“If you are a young black man shot by police, or a trans victim ofviolence, a ‘good death’ may seem like a myth,”

noting that women’s relationship with death is dierent long before we die. “We are often forced to confront death in ways mostmen are not. For most of us, it’s a constant companion,” she says. “In the past three years, several friends or immediate family of friends havebeen murdered by their male partners.

FootballSundayisakindofSabbathforthecountry,andtheNFListhemotherchurchofanewAmericancivicreligion.Throughfootball,aone-hourspectacleofpeakhumanperformanceandperfectpageantryistransubstantiatedinrealtimeintothecountry’ssustainingmythology.

Althoughthe“Kaepernickkneel”wasmuchmoreunderstatedandlessdirectlyconnectedtoanideologythanthechoicebysprintersTommieSmithandJohnCarlostoraisetheirblack-glovedfiststotheskyduring the1968Olympics,itcarriedthesamekindofdefiance

tseems,even,thatthisistheoutcomeforwhichhewaspreparedallalong

Iamnotgoing tostanduptoshowprideinaflag foracountrythatoppressesblackpeopleandpeopleofcolor,”

10/23/2017I Do Not Pledge Allegiance To The Flaghttp://bust.com/living/17177-do-not-pledge-allegiance.html2/5Yet, my discomfort remains. Unconditional attachment to these symbols is worrisome and problematic. Our patriotism blinds us from thedangers created by a society rooted in American exceptionalism.I have seen relatives, friends, and acquaintances criticize Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, and his decision to remainseated during the national anthem at his preseason games. While some completely disagree with his motivation (to protest police brutality andthe unjust treatment of people of color in this country), others stand behind his reasons, but chastise his methods of protest.However, their criticism is misplaced.By conating respect for our ag and our anthem with love for our military and our country, Kaepernick’s detractors miss the point. Thequarterback’s decision to not stand during the national anthem is one full of nuance. While race relations in this country continue to be black orwhite, this critical expression of free speech cannot be classied in such absolute terms. You can respect our nation and our military, and begrateful for the opportunities it and they provide, and still hold our country, its symbols, and the values they represent accountable.Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump asserted that “maybe [Kaepernick] should nd a country that works better for him.”(http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/08/donald-trump-colin-kaepernick-new-country-national-anthem-protest-response) For a candidate whose sloganvo

By conating respect for our ag and our anthem with love for our military and our country, Kaepernick’s detractors miss the point. Thequarterback’s decision to not stand during the national anthem is one full of nuance.

his discomfort emerged due to my beliefs (or as some argue, lack of beliefs) on religion. The presence of the phrase “under God,” an additionlegislated in 1954, seemed to preclude my inclusion in this one united nation.

ve always felt uneasy paying homage to our ag. Throughout elementary and middle school, I would force myself to proudly stand, place myhand upon my chest, and recite the (compulsorily) memorized lines of our Pledge.

inconjunctionwiththetrialsofbeingayoungblackmaninanAmericawheresystematicpolicebrutalityandtheprisonindustrialcomplexdisproportionatelytargethisspecificdemographic.Likemanyyoungblackmen,Kaepernick’sactivismcannotbedivorcedfromtheemergentBlackLivesMattermovementandtheracialinequitiesandinjusticesthatpromptedit.

Kaepernick’srumoredconversionto Islamshouldbeanon-story.However,inanAmericawhereanti-Muslimfearandhatredexistsandblackprotestmaligned,thatpositionisunfortunatelyanaïveone.Therefore,Kaepernickstandsalonebehindcenter–ablackmanperceivedbymanyto beaclosetMuslim,occupyingapositionwhereIslamandblacknessasseparateandstandaloneidentitiesarefeared,andthetwocombined,anexponentiallygreaterthreat.

Kaepernick,whowasnotablyphotographedwithBiblequotestattooedonhisbicepswhenhefirstcameintotheleague,also postedagreetinginJulyacknowledging‘alotofpeople

Beforeandafterrefusingtostandforthenationalanthem,Kaepernickmadenomentionofreligiousconversionor(general)appealsto faithwhilearticulatinghispoliticalviews.

a disregard for one's pleasure

He views religion as an early stage in the development of humanity-designed to manipulate and placate individu-als vis:a-vis society. The history of humanity theh is the story of its growing maturity. Its ability to form successful societies will be based on reason and science without the crutch of religion. Just as a child must grow out of his or her fairy tales and fantasies, so must humanity grow out of religion

In sport, for example, we feel helpless against the odd bounces of the ball, the game-changing wind gust that suddenly arises, and the many other random events that can alter the outcome of a game or match {though, of course, for many people these are not matters of chance, but of

ccording to Freud, the promise of heaven also makes it easier to maJ<e the kinds of sacrifices that are necessary to live in a society.

Do you have rituals that you perform on a regular basis?

be broken-Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played streak. Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive games for the New York Yankees before being forced to quit because of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)-now known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." Ripken tied the record on September 5 and broke it on September 6. When the September 6 game became official-after the top of the fifth inning was complete-the Baltimore crowd gave Ripken a standing ovation that stopped the game for twenty-two minutes. Eventually, Ripken took a jog around the entire field slapping outstretched hands and waving to the crowd. The day before, in the game in which he tied Gehrig's record, Ripken hit a home run ball that was caught by Michael Stirn. Stirn sold the ball to an unnamed businessman three months later for $41 , 736. The businessman attempted to sell the ball to Walmart for $1 million, a figure he deemed reasonable because of the price a buyer paid for the ball Eddie Murray hit for his 500th home run ($500,000).120 Walmart declined to purchase the ball, but the asking price (and the selling price of Murray's home run ball) is indicative of the value many place on such an important relic of the game. Many such relics find their way to the Hall of Fame and are displayed for visitors to view and revere. In addition to its "holy" relics, the game of baseball also has sacred space. Certain stadia are revered because of their longevity or because of events that have taken place there. Wrigley Field, the home field of the Chicago Cubs, is widely regarded in its entirety as sacred space by baseball fans of all teams. (See Fig. 2.2) Sometimes parts of stadia are intentionally set apart as shrines to commemo-rate players or teams. There is the well-known Monument Park in Yankee Stadium that honors great Yankees players of the past. When the Yankees moved into the Fig. 2.2 Exterior of Wrigley Field opening night 2015. 36 Understanding Sport as a Religious Phenomenon new Yankee Stadium in 2009, they moved Monument Park to the new stadium. When the Atlanta Braves moved from Fulton County Stadium to Ted Turner Field in 1997, Fulton County Stadium was demolished except for the section of fence over which Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run surpassing Babe Ruth and becoming Major League Baseball's "Home Run King." That section of fence (along with a commemorative plaque) serves as a shrine to honor Hank Aaron. It is, indeed, sacred space. Like most sports arenas, the field area is off-limits to fans who must remain in the stands. Any fan who enters the field area without permission violates a taboo and is usually arrested by security personnel and removed from the stadium completely. Baseball's field is unique, however. Price argues that the pitcher's mound represents the cosmic mountain that serves as the center of the baseball cosmos.121 It is where play begins, which is consistent with the idea that the center of the universe repre-sents the birth of the universe, or the navel. Price sees this navel-ompha/os in the Greek-as the "rubber" that sits on top of the cosmic mountain: The pitcher's rubber is located at the top of the pitcher's mound, a twelve-inch-high rise that provides the only topical elevation in the field. Rising above the contour of the field, the pitcher's mound corresponds to the cosmic mountains of old and its stature as such is reinforced by the presence of the rubber at its crest. In the world or cosmos of baseball, the omphalos is located at the top of the cosmic mountain. As the mythical center of the field, the pitcher's mound is the point at which creation of the game begins. The pitcher, who starts play by throwing the ball to the batter, must stand on top of the pitcher's mound and must keep his foot on the rubber until he has released the ball. There is, then, an umbilical connection between the creative activity of the pitcher (as a high priest) and the omphalos itself.122 There are many more examples of how the space of a baseball stadium may be seen as sacred including the monuments-statues, commemorative plaques, and larger-than-life pictures of important moments in a team's history-that are erected to honor heroes (saints) and heroic moments of the team.

These are all material objects that are a part of the game of baseball and a part of the experience of the fans, especially those fans who attend the games in person.

His training demands that he learn to focus on the ball with utmost attention. By itself, the soccer ball is a piece of leather sown [sic] to certain specifications, but to the goalkeeper, the ball is as complicated a conundrum as a Zen koan. He has to concentrate on it at all times. If his awareness waivered for a moment, he might miss the most important happening of his life

"holy" merely as "completely good" is insufficient.

"The trip by air during which he was killed was to fill a speaking engagement 'because he did not want to let a friend down,"' though the quotation was not attributed to anyone.50

Typically myths can be considered to be relative to a given group or tradition. That is, they are the authoritative stories of such entities. They are recited as part of traditional lore, and in this way have a breathless authority, as I shall figuratively call it. The stories in this category are foundational f~r the group in question. This is easiest to achieve in small-scale societies, but large-scale traditions are also capable of surrounding a sufficient segment of the population to give their proclaimed narratives unquestioned authority within that segment.3

The Buddha set the pattern for what came to be called "Buddhism," so that practic-ing Buddhists today still seek enlightenment (Nirvana) from within. There is no deity in Buddhism (at leasf not in the sense found in Hinduism or the Western traditions), so there is no looking for a trace of the divine within the self as there is in theistic mysticism.

Marcel Mauss, in his essay on the techniques of the body(1936), boldly asserted that there can be no such thing as naturalbehaviour.

But Augustine argued that Christianity turned allprevious values around: the most humble objects became sublime

f there is no concern to preserve social boundaries,I would not expect to find concern with bodily boundaries.

The contrast of smooth with shaggy is a member of the generalset of symbolic contrasts expressing formal/informal.

But what about the other ones? What about the possible experiences which do not pass the fi lter? Is it possible to force attention into less habitual tracks? Can we even examine the fi ltering mechanism itself?

Contact with leather causes impurity. If leather sandals are worn they should not be touched with the hands, and should be removed and the feet be washed before a temple or house is entered.

While eating, a person is in the middle state of purity and if by accident he should touch the server’s hand or spoon, the server becomes impure and should at least change clothes before serving more food.

A daily bath is absolutely essential to a Brahmin, for without it he cannot perform daily worship to his gods.

This at least shows that the original basis of the rule concerning pig fl esh was not transmitted with the rest of the cultural heritage, even if it had once been recognised.

ewish and Islamic avoidance of pork is explained as due to the dangers of eating pig in hot climates. It is true that there can be a marvellous correspondence between the avoidance of contagious disease and ritual avoidance. The washings and separations which serve the one practical purpose may be apt to express religious themes at the same time. So it has been argued that their rule of washing before eating may have given the Jews immunity in plagues.

Also, saliva pollution can be transmitted through some material substances.

A daily bath is absolutely essential to a Brahmin, for without it he cannot perform daily worship to his gods.

For example, when practiced in Germany the study of religion is known as Religionswissenschaft (the systematic study, or wissenschaft, of religion); when practiced in France it is known as Sciences Religieuses.

Regardless of the history of our vocabulary, is religion a universal human phenomenon or is it simply one among many ways that people name and classify their particular social worlds?

For example, most all Christians generally believe that the historical person named Jesus of Nazareth was “the Son of God” (similarity) yet only some of these same Christians believe that the Pope is God’s primary representative on earth (difference).

a non-believing family successfully sued a public school board for its school’s daily opening exercises in which a Christian prayer was recited over the school’s public address system

European cultures have somehow exerted influence on non-Latin-bas

Fundamental to its decision was the Court’s distinction between religious instruction and instruction about religion. The academic study of religion is concerned to study about religion and religions.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof....”

The academic study of religion is fundamentally an anthropological enterprise. That is, it is primarily concerned with studying people (anthropos is an ancient Greek term meaning “human being”; logos means “word” or a “rational, systematic discourse”), their beliefs, behaviors, and institutions, rather than assessing “the truth” or “truths” of their various beliefs or behaviors.

The “LandofColumbus”

The ColumbusmythsuggeststhatfromUSindependenceonward,colonialsettlerssawthemselvesaspartofaworldsystemofcolonization.“Columbia,”thepoetic,LatinatenameusedinreferencetotheUnitedStatesfromitsfoundingthroughoutthenineteenthcentury,wasbasedonthenameofChristopherColumbus.

“ThisLandIsYourLand”celebratesthatthe landbelongstoeveryone,reflectingtheunconsciousmanifestdestinywe live with.ButtheextensionoftheUnitedStatesfromseatoshiningseawasthe intentionanddesignofthe country’sfounders

he diffi cult choice between the two foci is captured in Reinhold Neibuhr’s prayer (now best known as Alcoholics Anonymous’s “Serenity Prayer”), which asks for the serenity to bear the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to tell the difference.

“One man’s death is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic,”

Whenever the microscope of our ego rivets our gaze to the minutiae of our daily lives, myths may catch our eye and make us see with our telescopes, make us think about the stars and the galaxy and how small the planet Earth is.

Let us consider some Hindu parallels that use this trick of illusion- shattering epiphany and thus shed light on the dynamics of the Book of Job.

Job confronts God, the level of focus of the text changes, and that changes the level of focus of the text’s readers or hearers. What precedes this transitional point in the text is Job’s sufferings, not the sufferings of a Greek hero or a Shakespearean king, but everyday sufferings (admittedly raised to the nth degree), “the heartaches and the thousand natural shocks that fl esh is heir to”: 15 the loss of our possessions (the destruction of Job’s livestock), the deaths of those we love (friends and parents, Job’s children), physical illness (cancer and heart disease, boils), injustice.

You get used to looking through lenses; it is an acquired skill. When you fi rst look through binoculars, for instance, you can’t see a thing. You look at the inside of the barrel; you blink and watch your eyes; you play with the focus knob till one eye is purblind. The microscope is even worse. You are supposed to keep both eyes open as you look through its single eyepiece.

The contextual difference between Cox and Giuliani makes a difference for their interpretations. What frameworks fomented Cox’s production of Yo Mama’s Last Supper ? Cox’s piece did not emerge out of nothing but is itself the product of a particular time and place, that is, da Vinci was not Cox’s only inspiration. As a Black female artist who grew up in the Catholic church, Cox sees things differently than Giuliani, a white male politician who also grew up Catholic.

Cox stated: “I have a right to interpret the Last Supper just as Leonardo da Vinci created the Last Supper with people who look like him”

called the piece “disgusting,” “outrageous,” and “anti- Catholic

Finally, and most disturbingly, Russell seeks to link theWCC to a perceived decline in the power (by which he meansautonomy and financial status) of the medical profession. Hegrounds this attack in a misunderstanding of the definitionand meaning of professionalism.

Medicine has an evolving characteristic pattern ofbalancing its values within a reflective equilibrium.15 16Thepattern is a collective one, and reflection is both individualand across the profession

The second weakness in Veatch’s analysis is in assuming thata professional identity must derive exclusively from apersonal morality.

Although defi ning culture seems like it should be self- evident, religious studies scholar Tomoko Masuzawa explains diff erent meanings of the term “culture.”

Why is a burkini considered religious in the fi rst place when a bikini is not?

Despite an attempted correction in the direction of scholarship, Christian theological assumptions again supported the foundations of the study of religion even though theorists of religious studies oft en claimed to be operating an objective, nonideological study (McCutcheon 2012 ).

Scholars and non- scholars alike have never settled on a single defi nition of religion