The news that matter in Europe
The news that matter in Europe
The Knights of Columbus Council 1287 will be having a “drive-thru” breakfast from 9 a.m. to noon today.
This will take place at St. Mary’s School cafeteria, 12 SW 7th, and will include the regular menu, donations only, come and get your breakfast and enjoy …
Stories of rivers turning to blood, and seas parting, appear to have with little tangible connection to the contemporary world. Megillat Esther, on the other hand, serves to remind the Jewish people that even seemingly mundane and explainable events are attributable to divine intervention. Adherents of the faith are thus encouraged to seek God’s work in every facet of their lives.
The Purim story begins with the Persian King Achashverosh (Xerxes) executing his wife for insubordination, and choosing Esther – a local Jewess – as his replacement bride. Her cousin Mordechai then uncovers a plot to assassinate the king, and his efforts are noted down by royal aides. Next, the king appoints a new prime minister, Haman, who uses Mordechai’s refusal to bow before him as the pretext for a plan to annihilate the entire Jewish population of the realm, a scheme which gains approval from the king.
Upon discovering the plot, Mordechai calls upon his fellow Jews to fast and pray for salvation, whilst Esther persuades her husband to hang Haman on the gallows Haman had prepared for Mordechai, and to allow the Jews to defend themselves from slaughter. In this way, the Jewish people are saved, and the tables turned on those who rose up against them.
Jewish history is replete with attempts to wipe out the Jewish people. For all the horrors this has entailed, in some ways the traumas have been responsible for the preservation of Jewish culture and the continuation of the religion. Collective suffering has bound together followers of the faith in a way that nothing else could, and if there is any silver lining in the stormclouds that have gathered time and again over Jews throughout history, it is this.
Recourse to prayer and penitence as a means to avert suffering is a central tenet of orthodox Judaism, both in the personal and societal spheres. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Jews believe that they can influence their fate for the coming year by the strength of their contrition for past sins and their sincerity to improve their future behaviour. On a wider level, communal prayer and supplication, such as took place in Achaverosh’s Persia, have been repeated down the ages whenever Jewish life was at risk.
There is, of course, a danger attached to believing that God will always intercede in the way that his followers hope. When catastrophes do occur, such as the Holocaust, waves of Russian pogroms or other persecutions, the faith of many Jews is shaken to its
Year after year, the Lion’s Club sets up wire-frame Christmas decorations on the lawn of the historic Jackson County courthouse, facing Main Street in Brownstown, Indiana.
The display, which belongs to the local ministerial alliance, glows from dusk to dawn from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day, with the county providing the electricity.
This led to yet another “Christmas Wars” dispute, with the recent Woodring v. Jackson County court decision offering a precise description of this tableau.
There is a “waving Santa Claus with his sleigh, a reindeer, seven large candy-striped poles, the nativity scene … and four carolers standing in front of a lamppost,” noted Seventh Circuit Judge Amy Joan St. Eve. “Santa Claus and the reindeer are on the left. … To their right are three gift-bearing kings (Magi) and a camel, who look upon the nativity. On the right side of the sidewalk, Mary, Joseph and infant Jesus in the stable are flanked on each side by trumpet-playing angels. To their right are several animals facing the nativity. The carolers stand in front of the animals, closer to Main Street.”
Before the 2018 lawsuit, the Freedom From Religion Foundation warned that the nativity scene needed to come down. County officials responded by moving Santa and other secular symbols closer to the telltale manger.
That move was clearly linked to what activists call the “reindeer rules,” in which secular and sacred symbols are mixed to honor guidelines from the Supreme Court’s Lemon v. Kurtzman in 1971. The “Lemon test” asks if a government action’s primary effect advanced religion, as opposed to a secular purpose, thus entangling church and state.
But the majority in a new 2-1 decision in Indiana argued that the “nativity scene is constitutional because it fits within a long national tradition of using the nativity scene in broader holiday displays to celebrate the origins of Christmas.”
This post-Christmas decision in the heartland may have been a turning point.
“To the degree that the reindeer rules were based on Lemon, this decision said that we now have a new Supreme Court precedent. The reindeer rules appear to be gone,” said Diana Verm, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed a brief in the case.
Verm bluntly told the press afterwards: “It turns out the ACLU can’t cancel Baby Jesus.”
Judge St. Eve cited the 2019 American Legion v. American Humanist Association ruling in which the U.S. Supreme Court said a 40-foot cross could remain on public property because it was a longstanding memorial that had become part of a “community’s landscape and identity.”
While the Jackson County holiday display may not be old enough to be truly historic, the display was part of a community celebration of a national holiday. The fact that some people opposed parts of the display didn’t change the essential facts, said the judge.
In his dissent, Judge David Hamilton said the American Legion case should not be seen as a “revolution in Establishment Clause doctrine.” While there is more to this debate than “counting whether there are more shepherds and angels than elves and snowmen,” he added, it’s clear that if a “display is dominated by religious symbolism, with only minor or token secular symbols and symbols of other faiths, the message of endorsement calls for court intervention.”
No one expects protesters to stop being offended by public displays of religious symbolism and, thus, to stop filing lawsuits.
But in the future, it will be easier to argue that Americans – secular and religious – celebrate Christmas and that themes and symbols from Christian history are undeniably part of those traditions, said Verm in a telephone interview. Hopefully, there will be fewer fights over whether Jesus is “a little bit too prominent” in community holiday decorations.
“What matters is whether the government can recognize the traditions we have in this country, and that includes symbols from secular culture and religious cultures,” she said. “Americans tend to be religious people and you’re not establishing any particular religion if you acknowledge that fact. … Religion doesn’t need to be scrubbed out of the public square if it has been there a long time and it has become part of our culture’s history and traditions.”
Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi.
LOS ANGELES, CA—24 February, 2021—Celebrating the life and incomparable musical genius of Chick Corea, Scientology Network presents a 3-hour tribute special, including two full-length documentaries, chronicling his legacy with highlights of his storied career and a never-before-seen performance.
The Chick Corea Tribute Special is streaming now on Scientology Network.
Chick Corea, the iconic instrumentalist, composer and bandleader, won 23 Grammy Awards and was known for his awe-inspiring command of the piano. Having pioneered the category of jazz fusion, Chick was an astonishingly prolific composer whose ingeniousness influenced a wide range of top musicians across all genres, from Herbie Hancock and Gary Burton to Bobby McFerrin.
“My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could, and to have done so with all the artists that I admire so dearly—this has
been the richness of my life.” —Chick Corea
The 3-hour tribute special features:
Chick Corea: In the Mind of a Master—A one-of-a-kind experience
documenting the creative process of Chick Corea as he writes, arranges and records Antidote, the album that earned him his 23rd Grammy Award.
The Musician—A feature-length documentary exploring Chick Corea’s legendary month-long set of performances in the epicenter of the jazz universe, the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. The film captures the essence of the maestro and Chick’s profound influence on some of the musical giants who join him onstage.
“Future Sweet”—Chick Corea teams up with instrumental virtuosos Béla Fleck on banjo, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Carlitos Del Puerto on bass on his never-before-released song, “Future Sweet.” In his inimitable style, Chick takes us on a musical journey where the final destination is impossible to predict but always a delightful
adventure to experience when the maestro leads the way.
Watch it here: ChickCoreaTribute.tv/FutureSweet
Both Chick’s approach to creating music and how he handled life left an indelible mark on his friends and fellow musicians he performed with.
Spanish jazz musician Jorge Pardo says in The Musician, “He’s always eliminated barriers. I think he’s a little bit like Miles [Davis] in that regard, that, you know, it’s just music. His energy is amazing. And it’s like this momentum.”
“The thing that I like, working with Chick, probably the most is how music unfolds before our eyes and before our ears, you know? We’re all experiencing this music at the same time, simultaneously. Everyone, whether you’re participating in the music, if you’re just a passive listener and listening to it, we’re all discovering this music at the same time,” said Bobby McFerrin in the documentary.
Grammy Award winner Rubén Blades thanked Chick Corea in an interview after recording and collaborating on Antidote, “Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to learn and to leave my comfort zone and come to a different area of music. Thank you for the respect and for all your kindness, actually.”
Watch the Chick Corea Tribute Special at chickcoreatribute.tv.
—
The Scientology Network debuted on March 12, 2018. Since launching, the
Scientology Network has been viewed in 240 countries and territories
worldwide in 17 languages. Satisfying the curiosity of people about
Scientology, the network takes viewers across six continents, spotlighting
the everyday lives of Scientologists; showing the Church as a global
organization; and presenting its social betterment programs that have
touched the lives of millions worldwide. The network also showcases
documentaries by Independent filmmakers who represent a cross section of cultures and faiths, but share a common purpose of uplifting
communities.
Broadcast from Scientology Media Productions, the Church’s global media
center in Los Angeles, the Scientology Network is available on DIRECTV
Channel 320 and can be streamed at scientology.tv, mobile apps and via
the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms.
CONTACT:
Media Relations
[email protected]
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In an open letter to Iran’s Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi and acting Minister of Agriculture Abbas Keshavarz, figures in the field of agriculture from several countries across the world—including Canada, Ethiopia, Mali, and the United States—say they are speaking out because they “are concerned about the plight of smallholder farmers throughout the world who often face injustice from arbitrary authority.
“These recent land seizures take place within the context of escalating raids on Bahá’í owned homes and businesses in Iran,” they say, expressing their alarm at the latest stage in the ongoing persecution of the Bahá’ís of Ivel who have been displaced and economically impoverished by Iranian authorities solely because of their religious beliefs.
The open letter states: “We understand that Bahá’í families have farmed land in Ivel for over 150 years and that these families have been constructive members of the local community, by, for instance, starting a school for children of all faiths and by carrying out measures to improve the hygiene and health of all community members.
“Despite their contributions to the community,” the letter continues, “they have faced a series of persecutions throughout the years, characterized by mass expulsion and displacement, and the demolition, bulldozing and confiscation of their homes.”
The signatories call on Chief Justice Raisi and Minister of Agriculture Keshavarz to end the persecution of Bahá’ís, saying, “We write as fellow agriculturists to bring attention to this instance of persecution and urge the Iranian authorities to overturn their decision with regard to the farmers of Ivel.”
Meanwhile in Australia, a moving video message released on behalf of members of the country’s farming community draws attention to the plight of Bahá’í families in the Iranian village of Ivel.
“Farming is a difficult job at the best of times,” says Claire Booth, a farmer from New South Wales, in the video message. “It’s not made any easier by the frequency of floods, droughts, fires, climate change, and most recently, the impacts of the pandemic.”
The video message describes the role of a supportive government in assisting its farming communities, drawing a sharp contrast with Iran’s harsh treatment of the country’s “peaceful Bahá’í community.”
“We stand in solidarity with our farming brothers and sisters in this country,” the farmers say, “and call on the Iranian government and judiciary to return the land and properties to their rightful owners—Bahá’í farmers in Ivel.”
Hundreds of evangelical Christian leaders have condemned the “heresy of Christian nationalism,” which they believe has led to political extremism and helped spur the pro-Trump insurrection against the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
A letter released on Feb. 24 on saynotochristiannationalism.org describes Christian nationalism as “a version of American nationalism that is trying to camouflage itself as Christianity.”
The church leaders said it was “a heretical version of our faith,” The Hill reported as the link between Trumpism and white evangelical beliefs persist.
“As leaders in the broad evangelical community, we recognize and condemn the role Christian Nationalism played in the violent, racist, anti-American insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6,” in the attack on the building the houses the U.S. Congress..
“While we come from varied backgrounds and political stances, we stand together against the perversion of the Christian faith as we saw on January 6, 2021. We also stand against the theology and the conditions that led to the insurrection.”
Signees of the letter include some prominent megachurch leaders including David Swaim of the Highrock Covenant Church and Rev. Kevin Riggs of the Franklin Community Church, as well as Jerushah Duford, granddaughter of the late Rev. Billy Graham.
“To watch the events of January 6 unfold and to see ‘Jesus Saves’ banners and ‘Jesus 2020’ signs made me angry,” Riggs said in a statement accompanying a news release.
CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICAL PASTOR
“As a conservative evangelical pastor in the South, I wanted to add my name to this statement declaring Christian Nationalism is not only wrong, it is heretical and antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.”
Five people died when rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 in the hopes of preventing the congressional certification of former President Trump’s ‘s election defeat. Dozens of Capitol Police officers were also injured in the attack.
“Our faith will not allow us to remain silent at such a time as this. We are also aware that our world needs more than a statement right now… we need action. We will do our best to be faithful to Jesus, and to those Christ called ‘the least of these,'” the letter reads.
For Trump, white evangelical Christians were a key base of support since his 2016 presidential campaign, with about eight in 10 voters from the religious demographic voting for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020, Newsweek reported.
During the Jan. 6 attack against the U.S. Capitol by a horde of Trump’s supporters, many carried Christian banners or symbols as prominent evangelical Christian leaders.
They had for weeks promoted Trump’s false claims that widespread voter fraud led to President Joe Biden’s electoral victory ahead of the riot.
The signers said that over the centuries, there are moments when “the Church, the trans-national Body of Christ-followers, has seen distortions of the faith that warranted a response.”
“Just as many Muslim leaders have felt the need to denounce distorted, violent versions of their faith, we feel the urgent need to denounce this violent mutation of our faith. What we saw manifest itself in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is a threat to our democracy, but it is also a threat to orthodox Christian faith,” they said.
They said the word “Christian” means “Christ-like.”
“As leaders in the Church, we do not agree on everything, but we can agree on this — Christians should live in a way that honors Jesus, and reminds the world of Him.”
They said that on Jan. 6 they “saw the flags claiming Trump’s name, calling for violence, and raising the name of Jesus.”
“We saw images of a police officer being beaten with an American flag and another being crushed in a doorway.”
The singers said they have witnessed the rise of violent acts by radicalized extremists using the name of Christ for its validity in the past, noting the deadly actions in Charlottesville in 2017.
“We join our voices to condemn it publicly and theologically.
“We recognize that evangelicalism, and white evangelicalism in particular, has been susceptible to the heresy of Christian nationalism because of a long history of faith leaders accommodating white supremacy.”
In last week’s column, I revealed the first part of my Black History Month lecture for the House of Grace was hacked by an army of racist roaches.
They interrupted frequently and really showed their stupidity and contempt for God and country whenever I introduced an unflattering—albeit truthful– fact about the founding fathers and the evolution of American apartheid.
Ironically, they drowned me out even when I provided a controversial statement supporting the theory that slavery is condoned in the bible.
Had they shown any modicum of respect for a religious service, they would have also heard me theorize how the Confederate States of America had a legal right to succeed from the union.
But being the bigoted dastardly beetles they obviously are, expecting them to be any more than I have grown accustomed to, was wishful thinking, at best.
As such, I used last week’s column to reveal what they missed during the initial lecture and after we jumped ship and established a new Zoom linkage.
Likewise, I will use this week’s column to summarize part two of my lecture.
Since I am being scrutinized and recorded, who knows, maybe these scum will learn something if I use second-grade English.
However, there are also verses that either requires slave owners’ to treat their slaves humanely or call for liberation. In fact, a cornerstone of Jesus/Yeshua’s teachings was to love your neighbor (even if he lived in a hut on your plantation), aid the poor and suffering, and liberate the oppressed, starting with his first ‘sermon’ as described in Luke 4: 18,19, and Isaiah 61:1,2.
There is also scripture denouncing greed—capitalism—which is referred to as the ‘root of all evil.’
This concept appropriately applied to most slave owners, including most founding fathers and presidents serving before the 13th amendment.
In fact, ‘race’ is never mentioned in anybody’s bible, including the one penned by Thomas Jefferson.
Nor are there references that Whites were made in the image of God (Nyame). That lie was often cited by the racist roaches who tortured, raped, and mutilated their ‘property,’ along with the insane belief that Africans had no souls.
What is factual is that (wo)mankind was created in the likeness of Nyame (God’s African reference). He/She was Negroid. The first human was born in Africa and given the name Lucy. And if there was an Eden, it was located along the Nile. Those theories must be factual since they were confirmed by White anthropologists. And as everyone knows, that makes the conclusion legitimate.
Of course, had a Black anthropologist made the discovery, Lucy would have been named Lakeshia, and the garden would have been a ghetto.
In fact, the CSA was not the first ‘confederacy’ to consider doing so.
During the Thomas Jefferson administration, a group of New England states held the ‘Hartford Convention’ to discuss seceding from the union. Paradoxically, they sought to form a separate nation for precisely the opposite reason Southerners would do a half-century later.
These northern ‘traitors’ believed the federal government undermined state rights and specifically mentioned the Virginian politician and slave owner Jefferson’s tyrannical conduct.
One of the secession movement leaders, which would have included a half dozen northern states, including New York and New Jersey, was Rufus King. Yep, the same guy the Milwaukee School Board honored by naming a school after, a high school I attended for three years.
In fact, various accounts reveal most union soldiers said they would not have fought if the civil war was about abolishing slavery. Not only were the majority of northerners apathetic about slavery, but it can also be assumed most were racists, believing Africans were inferior.
Moreover, there were several riots, including one in New York (which was reenacted in the Martin Scorsese film, “The Gangs of New York”), to protest the draft.
And you would be hard-pressed to convince me these Northern liberals did more than tolerate the presence of Black folks. According to various accounts, many draftees hated their enlistment under any circumstance and took out their frustration on the conflict’s symbol. An undisclosed number of Black men, women, and children were tortured and lynched during several violent protests in the north, which also served to fuel racial animosities.
Numerous reports theorize Africans were better off in slavery than as ‘free men’ in the north, where they were confronted by a system of apartheid that would make South Africans blush.
Segregation, discrimination, and poverty were off the charts, and ‘Jane Crow’ made her presence known decades in the North before laws were implemented in the South by her brother, Jim.
Lincoln said during a speech in 1858 that we were too ‘stupid’ to be given the vote and should be restricted to second-class citizenship.
Franklin, one of the revolutionary war architects, was quoted as saying there were “too many ‘Nigras’ (n-word) in New England,” and that America was a ‘White country!’
Jefferson, who put a different meaning to the concept of a ‘founding father,’ denied a request from Haitian revolutionaries to assist them in throwing out the French colonists on that island nation. Jefferson believed though it would be morally correct to do so, it would probably inspire Black slaves in America to seek their freedom.
Most White Christians’ theology spanned the gamut, from denominations that followed the New Covenant of Jesus and His call for the universal brotherhood, to a doctrine that supported White Supremacy. Ironically, most of the founding fathers were either followers of that racist philosophy or were agnostic. Several were deists.
The common rationale was, as one Christian leader explained,
“[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God … it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation … it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts.”
Or, as Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis noted,
“… the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example.”
On the other end of that religious spectrum were the progressive denominations like the Quakers. They posited that God (Nyame) created but one race and that slavery was a sin and an afront toward God Almighty. Those who supported it and racism would eventually end up in Hell wearing gasoline drawers.
Although raised in a Calvinist household, John Brown proclaimed those who supported the institution of slavery were enemies of God. He said God had chosen him to be the match that would set off the TNT that would end slavery.
The dichotomy of the vastly different interpretations of the Gospel splintered America, then and now. This dichotomy was best summed up by Frederick Douglass, who once declared,
“Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as sinful, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one is of necessity to be the enemy of the other.
“I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I, therefore, hate the corrupt, slave-holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason but the most deceitful one for calling the religion of this land Christianity…”
Chances are you won’t find anything mentioned in my lecture offered in government schools.
Sadly, only His-story is taught in government indoctrination centers (also called ‘schools’) which, unfortunately explains what happened in Washington D.C. in January.
And as it has been said, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Hotep.
By — Shyamal Sinha
Visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has proclaimed his Muslim-majority nation a choice destination for religious tourism by Sri Lankans, most of whom are Buddhists.
Millions of people around the world embark annually on spiritual journeys to soothe their souls. Global religious tourism is one of the fastest growing segments in travel today. According to the UNWTO, 300-330 million tourists visit the globe’s most important religious sights every year.
Pakistan, with many important historical Buddhist sites, is noticeably trending in “religious tourism” due to its extensive heritage of Gandhara and Emperor Ashoka the Great.
Siddhartha Gautama, later revered as the Buddha, spread his teachings on the Indian subcontinent as long ago as 2600 years. Buddhism spread around Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. In what is today modern-day Pakistan and other areas, the famous Buddhist ruler Ashoka the Great (304 to 232 BCE) spread Buddhism and Buddhist monuments and art throughout the region. (Gandhara Civilization 1500 BCE to 515 CE.)
Although, Buddhists who live in Pakistan only amount to a few thousand, more and more Buddhist tourists arrive each year. The most popular country for Buddhist tourists from Japan, China, Korea, and Thailand are Buddhist sites in India.
In talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday, Khan highlighted Buddhist heritage sites in Pakistan and stressed the building of cultural ties, the Pakistan Embassy said in a statement.
“Pakistan probably has one of the greatest Buddhist heritages in the world and we invite people from Sri Lanka to visit them,” Khan said a day earlier after meeting with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Khan is making a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka which began Tuesday.
Buddhists account for more than 70% of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people. Ethnic minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindu, comprise about 15% and 9% are Muslims.
Khan said northern Pakistan is the center of the ancient Buddhist Gandhara civilization and that a 40-foot (12-meter) sleeping Buddha statue was recently discovered there.
Gandhāra was one of the so-called great regions (mahjanapada) of ancient India (a geographical concept that included many other parts of modern South Asia). Under the Mauryan empire (ca. 300–185 BCE), its capital was the city of Taxila. The center of ancient Gandhāra was the Peshawar basin in northwestern Pakistan which extends westward into Afghanistan along the Kabul River. This region exerted cultural and linguistic influence on what has been called “Greater Gandhāra” which encompasses the surrounding areas eastwards across the Indus River (such as Taxila), north towards the Swat Valley and Upper Indus, west towards Bamiyan and across the Hindu Kush into Bactria and the Oxus river valley.
The Indian emperor Ashoka (ca. 268–233 BCE) erected edicts in the region, some of which use the Gāndhārī language and the Kharosthi script later used by Gandhāran Buddhists. These edicts confirm the existence of Buddhism in Gandhāra during his reign. Kharosthi inscriptions have been found as far West as Wardak along the Kabul river, Uzbekistan (Termez) and Tajikistan (Anzhina-Tepe) and as far south as Mohenjo-Daro and Baluchista
“We are planning a Buddhist trail … with all the Buddhist great shrines and Buddhist places,” he said.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is the older brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Pakistan may be the next big thing in Buddhist historical-site tourism, although for years it was held back by a bureaucratic visa system as well as the unstable security situation. With a renewed focus on Buddhist Tourism, this is changing, with a new streamlined visa process, the improved security situation, as well as the introduction of online visas.
This hidden potential for Pakistan, however, is extraordinary, since Buddhism one of the world’s largest spiritual paths, with over 520 million followers. Most Buddhists live in Asia and are relatively close in proximity to the country. Pakistan’s neighbour, China, has around 244 million Buddhist followers.
source – AP
EU Bishops address the President of the Parliament on the recent Resolution on abortion in Poland
The Presidency of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) addresses a letter to David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, with regard to the European Parliament Resolution of 26 November 2020 on abortion in Poland.
In their letter, the EU Bishops emphasize once again that the Catholic Church, which seeks to support women in life situations arising from difficult or unwanted pregnancies, calls for the protection and care of all unborn life.
“From a legal perspective – the Bishops underline – neither European Union legislation nor the European Convention on Human Rights provide for a right to abortion. This matter is left up to the legal systems of the Member States”.
A fundamental principle of the European Union is the principle of conferral, under which the Union shall act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties. “Strict observance of this principle is – reads the letter – a requirement of the rule of law, one of the fundamental values of the Union”.
While endorsing the Parliament’s Resolution emphasis on the respect for the rule of law, COMECE stresses that “the rule of law also requires respect for the competences of the Member States and the choices made by them in the exercise of their exclusive competences”.
In their letter, the Bishops of the EU also express concern on the questioning by the EP Resolution of the fundamental right to conscientious objection, which is an emanation of freedom of conscience. “This is particularly worrying – the letter continues – considering that in the healthcare sector conscientious objectors are in many cases subject to discrimination”.
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I never thought I’d watch Mass from the front seat of my car. I never thought I’d receive Holy Communion standing in the parish parking lot. But there I’ve been, Sunday after Sunday for months on end, in the parking lot at St. Kilian Catholic Church in Mission Viejo, California.
From the start, I knew it wasn’t the same. Sure, the priest was still there, on a purpose-built podium. He was saying the same words, praying the same prayers and chanting the same notes, just over a loudspeaker system. The Scripture readings were the same and — most important — Jesus Christ was as present and powerful as ever in the Eucharist. But something was missing. Something crucial.
At first I thought it was the smells and bells — the incense and the organ. Then I figured it was the beauty of the sanctuary — the stained glass, the statues, the painted ceiling that draws the eye heavenward. It took a while before the real answer hit me. The people were missing.
When you’re in the pews, surrounded by parishioners, the faith comes to life. You see multiple generations, sometimes three or four, standing and singing together. The sound of crying children reminds you of the never-ending need to pass on the faith. Even in older or smaller parishes, the sense of shared mission and meaning surrounds you.
But it wasn’t there in the church parking lot. Not only were faces covered by tinted windows, there weren’t nearly as many people as there would be in the pews. There were almost no families, no children. The kids couldn’t last an hour cooped up in the car. In other states, where limited indoor masses are allowed, there was — and still is — the same lack of family life. When families show up, they get glares and looks of fear — the folks around them seem to think that if the kids get close, they’ll get sick.
The vibrant feeling of unity has faded. In its place, there has been a sense of separation that extends much farther than the 6 feet of social distancing.
Coronavirus pademic: Churches are essential. If protesters can assemble, so should people of faith.
I’m not alone in feeling this way. I hear similar stories from colleagues, friends, priests and bishops across the country. The priests and bishops aren’t to blame — far from it. They’ve been forced to deal with confusing and sometimes conflicting state mandates, all during an utterly abysmal situation. Some have outdoor services, some have limited indoor attendance while others have retreated to online only. But they all agree things just aren’t the same.
More concerning, they’re worried the faith itself will never be the same, along with American religion as a whole.
The past year has seen a mass migration away from religion. According to a July survey, nearly a third of Christians had stopped attending their regular church and were not streaming a different church service online other than their own. At a time when services were largely streamed, the researchers state, “We can, for the most part, confidently interpret this group as those who have dropped out of church for the time being.”
By my rough estimate, attendance at my usual Mass has been down by 80%. Some priests across the country have told me their parishes have faced even steeper declines.
America was becoming less religious before the pandemic, but the trends of the past year are anything but natural. They’re the direct result of state-ordered shutdowns and one-size-fits-all restrictions on religious worship. Faith isn’t fading. It’s being driven away.
Mississippi pastor: My church was burned down because we want to worship in person
It’s tough to overstate the harm that has been done. The habits of faith that had been built over years and the communities and rituals often needed to sustain it were banned and broken in a matter of days. In the name of saving lives, authorities broke up the communities and congregations that made life worth living for tens of millions of people. I doubt that the political figures behind these policies wanted to weaken faith, but they have. They couldn’t have done more damage if they tried.
Some politicians have rethought their positions, and in some cases, the federal courts have intervened. This month, the Supreme Court struck down California’s ban on indoor services, so the parking lot is finally out. But heavy restrictions are still in place: Depending on where you live in the state, churches are limited to as little as 25% capacity. The message to worshippers is still one of “stay away.”
And so the damage will continue. Once lost, the habits of faith are tough to rebuild. Once pushed away, people may stay away, forever. The adults have found new ways to fill the time. The kids’ attention has been turned elsewhere in their most formative years. The country might go back to normal, but for religion, the road will be much longer.
But we can still keep it from becoming longer still. With the vaccine rollout underway and greater public awareness of who’s vulnerable and who’s not, religion should be freed from pandemic restrictions. The sooner the churches are allowed to fully open, the more likely it is people will come back, and the less likely it is that religion in America will be irreparably harmed.
I’m glad the parking lot Mass is over. Now the real, vibrant, joyful Mass must be restored.
Tim Busch is the founder of the Napa Institute, a Catholic lay organization.
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Among the ways to understand any religion is through its art and cultural heritage. RELIGION, ART & CULTURAL HERITAGE, a CBS Interfaith Special, looks at its importance in understanding faith, identity and history. This special broadcast will air Sunday, Dec. 4 (check local listings) on the CBS Television Network.
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Some Republican evangelical Christians made a deal with the orange devil. Your appointed Christian judges will likely rule in favor of Christians, but what will be the cost? Christians win and non-Christians lose. What is the recourse for the losing side when the lawmakers and judges take their liberty?
MAGA has become a political religion. Trump is worshiped beyond Jesus. The belief is that America was great when White people owned Black people, women couldn’t vote, or own property. Workers were treated worse than livestock by their employers. Jews and other non-Protestant believers were subjected to violent discrimination.
Some Christians got what they wished or prayed for. In mixing politics with religious fanaticism, our society has been torn open and is bleeding. Roads, sewers, schools, hospitals, and public health are not religion. They are services provided by a secular government authorized and paid for by its citizens. Trumpism isn’t a religion to be forced on citizens through mob violence and biased political courts. Capital rioters used Trumpism to violently promote white nationalism with a religious twist.
You don’t wear a mask because you think Jesus will protect you, so why do you need body armor and guns? They’re not racist, so why did they burn Black churches? Why did White Christians vote for Trump and Black Christians vote for Biden? Trumpism is racist and is treasonous after Jan. 6. Trump is the anti-Christ of national politics.
-Pete Scobby
Newport
When Alexie Navalny, the Russian opponent of Vladimir Putin, was appealing against a jail sentence and ordered to a prison colony for two-and-half years, he proclaimed his Christian faith and quoted from the Bible.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied,” he said before the judge hearing his case, the BBC reported.
In court on Feb.20, he referenced both the Bible and the Harry Potter book series, as he argued the charges against him were absurd as he was unable to report to the police while recovering from the attack.
Navalny was detained in January after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was receiving treatment for a near-fatal nerve agent attack,
He blamed that attack on Putin, the Russian president, and said the charges he was facing were fabricated.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement in his poisoning.
The Babushkinsky District Court upheld the two-and-a-half-year prison sentence imposed on Navalny after being convicted in the same court of slandering a World War Two veteran and fined the equivalent of $11,500.
Navalny was forced to listen to the reading of the sentences in handcuffs. Putin’s adversary was allowed to speak during the trials. In both cases, “he took on a solemn accusatory tone, almost like a biblical prophet,” Asia News.it reported Feb. 22.
The Ruusain activist ended his address by saying: “This is why you’re going to burn in hell. And since you’re still young, I hope you will be called to answer before a real court with people.”
Navalny first accused Putin and the judges of “using the justice system like magicians,” turning it around and doing with it as they wished. “I am not alone in seeing your escapades; regular folks are watching us,” too.
He used evangelical language and cited messages he recently received.
“They write me to tell me to resist, not to give up.” One person asked him, “Why do you put up with all this? In interviews, you say you believe in God, and He said, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” So, it’s okay with you?”
Thinking about these words, Navalny said: “He’s right. At this difficult time, I am satisfied because I have done what is written; I have not betrayed the commandment.”
Navalny said he believes in God. “People in my Anti-Corruption Fund chuckle over this, but it makes my life easier because there is a book that says what needs to be done, and I try to stick to it.”
In the first case, Navalny was accused of breaking the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence for embezzlement that required him to report regularly to Russian police.
Following Navalny’s two speeches, presiding Judge Vera Akimova asked the Federal Investigative Committee to investigate the convicted person for “insulting the participants in the trial.”
His speeches could lead to further prosecutions and new convictions, up to six months of additional jail time.
Former ABC7/WJLA-TV reporter and anchor Greta Kreuz, who covered religion as her main news beat in the Washington D.C. area, was remembered for a great devotion to her Catholic faith and how her deep love for God never failed to shine through in her dedication to family, friends and her craft. She died on Jan. 30 at the age of 63 due to lung cancer.
“Anyone who came in contact with Greta was touched by God through her,” said Father William Foley, pastor of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Washington, D.C. during the homily of a Mass of Christian Burial celebrated Feb. 12 at the parish. “She was such a radiant presence in our midst, especially in her suffering.”
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in-person attendance for the funeral Mass was limited to a few family members. More than 800 mourners viewed the liturgy online.
The priest recalled a visit with Kreuz, who never smoked in her life, during her lengthy cancer battle. He said he did not expect to see her at Mass much more due to the toll the illness had taken, but she surprised him. “The next week she was the lector at the 5:30 Mass,” he said. “She would not give up.”
Reflecting on the Gospel of the Mass (Matthew 5: 3-12), Father Foley said Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount describes the core of what it means to be a Christian. Each of the Beatitudes, he said, represented some aspect of Kreuz’s life. “She lived these virtues,” due to her great faith, trust and love, said the priest, who was joined in concelebrating the Mass by Msgr. John Enzler, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, and Father Emmanuel Magro, parochial vicar of Blessed Sacrament Parish.
As a longtime television news anchor and reporter, Kreuz was highly respected in her field, said Father Foley, adding that her service as a lector at Mass was another equally valuable part of her life. “She was one of the best proclaimers of the Good News, words that truly flowed from her heart,” he said.
In 2015, Greta Kreuz, then a retired ABC7 reporter and anchor, joined Isaiah “Ike” Leggett, then the Montgomery County Executive, and other local leaders and noted professionals in taking a “Walk with Francis” pledge outside the headquarters of Catholic Charities, pledging to pray and serve others in honor of the pope’s visit to Washington. (CS photo/Jaclyn Lippelmann)
A native of Fishkill, New York, Kreuz graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1975. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University in 1979 and a master’s degree in broadcasting and public affairs from American University in 1983. Kreuz joined ABC7/WJLA-TV in 1988 and retired in 2014.
As an on-air news reporter, Kreuz covered countless stories and events, as well as a variety of news beats, including education, transportation and religion. In 1998, she launched the religion beat and became the first full-time religion reporter for a Washington network affiliate. Among her major stories were the events of September 11, 2001; the 2005 death and funeral of Pope Saint John Paul II; the election in 2013 of Pope Francis in Rome; and stories related to the clergy abuse crisis. She briefly came out of retirement in 2015 to anchor ABC7’s coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to Washington, D.C. She won several Emmy, AP and Edward R. Murrow awards for her work.
In addition to her lectoring duties at her parish, Blessed Sacrament, she also taught religious education there for many years. She served on the boards of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington and Mount Carmel House, a transitional housing program in Washington, D.C. She served as an emcee at galas supporting the Catholic Coalition for Special Education and the Special Olympics. Kreuz was also a passionate advocate for LUNGevity, a charity that supports those fighting lung cancer. Throughout her career, she served as a mentor to college students studying broadcast journalism.
Greta Kreuz, shown speaking at a 2019 Catholic Business Network of Washington, D.C, dinner, was a strong supporter of Catholic education. (CS photo/Andrew Biraj)
At a Catholic Business Network of Washington, D.C. dinner in 2019, Kreuz, served as the evening’s master of ceremonies, and noted, “I really am dedicated to Catholic education.” Her two children, who are now adults, attended Catholic school years earlier.
“The kids are so polite and respectful. The teachers are so dedicated. The parents are engaged. (Catholic education) is really an investment we can’t afford not to be a part of,” she said.
In the days following her death, heartfelt tributes from friends and former colleagues filled Kreuz’s Facebook page, such as one from the John S. Mulholland Family Foundation, Inc., a charity that aids in feeding the local needy, of which Kreuz served as a founding director, board member and an emcee of their early galas. “She was a delightful person and that beautiful face, golden voice and huge heart will be missed by so many,” the foundation’s statement said.
At the end of Mass, Kreuz’s daughter, Faith Cerny, delivered a eulogy, in which she spoke of her mother’s faith, courage and resilience. In spite of a tough cancer diagnosis in 2012, she said Kreuz continued to live her life with passion, spunk and humor, describing her mom as the “life of the party” who loved to laugh and possessed a bright smile. The source of all these attributes, she said, was her mom’s deep and abiding Catholic faith.
“Her faith was her rock, her grounding force and her driver,” she said, adding that her mom experienced tough losses over the years in the deaths of her sister, her parents, her first and second husbands, as well as her fellow long cancer patients. And yet, she seemed to blossom in the later years of her life, said her daughter, the elder of Kreuz’s two children. “She taught, volunteered, mentored and shared boundless love for Peter and me,” she said.
Faith Cerny said her mother’s memory will live on in the community she loved and touched. “She was a light in this world,” she said. “May Heaven receive this beautiful soul.”
Kreuz is survived by a daughter, Faith Cerny, and a son, Peter Haley.
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<span class="date"><i class="icon-calendar"/> Feb 23, 2021</span>
<span class="meta-user"><i class="icon-user"/> <a href="https://www.buddhisttimes.news/author/shyamal/" title="Posts by Shyamal Sinha" rel="author" rel="nofollow">Shyamal Sinha</a></span>
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<span class="meta-comment last-meta"><span>Comments Off<span class="screen-reader-text"> on The annual Quan The Am (Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva) Buddhist Festival in Hanoi</span></span></span>
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By — Shyamal Sinha
The Quan The Am (Goddess of Mercy) festival at Ngu Hanh Son (Marble Mountain) in the central city of Da Nang has been recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage. The festival is held annually on the 19th day of the second lunar month at Quan The Am Pagoda and other venues at the Ngu Hanh Son national special relic site. It is one of the largest festivals nationwide and aimed at preserving and promoting ethnic culture and traditional values. The recognition brings the number of national intangible culture heritages in Da Nang to six, including the stone engraving products of Non Nuoc stone carving village and the Cau Ngu (whale worshipping) festival.
The festival is often held at the Quan The Am Pagoda at the foot of the Kim Son Mountain – the largest of the Ngu Hanh Son (Marble Mountains) in Da Nang.
The stone sculptures art of the 400-year-old Non Nuoc stone village in the Marble Mountains was also recognised as National Intangible Heritage in 2014.
The Marble Mountains landscape site was named a National Special Relic in 2018.
Da Nang has six National Intangible Heritages including Tuong Xu Quang (Quang Nam’s classic drama), the Le hoi Cau Ngu (Whale Worshipping festival), the traditional fish sauce trade of Nam Ô Village, the Non Nuoc stone sculptures art, the art of Bai Choi (a half-game and half-theatre performance) and Quan The Am Festival.
source – vna
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.- As President Joe Biden re-established a key White House faith-based office last week, former political liaisons to religious groups commended the move—but warned that the office might be misused.
On Feb. 14, President Biden announced he was reinstating the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Established by President George W. Bush in 2001, the office was meant to strengthen relationships between the federal government and religious leaders in a number of policy areas.
In his announcement, Biden—just the second Catholic president in U.S. history—cited the role that civil society can play in responding to current challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and “systemic racism.”
He signaled that his faith-based office will be working with secular groups too, emphasizing that the office would not “favor religious over secular organizations.”
Melissa Rogers—who led the office during the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017—will once again serve as its executive director under Biden, in addition to serving as senior director for faith and public policy with the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Beginning with President Bush, each administration has had a faith-based liaison at the White House. President Trump in 2018 created a new “White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative,” setting up not only an office at the White House but also liaisons at various federal agencies to work with religious groups.
CNA spoke with several former federal liaisons to faith communities, in addition to a religious freedom scholar, who praised Biden for re-establishing the faith-based office but warned that it could be used for the wrong political purposes.
The office was originally meant to serve as a mediator between faith leaders and the administration. Religious leaders could inform the administration of their policy positions and concerns, and the office in turn could make policy recommendations, said Nick Bell, former staffer at the Education Department’s Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives during the Trump administration.
The office is critical for “people of faith to have direct access to senior leaders,” Bell told CNA. “I’m really happy that Biden is not scrapping the office and keeping it there.”
Ideally, the office should be promoting partnerships between the government and religious groups while protecting the religious freedom of those same groups, said Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC).
“America has a long history of the private sector and public sector partnering together to advance the common good,” he told CNA, noting the historic work of faith-based groups in fighting poverty and providing health care and education.
“When they partner with the government they should remain free to be authentically Jewish, authentically Catholic, authentically protestant, authentically Muslim, and so on,” Anderson stated. “And so the office should be at the forefront of advocating for policies that respect and protect the free exercise of religion.”
Jim Towey, who headed the office under President Bush from 2002 to 2006, complimented the choice of Melissa Rogers as its new executive director but emphasized that she needs to have direct access to the president.
“Melissa Rogers is a very capable and bright leader on these issues, but she can only do so much if the entire West Wing apparatus and the president himself is not fully committed to the success of the office,” said Towey, who is also the founder of the group Aging with Dignity.
Bell noted that he is concerned about the extent to which the Biden administration will allow faith-based government partners to retain their religious mission.
For instance, the Obama administration made certain controversial requirements of religious grantees. The administration stopped partnering with the U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB) on anti-trafficking efforts in 2011, because of the conference’s opposition to abortion and contraception referrals for human trafficking survivors.
Religious adoption agencies partnering with the federal government were also subject to requirements that they match children with same-sex couples, under the Obama administration.
Religious freedom “will be an area to watch” with the faith-based office, Anderson said.
“Rogers is a serious scholar of and advocate for religious liberty” who “wants to work to find common ground compromises,” he said. However, “on some of the issues where religious liberty conflicts with a progressive sexual orthodoxy she tends to side with the sexual orthodoxy,” he noted.
Rogers herself has previously said that the government is free to protect “sexual orientation and gender identity” when those claims conflict with the mission of religious groups partnering with the government. Such “nondiscrimination” requirements should be applied uniformly to both secular and religious groups, she said.
“My view is that when you have taxpayer funds and nondiscrimination rules that apply to the use of those funds, then what you ought generally to do is uniformly apply those rules, not create religious – you know, these yawning religious exemptions from them,” she told NPR in 2019.
Rogers says she helped push the Obama administration to broaden religious exemptions to the HHS contraceptive mandate, after the initial exemptions were narrowly-tailored. She chaired the Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships beginning in 2009, before she took over the faith-based partnerships office in 2013.
Religious groups, including EWTN and the Little Sisters of the Poor, sued over the revised mandate saying it still required them to be complicit in morally-objectionable contraceptive coverage.
Rogers, in an interview with Commonweal magazine, admitted that the revised mandate “didn’t ultimately satisfy all those who objected, but it was a genuine effort to listen.”
Towey wished that the White House faith-based partnerships office had been more vocal in support of religious objectors to the mandate.
“It sure would have been nice if the faith-based office at the time had left their voices in support of the rights of Catholic organizations, Orthodox Jewish organizations, the Salvation Army, and others who did not embrace their orthodoxy on providing abortifacients in health care plans,” he said.
Instead, the office “was a guilty bystander when the Little Sisters of the Poor and Catholic colleges like Ave Maria University were threatened with closure,” he said.
The purpose of the office can vary with each administration. Under the Obama administration, Towey said that the White House tried to solicit faith leaders to promote the Affordable Care Act, a major policy initiative. The office also worked with religious groups to help combat poverty.
During the Trump administration, offices at various federal agencies issued rules clarifying religious freedom protections for faith-based groups partnering with the government. The Education Department also issued guidance on legal prayer in public schools.
At an online meeting of the office on Thursday, Rogers and other leaders emphasized the importance of faith communities in responding to COVID-19 and during the rollout of vaccines.
Towey said he thought the office was “a great disappointment during the Obama years,” being “pretty much on the distant sidelines” of the administration and, when it took action, was “politicized.”
“In this area, I just don’t find much optimism that this office will be anything more than what it was in the Obama administration, which was ineffective and cosmetic,” Towey said.
Scott Lloyd, former senior advisor at the HHS Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives from 2018-2019, also warned against any politicization of the office.
“The danger with any such effort is that the government ends up using religion to promote or legitimize its own agenda,” he said. As the Biden administration “has committed to policies that promote intrinsic evils like abortion,” Lloyd said that was concerning for the future of the faith-based office.
Towey emphasized that Rogers must report directly to President Biden so the office is not marginalized within the administration.
That fact, he said, “will tell you if this office is going to be serious or not.” If Rogers does not report directly to the president, he said, “then that office will just be smothered in the West Wing bureaucracy, and there’ll be three events a year of token significance and nothing more.”
A national leader and a foreign minister from two countries — Poland and Turkey — one Christian and one Muslim, spoke out about religious freedom, persecution and hatred during the opening day of the 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Poland’s President Andrzej Dudas told the council in a video address on Feb. 22, “The fact that for more than a year now, most of the attention has been paid for to combating COVID-19 does not mean that other problems have magically disappeared.”
Duda said that violation of fundamental rights should be addressed by the international community more efficiently as he and Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu offered Christian and Muslim perspectives about persecution of religion which basically focus on the same rights.
“Poland has been particularly concerned by the increasing phenomenon of discrimination against and religious persecution of Christians and other religious minorities,” said the president of the country which has a population of some 38 million people of whom around 86 percent are Roman Catholics.
The president explained that on Aug. 22 2019, on Poland’s initiative, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution titled International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.
That resolution “strongly deplored all acts of violence against persons on the basis of their religion or belief, as well as any such acts directed against their homes, businesses, properties, schools, cultural centers or places of worship.”
It also censured “all attacks on and in religious places, sites and shrines that are in violation of international law.”
“Poland also remains committed to protecting vulnerable groups, including children, older persons, and persons with disabilities.
“We must stand up for those who will not be able to stand up for themselves, we must strive for solidarity,” said the president whose country has put a near-total ban on abortions, including the termination of pregnancies with fetal defects,.
The resolution the president referred to strongly deplored all acts of violence against people based on their religion or belief.
It also refers to such acts directed against their homes, businesses, properties, schools, cultural centers or places of worship, as well as all attacks on and in religious places, sites and shrines that are in violation of international law.
For his part, Turkey’s Cavusoglu told the HRC, “Islamophobia, and hate speech are on the rise.”
He said the COVID-19 pandemic has increase such trends, and noted that some publications foster “hate speech against Islam and Muslims,” that “insult nearly 2 billion believers around the world.”
“Yes, freedom of speech is key to any democracy. But this freedom doesn’t give the right to insult the sacred values of others.
“Unless we promote a culture of living together, we risk damaging our common democratic values and social cohesion,” he said in an apparent reference to a satirical magazine in France, which Turkey had said published a cartoon insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
He also said “Turkey closely follows the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region. The findings of the UN and other international reports are cause for concern,” in a reference to the Muslim minority in China.
“We share our concerns and expectations on the matter with the Chinese authorities. We expect transparency on this issue while respecting China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
At the opening of the HRC session UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke about “policies of assimilation that seek to wipe out the cultural and religious identity of minority communities.
“When a minority community’s culture, language or faith are under attack, all of us are diminished. When authorities cast suspicion on entire groups under the guise of security, all of us are threatened,” said Guterres.
February 21, 2021
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The Case for Hard Religion
Levin’s article opens with the statement that “we are living in an era of unprecedented doubt,” which results in a crisis of meaning for our society. Institutions that help people find this meaning have failed to be the beacon of light they once were. This crisis, as it pertains to the church in particular, “is not exactly a crisis of belief in the teachings of traditional religion, but rather a crisis of confidence in the institutions that claim to embody them,” Levin writes. “In other words, Americans aren’t losing their faith in God. Eighty-seven percent of the public expressed belief in God last year in Gallup’s figures, which is roughly the level pollsters have found for many decades. What Americans do have trouble believing, however, is that our institutions — our churches, seminaries, religious schools and charities — remain capable of forming trustworthy people who actually exhibit the integrity they preach.”
People, Levin argues, are turning away from the church because those within the institution of the church are untrustworthy. They are using the church and other religious organizations, not as a means to preach truth and model love, but as a platform for their own advancement, political agendas, personal legitimacy, and pragmatism. The solution, therefore, is for people within the church to become more trustworthy and more appealing by behaving better and faithfully fulfilling their proper roles. They need to exchange their soft pews for hard pews that will make them sit upright.
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Levin is certainly right that too many people in the church are using it to expand their personal egos and ideologies or to bend it to attract the spirit of the age. However, this is not the only cause of distrust, nor is it primary. The primary causes are much more complex, and the effects much more destructive, than Levin seems to appreciate.
Who Is God?
Despite Levin’s opening claim, we are not living in an era of unprecedented doubt. We are living in an era of unprecedented idolatry. We, as a culture, are looking for meaning in ourselves and in truth defined by our own moral standards and feelings. We are seeking understanding of who we are and our place in the world — not in our Creator, but in group dynamics and social movements that feed on self-worship. Our belief, our confidence, is in ourselves, especially as we organize within groups that prop up our own doctrines of self. Of human power and self-will, there is no doubt.
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The clay has told the Artist that it is perfectly capable of molding itself. We have rejected God’s objective truth, God’s providential hand in human history, God’s authority in culture, God’s standards of morality, God’s design of human identity, and God’s purpose for institutions. This rejection perverts everything in society, from the individual to the family to institutions, which are “durable” only when they are built on a solid foundation. That foundation has now been bulldozed and replaced with the shifting sands of postmodernity. Subjectivism has replaced objective truth. This is the worldview of our age. It is the abolition of man.
Until the early to mid-twentieth century, if Americans were asked, “Do you believe in God?” most would see that question within a purely Judeo-Christian frame. Throughout most of American history, “God” was generally believed to be the God of the Bible who determines an objective reality with moral absolutes — the God who is the Creator of culture and the institutions within it, the God who saves sinners, the God above all other gods.
This doesn’t mean that each and every American was a Christian or even that America was a “Christian nation.” We have always had a mixed society of faiths and sects. But it does mean that for most of American history, the pervading worldview in America (even among unbelievers who borrowed its tenets for practical benefits) was Christian. This faith, this belief system, this moral authority, was the bedrock of human thriving and institutional integrity.
Today, Americans’ belief in God means something very different. Pew did a recent study to check its own poll that found large portions of Americans saying they believe in God. In the follow-up poll, Pew found that when asked, “Who is this God you say you believe in?,” “only a slim majority” said they believe in the God of the Bible. Another study by a different organization found that a majority of Americans — including 30 percent of evangelicals — don’t believe that Jesus was God. This is a deviation from the past that became entrenched in the mid-twentieth century. God is now a growing subjective construct rather than an objective reality whose nature has been revealed to mankind.
In the early nineteenth century, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that while clergy should not become elected leaders in the political realm, religion with its objective truth is the backbone of politics and society as a whole. “Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society,” Tocqueville writes, “but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions. Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief. I do not know whether all the Americans have a sincere faith in their religion, for who can search the human heart? but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation, and to every rank of society.”
Everything falls apart when religion, moral absolutes, and the moral authority of God are rejected. When the righteousness of God is spurned, and only the subjective truths of sinful man are elevated and deemed legitimate, all crumbles. “What can be done with a people which is its own master, if it be not submissive to the Divinity?” Tocqueville asked — a haunting question, indeed.
The “New Normal”
People have always been sinful as individuals, even worshipers of self. What has changed is that American culture has been rebuilt into something it wasn’t and should not be. Our traditional houses were torn down (slowly so that few even noticed it was happening), and now they’ve been all but rebuilt in a different image — an image fashioned by man through power struggles, not by God through love.
Because of this relentless reconstruction of America, society’s attitudes toward its institutions have changed. More than that, its understanding of human identity — the very foundation of how we see others in society — has changed. We are no longer living at the zenith of culture rooted in rationality and religion — a condition defined by objective truths and motivated by love. We are now sinking into the worst of human cultural conditions — a zoistic ethos that roots human identity in animal impulses, where we are moved by forces of nature and driven by desires, not reason.
Levin mentions the culture war and its effects on institutions, but he doesn’t do justice to it as a causal factor of distrust. He doesn’t recognize the extent to which the house he wants to restore has already been torn down and rebuilt by others with different blueprints. We are not only in culture war; we are in the last throes of it, and traditionalists are on the losing side.
In the days of Tocqueville and for much of American history, we lived in a culture built of certain assumptions about human identity, relationships, morality, and reality. Any calls for maintaining the stability of that society were within that frame. Marriage was between a man and a woman. The father was the head of the home. Children were blessings to be raised in obedience to God. The church was the body of Christ, tasked with spreading the gospel, and growing in a deeper relationship with Christ through faith and repentance. Schools were extensions of the family to develop rational and moral citizens. Government was instituted by God to protect the rights and liberties of its citizens. Men were men. Women were women.
Today, that frame has been broken within the consciousness of most Americans. The house has been rebuilt (or at least is in the process of being rebuilt — and we’re very far along in the process). Marriage is whatever anyone feels like. Fathers are unnecessary. Children are expendable. Church is not a place to worship the One True God in repentance and faith in Christ; it is a tool to right society’s historical wrongs of racism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry, and economic inequality. Schools are extensions of the state with curricula rooted in secular theories that focus on community organizing, reconstructing history, social experimentation, and indoctrination. Government today is a tool of power to make people good according to social doctrines and to secure equality of outcomes for the marginalized; equality has primacy over liberty. Men are women. Women are men.
The old assumptions, the plausibility structures, that once made our institutions strong and trustworthy have been knocked down with a demolition hammer. The very legitimacy of the institutions as historically established is questioned and outright rejected. If an institution is still functioning under the old blueprints, it needs to be destroyed and reconstructed because the old blueprints are flawed, filled with racism, bigotry, and “social injustice.”
Subjectivism Breeds Distrust
We are living in a post-Enlightenment, post-modern, and post-Christian culture. We are no longer living in a time that assumes the foundations on which Tocqueville made his observations — a time rooted in objective truth and the Christian religion. Instead, we are awash in post-modernized Hegelian synthesis, liberation philosophy, critical theory with its war between the oppressors and the oppressed, Nietzschean ethics, liberation theology, and intersectionality.
Our institutions are unstable because we have made ourselves unstable, changeable, and unfixed. This is true even when it comes to the most fundamental and obvious elements of our nature. Human identity, human institutions, human sexuality, human bodies — all are being reconstructed according to man’s will. This is the agenda of our age. This is the abolition of man.
In this conflict and chaos of ongoing reconstruction, trust is fleeting. The institution that isn’t conforming to the new reality and is holding to the past — no matter if it’s filled with angels — is not trusted by the subjectivists because they see bigots, misogynists, homophobes, and racists using institutions of oppression to exercise power over the marginalized. Those institutions that have been rebuilt in the image of the new ethos are trusted by the subjectivist because they’re being run by the experts — the ones they had been waiting for.
The institution that is trying to hold onto the old but appeasing the subjectivists at the same time — as many in the church have done in order to get funding, to fill pews, and retain some measure of legitimacy — is not trusted by traditionalists because they see inmates running the asylum and egoists putting on a show. And, of course, traditionalists don’t trust those in power who have reconstructed the institution according to the new normal of blueprints.
Revolutionary Repentance
The only solution to the crisis of our age is a return to true religion. The new blueprints need to be ripped to shreds. The new houses need to be “torn down” through repenting of personal sin, resisting groupthink, organizing communities around righteous initiatives, and peacefully participating in political action for the glory of God, not for politics of personal or group destruction.
Systems of education that promote state control and social experimentation must be torn down. Doctrines within churches that twist the nature of the church must be torn down. Educational programs that redefine human sexuality need to be torn down. Laws that demand equality of outcomes and not equality before the law must be torn down. Constructs that undermine the family — from abortion to redefining marriage to unjust divorce laws — must be torn down. Political parties that promote equality of outcomes instead of liberty must be torn down. Scientific systems that are based on ideology and power models, not science, must be torn down.
This sounds radical, and indeed it is. The house that is filled with rot can’t always be restored. It must be torn down and then rebuilt. The revolution America needs is a revolution rooted in repentance, given to us by God’s love and for his loving purposes.
Repentance is change, and people change not by the power of institutions or the people within them merely trying to be upright, but by the power of God changing hearts through the preaching of the gospel. He lays the preparatory ground for those hearts to be changed by striking the consciences of rebellious people through the proclamation of unvarnished truth and by his judgment of the wicked as he brings a wayward people to their knees, not to condemn, but to save them. This should be the prayer of all of God’s people.
It is only when we as a nation return to the God of the Bible and his truth about reality that we will regain trust in our institutions. Only by trusting God can we trust one another. Only when we bow before the God of Scripture and submit to his created order will we find meaning. This is the only path, and it will likely take a long time to traverse. It will mean walking through mud, climbing rocky mountains, traveling through valleys, and bearing the bloody scrapes and wounds that come along the way. This is not a call for violence — it is a call to faith and bold activism in every individual’s particular sphere.
Those in the church who see this revolutionary repentance as the only solution to our problems of institutional illegitimacy will likely face persecution. We are living in a culture that has purposely rejected God’s truth, not merely doubted it, so when the church speaks truth, those who hate the truth will hate the church. Conflict, not peace, will be the result.
What we need today is a True Religion of faith and revolutionary repentance. We as a people, as the American people within institutions and without, need to get out of the pews of our own making and onto our knees, confessing our self-worship before God and giving him alone the glory, honor, and praise due his Name.
Image via Pixnio.
Former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani has condemned the act of describing soldiers by the religion they practice.
The former lawmaker on his social media page described the act as condemnable, divisive, and toxic.
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He expressed that with the current security challenges is facing, there is a need for national solidarity and united action, especially from the troops at the forefront of the fight.
He wrote:
“Referencing our soldiers as Muslims or Christians is a condemnable act. It is divisive & toxic. The security challenges in our country demand a united action and national solidarity. Sowing the seeds of religiosity in the minds of our troops on the frontlines is noxious & dangerous.”
Referencing our soldiers as Muslims or Christians is a condemnable act.Its divisive & toxic.The security challenges in our country demands a united action and national solidarity.Sowing the seeds of religiosity in the minds of our troops on the frontlines is noxious & dangerous.
— Senator Shehu Sani (@ShehuSani) February 22, 2021