May 2023 Interfaith News Roundup
by Paul Chaffee
The Interfaith News Roundup is a monthly publication of The Interfaith Observer. Paragraph by paragraph the Roundup summarizes major religion/interfaith stories that are underreported. Each paragraph is linked to the full story it introduces.
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Photo: Unsplash
The Interfaith Roundup typically stays away from fee-based digital news. But Tish Harrison Warren’s New York Times article, “The global transformation of Christianity is already here” (March 26, 2023), justifies an exception to the rule. For Christian NYT readers it sheds light on what may be for them the most important story of the century. Warren, an Anglican pastor, hones in on a reality hiding in plain sight: “What is happening in America is just a part of a larger transformation because Christianity is getting a new face. It is getting more Black and brown and yellow.” The ramifications, which she begins to explore, are huge. (If you don’t subscribe to the NYT, find someone who does and ask them to print a copy.)
Reaching Out for Goodness Sake
Eight years ago a TIO editorial opened this way: “The Doctrine of Discovery which emerged from the Papal Bulls of 1452-1493 may be the most destructive ‘doctrine’ ever promoted by a religious institution, though few know about it today.” Last month the Vatican rejected and denounced the Doctrine, which it conceded “had provided legal sanction and promoted Christian conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian territories and peoples the world over.” Indigenous peoples everywhere are celebrating.
Photo: St. Thomas Church
Episcopalians in New York received the following invitation: “The Bishop of New York invites you to join him and the people of the Episcopal Diocese of New York to a Solemn Service of Apology for the participation and complicity of the diocese and its members to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and in that trade’s continuing aftermath and consequences.” The March 25 service was officiated by the Rt. Rev. Andrew Dietsche. Now the hard part – to make good on such a confession.
Taking an ethical stance of their own, students at Princeton Theological Seminary actively protested the school for not ousting Michel Fisch, chair of the school’s trustees. Why? He has ties to a company that charges high fees (e.g., $15 for 15-minute time-slots) for inmates to communicate with people outside prison walls.
Photo: Pexels
ChatGPT is a software program that seems able to write better prose for, about, and on behalf of you than you can for yourself. It is being touted as an almost ‘magical’ achievement but also being condemned as a destructive communications nightmare. Mark Silk used ChatGPT to explore the Golden Rule, and the conversation is illuminating.
During Ramadan this year the University of Connecticut basketball staff went out of its way to honor the calendar and dietary requirements of the three Muslims on its distinguished team as it participated in this year’s March Madness. Turns out their team won the national championship.
Similar good will is leading US soccer leagues, following UK’s example, to schedule prayer breaks for Muslims during its games.
For the last quarter-century, Barry Lynn, lawyer and United Church of Christ clergy, has been a leading champion for the Constitutional separation of church and state. The recent emergence of Christian Nationalism has generated strong attacks on the separation, making Lynn’s work all the more important. He has just published the third volume of his memoire, Paid to Piss People Off (Vol 1-Peace, Vol 2-Porn, and now Vol 3- Prayer). He writes “When all is said and done, I have never known a single soul saved nor a single crime prevented by government force-feeding religion.”
The Ethical Struggles We Share
The Vatican says that China is failing to keep its agreement not to unilaterally appoint bishops for the church. In another ethically ambiguous decision, a group of Roman bishops are discouraging hospitals from providing medical services to transgender individuals.
Looking for a religiously conservative city in the deep south where high-powered guns and gun laws are being seriously debated? Try Nashville, Tennessee, home of the Southern Baptist Convention and listed by Pew Research as the second most conservative city in the nation. What did it take to generate the debate? A tragedy like three adults and three children dying in a gun massacre, as Nashville suffered so recently. The Washington Post provides a detailed profile of the conflicted situation.
Judge Robert Pitman - Photo: Wikipedia
A considerable campaign these days is growing to forbid access to peoples’ history, our sexuality, and what we read. Happily, Texas Judge Robert Pitman delivered a major blow against book-banning when he ordered libraries to restore removed books with LGBTQ+ or racial content within 24 hours. CNN’s article on book-banning suggests it is a considerable movement, not just a small group of extremists.
India continues to buttress Prime Minister Modi’s authoritarian ways. Interreligious struggles continue to escalate, with the government seeming to go out of its way to justify the destruction of Muslim mosques. At the same time, right-wing Hinduism, referred to as Hindutva, is moving beyond India’s borders. A Canadian headline suggested A New Wave of Online Harassment and Misinformation Campaigns are Targeting Sikhs in Canada. Modi’s Sikh critics in India may be generating the harassment.
A California state law that prohibits ‘caste’ discrimination is generating considerable criticism from the South Asian diaspora. A bare majority of South Asians in the US favor Prime Minister Modi, but a significant minority of them are strongly opposed to the prime minister and his government.
The fate of LGBTQ+ people in Africa is a burgeoning tragedy. “Same-sex relations are legal in only 22 of Africa's 54 countries, and are punishable by death or lengthy prison terms in some…” Sad to say, religious institutions are often complicit in this oppression. Reuters details where African countries stand on same-sex issues.
For this reader, the saddest story last month was the interreligious conflict at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. This sacred site is a beloved, treasured and fought over patch of land where the saints have trod, and it is becoming another bloody interreligious battlefield. The Guardian untangles some of the incredibly complex issues surrounding the Mount of Olives. The great irony is that the struggles have escalated in the midst of a rare confluence of Jewish High Holy Days, Christian Easter, and Muslim Ramadan.
In Memoriam
Mary Walker Braybrook (right) with her husband Markus Braybrook (left) and granddaughter Helen Hobin (center) — Photo: United Religions Initiative
Mary Walker Braybrooke died on December 12, 2022, and the global interfaith movement lost one of its brightest lights. Born in 1935, Mary had a rich career in social services focused on the most difficult circumstances people suffer – such as mental illness, addiction, and child abuse – as well as serving as a magistrate in the town of Oxford. An interfaith advocate as a teenager, she became known internationally after marrying Marcus Braybrooke, often called the historian of the modern interfaith movement. Retired from teaching social services, Mary and Marcus became a beloved team traveling to interfaith events the world over. TIO featured the couple eleven years ago in “High Tea with Mary and Marcus” by Ruth Broyde Sharone
Header Photo: Pixabay