By Martin Surridge – Like many of the other countries profiled in this blog, Germany has had a problematic, yet fundamentally important religious history. Home to both the Holocaust and the Protestant Reformation, Germany provided Europe with the impetus to take giant strides forward in the name of religious freedom, but also inflicted terrible losses…
Category: Religion
Rick Perry and the perils of sectarian religion in 2012 – Figuring Faith – The Washington Post
EXCERPT: [T]his year the GOP presidential primary has also been infused, most prominently by Texas Governor Rick Perry, with examples of sectarian religiosity that trades in the more provincial coin of white evangelical Christianity. While the advantages of speaking in such specific language in some settings are clear, overplaying a sectarian hand now may hurt…
OC Couple Threatened With $500-Per-Meeting Fines For Home Bible Study « CBS Los Angeles
EXCERPT: An Orange County couple has been ordered to stop holding a Bible study in their home on the grounds that the meeting violates a city ordinance as a “church” and not as a private gathering. Homeowners Chuck and Stephanie Fromm, of San Juan Capistrano, were fined $300 earlier this month for holding what city…
Two-story Cross has Neighbors Fuming (LA Daily News)
EXCERPT: “It was her faith that led the petite 72-year-old to erect a 24-foot cross on the front lawn of her West Hills home. But the monument has infuriated some of the neighbors, who complain the symbol is an eyesore that is attracting lookie-loos to their quiet cul-de-sac and hurting their property values. “While residents…
Apple Bids Adieu to ‘Jew or not Jew?’ iPhone App in France (CNN)
EXCERPT: “Jew or not Jew?”: That is just part of the question. An iPhone app bearing this name has been yanked from Apple’s App Store in France amid threats of a lawsuit and demands for its removal. The app, still available elsewhere, pulls together a database of thousands of famous Jews – including movie stars,…
Article18: Poland — Citizens March in Bialystok to Protest Antisemitism; Death Metal Singer Not-Guilty After Trashing Bible on Stage
By Martin Surridge – For much of the twentieth century, Poland served as a sort of punching bag for many of Europe’s strongest armies. Half a million Polish soldiers died in the First World War, the country was brutalized by the Nazis in the Second World War, and for the last half of the century, Poland was repressed by Soviet-inspired…
Is Christian “Just War” Just Like Jihad? (Patheos)
EXCERPT: Christian and Islamic views of warfare are closer than we have been led to believe. When it comes to questions of war and peace, is American Christianity more like Muhammad or Jesus? Since 9/11, such a question has seemed outrageous to many Americans. But perhaps the offense is grounded in some unhelpful assumptions. Here…
Theology a Hot Issue in 2012 GOP Campaign (AP)
EXCERPT: The Texas governor, now a Republican presidential candidate, held a prayer rally for tens of thousands, read from the Bible, invoked Christ and broadcast the whole event on the Web. There was no symbolic nod to other American faiths. No rabbi or Roman Catholic priest was among the evangelical speakers. It was a rare,…
Fear, Incorporated: Who’s Paying for all that Islamophobic Paranoia (FP)
EXCERPT: One of the distinctive features of American democracy is the permeability of our political institutions. It’s an incredibly wide-open system, given First Amendment freedoms, the flood of money that corrupts the electoral process, and a wide array of media organizations and political journals that can be used to disseminate and amplify various views, even…
Karel Nowak: A Legacy of Religious Liberty (Spectrum Magazine)
Shortly before I left the work at the GC office I had an opportunity to sit down with Karel and ask him what he would say to the person who would replace him.