Religion and its role in Greek Organizations

[IheartAphi]

Yes they can eat it if the meat is butchered by a Kosher butcher. In Raleigh, Kosher Jews order their meat from Atlanta and have it driven up by the company once a month. Some extremely orthodox Jews will only use Kosher milk products.

Also, for it to be "really kosher" Milk and Meat can never touch each other or eaten at the same time. You have to have two seperate counters, plates, glasses, utensils, etc... One for milk food and parve and one for meat. Some people make an exception for restaurants (about the plates and utensils) being that there is only ONE kosher deli in NC

I had a friend that got physically sick after she ate a cheeseburger for the first time in freshman year in college. (It was psychological of course). She was in a sorority and just ate the vegatarian courses and skipped the meat.

[Rudey]

The laws of kashrut are complex and it's not a simple don't eat pork, don't mix beef/milk:

http://www.ou.org/kosher/primer.html

http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm

-Rudey

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
Okay, Buddah. I dont know alot about that religious beleif.

Who is Buddah and what are the beleifs?

Hell, I hope I can always try to learn.

Now, from what I understand about being Jewish, unless certain facits, Jewish people can eat anything as long as it is Kosher, which means blessed by a Rabbi. Well, maybe besides pork?

If I am wrong then help me and many others understand.

Not being Buddhist myself, I'm hesistant to try to give a concise answer about the teachings of Gautama Buddha or other buddhas (a person who has acheived a state of perfect enlightenment). I'll leave that to one of the Buddhists at GC or to some web research.

As to Kosher, it doesn't mean "blessed by a Rabbi." It means that the food satisfies Jewish dietary laws. That is, it is not forbidden (certain kinds of food are forbidden, such as pork and shellfish) and was slaughtered (in the case of meat) and prepared according the dietary laws. For example, cattle and poultry must be slaughtered in a way that minimizes suffering for the animal and that drains all blood from the animal. Also, meat and diary products cannot be prepared or eaten together. A kosher kitchen will have separate pots, pans, and dishes for diary and meat. The rabbi does not "bless" the food, he oversees the preparation and certifies that it has been prepared in accordance with the dietary laws.

ETA: Thanks for the very informative links, Rudey.

[Buttonz]

Thank you Rudey, I was goign to say the laws of kosher are more complex...they really are.


As for ritual, I loooked first to see if any of my sisters respinded to this. The meaning behid our letters ties into Judisiam, in fact they are hebrew words. THis is all explained at intitation to the new sisters. As well is our creat has a Jewish star on it. Recently I asked my pledge sister, who isn't Jewish how he felt about it. Her response was that there is a reason why she doesn't have a lot of things with the crest on it, or won't wear it. Besides that she is fine with the rest. I undrstand and respect it. I don't know how I would feel if my GLO was ased on a religon other then Judisiam, if a large part of the ritual was based on it. I have often wondered what other people's feeling at towards it.

[Tom Earp]

Rudey thank you, I did not have a clue to how intricat it all was!

Not to be mean or anything, but thank goodness I am Anglican.

It is much easier for me.

Live and Learn. I am sure, that it is much easier if you have grown up in a certain Faith!

[KSigkid]

According to a handful of GC members, Kappa Sigma requires a belief in a "higher power" to initiate.

Originally posted by PhiPsiRuss
I wonder how many of their chapters actually enforce that rule.

You're probably not going to get any Kappa Sigs to comment on this on here...hopefully this doesn't sound rude, but I don't think it's anything that should be discussed on a public board.

[Pike1483]

Originally posted by 33girl
But what you described ISN'T ritual. It's something the chapter does. Do the members who aren't Christian attend church too? Are they active in the chapter in general?

Everyone goes to chapter church and is pretty active in the chapter. It's not the main focus of the chapter anyway, It's like once-a-month thing max. It's a really common thing at my school, most fraternities and sororites here have chapter church, but we are in the Bible Belt, and here pretty much everyone claims Christianity as their religion whether or not they're actually a religious at all.

Ritual speaking, I obviously can't comment on any of that.

[Diamond Delta]

Originally posted by g41965
Delta Upsilon was founded as a nonsecret nonsectarian organization in 1834, to some extent DU was founded as a protest against secrecy and sectarianism in the secret orders of its day , DU's ritual did have reference to a supreme being in Rite 2 of the initiation ritual, but alternate language, dispensing totally with religion, was allowed by an amendment to the ritual in 1973.
So in sum DU is based more on ethical ideals common to the intellectual ferment of the transendentalist 1830's New England Intellectual Revival than religion.

The Four Ideals of DU are :

Te Advancement of Justice, The Promotion of Friendship,The Development of Character and The Diffusion of Liberal Culture.

You boys were ahead of your time! I am VERY impressed.

[Corsulian]

Me at a Monastery


Here's me like 3 or 4 years ago volunteering at a Buddhist Monastery--I figure that gives me some amount of credit to answer the whole Buddhism thing.
I asked a monk what Buddha was considered--God or not--and he answered that he believed there were many types of 'gods.' He said that a god was pretty much anyone who could cause a very large number of people to change their actions and way of life. He noted that Bill Clinton was a god in that some emulated him, looked up to him, and that his life had a great effect on others (as you can see, the Eastern interpretation of a god is very different than in the West).
When you see a monk apparently praying before a statue of Buddha, he's not praying--he's meditating. The statue is kind of a tribute and maybe a helpful device along one's way to achieve meditation.
Next week, there will be a quiz.

[mccoyred]

Why join a GLO if you cannot fully embrace, or at least live with, its ideals and values?

RESEARCH is fundamental!

[aopinthesky]

Originally posted by mccoyred
Why join a GLO if you cannot fully embrace, or at least live with, its ideals and values?

RESEARCH is fundamental!

While I completely agree with the above, the discussion originally centered around religion in rituals. No amount of research into a GLO is going to give you that information. Potential members should keep in mind that MANY GLOs have religious references in their ritual, particularly those groups that were founded in the 1800's and early 1900's. If it is a deal breaker for a potential member to participate in a ritual where God, Jesus or the Bible are referenced then the member should discuss these concerns with someone in their group prior to being initiated. Don't assume that your new member educator or someone else in your group is going to tell you anything about ritual beforehand "just in case".

[XOcrlstln]

I can say that I have similarly felt uncomfortable regarding the religious ties to ritual. Obviously no one is going to lay initiation out before you go through it, so I was a bit surprised.

While I have since picked up on the subtle hints that occur during non-ritual activities, it is really QUITE subtle.

I have figured out how to make myself more comfortable with the situation. I feel very lucky to have gone through this, as I was able to help my little feel more comfortable before her initiation. She and I have similar beliefs, but she was lucky/unlucky enough to have heard a few more rumors before initiation. The week before initiation she almost quit because she was worried about this topic. I couldn't explain exactly what she was going to experience (or my tricks to feel more comfortable), but I was able to calm her fears of being the only one that wasn't Christian.

Historical viewing of these parts of ritual is truly the way to go. They may not be my beliefs, but understanding the context of our founders gives me perspective and respect for these components of ritual.

ETA: Btw - I DID research before even attending recruitment activities. However, I was not able to find information that informed me of the religious ties of my organization. I am a research GURU, which is part of the reason that I was so surprised during initiation.

While the webmaster for my chapter's site, I made sure to include our open motto. This does have very specific references to Christianity, and had previously been omitted from the information.