In the News, July 2, 2015

July 2, 2015

Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: the Islamic State's looting of holy sites, an unlikely alliance for the Vatican, and a church's decision to divest in support of Palestine.
BERKLEY CENTER IN THE NEWS
Why Chris Christie’s Words About Hard Work Matter
by E.J. Dionne, Jr.
Washington Post op-ed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-much-do-we-value-work/2015/07/01/081b614c-2023-11e5-aeb9-a411a84c9d55_story.html?hpid=z3
In discussing rising inequality, we often act as if the trend is a natural development about which we can do nothing. Of course, big economic forces are at work. But government rules and laws—on pay, health care, labor rights and taxes—can improve workers’ standing or they can make the disparities worse. Government has a choice, and there is no purely neutral ground on this question.  

AROUND THE WORLD
The Islamic State’s Advantage at Historic Sites
by Sarah Almukhtar
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/29/world/middleeast/isis-historic-sites-control.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
As it expanded across Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State destroyed many archaeological sites, looting them for profit and damaging some to gain attention. (…) There are thousands of archaeological sites across Iraq and Syria and, although the Islamic State seems to be more efficient at moving antiquities, it is operating within a large, established system of looters.

Vatican Enlists ‘Secular Jewish Feminist’ Naomi Klein in Environmental Fight
by Rosie Scammell
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/vatican-enlists-secular-jewish-feminist-naomi-klein-in-environmental-fight/2015/07/01/b0d0a330-201c-11e5-a135-935065bc30d0_story.html
A high-profile campaigner who identifies herself as “a secular Jewish feminist,” Klein arrived at the Vatican on Wednesday ahead of a two-day climate change conference. (…) “I do believe that given the attacks that are coming from the Republican Party and fossil fuel interests in the US. It was a particularly courageous decision to invite me here,” Klein told journalists at the Vatican.  

Inter-religious March in Rome Demands Action on Climate Change
by Reuters Staff
Reuters FaithWorld
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/07/02/inter-religious-march-in-rome-demands-action-on-climate-change/
Several thousand Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims marched through Rome to the Vatican on Sunday to demand action on climate change and thank Pope Francis for his encyclical on the environment. They marched behind banners reading “Many Faiths--One Planet” and “The Earth--Our Common Home--Climate Action Now!” to lobby leaders to take decisive action at a United Nations summit in Paris this year to stem the effects of global warming.  

India's Beef With Beef
by Ira Trivedi
Foreign Affairs
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/india/2015-07-01/indias-beef-beef
Although India is a secular nation, about 80 percent of India’s population is Hindu. In Hinduism, cattle are considered sacred and the cow is revered as gau mata or “mother cow.” It is taboo to endanger this holy animal, let alone slaughter it. And so, each one of India’s states has created laws regulating the beef trade. (…) Now, for a country with an ambitious economic growth agenda, banning beef is a step in the wrong direction.  

Has the Global Jewish Population Finally Rebounded From the Holocaust? Not Exactly.
by Adam Taylor
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/07/02/has-the-global-jewish-population-finally-rebounded-from-the-holocaust-not-exactly/
Professor Sergio DellaPergola, perhaps the most well-known expert in Jewish demographics in the world today, is among those who have rebutted the reports. "It is a canard," DellaPergola told the Times of Israel this week, suggesting that the numbers widely reported were both a result of "misunderstanding" and "journalistic counterfeit."  

Erdogan and Secularists Eye Once-Unthinkable Grand Coalition in Turkey
by Reuters Staff
Reuters FaithWorld
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/07/02/erdogan-and-secularists-eye-once-unthinkable-grand-coalition-in-turkey/
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has built a career on attacking the elite, secularist tradition reviled by many of his pious supporters. (…) But now, the Islamist-rooted AKP party Erdogan created is moving tentatively towards a once-unthinkable coalition with the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), founded in the 1920s by the ‘father’ of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as guardian of that secularist state order.  

DOMESTIC
United Church Of Christ Takes A Stand On Israeli-Palestinian Conflict With Divestment Vote
by Jaweed Kaleem
Huffington Post Religion
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/united-church-of-christ-divestment-israel_n_7697624.html?cps=gravity_2677_-6740011231714189644
The United Church of Christ on Tuesday voted to divest from companies that it says profit from the occupation of Palestinian lands. (…) Tuesday’s vote culminates a decadelong process for the church, which first began debating measures related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at its Atlanta synod in 2005, when it passed a resolution to use its "economic leverage" against human rights abuses in the region.  

The Episcopal Church Approves Religious Weddings for Gay Couples After Controversial Debate
by George Conger
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/07/01/why-the-episcopal-church-is-still-debating-gay-marriage/
The bishops of the Episcopal Church have authorized their clergy to perform same-sex weddings, but don’t expect sweeping changes across the entire denomination anytime soon. (…) Clergy were also given the right to refuse to perform a same-sex marriage, with the promise they would incur no penalty, while bishops were given the right to refuse to allow the services to take place in their diocese.  

A Church of Cannabis Tests Limits of Religious Law in Indiana
by Monica Davey
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/02/us/a-church-of-cannabis-tests-limits-of-religious-law-in-indiana.html?ref=us
As legislation that proponents call a religious freedom law took effect in Indiana on Wednesday, Mr. Levin’s First Church of Cannabis held its first service in a quiet neighborhood on this city’s Eastside. [Mr. Levin] dreamed up the church as a way to test the state’s new, much-debated law: If the law protects religious practices, he figured, how could it not also permit marijuana use--which remains illegal here--as part of a broader spiritual philosophy?
Opens in a new window