coming up, converting masai tribesmen to christianity. plus, a prominent columnist worries that many americans are focusing too much on individual liberty, and not enough on community values. >> we often forget that the first word of the constitution of the united states is not the word "i." it's the word "we." and honoring the work of a 1960s graphic artist who was also a catholic nun. >> major funding for "religion and ethics news weekly" is a private family foundation

dedicated to its founders and christian religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america, designing customized, individual, and group retirement products and that's why we're retirement company. the estate of william j. carter. the jane henson foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome, i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. the season of denominational conventions continued this week. issues around homosexuality were controversial at the presbyterian church usa's biennial general assembly in pittsburgh. church delegates debated a proposal to rewrite the church's definition of marriage. proponents advocated changing it from a union between one man and one woman to a union between two people. in a controversial decision, the pcusa narrowly rejected a proposal to sell its stock in

companies it says aids the israeli occupation of the west bank. several jewish groups opposed the measure, saying it would have demonized israel. the episcopal church began its general convention in indianapolis. the denomination meets every three years. this time, representatives are debating internal restructuring and budget problems, and several issues surrounding sexuality. meanwhile, the u.s. catholic bishops wrapped up their fortnight for freedom campaign on july 4th, but promised to keep fighting against what they see as threats to religious liberty at home and abroad. the two-week campaign included special masses, rallies and other events. the so called "nuns on the bus tour" also came to an end this week. over the past two weeks, a group of catholic nuns traveled across nine states to protest proposed federal cuts to programs that

serve the poor. they concluded their trip with a prayer service and press conference on capitol hill, where they were joined by interfaith leaders who praised the sisters and their work. faith-based groups are among those working across the nation to help victims of a recent series of natural disasters. southern baptist disaster relief says it has units currently deployed in 15 states in response to storms in the mid-atlantic region, wildfires in colorado, and flooding in florida. international leaders are calling for an immediate end to the destruction of tombs of sufi saints in the legendary city of timbuktu, in mali. a group affiliated with al qaeda has been leading the attacks on sufi landmarks, claiming the 600-year-old shrines encourage the worship of sufi saints instead of allah. the united states, the united nations and the international criminal court have all condemned the group's actions.

unesco, the un's cultural agency, recently added timbuktu to its list of world heritage in danger sites. and, there's been international controversy after unesco placed the church of the nativity in bethlehem on its endangered list because of the poor condition of the ancient structure. palestinians say the designation helps their quest for statehood recognition. israel and the u.s. opposed the action. the christian bodies that share custody of the church expressed concerns that this could lead to too much un interference in the site many christian revere as jesus's birthplace. in kenya, muslim leaders have promised to help christians protect churches in that country, following deadly attacks on two churches there last weekend. at least 15 people were killed. the leaders say they hope to

prevent the violence from escalating as it has in nigeria, where a series of church bombings has killed more than one hundred people so far this year. for as long as there has been christianity, followers of jesus have felt called by his "great commission" to try to convert everyone in the world. we have a lucky severson story today about what must be one of the farthest frontiers of the missionary movement, among the masai tribe of east africa. by western standards, masai culture is primitive and superstitious. but over recent years hundreds of masais have been converted. >> reporter: early morning in a remote part of tanzania at the foot of ol doinyo lengai, known to the maasai as the mountain of god, the center of their universe. when it spews lava, the maasai think god is angry. the last angry eruption was in 2007. legend has it that centuries

ago, god dropped cows from the sky as a gift to the maasai and now all the cows on earth belong to them. christian missionaries have proselytized the maasai for over 150 years with little success. but within the last decade, the tribe started converting. now as many as a quarter of the maasai have become christians. >> through this area we've had ladi st christians in th o yes. r orter:od>>r:woy has woenbe preaching in the bush for 25 years. >> when we first came into this community the witch doctors were very strong here and they cursed the church to die. and now today the witch doctorsn are seeing that they, they were defeated. ll reporter: in the small ages, or bomas, that speckle the countryside, it's as if time has stood in place, although these traditionally nomadic people are no longer quite as leery of outsiders. >> i remember one day when i first came here i heard two

ladies talking and they said, is it an animal or what is it. look at, he has hair on his arms. they were trying to figure out what i was, 'cause they'd never seen a white man before. >> reporter: woods is missionary with a u.s. based non-denominational organization called christian missionary fellowship, or cmf. they call what they do "planting churches." >> we empower natural maasai to do the ministry. i didn't start any of these churches. i'm not the leader of any of these churches, but we've trained these people so that they could move out and do it. when a maasai comes into a community it doesn't quite, it doesn't cause a stir, like when i come. when i come everybody is oh, the white man's here. but when they come they know the culture, the language, and it's easier to integrate into the community. >> reporter: this is one of your churches joseph? >> yes, i am pastor here. >> reporter: this is joseph, one of cmf's planted pastors. he says his church is budding. >> we started with three people. >> reporter: how long ago? >> one year ago. >> reporter: and now you have 58? >> 58, yeah. >> reporter: wow. before he converted, joseph, like all young maasai men,

served a period of time as a hunter-warrior for the tribe. did you ever kill a lion? >> no, i kill a leopard. >> reporter: a leopard with a spear? >> with a spear, yeah. >> reporter: oh, that must have been very scary. until a new tiny school can be built, the classroom for these young orphans of mother's with aids is under an acacia tree. pastor joseph said he would rather have the church take care of them than put them in a state orphanage, of which there are many. so you have two missions here. one mission is to help people learn to live better? another mission is to convert people to christianity? is one more important than the other? >> no, we normally say it is holistic, so if you treat one side and leave another side, it is like dividing your body, so it is holistic. >> reporter: which means cmf's planted churches also help with

more temporal challenges, like building schools, water systems, clinics, roads. >> we want to make the people have a better lifestyle but we want them to know jesus christ because there's a life after this one. >> reporter: converting to christianity is a big step for a traditional maasai, one that can have significant and painful consequences. jacob loserian is a maasai and a convert. >> you lose friends. you lose friends. completely you lose your friends. you will not companion with them, they will not come to your house because you already get cursed. >> reporter: jacob says what convinces and converts maasai is the promise of something better. >> the people become christian because they think to be christian you will be a good person, you know. if you were a thief you will not steal anymore. if you were a killer, you will not kill anymore, because the church will be only teach good things. >> reporter: the good things may

have more to do with culture than religion. traditionally the maasai eat meat almost exclusively. vegetables are not part of their diet. among christian maasai, that's no longer true. >> they have a proverb that says that god would be angry with you if you scratch the earth or, you know, did some digging. we can see right here, these people have broken that proverb and they planted and now they're taking care of themselves, able to feed themselves. >> reporter: these young are men attired and painted this way because they were recently circumcised. in the maasai culture, girls also must go through the painful process. but now, among the christians, this no longer happens. those who have benefited the most may be women. >> maasai culture, the women are just a possession. it's something that they own like their donkeys or sheep, their goats, cattle. and i asked a man why, how many donkey he had and he said he didn't have donkeys, 'cause he had five wives. >> reporter: critics argue that bringing the white man's civilization to indigenous

people isn't always a good idea. woods says he's seen changes that can only be good. girls are now going to school, husbands now know it's wrong to beat their wives. health care is better. >> they begin to treat their families different. we see husbands playing with their children. we see families caring about each other in a way they never did before. >> reporter: these are people who worship a volcano, live in constant fear of evil spirits, throw milk at the sky to thank the spirit god, make animal sacrifices at the base of a fig tree. >> the maasai people are afraid especially for the owl. when the owl come, you know, fly, flying up on the house, then start make the sound, then the maasai, they are afraid, especially when they have a sick person, then they'll be afraid that maybe this person is going

to die. >> reporter: and when a person does die. >> what they traditionally did with dead bodies is they wrap them up in a sheet like that. the put them out in the bush here for the hyenas. the hyenas eat everything. >> reporter: to call the ruts we were on roads is an gross exaggeration. and the further into the bush we went, the worse they got. we were invited to a maasai village for a goat barbeque which is a special privilege for outsiders. but the road is so washed out and after hours of digging, we just can't make it. so we're going to have to turn around for the long, rutty, bumpy ride home. but then, with the help of some maasai warriors, we were on our way again. the village chief here, james, is the only one in the village to live in a cement house. he's an important man, and a converted christian. >> you don't drink this everyday, but when a man goes on a safari, when he comes home, his wife will have sour milk for him to drink.

so now we get some special treat here. >> reporter: becoming a christian was particularly difficult for james who's father is a witch doctor, a practice james now believes comes through the devil. >> the witch doctor uses roots of many kinds of trees to bewitch people. there is a very big difference. because a miracle from god is through prayer. >> reporter: at the barbeque the women stood by and watched as the men ate the goat, and james talked about being a christian and how painful it's been to be cut off from his family and friends. most no longer attend his barbeques. still he insists he'll remain a christian because, he says he now knows where to get his prayers answered, and it's not a volcano. for "religion and ethics newsweekly," i'm lucky severson in the tanzanian bush. as the country celebrated independence day this past week,

there's a new book out by author and columnist e.j. dionne. he argues that an unbalanced view of american ideals has led to our current climate of political division and gridlock. and dionne says this has implications for religion as well as politics. kim lawton spoke with him. >> reporter: celebration of american liberty is important, but author and commentator e.j. dionne says liberty not the full picture of our national character. in his new book, our divided political heart, dionne argues that a strong impulse toward community is also part of the american story. >> we often forget that the first word of the constitution of the united states is not the word "i," it's the word "we." we, the people of the united states. and the preamble sets forth a series of common goals, not individual goals. we are not just "is" out there, interested in our own liberty-- although we are. but we are also wes, a we who are trying to preserve this

great experiment in self-government. >> reporter: according to dionne, a "web of social bonds and mutual obligations" has always tied americans together. the often delicate balance between individualism and community is part of what he says "philosophically and spiritually" makes us americans. >> i think right from the beginning of our republic, we've been torn by this tension between individualism and community. and individualism and liberty is a very important part of who we are and my book is not intended to deny the role of liberty. but i think we too often tell our story almost entirely on the individualistic side. and we forget about the importance of what you might call communitarian ideas. >> reporter: dionne is a roman catholic who describes himself as politically progressive. his thinking about these issues has been influenced by the catholic teaching on advancing "the common good." but he says communitarian ideals are also embedded in the notion that there is something special,

or exceptional, about america. he says that's rooted in scripture, and early puritan beliefs. >> when you go back and look at that great john winthrop speech back in 1630 that ronald reagan liked to quote when he talked about a shining city on a hill. winthrop talked about a city set upon a hill and he talked about how we must labor together, suffer together, have joy together, always being part of one body. and then there is also a small "r" republican tradition which sees self-government not about perusing your own self-interest but about the joys and satisfactions and obligations of governing together in the common interest. >> reporter: dionne believes our current atmosphere of political division and gridlock is due to an imbalance between individualism and community. and for this, he places a lot of blame on the tea party. >> i think right now we are having a big argument as a country and are having trouble

agreeing because i think one side in our debate wants to blow up that consensus and replace it with a kind of radically individualistic approach. >> reporter: while many tea party members say it's big government that has gotten out of balance, dionne believes there is and always will be a legitimate role for the government in advancing the common good. at the same time, he acknowledges that government and community are not the same thing, that other institutions, including faith-based groups, have a role to play as well. despite his strong criticism, dionne commends the tea party for highlighting the values of the nation's founders. and he takes his fellow liberals to task for often ignoring that. >> i do think we need to have an argument about our history. and it's bothered me as a progressive or a liberal that i don't think that we have engaged in this argument about american history enough, we haven't claimed our history as we should. and blue in our history as

conservatism. >> reporter: dionne says the debate about individualism has implications for religion and politics. >> many evangelicals talk about jesus as important because "he changed my life," they will say. i think more progressive christians often talk about jesus as important because he changed the world. now, these two points of views are not mutually exclusive. there are people who will say jesus changed my life and he changed the world. but i think we often can learn a lot about where somebody's politics links with their religious faith by the way in which they talk about jesus. >> reporter: dionne believes in the upcoming election, both democrats and republicans have challenges with religion. he says during the last campaign, president obama frequently used religious references about promoting the common good and by doing so, appealed to a broad range of faith-based voters. >> i think since his election, there was some emphasis taken off this. i think for a fair number of liberals and democrats, they

figured, "all right we solved this problem in '08." and i think there was some backing away from this work. and i think that is something they are trying to catch up on in the middle of a political campaign. >> reporter: while mitt romney frequently talks about what he calls the greatness of america, he has avoided specifically connecting that to his mormon faith. in fact, he has not spoken at length about his personal faith since a speech about religious tolerance during the last campaign. >> he made an effort at it in 2007, which didn't work well, and i think he may feel burned, mitt romney, by the failure of that effort in 2007. so, there are all kinds of forces working against these candidates addressing these questions and yet i think it's because religion is always there below the surface in our politics, i think it is better for us to address them out front and candidly. >> reporter: dionne says he's concerned that the polarization between those emphasizing liberty and those emphasizing community will only expand

leading up to the election. >> i thought that perhaps by highlighting that our heart, in a way, was divided from the beginning, it might become a little bit more possible for each of us to see ourselves in the other. and so while the book very much has a point of view, it also has, at least inherent in it, a hope that we might take a little bit of a step outside ourselves and say if these two aspects really define us all, can't we have at least some kind of dialogue about how we move forward as a country. >> reporter: he believes that's the real american story. i'm kim lawton in washington. ♪ ♪ ♪ we have a story now about a widely admired graphic artist in the 1960s who was also a catholic nun. sister corita was known for

mixing secular and christian images to draw attention to the social and religious issues of her day. her sources included everything from the bible to the beatles. an exhibit of her colorful work is now on display at the national museum of women in the arts in washington, d.c., where we spoke with the exhibition's curator, kathryn wat. >> corita's art from the 1960s, which is based in advertising, has this great pop appeal to us today in our media-saturated culture. all of this art spins off of her intense emotional response to the issues of her time. in the '60s, of course, here in america you're dealing with the vietnam war. this is certainly on everyone's mind, and in addition the civil rights movement, which was very close to her heart. she's in the middle of this maelstrom and seeks to make sense of it from her perspective as a nun. i think that the tenor of the 1960s involved a push-pull with religion. there's a work in the exhibition called "people like us yes."

it includes text by father maurice ouellet, who was active in the selma marches in 1965, very high profile. and so, yes, you did have men and women religious who were involved with the politics of the time, but you also have this pop culture that is exploding with music and drugs and activities that seem sort of antithetical to, as i say, mainstream religion. so i see corita involved in this push-pull that was happening across the spectrum in the 1960s. there are works in this exhibition that feature texts from the bible. there are several works that incorporate proverbs. she quotes from many christian authors, and so the christian content is in the exhibition. but the way that she turns it and twists it by juxtaposing it with secular content and certainly with secular imagery that she's drawing from popular culture is truly unique. a work called "wide open," and corita incorporated, she sort of

blends two texts. one, this psalm, psalm 24 verse 9, with a speech that lyndon johnson gave to congress about the issues of poverty in america. and so she took those two texts and combined them here in an amazing print. corita was looking for words that would be very evocative and that would lead us to a different place. so she would extrapolate those words, those phrases, in some cases, the images, and contextualize them in a way that made them spiritual and engaging. corita's print about john f. kennedy and pope john xxiii incorporates the logo of the vi sunkist citrus-growing company which was actually based in los angeles, and she also printed in some lemons and what looked to be limes, incorporated those elements into the print. she often used the word "sun" or an image of the sun to signify a person or an idea that she found particularly enlightening or clear-eyed, someone who was a

visionary. she certainly understood the outside art world and that it was distinct from her and different from her. she was interested in it, she engaged with it, but she stayed her own course. she had a certain task that she wished to accomplish through her art, and whether it was fashionable or favored by the art market, she wasn't so interested in. i would say she had to have been the least naive nun that i can think of for sure. i think that we feel that we're living in dark times, and we look at this work, and we see someone who is creating supercool art that is very hip, but that is filled with a sincere spirit, and i think that's tremendously appealing to all of us, not just art-goers and art-lovers, but all of us. finally, on our calendar this week, on july 9th, bahai's observe the martyrdom of the

bab, the day on which the founder of their faith was executed in 1850. and on july 11th, japanese buddhists celebrate the three-day festival of obon, when they honor their ancestors. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. you can follow us on twitter and facebook and watch us anytime on smartphones. and you can now find our videos, including full episodes of our program, on the pbs iphone and ipad app. it's free and available in the app store. there's always much more on our web site as well. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, music from the presbyterian general assembly, held this year in pittsburgh. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ major funding for religious and ethics news weekly is provided by the lilly endowment a private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america, designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. the estate of william j. carter, the jane henson fodation and the corporation for public broadcasting.