Interfaith News Roundup
December 15, 2019
The Vagaries of Religious Violence
The sad truth is that far, far too many local religious, spiritual communities around the globe suffer violence generated by everyone from drug cartels to repressive governments to violent religious groups. Most recently comes word of criminal violence from Christian evangelical groups in Brazil. The most extreme, like the “Soldiers of Jesus,” are forming their own gangs, trafficking in drugs, and bent on destroying Afro-Brazilian religious communities. A Washington Post story notes that “In Rio state, reports of religious-based violence against followers of Afro-Brazilian religions have risen from 14 in 2016 to 123 in the first 10 months of this year. State authorities call those figures vast undercounts … More than 200 temples have shut down in the face of threats this year.”
When government gets involved, of course, the violence can spiral exponentially. The Chinese treatment of Kazakh and Uighar Muslims in western China is a nightmare having nothing to do with job-training sites described by the Communist Party, reports the New York Times. Approximately a million ethnic Chinese are in internment camps, essentially prisons, in Xinjiang, a resource-rich territory bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. “Inmates undergo months or years of indoctrination and interrogation aimed at transforming them into secular and loyal supporters of the party.” Twenty-four leaked Communist Party documents instruct local leaders how to coerce and imprison Muslims, blueprints of a grim oppression.
The Parliament of India – Photo: Deepak Gupta, C.c. 2.0 sa
Last week in its lower house of Parliament, India’s Lok Sabha, proposed new laws that will welcome immigrants representing Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, and Sikh traditions into the country with the possibility of citizenship. Muslims, however, are excluded. Days later, India’s upper house, the Rajya Sabha, confirmed the new policy, now on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s desk. According to the new law, the government will be authorized to incarcerate and deport ‘illegal’ Muslim immigrants (like the many thousands of refugees who have fled Miramar, also known as Burma, where they have been oppressed by the dominant Buddhists). The Citizenship measure is a radical shift in a country which has claimed secularism and religious freedom as its constitutional groundwork since its founding in 1947. As we post this Roundup, riots are being reported in regions most affected by the change.
Before despairing over India’s tilt toward the religious right, though, consider how rich the interfaith impulse can be in spite of governmental Islamophobia. Nadala, a Punjabi city in central India, has a largely Sikh population. Nadala has seen an influx of Muslims coming from predominantly Hindu communities to escape being bullied and oppressed. Sikhs, with their interfaith friendly approach to life and religion, have welcomed the Muslims to Nadala, and that graciousness reaches around the globe. Sikhs in New York City, with family roots in Nadala, are raising funds for the arriving Muslims to purchase land where they will be able to build a mosque.
In India itself, alongside the governing, increasingly repressive BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is a burgeoning interfaith movement, an activist alternative to the political mainstream. More than 300 URI cooperation circles, for instance, committed to interfaith peacebuilding, are active in India. Collaborating groups recently launched a “One Billion Youth for Peace” campaign, with a special emphasis of doing away with nuclear weapons. Thousands have already been enrolled.
Hard to Believe!
Sarah Pulliam Bailey tells a fascinating story about celebrities going to church. Kanye West, celebrity Kim Kardashian’s spouse, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer who has ‘found religion’ and is making a pile of money in the process. West’s new album “Jesus Is King!” comes with a sweatshirt sporting the title, for an extra $170. Kanye is building a strong relationship with Joel Osteen, the prosperity-gospel pastor whose church seats 16,800 every Sunday.
Joel Osteen preaching at Lakeview Church – Photo: Lakeview Church
Kate Bowler, in a book about prosperity gospel, has said, “Both Joel Osteen and Kanye West believe that God can best be seen when people are healthy, wealthy, happy and successful, and they are pleased to point to their own careers as proof.” West is a Trump supporter and has said “slavery was a choice,” mightily upsetting African Americans and others.
Religion News Service recently polled 1,000 Protestant Christians about Trump and divinity. They discovered that “21.4% believed Trump was specifically anointed by God to be president. That figure increases among groups who believe in modern-day prophets and a God who is active in the daily affairs of the world. Slightly more white evangelicals (29%) agreed that Trump was anointed by God, but among white Pentecostals, like Paula White, that figure shot up to 53%.”
A new report from the Anglican Church of Canada suggests the denomination may disappear by 2040. Based on five different numerical approaches, the pessimistic conclusion is disheartening. But Anglican leaders, some of them leading vibrant congregations, are moving forward with hope and considerable energy aimed at sustaining the tradition.
Photo: Public Domain Pictures
Financial mismanagement at the Vatican remains a nearly intractable problem for Pope Francis. He recently appointed Rev. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves to clean up the continuing difficulties, including corruption. Distinguished Catholic journalist Thomas Reese details the four reasons that Father Alves faces nearly insurmountable problems in doing his new job.
A new report from Pew Research sends a mixed message – that most Americans continue to believe that religion has a good influence on society but also that religion should not be involved in politics. Democrats have the most difficulties with religion, including most of the ‘nones’ (non-affiliated), a group growing much faster than most religious traditions. “Nearly 3 in 10 Americans aged 18 to 29 (28%) said religious organizations do more harm than good, compared to just 14% of U.S. adults over the age of 50, the survey showed.” The prognosticators suggest, therefore, that religion is decreasing its influence in the country.
Back Home
Two-thirds of the 4.5 million Muslims in Germany are of Turkish origin, and most of their mosques are led by imams who have been educated, financed, and placed by a Turkish Muslim association supported by the Turkish government. That is changing now, with Germany setting up its own independent Muslim association through whom new imams will be trained and financed by the German government. The new association will welcome a number of different theological points of view. Meanwhile, liberal imams in Turkey are being suppressed and have been told to tow the government’s religious line or be removed. US citizens find such government-religion alliances mind-boggling, though conservative Christians are working hard to breach the ‘separation of church and state’ in the US constitution.
Photo: Mix Pixel
“Lived Religion is a method of studying religion that focuses on religious practices and beliefs in everyday life — not only those that take place in a church or during a religious celebration,” says Adam Parks. Parks is part of a group of religion professors studying ‘lived religion’ in the city of St. Louis, and they are finding religion all over St. Louis. Their intriguing stories feel like images of a religious future quite larger and more diversified than we’ve ever imagined.
Paul Elie’s New Yorker essay, titled “The Pope and Catholic Radicals Come Together Against Nuclear Weapons,” is encouraging news to the millions of activists who are dedicated to creating a world without nuclear weapons. Nukes represent the worst climate change threat, and there are signs that the grassroots are starting to do something about it. Pope Francis taking the lead doesn’t hurt!
Finally, TIO has received a request from a leader named Bosco for prayers for the people of Hong Kong. Bosco is the director of WEDO GLOBAL, an interfaith group in Hong Kong affiliated with United Religions Initiative. He writes,
As you may be aware, thousands of people have been arrested, injured, or killed in the recent political and social unrest in Hong Kong. We believe that as human beings, we are capable of having compassion, love and care for one another regardless of our backgrounds. We therefore sincerely invite you all to join us in prayer to bring hope through this act of compassion, as we believe it can send out healing energy to our people and connect citizens of this world.
We ask you to pray for us as a group or as individuals from wherever you may be on this planet. Share our stories through your channels with the following hashtags: #PrayForHK #StandWithHK #PeaceBeWithHK. We wish to post it in our social media and share this positivity with the people of Hong Kong and the rest of the world."
God bless you, Bosco, and all the people of Hong Kong.
Header Photo: Good Free Photos