coming up -- religion and disaster. japan's spiritual resources for dealing with multiple catastrophes. at the same time, the moral questions about military intervention in libya. also, alongside war and tragedy, we remember the surviving shakers, trying to create heaven on earth, in this life. and jews celebrate purim, with its message that, obvious or not, god is at work in the world.

welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. faith-based and international aid groups rushed to help victims of the catastrophes in japan. it's estimated that more than 10,000 people were killed by the massive earthquake and tsunami. japanese officials say more than 450,000 are homeless and in need of supplies. humanitarian efforts, however, have been severely complicated by radiation from four of the country's nuclear reactors. we get more from dave toycen, the president and chief executive officer of the christian aid group, world vision canada. we spoke to him by phone from tokyo on friday night. dave, thanks so much for staying upo late to talk to us.

are you and the others doing relief work there, are you able to get to all the people who need help? and do you have the supplies you need to help them? >> well, basically we do. we're anticipating we'll be raising somewhere between $10 million and $20 million. so our team here has already spent, you know, a chunk of that because they know it's coming. but of course, we believe we're gonna be able to raise that amount of money. and, of cose, that turns into supplies and things that we can provide here. so, yes, i am positive about that. >> but you are able to, or the people who are in need are able to get help from you or from the government or from somebody else, right? >> yes, generally so. my perception is, and in the conversations we've had, what i've seen firsthand, people are getting at least the basics of life. that means water, food on a daily basis. and most people now are in schools, gymnasiums, community centers so that they are at

least not out in the elements. >> yeah. >> it was minus four this morning with about ten, well, eight inches of snow. >> what have you seen that moved you the most? >> well, i think one of the things that moves me so much is in every one of these centers they have sheets of paper with people either saying, yes, i'm alive, and i'm at this location. the other ones that are even more poignant are the ones where you read where people are saying, i am looking for my son, my daughter, do you know about them? and that always touches your heart. tt ju rely, really touhes your heart. and today i had a mother say to me, you know, this has been awful, but it's my kids. the fact that my kids are alive -- and children are precious because they remind us that life is about hope. and even our children, in the midst of these difficult circumstances, they still find

the time to be happy and joyful. that's humbling. >> dave, very quickly, we are almost out of time, but a lot of people are saying, well, we don't need to give anything because japan is a first-world country. it's well-organid. they don'teed much help as perhaps people in other places and other disasters. how would you respond to them? >> well, my first comment is, yes, you're right to a certain extent. they don't need as much help. this is a first world country. but, on the other hand, my experience is that most of us, or many of us at least, when somebody's in trouble, we have a sense we want to help out in some ways. and then when you think about, even i think of, say, hurricane katrina in the united states, how much americans appreciated, at least that's the feedback i got, when people from canada and other places in the world came in and pitched in and gav either volunteered or gave some money. so i think everybody has to make their choice. and we're so pleased at world vision. we've have so many people who want to step up and say we're willing to help in japan and send a message of hope.

>> dave toycen of world vision canada, many thanks. faith groups around the world held prayer services this week for victims of the disasters. meanwhile, some observers have spoken about the strong cultural and spiritual resources the japanese have displayed as they deal with the catastrophe. reverend maggie izutsu is an episcopal priest who is also an expert on asian bereavement rituals. she lived in japan for many years and joins us now from austin, texas, where she leads the organization, the rite source. maggie, welcome. >> thank you. it's an honor to be here. >> as you see the way the japanese people are responding to these tragedies, what stands out for you? >> i guess one of the things that my mind keeps going to is how they don't ask the question, "why me?" they're not consumed with

wondering what put them in harm's way. they know they're in harm's way. they are very attentive to their surroundings and they have a great reverence and fear of nature. >> and so a disaster is just part of life? multiple disasters are just part of life? you accept it and get on with things, pick up and continue your life? >> yes, i believe so. i think that partly comes from their snto tradition ofhis reverence for nature and their understanding of the vicissitudes of nature and capriciousness of nature. it's also part of their buddhist tradition that understands that all things are impermanent and things are subject to change, and they don't see themselves as entitled to good fortune all the time or even good fortune ever. of course they seek that and they strive for that, but that's not their focus. >> 've seen a littl

disruption, frustrations of trying to get supplies and things. but in general, the images have been of people who are very orderly and very respectful of each other. talk about that a little bit. >> yes. well, i think that may come from very early training that is part and parcel of the confucian tradition, which was imported from china, that seeks to make every opportunity in life, in daily life, secular life,s well as spiritual life, or more potedly, religious life, an opportunity for moral self-cultivation. and it starts at a very early age. for instance, my son in a 3-year-old class at nursery school's teacher would talk about how she went home every night to try to understand how she could better inculcate a sense of little johnny's effect on little tommy in terms of how

he was behaving. so that sensibility of commiseration or empathy or understanding how our behavior afectsther people starts there at a very early age. >> and now there is the grieving and the rituals that are available too for helping people through that. what are the most important of those? >> the buddhist tradition, as well as the new religions, have these very elaborate, very elongated memorial services, a sequence of memorial rites that go on literally ad infinitum, and they're a wonderful occasion for families and friends of the decsed to comtogeer t sporadic intervals to remember the deceased and share in the support that they can offer each other in that process. it also serves, i think, as a context for remembering the relative nature of our own egos

and the place that we have in this vast line of our ancestors and hopefully the progeny that will yet be coming, and to remember our place in society. and thaalso becomes aontext for remembering that behaving well is a very important attribute of living. >> reverend maggie izutsu of the right source in austin, texas. many thanks. >> thank you. in other news, the situation in libya remains uncertain. on thursday, after a week of vigorous international debate, the security council approved establhment of no-fly zone over libya as well as "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. on friday, the gadhafi government announced a ceasefire, but there were reports of ongoing violence.

what are the moral considerations that should guide a decision to intervene in another country? kim lawton took a closer look. >> reporter: as the situation continued to deteriorate inside libya, calls for international military intervention escalated. the u.n.'s resolution demanded a ceasefire, and if the violence doesn't end, authozed enforcement of a no-fly zone, and pledged to take "any necessary means" to protect civilians. but there are never easy solutions. shaun casey is professor of christian ethics at wesley theological seminary. >> whether you act or whether you don't act, the stakes are really quite high. and that's what makes it so daunting from a moral perspective, trying to find the right way to know when to intervene and when not to because the consequences, the body counts are quite high. >> reporter: in the wake of the 1994 genocide in rwanda, the united nations hammered out a set of principles known as the "responsibility to protect."

the principles say that nations must protect their population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. and if a state doesn't live up to that responsibility, the international community has a responsibility to step in. the united states has endorsed those principles. >> i believe that force can be justified on humanitarian grounds, as it was in the balkans, or in the other places that have been scarred by war. inaction tears at ouconscience and can lead to more costly intervention later. >> according to casey, the principles draw heavily from the just war tradition, which says there must be a just cause for such intervention. >> what people need to be looking for, particularly with respect to libya, is to what extent are war crimes being committed, are innocent people being directly targeted, is there something approaching genocide occurring on the ground at this point. >> reporter: once that has been determined, thnext questions are who s

e auority forapproving a inrvention a whoas t reonsilityf caying it out? >> simply because you may have a justification for intervention, that doesn't answer the "who" question. should france be the one who intervenes? should saudi arabia intervene? should the arab league? should the africa union? there are a lot of regional entities there that may actually have some resources that could be applied militarily. >> reporter: atrocities in and of themselves don't automatically trigger intervention. >> sure, we have a commitment to fighting injustice, but that doesn't mean we're going to go militarily instantly wherever injustice occurs. we have to ask e qution "how large," and do we actually have the empirical, sort of pragmatic capability to do anything about it? >> reporter: casey admits, it's difficult to know where that moral line is. >> nobody is going to say, "well, you have to have 50,000 people die before we go in." so you have to take it case by case, and certainly in a situation like rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of people were butchered, in retrospect you'd say, oh my goodness, of course that was on a scale that would've justified intervention.

>> reporter: another quiz question is whether there is what the just war theory calls a "reasonable chance of success." >> so let's y we do a no-fly zone and gaddafi still sends in ground troops and tanks and manages to defeat the rebels. does the fact that we established a no-fly zone mean we want to actually then put ground troops to deter gaddafi, if he continues to be successful? >> reporter: casey says concerns about potential success have so far prevented the international community from intervening in darfur, even though there is strong consensus that atrocities continue to be committed there. he acknowledges that not acting in a particular situation can also be a moral failure. >> if yohavehe ability to intervene and to stop an injustice or stop an atrocity and don't, i think you do have moral culpability as a result of that. >> reporter: the moral questions are getting increasingly complicated, and casey says they're not going away any time soon. >> if history's any guide, we're going to see more of these failed states and more of these

sort of nascent civil wars, and we're going to be asked a lot more to intervene in these kinds of conflicts. >> reporter: all the more reason, he says, to stay vigilant in doing the moral calculus. i'm kim lawton in washington. meanwhile, u.s. officials continue to search for effective responses to the ongoing political and military upheavals in other parts of the arab world. secretary of state hillary clinton visited egypt and tunisia, urging governments there to establish democracy and uphold human rights for all citizens. and there were rising concerns about violent clashes between sunni and shiite muslims in bahrain. as turmoil swept the middle east and disasterstruck japan thought of religis believers we visited last summer in maine -- the three surviving shakers. their mission, they say, is to help create the kingdom of god on earth, in this life.

>> reporter: just sabbath day like lake central maine, the last shaker community straddles an old road in the midst of 1800 acres of forest and farmland. at its peak, there were nearly now, the three remaining are brother arnold hadd, 53. he came here when he was 20. sister june carpenter is 72 and too shy for an interview. she has been here for 21 years. and sister frances carr is 83. she was brought here when she was 10. >> i hope and i pray with all my heart that we are not the last three shakers. >> as long as we do god's work, i believe in the essence of my soul that there will always be vocations sent to this way of life. >> reporter: shakers originated in england in the 1700s, an ecstatic offshoot of the more sedate

quakers, led by a charismatic preacher shakers call mother ann lee. like today's pentecostals, shakers who felt the holy spirit would roll and twirl and speak in tongues. shaking quakers they were called -- shakers. mother ann taught that lives devoted to god could best be lived in isolated and disciplined communities in which members would share all they owned, as did the earliest christians. >> it's giving yourself and all that you may possess to god and to the community. the goal was nothing less than working to become perfect and to achive salvation and heaven in vis life. so in the sabbathday lake cemetery there are 150 individual graves, but just one all-inclusive marker. >> we think of father-mother god, not just as god as a father. >> reporter: it followed that

men and women must be treated equally. but they were strictly separated. mother ann thought sex and marriage interfered with devotion to god. >> it was to imitate the life of christ. so we're secelibate, we're passivists because christ was a passivist. i asked brother arnold how a shaker deals with celibacy. >> you just deal with it. i think that has to come as a gift from god, i really do. you have to be married to christ. christ has to be your lover. it doesn't work any other way. because you have to feel so attuned to that spirit and so in love with god that it can fill any void that you might have in your life. >> reporter: shakers were widely admired for their craftsmanship, such as graceful chairs and other furniture. also, for their 100 or more inventions, such as the flat broom.

>> everything that we strive to make, either for our own use or for sale to the world, is done as perfectly as we possibly can. >> at sabbathday lake they grew herbs and sold herbal medicine and seeds. they have 19,000 apple trees, far too many for them to manage. so they rent the orchard out. as an elder trustee and spokesman, brother arnold has many responsibilities. >> okay, guys, let's go. >> reporter: he also feeds the sheep and scottish cattle twice a day. >> our father-mother ann says hands who work hard, hearts to god. for us work is worship. if you do something as menial as cleaning a toilet, that can be an act of worship because it's not being done for yourself, but it's being done for god. it's being done for others. >> reporter: every summer members of the sabbathday lake support group friends of the shakers come to visit.

brother arnold and one of the young visitors called the people to sunday worship. the friends filled the meetinghouse-women in through one door, men through another, and inside the genders separated and facing each other. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: shakers are said to have 10,000 songs, of which the most fame us is "simple gift". ♪ 'tis a gift to be civil 'tis a gift to be free 'tis a gift ♪ ♪ to come down where we ought to be♪ >> reporter: shakerism has been the victim of progress. the industrial revolution lures awaymany you men and shaker craftsmen could not compete with mass production. the states began looking after orphanswhich shakes had done

hoping they would become members as adults. more recently, changing attitudes towards sex made the celibacy requirement for many an insurmentable obstacle. but shakers say, for those who actually try the life, celibacy is not the biggest prm. >> usually those who have been ere and ha lft have found it too regimented. >> obedience. >> yes. >> she's absolutely right. almost no one's left for any other reasons. >> the obedience was the greater problem than celibacy? >> absolutely. >> reporter: i asked sister frances about the friends of the shakers. might some of them become converts. >> we have very good friends with us, many ways spiritually. they're not about to give up their husband, their wife or their homes and live in community. >> reporter: meanwhile, the shakers themselves don't want to change any rules to attract converts. >> they come and they try the

life, and usually it is on our decision that they don't remain. we don't want it to continue in any way that has been diluted from what we have lived. >> reporter: i asked brother arnold about the shaker legacy. >> i think that with shakerism has proved to the world is that it is possible to live the fullness of the christ life howevhere and now to start making that heaven on earth. ♪ >> taking very ordinary people and allowed them to live extraordinary lives. ♪ turn, turn till think turn, turning we come round right♪ on our calendar this week sunday is the hindu festival of holi. family members paint each other with brightly colored water and powders representing energy, life, and joy.

ao this week,embers othe baha'i and zorastarian faiths will celebrate their new years, which also mark the spring equinox. >> and for jews, purim takes place this weekend. the holiday is a joyous commemoration of a time when jews living in ancient persia were saved from extermination. we visited a celebration of purim last year at adas israel congregation in washington, d.c. we spoke with the senior rabbi, l stnlauf. >> the purim ory actuay one of the books of the bible. it's called the book of esther or megillaht esther in hebrew. jews today often think of it as a kind of fun, silly holiday. it's kind of like mardi gras. it has costumes, and it has parties and festivals. what really sets it apart as unique, in the jewish tradition,

is that it has specific mitzvot, or commandments. we have to give gifts of food to each other. the most famous food that's associated with purim is what we call hamentoshen, and we have to give gifts to the poor, and we also have to sit down for a "seudah," or a festive meal together. we have to share the experience with community. you have to hear the reading of the book of esther. >> moredechai told the servant that the jews were to be killed by haman and that esther should go to the king to plead for her people. >> when we talk about a terrible oppressor or enemy who has tried to destroy the jewish people, there's the expression "yemach shemo" which means "may his name be blotted out." >> our enemy, replied esther, is this wicked haman. >> so that's taken literally. it's not just a figure of speech. we give out noisemakers, which are called graggers. they swing them around and they make the noise. it's as funny and as silly -- as much as you can poke fun at the gravitas of life, the better.

but, you know, it's not just a child's holiday. it's actually a very sophisticated, very powerful spiritual message. what's most remarkable about the book of esther is god is not a character in the story. you never actually see god anywhere in the story. esther is related to the hebrew word "esther," which means "hidden," so that's god's hidden nature, and in a sense it reflects our ongoing sense of being mystified and curious about the fact why doesn't god rescue us in the way that god rescued us from egypt? and here in the story we see how, seemingly by chance, we managed to survive. what seems like chance is actually the surface of a much deeper reality, where god's presence is working itself out in ways that we really can't quite understand. i think the deepest message of

purim is, you know what? it's all ultimately okay. there really is a god even if we can't find that god so directly. this world, like it says in the beginning of the book of genesis -- it's really "tov m'od," it's really very good. we can even enjoy this world with all of its troubles and find reasons for joy. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. we have much more on our bsite, where youl fi more about traditional japanese religious culture in the face of disaster and more of our interviews on purim and on the ethics of intervention in libya. we want to hear from you. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. you can follow us on facebook and twitter, find us on youtube, and watch us anytime, anywhere on smartphones and iphones with our mobile web app. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, more prayer services for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in japan.

no. well, it's just past there. first house in the right after the cottage on the l don't panic. brazen it out. me? - no. - right. here goes. yippee!