I think I've finally got my documentary idea.

DaftChris

For over a year, I was in preproduction of a documentary. I was trying to find an interesting way to show the diversity of faith in my small southern city. Sadly, I was not able to find a way to do so without it being too long or overdone. Then, I remembered Super Size Me and a blog I read about a man who lived 12 different faiths in 12 months.

I'm going to choose 6 or 7 faiths and live as each faith for about a month or two. All the while attending services, performing rituals, interviewing holy men and laymen alike. The best way to show diversity is to live vicariously through these faiths and to get into the mindset of their followers.

The religions I know I want to do so far are:

-Orthodox Christianity
-Orthodox or Conservative Judaism.
-Islam
-Hinduism
-Sikhism
-Perhaps another branch of Christianity such as Evangelical or Jehovahs Witness.


I know the idea itself isn't too terribly original, but what do you think?

Hotei

Sounds cool, would watch.

ThailandTom

I think this will be a very interesting journey for you, not only a project but it open you up to so many different opinions and ways of living. I wish you the best of luck.

riverflow

@DaftChris - I would defintely watch it and share it with others. Sounds like a very worthy project!

Tosh

I'll watch the one where you get circumcised. :rarr:

DaftChris

Tosh said:

I'll watch the one where you get circumcised. :rarr:

You might be a little too late.

Zero

If someone has already done 12 faiths in 12 months, will you achieve what you wish to achieve with less faiths over less time?
doesnt sound like your idea.

DaftChris

Zero said:

If someone has already done 12 faiths in 12 months, will you achieve what you wish to achieve with less faiths over less time?
doesnt sound like your idea.

Which is why I'm limiting it. His was also more of a personal growth. Mine is more of showing the diversity of faith; specifically faiths that are available in my town. He did religions like Zorarastrianism and Baha'i, which are not readily active in my town. If need be, my second idea was limiting it to the three Abrahamic faiths and expanding it to one year at 4 months each.

However, I have e-mailed him to see if this is alright. This is just an idea. It is not finalized.

karasti

It sounds like a good journey, I would watch it too. Make sure you do your research if you are planning on fully immersing yourself, such as wearing attire and such. You want to be careful about not offending some of the groups by just trying out their religion for fun. I think Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" series did one where he was a Muslim, and there were some really tense moments. Same guy who did Super Size Me, he did a couple seasons where he or someone else lived 30 days as a variety of conflicting lifestyles, like in one a fundamentalist Christian lived for 30 days with a gay couple who had adopted children, in another Spurlock and his girlfriend lived as lower class Americans and tried to live with no insurance and limited budgets and such. Very interesting series, I highly recommend it. It was on Netflix streaming for a long time, might still be there.

karasti

Here is the netflix link to the series if anyone is interested. I might actually watch it again:
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/30_Days/70140350?trkid=2361637

Dakini

Would you research each faith before you get involved? I would think either some preparation or at least 2 months per faith would be needed, in order to access the teachings deeply enough to have a good understanding of what the rituals are about and the philosophical ramifications of the basic principles of each faith. I would think you wouldn't want to be just mimicking the rituals, but actually entering and dwelling in the reality each tradition presents.

Sounds like it could be a profound experience. Is there a reason Buddhism isn't on your list?

vinlyn

I'm also not totally sure you will be welcome at all of those places you mentioned.

karasti

that's true, research would definitely be needed before you try to get going so you don't do all the work to prepare and find out you won't be allowed. I know within Mormonism, you cannot enter their temples if you are not a Mormon. I don't know if it's 100% across the board a rule, but I know it's common in many temples. I read about it during the election. When the Romney's got married, they had to have a civil ceremony first because his wife was not Mormon. She converted and they married in a temple, but her family could not attend because they were not Mormon. Not that Mormon was on your list, just sayin' as an example.

vinlyn

You may find that particularly in some Muslim mosques. When I visited the main historical mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, although it said open to the public, I was clearly not wanted, so I left. In a small Muslim fishing village in Thailand, there was a sign that said, "Non-Muslims may not enter. But you may give money." It wasn't until I got to Singapore that I found a Muslim mosque that actually welcomed non-Muslims.

Even here in the States, my adopted Pakistani Muslim son invited me to go to the mosque with him. I said that I didn't think I would be welcomed there. He said, "It will be alright because you will be with me, and they know me."

Just saying.

zombiegirl

Are you not planning on traveling? I think living like a Muslim would be interesting. @vinlyn might be right that you won't be welcome everywhere, but if you come up to Dearborn (by Detroit), we have the largest population of Muslims in the country and I don't doubt you could find someone to talk to you here.

I think you will need to stick to faiths that are different enough to most of the population to create interest. I don't think Evangelical, for example, is that way. Technically speaking, the liberal church I used to attend in my teenage years was considered "Evangelical"... but I really couldn't tell you why. It just seemed non-denom to me.

Add in Soka Gakkai. There is a lot of chanting and reciting and mystical stuff, although they won't let you show an image of the gohonzon (it's forbidden). Also, the SGI have locations in almost all major cities and they are reeeaallly welcoming. I'm sure they will be very excited to shakubuku you. Just make sure that you don't make it seem as though they are the representatives of all Buddhism, as everyone on this board knows that they are not.

vinlyn

Just curious if the OP has seen that Bill Mahr video on religion?

DaftChris

Dakini said:

Would you research each faith before you get involved? I would think either some preparation or at least 2 months per faith would be needed, in order to access the teachings deeply enough to have a good understanding of what the rituals are about and the philosophical ramifications of the basic principles of each faith. I would think you wouldn't want to be just mimicking the rituals, but actually entering and dwelling in the reality each tradition presents.

Sounds like it could be a profound experience. Is there a reason Buddhism isn't on your list?

I am going to research these faiths before assimilating. I do actually want to emergence as fully as possible without actually converting.

Also, I haven't included Buddhism because I am one, but I might consider including it anyway.

DaftChris

zombiegirl said:

Are you not planning on traveling? I think living like a Muslim would be interesting. @vinlyn might be right that you won't be welcome everywhere, but if you come up to Dearborn (by Detroit), we have the largest population of Muslims in the country and I don't doubt you could find someone to talk to you here.

I think you will need to stick to faiths that are different enough to most of the population to create interest. I don't think Evangelical, for example, is that way. Technically speaking, the liberal church I used to attend in my teenage years was considered "Evangelical"... but I really couldn't tell you why. It just seemed non-denom to me.

Add in Soka Gakkai. There is a lot of chanting and reciting and mystical stuff, although they won't let you show an image of the gohonzon (it's forbidden). Also, the SGI have locations in almost all major cities and they are reeeaallly welcoming. I'm sure they will be very excited to shakubuku you. Just make sure that you don't make it seem as though they are the representatives of all Buddhism, as everyone on this board knows that they are not.

I'm not actually planning on traveling, as I'm in school and still plan on going with my everyday life. The only difference being that I'm adopting various faiths.

The local mosque is actually quite welcoming of non-Muslims and one of its goals is to build better relations with non-Muslims.

Also, SDI is not in my city.

DaftChris

vinlyn said:

Just curious if the OP has seen that Bill Mahr video on religion?

I have. It's interesting and has funny moments, but I think he is a douche.

vinlyn

I have a spit personality about Bill Mahr. I very much like his cable show, but I'm not sure I'd like him as an individual.

zombiegirl

@DaftChris Unless you do identify as a Nichiren Buddhist (SGI)... I promise it will still be quite the interesting journey to learn about them. For one thing, (in my experience anyways) they don't study any sutras other than the Lotus Sutra and even then, most of it is based on The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. You might think you're already too familiar with Buddhism for it to be genuine, but I never once learned the 8FP or the 4NT while I was with them. I learned how to recite chapters of the lotus sutra in a weird form of Japanese and how to chant until infinity (or boredom). I also learned a LOT about Daisaku Ikeda (affectionately called 'Sensei') and why I should make him my mentor.

Dakini

DaftChris said:

Also, I haven't included Buddhism because I am one, but I might consider including it anyway.

Well, assuming you're doing the documentary not just for yourself and class credit, but potentially for educating the public (for ex.: if you put it up on youtube), you definitely should include Buddhism.

Invincible_summer

I hate to be another wet blanket, but there's also been the BBC series "Around the World in 80 Faiths" and "Extreme Pilgrim."

DaftChris

Invincible_summer said:

I hate to be another wet blanket, but there's also been the BBC series "Around the World in 80 Faiths" and "Extreme Pilgrim."

I know. However, everyone's experiences are different.

Besides, originality may not nessecerily be a brand new idea, but how an old idea can be executed in a different way.

DaftChris

I e-mailed the guy who did the "12 faiths in 12 months" blog and he said that the idea is a great one. He pointed out that immersion projects are nothing new and that he would be happy to help me in any way he possibly could.

The next to do is to make sure the religious leaders are fine with me shadowing them.

zombiegirl

DaftChris said:

Also, SDI is not in my city.

Oh, I missed this! I'm assuming you meant SGI, right? Okay, I hope you don't feel like I'm pushing this on you, but I did want to respond to this point. When I was practicing with the SGI, I wasn't living in a very large city and we didn't have a community center either. One weekend when I was randomly in Chicago, I happened to walk past their community center and thought I would check it out (I had been studying Nichiren Buddhism for a few years, but not necessarily SGI). It turned out that they had some members in my area that would meet in each other's homes and they had a nice little community of 10-15 people. They were more than happy to connect me with some of the more 'senior' members (SGI doesn't have leaders like monks or anything, it's all lay members). If you wanted to check them out, I'd recommend just giving any of the centers in your state a call as this is pretty common for SGI to have little 'regional groups'. But anyways, just another option as you start whittling down your choices.

DaftChris

zombiegirl said:

DaftChris said:

Also, SDI is not in my city.

Oh, I missed this! I'm assuming you meant SGI, right? Okay, I hope you don't feel like I'm pushing this on you, but I did want to respond to this point. When I was practicing with the SGI, I wasn't living in a very large city and we didn't have a community center either. One weekend when I was randomly in Chicago, I happened to walk past their community center and thought I would check it out (I had been studying Nichiren Buddhism for a few years, but not necessarily SGI). It turned out that they had some members in my area that would meet in each other's homes and they had a nice little community of 10-15 people. They were more than happy to connect me with some of the more 'senior' members (SGI doesn't have leaders like monks or anything, it's all lay members). If you wanted to check them out, I'd recommend just giving any of the centers in your state a call as this is pretty common for SGI to have little 'regional groups'. But anyways, just another option as you start whittling down your choices.

Thanks for that! I'll give it a try.

lobster

I'm going to choose 6 or 7 faiths and live as each faith for about a month or two.

What fun. Do it intensely but not too fanatically . . . if you can. Orthodox Judaism would be fun for me, they have strap on boxes with Torah bits, which sounds wild . . . never tried that.

What you might like to do is ask if they have any saints, holy people, very devout followers who can advise you on best practice . . .

Good luck
:clap:

DaftChris

Update

I went to the Islamic center and spoke to the Imam and he said he has no issue with me shadowing in his mosque. The only thing he has to do is go through administration to make sure that it is 100% okay for me to worship with their community.

Next week, I will be attending Friday prayers; as well as attending Shabbat at a Conservative Synogouge and a divine liturgy at a Greek Orthodox church the following Sunday.

genkaku

Public Television here in the US once ran a series based on Ninian Smart's ballsy book, "The Religious Experience of Mankind." Can't remember the series title, but the essence was the same as the book -- to depict not so much the beliefs as the experience of various faiths. Naturally there is no depicting experience, but it was a nervy attempt.