SUMMARY: The deadly California synagogue shooting is the latest in a series of attacks that raise profound questions about keeping sacred spaces safe. Judy Woodruff talks to the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati's Shakila Ahmad, Rabbi Devorah Marcus from Temple Emanu-El of San Diego, Ted Elmore of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and Bishop Eugene Sutton of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including the latest acts of terror by Islamic State, a speech by President Obama on the way religion, including Christianity, has been used to justify violence, and why some Republican politicians spoke against mandating vaccination in the wake of a measles outbreak.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): I want to ask quickly both of you about what the president said at this prayer breakfast yesterday, got a lot of attention. He was attempting to talk about — saying that terrible things have been done in the name of Christianity, in the name of all religions, including Christianity, David.
And he talked about the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, slavery. Republicans jumped on this and said false equivalency, you should be focusing on what extreme Muslims are doing today, and not talking about Christianity.
DAVID BROOKS, New York Times columnist: I think, if the President had come as an atheist to attack religion and to attack Christianity, the Republicans would have a point. That’s not what a president should be doing.
But that’s not how he came. He has used that prayer breakfast year after year to talk about his own faith, his own faith journey, his own struggles. He’s used it — he has come as a Christian. And the things he said were things — I have never met a Christian who disagreed with what he issued, that the religion has been perverted, that we have to walk humbly before the face of the lord, that God’s purposes are mysterious to us.
This is not like some tangential, weird belief. This is at the core of every Christian’s faith and every Jew’s faith. And so what he said was utterly normal and admirable and a recognition of historical fact and an urge towards some humility. And so I thought the protests were manufactured and falsely manufactured.
MARK SHIELDS, syndicated columnist: The Bible says, slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling. That was used by slaveholders and by the defenders of slavery in this country. They quoted the Bible, and that terrible things have been done in the name of Christianity.
The Crusades are hardly one of the proudest chapters of Christianity. But I think what the President said is accurate. I do think that he’s been somewhat reluctant to acknowledge and admit and confront that this is an Islamic terrorist, that it is a perversion and to address that.
But I thought the response — I mean, these are the same people who are constantly criticizing the Islamic State people for not joining in the coalition, and saying you have got to condemn them. I just thought that it was over the top and undeserved.
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MARK SHIELDS: Judy, there’s a rhetoric in this country. It’s been on the ascent for almost a generation or more. And that is individual freedom, government interference, stay out of our lives, leave us alone, anything from Washington, you have to oppose, a federal mandate.
And, you know, that has become the rhetoric. And that was their response. The reality is quite simple. Americans do feel that the government is a pain in the neck and too much red tape and keep them out of their lives. But a trace of botulism found in one can of tuna fish outside of Pocatello, Idaho, and the universal American reaction is, where the hell is the federal government? I want a report in my office in 24 hours, or heads will roll.
We want a small, effective, efficient federal government on our side 24 hours a day, cheap. In 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio in this world. In 2012, there were 213. That’s because of vaccination. That’s because of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin and the federal government and the public — public effort in health.
And that to me is — this is the reality. It’s beyond ideology. They were slaves to ideology. And Christie hasn’t — just doesn’t have his footing. With Paul, it’s sort of an excess of where he comes from and where he treads and what he believes. But I think Christie comes off even worse than Paul or anybody else.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Leaders from Africa and the European Union met today in Brussels to confront the crisis in the Central African Republic. More than 800,000 people have been displaced in the CAR in the past year, caught in the crossfire between warring Muslim and Christian groups.
Yesterday, Gwen recorded this conversation about what’s behind the recent violence and the humanitarian situation it’s caused.
SUMMARY: Author and journalist Jeff Chu joins Ray Suarez to talk about his personal journey coming to terms with being Christian and gay. In his book, "Does Jesus Really Love Me?", Chu discusses the choices made by gay Christians trying to reconcile their lives, identities and faith.
JEFF CHU, Author, "Does Jesus Really Love Me?": I think, for some people who have ended up on the atheist/agnostic part of the religious spectrum, they feel a sense of triumph. They feel like reason has won out.
That's not where I have ended up. I have tried to hang onto my faith, because it is very important to me. I think the conclusion that I have that is that we can't make these decisions for anyone else. We're not talking about something that's rational when we're talking about faith. There is an element of the absurd in it. Kierkegaard talks about that in his writings. Faith is not a rational process.
SUMMARY: Fragile relations between Lebanon's various religious sects have been strained by the continuing fallout of neighbor Syria's civil war and resentment of Syrian refugees. Margaret Warner concludes her series of reports from Lebanon with a closer look at the country's sectarian politics.
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): In the final story of her overseas reporting trip to Lebanon, Margaret Warner looks at the tenuous peace among the country's various religious sects, and whether it can survive as the conflict in Syria moves deeper inside Lebanon's borders.
MARGARET WARNER(Newshour): In a high-end jewelry store in the Hamra district of Beirut, owner Elie Nawbar is entertaining a diverse set of friends.
ELIE NAWBAR, Lebanon: He is a Shiite, and I'm a Christian. He's a Muslim Sunni. And we live together.
MAN: And I'm very close friends.
MARGARET WARNER: And you want to keep it that way?
ELIE NAWBAR: Yes. And this is Lebanon.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Finally tonight, we come back to the unrest in the Muslim and Arab world.
Pope Benedict wrapped up a three-day visit to Lebanon today, a long-planned trip that was overshadowed by the anti-American protests in the Middle East. But the flare-up in violence was just the latest in a series of events and conflicts that have many Christians in the Middle East uncertain about their future.
Ray Suarez has the story.
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): Thousands turned out throughout Lebanon to get a glimpse of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. But, while many were focused on the pageantry of the visit, the region's problems weren't far away.
MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): The people of Nigeria faced new uncertainty today after Christmas Day attacks on Christian churches that killed at least 39 people. The worst attack came just outside the capital, where 35 were killed. Four more died in the city of Jos, and, overall, more than 50 were wounded.
Some were distraught. Others were furious today outside Saint Theresa's Catholic Church near the capital, Abuja. Christmas decorations still hung over the entrance, but burned Bibles and a crucifix lay in the debris. And the bomb crater just beyond the building testified to the power of the blast that hit worshipers as they emerged from Christmas mass.
The attack was one of three aimed at Christian churches Sunday in Nigeria, an oil-rich African nation of 160 million people split between a Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.
In Rome today, Pope Benedict XVI denounced the killings.
POPE BENEDICT XVI, leader of Catholic Church (through translator): Our land continues to be drenched in innocent blood. I have learned with deep sadness the news of the attacks. Even this year, on the day of the birth of Jesus, grief and pain has been brought to some churches in Nigeria. I wish to express my sincere and affectionate closeness to the Christian community.
MARGARET WARNER: A radical Muslim group, Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks. A spokesman said there will be no peace until full Sharia law is enforced throughout Nigeria and democracy and the Constitution are suspended.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden," also struck on Christmas Eve of 2010 with bombings that killed 32 in the city of Jos. The group has mounted multiple attacks since, including bombing the U.N. headquarters in the capital, Abuja, last August, killing 24.
Sunday's attacks bring this year's total killings, blamed on Boko Haram, to more than 500. Late Sunday, President Goodluck Jonathan, condemned what he called the dastardly attacks, but he predicted the group will not last forever.
But Muhammadu Buhari, a former general from the north who lost the presidential election last April, sharply criticized Jonathan. He said in a statement, "This is clearly a failure of leadership at a time the government needs to assure the people of the capacity to guarantee the safety of lives and property."
The government has tried using police and security forces against Boko Haram. Some have criticized their neighborhood raids as repressive and ineffective.
University of Colorado police are investigating threatening e-mails with anti-evolution messages sent to biology professors at the Boulder campus.
Police Commander Brad Wiesley says the e-mails claim be from a religious group but investigators don't know whether more than one person was behind them.
He said the e-mails were considered threatening and made reference to killing people who back evolutionary theory. He said they didn't contain any specific threat against any individuals.
"The people that are worried in biology are certainly concerned. I mean it's not every day they're threatened by somebody who doesn't agree with the work that they're doing and so there's heightened concern," said Wiesley.
Some professors had been receiving critical e-mails for more than a year, but the tone became more threatening last week and they reported them to police.
Then, last weekend, someone slid anti-evolution materials under the doors of offices and laboratories of the building housing the ecology and evolutionary biology department.
"We just try and keep a cool nerve and basically not try and take any action ourselves, just report it to the department heads or security," said Michael Robeson, a CU graduate student.
Today was a historic first for religion in America's civic life: For the very first time, a Hindu delivered the morning invocation in the Senate chamber — only to find the ceremony disrupted by three Christian right activists.
The three protesters, who all belong to the Christian Right anti-abortion group Operation Save America, and who apparently traveled to Washington all the way from North Carolina, interrupted by loudly asking for God's forgiveness for allowing the false prayer of a Hindu in the Senate chamber.
"Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight," the first protester began.
"This is an abomination," he continued. "We shall have no other gods before You."
Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), serving as the presiding officer for the morning, immediately ordered them taken away — though they continued to yell at the Hindu cleric as they were headed out the door, shouting out phrases such as, "No Lord but Jesus Christ!" and "There's only one true God!"
The cleric, Rajan Zed of Reno, Nevada, was visibly nervous and uncomfortable as he then delivered the morning prayer. But to his credit, he soon regained his footing and was able to make it through in a dignified fashion.
For their part, Operation Save America put out an interesting press release, claiming responsibility for the protests and castigating Senators for not joining in:
- Theology Moved to the Senate and was Arrested
- Theology has moved from the church house onto the floor of the United States Senate, and has been arrested.
- Ante Pavkovic, Kathy Pavkovic, and Kristen Sugar were all arrested in the chambers of the United States Senate as that chamber was violated by a false Hindu god. The Senate was opened with a Hindu prayer placing the false god of Hinduism on a level playing field with the One True God, Jesus Christ. This would never have been allowed by our Founding Fathers.
- "Not one Senator had the backbone to stand as our Founding Fathers stood. They stood on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There were three in the audience with the courage to stand and proclaim, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' They were immediately removed from the chambers, arrested, and are in jail now. God bless those who stand for Jesus as we know that He stands for them." Rev. Flip Benham, Director, Operation Save America/Operation Rescue.
It's infant prize day at King David School, a state primary in Moseley, Birmingham. The children sit cross-legged on the floor, their parents fiddling with their video cameras. The head, Steve Langford, is wearing a Sesame Street tie.
A typical end-of-term school event, then. But at King David there's a twist that gives it a claim to be one of the most extraordinary schools in the country: King David is a strictly Jewish school. Judaism is the only religion taught. There's a synagogue on site. The children learn modern Hebrew - Ivrit - the language of Israel. And they celebrate Israeli independence day.
But half the 247 pupils at the 40-year-old local authority-supported school are Muslim, and apparently the Muslim parents go through all sorts of hoops, including moving into the school's catchment area, to get their children into King David to learn Hebrew, wave Israeli flags on independence day and hang out with the people some would have us believe that they hate more than anyone in the world.
On Sunday all “good” Christians go to church. I don’t know if I would be so bold to declare myself a “good” Christian, but going to church on Sunday continues to be something our family rarely misses. As I have said before, I am Catholic, so the guilt of weekly attendance has been worked deeply into my psyche.
The mixture of politics with religion has always troubled me. Politics always seemed to be man’s business, while religion always seemed to be God’s business. The main problem tends to be that collecting God’s answers on every perceivable issue is mostly impossible. Jesus tells us to take care of the poor and sick, but he doesn’t tell us how we should do that. Man has created many ways to take care of the poor and sick, but it isn’t always clear that giving handouts to people is always the most effective way to persuade someone to contribute to society. And, when power comes to the battle, individuals will push their own ideas over the most effective ideas for society. And, worst of all, when someone declares that their own personal idea is the “Christian” solution or God’s solution there is no possible way to know if that is true or not, because man can not ever know what is in God’s mind.
It bothers me when any religion expends an enormous amount of energy fighting for an issue that isn’t even a critical issue. Abortion and homosexuality come to mind quickly. These two issues have very little support in the Bible, and it is clear that religious people that have opinions on these issues use bizarre Biblical readings to support the conclusion they have already decided in advance. The proof of this is in the lack of such a strong response to issues that are out rightly declared in the Bible. For example, divorce, war and the care for the poor and sick are declared as critical issues many more times in the Bible than the “evils” of homosexuality and abortion. But, religious groups have used abortion and homosexuality as litmus tests to determine whether someone is a “good” Christian. Does this even make any sense?
"What would cause a Godly woman to do such a thing?" asked neighbor Sharon Everitt, echoing the question that has hung over the rural town since late March. "Christians don't shoot Christians."
It's unusual for a controversial economic issue to be fought on moral grounds. But ACORN, a public advocacy group, has been winning a higher "living wage" for workers in state after state, city after city, by appealing to voters' sense of justice.
"It's probably the best [argument] we have," says Jen Kern, director of ACORN's Living Wage Resource Center. A decent income is a moral matter of "fairness," she says. Those who "play by the rules of the game should be able to support themselves by their work."
In the MonitorMonday, 02/06/06
"A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you poor," agrees Paul Sherry, coordinator of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, a church-based coalition in Cleveland seeking to raise low wages.
