Religion Dispatches
…Middle East, people strongly identify with Islam and in many countries this identification has been suppressed in one way or another by authoritarian regimes. Having secured their freedom, it shouldn’t be surprising that the people, in places like Egypt and Tunisia, are strongly asserting their religious identity….
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…cade conflict, which has cost over 150,000 lives. 4. Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Al-Nahda in Tunisia Claim Victories in post-Arab Spring elections to establish new governments and constitutions. 5. Bahrain Continues to Crack Down on Dissent and peaceful protests, violate human rights, and issue extreme sentences on detainees. 6. Rise of Militants in Mali and Libya reflects the growing network of radical extremism operating in Africa. 7. The US…
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…y many churches will hold a Passover Seder, a ritual meal recounting God’s freeing of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. For Christians it recalls Jesus’ Last Supper. It also reminds Christians of Jesus’ Jewish practices. Some Christians and Jews believe Church seders are inappropriate. They say it distorts the Jewishness of the Passover holiday. In RD earlier this week, Rebecca Cynamon-Murphy argued that it “does unwitting harm” by treating…
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…how can God’s anointed nation possibly be doing such awful things? Where white Americans complacently see their history “in an upward spiral” under special providential protection, nonwhite Americans, and almost everyone outside our borders, see this New Israel behaving more like Old Egypt in its worship of wealth and power. Brooks ends his column with a wistful plea for a new Moses to come along to revive the Exodus template and “tell us what our…
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…ks that Occupy Faith has set itself are: to ally with unions and others to promote fair wages for all, especially low-wage workers to work for fair tax policy to join coalitions supporting constitutional change to get money out of politics and limit the power of corporations to participate in events and initiatives organized to promote justice and fairness to take nonviolent, direct action to the streets and halls of corporate and government p…
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…ases of mass religious violence around the world in settings as diverse as Egypt, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. At first blush, it may seem that the United States shares little in common with these developing countries. Yet I have found unsettling similarities. In all these countries, the widespread adoption of a more militant approach stemmed centrally from fears that a historically and culturally dominant religious group was in danger…
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…even questions of citizenship. The White House may cite security concerns, but a visit to the Western Wall would be a misstep for a president who claims to support freedom and equality while the Women of the Wall still struggle for basic religious freedoms in Israel….
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…y in the Western media for the plight of minority Christian communities in Egypt or Syria today. Or, what of the French mandate that created the modern nation-state of Lebanon largely to protect its Christian population after the fall of the Ottoman Empire? Were the Russian Empire’s campaigns against the Ottomans into Georgia and Armenia similarly devoid of globalizing sympathies with fellow Christians? But, if we insist upon thinking that religio…
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…stolic Throne of St. Andrew speaks the language of human rights, religious freedom, and trust in science. This position arises in no small part from the Patriarchate’s own precarious role as a representative of minority religion in Turkey. At the same time, the Patriarch of Moscow, having reclaimed much of his post’s former political influence in a post-Soviet Russia, has taken to spearheading not only the traditionalist Orthodox cause, but acting…
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…n people their own territory after having suffered 400 years of bondage in Egypt. Although that territory was already occupied, God authorized his chosen people to invade, rape, pillage, massacre and even commit genocide against their Baal-worshipping Canaanite neighbors. But rarely do I read any commentary about this narrative of terrorism in the Bible when perusing critical articles on white Christian supremacy. It’s like decrying the increased…
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