Mixing spiritual beliefs from various religions is popular, as demonstrated by the recent statements of Rowan Williams. For all the heated accusations about personalities like megachurch pastor Rick Warren preaching Chrislam, one man of God is admitting how Buddha has influenced his prayers to Jesus. Rowan Williams, perhaps better known as the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams, is not hiding his strange religious rituals—rituals that smell like syncretism. Williams says he spends up to 40 minutes a day squatting and repeating an Eastern Orthodox prayer while performing breathing exercises as part of a routine influenced by Buddhism, according to the Telegraph. In an article headlined, "Rowan Williams: How Buddhism Helps Me Pray," he also shares how he spends time pacing slowly and repeatedly prostrating himself as part of an intense early morning ritual of silent meditation and prayer. His prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner."
Evangelicals Are Changing
Amy Tincher is an evangelical Christian who plays bass in the band at her suburban Ohio church, where she and her fellow congregants firmly believe the “words we adhere to” are those in the Bible. But last summer, without telling her husband and two kids exactly what she was doing, she boarded a plane for a conference in Kansas whose purpose many evangelicals would plainly consider heretical.
Poll After Poll Show Americans Fed Up, Anger Rising Across US
There is a new dissatisfaction blowing across the country. As it was in the 1770s, the movement is not coming from the seat of power or among those who make the laws. It’s coming from the "little people," who live outside the Beltway. You see it in opinion poll after opinion poll. The majority of people think their children’s lives will not be as good as theirs. Nearly half of all Americans are no longer proud of their country. Politicians have become a despised breed. If this trend continues, it’s hard to see how the country can continue to carry on as usual, trading off power between one Washington elite and the other. Why? Because the indictment is not against one party or even one president, it’s a loss of faith in the entire system, and it’s been building for a while.
What happens when a really popular individual rises up and redirects that anger against a particular scapegoat group of people?
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