Popularity and biting criticism. Maim funding for religion ethics is provided by the lilian endowment, and dedicated to the founders in religion, Community Development and education. Additional funding also provided by mutual of america. Designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. And the corporation for public broadcasting. Welcome. Im bob abernethy. Its good to have you with us. Muslims around the world this week began their monthlong observance of ramadan, when they fast from sunrise to sunset. In egypt, the holiday falls amid continued unrest after the militarys removal from power of former president mohamed morsi. Morsis political party, the Muslim Brotherhood said it will not cooperate with the interim government and vowed to continue protesting. Tensions were particularly high after the military fired on brotherhood protesters, killing more than 50 people. One of the countrys top muslim clerics called for an end to bloodshed and warned both sides against dragging the country into civil war. I am now joined by kate seelye, Senior Vice President of the nonpartisan middle east institute. She was a long time correspondent in the middle east and has reported from there for, among others, this program. Kate, welcome. Thank you very much. Youve been to egypt many times. As you look at it from here, what do you see . How do you characterize the mess its in . Well, egypt is facing a very challenging situation as it transitions from an authoritarian regime to a democracy in the future. Its still very much along a transitional path. But, how do you describe whats going on . Well, you know, there are two different views of what just happened. There are those who say that a coup just took place, that a legitimately elected government was just overthrown. You now have the military in office that is rounding up the very islamists that were ruling egypt just, you know, a few weeks ago, putting them in prison and closing down the media. You have liberals on the other hand, who supported the recent popular uprising, who say this is the very best thing that could have ever happened to egypt. They say morsi, the president , was incompetent, that he was authoritarian, as authoritarian as mubarak. And they note that the economy was collapsing. There were two months left of wheat supplies. Now, in response to whats just happened, gulf countries have committed 12 billion to egypt. The new Prime Minister is a renowned economist and the liberals say theres hope that egypt will become prosperous and stable once again. But they had elections. How can they morsi was freely elected. Absolutely. And there are those who say that this is very bad for the future of democracy in egypt. Its been a real setback for democracy. There have been several elections since the overthrow of mubarak. They have all been annulled. And yet on the other hand many liberals feel that the direction the country was going in under the democraticallyelected Muslim Brotherhood islamist leadership was very, very bad and they didnt want to continue in that direction. How much was just because they didnt like what the government was doing and how much of it had to do with islam . Well, it had nothing to do with islam. It had everything to do with this particular government which was the first islamist government in egypts history. So how did they rule . Well, they were incompetent because theyve never had a chance to rule before. They were a party that was banned for decades. Theyve never had experience running anything. So they were incompetent. They were authoritarian. They were not inclusive. They were dismissive of liberals, women and minorities. So in general people didnt like how this islamist government was ruling. They also feared that they would try to islamize the state, make it more islamist. And we saw that in the new constitution which they pushed through in january in which many of the clauses were once again not very respectful of women, minorities and others. And so i think egyptians just rose up and said weont like the direction egypt is going in. Its not because we dont love muslims, most of us are muslims. But we dont like the idea of an islamist egypt. Thats interesting. What about the copts, the christians there . Whats going on with them . Well, theyre much relieved today. They suffered under the morsi government for the past year. What democracy did in egypt was it brought into office more islamists and islamists that are more i would say radical than the Muslim Brotherhood who call christians heretics and who were responsible for attacks against christian businesses and churches and homes. But morsi also created a hostile environment. One of his key clerics during easter called upon muslims not to say happy easter to their christian neighbors cause that would be unislamic. So under morsi, christians suffered and theyve been leaving the country in droves ever since. And still are. And still are. Kate seelye of the middle east institute. Many thanks to you. Thank you so much. In other news, in syria, fighting continued this week despite calls from the United Nations for a ceasefire during ramadan. The u. N. And other International Aid groups say civilians in syria are facing extremely severe shortages of food, water and medicine. At the vatican this week, pope francis updated vatican city laws related to child sexual abuse and to the leaking of vatican information. The laws apply to all vatican employees. Pope francis increased the prison sentences for sexual abuse and added one for possession of child pornography. And for the first time, he made leaking confidential vatican information a crime. Also, this week, the pope visited the italian island of lampedusa. Thousands of immigrants and refugees hoping to enter europe travel to the island every year in dangerous conditions. The pope mourned those who have died at sea and warned against the globalization of indifference. Meanwhile, many catholics around the world celebrated franciss approval of sainthood for Pope John Paul ii and pope john xxiii. John paul ii, who died in 2005, will have become a saint in record time, eight years. And, for john the xxiii, francis waived the requirement of a second miracle. One of the great dilemmas for some religious people can occur when doctrine seems to prevent care. For instance, when a jehovahs witness refuses surgery because his or her beliefs prohibit blood transfusions. But there may be a way through that problem. Betty rollin reports on a hospital where nearly all the operations are preformed without the need for transfusions. The technique is called bloodless surgery, and doctors performing it say it is simply good medicine. The kingdom hall of jehovahs witnesses in cumming, georgia. Justine and gary laclair are among the congregants. And they are among the 1. 2 million jehovahs witnesses in the united states. The organization of jehovahs witnesses was begun in the late 19th century by a small group of bible students in pennsylvania. We believe from the bible that god has a name and it is jehovah, and that his son, jesus christ is separate. His kingdom has been established in heaven and instead of everybody going to heaven when they die there will actually be a resurrection here on the earth and all of our loved ones will come back and well enjoy perfect life forever right here on earth. Where a lot of religions may teach things such as hell fire, immortality of the soul, and trinity, jehovahs witnesses dont believe those teachings. We take the bible very literally and believe the bible for what it is. We look for the truth in the bible. One of the truths witnesses believe in has to do with blood. In genesis and again leviticus, theres very specific scriptures that state that the blood is sacred and that life is in the blood and that belongs to god. So we want to respect that and be obedient to that. So that means jehovahs witnesses do not accept blood transfusions. They believe to do so would be a sin, a sin serious enough that many Church Members would rather die than receive blood transfusions. This issue has been very much on the laclairs minds because in may, the 43yearold justine was about to have surgery. She had a tumor in her skull which had to be removed. For this type of surgery most hospitals might have required a blood transfusion, which was unacceptable to justine and to her husband gary as well. Its her decision obviously, but it makes it a lot easier if she had support and thats really my responsibility and im taking it seriously. The laclairs found a solution to their problem in englewood, new jersey. Nearly 20 years ago the englewood hospital began a bloodless surgery program. The policy grew out of the need of jehovahs witnesses, and now it has become the hospitals preferred method of surgery for all patients. Do you see this thing here . Yes. Thats not supposed to be here. This is a tumor of some kind. Okay . Dr. Steinberger, who performed justines surgery, has become a Firm Believer in englewoods avoidance of blood transfusions. For him its just good medicine. The science seemed very real. The literature seemed to support it and once we started doing the operations, the results were great. The risks of giving blood in many cases outweigh the benefits of giving blood. There are risks of infections, there are risks of lowering the immune response of the patient, there are risks of giving the wrong kind of blood, errors can occur and if theres any way to avoid getting a blood transfusion, one is better off in general if they can avoid it. In any sense, do you feel the jehovahs witnesses have done medicine a service . Definitely. They definitely have done medicine a service. Now are not accepting blood regardless of the circumstances. The key to successful bloodless surgery is preparation. Sherri ozawa directs the hospitals bloodless surgery program. Many, many patients, estimates are as many as 40 or 50 of patients come to surgery who are anemic. They dont have enough blood cells. Very simply, dealing with that ahead of time, helping to build those patients blood up eliminates even the question of transfusion for many patients. We could perform even serious surgeries and even life threatening situations bloodlessly with much greater success than other people would have expected, even than we expected initially. And there is the cost of blood. Its immensely expensive and if its done for no good reason that is billions of dollars of waste in the healthcare system. It costs about 1,100 to give one unit of blood. Not to buy it, to transfuse one unit of blood. When englewoods Program Began in 1994 there were fewer than ten hospitals offering programs for surgery without blood transfusions. Today there are about 150 and many more are in development. There is more to successful bloodless surgery than preparation. At englewood they practice precision surgery with minimal blood loss, and if a patient loses blood and has agreed before hand, the surgeon uses a technology that recycles the patients own blood. Still there is a resistance among surgeons to bloodless surgery. Both dr. Steinberger and sherri ozawa simply blame tradition and habit. The resistance is primarily behaviorally based. Physicians get about between three to six hours of training in transfusion science in medical school. They dont know a whole lot about it. So most of bloodless medicine or transfusionfree surgery really is education for clinicians in how to handle these situations without blood. Lately, doctors from other countries have taken an interest in bloodless surgery, particularly in africa. They are learning the techniques that we have learned from taking care of this specific population to use in their countries where either the blood supply is unsafe or unavailable. Justines surgery was successfully performed on may 9th. She went home to georgia two days later. Everything went very well, no problems. Shes waking up from anesthesia. There was hardly any blood loss. Depending on how she feels tomorrow she can leave when she feels ready to go. You did a wonderful thing. Well, lets see how she does. For religion and ethics newsweekly, im betty rollin in englewood, new jersey. Justine laclair left the hospital two days after her surgery and she says she is doing wonderfully. On our calendar this week, jews around the world observe the solemn holiday of tisha bav beginning sundown on monday. Tisha bav is a day of fasting and lament marking the destruction of the first and second temples in jerusalem and other tragedies in jewish history. We have a story now about a young man who immigrated to the u. S. From lebanon at the end of the 1800s and began an amazing career as a poet, especially, a poet who wrote about love. His name was Kahlil Gibran and, as lucky severson reports, his famous little book the prophet has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. Some critics have panned gibran, but his books just keep on selling. When mark and Jennifer Drago decided to get married, they had both drifted away from their separate churches. He was a methodist, jennifer a lutheran. So they asked pastor April Gismondi of the Nondenominational Church of ancient ways to officiate. On this area of long island, a lot of people of a lot of different religions come together and agree that spirituality is the core of the human belief, not the book you got it from. And then two and a half years later, when their daughter julia was welcomed into the world in another ceremony, pastor gismondi spoke the words and wisdom of one of the most popular poets of all time, and among the most controversial Kahlil Gibran. Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of lifes longing for itself. For you are the bow from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. He speaks to the core of what makes us truly human, the things that we all struggle with, the things that we all enjoy, the lessons we have to learn. He has this metaphor with the arrow, which i think is great. Theyre ours, but theyre not ours to keep. Like we get to have them for just a little bit of time, and then we have to send them off. And its so eloquent. It really is. Apparently millions of readers agree. Kahlil gibran is one of the best selling poets of all time, behind shakespeare and laotzu, the founder of taoism. Suheil bushrui holds the Kahlil Gibran chair for values and peace at the university of maryland. Im not saying that gibran is as great as shakespeare, but im saying that people who have a universal message, goethe, dante, shakespeare, the great poets of all time, because of their universal message, they resonate with every culture, every language and every people. Gibrans widespread and lasting popularity has also been greeted with much critical derision. Among the critics who least appreciate the poet is stefan kanfer. His work has always seemed to me, Kahlil Gibrans, like halva, which is a part of middle eastern cuisine which is almonds and honey, to the point where you really cant take more than a little bit of it. And sometimes i feel if you read enough of this kind of stuff, your appetite for real food goes. He gives numerous examples of what he calls gibrans muzziness, and pseudo paradoxes. Here he is on marriage. This, by the way, from a man who never married. Fill each others cup, but drink not from one cup. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you, each one of you be alone even as the strings of a lute are alone. This is this is mysticism. This is that other level of communicating. He says that joy is sorrow unmasked. He talks about how if youre sitting at your table with sorrow, joy is in your bed waiting to awaken. Kahlil gibran was born in 1883 in northern lebanon, and grew up in a poor, maronite catholic family. Priests tutored him about the bible, but he had no formal education. After his father was imprisoned for embezzlement, his mother moved the family to boston, massachussetts. He arrived with his family as a 12yearold immigrant, living in the slums of boston, the syrian quarter. And by the time he was 13 or 14, he had already been discovered. Leisl schillinger is a new York Literary critic, who contributes to several major publications. He has a beautiful face and he is said to have had an arresting and mystical way about him. People felt they were talking to a prophet. And he went pretty quickly from being this teenager to having his own verse published in various quarterlies. Gibran had help along the way, as he grew into adulthood, usually from women. Its true that he admired women and many of them admired him. You know, this is a handsome man who speaks of love, who speaks of individuality, who respects women in his writing as humans. Now the most important influence of course came from mary haskell, a schoolmistress ten years his senior, who detected in this young man something very special. So she arranged for him to go to paris. She funded him. She had enormous faith in him. She very nearly married him, but decided that at the time it would have hurt her social standing too much because at that time, that would have been considered a mixed marriage. By far, gibrans most famous work was the prophet, a short 20,000word collection of prose and poetic essays, written when he was in his 20s and 30s and then living in new york city. He would compose poems sitting on a bench looking out at the statue of liberty. The statue of liberty, america itself, of course has its shortcomings as well, but he saw it as the hope for the world. And he expressed this hopeful attitude in both fluent english and arabic. The prophet has been translated into over 40 languages. It uplifts my soul and teaches me something to think about, well, thats good enough for me. Yes, there has been enormous criticism sometimes, and very bitter criticism against him, but the question here is which of the great poets, or figures in history, has not been subject to the same degree of criticism. But kanfer doesnt consider gibran one of the great poets. And here he is on death. When the earth shall claim your limbs, then you shall truly dance. Well, is this the afterlife . Is it christianity . Is it buddhism . He uses this kind of indistinct manner of speaking. People who read his poems can find in them resonances of sufiislam. They can find resonance of hindu love poems and life poems. They can find resonances that sound like, that are biblical as in from the king james bible. When the prophet was First Published in 1923, it was not an immediate or complete success. Critics panned it, but the public bought it. Then sales flagged until the vietnam era. There was the vietnam war, the disappointment of the youth of america. What could take place to help find the meaning in life . Gibran. The only thing you need is love. This is what gibran is saying, but it is not sexual love that hes talking about. Hes talking about loving human beings, loving humanity. Yes, he filled the gap that was necessary to be filled. It was a spiritual gap. A building in Lower Manhattan that once was gibrans home and studio. Today its a place of pilgrimage for those who feel his words still speak to them. But reverence is relatively rare among todays literary elite. After leisl schillingers 7c frf his family descendants wrote her expressing surprise that she had treated gibran so unscornfully. She says he doesnt deserve scorn. He has existed as a bridge between the middle east and america and the western world, a bridge between christianity and islam to help people around the world to feel their commonality. Kahlil gibran died when he was 48, in 1931. To date, its estimated that the prophet has sold more than 100 million books worldwide, 9 million in the u. S. Where its never gone out of print. Religion and ethics newsweekly, im lucky severson. Finally, in colombia, in south america, there is a 47yearold priest named hernando fayid. Last year, his Four Brothers gave him a white mercedesbenz e200 convertible. Last weekend, at the vatican, pope francis said it hurts his heart when he sees a priest with the latest model car. Take a more humble one, he said, and dedicate the savings to the poor. Back in colombia, father hernandez apparently heard the message, perhaps sorrowfully. With what must have been sacrificial obedience he announced this week that he will sell his mercedes. Thats our program for now. Im bob abernethy. You can follow us on twitter and facebook and watch us anytime on the pbs app for iphones and ipads. And visit our website, where there is always much more, including audio and video podcasts of this program. Join us at pbs. Org. As we leave you, scenes of ramadan around the world. Major funding for religion ethics is by lilian dedicated to the founders interest in Rio De Janeiro in religion, and also by mutual of america. Designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why were your retirement company. And the corporation for public broadcasting. Barry kibrick today on between the lines, one of our countrys most accomplished historians, dr. Joyce appleby. Welcome. Im barry kibrick. Professor appleby taught many years at ucla. And as the past president of the american historical association, winner of the prestigious 2009 Arthur Schlesinger award for distinguished historical writing, she joins us today with her book, the relentless revolution, a look at the history of capitalism and how it reshaped the world. Linda ellerbee im a writer today because i was a reader when i was 11 years old, and it was. Deepak chopra you do not need to prove your state of happiness to anybody. Warren christopher most of