Author Archives: Fred Yi

Immigrant Rights Freedom Seder

Posted on by

 

RABBI AMY EILBERG (Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, Saint Paul, Minn.): The central themes of Passover have to do with exploring the journey from different kinds of enslavement. Not just the historic kind referenced in the biblical story, but on multiple levels, journeys in life, individually and collectively—from enslavement, from constriction, from tyranny to freedom, liberation, transformation of self, community, and the world.

The core message of the seder is to say that we, in its particularistic Jewish meaning, we who know the soul of the stranger because we were strangers, we were slaves, we were the object of oppression in Egypt, since we know that story so well we are always—it’s fundamental to who we are to stand in our lives as champions for the oppressed.

Just as a seder has groups of four in its structure—there are four cups of wine and four questions and four children—we had four stories to illustrate different kinds of immigrant experiences, people who are still, to use the metaphor of the seder, still not sure that they’re going to make it through the sea alive.

One of the central lines of the seder that has to do with opening the door of our homes, “whoever is hungry may they come here and eat,” we take that simple phrase—I recited it in Aramaic—and then we go around the room and invite whoever can speak that phrase in their native language to go ahead and do that. It’s very beautiful to have that embodied moment of feeling that we have the whole world here.

This is an ancient and also very contemporary, meaningful ritual that is sacred to one group of people and also speaks of themes that are shared by everyone.

People leave with a sense of hope that with this kind of large community of people very much dedicated to these issues, that perhaps we will overcome.

Juarez Drug Wars

Posted on by

LUCKY SEVERSON, correspondent: This war zone is not in some far off country. It’s just across the border from El Paso, Texas, in Juarez, Mexico, one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

FATHER KEVIN MULLINS (Parish of Corpus Christi): There was a 47-year-old man here with four bullets in his head, so we stopped in order to give the last rites, as they used to say.

SEVERSON: Since Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderon, declared war on the drug cartels four years ago, almost 5,000 citizens have been murdered in Juarez alone. Father Kevin Mullins knows. He’s officiated at too many funerals.

FATHER MULLINS: We’ve experienced 38, 40 executions just in this one parish here.

SEVERSON: Next to the statute of the Virgin Mary on a hill overlooking Juarez, there’s a cross. It’s riddled with bullet holes. No one, not even priests in the world’s second largest Catholic country, feels safe anymore.

post01-mullins
Father Kevin Mullins

FATHER MULLINS: When I leave in the morning and go out in the truck, once upon a time I wouldn’t think twice about it, but now because of these executions and because of the stray bullets, I’d say, “Lord, protect me, take care of me.” Then I’ll go out.

SEVERSON: The violence has spread throughout Mexico, but Juarez has been particularly hard hit because it’s a major conduit for illegal drugs passing from Mexico into the United States. It’s become a bloody battleground as cartels fighting for the huge amounts of money involved murder each other and innocent civilians.

RUBEN GARCIA (Director, Annunciation House): It is a city that has real fear, a lot of it unpredictable, a lot of it you can’t put your finger on it, but its certainly something with which people live on a daily basis.

SEVERSON: Ruben Garcia runs Annunciation House, a halfway house for indigent migrants across the border in El Paso. Some who cross over to escape the violence come here. But most, like these folks who belong to Father Mullin’s parish, are stuck in Juarez, worried first about their kids and grandkids, worried about stray bullets.

Leo says he’s heard that teachers have been threatened that their students will be hurt if the teachers don’t pay extortion money. Four of Ezikial’s extended family have been victims.

FATHER MULLINS (translating for Ezikial): So the mother and the son were killed just before Christmas outside the old US consulate, and the week before a nephew had also been executed outside the church in San Marcos.

SEVERSON: When Juan Pablo refused to use his market as a drop-off location for suspicious packages, he was told his two kids would be killed. So the family quietly and quickly moved to another city and then quietly returned.

post02-juarezYesterday there were 13 executions here in Juarez, the day before 19. Two of those were decapitations. Even more striking than the number of murders is the gruesome way they have been carried out. Almost every day, the one-and-a-half-million residents of Juarez are exposed to horrific news stories of unthinkable violence. A mere shooting hardly gets any attention.

FATHER MULLINS: Shooting people is always terrible, but when they dismember them or when they strangle them with barbed wire, it’s horrific, the results. Or decapitation is fairly big around here.

Mario was stoned to death down below there. You see the cross. A gentleman called Lalo was stoned to death up this gully.

SEVERSON: Father Mullins says it’s as if Juarez has become Satan’s stomping ground.

(speaking to Father Mullins): You’re not willing to concede?

FATHER MULLINS: Not yet, no, because I think it’s evident from the scriptures, and also from history, that the good overcomes evil.

SEVERSON: Most everyone agrees that one reason so many people are enticed by all the drug money is that so few here have jobs. Because of the violence, tourism has dried up, and more than 6,000 businesses have closed, leaving tens of thousands unemployed. For many, the only alternative is illegal and dangerous.

GARCIA: If I have no work, and I’m not eating, and my children are not eating, and along comes someone and finds a way for me to start feeding my kids, I’m going to be grateful for that person. If you come and you say, “Did you know that person is a notorious drug dealer?” I’m going to look at you and say, “You know what? My kids are eating.”

post05-juarezSEVERSON: One of the biggest problems in Mexico is a lack of trust in anything to do with the government—politicians, police, the army, you name it.

FATHER MULLINS: Of every 618 executions, 20 are investigated.

SEVERSON: Only investigated. Not even solved, but just investigated?

FATHER MULLINS: Twenty out of 618, so any talk of investigations is really a joke.

GARCIA: The corruption that is affecting Mexico is very, very pervasive. It includes most of Mexico’s institutions to a level that would probably be mind boggling to the average citizen in the United States. What would it mean for the average US citizen to wake up and to realize I cannot call my police department because I cannot trust my police?

SEVERSON: One institution that Mexican people have always had faith in is the Catholic Church, in part because almost 90 percent of the over 142 million citizens are Catholic. But even trust in the church appears to be eroding. Estellita, a mother of 10, says the church has not done enough to fight the cartels .

(speaking to Senora Estella): You mean the church has done nothing?

ESTELLA: Si.

FATHER MULLINS: Senora Estella says the Catholic Church has been a little bit sleepy. They could have done a lot more.

GARCIA: I think the church in Mexico has been hurt by its hesitancy and its silence. Its willingness to be prophetic, to be outspoken, to speak the truth, I think, would enhance its credibility.

post04-juarezSEVERSON: Garcia and many others in Mexico feel that for the Catholic Church to speak the truth it has to confront the drug cartels head on.

FATHER MULLINS: I think maybe the bishops could be more vocal.

SEVERSON: But it’s dangerous.

FATHER MULLINS: It could be dangerous, yes, but that element of danger is also part of if you want to live a Christian life then in a situation like this there could be an element, a modicum of danger from time to time.

SEVERSON: The Mexican Council of Bishops estimates that about two out of every 10 priests face serious risks for speaking against drug traffickers. One has been killed, dozens transferred for their own safety. The rest are looking over their shoulders.

FATHER MULLINS: And I got a call from one of my colleagues, a Mexican priest here, and he called up and said, “Kevin, Kevin is it you?” And I said, “Yeah, yeah it’s me.” And he said, “I’m so happy to hear your voice.” He said, “The radio said you were just assassinated in the street.” Some other priests had heard of this, and they prayed a Mass for the Dead for the dead priest, being me, on Christmas Eve, and they were pleased to see me the following week.

SEVERSON: And you were probably pleased to be there.

FATHER MULLINS: I was pleased to be there without the bullet holes, yes.

SEVERSON: After a long and conspicuous silence, in November 2009 the Mexican Bishops Conference publicly condemned narcotics traffickers and demanded that the country’s politicians crack down on corruption. The communiqué said the bishops intend to have a louder voice against the evils of illegal drug trafficking.

post06-juarezBut in individual churches the battle has already begun. When Father Mullins came here nine years ago, he could only count about 30 regular churchgoers. Take a look now.

FATHER MULLINS: I never cease to be amazed at the nobility of the people around here, not that that’s a surprise, but I just think people are so brave in Juarez. It’s a privilege for me to be a priest here.

SEVERSON: One reason his parish has grown so much is because he sent what few members he had to the neighborhoods offering the church as an alternative lifestyle to the drug culture. This is Eduardo Perez.

EDUARDO EALART PEREZ: We invite many people, we go to the streets and invite people, “Hey, come to our church.”

SEVERSON: So you think you cannot win the drug war without the church?

PEREZ: Yes, absolutely. I mean absolutely. I mean maybe without church, but not without God.

SEVERSON: The Catholic Church has a proud tradition of standing up for people who can’t defend themselves. Father Mullins and many others here believe that now is the time for the church to stand up to the drug cartels, regardless of the risks.

For Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, I’m Lucky Severson in Juarez, Mexico.

A Psalm for Passover

Posted on by

Read Pamela Greenberg’s translation of Psalm 136 from her book “The Complete Psalms: The Book of Prayer Songs in a New Translation” (Bloomsbury, 2010). Sometimes called “the Great Hallel,” Psalm 136 is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving recited on joyous occasions, including Passover.

Psalm 136

Give thanks to the Creator for all that is good—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
Give thanks to the Judge of all judges—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

Give thanks to the Foundation of foundations—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
To the one who performs great miracles alone—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

To the one who makes the sky with great wisdom—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
To the one who spreads the earth over the sea—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

To the one who makes great lights—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
The sun to govern by day—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

The moon and stars to govern by night—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
The one who struck Egypt through their firstborn—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

The one who brought out Israel from their midst—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
With a strong hand and outstretched arm—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

To the one who split the Sea of Reeds into parts—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
Who helped Israel cross through its midst—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

The one who struck down powerful kings—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
And slew kings who seemed invincible—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

Sichon, king of the Emorites—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
Og, king of Bashan—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

And gave their land as a portion—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
A portion to Israel, your servant—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

Who when we were low in spirit remembered us—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
And broke us away from our oppressors—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

Who gives food to all flesh—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.
Give thanks to the Power of the heavens—
for God’s kindness is toward the world.

Immigration Reform: Mass for Immigrants

Posted on by

On Sunday, March 21, Cardinal Roger Mahony, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, celebrated a Mass for Immigrants at St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in Washington, DC and spoke of transforming the world from a barren desert into an immigrant-friendly garden of opportunity and equality for all. Watch this audio slide show by Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly production assistant and researcher Fabio Lomelino.

Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals in Europe

Posted on by

BOB ABERNETHY (anchor): The Vatican faces growing anger over a burgeoning sex abuse scandal in Europe. New allegations of abuse by priests in Ireland and Germany are raising questions about the culpability of church leaders, including Pope Benedict. Joining us to talk about this is David Gibson.  He’s a Vatican expert who writes a column for the online newspaper Politics Daily.  He’s also the author of a biography of the pope called The Rule of Benedict.

David, welcome. Take us back, if you would, 30 years ago to the time when the man who is now pope was the Archbishop in Munich in Germany. What happened?

DAVID GIBSON (Author, The Rule of Benedict): Well, Bob, this case really started, like so many of these cases from that era started, where a priest in another diocese who had been known to abuse children was sent for therapy. He went to a psychiatrist in Munich, and Cardinal Ratzinger, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger signed off on that transfer. Subsequently, the Vatican says, and the Archdiocese of Munich says, a lower-level official in Munich sent that abusive priest, Father Peter Hullermann, to a parish in Munich where he subsequently abused other children and was eventually convicted of a crime. So the question now is really what did Benedict know and when did he know it? Did he sign off on this priest going to this other parish or did he not?

ABERNETHY: Now, it’s being said at the Vatican that those times were different, the rules may have been different, and in any event what happened or didn’t happen is being blown way out of proportion. What do you think?

GIBSON: Well, there is that claim. They’re saying, look, this is just wildly exaggerated. Benedict did not know about the reassignment of that priest. Others would say, well, if it wasn’t a sin of commission it was a sin of omission, that as the Archbishop of Munich, assigning priests and especially keeping track of an abuser is one of his main tasks. But also, Bob, this didn’t happen in isolation. This is coming in the midst of a huge, perfect storm of scandals sweeping across Europe from Ireland, as we’ve seen so recently, now to the Netherlands to Germany to Austria and now reaching even to the Vatican. So, again, this is not something that just is a one-off kind of scandal, and it also comes in the wake of the American crisis, which since 2002 we’ve been dealing with.

ABERNETHY: And what are the consequences, then, for the church in Europe and for Benedict himself?

GIBSON: Well, I think there are really two ways that this really hurts the pope. Look, he’s not going to resign from this unless something dramatic and drastic happens, and I don’t expect that, anticipate that. Popes don’t resign, but also popes cannot command any more, as they say, they must convince. He must be able to get a willing audience to listen to him as he preaches the Gospel and tries to carry out his priority, his agenda of re-Christianizing Christendom, that is, Europe. That’s really his main goal. So if his credibility is undermined by this, people are not going to listen to him. The second point I’d make is that as these scandals are emerging, these revelations are coming out in Europe, much as they did in the United States, you’re going to have great calls for accountability of bishops who covered up for abusers or moved them around to other parishes. If the pope is seen as culpable in the same way, how is he going to tell these other bishops that they in fact must step down or accept some kind of penalty?

ABERNETHY: David Gibson, many thanks.

Islam in Indonesia

Posted on by

 

Originally broadcast September 11, 2009

FRED DE SAM LAZARO, correspondent: Jakarta looks like any other modern Asian capital, but here, alongside the glittering office towers, you’ll also find imposing houses of worship. At the Istiqlal mosque recently, about 10,000 worshipers gathered for Friday noon prayer. It’s part of a religious revival that’s been taking place alongside a booming economy in recent decades. It is visible in mosques—and in malls. At this crowded shopping center, the most popular garment seems to be the head scarf.

INDONESIAN WOMAN: I’m here because Islam tells women to wear the scarf.

post03-islamindonesiaDE SAM LAZARO: This 40-year-old accountant began covering her hair three years ago.

INDONESIAN WOMAN: I feel ashamed, because I should have been wearing it since I was young, but at least I am wearing it now.

DE SAM LAZARO: Islam is making a comeback in Indonesia along with democracy that began 10 years ago. For years after independence from the Dutch in 1945, and then under decades of Suharto’s dictatorship, religion was officially tolerated at best.

DR. DEWI FORTUNA ANWAR (Indonesian Institute of Sciences): Islam and the traditional, customary laws were regarded as being backward and primarily blamed for, you know, the defeat for many Muslim countries under European rule, so that many of the earlier nationalist leaders, many of the educated elite, in fact, turned their back on religion, and among the younger generation there seems to be a greater willingness both to be openly religious and to be modern and educated at same times. I think maybe this is not just a search for greater spiritual anchor, but also I think it’s greater self-confidence.

DE SAM LAZARO: She and others say this growth of religious expression is spawned by the new democratic freedoms. It’s neither fundamentalist nor militant, notwithstanding recent terrorist incidents. Bombings in two Jakarta hotels killed nine people last July, and a 2002 attack in the tourist haven of Bali killed more than 200. But religion scholar Ulil Abdalla, with the liberal Islamic Youth Association, says such extremism is not widespread.

ULIL ABDALLA (Islamic Youth Association): For some people, Islam as practiced in this country is corrupted. Movies and food and, you know, lifestyle and so forth, it’s pretty much influenced by the American cultures. So when radical Islamic ideologies was introduced by some activists to Indonesia, it appealed to young people, but that’s, you know, the appeal is limited to a fringe in the society. It’s not a predominant trend.


Dr. Dewi Fortuna Anwar

DE SAM LAZARO: The more accurate gauge, he says, is Indonesia’s recent election, in which secular incumbent [president] Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won easily. Islamist parties, which had surged to 40 percent of the vote in 2004, lost ground, to less than 30 percent.

ULIL ABDALLA: Some people feared that if democracy, if the democratic space is opened it will allow Islamist party to dominate the arena. That is not true.

DE SAM LAZARO: Significantly, the reaction of the Islamist and other parties after the election indicates a commitment to democracy, says Anies Baswedan, a scholar of political Islam.

ANIES BASWEDAN (Paramadina University): We have around 40 parties. Only nine were able to gain seats in the house, yet we do not see significant problems from supporters who are not having their parties in the house. Acceptance to political result, democratic result, is very important.

DE SAM LAZARO: He says Indonesians, especially the 14 percent who survive on less than a dollar a day, have much more pragmatic concerns—food prices, the economy in general, and corruption—even voters who’d like to impose stricter Islamic law or sharia.

MARTA: From what I understand about Islamic states, the people live in prosperity, and the law is enforced very strictly. Those who steal, those who are corrupt, they cut off their hand, rather than here, where people who can bribe judges and police get away with things.

DE SAM LAZARO: Yet Marta, who like many Indonesians uses just one name, voted for the secular president. So did his neighbor, Samsuddin, who praises a government initiative that’s helped the poor.

SAMSUDDIN: Number one is cash for poor families, and the second is cheap rice. We get $10 a month in cash and 15 kilos of rice. We are a Muslim family, but we are not that strict. I voted for the party that is already helping people. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Islamic or not.

post05-islamindonesiaDE SAM LAZARO: That kind of sentiment has moved Islamist parties to the center.

ANIES BASWEDAN: People understand now, campaigning, that “we are Muslims, we are an Islamic party, this is a sharia platform” does not sell. People ask, “Tell me what else, tell me in reality, what will you deliver beyond the slogans?”

FAHRI HAMZAH (Member of Parliament): We don’t name it sharia, because if you name it sharia people then from beginning suspicious to see.

DE SAM LAZARO: Fahri Hamzah is a Member of Parliament with the most successful Islamist party, called Prosperity and Justice, which joined the ruling coalition government. Although it once campaigned for Islamic law and more conservative women’s attire, Hamzah says they are happy to govern by consensus in a liberal democratic framework.

FAHRI HAMZAH: We are an Islamic party, but what we talk about Islam is Islam as the universal value, because we believe every religion, you know, inspired by God. We follow this direction that anti-corruption is Islamic agenda, clean government is Islamic agenda, you know, welfare, manage our economy, open economy, you know, liberalize our economy is one of the, you know, good agenda.

DE SAM LAZARO: That interpretation might well have its roots in the history of Islam in this vast, diverse archipelago.

DR. DEWI FORTUNA ANWAR: We are used to living in differences. Indonesia is composed of islands, over 17,000 islands and over 700 different ethnic groups with different languages, different cultural traditions. Islam came to Indonesia fairly late, from 12th century up, mostly through traders and Sufi teachers. They found Indonesia already very rich layers of cultures, and to be accepted a new belief, a new religion would have to adapt to local circumstances from the beginning. I think that was the case when Hinduism came here and when Buddhism came here and then when Islam came here, when Christianity also came here.

post02-islamindonesiaDE SAM LAZARO: So even though it’s 85 percent Muslim today, Islam here reflects Indonesia’s polyglot culture, readily evident in architecture, language, even in the mall scarf shops.

YUDI TOZA (Shop Owner): We believe in Indonesia that Islam is more modern, more moderate. People who wear the plain dress, it’s not our way.

ROSA LESTARI (Shop Clerk): It will look strange if an Indonesian woman wore that kind of plain clothes, especially nowadays. They probably think you are a terrorist’s wife.

DE SAM LAZARO: Shop owner, saleswoman, and customer told us there’s no contradiction between Islam and fashion, that the notion of a plainly dressed, fully covered woman is—foreign. Shopping here was Nur Inani, who was buying for customers in her own clothing business in the island of Sumatra.

NUR INANI: Mostly they are looking for clothes this long and this long, which is basically covering the butt and the arms. I look for the dress first, and then I will find the matching scarf, the color, the style.

DE SAM LAZARO: Terrorist incidents aside, Indonesia is enjoying a period of stability rarely seen in its independent history. Indonesians are free to choose their government, and they are free to pursue religion, and they’ve made it clear in elections that they want to pursue each separately, that is, to keep religion out of government.

For Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in Jakarta.

Roy Haynes: Live at Twelfth Baptist Church

Posted on by

This month legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes turns 85 and celebrates his birthday with a string of performances at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village. Watch him playing in January 2004 at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts at a service to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He was introduced by his brother, the Rev. Michael Haynes, who is now the church’s pastor emeritus.

Corwin Smidt: Continuity, Not Change When It Comes to Religion’s Role in Politics

Posted on by

Corwin Smidt, director of the Paul B. Henry Institute and professor of political science at Calvin College, talks about findings from his most recent national survey on religion’s role in the 2008 presidential campaign as well as his new book, “The Disappearing God Gap?” (Oxford University Press, 2010), and he offers some advice for 2012 to both the Democratic and Republican Parties.