Get out your green! It’s St. Patrick’s Day. USA TODAY Network explains the origins of some of the Irish holiday’s traditions.
CHR Comment: This story illustrates nationalist features of St. Patrick’s Day, especially among Irish Americans. The holiday is a celebration of Irish heritage more than remembrance of the saint and his role in Christianity.
The report also highlights the precarious relationship between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
CHR Comment: The survey and article illustrate just how few Christians live in Israel compared with Jewish and Muslim populations. Nevertheless, Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land continues as it has since ancient times.
A British former “church boy” was among the 1,763 ISIS jihadists whose recruitment forms were leaked this week.
CHR Comment: The heart wrenching story of Fasil Towalde, whose family fled violence in Eretria and settled in England. Fasil became involved in a London gang and landed to jail. There he converted to Islam, and when released, headed for Syria where he was killed in fighting, leaving a grieving family.
Myanmar’s massive drug trade is a pillar of the economy.
CHR Comment: The aggressive tactics of the Pat Jason movement in Myanmar is an example of vigilante justice where there is no governmental effort to address the drug problems in mountainous Kachin State. The group, formed mostly by Baptists and Roman Catholics, perform drug raids, interrogations, and have flogged addicts in an effort to inspire repentance. The group claims more than 100,000 members, which if true would make it one of the largest interest groups in the nation.
Source: Myanmar Christian group attacks drug trade at its source
Mother Teresa, the nun who worked with the poor in the Indian city of Kolkata, will be declared a saint on 4 September, Pope Francis announces.
CHR Comment: Mother Teresa was the most famous nun and, alongside of the popes, was the most well recognized Roman Catholic leader in the twentieth century due to the high respect people had for her labors of mercy in Kolkata. Yet as the article describes, she was a controversial figure in some respects due to associations with some people drawn to her work. Additionally, in 2007 a collection of her personal letters came to publication, which showed that she endured decades of spiritual struggle without feeling the presence of God in her life, as described by the Time article in the second link below. Her statements in these letters have drawn sharp criticism from atheists who point to them as evidence that God did not truly exist for her. One wonders which interpretation of Mother Teresa’s life will dominate. In any case, she clung tenaciously to her beliefs and practices as a Roman Catholic Christian in the face of her feelings.
I add this thought: Ironically, if atheists appeal to the feelings of Mother Teresa as an argument against her religious beliefs, they are essential appealing to emotions/feelings as an argument for their beliefs. This seems to contradict their own beliefs in rationally based arguments. Their argument is really more rhetorical than rational.
Source: Mother Teresa to be made a saint, Pope Francis announces – BBC News
Already there is much talk about the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church. Between now and June 19, 2016, when the council . . . .
CHR Comment: John Chryssavgis describes the background of the meeting of leaders from the Eastern Orthodox Churches, which is to take place in June, 2016. He explains that they council is unlikely to provide the wealthy of news that westerners are accustom to receiving from Vatican and western ecumenical meetings. The most likely reason that so many Eastern church leaders are coming together is the issues of persecution.
Source: On the Great Council of the Orthodox Church | John Chryssavgis | First Things
The meeting will be the first between a pope and a Russian Orthodox Patriarch in history.
CHR Comment: Western reporters tend to describe the meeting of Francis and Kirill as a potential first step toward reunification between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. This is a poor assessment of what is actually taking place. The pope and the patriarch both hold authority on behalf of large church bodies. It seems very unlikely that one leader would submit his church body to the authority of the other, which would be the necessary outcome of any reunification according to the doctrine and practice of these hierarchical churches. When one reads deeper into the article, one sees that the leaders are meeting to discuss a common interest: the problem of persecution in Asia and perhaps also to discuss grievances. Nevertheless, this is a precedent setting meeting.
An ecumenical expectation that Roman Catholics and Russian Orthodox Christians will soon reunite into a common church body does not begin to understand the complex history, doctrine, and practice of the two churches. Although a few Asian-based church bodies have reunited with Rome, they did so at moments of desperate need when persecution was threatening to wipe them out. The Russian Orthodox are not in that position at all given their large numbers and their interconnections with the Russian government, which went through painful transitions from the time of the tsars, the Communists, and now the Russian-style representative government that exists today. If anything, the Russian Orthodox Church is on its strongest political footing since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
Source: Pope Francis To Hold Historic Meeting In Cuba With Russian Orthodox Church Leader
http://www.religionnews.com/2016/02/05/historic-meeting-between-pope-russian-patriarch/
“Surprise,” she said. “I’m still alive.” Now he’s in jail.
CHR Comment: An immigrant to Australia ordered the assassination of his wife, but she survived! When the wife was in trouble, she contacted her pastor, who helped her confront the husband who had ordered her assassination. The story illustrates an odd situation a pastor may find himself in as he cares for his flock. It also illustrates how immigrants with a violent past may continue in that violent mindset. Lord, have mercy.
Brazilian journalist Ana Carolina Caceres tells of her life with microcephaly, the congenital malformation by which babies have abnormally small heads and may suffer from delayed brain development.
CHR Comment: An excellent, short statement about Zika virus, abortion, and life. One may note that Journalist Caceres graduated from a Christian University, which shows up in one of the photographs.
Source: Microcephaly patient Ana Carolina Caceres: ‘I survived’ – BBC News
ROME (RNS) The change of heart by Peter Tatchell, a leading voice on LGBT issues, over a case in Northern Ireland was a surprising turnabout.
CHR Comment: Having the courts force Christians to write messages that support gay “marriage” has grave implications for freedom of speech and right to dissent. The examples of terrorism and Holocaust illustrate the problems of preventing religious persons from dissenting. Tatchell now sees the legal implications more clearly: forcing people to do things against their conscience is fundamentally wrong. In a free society, public discourse and practice of law eventually move toward balance and this appears to be such a move.
Source: Gay rights campaigner reverses course in gay cake dispute – Religion News Service
church history review 