Issues and Traditions in Western Religion
Tammy Williams
University of Phoenix
REL 134
January 7, 2010
Issues and Traditions in Western Religions
People practice different religions and cultures that embrace various sacred traditions. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a super natural agency or agencies, usually involving devotion and ritual observance and often contains a moral code governing the conduct of human affair (Webster 2008). In this paper I will identify some of the sacred tradition and what I believe are the top current issues facing the following three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Judaism
Jews have many sacred rituals and tradition one that is very popular is Shabbat. The Shabbat is the day of rest. The Shabbat day is usually observed on Saturday and is celebrated with songs, meals and prayer (Judaism, p9). Also another important ritual that Jews take part in is eating kosher meat. Kosher meat is when all the blood of the meat is removed. Jews believe it is unclean to eat blood of animals.
Christianity
The follower of Jesus is called Christian (Christian, 2008). Christian believes in the Christian Bible. The Bible includes the first five books of the Torah, stories of the prophet of god and the New Testament, which is a testimony of Jesus life.
Water baptism is one of the many sacred rituals that is practiced by most Christians. Christians believe that a person must be submerged into water which symbolizes dying with Christ and raising a new born again person. Most Christians also practice the tradition of going to church one to two times a week to fellowship with other believers. Most churches services follow similar tradition such as Sunday school teaching in the morning and music, singing, praying and colleting offering and tithes.
Islam
Islam follows one God name Allah (Islam nation, 2005). The...