Weekly Response 3 – Teaching World Religion

Ferry Mahulette

Worship is a way for believers to serve God. This method is found with the stages of
rituals of the Abrahamic religion, there are special books for Judaism or church liturgy for
Christians and Hadith that regulate Muslim worship. These three religions have similarities in
their ritual stages, but in the basic meaning are there things that are more essential in worship
itself? Worship and worship should be correlated in the moral life of a religious person. The
reader himself sees the presence of women in every religious ritual. In Islam, there are Friday
prayers which are only followed by male groups, Corrigan's book explains, namely:
If the salat is the Friday noon observance, the imam will usually be a professional religious leader who will also deliver
the sermon, which is required at the weekly congregational service at Friday noon(Corrigan et al., 2016)

It becomes a question why there are Muslim groups when Friday prayers are only men,
on the other hand there are Muslim groups who provide space for women to pray Friday
prayers?

The Abrahamic style of religion is certainly cognate with placing women as second
persons in social and religious life. Corrigan mentions that “Females also must observe the
Friday prayer but are not required to perform it in congregation.”(Corrigan et al., 2016). The
responsibilities of a woman vary in each country. Some church denominations also do not allow
women as leaders of church institutions. In the church, women sometimes have a special place
as leaders or sidelined. As in the baptist church where women are still not allowed as church
leaders. This requires reinterpretation and open-mindedness.

The concept of Ritual in Abrahamic religion focuses on the flow of human life from birth
to death. It is found in Islam, Christianity and Judaism which all have the same rituals. In this
case, who influences this religion? Does Judaism affect Christianity? Is Islam influenced by
Muslims? or Canaanite culture influenced Judaism? Drawing a conclusion or suitability of who
influences whom is difficult, given the cultural factors that existed at the time.

The concept of pilgrimage in Islam, has similarities with the Israeli dispora pilgrimage to
the Temple on Easter. In the Indonesian context, pilgrimage to the holy land is not obligatory,
but in fact often priests or religious leaders in Indonesia try to make it an obligatory doctrine. It
can't be separated from the spirit to live like the Israelites in fact they don't apply it fully, only
take the good things but reject the hard things. In addition, the Indonesian pilgrimage can not
be separated from the practice of private profit, the pastor who gets a fee of 50-100 $ for 1
member of the congregation. Of course this is very far from the spirit of pilgrimage. This is not
an open secret in Christian circles, especially in Christians charismatic Church.