There can be nothing weird in religious traditions. It is all pretty strange. 190,000,000 Indonesian Muslims live in respect.

tttttttttttt
Sisters of Charity, India.





 
Coptic Christians, Syria.



So, I asked the taxi driver (moto) whether he was Hindu. He said he is Muslim. Then he asked where I am from and I said USA and he said. "We are not ISIS." I said that I knew that and in fact I had never seen such a religiously tolerant place. He mused that God loves us all and if God isn't worried about what religion someone is, then why should he be. I was happy to agree.

I wanted to follow yesterday's blog with pictures of extremely weird traditional outfits from many faith traditions. Alas, my computer skills and my ability to tolerate frustration were not up to the task. I got two rather moderate and modest examples and then lost my other pictures.

I would love it if my readers would post some pictures from all over the planet of religious people duded up for the big service, or ceremony, or mass. People get freaked out in USA and France about the headscarf but look at Pope Francis on a big holiday mass. Look at a native American doing the Sun Ceremony. Look at the Amish. Look at a Mayan Shaman. It is all so marvelously strange and mysterious and exotic. Help me out here. Let's see what different looks like even in our own back yard.

These symbols of Christian perfection were cutting edge in creating the new Puritan role. If you gave Jim and Tammy your money then Jesus would love you and bring you prosperity. Worked pretty well for this couple. Not so much trickle down. They brought the church into your living room through TV and made their altar look like a living room. Not much fun there.




Mayan prayer.



Dalai Ceremony.

Would love to see your images of what is normal for your experience of God or Nature. It seems like every religious practice I have seen has some ancient roots in animism. Don't be offended if that is not true for your faith, I am just thinking about these things that seem to be very strongly influencing our politics...now and maybe since the beginning of time. I think the world would be a sad place if nobody believed in anything and likewise if we eliminate lovely traditions because they are different.