Islam taught by unenlightened Christian

Last evening, I had the good fortune of being able to lead a small group Bible study for a group of about 15 junior high girls. Good fortune you say? Yes. They listen a little bit better than their counterparts--and I think they're smarter, too.

I walked into the classroom with my short lesson in hand and took a quick glance at the dry erase board. In all capital letter was written "ISLAM", followed by about 15 bullet points.

Being a student of Middle Eastern history and of Islam, specifically, I took a quick inventory of what someone at my church was teaching impressionable minds.

I was appalled.

What I saw was stereotype after stereotype about a religion that constitutes about one quarter of all religious adherents in the world--nearly 1.5 billion.

I read proscriptions like "not allowed to use cell phones" or "must eat with right hand" or "women not equal...ever"--just to name a few.

There was also mention of the "fact" that there are no miracles in the religion. This, of course, comes down to semantics and the inference is that it cannot be a legitimate religion without miracles. (Many would consider Muhammed's "night ascension" to be miraculous and others would characterize all prophecy as such.)

With respect to other statements about the religion, I'm not as shocked as I am disappointed. I guess it's perfectly ok to generalize about a religion that is not your own.

Whoever taught this class on Islam apparently doesn't know that 1.5 billion people is a lot of people. Further, he or she certainly wouldn't know the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite a, a Salafi and a Sufi, or a Wahabi and Ba'hai. And so, in keeping with this quick tradition of glossing over meaningful differences in favor of stereotypes, I will give readers a quick glance at Christianity.

CHRISTIANITY (as taught by an unenlightened Muslim)

1.) Christian women cannot wear skirts shorter than ankle-length.
2.) Christian men must not wear hats in sanctuaries.
3.) Christians hate homosexuals.
4.) Christians are staunch Republicans and Israel sympathizers.
5.) Christians wear ash on their foreheads once a year.
6.) Christians handle snakes during worship services.
7.) Christians don't believe in using birth control.
8.) Christian women are not equal and do not hold positions of power.
9.) The Bible has dozens of separate versions and translations.
10.) Christians believe that babies burn in hell.
11.) Christians only listen to music approved by their pastors.
12.) Christians believe that the earth is 5,000 years old.
13.) Christians don't drink wine.
14.) Christians speak a gibberish language they call "tongues."
15.) Christians don't work on the Sabbath.

Generalizations like these don't serve anyone. My suggestion is this: If you don't appreciate your religion being characterized by its margins, don't do it to the religions of others.

For all this: Christianity is too big; Islam is too big.

I-man, fall guy

The controversy surrounding the comments made by talk radio relic Don Imus have had opportunistic media outlets like CNN and Fox News buzzing for nearly a week.
In the wake of the University of Tennessee’s victory over Rutgers in the NCAA women’s basketball national championship game, Imus referred to Rutgers players on-air as “some nappy-headed hoes.”
It was a classless crack at the appearance of the Rutgers team—the inference was that they looked masculine and unkempt.
The racially-charged remark earned for the radio veteran of 39 years a two week suspension—a decision he did not appeal—and finally a letter of termination from CBS’ brass.
Does the punishment fit the crime? Probably not.
It was a stupid mistake, a failed attempt at humor, and certainly warrants some degree of censure; it was bad form all the way around, but I don’t think it rises to the level of an offense worthy of dismissal.
It’s out-of-bounds humor, but I think it’s also more than that.
To my way of thinking, the call by many in this country for Imus to lose his job rings hollow.
His comments were cheap and nasty to say the very least, but I believe they also reflect a popular acceptance of a culture that tolerates this type of defamatory speech as a matter of course.
In short, the hip-hop culture is the prevailing entertainment culture in this country right now and incidents like this are becoming more and more common.
The language of the hip-hop culture is vile, plain and simple.
Several weeks back, I visited Grand Blanc East middle school for a junior high basketball game. During the break between the 7th and 8th grade games, the crowd was entertained by—you guessed it—hip-hop music.
I remember one song in particular was chock-full of obscenities including terms like the infamous “n-word” and the aforementioned “hoes.” All this for an overwhelmingly white audience in a gym filled with kids who would certainly be sent to the principal’s office for using such language during the school day.
If these students cannot yet spell hypocrisy, they should certainly know what it means.
This sort of destructive language is being increasingly popularized and tolerated.
Why aren’t Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson pressuring Def Jam or Bad Boy Records? These are the labels that consistently churn-out music that is defamatory toward women and black women especially.
The tragedy that the Imus controversy points up is just that, tragic. We have given racism and bigotry a free pass in the hip-hop culture for far too long and now we want to stand back and feign genuine outrage about it?
My first brush with the term “ho” as shorthand for “woman” was in junior high school. My teacher was none other than acclaimed west coast rapper Dr. Dre.
Most people under the age of 40 have probably never heard of Don Imus before this controversy came to the fore.
What may ultimately cost Imus his job earned Grammys for rap “artists” like Eminem and Ludacris—names we know and celebrate.
The sexist, racist, homophobic, gutter speech practiced by so many has been regularized in our popular culture and what are we going to do about it?
The hip-hop culture in America is Vaudevillian at its core. It reinforces many of the most noxious stereotypes about African-Americans, catering to ill-conceived notions about race that already exist among many people of every stripe in this country.
That, far beyond anything that Don Imus could say about a basketball game that almost no one watched, is truly despicable.

And the winner is...

I thought it would be fun to put together a list of my top 50 favorite albums. Think what you must, but here are my 50:

Field's Top 50 Albums

1.) Coldplay - Live 2003
2.) The Postal Service - Give Up
3.) Jars of Clay - self-titled
4.) Nirvana - Unplugged
5.) B.B. King - Live at the Apollo
6.) Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Live at the Wetlands
7.) Dave Matthews Band - Live at Luther College
8.) O.A.R. - Anytime Now (Live)
9.) Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs
10.) Pete Yorn - Music for the Morning After
11.) Jewel - Pieces of You
12.) Coldplay - X & Y
13.) Oh My God - The Action Album
14.) The Killers - Hot Fuss
15.) Silverchair - Freakshow
16.) P.O.D. - Satellite
17.) No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
18.) Alan Jackson - Precious Memories
19.) The Doors - Greatest Hits
20.) Susan Tedeschi - Just Won't Burn
21.) Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys - Live at McCabe's
22.) N.E.R.D - In Search Of...
23.) Jimi Hendrix - Experience
24.) Jewel - Spirit
25.) Pete Yorn - Nightcrawler
26.) Garth Brooks - The Hits
27.) David Gray - White Ladder
28.) The Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
29.) Chiodos - All's Well That Ends Well
30.) Charlotte Church - Voice of an Angel
31.) RATM - Live and Rare
32.) The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
33.) The Roots - Phrenology
34.) Silverchair - Frogstomp
35.) Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Unclassified
36.) Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
37.) Incubus - Morningview
38.) Bush - Sixteen Stone
39.) Incubus - Make Yourself
40.) Creed - My Own Prison
41.) Sixpense - self-titled
42.) Legends of the Fall - Soundtrack
43.) The Offspring - Smash
44.) Jeff Buckley - Grace
45.) Pete Yorn - Day I Forgot
46.) R.E.M - Monster
47.) Korn - Issues
48.) Days of the New - self-titled
49.) Robbers on High Street - Tree City
50.) RATM - Evil Empire