by UrbanFaith Staff | Feb 5, 2015 | Headline News |
c. 2015 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama on Thursday (Feb. 5) called for an emphasis on what is just about the world’s religions as a way to counter the ways faith has been distorted across the globe.
“We see faith driving us to do right,” he said to more than 3,500 people attending the annual National Prayer Breakfast. “But we also see faith being twisted and distorted, used as a wedge — or worse, sometimes used as a weapon.”
He urged believers of all faiths to practice humility, support church-state separation and adhere to the golden rule as ways to keep religion in its proper context.
“As people of faith, we are summoned to push back against those who try to distort our religion — any religion — for their own nihilistic ends,” Obama said. “Here at home and around the world we will constantly reaffirm that fundamental freedom: freedom of religion, the right to practice our faith how we choose, to change our faith if we choose, to practice no faith at all if we choose, and to do so free of persecution and fear and discrimination.”
Obama denounced the so-called Islamic State that is waging a bloody war across Syria and Iraq against fellow Muslims and religious minorities, labeling the group “a brutal, vicious death cult.”
The breakfast has often turned controversial, and this year was no exception with the inclusion of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who attended but did not speak and was not seated on the dais with other speakers.
Under pressure from China not to recognize the Nobel laureate, Obama nonetheless opened his remarks by welcoming the Dalai Lama, calling him “a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion” and someone who “inspires us to speak up for the freedom and dignity of all human beings.”
Chinese officials had criticized the Dalai Lama’s plans to appear at the event.
“We are against any country’s interference in China’s domestic affairs under the pretext of Tibet-related issues, and are opposed to any foreign leader’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in any form,” said Hong Lei, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before the breakfast.
Obama and the Dalai Lama have met several times at the White House, but the White House usually keeps the meetings private and low-key so as not to anger China.
NASCAR commentator Darrell Waltrip, the keynoter of the breakfast, joked about his being invited two years after conservative neurosurgeon Ben Carson raised eyebrows by directly confronting the president about Obama’s signature health care reform.
“I’m not a brain surgeon and I’m not running for office so I’m the perfect guy to be here this morning,” he said.
From a distance, Pope Francis joined Obama in calling for greater religious freedom.
“I ask you to pray for me and to join me in praying for our brothers and sisters throughout the world who experience persecution and death for their faith,” the pontiff wrote in a letter to attendees that was read in part by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who co-chaired the breakfast with Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
Following the recent deadly attacks on a French weekly that had published satirical cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, Obama also spoke of the need to support both freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
“If, in fact, we defend the legal right of a person to insult another’s religion, we’re equally obligated to use our free speech to condemn such insults,” he said, drawing applause, “and stand shoulder to shoulder with religious communities, particularly religious minorities, who are the targets of such attacks.”
Obama expressed thanks for the safe return of Christian missionary Kenneth Bae, who was held in North Korea for more than a year, and recounted his recent meeting in Boise, Idaho, with the family of U.S. pastor Saeed Abedini, who remains imprisoned in Iran and has become a cause celebre for many evangelicals.
“We’re going to keep up this work for Pastor Abedini and all those around the world who are unjustly held or persecuted because of their faith,” the president said, noting that Rabbi David Saperstein, the new U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, would be heading soon to Iraq to work with religious leaders there.
The breakfast, in its 63rd year, is chaired each year by members of Congress who meet weekly for prayer when Congress is in session. It draws politicians, diplomats and prominent evangelical Christian leaders but often includes an interfaith roster of speakers.
Rabbi Greg Marx of Maple Glen, Pa., gave the invocation and former Ambassador Andrew Young, once an aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a president of the National Council of Churches, gave the benediction.
Wicker read from the Gospel of Luke in place of the scheduled speaker, King Abdullah II of Jordan, reciting the story of the good Samaritan. Abdullah had to return home after a hostage crisis involving the Islamic State turned deadly.
“We all know the heartbreaking circumstances his country is experiencing at this point,” Wicker said. “Our prayers are with the people of Jordan during this troubling time of crisis.”
Copyright 2015 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Feb 5, 2015 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2015 Religion News Service
(RNS) As world attention shifts to the growing influence of Muslim militant groups on the African continent, few have paid any attention to the ongoing bloody conflict in South Sudan.
An estimated 50,000 people have died and 2 million have been displaced in the latest phase of fighting in this nation, according to the International Crisis Group, a think tank that aims to prevent and resolve such conflicts. That’s about five times more than in northern Nigeria, where the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has killed more than 5,000 people in six years.
“South Sudan’s conflict is not getting much attention due to shifting interests towards Islamic extremism,” said the Rev. Fred Nyabera of Kenya, a social scientist who is director of the Interfaith Initiative to End Child Poverty at the global faith-based organization Arigatou International. “This has become a global issue because of the immediate threats it poses to nations.
“But leaving South Sudan alone at this time when the people are trying to define their identity and country, under very fragile circumstances, is to postpone a big problem,” Nyabera added.
On Monday (Feb. 2), South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his former deputy — now rebel — Riek Machar signed a peace agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that proposes a coalition government. A power struggle between the two sparked the fighting in December 2013.
Within months, the violence took on an ethnic dimension, with government troops largely from Kiir’s Dinka tribe and the rebels from Machar’s Nuer tribe engaging in deadly clashes.
“Like many of the conflicts in Africa, the South Sudan conflict is a politically motivated tribal war,” said Sheikh Abdallah Kheir, a religious scholar at Kenyatta University in Nairobi.
Since then, the parties have signed and broken six peace agreements.
But the peace negotiations leading to the pacts have concentrated on Kiir and Machar, leaving out key stakeholders such as religious groups, nongovernmental aid organizations and community leaders.
“As long as the prospects of peace are seen as preserve of the two, then the prospects of peace will remain bleak,” said Nyabera.
Sixty percent of South Sudan residents are Christian, 33 percent follow traditional African religions and 6 percent are Muslims, according to the Pew Research Center.
South Sudan became an independent state in July 2011 after voting to secede from Sudan in a referendum. But independence has not brought stability to the region, ICG said in its Jan. 29 report.
According to the South Sudan Catholic bishops, the war is about power, not about the people.
“The aspirations of individuals and factions have led to a cycle of revenge killing,” said Roman Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro of Juba said in a statement on Jan. 30.
“We say to all who are involved in any way: if you continue fighting you will finish yourselves and you will finish the nation. The nation needs to be salvaged from this sin.”
Copyright 2015 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Feb 4, 2015 | Headline News |
I’ll admit it. There are people in my life who I just want to shake some sense into because they are so heavenly minded that they serve no earthly good.
You know them.
You: Hey, how are you doing?
Them: I’m blessed and highly favored of the Lord, waiting on King Jesus to crack the sky and living in the presence of the Almighty.
You: (Dramatic pause) Well alrighty then.
Many times I’d like to follow up with, “How so?” In other words, “how blessed and highly favored are you? Where’s the evidence? Where is your fruit? And why are you waiting on Jesus to crack the sky if He’s already cracked your heart? Isn’t the truth really that King Jesus is waiting on YOU?”
But I don’t say any that because, frankly, most people wouldn’t be able to receive it and I don’t want to offend anyone.
See, there’s nothing inherently wrong with these folk’s responses, except when it becomes a rote part of a larger language used by believers to avoid being authentic and telling the truth. Instead of saying “I’m not doing so well today, keep me in prayer” or, “Today is a good day. I’m looking forward to going to (fill in the blank)” we silence the true nature of our faith journeys and paint pretty religious pictures for the world to see.
Another example: In many historically Black churches, it’s mandatory that anyone who steps to the mic begin their presentation with “First giving honor to God who is the head of my life…” An awesome declaration, for sure, but is He really the head of your life? Or, did you put Him on the back burner that week so you could selfishly indulge your own proclivities? Do you really give honor to God first? Or does that come after you’ve gossiped about the newest member and her man?
Given this, I wonder how much more accountable we would all be if we chose to forgo the religious “language” of church and spoke from our hearts? How many non-believers would be open to meeting Jesus if we ditched the fakery and had real talk time with them about our struggles and doubt, our victories and triumphs–and the grace that threads all these together?
Just like Christ, there’s a duality in us that we must reconcile in order to free ourselves from using religious language as masks. Can we be transparent like our Savior and say “Please take this cup from me, Lord” AND “Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done”?
In a CNN Belief Blog article entitled, “Do You Speak Christian?”, Bill Leonard, a professor at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity, discussed how Christian speech has infiltrated political circles as a way to send coded messages to evangelical constituents. He highlighted the Christian speech of former president George W. Bush who was the most recent example of Christian speech in the political sphere. Of this he said, “Ordinary Christians do what Bush did all the time,” said Leonard. They use coded Christian terms like verbal passports – flashing them gains you admittance to certain Christian communities.”
I submit that these “verbal passports” are more like VIP passes into a special club. Speaking the language affords you all the rights and privileges of being a part of some uber-religious “cool kids” table in the cafeteria of Christianity. And yet scripture says, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25 ESV).
I suspect that this way of masking ourselves actually came from a kind of genuine but skewed interpretation of scripture. We love to highlight scriptures that allow us to throw context out the window in favor of comfort. We’ll quote Job “‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer'” (Job 9:27 ESV) but forget about God “delighting in truth in the inward being” (Ps. 51:6) or how He “opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” And it’s definitely an issue of pride. The scripture that makes us most comfortable, or puffs us up the most, is usually the one we make our personal doctrine.
If I’m honest, I’ve been speaking Christian-ese for a long time. I first learned it when I was about eleven and my parents accepted Christ and began attending church in our town, Louisville, KY. Of course, I wasn’t aware that I was learning a new language. I just found myself so immersed in it that, just a like a baby learning his or her first words, I acquired what I heard around me.
Now, nearly thirty years later, I am fluent. I even know the various dialects. For example, in the Charismatic traditions, I know exactly what is meant by “name it and claim it” even though I wrestle with the notion that I can name and claim something regardless of whether or not it is in God’s will for me—or better yet, whether it is good for me period.
But these are the words we use. Words that are simply linguistical masks we wear to avoid sharing or hearing the truth.
Wearing the Mask & Soul-Blindness
This masking is the evidence of a kind of psychosis gone mostly undiagnosed in the Church. That might seem like a stretch, but consider this: When we choose to use such vague language to mask, we run the risk of blocking ourselves from the truth. The truth of our own lives and the truth about the conditions of the world around us. There’s a mental, emotional, and spiritual break with reality to the extent that we can actually no longer see what is in front of us. We create a parallel reality that allows us to be functional in the world but not really see both the extreme beauty and desperate tragedy in it. And this inevitably shows up in our language. It’s the reason why many people who profess Christ can seem oblivious to things like police brutality, hunger, and any number issues of our day.
It’s what I call soul blindness which, at its core, is a rather genius but insidious way the enemy of our souls can keep us unconsciously compassionless. And isn’t that his greatest intention; to harden our hearts in this way? If he can’t have our souls, he can keep us from “loving our neighbor” (see Matt. 22:39) or “laying down our lives for our friends” (see John 15:13).
“Racism doesn’t exist. He shouldn’t have stolen the cigarillo. They are just trying to take our jobs,” says the soul-blind believer in earnest. All despite any clear evidence to the contrary. Why do they say this? Because they can’t see it any other way. Because seeing it will convict their hearts and minds and challenge them to more Christ-likeness than they feel they can bear. So they choose a more comfortable, disingenuous position and their words follow suit.
I would venture to say that the silence of some in the church during a critical season in our country—in light of racial tensions, obvious injustices, police brutality against people of color—is evidence of what happens when we choose to exist as a masked entity and therefore, are not willing to have the uncomfortable conversations with each other. Dropping our religious language and subsequently veils from our eyes, requires us, as representatives of the Savior, to stand at the forefront of very divisive issues, ready and willing to “love our neighbors” (John 13:34), “love our enemies” (Matt. 5:44) and “stay awake” (Luke 21:36).
But soul blindness doesn’t just show up with big ticket, socio-political issues. Evidence of a soul-blind believer can be found in phrases like “”Men will be men. Don’t put your mouth on the man of God.” or “She doesn’t belong here.” or “Was it really abuse? What did she do wrong?”
Or, at a very basic level, “I’m alright.”
No, you’re not. You….we…are not alright.
Working Toward a Solution
If we keep using Christian language and masking as a way to shield ourselves from the realities of life and the truth of ourselves, we will eventually create an entirely false self—void of authenticity, integrity, or truth. When too many of us live in this false reality we run the risk of not just creating false selves but being a false church. A church that exists only on the surface of our communities. A church that refuses to go deep. To stand in our own proverbial Garden of Gethsemane and submit simultaneously to the pains of life and the power of God.
Some might argue that if we start being “too real” with people about the realities of living in faith–the sweet and the not-so-sweet parts–that we might turn them off from the Faith. However, the opposite is actually true. The hardships of life that people of faith experience are certainly not unique to us. Every man, woman, boy and girl experiences trails and tribulations of some sort. However, it is the person of faith who has a Savior to cast his or her cares upon. THAT is the distinguishing factor. THAT is the draw. Most of those who are seeking are clear about the inevitability of conflict and trouble but they deeply desire to know what keeps a believer standing; what keeps us faithful. But if we are constantly using language that makes it seem as though we have no problems then unbelievers 1) will not identify with us (identification–having something in common–being one of the first steps to building relationships) and 2) will never have the opportunity to know Who helps us keep it together when we are falling apart.
Another part of the “Don’t Drive Unbelievers Away” argument is this strange idea that we as believers somehow we have it harder because the devil is “after us.” Yet if we really think about it, that’s counterintuitive. While the enemy certainly wants to thwart our actions on behalf of the Father, if we’ve confessed our faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, then he has already lost our souls. His attempts are in vain. It is the unbeliever that he’s determined to keep bound. To keep them from the abundant eternal life Christ offers, he comes to “kill, steal, and destroy.” (see John 10:10). And he’s not beyond using our superficial language to do it.
Fortunately, there is a solution. I’m inclined to say it is simple though that may be wishful thinking. It’s simple in concept but definitely complicated in execution. First, we must be courageous. Scripture says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9-10). Do we have the courage to go and be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually naked in front of one another? Can we truly “confess our faults with one another” (see James 5:16)? That truly is part of the edification process. I’m buoyed with expectation and hope when I know I’m not alone in my wrestlings. I can press on when I learn that I don’t have to isolate myself in silos of self-preservation and impression management.
Finally, we must embrace each other. God made us to respond to love. Our hearts quicken and our spirits activate in its presence. Once we all find the courage to share our hearts with one another, we must embrace what’s been shared. We must wrap those often ugly places in love. Many times, the church loves to sentence people who show us their hurt, pain, and sin. I propose we sentence that hurt, pain, and sin to love.
Tracey Michae’l is the author of seven books, including The Integrated Church: Authentic Multicultural Ministry (Beacon Hill Press) and The Next Thing is Joy (BGP). Most of her work as a writer and speaker probes the intersection of faith/spirituality with social issues such as race, class, and gender. Tracey’s writing has appeared in numerous publications online and in print. Visit her online at www.traceymlewis.com
by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 22, 2015 | Headline News |
c. 2015 Religion News Service
(RNS) In a scene in the movie “Selma,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sits in a jail cell wondering where the civil rights movement is headed. His cellmate, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy Sr., responds with a lesson from the Gospel of Matthew about the futility of worrying.
In real life, the two men — family and colleagues say — were inseparable. One man is honored with a national holiday that will be celebrated Monday (Jan. 19) while the other is frequently overlooked, even as he continued King’s plans for decades after King’s 1968 assassination.
“Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world,” King said of Abernathy when his colleague introduced him for what would be his last sermon, in Memphis, Tenn.
But Abernathy, who died in 1990 at age 64, was harshly criticized for writing in his autobiography, “And the Walls Came Tumbling Down,” about King’s marital infidelity. Abernathy’s family members believe that criticism contributed to efforts to “erase” him from the annals of civil rights history. His widow and his namesake son say the new movie does not fully depict the close partnership he had with King.
“It has some positive aspects,” said Juanita Abernathy, who married her husband in 1952. “But the portrayal of my husband, no, it is not correct and that is one of the tragedies of ‘Selma.’”
Asked for a comment about the family’s reaction, director Ava DuVernay said Abernathy’s widow was “nothing but complimentary” at a screening she attended, and her son requested that his daughter get a role as an extra. His request was granted.
King and Abernathy were so close that they dined together with their spouses and children, who called each of the men “Uncle.”
“Martin didn’t do anything that Ralph David Abernathy didn’t do except he took a bullet,” Juanita Abernathy recalled in an interview. “Martin never made a decision that Ralph Abernathy was not a part of. And it trickled down from the two of them to everybody else.”
She said historic photos prove her point: Many show the two men together at significant moments, marching arm in arm or meeting with other figures of the 1960s, including Malcolm X.
“They only met once and my husband was standing right there,” said Juanita Abernathy, who lives in Atlanta. “They shook hands across him — Martin and Malcolm.”
Ralph Abernathy grew up in Linden, Ala., and served in the segregated Army in World War II before starting his life as a pastor in his home state. He was the leader of First Baptist Church of Montgomery and a member of the local NAACP chapter. When Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to yield her seat on the bus to a white man, he got the call from the chapter president and suggested involving a new local pastor, King, in the steps that led to their joint work on the Montgomery bus boycott in the 1950s.
Later, both men were co-founders of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization that Abernathy led after King’s death.
Abernathy was one of the last people to speak with King. In a 1986 interview in the Syracuse Herald-American, he recalled that King stepped onto their motel balcony in Memphis while Abernathy went to put on some Aramis cologne. Then a shot was fired. “I had lost my best friend,” he said. “The Aramis saved my life.”
After the assassination, Abernathy marched in Washington to fulfill King’s plans for the Poor People’s Campaign and later worked to get black politicians elected. Controversially, he endorsed Republican Ronald Reagan, who later signed the law marking the King national holiday.
“Ralph Abernathy kept on moving and working to change the course of history in the United States of America for African-Americans and minorities,” his widow said, “and he didn’t stop until he died.”
Abernathy’s son, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy III, has spearheaded an initiative to get his father’s Atlanta church, West Hunter Street Baptist, to receive a National Park Service designation. Freedom Summer training sessions and other voter education projects were held at the church.
Last month, President Obama signed legislation that calls for the site to undergo a special NPS study.
“West Hunter Street Baptist Church stands as a testimony to social activism, civic engagement and the important role African-American churches have played in the American civil rights movement,” said Brent Leggs, a senior field officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “By preserving this landmark, we honor the remarkable life once lived of Ralph David Abernathy Sr., an iconic freedom leader in American history, and the countless and nameless heroes of the movement.”
Those who worked with Abernathy said his association with King was closer than most people realize.
“They used to call them the civil rights twins — he and Dr. King,” recalled Terrie Randolph, who was Abernathy’s secretary when he became president of SCLC after King’s death. “You wouldn’t see one without the other and for any — not only major but minor — decision they consulted with each other.”
The younger Abernathy compared his “Uncle Martin” and his father to the biblical description of Jesus’ sending out the disciples “two by two.”
“You give Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson. You can even give Bobby Kennedy to John,” he said. “Black men came together that were not brothers, but were brothers in spirit.”
Copyright 2015 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
by UrbanFaith Staff | Jan 20, 2015 | Feature, Headline News |
c. 2015 Religion News Service
NAIROBI, Kenya ( RNS) Cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are proving costly for Christians in majority-Muslim countries in Africa.
At least 45 churches were torched over the weekend in Niger, in two days of protests that left about 10 people dead. The targeted churches were mainly of the evangelical denominations built on the left bank of Niamey, the capital city.
Three other churches were ransacked on Friday (Jan. 16) and three people were killed in Zinder, Niger’s second-biggest city. A French cultural center burned down in the city as other marches unfolded in Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and Algeria — all former French colonies.
Christians’ homes and businesses have also been attacked as enraged mobs clash with police in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris on Jan. 7, in which gunmen killed 12 people working for the satirical weekly. The subsequent publication of more Muhammad cartoons in Charlie Hebdo’s latest edition prompted renewed violence.
Sheikh Saliou Mbacke, coordinator of the Interfaith Action for Peace in Africa, said he strongly condemned the attacks on churches in Niger, but cartoons of such a revered figure were an act of provocation that could not be justified by freedom of expression.
“Muslim demonstrations to express their anger are legitimate,” said Mbacke, a Muslim leader from the Muridiya Sufi Community of Senegal. “I join all Muslims in the world to also express my anger for the cartooning of Prophet Muhammad.”
In Sudan, hundreds of people staged demonstrations in Khartoum but were blocked by police from reaching the French Embassy and French cultural center in the city.
Students in Somalia took to the streets on Saturday (Jan. 17) with placards saying “Je Suis Muslim, et j’aime mon Prophete,” or “I am Muslim and I love my prophet.”
Copyright 2015 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.
