Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and
around the globe: Pope Francis tries at Vatican reforms, Russian filmmakers call attention to the Orthodox Church, and Americans consider religious overreach from several different angles.
AROUND THE WORLD
Iraq’s Christians ‘Do Not Have Much Time Left’ Says Leading Cleric
by Ishaan Tharoor
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/10/iraqs-christians-do-not-have-much-time-left-says-leading-cleric/
The Archbishop of Irbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, delivered an impassioned plea to British lawmakers and clergy in London on Tuesday, urging "military action" to save Iraq's endangered religious minorities. Archbishop Bashar Warda, of the ancient Catholic Chaldaean Church, said the upheavals caused by the rise of the Islamic State, which has overrun vast tracts of territory in Iraq and Syria, imperiled the very existence of Christians in the Middle East.
Pope Francis Wants ‘Absolute Transparency ‘ as He Pushes Vatican Reform
by David Gibson
Religion News Service
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/02/12/pope-francis-calls-absolute-transparency-pushes-vatican-overhaul/
One of the cardinals charged by the pope with reforming the Vatican’s economic system said this week he and the financial experts working with the cardinals are meeting some resistance from curial offices as they try to install basic methods of oversight and accountability.
Why Russian Film Nominated for an Oscar is Stirring Angst at Home
by Karoun Demirjian
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/11/why-a-russian-film-nominated-for-an-oscar-is-stirring-angst-at-home/
If the accolades it has already racked up are any indicator, then "Leviathan"—a movie about official corruption, the Orthodox Church and the powerlessness of ordinary people against them—is Russia’s best chance for nabbing an Oscar since the film "Burnt by the Sun" won in 1994.
Christian Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Modern State
by Donald Devine
Library of Law and Liberty
http://www.libertylawsite.org/2015/02/10/christian-anti-semitism-and-the-rise-of-modern-state/
As much as secular “enlightenment” has tried to characterize the preceding history as “dark,” cool modern empirical analysis finds that coercive European anti-Semitism primarily was a product not of religion but of late medieval state centralization and secularization—first by the Divine Right monarchies, and later expanded dramatically by the aggressive secularisms of the French, German, and Russian revolutions, the real foundations of the Nazi Holocaust.
DOMESTIC
Muslims, Marriage and Bigotry
by Nicholas Kristof
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/opinion/nicholas-kristof-muslims-marriage-and-bigotry.html
There has been a pugnacious defensiveness among conservative Christians to any parallels between Christian overreach and Islamic overreach, as seen in the outraged reaction to President Obama’s acknowledgment at the National Prayer Breakfast this month that the West has plenty to regret as well. But Obama was exactly right: How can we ask Islamic leaders to confront extremism in their faith if we don’t acknowledge Christian extremism, from the Crusades to Srebrenica?
One in Four Americans Say Islamic State Represents True Islam
by Aamer Madhani
USA Today
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/02/12/poll-1-4-americans-say-islamic-state-represents-true-islam/
More than a quarter of Americans and nearly half of senior Protestant pastors say the Islamic State terrorist group offers a true representation of Islamic society, according to a pair of new surveys by LifeWay Research. Meanwhile, police in North Carolina tried to determine whether the shooting deaths of three Muslim students were hate-motivated.
In Chapel Hill and Across the Country, Thousands Honor Slain Muslim Students
by Kate Bellware
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/12/chapel-hill-vigils_n_6668180.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
Thousands of people gathered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Wednesday to pay tribute to the three young Muslims who were killed by a neighbor a day earlier. While police said on Wednesday that Hicks' motive stemmed from an ongoing dispute over parking, the father of the female victims told a local newspaper that the killing was a hate crime. Elsewhere around the country, hundreds of others gathered on Wednesday to pay homage to the victims.
Iraq’s Christians ‘Do Not Have Much Time Left’ Says Leading Cleric
by Ishaan Tharoor
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/10/iraqs-christians-do-not-have-much-time-left-says-leading-cleric/
The Archbishop of Irbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, delivered an impassioned plea to British lawmakers and clergy in London on Tuesday, urging "military action" to save Iraq's endangered religious minorities. Archbishop Bashar Warda, of the ancient Catholic Chaldaean Church, said the upheavals caused by the rise of the Islamic State, which has overrun vast tracts of territory in Iraq and Syria, imperiled the very existence of Christians in the Middle East.
Pope Francis Wants ‘Absolute Transparency ‘ as He Pushes Vatican Reform
by David Gibson
Religion News Service
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/02/12/pope-francis-calls-absolute-transparency-pushes-vatican-overhaul/
One of the cardinals charged by the pope with reforming the Vatican’s economic system said this week he and the financial experts working with the cardinals are meeting some resistance from curial offices as they try to install basic methods of oversight and accountability.
Why Russian Film Nominated for an Oscar is Stirring Angst at Home
by Karoun Demirjian
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/11/why-a-russian-film-nominated-for-an-oscar-is-stirring-angst-at-home/
If the accolades it has already racked up are any indicator, then "Leviathan"—a movie about official corruption, the Orthodox Church and the powerlessness of ordinary people against them—is Russia’s best chance for nabbing an Oscar since the film "Burnt by the Sun" won in 1994.
Christian Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Modern State
by Donald Devine
Library of Law and Liberty
http://www.libertylawsite.org/2015/02/10/christian-anti-semitism-and-the-rise-of-modern-state/
As much as secular “enlightenment” has tried to characterize the preceding history as “dark,” cool modern empirical analysis finds that coercive European anti-Semitism primarily was a product not of religion but of late medieval state centralization and secularization—first by the Divine Right monarchies, and later expanded dramatically by the aggressive secularisms of the French, German, and Russian revolutions, the real foundations of the Nazi Holocaust.
DOMESTIC
Muslims, Marriage and Bigotry
by Nicholas Kristof
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/opinion/nicholas-kristof-muslims-marriage-and-bigotry.html
There has been a pugnacious defensiveness among conservative Christians to any parallels between Christian overreach and Islamic overreach, as seen in the outraged reaction to President Obama’s acknowledgment at the National Prayer Breakfast this month that the West has plenty to regret as well. But Obama was exactly right: How can we ask Islamic leaders to confront extremism in their faith if we don’t acknowledge Christian extremism, from the Crusades to Srebrenica?
One in Four Americans Say Islamic State Represents True Islam
by Aamer Madhani
USA Today
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/02/12/poll-1-4-americans-say-islamic-state-represents-true-islam/
More than a quarter of Americans and nearly half of senior Protestant pastors say the Islamic State terrorist group offers a true representation of Islamic society, according to a pair of new surveys by LifeWay Research. Meanwhile, police in North Carolina tried to determine whether the shooting deaths of three Muslim students were hate-motivated.
In Chapel Hill and Across the Country, Thousands Honor Slain Muslim Students
by Kate Bellware
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/12/chapel-hill-vigils_n_6668180.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
Thousands of people gathered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Wednesday to pay tribute to the three young Muslims who were killed by a neighbor a day earlier. While police said on Wednesday that Hicks' motive stemmed from an ongoing dispute over parking, the father of the female victims told a local newspaper that the killing was a hate crime. Elsewhere around the country, hundreds of others gathered on Wednesday to pay homage to the victims.
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