Today's religion and world affairs news from the United
States and around the globe: Russia vetoes a proposal to commemorate the Srebrenica massacre as a genocide, Pope Francis meets with the poor in Bolivia, and Adventists vote to deny women's ordination.
AROUND THE WORLD
Russia Vetoes U.N. Proposal To Call Srebrenica 'Genocide'
by Michele Keleman
NPR
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/08/421224999/russia-vetoes-u-n-proposal-to-call-srebrenica-genocide
A grim anniversary this week--20 years ago, the international community failed to prevent the massacre of Bosnian Muslims who were taking refuge in a U.N. safe zone at Srebrenica. Now U.S. officials say the U.N. has failed again, and that's after Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution today to commemorate the massacre and call it a genocide.
related | Srebrenica Massacre, After 20 Years, Still Casts a Long Shadow in Bosnia
by Dan Bilefsky and Somini Sengupta
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/world/europe/srebrenica-genocide-massacre.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=...
Pope to Meet Representatives for Workers, Poor in Bolivia
by Nicole Winfield
Washington Post/AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/pope-insists-on-church-role-in-bolivia-after-limit...
When Francis headlined the first such summit at the Vatican last October, he issued a remarkable, off-the-cuff monologue on the injustice of unemployment, the scandal of poverty, and the obligation to care for the Earth. (…) “When I talk about this, some people think the pope is a communist,” he told the gathering. “They don’t realize that love for the poor is at the center of the Gospel.”
Ramadan in Syria
by Vera Mironova, Karam Alhamad, and Sam Whitt
Foreign Affairs
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2015-07-08/ramadan-syria
Five years into the civil war, even groups that claim to fight on behalf of Islam do not appear follow this basic tenet. Even worse, some have radically reinterpreted the meaning of Ramadan to suit their own purposes. Thus, among Syria’s warring groups, there is a wide spectrum of meaning attached to the holy month.
‘The Holy Father Has Asked to Chew Coca’
by Benjamin Soloway
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/08/the-holy-father-has-asked-to-chew-coca/
The 1961 U.N. convention on narcotic drugs declared the plant illegal. But Bolivian President Evo Morales, himself a former coca grower, held up a fistful of coca leaves during a U.N. meeting on narcotics and oversaw changes to the Bolivian constitution enshrining coca as “cultural patrimony,” a “renewable natural resource,” and “not a narcotic.”
The Moral Theology of the Greek Crisis
by Mark Silk
Religion News Service op-ed
http://marksilk.religionnews.com/2015/07/09/the-moral-theology-of-the-greek-crisis/
At its heart, the Greek crisis is about the moral economy, not the financial one. The Eurocrats want the Greeks to admit they are wastrels who deserve to suffer. The Greeks want the Eurocrats to admit they are Scrooges who like making them suffer. They may both be right, but behind the moral standoff is a difference in approaches to human error that has divided Eastern and Western Christianity for centuries.
Firm Faith: The Company Bosses Who Pray
by Katie Hope
BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33405579
While organizations themselves must make allowances for their staff to be able to practice their religious faith, providing prayer rooms for example, those at the top normally keep their beliefs private. Typically they're wary of being seen as promoting their own faith to those below them.
DOMESTIC
Pope Francis' Deep Ties to Evangelicals
by Jamie Manson
National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/pope-francis-deep-ties-evangelicals
When the World Meeting of Families announced its roster of speakers for its September meeting in Philadelphia, some were surprised to see Rick Warren's name among the invitees. Warren is one of the leading Christian evangelical voices in the United States, and the World Meeting of Families, which is sponsored by the Holy See's Pontifical Council for the Family, is the world's largest Catholic gathering of families.
Debate In Oklahoma Widens Over 10 Commandments Monument
by Rachel Hubbard
NPR
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/09/421359481/debate-in-oklahoma-widens-over-10-commandments-monument
The state's high court has ruled the monument must be removed from the Capitol. The governor said the monument will stay. Lawmakers are threatening to impeach the state's Supreme Court justices.
Adventists Stay the Course, Vote to Deny Women’s Ordination
by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/07/08/adventists-stay-course-vote-deny-womens-ordination/
While many mainline denominations have ordained women for more than 50 years, the Seventh-day Adventists form part of a block of Christian groups that do not. (…) But despite the ban, several U.S. conferences of Seventh-day Adventists have ordained women in recent years, with at least 19 in the mid-Atlantic region and more than 25 in the Pacific Union Conference by the end of 2013.
Russia Vetoes U.N. Proposal To Call Srebrenica 'Genocide'
by Michele Keleman
NPR
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/08/421224999/russia-vetoes-u-n-proposal-to-call-srebrenica-genocide
A grim anniversary this week--20 years ago, the international community failed to prevent the massacre of Bosnian Muslims who were taking refuge in a U.N. safe zone at Srebrenica. Now U.S. officials say the U.N. has failed again, and that's after Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution today to commemorate the massacre and call it a genocide.
related | Srebrenica Massacre, After 20 Years, Still Casts a Long Shadow in Bosnia
by Dan Bilefsky and Somini Sengupta
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/world/europe/srebrenica-genocide-massacre.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=...
Pope to Meet Representatives for Workers, Poor in Bolivia
by Nicole Winfield
Washington Post/AP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/pope-insists-on-church-role-in-bolivia-after-limit...
When Francis headlined the first such summit at the Vatican last October, he issued a remarkable, off-the-cuff monologue on the injustice of unemployment, the scandal of poverty, and the obligation to care for the Earth. (…) “When I talk about this, some people think the pope is a communist,” he told the gathering. “They don’t realize that love for the poor is at the center of the Gospel.”
Ramadan in Syria
by Vera Mironova, Karam Alhamad, and Sam Whitt
Foreign Affairs
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2015-07-08/ramadan-syria
Five years into the civil war, even groups that claim to fight on behalf of Islam do not appear follow this basic tenet. Even worse, some have radically reinterpreted the meaning of Ramadan to suit their own purposes. Thus, among Syria’s warring groups, there is a wide spectrum of meaning attached to the holy month.
‘The Holy Father Has Asked to Chew Coca’
by Benjamin Soloway
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/08/the-holy-father-has-asked-to-chew-coca/
The 1961 U.N. convention on narcotic drugs declared the plant illegal. But Bolivian President Evo Morales, himself a former coca grower, held up a fistful of coca leaves during a U.N. meeting on narcotics and oversaw changes to the Bolivian constitution enshrining coca as “cultural patrimony,” a “renewable natural resource,” and “not a narcotic.”
The Moral Theology of the Greek Crisis
by Mark Silk
Religion News Service op-ed
http://marksilk.religionnews.com/2015/07/09/the-moral-theology-of-the-greek-crisis/
At its heart, the Greek crisis is about the moral economy, not the financial one. The Eurocrats want the Greeks to admit they are wastrels who deserve to suffer. The Greeks want the Eurocrats to admit they are Scrooges who like making them suffer. They may both be right, but behind the moral standoff is a difference in approaches to human error that has divided Eastern and Western Christianity for centuries.
Firm Faith: The Company Bosses Who Pray
by Katie Hope
BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33405579
While organizations themselves must make allowances for their staff to be able to practice their religious faith, providing prayer rooms for example, those at the top normally keep their beliefs private. Typically they're wary of being seen as promoting their own faith to those below them.
DOMESTIC
Pope Francis' Deep Ties to Evangelicals
by Jamie Manson
National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/pope-francis-deep-ties-evangelicals
When the World Meeting of Families announced its roster of speakers for its September meeting in Philadelphia, some were surprised to see Rick Warren's name among the invitees. Warren is one of the leading Christian evangelical voices in the United States, and the World Meeting of Families, which is sponsored by the Holy See's Pontifical Council for the Family, is the world's largest Catholic gathering of families.
Debate In Oklahoma Widens Over 10 Commandments Monument
by Rachel Hubbard
NPR
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/09/421359481/debate-in-oklahoma-widens-over-10-commandments-monument
The state's high court has ruled the monument must be removed from the Capitol. The governor said the monument will stay. Lawmakers are threatening to impeach the state's Supreme Court justices.
Adventists Stay the Course, Vote to Deny Women’s Ordination
by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/07/08/adventists-stay-course-vote-deny-womens-ordination/
While many mainline denominations have ordained women for more than 50 years, the Seventh-day Adventists form part of a block of Christian groups that do not. (…) But despite the ban, several U.S. conferences of Seventh-day Adventists have ordained women in recent years, with at least 19 in the mid-Atlantic region and more than 25 in the Pacific Union Conference by the end of 2013.
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