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from FaithWorld:
Family Research Council to issue “Index of Family Belonging and Rejection”
Indices are all the rage these days. In his recently published and thought-provoking "Why the West Rules -- For Now," historian Ian Morris has created an "index on social development" which, among other things, attempts to measure the West and East's "energy capture."
There are of course plenty of other examples (and future historians will no doubt see it as a sign of our times -- as Morris notes, ages get the "thought they need"). The latest addition to this swelling modern family of indices will come on Wednesday when the conservative, Washington-based Family Research Council (FRC) releases its first annual "Index of Family Belonging and Rejection." The index is a product of its Marriage and Religion Research Institute.
The details of the index will be released at 10:00 EDT on Wednesday but FRC has already made public the fact that it finds that "less than 50 percent of American children have spent their childhood belonging in an intact family." It defines an "intact family" as one where "a child's birth mother and biological father (were) legally married to one another since before or around the time of the child's birth." The study will also rank all 50 states and America's 25 largest cities. (Family Research Council President Tony Perkins addresses his group's "Values Voter Summit" in Washington October 19, 2007. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES)
The FRC is an influential conservative Christian lobby that is overtly evangelical and its president, Tony Perkins, has become one of the leading voices on the religious right. It has long been a target of liberal critics and its findings will no doubt be seen in some quarters as biased from the get go. The promotion of "family values" and a stable, traditional mother-father family is a big part of what FRC is about, and the index should certainly be read against that backdrop. That doesn't mean it won't be of interest.
from Good, Bad, and Ugly:
The wrong church?
Could you please correct the picture posted with this article?
The picture is of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, which in no way is connected to the story.
As a prominent landmark of Winnipeg, our Cathedral should in no way be associated with this article.
from FaithWorld:
Germans more negative towards Muslims than other Europeans
(Photo: Anti-Muslim campaign posters by a far-right party in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state, with slogans saying 'Ban minarets - also for NRW' and 'Vote pro NRW - Stop Islamisation', in Bonn, April 23, 2010/Wolfgang Rattay)
Only about one third of Germans think positively of their Muslim neighbors, a much lower proportion than in other western European countries, according to a new poll published on Thursday. In contrast, 62 percent of Dutch and 56 percent of French people responding to the TNS Emnid survey indicated they had positive attitudes toward Muslims.
Detlef Pollack, a Muenster University sociologist who led the study, attributed Germans' views to their lack of contact with Muslims compared to people in other nations surveyed. "The more often you meet Muslims, the more you view them as generally positive," he said.
from UK News:
A priest’s guide: How to Swim the Tiber Safely
About 50 Church of England priests opposed to the consecration of women as bishops are expected to be in the first wave of Anglicans to take up an offer by Pope Benedict and convert to Rome. The traditionalist priests will be joined by five bishops and 30 groups of parishioners, in a structure called an ordinariate, or a Church subdivision, in the new year.
About 300 priests switched in the early 1900s when women were ordained as priests. Then they did not have the comfort of moving over in groups, and nearly 70 returned to the Anglican fold.
from FaithWorld:
Support for UN vote against defaming religion wanes
A U.N. General Assembly committee has once again voted to condemn the "vilification of religion" but support narrowed for a measure that Western powers say is a threat to freedom of expression. The non-binding resolution, championed by Islamic states and opposed by Western countries, passed by only 12 votes on Tuesday in the General Assembly's Third Committee, which focuses on human rights, 76-64 with 42 abstentions.
(Photo: United Nations General Assembly in New York September 24, 2010/Keith Bedford)
Opponents noted that support had fallen and opposition increased since last year, when the Third Committee vote was 81-55 with 43 abstentions. The 192-nation General Assembly is expected to formally adopt the measure next month.
from FaithWorld:
A review of Christian-Muslim conflict and a modest proposal to counter it
At a Christian-Muslim conference in Geneva this week, participants agreed to build a network for "peace teams" to intervene in crises where religious differences are invoked as the cause of the dispute. The idea is that religious differences may not be the real problem in a so-called religious conflict, but rather a means to mobilise the masses in a dispute that actually stems from political or economic rivalries.
(Photo: Coffins of two of 52 killed in al-Qaeda-linked attack last Sunday on a Baghdad church, 2 Nov 2010/Thaier al-Sudani)
If outside experts could help disentangle religion from the other issues, the argument goes, that could help neutralise religion's capacity to mobilise and inflame, in the hope of leading to a de-escalation of the crisis.
from FaithWorld:
Christian-Muslim crisis response group to defuse religious tensions
(Photo: Christian and Muslim leaders at Nov 1-4, 2010 Geneva conference/WCC - Mark Beach)
Christian and Muslim leaders agreed on Thursday to set up "rapid deployment teams" to try to defuse tensions when their faiths are invoked by conflicting parties in flashpoints such as Nigeria, Iraq, Egypt or the Philippines. Meeting this week in Geneva, they agreed the world's two biggest religions must take concrete steps to foster interfaith peace rather than let themselves be dragged into conflicts caused by political rivalries, oppression or injustice.
Among the organisations backing the plan were the World Council of Churches (WCC), which groups 349 different Christian churches around the world, and the Libyan-based World Islamic Call Society (WICS), a network with about 600 affiliated Muslim bodies. They would send Christian and Muslim experts to intervene on both sides in a religious conflict to calm tensions and clear up misunderstandings about the role of faith in the dispute.
from FaithWorld:
The slow death of multiculturalism in Europe
The following is a guest contribution. Reuters is not responsible for the content and the views expressed are the authors’ alone. Ibrahim Kalin is senior advisor to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. This article first appeared in Today's Zaman in Istanbul and is reprinted with its permission.
By Ibrahim Kalin
Has multiculturalism run its course in Europe? If one takes a picture of certain European countries today and freezes it, that would be the logical conclusion.
from FaithWorld:
Conservation, religion join to save Ganges dolphin
As the sun sets over a serene stretch of the mighty Ganges, a pair of smooth, grey dolphins arch gracefully out of the water, bringing hope that wildlife can again call India's great river home.
(Photo: Ganges sunset in Allahabad, 31 Dec 2008/Jitendra Prakash)
Millions of Indians along the banks of the 2,500 km (1,550 mile)-long Ganges depend on the river, but unchecked levels of agricultural, industrial and domestic waste have poured in over the past decades, threatening the wildlife.
from FaithWorld:
Don’t preach to us, Hamas tells secular West
The West is floundering in immorality and has no right to criticise the Islamist movement Hamas over the way it governs the Palestinian territory of Gaza, a veteran leader of the militant group said. Hamas strategist Mahmoud Al-Zahar told Reuters in an interview that Islamic traditions deserved respect and he accused Europe of promoting promiscuity and political hypocrisy.
(Photo: Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip October 23, 2010/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
"We have the right to control our life according to our religion, not according to your religion. You have no religion, You are secular," said Zahar, who is one of the group's most influential and respected voices.
