Archive for the ‘Other religions’ Category
Gnostic missionary in Washington Heights
“We are going to wake our consciousness,” announced Antonio Perez to his three students, “To succeed, we need to learn the higher level of thinking, which is not to think. We need to stop being slaves to our minds.” The attentive adults nodded their heads in agreement as Perez hung each word in the [...]
A Japanese American’s journey from auto thief to PK in the Holy Land
Yamashita looks like trouble. A stocky man who enjoys weight lifting, tattoos, cars, and West Coast hip-hop, 32 year-old Yamashita does not seem like the “religious type.” Mo, the name Yamashita prefers to go by, is the son of the pastor of the Church of Perfect Liberty, which is also known as PL Kyodan, in Jackson Heights, Queens. The Yamashita family are part of a large religious shift that occurred in Japan. PL Kyodan fits within a broad category of Shinshūkyō, Japanese new religions founded between 1800 and today.
The “Mixed Veggies” of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, religion in ethnic flavors Part 2: the Fujianese
Fujian is a coastal province in China that is north of Gwangdong and across from Taiwan. In 1995 and even 2004 the Fujianese were not a significant presence in Sunset Park. Now, the Fujianese seem overwhelmingly present. About one-fourth of the foreign born residents of Sunset Park are Chinese. Besides Fujian, Cantonese immigrants continue to [...]
