'Allah' is for all, Malaysian court rules, not just Muslims; evangelical alliance welcomes it
Apr 8 2021
The word ‘Allah’ is for all, not just Muslims the Malaysian High Court’s recent decision
(Photo: World Watch Monitor)A Bahasa-Malaysia language Bible, in which the word ‘Allah’ is used for God.

The World Evangelical Alliance has welcomed the Malaysian High Court’s recent decision that recognized as unconstitutional and invalid a 1986 government directive that banned non-Muslims from using the word “Allah” to refer to God.

WEA Secretary General Thomas Schirrmacher, on April 6, described the ruling as “a step in the right direction towards affirming religious freedom for all Malaysians and evidence that the constitutional system of separation of powers functions well.”

The March 10 ruling came in response to a case in 2008.

The government confiscated CDs from Jill Ireland when she returned from Indonesia because they contained Christian material and had the word “Allah” written on them.

Some 13 years after the incident and following a lengthy legal process, the court now concluded that the government’s action violated Ireland’s constitutional rights to refer to the Christian God as “Allah,” which is the generic word for “God” in the Malay language used by people of different faiths.

Jill Ireland has campaigned for Christians’ right to use the word since immigration officials at a Kuala Lumpur airport seized eight Christian CDs from her in May 2008 because the CDs

Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill is from Sarawak and the Melanau tribe and went through Malaysia’s national education system where she was taught in Bahasa Malaysia, the Malay Mail reported on March 24.

JILL IRELAND

Jill Ireland and her family use Bahasa Malaysia, the primary language of Malaysia, to practice their Christian faith while also using the Alkitab (or the Bible) in Bahasa Indonesia and written and audio-visual materials in the Bahasa Indonesia language.

Some Muslims in Malaysia claimed the word “Allah” to be exclusive to Islam.

However, the Malay Mail reported that the Arabic word had long been adopted into Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia in the neighboring country to refer to God.

It is also part of terms in the indigenous languages of natives in Sabah and Sarawak that refer to God. Such use can be traced back to hundreds of years ago, well before Malaysia’s Home Ministry’s written directive in 1986 to ban such usage.

After a seven-year legal battle, Ireland was given back the CDs in 2015, but she maintained that the court had failed to address her constitutional right as a Christian to use the word.

The court’s most recent decision may also have implications for a similar case going back to 2007, said the WEA.

In that case, the government in Kuala Lumpur banned the weekly Herald Malaysia, a Roman Catholic newspaper, from using the word “Allah” in its Malay-language editions, saying that using the Arabic word may offend the local Muslims.

In 2015, the High Court rejected the Catholic Church’s challenge seeking to overturn a ban on non-Muslims using the word “Allah” to refer to God.

That ruling has led to the denial of the use of the word “Allah” by local Christians, who constitute 9 percent of Malaysia’s population.

“The High Court demonstrated a fair and independent approach, and we hope that this decision will be upheld and effectively implemented by the Malaysian government,” said Schirrmacher welcoming the Malaysian High Court’s March decision.

The WEA had previously raised the United Nations issue through the Universal Periodic Review mechanism at the Human Rights Council in 2018.

URGING BAN LIFT

It had urged the Malaysian government “to lift the ban on the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Malaysian Christians, in recognition of their longstanding use of this name for God.”

No other Muslim-majority nation restricts religious minorities from using the word “Allah,” which is of the same linguistic origin as the Hebrew words for God “El” and “Elohim.”

WEAS also said there is also clear evidence that the word “Allah” had been used by Christians, Jews, and pagan believers in Arabia centuries before Islam was established.

In Malaysia itself, it has been used for more than 400 years by non-Muslims and has never been a source of confusion or offense to Islam’s followers.

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House of ‘Abbúd: Holy place restoration completed | BWNS
Apr 8 2021
House of ‘Abbúd: Holy place restoration completed | BWNS

Project restores faded parts of building and strengthens its seismic resistance, extending the conservation work carried out by Shoghi Effendi in the early 1950s.

BAHÁ’Í WORLD CENTRE — A two-year long project that strengthened seismic resistance of the House of ‘Abbúd while restoring parts of the building that had deteriorated over time has concluded. This undertaking was an extension of the conservation work carried out by Shoghi Effendi in the early 1950s, when he prepared the sacred site for pilgrimage.

As exiles and under house arrest, Bahá’u’lláh and His family arrived at this building in 1871 and lived in extremely cramped conditions. At one point more than 13 people were living in one room.

It was at this sacred site that, in 1873, Bahá’u’lláh revealed His Most Holy Book—the Kitáb-i-Aqdas—which outlines the essential laws and principles of His Faith, lays the groundwork for Bahá’í institutions, and is referred to in the Bahá’í writings as the “charter of the future world civilization.”

The restoration of the House of ‘Abbúd aims to preserve “the building in a befitting condition for centuries to come”, wrote the Universal House of Justice in a letter to Bahá’í National Spiritual Assemblies on Friday.

Different aspects of the restoration and conservation work can be seen in the images that follow.

A historic (left) and current (right) view of the east façade of the house. This is the part of the house first occupied by Bahá’u’lláh and his family—known as the House of ‘Údí K̲h̲ammár—with the room (at upper-left) where Bahá’u’lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book of the Bahá’í Faith.

In the room where Bahá’u’lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, conservation was carried out for the wooden wall panels, many of which had become warped or discolored. Each one was straightened, reinforced, and re-stained.

A set of sofas from the house were restored to their original appearance. The upholstery pattern was recreated from a few photographs and used by a textile producer to replicate the fabric.

One of the rooms features a beautifully patterned ceiling and an intricate frieze painted on zinc panels. Conservators documented the frieze pattern, repaired the panels, and restored the paintings—a remarkable conservation of artwork from the Ottoman era.

A restored ceiling in the House of ‘Abbúd.

Detail from the restored frieze in the House of ‘Abbúd.

Ceiling patterns in another room of the house which had become concealed overtime have been restored.

A closeup view of the restored ceiling of one of the rooms in the House of ‘Abbúd

A major aspect of the restoration of the House of ‘Abbúd was replastering some 5,000 square meters of internal and external walls. Lime-based plaster, recommended by conservation experts for use in rehabilitation of historical buildings, was applied. The new plaster and paint will prevent the buildup of moisture inside the walls.

Repairs were made to wooden roof beams throughout the building and reinforced in some places with stainless steel.

Traditional glass-blowing techniques were used to produce the windowpanes.

The marble columns and capitals of the colonnade overlooking the Mediterranean Sea that had become degraded were replaced with identical replicas.

An example of restored stonework in the building.

Once the easing of public health restrictions allows, the doors of the House of ‘Abbúd will once again open to receive pilgrims.

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Religion follows patterns of politicization during COVID-19
Apr 7 2021
Religion follows patterns of politicization during COVID-19

Research shows people turn to religion in times of fear and uncertainty – and March 2020 was one of those times.

To find the impact of religion during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Landon Schnabel, the Robert and Ann Rosenthal Assistant Professor of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, analyzed responses from 11,537 Americans surveyed March 19-24, 2020, shortly after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global health pandemic.

Religion protected mental health of members of several faith groups, Schnabel reports in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, but also constrained crisis response among some of the same groups, ultimately undercutting the overall effectiveness of public health efforts to contain the virus.

“Religion limited the negative mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, with highly religious Americans and especially evangelicals experiencing less distress than more secular Americans,” Schnabel wrote. “However, that mental health benefit came at the cost of less concern about and support for addressing an important real-world problem: saving lives during a pandemic.”

According to Schnabel, “the most obvious explanation for this pattern is the politicization of the pandemic and the fact that … Republicans and conservatives simply were not as concerned about the pandemic and less likely to think they needed to worry about social distancing, etc.”

Intensely religious white people tend to hold conservative values and embrace Republican politics, Schnabel wrote – the same political positions that downplayed the threat of the virus, especially in the early days of the pandemic.

Schnabel based his conclusions on data from Pew Research’s American Trends Panel (ATP), made available by the Cornell Roper Center for Public Opinion Research as part of a growing collection of public opinion data related to COVID-19.

The survey asked questions about mental distress, perceived health and economic threats posed by the pandemic, and opinions on public health restrictions and social distancing behaviors. It also collected data about religious affiliation and behavior, and about political party affiliation.

Schnabel’s analysis confirmed a documented benefit of religion: increased mental health.

“Regularly attending and evangelical Americans did not experience as much increased distress during the early stages of COVID-19 as Americans who attended less regularly or who were not evangelical,” he wrote. “This suggests that religion, typically implicated in rates of distress, mitigated the increased anxiety most Americans were feeling in the early days of the pandemic.”

Schnabel’s analysis also confirmed previous research documenting the close alignment of religion and politics in the U.S. “In the contemporary United States, religion has become politicized and is now viewed as entangled with conservative politics,” he wrote.

“In sum, religion therefore could paradoxically buffer the hardship caused by the pandemic yet structure attitudes and orientations about public health and science in ways that ultimately increase it,” Schnabel wrote.

It is within the power of religious people and faith organizations to glean mental health benefits of religion without endangering public health, Schnabel said.

“Religious organizations should consider how they can promote the things that are helpful for mental health and not promote anything harmful for physical health,” Schnabel said, such as building community through virtual gatherings and providing virtual tools to provide psychological resources without risk of exposure. “The ideal scenario would be to figure out how to get the mental health benefits while avoiding the things that were unhelpful for containing the pandemic,” he said.

The data for this study came from early in the pandemic, Schnabel wrote. “It remains to be seen the exact extent to which religion will continue to protect mental health as we enter the second year of the pandemic.”

Kate Blackwood is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.

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‘Sport teaches you to interact with each other on a human level … One shouldn’t be mixing politics or religion with sport’
Apr 7 2021
‘Sport teaches you to interact with each other on a human level … One shouldn’t be mixing politics or religion with sport’

                <em>Pakistan’s<strong> Aisam ul Haq Qureshi</strong> and India’s Rohan Bopanna, the 2010 US Open doubles runners up, recently announced the resumption of their partnership after a gap of seven years for a tournament held last month. Qureshi spoke to<strong> Siddharth Saxena</strong> about it:</em>

What does this partnership mean in the larger context of animosity between the two countries?

The feedback, the positivity, we have received from everybody has been unbelievable. I never thought us getting together for just one tournament would create such a buzz and goodwill. The fact that we are getting such positive feedback from everybody – the fans, the media – means that everybody wants us to play, everybody wants us to do well together and perhaps, everybody loves to see an Indian and a Pakistani play together, as a team. I think the message there is clear enough. Both Rohan and I are ambassadors of peace for our countries, we do our best to promote peace between the neighbours. If someone can see this partnership for what it is, in a positive way and it can help change their thinking about India or Pakistan or Pakistanis or Indians, I would see it as a big win in itself.

You and Bopanna started the Stop War, Start Tennis campaign. Could you talk a bit about that?

We started the Stop War, Start Tennis initiative to promote peace across the border and across the world as well. The idea was trying to promote peace through our sport, our friendship, our partnership. I still stand by it, in fact I’ve turned it into a charity now, with the same name, which aims to help and support people all over the world affected by war and natural disasters. I try to provide tennis equipment and tennis-specific wheelchairs for those who lost their limbs to war. The foundation was very active during the Covid time with food ration packets.

But Stop War, Start Tennis isn’t just narrow in scope to tennis alone. It includes other sports as well, because we believe if every person on this planet is involved in some sport of any kind, war becomes a distant memory. Sport teaches you to interact with each other on a human level and not because of the culture, religion or country they are from.

Do you think it’s possible for the two countries to continue playing each other even when things are turbulent?

For me, it’s an obvious thing to do, it’s definitely possible. To me, playing each other is never off the table. I’ve always believed one shouldn’t be mixing politics or religion with sports or the arts. The governments shouldn’t be doing the cancelling and banning. It’s sad that India has imposed this ban on Pakistani artistes and sportspersons to come to India to perform or play. Discrimination towards a certain nation or country or a group of people is a very unfortunate fallout. I love coming to India, whenever I have visited or to play or compete. I don’t think sports, the arts and culture should ever be affected by political differences.

You boycotted the tie when India refused to travel to Pakistan for the Davis Cup and a neutral venue was being proposed.

People are different, certain things we believe in, and stand by that. As a sportsman, I always tried never to mix sports with politics or religion and I really stand by it, when I played with the Jewish guy (Amir Hadad in 2002), when I played with Rohan also. For me, it was very unfortunate, sad and disappointing when the Indian team decided not to come to Pakistan. It was more of a political reason, as they had no threat whatsoever coming to play in Pakistan. So many Indians are allowed to come to Pakistan for the Kartarpur Sahib pilgrimage, so a seven or ten-member Davis Cup team had no threat whatsoever.

After the Davis Cup episode, what made you turn to him again?

This had nothing to do with the Davis Cup issue. Rohan ‘Bops’ is a very good friend of mine, on and off the court. I’ve known him for a very long time. Nothing changed in our relationship, our friendship stays the same as always.

Now that the partnership with Rohan is over, where does it go from here?

It was great fun partnering Rohan again in Mexico. Rohan and I didn’t get to speak too much about the future. I think he’s already set with certain players to play with this season and the Mexico Open was just a one-off.



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‘Stop blaming religion, this is bare-faced crime’
Apr 6 2021
‘Stop blaming religion, this is bare-faced crime’
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Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr

Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has rebuked the two teenagers accused of committing a gruesome murder of a 10-year-old at Kasoa in the Central Region.

Two teenagers named Felix Nyarko, 15, and Nicholas Kini, 17, allegedly murdered a 10-year-old boy at Lamptey Mills in Kasoa on Saturday.

The deceased, Ishmael Mensah, was a class four pupil of the Maranatha School and was killed at about 10 am last Saturday.

It is believed the teenagers committed such hideous act for ritual money purposes.

They appeared before the Ofankor District Court today following their arrest by the Kasoa Police Command.

Meanwhile, the murder has provoked discussions on the human quest for quick riches and luxury life.

Speaking on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo”, Kwesi Pratt expressed bitter feelings about the act by the teenagers, wondering how they could harbour a thought to kill for money.

To him, this incident has nothing to do with “religion but [rather] it’s a bare-faced crime”.

“Can killing a human be religion?” he questioned, silencing all critics who may want to toll the line of religion in addressing the issue.

He stressed; ” . . it’s important that we separate religion from crime. What’s going on; it has nothing to do with religion . . . this is not religion. This is plain-faced criminal activity.”

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Iraqi Cardinal Calls for Religion, State Separation One Month After Papal Visit
Apr 6 2021
Iraqi Cardinal Calls for Religion, State Separation One Month After Papal Visit
web20210211T1115 IRAQ SECURITY CHALLENGES 560467
Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad celebrates a liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in this Feb. 4, 2013, file photo. (Photo: CNS/Paul Haring)

By Elise Ann Allen

ROME (Crux) — One month after Pope Francis’s historic visit to Iraq, one of the country’s top Catholic prelates has outlined his vision for the country going forward, making the bold suggestion of enforcing a stricter separation between religion and the state.

In a written reflection on Pope Francis’s historic March 5-8 visit, Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako called the papal trip “an ideal opportunity that all Iraqis must take advantage of to return, with all their confessions and religions, to themselves and their patriotism.”

This, he said, involves “turning the page from the past and opening a new page for reconciliation,” strengthening a sense of national fraternity, respecting differences, fighting for peace, rebuilding the country’s crumbling institutions and allowing displaced people to return to their homes.

Speaking on the importance of human fraternity as the basis of a peaceful coexistence, Cardinal Sako insisted that “Iraqis, in principle and by constitution, are citizens with equal rights and duties, and citizenship cannot be limited to religion, creed, region, race, or number.”

“Citizenship is a universal right for everyone,” he said, adding, “We must discover new horizons for our fellow citizens, so that everyone feels that Iraq is their home.”

In this regard, Cardinal Sako suggested that perhaps now is the time “to separate religion from the state and build a civil state, as the Christians West has done for a long time, and as the state of Sudan is doing in these days!”

On March 25 the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a powerful rebel group from the country’s southern Nuba Mountains, signed a document paving the way for a final peace agreement by guaranteeing freedom of worship to all, while ensuring the separation of religion and the state in a country long ruled by sharia law.

Iraq, though not formally an Islamic state, is a predominantly Shiite Muslim country which for decades has been plagued by sectarianism, including at the national level. These sectarian divisions are not enshrined in Iraq’s constitution; however, they are rooted in practice.

Christians in the country are a small minority, and they, like other minorities, have often faced discrimination, prejudice, and violent persecution, often describing their status as being one of “second-class citizens.”

In his statement, Cardinal Sako stressed that creating a civil or secular state “is not hostile to religion, but rather respects all religions, and does not include religion in politics.”

“I think this is the guarantee of coexistence, ‘religion is about God and the nation is about everyone,’” he said, adding that it would be “A civil status which guarantees freedom of religion and worship for all Iraqis equally and protects the human rights contained in all international treaties.”

Focusing on Pope Francis’s call to human fraternity, Cardinal Sako said this sense of brotherhood amid diversity is “the goal of all societies and religions, and it should be a key point to reject extremism and hatred.”

Adopting an attitude of fraternity, he said, will allow Iraq “to build trust amongst us so that we can move forward together as brothers and sisters with tolerance, love, and respect for diversity, and build a more peaceful, fairer, and more dignified world.”

Cardinal Sako recalled the gestures Pope Francis made during his trip to reach out to different religious communities, including his March 6 meeting with Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani, one of the most influential authorities in Shia Islam, and his meeting with interreligious leaders on the Plain of Ur.

By meeting with representatives from different religious communities, the pope demonstrated that “human beings are children of God, brothers and sisters, with one another,” Cardinal Sako said, adding, “Faith is a guarantee of their diversity, their freedom, and their rights.”

“There is no problem in for every individual following their religion and traditions, as long as they respect the religion of the other brother; not treating him as an unbeliever, or betraying him, or excluding him, or eliminating him,” he said. “This diversity comes from God’s will.”

Cardinal Sako said some in the country misinterpreted Pope Francis’s remarks as calling for individual faith traditions to be dissolved in order to establish one single religion.

“That’s not true at all,” he said, insisting that “Fraternity does not mean dissolving religions identity into a single religion, but it is an invitation to each person to persevere in their own religion and their own convictions, while opening up and respecting the religion of their brother.”

“Brotherhood and diversity are the strength of our survival and our progress, we must live them in concrete daily practice,” he said, and offered several examples, including decision by Iraqi Prime Minister to declare March 6 — the day on which Pope Francis met with Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani — as a national day of tolerance.

“We must not despair in the face of some obstacles, extremist currents or misconceptions, or give up in the face of division, but we must persevere in strengthening brotherhood and respect for diversity and work so that all can enjoy good and justice and live with joy and happiness as God wills,” Cardinal Sako said.

He then offered four concrete proposals going forward, the first of which was to establish education and teaching programs aimed at building fraternal ties and strengthening their national identity of Iraqis.

Cardinal Sako also proposed organizing awareness events and campaigns through seminars, conferences, and television programs which illustrate Iraq’s diverse culture while showing what different communities have in common.

The goal of this would be to foster respect for differences, he said, adding, “what unites us is much more than what divides us.”

Another suggestion Cardinal Sako made was to build a national center including various classrooms and a library specialized in interreligious dialogue, which he said can help in “dismantling the phenomenon of fanaticism and preventing young people from adhering to it.”

He also asked that the Iraqi penal code obliging holy places to be protected and punishing offenses against religions and their symbols be implemented.

“We are sure that humanity will advance thanks to the many people of goodwill who give themselves without restrictions, even in a time of difficulty and uncertainty, to spread the culture of brotherhood and respect for the common good,” he said. “Let’s stick to the signs of hope.”

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Coin found in Jerusalem's Old City may contributed to Temple tax in Herod's time
Apr 5 2021
Coin found in Jerusalem’s Old City may contributed to Temple tax in Herod’s time
(Photo: Naftali Hilger, The Tower of David Museum.)

Archeologists in Jerusalem’s Old City have discovered a box of artifacts, including a rare silver that pilgrims might have used to pay the Temple tax during King Herod’s reign, a period of biblical significance.


The artifacts’ box was rediscovered during a major conservation project to restore the stones of the “Phasael” tower of the Jerusalem citadel’s $40 million renewal project, the Tower of David Museum said, according to The Times of Israel.

“We know from the Gospels that Jesus visited Jerusalem … and we know that He talked to the money changers. So here we have the evidence, the archaeological evidence to the historical sources,” Eilat Lieber, the museum’s director, told CBN News.

The coin bears the image of Melqart, the chief god of the Phoenician city of Tyre, now located in southern Lebanon imprinted on one side and with an eagle on the other.

“The Tower of David is one of the most important structures in Israel, both in terms of its history and location,” said Yotam Carmel, head of the conservation project, in a press release.

“The last conservation project at the Tower of David was carried out in the 1980s. Since then, the citadel has been in desperate need of conservation.”

In 37 BC, Herod became King of Judea and began some of the most ambitious building projects in the ancient world, including the Second Temple’s reconstruction.

He transformed the city of Jerusalem so much that Pliny the Elder wrote Jerusalem was “by far the most distinguished city not in Judea only, but of the whole Orient,” CBN reported.

“You can see how the past, the present, and the future are actually here at the Tower of David,” said Lieber.

“During the work for the future of the citadel, we found the evidence from the past. And we can actually, know more about our identity.

Christians can see how the sources, the Gospels, are coming alive here in Jerusalem.”

This tax has its origin in the Bible’s Book of Exodus, which commands the people of Israel, both rich and poor, to make a half-shekel donation in the service of “the tent of meeting” – community worship, according to the museum.

“When the Temple was being constructed, every Jew was commanded to make an obligatory donation of a half-shekel towards the building.

“When construction was completed, the Jews continued to pay the tax for the upkeep of the Temple, and they paid this tax with Tyrian shekels,” said the museum.

(Photo: Tal Rogovski / Tower of David Museum)Tyre coin uncovered during renewal project, which will be displayed at the Tower of David Museum next year.
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Speaking of religion: Decision this afternoon on anti-transgender bill
Apr 5 2021
Speaking of religion: Decision this afternoon on anti-transgender bill



Speaking of religion: Decision this afternoon on anti-transgender bill – Arkansas Times























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Governor Hutchinson will announce at a 1 p.m. news conference today his decision on HB 1570, which would make it illegal to provide necessary medical services for transgender boys and girls younger than 18.

Medical opinion is nearly universally negative about this legislation. It would be the first of its kind in the country. Arkansas pediatricians rallied against the bill Saturday at the Capitol.

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Debate by proponents has included Biblical references concerning transgender people, with one legislator, Rep. Mary Bentley, calling them an “abomination.” This bill is one of at least eight pieces of legislation aimed at essentially denying the existence of transgender people. Doctors who work with transgender children say it will lead to suicides. Governor Hutchinson also has pending before him a bill meant to discourage schools from mentioning sexual orientation and transgender people in curriculum. He’s already signed two anti-transgender bills — a ban on transgender girls in girls’ sports and protection of medical providers who deny services on account of “conscience.”

Hutchinson has said he’s studying the legislation and has met with Dr. Michele Hutchinson, the pediatric endocrinologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital who heads a program providing counseling and other services to transgender children. She told the Democrat-Gazette the governor had asked good questions and she was “cautiously optimistic” he might not sign it. It would become law without his signature. Should he veto it, a simple majority vote in both chambers would be necessary to override the veto.

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The governor’s meeting with reporters will be live-streamed on his YouTube channel.


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An Extraordinary Winning Streak for Religion at the Supreme Court
Apr 5 2021
An Extraordinary Winning Streak for Religion at the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON — “For many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, in November. “It pains me to say this, but, in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.”

Those quarters do not include the Supreme Court, which has become far more likely to rule in favor of religious rights in recent years, according to a new study that considered 70 years of data.

The study, to be published in The Supreme Court Review, documented a 35-percentage-point increase in the rate of rulings in favor of religion in orally argued cases, culminating in an 81 percent success rate in the court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

“Plainly, the Roberts court has ruled in favor of religious organizations, including mainstream Christian organizations, more frequently than its predecessors,” wrote the study’s authors, Lee Epstein of Washington University in St. Louis and Eric A. Posner of the University of Chicago. “With the replacement of Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Amy Coney Barrett, this trend will not end soon and may accelerate.”

(The court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, from 1953 to 1969, supported religion just 46 percent of the time. That grew to 51 percent under Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, from 1969 to 1986; then to 58 percent under Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, from 1986 to 2005; and finally jumped to just over 81 percent under Chief Justice Roberts, who joined the court in 2005.)

The kinds of cases the court is hearing have changed, too. In the Warren court, all of the rulings in favor of religion benefited minority or dissenting practitioners. In the Roberts court, most of the religious claims were brought by mainstream Christians.

The five most pro-religion justices all sit on the current court, the study found.

“The justices who are largely responsible for this shift are Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh,” the study’s authors wrote. “While there are some differences among these justices, and Kavanaugh has been involved in only a handful cases, they are clearly the most pro-religion justices on the Supreme Court going back at least until World War II.” All are Republican appointees.

In the last term alone, the court sided with Christian religious groups in three argued cases. The court ruled that state programs supporting private schools must include religious ones, that the Trump administration could allow employers with religious objections to deny contraception coverage to female workers and that employment discrimination laws do not apply to many teachers at religious schools.

And the court will soon decide whether Philadelphia may bar a Catholic agency that refused to work with same-sex couples from screening potential foster parents.

After Justice Barrett joined the court, it changed positions on the one question on which religious groups had been losing: whether governors could restrict attendance in houses of worship to address the coronavirus pandemic.

There has been a similar shift in the entire federal judiciary in cases on the constitutional protection of the free exercise of religion.

Protecting that right, as Justice Alito pointed out in his speech, used to be a bipartisan commitment. In 1990, when the Supreme Court cut back on protections for free exercise, with Justice Antonin Scalia writing the majority opinion, Congress responded with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“The law had almost universal support,” Justice Alito said. “In the House, the vote was unanimous. In the Senate, it was merely 97 to 3, and the bill was enthusiastically signed by President Clinton.”

Earlier studies, covering 1996 to 2005 and 2006 to 2015, found that judges’ partisan affiliations, as reflected by political parties of the presidents who appointed them, were not significantly tied to their votes in free exercise cases.

Zalman Rothschild, a fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, updated that data in a second study, to be published in The Cornell Law Review. He found that things had changed.

“The politicization of religious freedom has infiltrated every level of the federal judiciary,” Mr. Rothschild wrote.

In the five years through the end of 2020, he wrote, federal judges’ partisan affiliations had become powerfully correlated to their votes. “And when the pandemic struck, resulting in widespread lockdowns of religious houses of worship,” he wrote, “the unprecedented number of constitutional free exercise cases brought in such a condensed span of time forced that partisanship into sharp relief.”

Even putting aside cases concerning the pandemic, a big partisan gap has opened in free exercise cases. Judges appointed by Democrats sided with religion 10 percent of the time in such cases in the last five years, compared with 49 percent for ones appointed by Republicans and 72 percent for ones named by President Donald J. Trump.

The numbers were even starker, Mr. Rothschild wrote, in cases concerning restrictions meant to combat Covid-19. Through the end of last year, not a single judge appointed by Democrats sided with religion in those cases, while 66 percent of judges appointed by Republicans and 82 percent of judges appointed by Mr. Trump did.

What changed in just the last five years? It is probably no coincidence that the court established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in 2015.

More generally, claims of religious freedom, brought mostly by Christian groups, have increasingly been used to try to limit progressive measures like the protection of transgender rights and access to contraception. On top of that, a culture war erupted about how best to address the coronavirus.

In 2018, Justice Elena Kagan accused the court’s conservative majority of “weaponizing the First Amendment,” of using its protection of free expression “to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.”

Professor Epstein said something similar was afoot in the court’s religion decisions. “Just as the majority has weaponized free speech in service of business and conservative interests,” she said, “it’s using the religion clauses to privilege mostly mainstream religious organizations.”

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Science can never disprove religion
Apr 5 2021
Science can never disprove religion

The Covid vaccine came just in time for Thanksgiving. Now the end of Covid is coming just in time for Easter. Hallelujah!

As I have aged, I have gotten better at finding mystical patterns to life that bolster my faith.

In Mississippi, Covid is on its last legs. Cases are a tenth of the January peak. Same with deaths, most of which happened in mid winter but are still trickling into the Department of Health’s statistics office.

It’s a similar picture nationwide,although the decline is not quite as dramatic as Mississippi.

Mississippi is leading the nation in vaccine implementation. The Mississippi National Guard has done a phenomenal job, along with all the hospitals and clinics. Good work team! Kudos all around.

Let’s hope this isn’t a sucker punch like last July when Covid seemed to have peaked but came roaring back. This virus is unpredictable.

But this time we have the vaccines. I believe this is the end of the epidemic.

We can’t give the vaccine credit for the decline since most of the drop came well before the vaccine was administered. Herd immunity kicked in. The vaccine is the perfect backup.

Over 300,000 Mississippians have had confirmed infections. The CDC says there are five unreported infections for every reported infection. That’s half the population in the state. Herd immunity kicked in far sooner than the experts predicted.

So far, it hasn’t been nearly as bad as the Spanish Flu, which killed one out of 152 Americans. Covid has killed one out of 588. Most of the Spanish Flu deaths were young people in their twenties. Covid has killed the elderly. If you consider life years lost, the Spanish Flu was 73 times worse. We should be thankful for that.

We should be thankful for the amazingly rapid development of new vaccines. This will be a blessing to mankind far beyond Covid. Mankind has made a huge advance in our epoch battle against viruses.

I’m getting my shot this week, Pfizer at the Medical Mall. I had Covid in November, a very mild case, but I’m not taking any chances. I think you’re nuts not to get the vaccine. Plus the tiny vaccine microchip the government inserts in your brain can pick up free music! (Just kidding.)

I love my Easter column. I get to play preacher. My apologies to the hundreds of awesome pastors in Jackson for poaching on your professional turf. I’ll do my best to get it right.

It is ironic that Americans can believe all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories but when it comes to believing Christ rose from the dead, too many Americans turn rational.

Human rationalism can be useful. No point in sticking your hand in an open flame. But rationalism has its limits. For instance, our eyes only see .0035 percent of the electromagnetic spectrum. Not seeing should not be not believing.

Remember the popular movie The Matrix? The idea was that human reality was an artificial simulation created by super intelligent robots. The movie caught the imagination of the nation and made a half billion at the box office.

Here’s a tip: We are indeed  in a simulation. It’s called “Reality.” And it is designed by God. Since it’s his simulation, he can make reality do anything he wants. He can stop the sun. He can part the Red Sea. He can cause ten plagues in Egypt start and stop on a dime. 

He can even raise people from the dead. God is sovereign and can do whatever he wants to. Fortunately, he loves us and loves goodness. Scratch that, God is goodness, light, justice. Every good notion harbored by man comes from the spirit of God.

Many scientists hate this fact. It threatens them. It takes away their power. It hurts their egos. Just like Adam and Eve wanted to know what God knows. They ate the apple and created sin and death. Bad choice.

Deuteronomy 29:29  “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Who doesn’t want to know the secret? Who doesn’t want to be God? That’s why we’re all miserable sinners. Happiness comes from properly understanding your place in the universal schemes of things. We are higher than the animals, lower than the angels and most definitely not God.

I’m not anti science at all. In fact, I love keeping up with the cutting edge of theoretical physics. Science merely reveals to humans how God works. It can never disprove God. That is impossible. And God will only reveal what he wants to reveal.

That’s why I love quantum physics. It so perfectly illustrates the limits of man and the sovereignty of God. If this statement puzzles you, go to You Tube and search for “quantum eraser delayed choice experiment.” It will blow you mind and give you all the scientific proof of God’s existence you’ll ever need.

My faith made the past year much easier for me. Every hair on my head is numbered. All my worrying won’t add one second to my life. Death is the start of something far, far better than life.

My faith is the most precious thing in my life. How did I get it? I asked God for it. One day, long ago, walking along the beach, I asked God why he made my life so rich and easy. Then I said, you can take all these things away and give me the only thing I really care about — rock solid faith. The next day I crashed my half-million-dollar airplane.

Since that moment, my life has been full of struggle, Struggle creates endurance, endurance creates character. Character creates faith. God answered my prayer and for that I am eternally grateful.

According to a poll, the number one reason people don’t believe in Christianity is it doesn’t work. God doesn’t answer prayers, non-believers claim. I’m reminded of the line in the Janis Joplin song, “Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz. My friends all have Porsches, I must make amends.

No, God only answers the prayers that are in his will. God has much higher goals for you than a fancy car. But I will guarantee you this: If you pray for faith — and I mean really pray for faith — day in, day out. And really mean it. And go to church and read the Bible, God will give you faith. And this faith will give you infinitely greater joy than any material item on Earth could ever give you.

There are four main forces of the universe: the nuclear force, electromagnetism, radioactivity and gravity. If any of these four forces was altered by 10 to the 50th or so, the universe could not exist. The required precision of all four forces is something like one out of 10 followed by a thousand zeros. Who could possibly think this was a random accident? 

And that’s just this universe. The best mathematical solution to reconcile all four forces is the multiverse theory. There are an infinite number of universes.

So if it ever feels that the universe revolves around you, maybe it does! God’s majesty is infinitely greater than we can comprehend!

Jesus Christ rising from the dead? It seems unbelievable to us humans. So unbelievable, we’re still talking about it 2,000 years later. But for God, it was a piece of cake.

He is risen! Believe. Read the Bible. Go to church. Pray non-stop for faith. Accept your wonderful role as a child of God. Do this, and you will have riches far beyond all the riches on the planet.

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Pew survey: More Americans leaving organized religion
Apr 4 2021
Pew survey: More Americans leaving organized religion

Pew survey: More Americans leaving organized religion – CBS News


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A new study finds Americans are losing faith in religion. While nearly eight out of ten Americans called themselves Christians in 2007, fewer do today. Dean Reynolds reports.

 
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Why Are Fewer Americans Involved In Organized Religion?
Apr 3 2021
Why Are Fewer Americans Involved In Organized Religion?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — In the weeks after the death of George Floyd, thousands of people flocked to the Sanctuary Covenant Church, an 18-year-old, multi-ethnic church in North Minneapolis, to volunteer. Ten months later, that Church’s lead pastor many of those same people are continuing to stick around.

“They’re constantly asking — when are you guys re-opening because we want this to be our church,” said Sanctuary’s Rev. Edrin Williams. “That’s a good problem to have.”

READ MORE: How Will Spending Cryptocurrency Online Work?

Sanctuary is bucking the trend of overall declining church affiliation across the U.S. For the first time ever, Gallup found fewer than half (47%) of adults belong to a church, synagogue or mosque. That’s down more than 20 points from the turn of the century.

So, what changed over that 20 years? Good Question.

“There’s at least a couple of different factors,” said Penny Edgell, a professor of sociology who studies religion and non-religion at the University of Minnesota.

She said one reason is that moderately religious or more liberal former church-goers have moved away.

“People began to associate organized religion with political stances they don’t favor,” said Edgell. “Or the idea, it’s controversial, it’s politicized.

Researchers used to point to the lifecycle patterns of religion as a way to explain how younger people reported fewer connections to religion – that young people would move away, but then return to religious organization once they were older and started families.

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“It was true for many generations in this country, it’s no longer true,” said Edgell, pointing out people are getting married later and having children later. “So, what that means for a good 10 to 15 years of their lives, they haven’t been involved in a religious institution, so they don’t think to go back.”

Then, there’s the co-hort effect, where people who don’t consider themselves religious are less likely to raise their children as religious.

According to the Pew Research, 16% of people considered themselves atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” By 2019, that percentage jumped to 26%

Experts who follow religious trends believe that U.S. will remain a religious country, but these changes are here to stay.

“It’s hard to see how it changes direction because this is driven by deep and long-term changed in demographics,” Mark Chaves, a sociologist at the Duke Divinity School, who focuses on the social organization of religion.

Edgell said these trends can be seen in churches, synagogues and mosques.

Not all churches in the U.S. are seeing lower numbers. Mega-churches and multi-ethnic churches, like Sancutary, have grown over the last decade.

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“We want to be a church that blesses north Minneapolis and the broader Twin Cities,” said Rev. Williams. “That’s who we are and there are so many people who are looking for a place like that to get involved.”

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'Abuses in Tibet include restricted freedom of religion'
Apr 3 2021
‘Abuses in Tibet include restricted freedom of religion’

New Delhi [India], April 2 (ANI): Raising the issue of human rights abuses in Tibet, the Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights (CDPHR), in its latest report, has revealed that various individuals and organisations working for the rights of Tibetan people have reported abuses of rights in Tibet that include restricted freedom of religion, belief and association.

The CDPHR report said that the arbitrary arrests, maltreatment in custody, including torture and forced abortion and sterilisation have also been reported.

“The issue of human rights in Tibet is much debated and contested due to lack of credible information allowed by the authoritarian communist Chinese administrative mechanism and the PRC regime. Various individuals and organisations working for the rights of Tibetan people have reported abuses of human rights in Tibet that include restricted freedom of religion, belief, and association,” the report said.

Slamming China, the report asserted that the communist government of China has come under criticism from the international community on the status of religion, mainly as it relates to figures that are both religious and political, such as the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama.

Additionally, the CDPHR said freedom of the press in China is absent, with Tibet’s media tightly controlled by the Chinese leadership, making it difficult to accurately determine the scope of human rights abuses.

On the issue of ‘crushing’ Chinese policies, the report said, “The communist Chinese policies of crushing any political dissent have gravely threatened the Tibetan political and cultural identity as they disregard to the international condemnation of the human rights situation in Tibet.””The PRC demonstrated no intention of following through on its international obligations. Despite signing and ratifying international agreements on human rights, the PRC has acted in contravention,” it added.

Noting the rights abuses in China, the CDPHR suggested that “it is important for the international community concerned for the protection of human rights to recognise the PRC’s betrayal of its international human rights obligations in defending and protecting of human rights in Tibet.”The rights group further said the world community has become increasingly reticent to discuss Beijing’s human rights violations at various international forums due to various intimidation tactics exerted by the communist government of China. (ANI)

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Karnataka: Man assaulted for travelling with woman of different religion in Mangaluru
Apr 3 2021
Karnataka: Man assaulted for travelling with woman of different religion in Mangaluru

MANGALURU: A 23-year-old man was allegedly assaulted for travelling on a bus with a woman from another religion in Mangaluru — the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka.
Mangaluru Police has detained around eight people involved in the crime.
Those detained are suspected to belong to a saffron fringe outfit.
The incident was reported on Thursday at around 9.30pm when the man and the woman — belonging to different religions — were travelling from Mangaluru city to Bengaluru in a private bus.
They boarded the private bus near the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus stand.
When the bus reached Pumpwell, a group of people who arrived in a car, stopped the bus saying that they knew the woman, city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar told reporters on Friday.
As soon as the bus stopped, the woman first alighted.
She told the police that the man was her classmate and she was travelling to Bengaluru to explore jobs in the field of digital marketing for which she sought the help of her friend who was familiar with Bengaluru.
The moment the man got down from the bus, he was assaulted by about four youths.
The police said the man has sustained a three-four centimetre deep cut injury near the waist after he was pierced with a sharp weapon.
He was rushed to a private hospital and is out of danger.
The woman too was beaten up by the group, when she tried to prevent the attack.
A case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 307 (attempt to murder) at the Kankanady Town police station.
Four teams — led by deputy superintendent of police, (law and order) Hariram Shankar and assistant commissioner of police (south sub-division) Ranjit Kumar Bandaru — are investigating the case.
“Several people have been detained and the accused have been identified,” Shashi Kumar said.
He added, “We are in the process of identifying those who encouraged the group to commit the crime by sharing information. We are also looking for people who may have captured the scene on their mobile phones and will examine CCTV footage.”
It is suspected that the man and the woman were being watched for the past few days.

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Buddhist Times News – CTA President  releases Human Rights report of seven neighbouring countries of India
Apr 2 2021
Buddhist Times News – CTA President  releases Human Rights report of seven neighbouring countries of India

Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay along with legal and human rights experts at the Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights report launch.

By   —  Shyamal Sinha

The President of the Central Tibetan Administration released a human rights report published by the New Delhi-based Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights at the Constitution Club of India in Delhi earlier today.

The Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights consists of a robust team consisting of university academics, legal experts, community volunteers involved in promoting and advocating for human rights, basic freedom, equality, justice and dignity to all irrespective of gender, religion, class or caste.

Experts from the field of legal and human rights led by Chief guest, Dr Lobsang Sangay President, Central Tibetan Administration, Guests of Honour, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan Former Chief Justice of India Former Chairperson, NHRC of India, Prof. Paramjit Singh Jaswal VC, SRM University, Sonepat Former VC, RG National University of Law, Punjab, Dr Prerna Malhotra President, CDPHR, Dr Ravindra Gupta Principal, PGDAV College, Delhi University, Adv. Sandeep Mahapatra Trustee, CDPHR were present at the launch.

Speaking as the chief guest of the ceremony, Dr Sangay noted how China’s presence in most of the neighbouring countries from Tibet, to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka comes as no surprise, adding “President Xi Jinping has declared socialism with Chinese characteristics as the vision for China and the whole world and China’s dream is another of his vision based on which they want to ideologically dominate the world, specifically on human rights.”

Sikyong told ,Tibet as known today is only a fraction of the historical mainland of Tibet. The Chinese have created a façade by giving the autonomous region of Tibet, which is what is left of Tibet after its repeated geographical divisions, an autonomy nonexistent in practice. People in Tibet demand the unification of all the parts, which were historically part of Tibet, and post that want complete political, economic and religious freedom.

“If you look at the 15 UN agencies, 5 are headed by Chinese officials because China happens to be the second-largest donor to the UN after America by which they can appoint their personnel. China also happens to be the largest borrower of the World Bank, at least 2 years ago. They get a loan at a low-interest rate from the World Bank, more than a billion or two and they donate 100 million dollars to the UN and they can appoint their personnel,” he said explaining how China manoeuvres its UN membership status to redefine human rights and restructure the UN body.

Dr Sangay while appreciating the efforts made by the Centre in bringing out the report urged that there should be a greater awareness drive needed in the universities in terms of Tibetan studies.

“The Indians, particularly the younger generation, should pay more attention to the study of Tibet and understanding Tibet better is only in the interest of Indians,” signed off Dr Sangay.

Sikyong cited the recent World Freedom Index published by Freedom House which ties Tibet with Syria, indicating a marked deterioration in human rights abuses the last year in order to highlight the lack of media coverage of Tibet’s plight in comparison with Syria and the suppression of journalistic freedom.

He challenged the justification of poverty alleviation that is used as a ruse for Sinicization goals citing the reports of Adrien Zenz who revealed the labour militarization programme in Xinjiang and Tibet and ironically used by China to claim victory of its policies, in turn, applauded by the Human Rights Council which favours China’s account over Tibet.

Calling for global coalitions to contain China’s threats, he suggested a united approach to counter China, rather than individual countries engaging in a ‘tit for tat’ response with China.

Other legal and Human rights experts also spoke on human rights violation being perpetrated in these countries.

The gross human violation in Tibet is not a new story and is not hidden from anyone despite the media ban and propagandistic approach adopted by the Chinese government to have control of one’s destiny is the luxury Tibetans don’t have. Young People are abducted from the tribal regions of Tibet and are inducted into PLA (People’s Liberation Army), who are then sent to various regions of mainland China wherein they go through the process of political re-engineering; approximately half a million people have already been inducted in PLA from Tibet tribal regions and they are being engineered to serve the agenda of communist China.

One of the major internationally recognized research organization has stated the conditions being equally worse as that in Syria.

Following the event, President Dr Sangay embarked on his official tour across Tibetan settlements in South India beginning with Kollegal Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement scheduled on Saturday.

 

Sikyong addresses the gathering.

Interaction with the press.

At the end of his speech Lobsang Sangay told,The Tibetan Support and Policy Act of 2020 passed by the US Congress this year is a landmark victory for the People of Tibet and their struggle. This bill acknowledges the struggle of the people of Tibet against the brutal and oppressive Chinese occupation and is in solidarity with six million Tibetans who are suffering inside Tibet.

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