Interfaith News Roundup
November 15, 2019
“America’s Growing Infrastructure” in World Religions News is the best summary of regional interfaith activity in the US you’ll find anywhere. Based on news from the Pluralism Project, it identifies a number of the municipal and regional projects that demonstrate how ubiquitous the interfaith movement has become at the local level. Surprisingly, it leaves out United Religions Initiative, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Religions for Peace, and North American Interfaith Network, possibly because they are international in orientation and because they have received more attention than what is happening at the local level. If you are interested in grassroots interfaith activity, read this article.
News from Around the World
Photo: Pixabay
Last August the “elected representatives of Africa’s religious communities, meeting in Maputo, Mozambique called for stronger collaboration among policy-makers, religious leaders and interfaith organizations to achieve Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.” The conference issued a statement that called, among other things, for all religious communities “to reach out to one another in trust, mutual respect, and friendship to achieve goals which serve all humanity and Mother Earth.”
Meanwhile, in India the three-day 5th World Parliament of Science, Religion, and Philosophy last month brought together a distinguished group of religious, political, and academic leaders. Gathered in the city of Puna, they focused on the need for creating and supporting an interfaith, interreligious peace movement globally.
Canada held its fourteenth Annual World Religions Conference last month in Red Deer, central Alberta. The series is known for bringing together clergy and experts from a variety of traditions to mitigate the fears we have of each other and start building trust and relationship. Conference organizer, Basheer Islam, says ““It provides a platform where people of different faiths, philosophies, and theologies can come together and discuss a topic of mutual interest.” This year’s theme was “Universal Compassion: The Core Human Value.”
Faisal bin Abdulrahman bin Muaammar, the secretary general of KAICIID, an international interfaith project funded by Saudi Arabia, addressed hate speech last month at a press conference in Vienna. He said KAICIID is pledging $1.7 million USD to “combating hate speech through the center’s global programs in 2020, in partnership with the UN and global organizations and through its five platforms in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Arab world.”
Christians in the United States
White conservative evangelicals in the US represent Donald Trump’s core political base and, as such, get all sorts of media attention. That’s frustrating for the rest of the country’s aggregate religious community, most of whom feel largely unseen by major media. In response, 100 Christian leaders recently signed a historic letter in support of President’s impeachment inquiry. Their statement said “Jesus’ words and ministry highlight the connection between truth and the well-being of the poor, the sick, the immigrant, the imprisoned, and the earth. Likewise, we who follow Jesus must make visible that any President’s violation of his oath of office would harm the most vulnerable among us.” They go on to say, “this letter helps show Congress and the media that the religious right does not speak for Christianity.”
Paula White – Photo: Wikimedia
Paula White, a megachurch evangelical pastor propounding a theology of ‘prosperity,’ has been appointed by Donald Trump as Advisor to the (White House) Faith & Opportunity Initiative, a program which has given conservative Christians a powerful public platform. White is highly controversial even within conservative evangelical circles. At a reelection rally last June for Trump, she prayed “let every demonic network who has aligned itself against the purpose, against the calling of President Trump, let it be broken, let it be torn down in the name of Jesus!”
Ironically, as the religious right walks into US halls of power, Christianity declines by the numbers. A new report from Pew Research begins this way: “The United States is steadily becoming less Christian and the number of people with no religion is rising.“ The numbers are significant. In the past decade 65% of Americans self-identify as Christian, down from 77%, and 26% say they have no religion, up from 17%. The political ramifications of this shift are significant; in the 2016 US elections, 68% of the ‘no religion’ community voted for Hillary Clinton rather than Donald Trump.
Two American seminaries, Princeton Theological Seminary and Virginia Theological Seminary, have decided to create reparation funds in light of the historical racism at their institutions. The Virginia school “has set aside $1.7 million for a reparations fund, given that enslaved persons once worked on its campus and that the school participated in racial segregation even after slavery ended.” A $27 million endowment fund at Princeton will yield $1.1 million a year for reparations, supporting scholarships, and providing full funding for its Center for Black Church Studies, thus enabling a new professorship.
Border Church and Border Mosque have begun to hold interfaith prayer meetings at Friendship Park on the US-Mexico border, despite significant the difficulties from Federal law enforcement. Ten years ago the US Department of Homeland Security divided the park and built barbwire fencing between the US side and the Mexican site. Subsequently a wall was built. On the US side only ten people are allowed in at one time, and for only 20 minutes. That didn’t stop the interfaith group from their prayers. The six-minute video tells the whole story.
For the Sake of the Family
The Atlanta Jewish Times has a wonderful article about developing community support and vitality among interfaith families. It is a good example of what is possible within intimate communities, such as families and congregations, when respect and engagement with ‘the other’ is affirmed and rewarded.
The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs published a short article about “Building Coalitions to End Child Marriage.” The rarely noticed facts are startling: “Around the world, 21 percent of girls are married before the age of 18, including 5 percent before the age of 15. Increasingly considered a form of slavery, early marriage can significantly harm a girl’s health and well-being. In low-income countries, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death among girls 15 to 19 years old.” Adding to this tragedy is how many religions promote child marriage, one way or another. The article is a year old but as current as the morning news. It is accompanied by three essays titled “Child Marriage, Sexual Violence, and the #MeToo Movement,” “Muslim Marriage Law That Empowers Girls,” and Religious Challenges and Child Marriage.”
The UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) has released a Convention on Violence and Harassment. It is designed to improve work conditions around the world, and a number of countries have already ratified the document. In particular, it should improve working conditions for women, with standards that keep them safer than most of them today. If mutual respect is ever going to be a universal norm, it needs to start with these folks – the ones who do more work for less pay than the rest of us.
20 Million Women Strong (#20MWS) is a movement around the world for children, families, and the Earth, born of the conviction that, when women stand up together, change happens. The 20 Million Women Strong movement launched on Saturday, September 21, 2019 with a rally and walk across the Edmund Pettus bridge in historic Selma, Alabama. This event occurred on the International Day of Peace and initiated a year-long effort via #20MWS to raise awareness and inspire action through a series of “Global Action Days”. coinciding with UN days of observance. To learn more and to get involved with a year-long campaign full of activities, visit their website and Facebook page.
Header Photo: Pixabay