This article State of Faith NewsletterSign up to receive our newsletter in your inbox every Monday night.
If you attend a panel discussion on the state of religious freedom in a country today, there are a few questions that you can almost guarantee will come up every time. It gives us the opportunity to reflect on either the rise of political polarization or the decline of organized religion, or both.
Last week, the issue of intimidation really came up during a panel discussion co-hosted by the Trinity Forum, the Center for Public Justice, and the American Enterprise Institute’s Faith and Public Life Initiative. But panelist Cristina Arriaga, a scholar and lawyer, took the conversation in an unexpected direction and surprised me.
Arriaga, a former member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said the rise of a cancel culture was one of the threats she was most concerned about. Today, rather than accepting their right to share and discuss controversial ideas and find ways to move forward, people often seek to censor statements they disagree with.
“We were going to challenge each other, including in the realm of faith,” she said.
Arriaga admitted that Americans have always been pretty bad at having difficult faith-related conversations, referring to the old adage that religion and politics shouldn’t be brought up at the dinner table. The problem is exacerbated as people begin to believe that language is a form of violence.
“The solution to offensive speech is not to censor people, it is to give more speeches and more discussions,” she said.
Arriaga challenged religious freedom advocates listening to the virtual panel to start speaking more often about their faith and the importance of religious freedom. She said the country would be better off if we talked and disagreed on a regular basis.
“We need to talk more about religion and talk more about politics,” she said.
fresh from the press
Astronomers are working with Native Hawaiians to protect this sacred site and science
The Stanley Cup was probably held in a mosque for the first time ever.this is the reason
The Religious Roots of Dragon Obsession
This Tennessee couple allegedly found a church to break into on their first date
Term of the Week: Selected Frozen
I think I mentioned in a previous newsletter that I am a Presbyterian. I mean, I’m part of the mainline Protestant mass (as people eloquently say when they ask). “Frozen Chosen”, a somewhat silly and somewhat spiteful way to describe the Presbyterian and Protestant mainstream more generally.
As one Presbyterian pastor puts it in a blog post about the nickname, “The Chosen One” refers to the “modest and sometimes cowardly” way Presbyterians usually worship. Instead of swaying and clapping to praise the music, stand and sing formal hymns. Rather than spontaneously speaking about our beliefs, we read centuries of declarations of faith.
These characteristics may not be very appealing, but as the pastor wrote, it is not a bad thing to be steady and measured. I have enjoyed the formal structure of worship.
what i am reading…
Dr. Mehmet Oz could become the first Muslim senator, according to the Associated Press, but if you follow his race in Pennsylvania, you’ll hardly ever know. “It’s something he rarely talks about during the campaign, his Democratic opponents haven’t brought it up, and it’s rarely talked about in Pennsylvania’s Muslim community,” the Associated Press reports. He pointed out that one of the reasons for this is the rarity of Muslim Republicans.
In case you missed it, a church in Texas recently made national news for illegally copying a Christianized version of the musical “Hamilton.” Last week, The Door McAllen Church posted an apology on Instagram and agreed to pay damages, The New York Times reported.
Religious scholar Roger Nam argued in a recent Religion News Service column that the Bible’s teaching on debt forgiveness is more nuanced than it appears on Twitter. That’s probably always the case in any faith-related social media discussion.
odds and ends
My friend and mentor, Bob Smietana, is publishing a new book this week, Reorganized Religion. It’s about the present and future of the American faith. Earlier this month, Bob spoke with another friend, Bobby Ross Jr., about the book. Check out their conversation here.
When talking to strangers:
