This week, we close out 2012 and celebrate the start of the New Year. It is worth pausing to reflect upon this past year before we enter 2013.
Across the globe, we witnessed events both positive and negative, tragic and inspiring. Occurrences included the continuing effects of the “Arab Spring” in the Middle East, such as in Egypt, which “>police opening fire on striking mine workers in South Africa; the Sept. 11th attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya; Felix Baumgartner's space jump; an increasingly isolated and nuclear-ambitious Iran; a military flare-up between Israelis and Hamas forces in Gaza; the massacres in Syria’s civil war ;and the continuing effects of the Great Recession on the United States, Europe, and around the world.
Moving closer to home, we have seen the unprecedented damage across the Northeast resulting from Superstorm Sandy; a contentious and hard-fought campaign which resulted in the re-election of President Obama; and most recently, the horrific tragedy in Newtown, CT, the “>his recent op-ed in the New York Times, wrote that religion “reconfigures our neural pathways, turning altruism into instinct, through the rituals we perform, the texts we read and the prayers we pray. It remains the most powerful community builder the world has known. Religion binds individuals into groups through habits of altruism, creating relationships of trust strong enough to defeat destructive emotions.”
The Harvard University political scientist Robert D. Putnam, famous for his 2000 book Bowling Alone, which detailed an increasing trend toward isolation in America, argued in his new book, American Grace, that there is one place where social capital can still be found: religious communities. Professor Putnam, himself a “>frequent church or synagogue attendees are more likely to donate to charities; help the homeless; do volunteer work; donate blood; spend time with someone who is feeling depressed; help a neighbor; help someone find a job; or offer a seat to a stranger. He found that religiosity, measured by the frequency of attendance at the house of worship, is a better predictor of altruism than all other variables (e.g., income, age, gender, race, education).
Yes, there were catastrophes in 2012, and grim reality threatens. Nevertheless, there is substantial evidence that religious groups in particular are addressing major problems. In “>religious leaders representing Christians, Jews, and Muslims joined together to argue for a ban on assault weapons, as well as high-capacity clips, restricting gun show sales, and improving treatment for the mentally ill. Among other issues,“>Uri L'Tzedek, the Senior Rabbi at Kehilath Israel, and is the author of ““>one of the top 50 rabbis in America!”
