Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: defining social justice via Catholic social doctrine, the suspension of a Wheaton professor, and Islam in the American Midwest.
AROUND THE WORLD
Pope Francis Attributes Second Miracle to Mother Teresa, Paving the Way to Sainthood
by Daniella Dean
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-francis-attributes-second-miracle-to-mother-teresa-paving-...
The latest miracle attributed to her intercession with God is believed to be the inexplicable 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man who was diagnosed with multiple brain tumors. The Albanian-born nun was beatified — the penultimate step before sainthood — in 2002 after the attribution of another miracle healing to her intercession. No date was set for Mother Teresa’s canonization — the highest honor bestowed by the Roman Catholic Church — but Italian media speculated that it will take place during the first week of September 2016, the anniversary of her death and during Francis’s Holy Year of Mercy.
What “Social Justice” Really Means
James Schall, S.J.
Crisis Magazine
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2015/what-social-justice-really-means
In this context, Michael Novak and Paul Adams have brought together in one concise consideration an understanding of “social justice” that does not arise from these “value-rights-justice” presuppositions found in the post Machiavellian understanding of modernity and the state. In Social Justice Isn’t What You Think It Is, they undertake a systematic re-reading of what is known as “Catholic Social Doctrine.” But their “re-reading” turns out to be directed to everyone, to social and political thought as such. The approach is unique and convincing.
The Texas State Bar and the Ambiguities of Secularity
by Peter Berger
American Interest
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/12/16/the-texas-state-bar-and-the-ambiguities-of-secularit...
People often confuse ‘secularity’ and ‘secularism’. A case in point.
I Worry About Muslims
by Mohammed Hanif
International New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/opinion/i-worry-about-muslims.html?ref=opinion
...Mostly I worry about my kind of Muslims, those who are expected to explain to the world what real Islam is like. We so-called moderate Muslims are urged to take control of the narrative and wrest it away from the radicals — as though we were MFA students in a creative writing class struggling with midterm submissions, rather than 1.6 billion people of maddening diversity.
The Softer Side of Jihad
by Joshua Meservey
Foreign Affairs
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/kenya/2015-12-17/softer-side-jihad
Al Shabab is working hard to rehabilitate its reputation with Muslims as part of its new tack. Over the last several years, the group has avoided civilian-focused attacks inside of Somalia in favor of government andmilitary targets. In Kenya, a frequent al Shabab target, the group has also taken a softer approach toward Muslim communities, making a show ofsparing Muslim lives during attacks as it tries to cast itself as a defense force against Christian aggression.
DOMESTIC
Wheaton Professor’s Suspension is about Anti-Muslim Bigotry, not Theology
by Miroslav Volf
Washington Post Acts of Faith commentary
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/17/wheaton-professors-suspension-is-abo...
There isn’t any theological justification for Hawkins’s forced administrative leave. Her suspension is not about theology and orthodoxy. It is about enmity toward Muslims. More precisely, her suspension reflects enmity toward Muslims, taking on a theological guise of concern for Christian orthodoxy.
related | Wheaton College Says View of Islam, not Hijab, got Christian Teacher Suspended
by Manya Brachear Pashman and Marwa Eltagouri
Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-wheaton-college-professor-larycia-hawkins-20151...
The Ugly Fight Over Arabic in Augusta County
by David Graham
Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/augusta-county-virginia-schools-arabic/421194/
If there was any doubt that Americans haven’t figured out a good way to grapple with Islam, look no further than Augusta County, Virginia. Schools there are closed today after an uproar over an assignment that including copying the Islamic profession of faith.
In America's Heartland, Building One Home For Three Faiths
by Frank Morris
NPR
http://www.npr.org/2015/12/17/460149212/in-americas-heartland-building-one-home-for-three-faiths
A mosque, a church and a synagogue go up on the site of an old Jewish country club ... It sounds like the setup to a joke — but it's not. It's actually happening in Omaha, Neb. The Tri-Faith Initiative may be the first place in history where these three monotheistic faiths have built together, on purpose, with the intention of working together.
Doing Just Fine
Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21684143-how-muslim-refugees-bosnia-transformed-corner-m...
Thanks to industrious Bosnian refugees, an entire neighbourhood in southern St Louis, Bevo Mill, was transformed from a crime-ridden area pockmarked by abandoned buildings into a decent quarter with small shops and restaurants with vowel-poor names: Stari Grad, Grbic. Today more than 50,000 Bosnian refugees and their children live in the St Louis area. They have built two mosques and set up a chamber of commerce. Their community has lower crime and unemployment rates than among the general population. And they are better off: Jack Strauss of St Louis University has found that immigrants in the area, many of them Bosnians, earn on average $83,000 a year, or 25% more than those who were born in America.
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