joy to the World, the Lord is come!” is the time when Mary feels the baby coming. The whole stanza is about the baby coming and the people preparing to have the baby born.
There were a few important characters that allowed Jesus to be born safety. First of all there is Mary, Jesus’s mother. Mary is definitely a necessary person because she was the virgin who was conceived with God’s baby. She is also part of the miracle, because Jesus had been born from a lady who was a virgin.
Then there is Joseph, who had taken special care of Mary while coming to Bethlehem from Nazareth by foot. Joseph like Jesus put others before him. He put Jesus and Mary before him.
The role of the Persian astrologists was very important because each of their gifts foreshadowed his life and roles he was to play later on. He was given gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gold was given because he was to be a King of Kings. The frankincense was given because he was to be a priest of the priests. Finally myrrh, it was used to purify after death. This gift foreshadowed Jesus’ crucifixion, his sacrifice on the cross.
I think that an innocent, caring, humble God would come to earth as a baby. This God would also put others first no matter what.
God chose Jesus to come to earth as a baby because he is someone who is pure and doesn’t have a bit of evil in him. I think he also sent him as a baby because when babies are born they are subjects of love. And like babies, once Jesus was born many loved him and thought he was special. Another reason he might have been sent, as a baby is that God wants the people to know that even a humble, innocent baby can lead the people in the right direction.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives: "Find where Islamic religious beliefs intersect with current events. Research a Western news source on the story and summarize the article fr..."

We were to research about current events where Islamic religious beliefs intersect with current events. I found an article from CNN, which was published this May, 2010 about a Facebook page that caused some issues. It was a Facebook page created for illustrations of Prophet Mohammed to be published online on the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. This later made the Pakistani block the site. By Thursday morning the site reached over 7,300 “silly, crude, and intentionally offensive drawings (CNN)” of Prophet Mohammed. The creators of the page said that their intention was about freedom of speech (expression) and not going against Islam. However, despite their intentions, the page lead to strong backlash to those Muslims. It influenced society to create another group called, “AGAINST Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. The whole situation was grown into bigger scale leaving the Facebook disappointed for the blocking of Facebook in Pakistan.

I then found an article from the Pakistan point of view. Most of the facts were identical. However, I found that they had included additional information on the event that was not to be found in the CNN article. The Express Tribune included a quote by Molly Norris, who had drawn a cartoon herself to protest against the US channel “Comedy Central” for canceling an episode of “South Park” which included the various depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. The Pakistan version of the article includes Molly Norris apologizing. It also includes a quote form a voice interview of so-called creator of the page, “Andy”. Like the CNN article it concludes by saying how Facebook was disappointed at the Pakistanis for blocking their site.

There were differences in the facts, the CNN had said there were 96,000 members in the opposing group. Whereas the Express Tribune said there were 106, 300 fans without stating the date recorded. Other than that the only difference was that the Express Tribune focused more on Molly Norris and “Andy”, whereas the CNN focused more on the numerical values and how society reacted to the event.

Islam played a very important role in these two articles. This is because the events were centered around the Islamic beliefs or what the Muslims believed in. The articles focused on a Facebook page that had violated a belief of Islam. The articles explain how “Everybody draw Mohammed Day” had violated the belief of the many Muslims who strictly forbid the depictions of their prophets to be offensive.

Sources:


CNN:
http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/20/facebookers-respond-to-draw-mohammed-day/?iref=allsearch


The Express Tribune:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/14939/us-cartoonist-disavows-draw-mohammed-facebook-page/