Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Vatican Rejects “Doctrine of Discovery” Used to Justify Colonial Rule
posted on April 3, 2023Niha Masih of The Washington Post reports, “Using 15th-century papal decrees, European colonial powers captured and claimed Indigenous land in the Americas and elsewhere. Now, in a significant move centuries later, the Vatican on Thursday rejected the contentious ‘Doctrine of Discovery.’” The Church also included an apology for the acts of violence that the colonial powers later perpetrated against the indigenous groups. Phil Fontaine, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, said, “Now the ball is in the court of governments, the United States and in Canada, but particularly in the United States where the doctrine is embedded in the law.”
From Senate Subcommittees to Easter Sermon: Raphael Warnock on Life as a Pastor-Politician
posted on April 3, 2023Adelle M. Banks of Religion News Service interviews Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia who also serves as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Warnock said, “I feel like, in a real sense, that my life is a sermon, that I get to preach on Sunday and embody and make come alive in my work in the Senate the rest of the week.” He specifically pointed to his work on voting rights and lowering the cost of insulin as examples of his faith values motivating him to take action on matters of public policy. Warnock drew a distinction between his two roles, however, saying that his religious values inform his political work but that his legislating was not a product of his particular theology.
After Shooting, Tennessee’s God and Guns Culture Under Fire as Protests Mount in Capitol
posted on April 3, 2023Bob Smietana of Religion News Service reports that religious and secular leaders alike are criticizing Tennessee’s God and gun culture after a shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville left six people dead, including three children. Protestors are calling on the state legislature to pass new gun control measures including a red flag law similar to the one passed in Florida in the wake of another mass shooting. Lee Camp, a professor of religion at Lipscomb University in Nashville, said, “This presumption of righteous violence in service to the kingdom of God is a very old conceit. And it has done immense damage.”
NY’s Power to Regulate Religious Schools Trimmed by Judge
posted on March 28, 2023Michael Hill of the Associated Press reports that a New York judge has ruled that the state cannot force parents to take their children out of private or religious schools that don’t meet the state’s minimum educational standards. The order came after three Ultra-Orthodox Jews sued over the new rules that they argue unfairly targeted their religious schools that are primarily focused on religious rather than secular education. The New York Department of Education said in a statement, “We remain committed to ensuring students who attend school in settings consistent with their religious and cultural beliefs and values receive the education to which they are legally entitled.”
How Christian Is Christian Nationalism?
posted on March 27, 2023Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker writes that Christian nationalism is not as theologically motivated as its name might suggest. Rather, he argues, it is the product of social and ancestral traditions. He traces the history of the movement throughout American history and argues that its resurgence is a product of the shrinking Christian majority in the United States. He writes, “The sociologists see a fearful tribe, resentful of a country that won’t stop changing. Exponents see a small but indomitable movement, standing strong against a tide of secularism.”
Would This Planned Western Mining Project Violate Religious Freedom Protections?
posted on March 27, 2023Kelsey Dallas of Deseret News reports that Apache Stronghold, an advocacy group that represents the Apache people, is suing in federal court to prevent a land transfer that would give Resolution Copper, a mining company, ownership rights to their sacred land. Lower courts ruled against Apache Stronghold’s claim of religious freedom infringement, but an appeals court has agreed to rehear the case. The group alleges that the land transfer would deprive them of access to Oak Flats, a religiously significant area on which the Apache people have held ceremonies for centuries. Wendsler Nosie Sr. of the Apache Stronghold said in a November press release, “The government protects historical churches and other important religious landmarks, and our site deserves no less protection.”
Pope Expands Sex Abuse Law, Reaffirms Adults Can Be Victims
posted on March 27, 2023Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press reports, “Pope Francis on Saturday updated a 2019 church law aimed at holding senior churchmen accountable for covering up sexual abuse cases, expanding it to cover lay Catholic leaders.” Francis also affirmed in the announcement that adults, as well as children, can be victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy. Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, an online database of Catholic clergy who have been accused of sexual abuse, said, “The Catholic people were promised that (the law) would be ‘revolutionary,’ a watershed event for holding bishops accountable. But in four years, we’ve seen no significant housecleaning, no dramatic change.”
Wyoming Judge Temporarily Blocks the State’s New Abortion Ban
posted on March 27, 2023Pam Belluck of The New York Times reports, “Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming — at least temporarily — after a judge on Wednesday ordered that a newly enacted ban be blocked until further court proceedings in a lawsuit challenging it.” District Court Judge Melissa Owens, who also struck down a previous abortion ban in the state, cited a state constitutional provision that protects the right of adults to make their own healthcare decisions. She said, “To declare abortion is not health care when there may be evidence to show that it is — the legislature cannot make an end run around essentially providing a constitutional amendment.” The lawsuit also challenges the state’s newly passed ban on abortion pills that is set to take effect on July 1st.
Antisemitic Incidents Reach New High in U.S., Anti-Defamation League Says
posted on March 27, 2023Ruth Graham of The New York Times reports, “The number of antisemitic incidents in the United States last year was the highest since the Anti-Defamation League began keeping track in 1979, the Jewish advocacy group announced on Thursday.” Incidents were up 36 percent from the previous year, with many occurring online where antisemitism has festered and led to violent attacks in recent years. Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, said, “We’ve seen antisemitism normalized in ways that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. If people see conspiracies behind every misfortune, it doesn’t take long for them to look at the Jews and say they’re the problem.”
Bishops Discourage Catholic Health Care Groups from Performing Gender-Affirming Care
posted on March 27, 2023Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service reports, “A group of U.S. Catholic bishops has issued a statement discouraging Catholic health care groups from performing various gender-affirming medical procedures, suggesting they are ‘injurious’ and do not respect the ‘intrinsic unity of body and soul.’” The members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Doctrine unanimously issued the proclamation. Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic organization that serves LGBTQ people, said in a statement, “The bishops’ unwillingness to counter any of the evidence from the scientific community or the experience of transgender people is neither good theology nor acceptable pastoral care.”