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Author Archives: Fred Yi
Religious Reactions to Anti-US Protests in the Muslim World
BOB ABERNETHY, host: Joining me now to talk about some of the major news of the week are Kim Lawton, managing editor of this program, and Kevin Eckstrom, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service. So, Kevin, a fourteen-minute video is posted on YouTube and triggers violence all over the Muslim world, demonstrations resulting in the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya. What are the messages from all that, especially the religious messages?
KEVIN ECKSTROM (Editor-in-Chief, Religion News Service): Well, I think, you know, we live in this increasingly smaller world, interconnected world, and things that happen in one place instantaneously affect things in another place, and religion obviously is playing a larger and larger role in global affairs, and what you’ve seen, I think, this week is that one of the greatest barriers to interfaith understanding is actually technology and the ability to get these messages out. You know, five years ago, ten years ago, somebody could have made a video like this and nobody ever would have seen it, but now you can post it on YouTube or you can put it on Twitter or Facebook, and it’s around the world instantaneously, and it automatically pits one religion against another, and that’s a huge challenge that nobody, I think, has quite figured out how to deal with just yet.
KIM LAWTON (Managing Editor, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly): And it was interesting watching some of the debate within the religious community, because there was sort of a little difficulty over the emphasis, and a lot of the interfaith leaders blamed the video, and you know, really were harsh on the video in saying it provoked all of this, and then other people were saying well wait a minute, what’s the responsibility of the people who were perpetrating all the violence, and what responsibility do they have and, you know, there was talk even in political circles, were people too sympathetic towards those doing violence, and even if you don’t like a video or even if it’s offense to your religion, is it justified, or even if you try to understand why the violence was committed, how strongly do you, you know, blame the video versus blaming the violent behavior?
ABERNETHY: And it shows the volatility in the Muslim world and the enormous role and passion that goes along with the religion.
ECKSTROM: Right, this is sort of a crash course for a lot of people into Islam again. But also, you know, why depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are so problematic, and why Muslims are so sensitive about that, and it shows that, you know, this is not just a religious question, but whenever you are dealing with the Muslim world that religion and politics are intermarried and one thing is going to affect the other, so this is not just about Christians versus Muslims or Jews versus Muslims. I mean, this is about Egypt versus the United States. It takes on a whole new meaning when you get into this arena.
ABERNETHY: And many of them apparently don’t have much of an understanding of the role of free speech in this country.
LAWTON: Well, this has been a big international debate. I was actually at a conference a couple years ago with journalists talking about this notion of defamation of religion and should it be criminalized. There’s been a movement in the U.N. to actually make it a crime to defame someone’s religion and a lot of people don’t see insulting someone’s religion as free speech, and we might say here in the United States, well ,I don’t like that but that’s free speech, but in other contexts they see religion as something different, and it’s not free speech in their minds to do something offensive but, you know, for us the question becomes, well, who makes that determination, and what’s offensive to me may not be offensive to you.
EKSTROM: And there was, you know, I was really struck watching the video coming out of Cairo and the people in the streets were saying Obama knew about this, you know, Obama could have stopped this video, he has the best intelligence agency in the world, and he could stop this video, and he has to put an end to this. Well, he can’t do that at all. And so there’s this large gap that I think we’ve seen this week exposed between sort of the Western notions of freedom of speech, freedom of press, and the same notions in the Muslim world that are just vastly different.
ABERNETHY: And you can’t stop it, but religious leaders, both Muslims and Christians and others in this country, can come out very strongly, as some of them did this week, saying no, don’t demonize anybody else’s religion.
LAWTON: That was certainly one message we heard from the interfaith community, urging their members, don’t, you know, put out things that might stoke tensions. I was also surprised to see and interested to watch some of the reaction in the Muslim community. While many Muslim leaders certainly didn’t like the video and denounced the video, I did hear some pretty strong statements directed at their own community. I mean, the Muslim Public Affairs Council released a statement saying we look to our Muslim leadership to reflect on how we’ve come to such an extreme point in our own community as well.
ABERNETHY: Kim Lawton and Kevin Eckstrom, many thanks to you both.
ECKSTROM: Thanks.
Sephardic High Holidays
RABBI JOSHUA MAROOF (Magen David Sephardic Congregation in Rockville, Maryland): Selichot literally means prayers for forgiveness and this tradition is a very ancient one it goes back at least a thousand years if not more.
When Sephardic Jews recite selichot, even though the content is serious and one can say it’s even somber, there is a joy to the way that we recite selichot. There’s an excitement, there’s an energy a happiness to it because this reconnecting with God in advance of the High Holidays places us in a spiritual state that is so much more conducive to really being able to enjoy and get the most out of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur out of the High Holidays are just around the corner.
The term “Sephardic” is originally derived from the word sepharad which means Spain. In our own congregation we have Jews from the whole gamut of what would now be called Sephardic Jewry including many, many Jews from Morocco, in particular; Iraqi Jews, Iranian, Syrian, Indian Jews, Jews from North Africa who may or may not be of Spanish decent.
Our melodies are a blend of predominantly Moroccan melodies because we have such a large and vibrant Moroccan Jewish community, but also what is called Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi is a style of music which is really based on the Arabic styles of music and is primarily the style of prayer of the Syrian Jews.
The shofar on Rosh Hashanah is suppose to signify our crying out to God, a crying that can’t be articulated in words, something that’s coming from the heart.
We have our Torah in a hard case. It’s the Middle Eastern Jews who had this practice of putting their Torah into a hard case. On the New Year on Rosh Hashanah, we are reading about Abraham being faced with the challenge the test of having to hypothetically sacrifice his son, Isaac, and in the context of the high Holidays what it makes us think about obviously is willingness to dedicate ourselves to a higher purpose.
When the Jews commit the sin of worshipping the golden calf in the Book of Exodus we are told that Moses goes unto the mountain, back up to Mount Sinai for 40 days to pray for forgiveness, and according to tradition God finally forgave the Jews on Yom Kippur, on the day of Atonement that so 40 day period that Moses was praying on the mountain is the 40 day period we pray selichot, our own supplications for forgiveness.
One of the things we ask God for is for the time to be able to correct to be able to rectify errors that we made, and be able to rise above them with the full recognition that nobody knows what day is going to be their last.
It can be overwhelming when people think about the ultimate judgment before God and the sense of destiny, the sense of mortality that we are preoccupied with, but when one considers that God is willing to take all of that off your shoulders as long as you’re doing what you can to take a few steps in the right direction it’s a very positive and inspiring and comforting message I believe.
Rabbi Joshua Maroof Extended Interview
In advance of the Jewish High Holidays, “You pray the selichot, and you leave with the melodies on your lips and your mind throughout the whole day. The music stays in your heart.” Watch more of producer Susan Goldstein’s interview with Rabbi Joshua Maroof about Sephardic music and prayers for forgiveness as Rosh Hashanah approaches.
Mormons and Evangelicals
LUCKY SEVERSON, correspondent: This is the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, epicenter of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There’s been a lot of criticism about Mormonism, especially among evangelicals like Stephen Davis. He’s a religion scholar at Claremont McKenna College.
PROFESSOR STEPHEN DAVIS (Philosophy and Religious Studies, Claremont McKenna College): If the question is, is Mormonism a legitimate expression of Christianity, honestly I would have to say no. I think that legitimate expressions of Christianity can be found in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, virtually all the Protestant denominations, but not Mormonism, because too many of their doctrines and beliefs are non-Christian.
PROFESSOR PATRICK MASON (Chair of Mormon Studies, Claremont Graduate University): Mormons take real offense when people tell them that they’re not Christian.
SEVERSON: Patrick Mason is the chairman of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University and a Mormon himself.
MASON: If Christian defines what is your relationship to Jesus—do you believe that salvation comes through Jesus, do you worship Jesus Christ—then no doubt Mormons are Christian. I mean they’ll be the first to tell you, look at the name of the church; it’s the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
SEVERSON: Mason says antagonism toward Mormons stretches back to the beginning of the church. They’ve been called a cult, demonic, a false religion with a false prophet.
MASON: Mormons in a lot of ways are scarred from a long history of misrepresentation in what they see as false reports about the church or unfair treatment of the church, and this goes all the way back to the 1830s.
SEVERSON: That was when Joseph Smith said he had a revelation where Jesus told him that all the religions at that time were an abomination in his sight. From then on Mormons, who were seen by some as lower-class, superstitious dupes, were targets of ridicule and violence eventually leading to the assassination of Joseph Smith. In the 1860s, the government sent the army to Utah to keep an eye on the Mormons. The army established this fort overlooking Salt Lake City. The cannons that were here were aimed at the Mormons.
But the most vocal critics of Mormons have long been evangelicals. Richard Mouw, president and professor of Christian philosophy at the Fuller School of Theology, says one reason is because Mormons have been such good proselytizers.
PROFESSOR RICHARD MOUW (Fuller Theological Seminary): Mormonism began as this evangelistic program of going out and getting converts, and very often converts from the traditional denominations, and so evangelicals and Mormons have had an unusually hostile relationship over the years because they have been sort of competing proselytizing programs, but also they traded the rhetoric in very hostile terms.
MASON: There’s a sense of them-against-us that in some ways gets inflated among the grassroots membership of the church. But there is no doubt that for many people they see evangelicals as the enemy, and they need to be converted.
SEVERSON: Among scholars, the important distinction between Mormonism and most mainstream Christian churches centers on theology.
MASON: The Mormon view of the Godhead is that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three separate beings, so Mormons reject a Trinitarian notion that they’re three in one. Mormons see them as three distinct and separate beings.
DAVIS: Evangelical Christians, like all mainstream Christians, want to say that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in some really strong, ontological sense.
MASON: And Mormons also have an idea that they’re not—that God is not ontologically different than humans in the sense so God and humans are essentially the same species, that humans can progress to eventually become like God. God is not radically “other,” but in a sense approachable and understandable and knowable.
DAVIS: The idea that God, the God whom we worship, was once a human being and then grew to be God, grew to Godhood, will strike most evangelical Christians as being blasphemous.
SEVERSON: Another fundamental difference is that Mormons rely on more than just the Bible for the word of God.
MASON: Certainly Mormons don’t believe in the Bible as the only word of God. They believe in an open canon, that God continues to speak to prophets today.
DAVIS: They believe in continuing revelation. They have three other books, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price and a book called Doctrines and Covenants, and evangelical Christians would never accept that those books are inspired or the word of God or are prophetic.
MOUW: So I often say that the bad news about Mormonism is they believe in continuing revelation. The good news about Mormonism is that they believe in continuing revelation, and they might actually, in continuing revelation, begin to modify and alter some of the things that they see themselves as having received in earlier revelation.
SEVERSON: Mormon theology has changed over the years after church prophets have received new revelations. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the church allowed blacks to hold the priesthood. And the church’s policy allowing plural marriage was abandoned in the 1890s after a prophetic revelation.
DAVIS: A lot of Americans are suspicious of Mormons over the issue of polygamy, which should have gone away a long time ago. But the problem is that there are these Mormon fundamentalist sects, especially in southern Utah and northern Arizona, that still practice polygamy, and I think that gets a lot of the American people confused about what the Mormon Church’s position really is.
SEVERSON: As for lingering animosity today, Professor Mouw says some of it is because the Mormon Church has grown so big and prosperous.
MOUW: And I think it has something to do with the growth of Mormonism. While on the one hand they’re entering into the mainstream in a lot of ways, they’re also a very powerful presence globally—14 million Mormons around the world. They’re identified with some of the major businesses. There’s a sense that it’s a kind of juggernaut, that it has tremendous clout.
SEVERSON: As for the claims that Mormonism is a cult, Professor Mouw takes exception.
MOUW: I mean one reason why I don’t think it’s very helpful to call Mormonism a cult is that they have a world-class university. They have scholars who consider all kinds of complex topics. You know, Scientology doesn’t have a world-class university. Hari Krishna doesn’t, Jehovah Witnesses don’t. But Mormonism has pretty much entered into the mainstream of intellectual life.
SEVERSON: Mouw goes even further, accusing some some of Mormonism’s accusers of “shading the truth.”
MOUW: I want to say I think the motives of people who often attack, for example, attack Mormons as evangelical leaders or other kinds of Christian leaders is that they do want to protect their people against falsehood, against being led astray. But when it comes in terms of standing up for the truth, if you tell falsehoods about another religion that’s bearing false witness against our neighbors.
SEVERSON: Mouw expressed those sentiments to a packed house at the Mormon Tabernacle. His words did not sit well with many evangelicals.
MOUW: The press the next morning the big story was “Fuller Seminary president says we’ve sinned against Mormons,” and boy, I get hate mail yet on that.
DAVIS: I think we have not been fair. There’s a lot of anti-Mormon apologetics that are out there and anti-Mormon polemics, where unfair charges are made against the Mormons. I think that’s absolutely right.
SEVERSON: The bias against Mormonism has been a problem for Mitt Romney’s campaign. But attitudes seem to be changing. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that eight of ten voters who know Mitt Romney is a Mormon say they are either comfortable with his faith or that it no longer matters.
For Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, I’m Lucky Severson in Salt Lake City.
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Haris Tarin: “When You Try to Incite, You’re Not Part of Our Civic Society”
Faith leaders gathered together at the National Press Club to condemn the murder of U.S. diplomats in Libya and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Cairo as well as incitement by online video. Watch our interview with Haris Tarin, director of the Washington, DC office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who says the anti-US violence “does not stand for who we are as a people.”
Interfaith Meditation
“We often think of meditation as being primarily a solo activity, but there is a communal aspect even though you’re in silence… I think that communal aspect is part of what helps build that habit of heart over time,” says Pastor Cathy Abbott of Arlington Temple United Methodist Church. The church hosts daily silent group meditation for people of all faiths.
Religion and the Democratic National Convention
KIM LAWTON, correspondent: In accepting the Democratic nomination, President Obama sounded several religious themes.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We draw strength from our victories, and we learn from our mistakes, but we keep our eyes fixed on that distant horizon, knowing that Providence is with us, and that we are surely blessed to be citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.
LAWTON: He also made a reference to his personal faith.
OBAMA: While I’m proud of what we’ve achieved together, I’m far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, “I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.”
LAWTON: For years, Democrats have battled the public perception that their party is not friendly toward religion, and that battle was evident again this week. Controversy erupted after the initially-approved Democratic platform had removed any explicit mention of God. Then, in a last minute floor action, delegates re-inserted a reference to “God-given potential” from the 2008 platform. Rev. Derrick Harkins is director of Faith Outreach for the Democratic National Committee. He said the Democratic platform always contained a strong—and specific—appreciation of faith.
REV. DERRICK HARKINS (Democratic National Committee): People of faith make up a significant and important and valuable part of who we are as Democrats and that’s across the spectrum of faith traditions. We are committed to the values and ideals that people of faith hold and we have a president who has expressed that consistently and persistently and so we just want to make sure that that message gets out. That’s our task.
LAWTON: According to Harkins, this week had the largest amount of official faith-related events ever at a Democratic convention. As is tradition at both conventions, each floor session was opened and closed with prayers by a diverse array of religious leaders. In addition, the DNC organized daily prayer gatherings. And twice during the week, the Faith Council held panel discussions where delegates and guests from the religious community reflected on faith and national issues.
Also this year, the Democrats invited a prominent nun, Sister Simone Campbell from the lobby group NETWORK, to address the delegates on the floor. She gave a rousing faith-based critique of proposed Republican budget cuts and their potential impact on the poor.
SISTER. SIMONE CAMPBELL (Executive Director of NETWORK): Together, we understand that an immoral budget that hurts already struggling families does not reflect our nation’s values. We are better than that.
LAWTON: Harkins acknowledged the faith-based attention was strategic for Democrats.
HARKINS: Faith communities are such an inherent place of mobilization and engagement.
LAWTON: In the last election, 54 percent of all Catholics voted for President Obama. He also did very well among Jewish voters, black Protestants, and those who say they are not affiliated with any particular religion. John McCain did slightly better among Protestants over all. The vast majority of evangelicals voted Republican.
Democratic officials said they are taking no constituency for granted in this campaign. But there are challenges in many parts of their faith coalition. Catholics will be key in this election, especially given their large numbers in several battleground states. For many Catholics, the Democratic Party’s strong support for abortion rights remains a stumbling block. A group called Democrats for Life has been pushing the Party to include their perspective. At the same time, they have been working to convince Catholics that it’s okay to vote Democratic.
STEPHEN SCHNECK (Catholics for Obama): When I look at the policies outside of the abortion arena, when I look at things like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and community health centers and public housing programs, these are all programs that are proven to have a good impact in lowering the abortion rates in the United States.
LAWTON: Stephen Schneck is co-chair of Catholics for Obama. He asserts that the proposed Republican budget cuts will lead to more abortions.
SCHNECK: Thinking about that, I have to say I’m morally challenged to think about supporting Romney-Ryan as a pro-life voter.
LAWTON: On the Jewish front, there was outrage after the Democratic platform eliminated a previous provision asserting that Jerusalem “is and will remain” the capital of Israel. That provision was later re-inserted along with the mention of God. Republican Jewish activists have been arguing that President Obama is vulnerable among Jewish voters because of his policies on Israel. But leaders here said it is wrong to stereotype Jewish views. Jeremy Ben-Ami is president of the Jewish lobby group J Street.
JEREMY BEN-AMI (J Street): There’s a wide range of views among Jewish Americans when it comes to Israel. It turns out the majority of Jewish Americans are actually quite moderate in their views and not as hawkish and militant as the loudest voices that are heard.
LAWTON: He’s confident Jews will vote for Obama in high numbers in November.
BEN-AMI: That vote is not up for grabs in any significant way and it is certainly not when it comes to Israel.
LAWTON: Among some Black Protestants, there was concern earlier this year after President Obama changed his position to now support same-sex marriage.
WILLIAM OWENS, JR. (We Celebrate Marriage): It is a major significant issue for the black church. The black community holds to a core sense of values and one of those values is family and to support gay marriage is to do away with family.
LAWTON: But delegates here who also oppose gay marriage say it hasn’t eroded support for Obama in their community.
MARKGETTA LANGFORD (Georgia Delegate): If you’re going to take one issue, and just throw out everything he’s trying to work for because of one issue? I can’t do that.
LAWTON: Meanwhile, Democrats have been working to make inroads in other religious communities that are traditionally Republican, such as evangelicals. A group of local churches held a prayer rally before the convention focusing on what they called the spiritual and moral decline in America. Democratic activists are trying to make the case that the economy is also a moral issue.
CHRISTINA FORRESTER (Christian Democrats of America): A lot of our values as Christians are about taking care of the least of these, it’s concerning the poor, immigration, caring for people with mercy so we’re looking at things like, in the context of mercy, compassion and that’s what the Bible really talks about and that’s what Jesus tells us to do.
SEN. HARRY REID (US Senate Majority Leader): I’m a Democrat because I am a Mormon.
LAWTON: And, while most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are Republican, a new group called LDS Democrats argues that the Democratic Party is actually a better fit with their values.
TAYLOR HARTLEY (LDS Democrats): As I think about how we are to put upon charity above all other virtues, I then think to myself, Ok, which political party most closely follows the virtues of charity and compassion and clearly, it’s the Democratic Party.
LAWTON: Taylor Hartley’s wife, Jamie, a delegate from Utah, has a rare illness. For them, affordable healthcare is the most pressing issue. I asked if they weren’t even a little tempted to vote for fellow Mormon Mitt Romney.
JAMIE HARTLEY (LDS Democrats): It’s tempting because I would love to see a Mormon president. But, when it comes down to the values that are most important to me, I have to stick to those.
LAWTON: Amid all the faith-based outreach, there were some cautions. Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said while religion should have a vigorous role in public life, there are some fine lines that shouldn’t be crossed.
REV. C. WELTON GADDY (Interfaith Alliance): I’m going against both parties when I say this: I don’t feel really good about religious outreach that says we want to take the role of the church and use that as a role for enlisting people to support our party. Religion’s role in this nation has always been most important when congregations acted like religious bodies, not political bodies.
LAWTON: Religion, he believes, should contribute to something larger than politics.
GADDY: Bringing together our nation is more important than who wins an election. On the day after the election, we’ve got to be a nation that has learned enough from this past several years, that whoever wins, we can come together and say, we’re going to make this nation what it ought to be.
LAWTON: I’m Kim Lawton in Charlotte.
Stephen Schneck: The Complex Catholic Vote
Stephen Schneck is co-chair of Catholics for Obama. He is also director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America. Schneck talks about the importance and the complexity of Catholic voters and how Catholics can reconcile supporting President Obama despite his abortion position and his administration’s policy directing employers to provide free contraceptive services.
