Posts Tagged ‘ Christian ’

How can we remain silent while Christians are being persecuted?

December 24, 2011
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Fraser Nelson, Daily Telegraph, Dec.23, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/8973118/How-can-we-remain-silent-while-Christians-are-being-persecuted.html

Father Immanuel Dabaghian, one of Baghdad’s last surviving priests, is expecting a quiet Christmas. To join him in the Church of the Virgin Mary means two hours of security checks and a body search at the door, and even then there’s no guarantee of survival. Islamist gunmen massacred 58 people in a nearby church last year, and fresh graffiti warns remaining worshippers that they could be next.

The Americans have gone now, and Iraq’s Christian communities – some of the world’s oldest – are undergoing an exodus on a biblical scale. Of the country’s 1.4 million Christians, about two thirds have now fled.

The idea of Christianity as a kind of contagion that is foreign to the Arab world is bizarre: it is, of course, a Middle Eastern religion successfully exported to the pagan West. Those feet, in ancient times, came nowhere near England’s mountains green. The Nativity is a Middle Eastern story about a child born to a Jewish mother, whose first visitors were three wise Iranians and who was then swept off to Egypt to escape Roman persecution.

Read the complete article here.

Haifa’s Holiday of Holidays festival embraces differences

December 24, 2011
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Judith Sudilovsky, ENInews, Dec.22. www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5370

Both Christmas lights and Hanukkah dreidels (spinning tops) are appearing as decorations as the northern Israeli port city of Haifa throws a multi-faith party on December weekends.

Now in its 18th year, the Holiday of Holidays — which also includes the recently-celebrated Muslim Eid al-Adha — is meant “to share the differences and honor them,” said Assaf Ron, director of the Beit Hageffen Jewish-Arab Center which organizes the festival along with the Haifa municipality.

This year, Israeli-Arab singer Mira Awad will share a music stage with Israeli-Jewish singer Rami Fortis as well as with other Arab and Jewish bands. “There will be a real European holiday feel to it with lights and Santa Claus and spinning tops. That is the spirit of Haifa,” said Ron in a telephone interview. Police estimated some 60,000 people attended the festival over the 17-18 December weekend.

“We want to show Jews, Christians, and Muslims that we can celebrate our holidays together, we can be together in a big open venue, mix together, and not feel strange or fearful,” Ron said.

Read the complete article here.

Egypt’s Christians wary of too much foreign support

December 24, 2011
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Tom Heneghan, Reuters, Dec.21, af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL6E7NK3KL20111221?sp=true

The Arab Spring has increased pressure on Egypt’s Coptic Christians, with attacks on churches and bloody clashes with Muslims and the military. Many foreign Christians feel driven to help.

Pope Benedict, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams and other church leaders have spoken out in defence of the Copts, indigenous Christians who make up 10 percent of Egypt’s mostly Muslim population of 80 million.

In Europe and North America, governments have denounced the violence and called on Egypt’s armed forces to guarantee equal rights for all citizens, especially religious minorities. Church groups have collected funds to send to Egyptian parishes.

Worried Christians in Egypt say attacks on them have multiplied in recent years, starting even before former President Hosni Mubarak – seen as a defender of their rights – was swept from power in February by the Tahrir Square protests.

But they are wary about getting too much support from abroad, fearing a backlash from Muslims who could resent special attention to a minority at a time when all Egyptians are suffering economic hardship and political uncertainty.

“We’re not afraid of anybody. We don’t want help from anyone,” Rev. Antonius Michael declared as he handed out blessed bread after Mass in a Coptic Orthodox church in Old Cairo.

“It’s not to our benefit to have loud voices overseas talking about Christians,” said Ramez Atallah, general secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt.  “It’s a great benefit to us to have loud voices abroad talking about a more universal bill of rights for all Egyptians.”

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8 Reasons My Interfaith Family Celebrates Hanukkah and Christmas

December 24, 2011
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Susan Katz Miller, Huffington Post, Dec.13, www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-katz-miller/interfaith-family-christmas-and-hanukkah_b_1133561.html

At this time of year, a blizzard of articles about the so-called December Dilemma swirls up like snowflakes rising from the floor of a snowglobe. Every year, I take calls from journalists looking to, perhaps, shake things up: to dramatize what they are sure must be a conflict between Christmas and Hanukkah, and between interfaith parents. And yet, having chosen to fully educate our children about both family religions, the dilemma essentially disappears and December becomes primarily a delight. We celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas, with all of the trimmings, and seek to help our children to understand the religious meanings of both holidays.

Our pathway is controversial: not every interfaith couple can or should choose both religions for their children. For many families, choosing one religion makes sense, and there is a vast literature out there to help these families negotiate the holiday season. But in our local community of more than 100 interfaith families, we believe that both Christian and Jewish stories and rituals can be inspirational, are essential to literacy in Western culture, and are part of the heritage of our children.

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Reflections on an interfaith service in Zuccotti Park

November 20, 2011
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Katherine Clark, Reuters, Nov.16, blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2011/11/16/occupy-sacred-space-reflections-on-an-interfaith-service-in-zuccotti-park/

A small group of diverse religious and community leaders gathered in Zuccotti Park this past Sunday to lead an interfaith service at Occupy Wall Street. Organized by staff at the Interfaith Center of New York, we had asked the participants – representing Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh traditions — to meet on Zuccotti’s northeastern steps for the afternoon service. These services have been taking place at the park in Lower Manhattan every Sunday for the past few weeks, so we thought we could easily meet up by the Interfaith Center sign there.

It was not so easy after all. Upon arriving, we saw tha t claiming a spot amidst the abundance of tents and other Occupy activities would require a tremendous amount of patience and creativity. Our sign was lost amidst notices for the community library, the “basics of anarchy” pamphlet table, a laughter yoga session and a gentleman sporting a multi-colored outfit and sign proclaiming, “Outer Space or Bust; Goodbye Earth People.” Eventually, however, we found one another. Within a few minutes, an interested crowd gathered on the steps. Our makeshift sacred space began to take shape.

Hindu monk Rasanath Das opened the service with a standing meditation, providing a rare moment of peace amid the clamor of surrounding mic checks, drums, chants and street noise. The meditation set the tone for an inspiring service that featured leaders from a variety of faith traditions – Rev. Dr. Traci West (United Methodist), Dr. Tejal Kaur (Sikh), Rev. Earl Kooperkamp (Episcopalian), and Annie Rawlings (Presbyterian) — each of their messages being amplified through the “human microphone.” Since real amplifiers aren’t permitted in Zuccotti Park, speakers at Occupy Wall Street to deliver their message in succinct sentences that the surrounding crowd repeats, allowing a wider audience to hear.

Some 36 hours after our interfaith service had concluded, the New York Police Department (NYPD) evicted everyone from Zuccotti Park. The space was vacant for the first time in two months. There are those who hope that this movement is based solely on geographical location and that dispersing protesters and dismantling their tents will have the same effect on their ideals.  This is not the case for the Occupy movement, or for the multi-faith leaders who stand in solidarity with it. To quote countless Twitter feeds since Tuesday morning, “you cannot evict an idea whose time has come.”

Read the complete article here.

The Big Interfaith Tent at Occupy Oakland: Faithfully Engaging the 99%

November 20, 2011
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Laura Rose, Huffington Post, Nov.18, www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-laura-rose/interfaith-occupy-oakland_b_1101997.html?ref=religion

Fourteen members of the Interfaith Tent at Occupy Oakland locked arms in front of the tent and were arrested early Monday morning as the police raided the encampment. It is not surprising that our words and actions have been reduced to a few sound bites and fleeting images by the mainstream media, but there is a deeper, better story to be told.

Our Interfaith Tent is Big — spatially and spiritually. The tent has been a sacred space of solace at the encampment, but it has also provided a spiritual canopy for an interfaith coalition of Indigenous Elders, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Jews in solidarity with the Occupy Movement, locally and globally.

One sure sign that people of faith are called to create a sacred space is that after the police raid on the Oakland encampment, the only tent standing was the Interfaith Tent. It stayed until noon, the hardest to tear down.

Read the complete article here.

Pakistani parliament criticizes murders of Hindus

November 20, 2011
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Anto Akkara, ENInews, Nov.16, www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5286

Pakistan’s parliament on 15 November condemned the killing of three Hindu brothers at a medical clinic in what observers said was an unusual show of support for religious minorities.

The National Assembly observed a minute’s silence in solidarity with the families of Ajeet Kumar, Naresh Kumar and Ashok Kumar, who were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on motorbikes in Shikarpur in Sindh province on 8 November.

“It is a positive development that all the political parties have condemned this shocking killing in one voice,” Michelle Chaudhry of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), told ENInews on 16 November. “The demand for a parliamentary inquiry into this massacre shows that atrocities on minorities have reached alarming levels,” said Chaudhry, spokesperson for the organization founded by Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for religious minorities who was assassinated last March.

“Non-Muslims are citizens of Pakistan and any form of violence against them is absolutely not acceptable … We are Pakistanis; our religion is a personal matter,” said the APMA. Nearly 95 percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people are Muslims while Christians, Hindus and other minorities account for five percent.

Read the complete article here.

Why the world needs faiths

November 20, 2011
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Tony Blair, Washington Post, Nov.17, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/why-the-world-needs-faith/2011/11/17/gIQAf0d5UN_blog.html

There will be no peace in our world without an understanding of the place of religion within it. The past decade has seen many convenient myths which disguised the importance of religion, stripped away. Many thought: as society progressed, religion would decline. It hasn’t happened.

Then there are those that insisted that as the Arab Revolution knocked over long established regimes and created movements for democracy, so those societies’ religiosity would take second place to the new politics. It hasn’t happened. Religion is fundamental to those societies and if anything, in the foreseeable future, will become more so. And do we seriously think the issue of Jerusalem can be resolved without at least some discussion of its religious significance to all three Abrahamic faiths?

The virus of terror based on a perversion of the proper faith of Islam, shows no signs of abating. But it is not only the acts of terror that should alarm us. It is the extremism that promotes persecution of religious minorities too. The challenge is that much greater where human dignity is not respected and freedom of religion denied. This results in a general oppression of people of faith. It means we must support Muslims in Gujarat, India; non-Orthodox Christians in Moldova; Bahai’s in Iran; Ahmadis in Pakistan; all Christians in North Africa; Hindus in Sri Lanka; Shi’a in several Sunni majority countries, and other places.

The basic point is this: On every side, in every quarter, wherever we look and analyze, religion is a powerful, motivating, determining force shaping the world around us.

Read the complete article here.

Speed-faithing: speed-dating from a religious point of view

November 1, 2011
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Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune, Nov.1, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-talk-speed-faithing-20111101,0,5799441.story

For those who want to hook up with a Hindu, there is speed-dating at an Old Town neighborhood lounge on Wednesday.

But for those who want to meet a Muslim, Buddhist, Christian or Hindu and get to know a little about their faith, there will be a speed-faithing event Tuesday at Dominican University in River Forest.

Designed by students, the event which follows a public lecture by Interfaith Youth Core founder Eboo Patel, will rotate participants through five-minute conversations about their beliefs. Long enough to establish common ground, short enough to avoid offense, said Cassie Meyer, director of content for the Interfaith Youth Core who co-teaches a course on interfaith literacy with Patel.

“You’re not trying to say everything about your religion before you switch,” she said.

Nor should you, she said. Just like speed-dating, talking about religion can be scary.

“The stereotype of speed-dating is you have two minutes to judge someone,” she said. “There’s something to be said for speaking really quickly off the cuff about something. You’ll have a chance to be thoughtful, but you don’t have a chance to obsess about it.”

Instead of seeking particulars, participants will be urged to ask more general questions: Do you think interfaith cooperation is important? What compels you to serve others? How and when do you pray, reflect or meditate?

Read the complete article here.

Christian self-understanding in context of Hindu religion

October 23, 2011
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WCC News, Oct.18, www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/wcc-explores-christian-se.html

With the rise of religious fundamentalism and religious extremism in the world, as well as recently emerging tensions in India over the issues of conversions, a genuine need exists to review Christian-Hindu relationships afresh, according to the participants of a consultation organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Christian self-understanding in the context of Hindu religion.

The consultation took place at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland from 12 to 15 October, with thirty participants of diverse Christian backgrounds from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia, where Christians live with Hindus in close proximity.

The discussions focused on “Christian self-understanding in relation to Hindu religion” emphasizing dialogue of life and action. Mapping these changes, as well as exploring historical contexts was a focus of the consultation.

Read the complete article here.