The churches are willing, but the bureaucracy is weak: UK Christians welcome refugees amid frustrations with immigration process

When Wai Lin Wong arrived in Bristol from Hong Kong in April 2021, one of the first things she did was look for a new church.

“I logged onto Facebook; I searched Google,” she said, “and found churches with webpages translated into Chinese, groups of other Hong Kongers, and sanctuaries full of people like me.”

That happened a lot, said Mark Nam, an Anglican priest in Bristol. As the Chinese government clamped down on the democratic freedoms of the former British colony in 2020, thousands of Hong Kongers fled to the UK thanks to a visa programthat allows them to live and work in Britain with a pathway to full citizenship.

Hundreds of churches announced they would welcome the Hong Kongers with open arms. They did. And cities like Bristol have since seen their churches swell with newcomers, Nam said. Anglican parishes, Chinese Protestant churches, and evangelical congregations all grew dramatically in the last year.

“It’s been wonderful to see the welcome,” Nam said last year.

In recent months, UK Christians responded to another influx of refugees, this time from Ukraine.

The Sanctuary Foundation, which supports potential sponsors and assists the government in rolling out its Homes for Ukraine program, said over 2,000 churches, businesses, and schools plugged into their programming or volunteered to help in some way since March.

But in both cases, along with the surge of compassion, support programs, and congregational growth, there have come a host of challenges—from bureaucratic inertia to worrying signs of prejudiced double standards.

Sanctuary Foundation’s founder Krish Kandiah, who has been working with refugees since the 1990s, said his organization has been seeing churches welcome thousands of newcomers from Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine.

The outpouring of generosity by congregations, individuals, and local organizations has been immense. Amid the rush from Ukraine alone, more than 1,000 UK churches stepped up to host refugees, he said.

However, enthusiasm on the part of Britain’s churches has not always been met with efficiency or empathy by their government.

Religion on the docket: U.S. Supreme Court decides on cases with religious ramifications

Perhaps NPR’s Nina Totenberg put it best when she said the docket for the 2021-2022 U.S. Supreme Court term is “a humdinger with major cases involving the biggest social issues of the day.”

With a notably altered composition after the addition of three Trump appointees, the court now features six reliably conservative members. With that makeup, SCOTUS is set to decide on significant social controversies related to abortion, the separation of church and state, government surveillance and normative clarity around the scope of free expression. 

The news cycle on these cases started back in October as oral arguments began and three decisions were already issued. The churn of news is picking back up again as some cases are just now being argued and other rulings are handed down. 

Just as this edition of ReligionLink was about to go to press, the decision on Shurtleff v. Boston came out. Then, quite dramatically a draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to Politico, wherein he writes that the 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion is “egregiously wrong.” The leak is unprecedented and if the draft is issued as a majority ruling, it would overturn the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S.

The latest edition of ReligionLink will get you up to speed with background explainers, resources and experts for covering the most relevant, religion-related cases the Supreme Court is set to decide on this term — or for which it already issued judgment.

Visiting Every. Church. In. Berlin.

When Berliners Piet and Ulrike Jonas travel abroad, they head into local churches to gawk at stained glass windows, ponder over ornate altar pieces, and discern the meaning of devotional art.

“It is a way for us to get to know the place,” said Piet, “to begin to understand its history and the people who lived there.”

With church visits featuring so prominently in their vacations, Piet and Ulrike wondered if they might start doing the same in their home city.

And so, one-by-one, they began to look in on Berlin’s churches. What started as a hobby quickly turned into a goal-oriented project: to visit every church in Berlin.

Alle Kirchen Berlins was born.

According to their website, their project is simple. “We want to see all the churches in Berlin from the inside,” they wrote. According to their count, that means visiting some 450 locations. As of January 2022, they were at number 381.

The project, however, is not explicitly religious in nature. Nor is it specifically historical, architectural, or social. Instead, Piet and Ulrike said it’s about getting to know Berlin.

Along the way, they are encountering the city’s diversity and development, it’s eclecticism and surprising spiritual effervescence.

“One would not think that Berlin is an especially religious city,” said Ulrike, “and yet we are finding out just how important religion has been and still is.

More than showcasing some of the most remarkable, interesting, or site-seeable places of worship, Alle Kirchen Berlins provides insight into how we understand and negotiate what counts as religion. Moreover, the project highlights how our encounter with religion is part of the way in which contemporary societies — and cities — organize and understand themselves.

Specifically, Piet and Ulrike’s project highlights how city dwellers determine what counts as sacred and secular, how immigration has long been a part of shaping urban religious expressions, and how the notion of religion and the notion of a city are entangled with one another, the one shaping the other and vice versa.

For Dr. Kezevino Aram, Joy Comes from Serving the Most Vulnerable

The township of Kovaipudur has a reputation.

Located in the foothills of the Sahyadri Mountain range and part of the city of Coimbatore, in Tamil Nadu, India, the township enjoys gentle mountain breezes and monsoon rains that create a generally serene setting of lush vegetation. Locals know Kovaipudur is cooler than the rest of the city.

But Kovaipudur is also known as the home of Shanti Ashram, an international centre for development, learning and collaboration founded by Dr. M. Aram and Mrs. Minoti Aram, who are Dr. Kezevino Aram´s parents,  in 1986 on the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya (progress for all).

According to Shanti Ashram’s records, its community work impacts more than 250,000 people in Coimbatore and its environs. Dr. Kezevino Aram has been leading the Ashram as its President since 2014. Through her hands-on, collaborative approach, Aram has responded to numerous challenges and crises in her community— most recently the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hungarian Evangelicals Thank God for Viktor Orbán Victory

Szófia Boros voted for Victor Orbán. The young evangelical mother of two has her misgivings about the man who has been accused of undermining democracy—curtailing press freedom, undercutting the independent judiciary, and changing election rules to give an advantage to his political party, Fidesz.

But in the end, it was pretty simple to support him for reelection on April 3.

“Evangelical Christians support the majority of Orbán’s policies and positions, even if we don’t really admire the way he goes about his politics,” she said. “I voted for him because he is a conservative Christian standing up against a liberal Europe.”

Evangelicals aren’t a big or politically organized voting bloc in Hungary. Only a few evangelical groups are established enough to achieve recognition from the national government, including the Baptist Union, the Hungarian Methodist Church, the Hungarian Pentecostal Church, the Church of the Nazarene, and the charismatic Faith Church, whose pastor endorsedOrbán during a Sunday service.

About half the people in the country consider themselves Catholic, a quarter has no religious affiliation, and 16 percent—including Orbán—identify with the Reformed Church in Hungary, which is part of the mainline World Council of Churches and affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Eighty percent of the country identifies as Christian, but only about 15 percent of Hungarians attend church on a weekly basis.

But a lot of Hungarians, it turns out, feel like Boros. They wanted a conservative Christian prime minister committed to defending what they see as a Christian culture and its Christian values.

This ain't your mama's paganism: understanding modern witchcraft, nature religions and ‘neopaganism’

As part of sweeping transformations in American religion and renewed interest in New Age spiritualities, modern paganism is tapping into a deep desire for self-empowerment, social engagement and reconnection with the natural world. 

Inspired by, or derived from, historical pagan and nature religions, modern paganism is an undeniably broad, collective category that covers a diverse range of groups that can differ greatly in belief and practice.

While Wicca and astrology have enjoyed a certain popularity for several decades, a wave of new publications has highlighted how personalized spiritual practices, home-brewed magic and shamanistic self-discovery are now enjoying their own renaissance. 

The latest edition of ReligionLink explores this new “neopaganism,” what some are calling a broader “re-paganization of religion.”

Going Hungry for God: Why Do People Fast?

“I wonder what it would be like to fast in Siberia,” my friend Mohammed asked.

Mohammed had always enjoyed Ramadan in the company of family and friends in Jordan — a Muslim-majority country in the Middle East. He was curious what it might be like to fast in places where Muslims were in the minority or where daylight hours extended late into the night, extending the fasting period beyond the limits he was used to.

According to Islamic tradition, fasting is required during Ramadan, the ninth month of its lunar calendar. In 2022, Ramadan is likely to start on April 2. For thirty days, those fasting are obligated to abstain from drinking, eating, or engaging in other indulgent activities (like sex, smoking, and activities considered sinful) from just before sunrise to sunset. Depending upon where you are in the world, that can mean fasting 10 or up-to-21 hours. It was the idea of fasting for such a potentially long time that prompted Mohammed’s ponderous question about fasting in Siberia.

Muslims are far from the only religious actors who fast. Bahá’ís fast during daylight hours during the first three weeks of March in preparation for the Naw-Rúz Festival. As this post goes to press, Christians the world over are still in the midst of their Lenten fasts and looking forward to Easter. Jews fast as part of Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — as a means of repentance and solemn preparation. Some Hindus regularly practice fasting as a means of willful detachment and devotion.

With such a wide range of similar aesthetic practices, one might wonder: why do so many different religious people choose to go hungry for god?

In India, attacks on Christians signal wider, worrying trends for religious minorities

Vigilante lynching mobs. State-sponsored harassment. Vandals defacing houses of worship. 

According to recent reports, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and other religious minorities in India are being confronted by renewed and increased attacks.

In July 2021, the London School of Economics and Political Science, through research commissioned by the persecution watchdog Open Doors, reported that religious minorities in India are facing “imminent existential threat.” 

The most prominent source of this anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, and anti-Sikh sentiment is Hindutva, a type of Hindu nationalism that advocates for the transformation of constitutionally secular India into an ethno-religious state based on Hindu supremacy. 

Hindutva should be distinguished from Hindu religious traditions, some of the world’s most ancient religious texts and practices, as well as to traditions that are present throughout every part of the globe today.

Along with other religious minorities, Christians are believed to have allegiances that lie outside India — or having adopted the religion of colonial rulers — and thus are not “true Indians” according to Hindutva activists and advocates. Wanting to purify India of their presence, there has been an increase in violent rhetoric against, and orchestrated attacks on, Christians in recent years. 

Increased pressure, attacks

In December, Al Jazeera reported that human rights groups recorded more than 300 attacks on Christians and their places of worship from January to September 2021 alone. On February 25, 2022, a 35-year-old pastor was assaulted and tied to a post at a roadside in South Delhi. He was accused of forcing conversions on Hindus by his attackers. 

Christians account for around 2.3% of India’s population and are the nation’s third-largest religious group after Hindus and Muslims. Despite Hindutva-inspired allegations that Christianity is alien to India, it is believed that the religion could have taken root in the region some 2,000 years ago. Withhigher concentrations in some small, northeastern states like Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya, Christians are found throughout India, with significant populations in southern states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well as the northwestern state of Punjab. 

Rev. Dr. D. Christu Das, principal of Concordia Theological Seminary, Nagercoil, India (CTSN), said that Lutherans are among those facing state-sponsored pressure and orchestrated persecutory actions by local authorities. Although almost half of Christians are Catholic, there are around 4 million Lutherans in the country, making them India’s third largest Christian community and its second largest Protestant denomination after the Assemblies of God. 

In particular, Christu Das is concerned about anti-conversion bills, which ban changing one’s faith identification. These laws, said Christu Das, provide pretense for religiously motivated violence. 

Proponents of these laws accuse Christians of using money, power, and undue influence to force people into conversion. Some charge Christians with wanting to “convert all Hindus.” Connecting Christianity to European colonialism, one advocate of anti-conversion laws say that Christians have a “fanatical urge to destroy all global religious diversity in the name” of their religion.  

The regions where Christians face the most resistance and persecution are states where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party, is a major player in state government. Although that can change every five years due to elections, state authorities both within and beyond the BJP often willingly ignore attacks or implicitly — sometimes explicitly — encourage their proliferation. 

Across India’s history as an independent nation, several states have passed “Freedom of Religion” laws to restrict religious conversions. More recently, anti-conversion laws have been passed in Himachal Pradesh (2006 and 2019), Jharkhand (2017), and Uttarakhand (2018). In November 2019, citing supposedly rising incidents of forced and fraudulent conversions, the Uttar Pradesh Law Commission recommended enacting a new law to regulate religious conversions. This led state governments in Uttar Pradesh and neighboring Madhya Pradesh to police religious conversions in the states in 2020 and 2021 respectively. 

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) — in concordance with the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) — said, “These laws claim to merely purge the use of force, fraud, and inducement from religious persuasion in the interest of public order. But these vague and overtly broad legislations are in fact based on a long-time propaganda by right-wing Hindu groups against Christian and Muslim minorities.”

To Christu Das, this means that these laws go against the universal human rights declaration and the guarantees of religious freedom contained therein. Believing that in a modern, globalized world, conversion from one religion to another is common, Christu Das said that people should be allowed to change their faiths according to their personal choice and not be coerced one way or another. 

“Religious transformation is a human rights issue”

“Religious transformation is a human rights issue,” he said, “conversion to any religion and profess and practice of any faith is a fundamental constitutional right to every Indian citizen. 

“So the anti-conversion bills, banning conversion, are against the fundamental rights of every citizen of India.”

Standing under a streetlight at around 8:00 pm local time, Aneeta (not her real name) said she has seen the steady rise of anti-Christian sentiment in her own lifetime. A college student in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Aneeta said that high school friends and their families began treating her with more disdain in recent years. 

“They started to call me names, to chide me for my faith, to accuse me of being anti-Indian,” she said. 

While the interactions never rose to the level of violence, she is concerned they might. Depending upon the politician elected, the popular mood, or the discourse online, throwaway comments can turn into open cruel quite quickly.

 Looking down at her phone, she said, “you see everything online these days: the reports of violence against Christians, the horrible things people say on social media, blaming Christians for everything from colonization to COVID-19.”  

Scholars like Edward Anderson, Arkotong Longkumer, and others have identified how the internet and social media has provided “a new space where Hindutva actors can flourish.” 

Reports indicate that when Hindutva hooligans attack Christians, they often try to snatch victims’ and witnesses’ phones, to stop them from recording the incidents. At the same time, they produce their own videos to spread disinformation, stir up hatred, and promote their agenda. 

Moreover, during the pandemic, Christians have been deliberately overlooked in the local distribution of government aid and have even been accused of spreading the virus.

For Thomas Schirrmacher, secretary general and CEO of the WEA, the way forward for Christians facing anti-conversion laws, attacks, and other limits on their religious freedom, is to work together with people of other faiths. 

Leading Christians into “conversations, cooperation, and witness,” Schirrmacher works closely with leaders from other religious traditions to try and guarantee the rights of all. 

In conversation with Muslims, Hindus, and others, Schirrmacher said evangelical Christians should willingly wade into the world of interreligious dialogue to provide protections for various religious minorities and guarantee the right to convert from one faith to another as a basic human right. 

Christu Das also sees the pressure facing Christians in India as a shared problem for all people of faith. “All religious minorities are impacted by these laws,” he said, “Sikh, Muslim, Jain, Paris, Anglo Indians, Christians, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians.” 

He said that the Indian constitution earmarks freedom of religion as one of its peoples’ fundamental rights. 

“Everyone should have the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion, only subject to limitation for public safety, order, health, and to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of others,” he said, “that’s a treasure of our constitution.” 

“Religious freedom preserves India’s diversity, where people of different faiths, worldviews, and beliefs can peacefully live together without fear of punishment,” said Christu Das.  

These attacks on Christians, he said, are more than the persecution of a particular faith, but an attack on all Indians and their fundamental freedoms.

Did Muslims discover the "New World?"

Don’t you know that Muslims were the first to discover the New World?”

This is how Sheikh Youssef kicked off our conversation in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico. I was conducting research on Islam and Muslims in Puerto Rico and he wanted to make sure that I knew one thing before I went any further in my investigations. He quickly followed his initial incredulous question with a bold claim: “Muslims came here long before Columbus and Cortes and all the rest,” he said,“they were the first to come here and they did not colonize or destroy the place. That’s the difference between us and them.”

Sheikh Youssef is not alone in his reading of history. Far from it. Instead, his remarks reflect a widely held belief among Muslims — in the Americas and elsewhere — that long before Europeans set foot in Latin America, the Caribbean, or elsewhere in the American hemisphere, there were Muslim navigators, explorers, and settlers who arrived on these shores and who left evidence of their presence in maps, records, language, and cultural artifacts.

In the second chapter of my recent book The Muslims of Latin America and the Caribbean, I explore the claims, stories, the supposed evidence that supports them, and the ways in which Muslims utilize them as a means of claiming space and authenticity in the Americas today. 

Based on the available evidence, there is no reason to lend theories of “Muslim first contact” any credence or historical credibility.

And yet, the claims remain historically significant because they are just that: claims.

Before we can deal with the documented historical evidence about Muslims in the Americas arriving alongside and after European colonizers, it is important to first address claims such as Sheikh Youssef’s.

As evidence of pre-Columbian Muslim “discovery” of the “New World,” various advocates of the theory raise up the following:

• Maps from the likes of Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husain al-Mas‘udi, Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti (better known as al-Idrisi), or Ahmed Muhiddin Piri (better known as Piri Reis) that hint at lands and peoples beyond the Atlantic.

• Pre-Columbian inscriptions, explorers’ accounts, and supposed linguistic parallels that point to West African presence in the Americas.

• Secondary sources written by the likes of Leo Weiner (Africa and the Discovery of America) or Barry Fell (Saga America), neither of whom were trained historians.

Although the evidence is spurious — and the claims effectively erase the accomplishments of the Americas’ indigenous peoples and civilizations — the reference of it affords an opportunity to consider why it is that so many different cultures and countries claim that they were the ones to “discover” the Americas in in the first place.

In my book, I suggest that although the claims lack scientific proof, it is not in architecture, society, or genealogy that we should begin thinking about Islam and Muslim communities in the Americas, but in the realm of ideas, identifications, and historical claims. 

Whatever it is that is remembered in this narrative of Muslim first contact, it is not verifiable facts, or in any case not just facts. Claims of first contact are an attempt to underscore fluctuating, marginalized, and uncertain identities with historical primacy and critique those who are able to control the narrative of a region’s identity and history. In the case of the Americas, it is a means of pushing back against Eurocentric (and predominately Christian) frames that dominate our understanding of the hemisphere.

Even though the claims are not true, they illustrate the ongoing importance of the Americas in the global Muslim imagination and the ongoing importance of discussing and debating the place of Islam in the Americas. In the end, I suggest that these claims are less about confirming pre-Columbian Muslim presence in Latin America and the Caribbean and more about claiming the region as their own today.

Thus, any assessment of these claims needs to not only examine the available evidence, but perhaps more poignantly, explore the claims’ contemporary significance for Muslims across the hemisphere.

Fictions can be full of useful truths that do real work in the world, even though they are not true. To craft a sense of identity, of belonging, takes more than facts, it takes faith. To belong is, in a sense, to believe in more than what is simply historical fact. While we must distinguish between fact and fiction — and critique the myths we know we are making — we cannot dismiss fictions that take on a truth of their own in the lives of those who believe them, claim them to be true, and advance them as historical fact.

“God puts us here especially for such moments”: Christians Respond to War in Ukraine

[BERLIN] As explosions reverberated across Ukrainian cities like Kyiv and Kherson, CNN’s cameras captured a small group of Christians praying in the middle of a square in the eastern city of Kharkiv. 

It was February 24, 2022, and Russia had begun its long-feared invasion of Ukraine. Correspondent Clarissa Ward surmised the prayerful pause encapsulated the moment’s “desperation.” 

“Right now, there is truly a sense of having no idea what is coming down the pipeline,” Ward said, “what is in store for the people of Ukraine in the coming hours and the coming days.”

Since that fateful hour, Russia’s invasion has only expanded in scope and the horrors of war have been evermore evident in Ukraine — apartment complexes decimated by missiles, refugees streaming into neighboring countries like Poland and Romania, locals preparing for door-to-door fighting. 

Christians can be found on all sides of the conflict. Both Russia and Ukraine have deep, diverse Christian histories and significant Christian populations. Now, as the conflict continues into its fourth week, churches are acting as emergency shelters in Poland, some pastors and prelates are advocating for peace, others are adding fuel to the fire. Christians are fleeing for their lives, fighting on the front lines, and coming to the aid of those in need. 

According to the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, Ukraine is 85.8% Christian. Three out of every four Ukrainians are Orthodox, about 5% are Catholic, and just over 1% are Protestant — including Baptists, Lutherans, and Pentecostals.  

“We are still the church, even as we flee, even as we fight.” 

Among them is pastor Kostyantyn Tyschchenko. Tyschchenko convenes a house church in Kyiv — Ukraine’s capital — and said his small flock are now scattered like sheep. “Some have fled to Poland or Romania, others have sought shelter in their basements, some have collected weapons and are preparing to fight,” he said, “we are no longer a church in the normal sense.” 

And yet, Tyschchenko said, “we are still the church, even as we flee, even as we fight.” 

“If diplomacy cannot bring peace, then we must turn to prayer.”

— Pastor Kostyantyn Tyschchenko

Amidst the chaos of war Tyschchenko has been texting with the people he once gathered around his kitchen table to break bread and pray with. He sends them verses of encouragement, pictures from his daily devotions — mainly from the Psalms — and tries to send hope amid despair. 

The most difficult guidance he is sharing with his flock right now? To pray for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Despite everything, we must pray for him to stop what he is doing and choose peace.

“If diplomacy cannot bring peace, then we must turn to prayer,” he said.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Christians are persevering despite the onslaught. Reporting for Christianity Today, journalist Jayson Casper wrote that in Irpin — nicknamed Ukraine’s “Wheaton” — Christians are facing a serious siege as the city lies between Russian forces and the country’s capital.  

Home to numerous international Christian ministries, from Youth With a Mission to Samaritan’s Purse, Child Evangelism Fellowship, the International Fellowship for Evangelical Students, and Youth For Christ, Irpin is an evangelical hub in Ukraine. While many local Christians have fled, some have chosen to remain, calling their service in the city their “new ministry.” 

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Christians in the U.S. have close ties with Ukraine

The number of international Christian ministries in Irpin is a stark reminder of the close ties that U.S.-based Christians have with the eastern European country. Alissa B., of California, remembers the time she spent, and the people she met, in Kyiv and Irpin back in 2011. 

“The people there were some of the most hospitable, thoughtful people I’ve known,” she posted while making an appeal on Facebook, “I’ve started this post so many times over the past few weeks, but words never seem to do it justice.

“My heart aches alongside my Ukrainian friends and their families,” she said. 

Kelly Young’s connection to Ukraine began in 2014 when the Houstonian became the big sister through adoption to a sibling group of three Ukrainians. While there, her family stayed with locals who sacrificed their time and resources to host them while they finalized the adoption. In 2016, Young returned to Ukraine with her ministry partner Leah McGowan, who were afterward inspired to found New Song International (NSI). 

NSI serves and cares for children with medical and special needs. Based in Zakarpattya (Transcarpathia) in Ukraine’s far west, NSI partners with a network of organizations and individuals across the country. Working on establishing a community resource center and alternative care facility before the war, Young and McGowan said, “in some ways, everything has come to a screeching halt.”

In other ways, however, “it has ramped up our efforts to meet immediate needs,” they said, “now, we are just doing whatever we can for families whose needs we are hearing about every day. “Every morning, we get a flood of texts or messages from someone looking to make a connection and meet a need. Our organization has put together a crisis relief fund to support our board members and partners on the ground taking in refugees and helping at-risk families. “We are doing everything we can to support those individuals and organizations in this time of great need,” said Young and McGowan. 

Responding to refugee needs

For its part, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) has been working with local ministry partners in Ukraine and other countries in Europe to care for those fleeing the conflict. Rev. James Krikava, the LCMS’s associate executive director of Eurasia and Asia Operations, has been in touch with Bishop Serge Maschewski of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine (ELCU).

In neighboring Romania, Rev. Sorin-Horia Trifa of the Confessional Lutheran Church in Romania is serving at the Siret Border Point distributing food and water as well as providing transport to refugees. Calling on U.S. Christians to support their work on the border, Trifa said, “many Americans cannot come here, but we are here already, we can do this.” 

“We didn’t want to leave, but after the shelling started, we knew we had to make a decision quickly.”

— Andriy, fleeing Ukraine for Germany

Reflecting on what it means to be the church in such chaotic times, Trifa said, “God puts us here especially for such moments.” 

That was also the sentiment expressed by Oleg Preobrazhensky. Standing at Berlin’s main train station with a blue and yellow sign with “two adults, three children” written in Cyrillic, Preobrazhensky believes he and his family are particularly summoned for a time such as this. “Look, we’re Russian. We know it is not easy for Ukrainian families to trust us or want to stay with us,” he said, “but before we are Russians, we are Christians. Christ calls us to welcome the stranger, especially at times like this.” After just a few minutes, Preobrazhensky is hailed by a family fresh off the train. They do not care he is Russian, they just care that he is here to help. 

One of those headed for sanctuary in Germany is Andriy. On the train from Berlin to Frankfurt, Andriy is traveling with his wife, daughter, and two grandchildren. Originally from Sevastopol [in Russian-annexed Crimea], they decided to escape Ukraine before the invasion got too bad. 

“We didn’t want to leave, but after the shelling started, we knew we had to make a decision quickly,” he said. Andriy and his family first made their way to Poland. Then to Berlin. Now, they are on their way to Frankfurt, Germany to stay with some of his wife’s distant relatives. They don’t know how long they will be there, but Andriy said he was thankful they have a place to go.  

Echoing Tyschchenko, Andriy said, “the most difficult thing for us right now is to not hate Putin and the Russian people, but to pray for them.

“It is difficult, but that is our calling as Christians — to love our enemy, to bless those who hate us, to pray for those who mistreat us, who persecute us.” 

*This report was written in collaboration with Lutheran Hour Ministries.

Raising up women's voices across religious traditions

Women and girls are effective and powerful leaders and peacemakers, often playing a critical role in religious traditions across the world.  At the same time, and despite advances in gender equality, women and girls still face hurdles when it comes to having a voice in local, regional, and international religious bodies. 

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, I am sharing a few select stories that reflect how women and girls are involved in interreligious dialogue initiatives across the globe, and how their participation and leadership results in substantial and positive change. 

I invite you to explore their diverse experiences and critical perspectives on the opportunities, as well as the constraints, women and girls continue to face.

Alissa Wahid

The work of the Gusdurian Network Indonesia

Azza Karam

The Role Of Women In Faith And Diplomacy

Ela Gandhi

Serving humanity from a Gandhian perspective

KAICIID Women

Reflecting on Women’s Role in Interreligious Dialogue

What is "Religion" Anyway?

In 2013, the Disciples of the New Dawn started posting highly offensive memes on Facebook. They attacked everyone from Pagans and steampunk fans to women who had C-sections.

Tapping into fears about religious fundamentalism and public obsession with “cults,” their vitriolic posts went viral.

As the posts were shared with increasing frequency, some started to wonder whether Disciples of the New Dawn were a real religious community or just a cabal of internet trolls goading us into digital outrage (it turns out, they were the latter).

When I teach courses on religious studies, I like to use the case of the Disciples of the New Dawn as an opportunity for students to wrestle with the concept of religion itself. It prompts them to consider questions like: what makes a religion real? Or, what makes a religion ”religious” at all?

While we may feel like “we know religion when we see it,” we generally struggle to be exact when it comes to determining what counts as religion. Even if we have a vague idea, defining religion feels like pinning jello to a wall.

Which makes things difficult. Because, before can begin to dig deeper into the topic of religion, we first have to define the object of our study.

So, what is this thing we call “religion” anyway?

War in Ukraine: covering the conflict's religious contours

Religion often plays a role in violent conflicts. Entangled with ethno-national, economic and territorial issues, religious actors, leaders and institutions can exacerbate and ameliorate both the causes and course of a conflict. While some religious actors provide care and appeal for peace, others contribute to the brutality and provide faith-filled fuel to already tenacious confrontations.

The warfare currently engulfing Ukraine is no exception. Religion played a role as the specter of Russian invasion grew over the last several years. Now, after Russian forces began their aggressive assault on Feb. 24, 2022, religious communities within Ukraine, Russia and across the globe are responding.

“While the secular media tries to guess Vladimir Putin’s motives in Ukraine, one important aspect of the current situation has gone largely ignored: religion.”

— Diana Butler Bass, Religion News Service

The latest edition of ReligionLink gives you a rundown of all the headlines, experts, and background research on the religious contours of a war whose impacts will reverberate around the world.

What you missed without religion class...

Odds are, you never took a “religious studies” class. 

If you did, it was probably a confessional course on a particular faith tradition. Maybe it was a unit in your high school’s social studies curriculum. At best, you took a “world religions” survey at college. 

Despite their benefits, none of these gave you the right tools to study religion. 

Which is weird, when you think about it. 

Because “religion is arguably the most powerful and pervasive force in the world.”

When I studied religion at the University of Florida, I learned that knowing something about religion helps us understand heaps about the world. Religious studies is about more than studying individual religions, but how religion functions as part of politics, science, economics, and society at large. 

As a scholar, newswriter, and wayward pastor, I’ve come to appreciate religious studies even more. I believe a basic literacy in “religion as part of the human experience” is key to having informed perspectives on modern life. 

In other words, I think you missed a lot without religion class. 

“What You Missed Without Religion Class” is here to help, demystifying the study of religion and discussing religion’s role in contemporary society.

Who are the exvangelicals?

Coined by Blake Chastain in 2016, the term “exvangelical” — or “exvie” — has come to encompass a wide range of individuals who have left evangelicalism, especially white evangelical churches in the U.S. 

Skeptical of institutions and unimpressed with status quo American Christianity, some have turned their back on religion. Others actively campaign against what they see as its abuses. Still others adopt more progressive versions of Christianity or simply do not self-identify as “evangelical” any longer, opting instead to go on a quest of self-discovery and deconstruction. Through hashtags such as #emptythepews, popular TikTok channels and a range of new platforms and publications, they are leaving loud, speaking out against evangelicalism on matters of politics, gender and race.

The latest edition of ReligionLink provides you with a range of resources and potential sources to understand how American Christianity’s traumas and political entanglements have triggered a crisis of faith for many.

Rabbi & Imam Attend Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau

At a time of increased antisemitism, anti-Muslim hate, and xenophobia in Europe, it is a powerful moment when a rabbi and an imam stand side-by-side in solidarity, with Holocaust survivors, one another, and on behalf of Europe’s Jews and Muslims.

On Thursday, 27 January Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland and Imam Adham Abd El Aal, representative of the Grand Mufti of Poland in Warsaw, did just that at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD) ceremonies at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi death camp where more than 1.1m people, mostly Jews, were killed.

The pair are part of the Muslim Jewish Leadership Council-Europe (MJLC), an organization founded to serve the need to free members of religious minorities from prejudice, false claims, discrimination, and violence.

Seventeen years ago, on 1 November 2005, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly designated 27 January as IHRD. The yearly commemoration marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945 and is meant to remember and honor Nazism’s many victims. It is also intended to educate people about the Holocaust, prevent further genocide, and denounce all forms of “religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief.”

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s IHRD ceremony at Auschwitz-included only a handful of guests, mostly survivors and local leaders from the religious and political spheres. Among those who gathered at the memorial in Birkenau were Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, Imam Adham Abd El Aal, representative of the Grand Mufti of Poland in Warsaw, the Roman-Catholic Bishop Roman Pindel, the Orthodox Bishop Atanzy and Bishop Adrian Korczago from the Polish Evangelical-Augsburg Church. 

On the importance of the MJLC’s presence at the event, Schudrich said, “What happened in Auschwitz was a Jewish tragedy. It was a human tragedy. But all of humanity needs to learn the lesson: the world cannot be silent when mass murder and genocide has taken place. Therefore, we must speak out together. It’s our responsibility,” he said.

Using pictorial art for interreligious dialogue

The Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas is not necessarily what you think it is. Unless, of course, you thought it was a decidedly nondenominational, octagonal chapel adorned with fourteen black, but colour-hued, paintings by U.S. artist Mark Rothko.

Image cover for Christopher Longhurst’s book “Pictorial Art for Interreligious Dialogue.” Photo courtesy of KAICIID.

Welcoming some 100,000 visitors of many faiths — and no faith — from across the world each year, the aim of the chapel is, “to create opportunities for spiritual growth and dialogue that illuminate our shared humanity and lead to a world in which all are treated with dignity and respect.” Quite frequently, after stepping outside the chapel, visitors will often ask each other, “what did you see in there?”

It is those kinds of conversations that Roman Catholic theologian and 2020 KAICIID Fellow Dr. Christopher Longhurst hopes to prompt with his new book, Pictorial Art for Interreligious Dialogue.

Funded by the KAICIID Fellows Programme, the publication explores the unique usage of pictorial art to undertake interreligious dialogue, presenting a practical guide to help educators learn and teach an effective and enjoyable interreligious dialogue in both academic and informal settings.

Black Muslims' Enduring Legacy in the Americas

In St. Philip parish, on the easternmost tip of Barbados, there is a small, one-room, yellow and green “musalla.” With chipped, white wooden shutters, the prayer space looks like a mix between a chattel house and a beach kiosk, with accents of Islamic architectural flair.

Said to have been built by a local Black convert by the name of Shihabuddin at the front of his family residence, the room can fit six, maybe seven prayer rugs. Alongside four mosques, an academy, a research institute and a school, Shihabuddin’s musalla continues to act as a site of community connection for Muslims in the Caribbean island nation, despite Shihabuddin’s passing.

When one thinks of global Islam’s “representative sites,” as literary scholar Aliyah Khan calls them, images of grand mosques and significant shrines in Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Mali or Pakistan might immediately come to mind. And well they should. Yet, to overlook places such as Shihabuddin’s musalla — and other Islamic centers across the Caribbean, Latin America, the U.S. and Canada — as nodes in Islam’s worldwide networks would be to do a vast disservice to the numerous Muslims who call the hemisphere home.

In particular, it would be to sideline the significance of Black Muslims like Shihabuddin.

Beginning with the first Muslim to arrive with the Spanish in the 16th century, Black Muslims have been part of the American story, navigating enslavement, inequality and numerous other misrepresentations and marginalizations in the region for 500 years.

Today, their enduring legacy influences tens of thousands of Muslims across the region and around the globe.

How do you compare theologies...ethnographically?

‘I’ve seen you’, she said.

‘I’ve seen your work and I’ve got some things to say about it’.

This was how my interview with Khadija started in the back of a quiet café in downtown Newark, near Rutgers University. A local artist, Khadija is a Puerto Rican convert to Islam and the mother of a son killed by gang violence. In the café, she sits across from me with a mug clutched in her hands. She radiates energy and warmth, wrapped in layers of vibrant, colorful clothing. Setting her coffee cup down, she looks me directly in the eyes and said, ‘My husband said about you, “Oh, he’s probably just another crazy missionary trying to convert us”. And I said, “Ok, let’s see who this crazy person is”. And then we listened to your sermons for hours. I’m grateful that you’re here, to interview me, to talk to us, to help tell our story. That way, they can know we are just like anybody else, it just happens that we speak Spanish and we are Muslim’.

Khadija’s exchange with me– an ordained Lutheran pastor, theologian, and ethnographer – was marked by an array of intersecting identities and experiences. While our encounter was one where my work in the pulpit opened up a conversation, there was the latent possibility that my work could have harmed Khadija, stalled or stopped the conversation, or caused some other insurmountable issue in the midst of my research in the neighborhood where she lives, works, and prays. Over several years of ethnographic fieldwork, my relationship with Muslims, like Khadija, has not only brought insight in my academic research, but also influenced my theology and work in inter-religious engagement.

This, in turn, raised questions about the relation between ethnography and theology and what role ethnographic encounter might play in the dialogue and encounter between religions.

In this essay, I review and analyze three books:

1. Tastes of the Divine: Hindu and Christian Theologies of Emotion, by Michelle Voss Roberts

2. Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, and Liberation: a Comparative Theology of Divine Possessions, by Joshua Samuel

3. Theologising with the Sacred ‘Prostitutes’ of South India: Towards an Indecent Dalit Theology, by Eve Rebecca Parker

Each compares Christian and Hindu traditions in South Asian context. I examine them in order to address two interrelated questions:

• are we beginning to see an ethnographic turn in comparative theology?

• if so, what might that mean for both ethnographic theology and comparative theology?

The result, I hope, are some fresh reflections on ethnographic and comparative theology that will better serve a world increasingly marked by diversity, difference, and interreligious encounters. Encounters not unlike the one where Khadija ‘saw me’ and I, in turn, came to ‘see her’ and walk away marked, changed, and seeing my own theology and sociality in a new way through the process.

Thank you, to the editors at the journal Ecclesial Practices, especially Editor-in-Chief Henk de Roest. I appreciated their attention to detail through this process and the anonymous reviewers helpful feedback. I would also like to thank members of the “Ecclesial Practices Unit” at the American Academy of Religion, who encouraged me to pursue this project.

ReligionLink: Seven religion stories for 2022

When I met Mary Gladstone, ReligionLink’s Assistant Editor, back in 2012 I knew that someday I wanted to help put the publication together.

Why? Because ReligionLink is the ultimate resource for journalists reporting on religion.

A service of the Religion News Association and its Foundation, the monthly newsletter delivers free tools and tips for writing about religion with balance, accuracy and insight. Our source guides and story ideas provide insight into headlines on specific faiths and topics from around the world.

Ten years later, I am proud to announce that I am ReligionLink’s new Editor!

Now, I’ll be part of putting together comprehensive source guides and story ideas on the most timely and controversial issues in religion and ethics.

For my first edition, I tried my hand at a bit of religion news “prophecy.”

From The New York Times to The Economist, pundits and news “prophets” have been predicting that 2022 will be the year of “adjusting to new realities.” This not only means adjustments in daily life, but broader shifts in politics and technology, economics and, of course, religion. 

My first edition of ReligionLink explores seven issues that may deserve attention this year, including resources and potential sources to help you cover them:

• Democracy, autocracy and … aliens

• Major SCOTUS decisions

• Endemic religion

• Religious communities and climate change

• The continuing rise of “spirit tech”

• Religious economies

• International sporting events and human rights