Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: Netanyahu's win in the Israeli election, stopping extremism, and Jeb Bush's Catholicism.
AROUND THE WORLD
An Uneasy Coalition for Israel
by Roger Cohen
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/opinion/roger-cohen-israels-vote-without-victory.html?_r=0
If the Israeli election was above all a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he prevailed. After accumulating nine years in office over three terms, that is a measure of his political guts, however limited his political achievements. But his victory revealed deep divisions within Israeli society, and a long season of Israeli uncertainty now looks inevitable, despite the cries of triumph from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party.
What Netanyahu’s Election Victory Means for the Palestinians
by Ishaan Tharoor
Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/18/what-netanyahus-election-victory-means-for-the-palestinians/
Israel's Palestinian citizens, who make up some 20 percent of the Israeli population, voted in larger numbers than in previous elections. The Joint List, a bloc of Israeli Arab parties, will command 14 seats in the Knesset -- a significant presence that offers a small glimmer of hope to their brethren in the Palestinian territories. But Netanyahu's victory -- and the racially-tinged rhetoric he used to secure it -- reinforces Palestinian convictions that there is no hope for the long-mooted two-state solution, the plan officially endorsed by the U.S., the U.N. and a succession of Israeli governments.
How to Stop Extremism Before It Starts
by Maria J. Stephan and Shaazka Beyerle
Foreign Policy
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/17/how-to-stop-extremism-before-it-starts/
In the global fight against violent extremism, a major element has been missing from the conversation that has focused on mostly top-down, official efforts: how ordinary citizens and communities are successfully challenging the acute corruption that drives young people and others into the folds of radicals.
Myanmar Sentences 3 to Prison for Depicting Buddha Wearing Headphones
by Wai Moe and Austin Ramzy
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/world/asia/myanmar-sentences-3-to-prison-for-defaming-buddhism.html?ref=todayspaper
A bar manager from New Zealand and two Burmese men were sentenced to two years in prison in Myanmar on Tuesday for posting an image online of the Buddha wearing headphones, an effort to promote an event. The court in Yangon said the image denigrated Buddhism and was a violation of Myanmar’s religion act, which prohibits insulting, damaging or destroying religion. “It is clear the act of the bar offended the majority religion in the country,” said the judge, U Ye Lwin.
Pope Francis: The Reformer
by Stan Chu Ilo
Huffington Post op-ed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stan-chu-ilo/pope-francis-the-reformer_b_6852634.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
What he has done is that he has introduced a paradigm shift in the Catholic Church. He has quietly changed the tone of the message and the style of leadership at the Vatican. While he has not substantially altered the content of that message which is often seen as conservative, Eurocentric, and resistant to the exigencies of history and social change, he is chipping away at its foundations through a new hermeneutic of multiplicity and inclusion.
DOMESTIC
Jeb Bush, 20 Years After Conversion, Is Guided by His Catholic Faith
by Michael Paulson
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/us/politics/jeb-bush-20-years-after-conversion-is-guided-by-his-catholic-faith.html
Twenty years after Mr. Bush converted to Catholicism, the religion of his wife, following a difficult and unsuccessful political campaign that had put a strain on his marriage, his faith has become a central element of the way he shapes his life and frames his views on public policy. And now, as he explores a bid for the presidency, his religion has become a focal point of early appeals to evangelical activists, who are particularly important in a Republican primary that is often dominated by religious voters.
Air Force Veteran Charged With Trying to Join the Islamic State
by David Francis
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/17/air-force-veteran-charged-with-trying-to-join-the-islamic-state/
A federal grand jury in New York has indicted US Air Force veteran Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh on charges that he conspired to join the Islamic State, the latest in a growing line of Americans being nabbed trying to fight alongside the extremist group. Pugh, a 47-year-old mechanic, appears to be the first American military veteran charged with supporting the Islamic State. His arrest is likely to heighten worries that a homegrown terrorist could mount an attack in the United States that is similar to the ones the Islamic State inspired in Canada, Denmark, France, and Australia.
Presbyterian Church (USA) Changes Its Constitution to Include Gay Marriage
by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/03/17/presbyterian-church-changes-constitution-to-include-gay-marriage/
The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest body of Presbyterians in the country, approved a change in the wording of its constitution to allow gay and lesbian weddings within the church, a move that threatens to continue to split the mainline Protestant denomination.
An Uneasy Coalition for Israel
by Roger Cohen
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/opinion/roger-cohen-israels-vote-without-victory.html?_r=0
If the Israeli election was above all a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he prevailed. After accumulating nine years in office over three terms, that is a measure of his political guts, however limited his political achievements. But his victory revealed deep divisions within Israeli society, and a long season of Israeli uncertainty now looks inevitable, despite the cries of triumph from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party.
What Netanyahu’s Election Victory Means for the Palestinians
by Ishaan Tharoor
Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/18/what-netanyahus-election-victory-means-for-the-palestinians/
Israel's Palestinian citizens, who make up some 20 percent of the Israeli population, voted in larger numbers than in previous elections. The Joint List, a bloc of Israeli Arab parties, will command 14 seats in the Knesset -- a significant presence that offers a small glimmer of hope to their brethren in the Palestinian territories. But Netanyahu's victory -- and the racially-tinged rhetoric he used to secure it -- reinforces Palestinian convictions that there is no hope for the long-mooted two-state solution, the plan officially endorsed by the U.S., the U.N. and a succession of Israeli governments.
How to Stop Extremism Before It Starts
by Maria J. Stephan and Shaazka Beyerle
Foreign Policy
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/17/how-to-stop-extremism-before-it-starts/
In the global fight against violent extremism, a major element has been missing from the conversation that has focused on mostly top-down, official efforts: how ordinary citizens and communities are successfully challenging the acute corruption that drives young people and others into the folds of radicals.
Myanmar Sentences 3 to Prison for Depicting Buddha Wearing Headphones
by Wai Moe and Austin Ramzy
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/world/asia/myanmar-sentences-3-to-prison-for-defaming-buddhism.html?ref=todayspaper
A bar manager from New Zealand and two Burmese men were sentenced to two years in prison in Myanmar on Tuesday for posting an image online of the Buddha wearing headphones, an effort to promote an event. The court in Yangon said the image denigrated Buddhism and was a violation of Myanmar’s religion act, which prohibits insulting, damaging or destroying religion. “It is clear the act of the bar offended the majority religion in the country,” said the judge, U Ye Lwin.
Pope Francis: The Reformer
by Stan Chu Ilo
Huffington Post op-ed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stan-chu-ilo/pope-francis-the-reformer_b_6852634.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
What he has done is that he has introduced a paradigm shift in the Catholic Church. He has quietly changed the tone of the message and the style of leadership at the Vatican. While he has not substantially altered the content of that message which is often seen as conservative, Eurocentric, and resistant to the exigencies of history and social change, he is chipping away at its foundations through a new hermeneutic of multiplicity and inclusion.
DOMESTIC
Jeb Bush, 20 Years After Conversion, Is Guided by His Catholic Faith
by Michael Paulson
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/us/politics/jeb-bush-20-years-after-conversion-is-guided-by-his-catholic-faith.html
Twenty years after Mr. Bush converted to Catholicism, the religion of his wife, following a difficult and unsuccessful political campaign that had put a strain on his marriage, his faith has become a central element of the way he shapes his life and frames his views on public policy. And now, as he explores a bid for the presidency, his religion has become a focal point of early appeals to evangelical activists, who are particularly important in a Republican primary that is often dominated by religious voters.
Air Force Veteran Charged With Trying to Join the Islamic State
by David Francis
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/17/air-force-veteran-charged-with-trying-to-join-the-islamic-state/
A federal grand jury in New York has indicted US Air Force veteran Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh on charges that he conspired to join the Islamic State, the latest in a growing line of Americans being nabbed trying to fight alongside the extremist group. Pugh, a 47-year-old mechanic, appears to be the first American military veteran charged with supporting the Islamic State. His arrest is likely to heighten worries that a homegrown terrorist could mount an attack in the United States that is similar to the ones the Islamic State inspired in Canada, Denmark, France, and Australia.
Presbyterian Church (USA) Changes Its Constitution to Include Gay Marriage
by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/03/17/presbyterian-church-changes-constitution-to-include-gay-marriage/
The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest body of Presbyterians in the country, approved a change in the wording of its constitution to allow gay and lesbian weddings within the church, a move that threatens to continue to split the mainline Protestant denomination.
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