Interfaith News Roundup
October 15, 2019
The American Academy of Religion has published a set of guidelines of what every college student needs to know about religion. Concluding a three-year study, the guidelines were motivated in part by the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the culture today. At the heart of this quest for basic religious literacy, the main points the guidelines suggest were:
Discern accurate and credible knowledge about diverse religious traditions and expressions
Recognize the internal diversity within religious traditions
Understand how religions have shaped – and are shaped by – the experiences and histories of individuals, communities, nations, and regions
Interpret how religious expressions make use of cultural symbols and artistic representations of their times and contexts
Distinguish confessional or prescriptive statements made by religions from descriptive or analytical statements
Of the Earth
“The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI) is an international alliance bringing the leverage of faith-based leadership and moral urgency to a global effort to slow and reverse tropical deforestation by shifting the priorities and policies of world leaders.” Religious leaders from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Taoist traditions are working together to bring the world’s attention to trees and what they contribute to us all.
Photo: Unsplash
Re-li-gi-ca, a new online interfaith resource, has posted a massive set of resources, curricula, and guidelines for dealing with climate change. It is a deep dive that includes podcasts, videos, articles, and in-depth ways to get involved. The resource is divided into three sections: Introducing a Changing Climate, Roots of a Changing Climate, and Culture and a Changing Climate. Superb material for anyone learning and/or teaching climate change.
Union Theological Seminary (NY) has been a famous bastion of progressive, liberal theology for nearly a century, but the new practice that recently showed up in a chapel service caught the world’s attention. As a seminary statement put it, “Today in chapel, we confessed to plants. Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor. What do you confess to the plants in your life?”
The conservative response came quickly from Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: “If you do not worship the Creator, you will inevitably worship the creation, in one way or another. That is the primal form of idolatry.” But Rev. Claudio Carvalhaes, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) theologian from Brazil, who helped organize the service, responded: “The way we understand this, we are not praying to the plants as God. … We were seeing the plants in a way that the indigenous peoples see them — as living things with lives of their own. … We were speaking to the plants as part of the ‘we’ of God. We are all part of God’s creation — both mankind and the rest of creation.”
Evolution of the Roman Catholic Church
Photo: Pixabay
Jason Horowitz in the New York Times makes a strong case that while Pope Francis may not have changed the world yet, he is changing the Roman Catholic church in all sorts of ways. Earlier this month Francis installed “13 new cardinals who reflect his pastoral style and priorities on a range of issues, including migration, climate change, the inclusion of gay Catholics, interreligious dialogue and shifting church power away from Rome to bishops in Africa, Asia and South America.” Horowitz’ article uses the installation of the cardinals as one of numerous examples of how Francis is affirming a new openness and engagement with the rest the world; a vital caring for the planet; and a deep commitment to pastoral care.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has appointed a leading anti-Mafia prosecutor to head the Vatican Court in his continuing campaign to clean up the Vatican’s finances. For the past 40 years Giuseppe Pignatone’s investigations have led to the arrest of hundreds of mafiosi. He was recently appointed to the Vatican Court, shortly after five Vatican officials were arrested for financial wrongdoing, rumored to be concerning real estate.
Roman Catholic bishops in the Amazon have been examining the possibility of ordaining married church leaders to serve the growing congregations in the region that rarely get to see a priest, since there are an inadequate number to serve the 80,000 Amazonian parishioners. This discussion has moved to the Vatican where the proposal for married priests, “men of proven virtue,” is coming from the pew, not the pope.
The Associated Press reports that 1,700 Roman Catholic clergy who have been credibly accused of child abuse continue to live their lives with no oversight or supervision, often working with children and students. Typically, they were not legally accused, left the church, and go about their lives in the world however they choose. The results can be horrendous. Hundreds of them hold positions of trust, with access to children. Many of them volunteer in churches. No one seems clear about how to solve this complete lack of tracking and oversight, and the tragedies that accrue as a result, detailed at length in the AP story. But at least the story and some of the incredible statistics are now emerging.
As the World Turns
A number of Muslim Sharia courts in India, though not legally sanctioned, settle small disputes among the country’s considerable Muslim population. Conservative Hindu groups, who unsuccessfully sought to ban the Sharia courts, have set up similarly unsanctioned Hindutva courts, based on ancient Hindu legal precepts. At least ten more Hindutva courts are planned in coming months. In particular, they oppose Muslim-Hindu marriages, typically claiming that Muslims have brainwashed their loved ones. The proponents of the new courts champion Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. These religious reactionaries hate Gandhi for his tolerance of other religions and his notion that people of all faiths should be eligible to become citizens of India.
PM Narendra Modi –Photo: Wikimedia
Muslims are not the only community suffering persecution from the increasingly conservative Hindu tendencies of the Indian Christians as well Jews, Baha’is and Parsis are increasingly suffering oppression from a Modi administrationgovernment. Christians as well Jews, Baha’is and Parsis are suffering oppression with a Modi administration that is happy to ignore such abuse.
Polls suggest that Donald Trump’s rock-ribbed Republican support these past two years might finally be eroding, initially due to a phone call to a newly installed Ukrainian president. But the president’s decision to exit Syria, leaving our closest allies in the Middle East, the Kurds, vulnerable to massive Turkish aggression against them, drew scathing criticism from right-wing Christian evangelicals as well as conservative legislators. Televangelist Pat Robertson, “appalled” by the withdrawal, said “I believe … the president of the United States is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven if he permits this to happen.” As TIO prepares to post, reports on Social Media suggest Trump is backing off his decisions regarding Turkey and the Kurds, a rare practice for him.
The curse of student debt that is stifling the lives of millions of graduates in the US now has struck clergy education as well. Divinity students these days typically begin graduate school with $20,000 or more (often much more) debt from their undergraduate work. Seminary usually ups the ante significantly, putting prospective clergy into a financial bind for years or decades. Seminaries themselves tend, these days, to be holding on financially by their finger-nails, and students are suffering long after leaving the classroom.
“Technology-Oriented Religions Are Coming,” by Stan Stalnaker is a mind boggling sojourn into territory unknown to most of us. It’s fascinating, though, for any student of religion and where religion is going as we make our way into the mysteries of the 21st century and the possibility of digital cults.
Great Good News
Abe’s Eats was founded last year and immediately made a splash in New York City’s restaurant community by offering “Interfaith Meat” products, meats that are both Glatt Kosher and Zabihah Halal approved. Mohammad Modarres began offering Kosher/Halal meats at self-produced Shabbat Salaam interfaith dinners across the US. Teaming up with different synagogues, mosques, and community centers, he uses food as a tool to promote interfaith unity and dialogue. Today Abe’s Eats includes vegetarian and vegan options and has a catering business. Their motto is “using food to build community and combat hate.” A current Kickstarter campaign is helping the business grow.
In the flurry of “breaking news!” every night on TV, you may not have noticed that August 22 was International Day Commemorating Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. But when the UN designated the day, the people at BPSOS (originally “Boat People SOS Committee”), a Vietnamese service organization primarily focused on refugee care, took the campaign to the nation. This past August 22, 53 Vietnamese religious communities, including Buddhist, Cao Dai, Catholic, and Protestant groups, celebrated the day with prayer services, candle-light vigils, and home meetings.
In Memoriam
Photo: mepeace.org
Dr. Len Traubman died on October 4. With Libby, his wife and interfaith partner, Len has been a pioneering interfaith warrior who walked the talk, made a difference in hundreds of live in the US, the Middle East, and in Africa, and with Libby, modeled what grassroots interfaith is all about. Sally Mahe’s profile of Len details their interfaith work. The Jewish News of Northern California’s memorial adds more biographical background.
Header Photo: Unsplash