Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Navy SEALS Taking Target Practice at Hijabi Muslim Women
posted on July 2, 2012Religion News Service’s Omid Safi examines recent reports that “kill house” simulations in Virginia used in Navy SEALS training include pictures of women wearing the Muslim hijab. “Can the folks in charge at the Navy not see how this contributes to the dehumanizing of Muslims, not just Muslim women, not just Muslim civilians, but all Muslims?,” Safi asks.
Nuns Celebrate Affordable Care Act Victory
posted on July 2, 2012At The Washington Post, Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby, writes that she is “thrilled” with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act. “Since the day we were founded by Catholic sisters 40 years ago,” Campbell writes, “we have lobbied for access to affordable, quality healthcare. Catholic teachings about the common good and dignity of each person instruct us that this is a basic human right.”
720 New Ways to See U.S. Religious Identity
posted on July 2, 2012At On Being, Project Interfaith’s Beth Katz introduces RavelUnravel, “an interactive, multimedia exploration of the religious and spiritual identities that make up our communities and worlds.” Katz writes that the inspiration for the project came from how one young Muslim woman, Emina, responded to misconceptions about her own religious identity. “It was incredibly powerful to witness this young woman openly sharing in her own words what it meant to her to be Muslim rather than allowing others to define this for her.”
Religious Groups React to Supreme Court Health Care Ruling
posted on June 29, 2012At Religion News Service, David Gibson aggregates reactions by religious groups to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling “that largely upholds President Obama’s health care law.” Sr. Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA), approved of the decision, stating, “CHA has long supported health reform that expands access and coverage to everyone.” Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention disagreed with ruling, calling the law “a blatant violation of the personal freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and perhaps a mortal blow to the concept of federalism.”
Debunking Three Myths about the Muslim Brotherhood
posted on June 29, 2012At The Atlantic, Steven Cook aims to clarify some of the American media’s “commentary about the Muslim Brotherhood,” the political organization of recently elected Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi. Cook shares in the media’s “cautious optimism” regarding the Muslim Brotherhood’s relationship with the U.S., a relationship of necessity, Cook notes, due to “Egypt’s dire economic situation.” However, the “U.S.-Egypt relationship is bound to be far more difficult than the previous three decades when Mubarak aligned himself closely with the United States,” writes Cook.
VA Woman Sues Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Claims Sexual Abuse during Two-Year Exorcism
posted on June 29, 2012A woman in Virginia is suing the Catholic Diocese of Arlington for allegedly being molested “during a more than two-year exorcism,” the Associated Press reports. The suit only targets the diocese and Human Life International (HLI), an anti-abortion ministry, because the alleged abuser, Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, “and the woman previously reached a financial settlement.” Stephen Phelan, spokesman for HLI, has stated that “HLI intends to vigorously defend itself against these false accusations” regarding its role in the alleged abuse, contending that Euteneuer acted outside “the scope of his employment with HLI.”
Ahmadiyya Muslims Get Warm Welcome in Congress
posted on June 29, 2012Despite being “persecuted around the world,” the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has many friends in Washington D.C., Lauren Markoe reports for Religion News Service. On Wednesday, the Islamic faith, which “emphasizes tolerance and nonviolence,” received a personal welcome to Congress by House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi. Markoe writes that the group believes “the messiah has already come as the founder of their community, Hadhrat Mirza Gulam Ahmad, a view perceived as heretical by most other Muslims.”
Can Mideast Christians Survive?
posted on June 29, 2012In the wake of the Arab Spring and the election of a member of the Muslim Brotherhood to the presidency of Egypt, The National Review’s Mark Tooley asks whether “Mideast Christians [can] survive under surging Islamist movements.” Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, insists that Mideast Christians need “secular states to guard religious freedom.” Schoenborn warns, “No state can assume the Kingdom of God, which is not identical with any political reality.”
‘Talking with Mormons’ Makes a Lot of Sense
posted on June 29, 2012At The Standard-Examiner, Doug Gibson reviews evangelical theologian, Richard Mouw’s latest book, Talking with Mormons. Mouw, who frequently participates in evangelical-Mormon dialogues, invites members of the two faiths to find common ground, even when it comes to theology. But “Mouw, who has angered some evangelicals, is not an apologist for Mormon doctrines that he disagrees with.” According to Gibson, he is “a remarkable example of religious tolerance, willing to debate long-disputed doctrinal points with Latter-day Saints but willing to concede spiritual equanimity.”
Rowan Williams Was Always an Enemy of the Liberal State
posted on June 29, 2012The Guardian’s Theo Hobson profiles Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who recently remarked that Muslims “must make clear that their loyalty is straightforward modern political loyalty to the nation state.” Hobson writes that the archbishop’s comments contradict his 10-year message of “insisting that religion of all stripes is threatened by the aggressively secular liberal state.” Hobson concludes that Williams “should open up the discussion about religion and liberalism, encourage new honesty, in church and nation, about its complexity. Instead, Williams pushed his excessively ideological view of the matter.”