Today is Sunday, September 15, the 259th day of the yr 2024. There are 107 days left within the yr.

Today in history:

On September 15, 1963, 4 black girls were killed when a bomb exploded during Sunday services on the sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. (Three Ku Klux Klan members were eventually convicted for his or her involvement within the explosion.)

Also on this date:

In 1835, Charles Darwin reached the Galapagos Islands on board the HMS Beagle.

In 1940, the Battle of Britain in World War II took a turning point when the Royal Air Force inflicted heavy losses on the Luftwaffe.

In 1958, a New York City-bound commuter train plunged into Newark Bay after missing a stop signal and sliding off the open Newark Bay Lift Bridge, killing 48 people.

In 1959, Nikita Khrushchev became the primary Soviet leader to go to the United States when he arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

In 1978, Muhammad Ali became the primary boxer to win the heavyweight title thrice by winning his rematch against Leon Spinks by unanimous decision.

In 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of this of the subprime mortgage crisis. This was the most important bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

Today's birthdays:

• Screenwriter and director Ron Shelton is 79.
• Actor Tommy Lee Jones is 78.
• Film director Oliver Stone is 78.
• Football coach Pete Carroll is 73.
• Television personality Lisa Vanderpump is 64.
• Dan Marino, a member of the Football Hall of Fame, is 63.
• Actor Josh Charles is 53.
• Olympic gold medalist in swimming Tom Dolan is 49.
• Actor Tom Hardy is 47.
• Actress Amy Davidson is 45.
• Actor Dave Annable is 45.
• Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is 40.
• Television personality Heidi Montag is 38.

Seven church members representing the Presbytery of San Jose recently traveled to Peru to watch and document what organizations there are doing for the environment.

However, they weren’t there to inform local people what to do or to resolve problems.

“That doesn't work,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Boatwright, who attends First Presbyterian Church of Mountain View and has traveled to Peru. “We wanted to hear their story, their solutions, their dreams. Then our job is to accompany them in prayer and to work with them as partners, praying and offering them all the resources we have to make that dream come true.”

The key, Boatwright said, is to be certain that Peruvians “own the solution.”

The team members visited Peru from May 19 to 26 and were particularly concerned about what Peruvian leaders are doing to handle local air and water pollution, oil pollution, lead poisoning, mining corruption, abuse of indigenous lands, and illegal trade. The church members then returned to the United States and presented their findings to their local churches.

“We were told that very few people come to see and hear what is going on, and [hear] the local solutions to the problem,” Boatwright said. “We were excited to come back and tell the story.”

Team members were originally scheduled to make the trip in 2020, but due to political unrest in Peru and complications related to the COVID pandemic, it was postponed to 2024. Mission teams from the Presbytery of San Jose previously traveled to Puerto Rico and Indonesia.

The team members represent six Presbyterian churches in Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz County. In addition to Boatwright, they are David Heacock, a member of Los Gatos Presbyterian, the Rev. Deborah Troester, pastor of Santa Teresa Hills Presbyterian, the Rev. Karla Kress of Saint Andrew Presbyterian in Aptos, Mary and Barry Vickery of Sunnyvale Presbyterian and Olga Enciso Smith of Westminster Presbyterian in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose.

The group visited four major areas in Peru, including a memorial in Lima that commemorates the thousands of Peruvians who went missing, kidnapped or killed during the Shining Path years from 1980 to 2000. The terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (“Shining Path”) carried out a campaign of violence in Peru that is responsible for more than 24,000 deaths.

The team also visited the Chillon River in Callo. Callo has poor air quality due to oil refineries and the river is polluted by waste and oil spills, Boatwright said.

“This trip brought tears to my eyes as I saw the damage to health and nature,” said Smith, a Los Gatos resident originally from Peru. “I am very grateful to be part of this group and to have the opportunity to witness this dire situation.”

The group also visited the town of La Oroya, which had a smelter that polluted the air for decades and caused lead poisoning in much of the population. According to Boatwright, 98.6% of children between the ages of 6 and 12 have extremely high levels of lead in their blood. The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that there is no known safe level of lead in children's blood. According to the World Health Organization, lead in children can cause mental retardation or a lower IQ.

“In addition, we also spoke to former teams and learned about their commitment to advocating for the interests of local communities both in Lima and in relation to smelters in the United States,” Boatwright said.

She added that the response was “amazing” when the results from Peru were presented to parishioners at First Presbyterian Church in Mountain View.

“People weren’t aware of what Indigenous peoples were affected by unscrupulous practices,” Boatwright said. “My biggest hope is that folks will consider supporting local people's efforts to create healthy environments, promote self-sustaining agriculture and community constructing, end corrupt practices and offer fair trade solutions.”

The team members hope to proceed to spread the message.

“We pray that we can share our presentation with others in the community who would like to join us in providing the means to fulfill their desires,” Boatwright said.

Fifty-eight years ago, in the summertime of 1966, a gaggle of black church leaders undertook a full page ad within the New York Times entitled “Black Power.” Their tightly worded statement called on national leaders, “white churchmen,” black residents, and the mass media to correct the country's racial power imbalance. Essentially, they called on their fellow residents to support Black Power.

The signatories included outstanding church leaders resembling Rev. Paul Washington of the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Rev. Gayraud Wilmore of the Presbyterian Commission on Religion and Race, and Rev. Benjamin Payton of the National Council of Churches. With years of experience within the civil rights movement, 48 black church leaders courageously affirmed their unconditional support for the Black Power movement.

How many white Christian Nationalists in 2024These black church leaders believed that God was punishing their beloved country. Both groups called for repentance and fundamental change. And like white Christian nationalists, the black Christian activists of 1966 claimed that their faith had something to say in questions of racial identity and power politics.

Such a comparison might suggest that the 2 groups, each pleased with their ethnic identities, were the identical of their goals. However, the church-based Black Power proponents articulated their vision in 1966, pursued their goal of eliminating corruption within the country, and handled their fellow residents in a really different way than white Christian nationalists do today.

As Religious and racial studies scholars In social protest movements, I argue that the claim of Black Power was on no account a threat to democracy – unlike today's demands for power by white Christian nationalists.

A practical approach to power

Only just a few weeks before the ad was published, the activist Stokely Carmichael had made the term “Black Power” known nationwide during a freedom march in Greenwood, Mississippi. He announced: “We have been demanding freedom for six years and we have achieved nothing. What we have to say now is Black Power! We want Black Power.” His rhetoric and the racial unrest that was then sweeping the country in cities like Chicago, Cleveland And Dayton, Ohio, prompted black church leaders to publish their ad.

In the nearly 3,000-word statement, the pastors proposed that a good distribution of political and economic power would solve the cities' problems. Accurate reporting, full employment and equal education would make this power-sharing possible. As religious leaders, in addition they called on their congregations to beat internal divisions and practice racial self-love.

In addition, black church leaders used the text of your paid ad to refute the concept any “nation, race, or organization” had the fitting to “supreme power.” They desired to reassure readers that Black Power activists shouldn’t have supreme power either. They then tempered their patriotism by noting that “America is our beloved home,” but that the country was “not God.” Unlike some black nationalist activists of the time, they didn’t call for separation from white society.

Instead of an “otherworldly vision of God's power,” their ad focused on the exercise of power within the “here and now.” And they called for access to power that may allow black residents to take part in “all levels of our nation's life.”

As a historian and activist Vincent Harding observed that her words reflected the words of parishioners who would criticize excessively spiritual church leaders by claiming“Praying is fine at a prayer meeting, but it is of no use when meeting bears.” This implies that in a dangerous situation – be it a riot in town or an encounter with a wild animal – religious resources aren’t sufficient.

Their seizure of power was pragmatic and based on an appeal to the founding principles of the United States.

Performance with limits

However, their quest for Black Power had limits. Text of your adBlack church leaders were clearly in favor of empowering “all people,” which necessarily required that black people even have power.

They also acknowledged that the institutions they led – the black communities – already had a certain quantity of power. Since the mass exodus of black community members from white-run communities within the Aftermath of emancipationIndependent black communities provided religious support and food while also providing a basis for political motion.

Black communities had supported community members who challenged white supremacy during Reconstructiondemanded Access to jobs during World War II And marched to Washington for jobs and freedom in the course of the civil rights movement.

A way of participation

But perhaps a very powerful point is that the 48 signatories of the New York Times statement – ​​like other secular Black Power supporters on the time – didn’t seek control of the country.

Instead of a “foolish attempt at domination” or a “new form of isolationism,” they said within the adThey sought power to participate effectively “at all levels of our nation’s life.” Their goal was to make “the rebuilding of our cities” the country’s top priority.

Within a decade of the declaration's publication in 1966, the term Black Power had been forgotten even amongst its most vocal proponents. often initiated by paid informantshad weakened the Black Power organizations. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had organized violent attacks on Black Power activistsOther Black Power supporters were arrested and imprisoned by each local and federal officials.

As Leron Martinthe director of the King Center at Stanford University, Hoover’s motivation for undermining black power was his pious expression of a Christianity that “unerringly conservative, patriotic and white.”

Another option to mix faith and politics

Proponents of white Christian nationalism proceed to hunt a religiously led, white-dominated governmentA recent PPRI study also found that White Christian nationalists were twice as prone to support political violence.

In contrast, the instance of the short-lived, church-based promotion of Black Power places contemporary Christian nationalism in a broader context. Black church leaders demonstrated that there was a option to incorporate religious commitments into political endeavors without insisting on racial dominance or rejecting the separation of church and state.

As these Black Power advocates made clear, it was possible to be patriotic while concurrently criticizing the nation's failure to realize racial justice. Unlike contemporary advocates of a faith within the United States based on Christian principles and characterised by “Non-whites, non-Christians and immigrantsIn their statement, the Black Power activists of 1966 condemned the “open violence of the riots.” Even Malcolm X, the outspoken activist of the Nation of Islam, was suspended from his religious duties for suggesting that President John F. Kennedy's actions led to his assassination. when he said that the chickens had come home to sleep.”

From a realistic and principled standpoint, black church leaders considered violence impracticable. Even as they promoted the highly controversial idea of ​​black power in a white nation, they remained steadfast of their belief that democracy was compatible with, not in conflict with, their goals.

Since JD Vance was named the Republican vice presidential candidate, his performance has been under intense scrutiny. In an interview in 2021For example, Vance criticized Vice President Kamala Harris as “one of many childless female cats“who led “a miserable life” and imposed their misery on the remaining of the country, although without descendants they’d no “direct share” in the long run of the country.

The term cat lady is usually used today as a derogatory term for girls who don’t have children and was considered withdrawn and obsessed with their pets. Harris can be the stepmother of her husband's two children. Moreover, the choice to have children or not has nothing to do with women's contribution to American society.

Furthermore, Vance’s views on childless women are in sharp contrast to the Attitude towards his current Catholic faith. As a Scholar of medieval CatholicismI do know that throughout Catholic history there are various childless women who were respected for his or her work, a lot of them members of non secular communities. They often contributed to lasting social and cultural change. In fact, the very existence of non secular communities of ladies is a testament to the worth Catholicism places on the lives of childless women.

Monks' wives

The monastic movement that arose within the early days of Christianity in Egypt was rooted in the need of some men and ladies to concentrate on solitude and prayer in an effort to live a more complete Christian life. In fact, the selection of a lifetime of celibacy was considered the next spiritual calling, each for single men and women. They left the cities and lived in reverent solitude within the wilderness.

Some of those men and ladies lived alone as hermits, others joined together to form isolated communities of only men or only women.

The predominant type of communal monasticism in medieval Western Christianity from the sixth century onwards was Benedictine monasticism, which organised monastic life, prayer and work based on a text by the Italian monk Benedict of Nursia: the Rule of Saint Benedict. Monasteries of childless women in addition to childless men followed this rule and committed themselves to chastity, poverty and obedience. Benedictine life still required withdrawal from society, but additionally emphasized hospitality towards guests and visitors.

Like the monks who taught boys, Benedictine nuns became known for the education of young girlsoften the daughters of nobles and other influential families. Some of the women stayed to change into nuns themselves, by personal selection or out of obedience to their parents. Others returned to their families, normally to marry.

European movements

But marriage or entering a monastery weren’t the one options for medieval women. Some joined monasteries as lay sisters and ran errands for the cloistered nuns outside the monastery. Others selected to stay single and look after their elderly parents or other relatives.

In the twelfth century, single women could also decide to live as solitary hermits, not in a desert or a forest, but in the course of a city. These women were referred to as Hermits who live in small solitary cells.

These cells or anchorages were built on the side of the local church and had two or three windows overlooking the church or a side garden. A servant ran errands outside the anchoress' cell. Anchoresses may very well be supported financially from their very own wealth or from donations from others.

Hermits were viewed metaphorically dead to the surface world; a part of the ritual of locking up a hermit was harking back to a funeral ceremony. They committed themselves to spending the remaining of their lives of their cells.

However, they became vital parts of the larger community. They often sewed and embroidered, either for the church's services or to present to the poor or sell. Hermit women were also consulted by other women, visited by pilgrims asking for prayers, or asked to show small groups of women. Contact with men was severely limited and almost never private.

In the twelfth century, there have been other single, childless women in parts of Europe. began to come back together in less formally organized groups. These religious brothers, referred to as Beguines, didn’t take everlasting religious vows, but privately vowed to steer a lifetime of poverty, chastity, and obedience through informal, temporary vows.

In the 14th century they sometimes lived together in small, separate districts, the so-called BeguinagesBeguines served their local communities by working in existing hospitals, acting as midwives, visiting the sick and poor, taking in orphans, and teaching children.

As an independent women's movement without major male control got here under suspicion within the thirteenth century by some church authorities who began to fear that they were teaching heretical ideas. Many were questioned and and at the least one was executed by burned on the stake in the course of the Inquisition. Their numbers steadily decreased in the course of the Reformation.

Contributions to education

In the nineteenth century, religious orders for girls experienced a remarkable expansion. Both old and latest orders spread far beyond Europe and made an unlimited impression within the young United States. One vital area was education. For example, the Religious of the Sacred Heartfounded after the turmoil of the French Revolution by Saint Madeline Sophie Barat in 1800founded schools for ladies in several cities within the United States and Canada.

At the request of the Bishop of Louisiana, she sent a small group of sisters, led by St. Rose Philippine DuchesneIn 1818, he got here to the United States to ascertain a faculty for French and Indian children. Today, there are 25 American schools, a part of a global network of Sacred Heart schools in over 40 countries.

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, who founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Italy, worked with latest immigrants within the United StatesShe founded schools and orphanages not only in North America, but additionally in Central and South America. Mother Cabrini was canonized in 1946 and is the patron saint of immigrants.

Care of the sick

Catholic sisters were also very visible in healthcare in Europe and the United States.

Since the thirteenth century, the Augustinian nuns followed a rule of life based on the teachings of Saint Augustine. had taken care of the sick for hundreds of years in certainly one of the oldest hospitals in Europe: the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. Later, a brand new order of French sisters, the Daughters of Charitywas founded in 1633 by St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac. served as a nurse on the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital. Even today, the main focus is on healthcare for the elderly and disabled, and education in 94 countriesincluding the United States.

Inspired by their example, The American widow and Catholic convert Elizabeth Ann Seton founded the Sisters of Charity in Maryland in 1809, who continued the work of those French sisters within the United States.

Other religious orders of nuns, equivalent to the Irish Sisters of Mercyfounded hospitals in Pittsburgh and San Francisco within the nineteenth century. Like the Sisters of Charity, they proceed to work in each in care and education.

However, there have been also scandals. For example, terrible abuse occurred in a Bon Secours Sisters institution in Ireland. Bodies of nearly 800 babies and youngsters were secretly buried on the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home within the mid-Twentieth century. And for nearly a century, Native American children were exposed to physical and sexual abuse in Benedictine-run schools in Minnesota.

Since then, each the Bon Secours Sisters and that Benedictines have apologized. These and similar abuses have to be eliminated and recognized as a stain on 15 centuries of positive work.

Today's American society is improving in valuing the contributions of moms and childless women alike, regardless of non secular affiliation. However, it will be significant to notice that while marriage and youngsters were vital for hundreds of years, childless women were valued for his or her contributions within the Catholic Church.

They plan to satisfy one last time on Sunday – the handful of mostly elderly members of the First Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

They say the Lord's Prayer, recite the Apostles' Creed, and listen to a passage typically used at funerals: “To everything there is a time… a time to be born, and a time to die.” They sing classic hymns – “Amazing Grace,” “It Is Well With My Soul,” and, poignantly, “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.”

Members will then vote on whether to shut the church, a century and a half after it was founded by poor farmers on this community of 14,000 in southern Illinois.

Many U.S. churches close their doors yearly, often with little fanfare. But this closing has a poignant twist.

First Baptist pastor Ryan Burge spends much of his time as a researcher documenting the dramatic decline in religious affiliation over the past few many years. His latest book, The Nones, focuses on the estimated 30% of American adults who don’t discover with any religious tradition.

One way he uses his research is to assist other pastors who want to achieve their congregations. He can be often invited to fly across the country and speak to audiences far larger than his weekly congregation.

But it shouldn’t be a tutorial abstraction. Burge has experienced the fact of his research every Sunday morning within the increasingly empty pews of the spacious nave, built to accommodate tons of of individuals throughout the years of peak churchgoing within the mid-Twentieth century.

“It's strange that I've become something of an expert on church growth, and yet my church is dying,” says Burge, a political science major at Eastern Illinois University. “I often try to figure out how much blame I bear for what's happening around me.”

Burge took over the leadership of the congregation in 2006, when “there were about 50 people on a good Sunday,” he recalls. In the years that followed, he earned a doctorate and worked as a professor. He developed a big readership online and in print, partly by turning extensive statistical tables into easy-to-understand graphs of non secular trends.

During all this time he remained pastor of the small church.

“I admit that I'm not as good a pastor as I could or should be,” he said. “But I also don't admit that it's 100% my fault. If you look at the macro-level trends that are playing out in modern American religion, it's difficult to build a church in America today, regardless of denomination. And in many places, there are far more headwinds than tailwinds.”

The American Baptist Church is a component of a bunch of so-called mainline denominations – Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and others that after played central roles of their communities but whose membership numbers have declined dramatically. The country's largest evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, can be losing members.

Although there is no such thing as a annual survey of closed churches within the United States, in line with Lifeway Research, a company affiliated with the Southern Baptists, about 4,500 Protestant churches were closed in 2019.

Scholars say churches are shrinking for quite a lot of reasons – scandals, conflict, mobility, indifference, lower birth rates, members switching to a church they value more highly. Sure, most Americans remain religious, and a few larger churches are thriving while many smaller ones are shrinking. Some polls suggest that the long rise of the “unaffiliated” has slowed or stalled.

Yet nonreligious persons are way more common within the United States today than they were a generation ago. many other nations.

“If Billy Graham had been born in 1975 instead of 1918, I don’t think he would have been as successful, because he reached its peak “right around the time when the baby boom was starting and America was really craving religion,” Burge said.

The situation is particularly difficult where communities are shrinking, such as in the Rust Belt and rural areas.

Burge hopes his research and personal experience can provide some comfort to other pastors in similar situations.

“It's not all your fault,” he said. “You know, in the 1950s you could be a terrible pastor and still build a church because there was so much growth all over America. It doesn't seem that way anymore.”

Eighty-year-old Gail Farnham has witnessed this development in church life first-hand.

Her family began attending First Baptist Church when she was 5. Her parents quickly became involved as volunteers and “never looked back,” she recalls. Like many American families in the '50s, they joined during the booming growth of church involvement. First Baptist peaked at about 670 members by mid-century, leading to the construction of a large new church building and a number of Sunday school classrooms.

Farnham raised her own children in the church and continues to serve in an important leadership role as a moderator of the congregation.

The First Baptist Church has had its share of divisions and controversies in the past, but has largely followed the typical pattern of many Protestant churches, flourishing in the 1950s and only gradually losing its sustainability. Last Sunday there were eight believers in attendance.

The remaining members, especially the older ones, have found a new mission in recent years despite the uncertain future. They participated in a program to provide packed lunches for needy school children. At times they were able to provide 300 meals a week.

The closure was “bittersweet,” Farnham said.

Now everyone, including Burge, can be searching for a brand new church. “I've been preaching every Sunday since August 2005 and I need to be a member of a church for a while, not just be at the front,” he said.

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The Associated Press's coverage of faith receives support from the Cooperation with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely accountable for this content.

Originally published: July 20, 2024 at 9:51 am

Following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Vatican released an announcement on July 14, 2024, condemning the violence. The attack, it said, “hurts people and democracywhich causes suffering and death.”

Other Catholic leaders also expressed concern concerning the political violence.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, for instance, president of the US Bishops’ Conference, said in an announcement “Together with my brother bishops, we condemn political violence and pray for President Trump and the dead and injured. He also called for an end to “political violence,” which, he noted, is “never an answer to political differences.”

This assassination comes at a time of violence and war around the globe. The conflict in Ukraine has been occurring for greater than two years after the invasion of Russia and the war within the Gaza Strip, triggered by a Hamas Terrorist attack on Israeli civilianshas been occurring for months.

As a Specialist in medieval ChristianityI do know that Catholic views on the morality of killing have evolved over time. And while Christianity eventually got here to just accept the Idea of ​​warfare for self-defense and the common goodThe value of forgiving enemies was also emphasized.

Early Christianity

In the primary centuries of Christianity, when it was banned within the Roman Empire, it was considered the faith of those that were considered weak, comparable to women and slaves. Christians were generally pacifiststo cover during pursuit or to undergo arrest without physical force.

In fact, bloodshed was so abhorrent to some Christians that not less than one local church congregationpresumably in Rome or North Africa, soldiers couldn’t be received into the Christian community as “catechumens” – those preparing for baptism – unless they refused to offer an order to kill others. Any catechumen or baptized believer who desired to turn into a soldier needed to rejected by this community due to “contempt” God.

However, some Christians served within the Roman army, but by the tip of the third century they were excluded from the military within the eastern a part of the empire in the event that they refused to supply sacrifices to the pagan gods.

Morality of killing

Christianity was legalized originally of the fourth century and progressively developed into the official religion of the Roman Empire until its end. Christian theology has had to vary over the centuries regarding the morality of killing, including murder, capital punishment, and warfare.

An vital change was the notion of self-defense. The theologian Augustine, who died in 430 AD, taught that a Christian nation has the proper to wage war under certain conditions: There should be a War in self-defense; the last word goal should be peace; it should be conducted without cruelty; and it must not be an offensive war of conquest. To achieve peace, it was acceptable to kill other soldiers or fighters, including the leader of the enemy army.

In 732 AD, for instance, a Christian army led by the Frankish nobleman Charles Martel conquered defeated a Muslim army which had already conquered most of Christian Spain. His victory on the Battle of Tours stopped the spread of Muslim rule into Gaul and further into Christian Europe.

But neither the church nor the state at all times adhered to those principles. The founding of the Inquisition within the early thirteenth century – initially to Ensuring fair investigations accused heretic – was later suffering from abuses comparable to restrictive detentions and brutal torture, which led to the deaths of tens of 1000’s.

Acting for the common good

Later medieval theologians expanded the thought of ​​self-defense and added one other condition: the defense of the common good.

One of an important thinkers on this topic was the thirteenth century Dominican Father Thomas Aquinas. In his extensive work “Theological Summary“, Thomas Aquinas offers an in depth consideration of the conditions under which war can legitimately be waged.

But in one other work – “On the Government of the Rulers”, co-authored with Bartholomew of Lucca – Thomas Aquinas discusses a related query: What happens when a community is oppressed by an extreme tyrant who puts his own desires above the welfare of the community he rules and doesn’t let up?

In this case, a bunch of community leaders acting in the most effective interest of the common good can depose or kill the tyrant. However, a single person, a lone killer, cannot take matters into his own hands and act on his own.

Later perhaps the leaders of the American Revolution unconsciously reflected This principle was based on the choice to fight for independence and to withstand the tyranny of the British Parliament and King, which they perceived as unjust.

Both basic values, self-defense and customary good, are still being taught
Today within the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Human life is sacred, and no individual has the proper to take a lifeBut each individuals and societies have the proper to “legitimate” self-defense.

The Catechism makes clear that the intention should be self-defense, even when it leads to the death of the opposite. Soldiers can have to kill, but they accomplish that with the intention of defending their country, not with a private desire to take a life. Individuals, too, can defend themselves when attacked, with the intention of frightening or incapacitating an attacker, but not with the precise intention of killing him.

The meaning of forgiveness

A 3rd practice doesn’t concern teaching, but prayer: the Forgiveness towards enemies.

This Christian belief has its roots within the Gospels, particularly in how Jesus taught his disciples to hope, referred to as Our FatherChristians are should love and to forgive their enemies, a vital lesson that applies even to those that might attempt to kill them.

It was customary for prisoners sentenced to death to personally forgive the executioner before death. In 1535, for instance, Saint Thomas MoreThe English Lord Chancellor, convicted of high treason, even kissed his executioner before forgiving him.

Even murder victims have often forgiven their attackers. 1902 when she died from her woundsSaint Maria Goretti forgave the person who tried to rape her and stabbed her when she resisted. And in 1996, Christian de Chergé, the abbot of a bunch of Catholic monks kidnapped and later executed by Algerian terrorists, left a final statement during which he addressed his executioner with the words:my friend of the last moment“ and expressed the hope that they’d see one another again in paradise.

Contemporary Popes

The words and actions of recent popes also clearly express the Catholic hope for love and forgiveness within the face of violence.

Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, Pope Paul VI issued an announcement that very same day during which he not only expressed his own sympathy for the Kennedy family and the people of the United States, but in addition concluded with the prayer “that not hatred, but Christian love, should reign over all humanity.”

When Turkish citizen Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, the Pope, who survived, later visited the person in prison to forgive him personallyAğca was sentenced to life imprisonment in an Italian prison, but was released on the request of the Pope and sent back to Turkey.

Obviously, Catholic teaching on killing has evolved over time and continues to emphasise the worth of human life and the common good. What has not modified is the necessity for forgiveness.

While the sports world and fans are waiting for the Opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and that Paralympic Gameseight Catholic dioceses within the greater Paris area have already lit their very own Olympic flame by organizing the “Sacred Games.” The project is a collaboration between the Archdiocese of Paris and the French Bishops' Conference.

The Sacred Games consist of three programs, each lasting per week – two throughout the Olympic Games and the third throughout the Paralympics. The Sacred Games bring together missionaries, Catholics and other spectators to look at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, rejoice Mass and fellowship in various cultural activities.

French church leaders see this initiative as Opportunity to involve young Catholics and others in religious activities. According to La Croix International, a French Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Church in France sees the Olympic Games as a chance to Use the facility of Sport for evangelization.

However, the usage of sport as a way of evangelization is just not a brand new phenomenon for the worldwide Catholic Church. In fact, several Catholic popes have contributed to the event of Catholicism and sport. Doctoral student in sports managementI’m conversant in these historical contributions.

Early posts

The wealthy history between the Catholic Church and sport has been the main target of research for several religious scholars. Dries Vanysacker declared that the Catholic Church all the time shown a priority of sporting activity.

An early but indirect contribution got here from Pope Leo XIII. In a letter to the clergy in 1891, he advocated the rights of employees and identified that employees “should have free time and rest.” In response to this call, Catholic sports organizations began to form within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Pope Pius X made a big contribution by affiliating himself with several sports organizations. In 1905, he welcomed athletes to the Holy See for the primary international gymnastics competition, which within the VaticanIn a speech to the participants, Pius X said: “The material exercises of the body are influence admirably the exercises of the mind.”

Pope Pius XII also emphasized the Spiritual advantages of sportHe saw sport as a option to transmit Christian values ​​and promote the event of spiritual life, especially amongst young people. In a message to Italian athletes in 1945, he wrote: Pius XII said“Sport is a school of loyalty, courage, endurance, determination, universal brotherhood and all natural virtues.”

Vehicle for the event of body and soul

Known as “Athlete Pope”, Pope John Paul II consolidated the Catholic Church’s interest in sport, as he saw sport as Vehicle for the development of body and soul. He The Office for Church and Sports was founded throughout the Pontifical Council for the Laity. The aim of this office was to act as a reference point between the Church and international sports organizations, to advertise a sports culture and to support the study of specific topics and sports.

John Paul II also used sport as a crucial technique of evangelization. He two international sports meetings held during which he spoke to quite a few athletes, sports associations and other leaders of organizations concerning the power of sport. He spoke Athletes in 1991 and said that sport “promotes the orderly and harmonious development of the body in the service of the spirit.”

Sport for Peace

Currently, Pope Francis sees sport as a way of PeacemakingIn a video address before the opening of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Francis said “Sport is a school of peace. It teaches us to create peace.”

In 2016, Francis founded the movement “Sport at the Service of Humanity”, which goals to make use of sport as a catalyst for Peace and social change. The principal purpose of the organization is to bring together leaders from sports, business, science, media and other religious areas for an annual conference. The 2024 conference, held at Creighton University In June the main target was on athlete support.

As the French capital prepares to host the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games, the secular world will give attention to the sporting competitions, athletic achievements and medal hunts. The French Catholic Church, meanwhile, will proceed to give attention to its evangelical efforts, as over 70 parishes near the Olympic venues will welcome visitors and Celebrating in multiple languages.

RICHMOND – A former volunteer at a Richmond church was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a music student over several years, police said Friday.

Police imagine the suspect, Miguel Angel Villalobos-Ramirez, 37, of Richmond, could also be accountable for similar attacks at other churches within the Bay Area.

He has thus far been charged by the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office with two counts of rape and two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object.

He was arrested on June 21 and stays within the West County Detention Facility pending $400,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 8.

Police said Friday that they were contacted on March 21 of this 12 months by a lady who reported that as a young woman she had been sexually abused by Villalobos-Ramirez during her music lessons at St. Cornelius Catholic Church, 205 twenty eighth St. Church officials said he was a volunteer within the music ministry.

The woman told police that the abuse lasted from 2010 to 2022, starting when she was a minor and continuing until she reached maturity.

Police launched an in depth investigation that culminated in Villalobos' arrest and formal charges on Tuesday. According to court documents, the confirmed alleged assaults occurred between January 2019 and January 2023.

According to police, Villalobos has worked as a volunteer at several churches throughout the Bay Area since 2010, including St. Cornelius, St. Clement's Catholic Church in Hayward and most recently, until his arrest, Queen of all Saints Church in Concord. Church officials said he also volunteered within the music ministry at the opposite two churches.

Police said that based on information gained throughout the investigation, it’s believed there are additional victims who haven’t yet come forward. Police are urging anyone who has had inappropriate contact with Villalobos or knows of such incidents to instantly contact Detective Terry Thomas at 510-621-1746 or via email at Terry.Thomas@RichmondPD.net.

The statement said Villalobos-Ramirez was given the volunteer work on the churches “after completing safe work training and a background check.”

“We know how important it is for us to honor the trust you place in us to care for your loved ones, and we continue to do everything we can every day to provide a safe, healthy and sacred environment here in our community,” the statement continued. “Thank you for doing your part in our shared responsibility.”

Anyone with information regarding an allegation of sexual misconduct by a clergy member or a diocese worker or volunteer is asked to contact their local police department.

Few constitutional principles are more familiar to the common American than the separation of church and state.

According to the Pew Research Center, 73% of adults agree that Religion needs to be separated from government policyOf course, support varies depending on political or religious affiliation – among the many Democrats Supporting the principle in much larger numbers – and depending on the problem, corresponding to prayers in public schools or the erection of the Ten Commandments monuments. Yet only 19% of Americans think the United States should abandon the principle of separation of church and state.

However, criticism appears to be increasing, especially amongst politically and religiously conservativeAnd this criticism comes from the very top.

Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson noticed in 2023 that “the separation of church and state is a misnomer … it comes from a phrase in a letter that [Thomas] Jefferson wrote, “It is not in the Constitution. And what he meant by that was that they did not want the government to interfere with the church – not that they did not want principles of faith to influence our public life.”

As a scholar of American legal and spiritual historyI have written extensively in regards to the development of non secular freedom within the USA and the origins of the separation of church and state.

Two of the Founding Fathers have shaped American views on these issues greater than another: Jefferson and James Madison. But their views have also develop into a focus of controversy because the “wall” between church and state is put to the test.

My next bookThe Grand Collaboration attempts to reply several questions: What was Jefferson and Madison's understanding of non secular freedom? And why were they so committed to this principle?

Cornerstones of the law – in Virginia and beyond

Jefferson wrote the Virginia Religious Freedom Act In 1777, essentially the most comprehensive declaration of non secular freedom on the time was passed. The law guaranteed freedom of conscience, protected religious assemblies from government control, prohibited government funding of non secular institutions, and boldly declared that religious opinions were beyond the authority of civil officials.

Just a few years later, Madison turned these ideals into law. His “Memorial and protest against religious judgmentsa protest against a proposal to make use of tax money to support Christian teachers reaffirmed the values ​​of separation of church and state and spiritual equality. It helped defeat the proposal—and set the stage for Virginia to pass Jefferson's bill.

As president, Jefferson wrote a letter to a Baptist association in Connecticut where he immortalized the phrase “a wall of separation between church and state.”

The Bill of Rights comprises two clauses on religion, each in the First Amendment to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law establishing a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.”

What needs to be considered a “state religion”, nonetheless, is controversial.

In 1947, the US Supreme Court ruled advocated the separation of church and state as a guideline for the interpretation of the religious clauses, rely largely in regards to the writings and actions of the 2 Virginians. Justice Hugo Black wrote: “In Jefferson's words, the clause against the establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a 'wall of separation between church and state.'”

The duo's documents served as the idea for the legal principle of separation of church and state, and for five many years their credibility in court remained unchallenged.

Shift at SCOTUS

Criticism of the separation of church and state intensified within the Nineteen Eighties. As the religious right became a political force, Commentators argued that the concept was anti-religious and didn’t reflect the prevailing views about church and state on the time of the founders.

In recent many years, such arguments have attracted politicians and lawyers, including members of the Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court's previous separatist interpretations of the structure “sometimes bordered on religious hostility.” Legal scholars Philip Hamburger has declared that “the constitutional authority for the separation has no historical basis“ and “should be viewed with suspicion at best.”

Several recent Supreme Court decisions have rejected a separatist approach to church-state affairs. For example, the conservative majority has allowed taxpayer money for use for religious schools that Representation of non secular symbols on government property and spiritual expressions by public school employees.

In a dissenting opinion from 2022Justice Sonia Sotomayor complained that the court had turned the separation of church and state from a “constitutional obligation” right into a “violation of the Constitution.”

The judges’ earlier appeal to Jefferson and Madison has borne the brunt of the criticism that their views on church and state issues didn’t represent their colleagues, or that neither of the 2 men, as portrayed, was in favor of the separation.

Exchange of ideas

To higher understand Jefferson and Madison’s views, I examined lots of the 2,300 letters between the 2 about “Founders online”, a web site of the National Archives. I also checked out correspondence with other acquaintances.

Both founders had day loanswhich implies that they believed in a better being, but thought science and reason were the most effective ways to know religion. They were only nominally Christians, but higher shielded from religious intolerance than other “Dissenters” due to their high social standing and their membership within the Anglican Church.

It is all of the more remarkable that they dedicated their entire lives to promoting religious freedom.

Religious issues were all the time of concern to them. For example, when Madison and Jefferson debated the necessity for a Bill of Rights, freedom of conscience was all the time at the highest of the list. Both believed that the federal government should avoid supporting religion, even when no particular religion was favored. They also insisted that individuals must have broad religious freedom.

These views were clearly pioneers, but other religious rationalists and spiritual dissidents also held a comprehensive understanding of non secular freedom.

Both men were committed to promoting religious freedom because they saw it as closely linked to freedom of inquiry and conscience. “Reason and free inquiry are the only effective remedies against error,” said Jefferson. wrote in 1784. Allowing people to freely investigate ideas “supports true religion,” because “truth can stand on its own.”

Similar, Madison explained “Freedom of conscience is a natural and absolute right.”

In their view, freedom of inquiry was the source of other rights. Freedom of faith, for instance, was a subset of freedom of conscience. And a healthy separation of church and state was the important thing to making sure these freedoms.

“A support”

The letters reveal how Jefferson and Madison complemented and reinforced one another's views on church and state. They also show the close mental and emotional affection the 2 men felt for one another and the way much each valued the opposite's support.

In their last exchanges Before Jefferson's death on July 4, 1826, he pleaded with Madison: “For myself, you have been a support all my life. Take care of me when I am dead, and rest assured that I will leave you my last feelings.”

Madison responded with similar affection: “You cannot look back on the long period of our private friendship and political harmony with more moving memories than I do.”

Jefferson and Madison's 50-year collaboration within the name of non secular freedom and equality is a very important chapter within the founding history of the United States. I consider this legacy mustn’t be dismissed, but remembered and celebrated.

At the recent annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, quite a few motions were made as regards to women. The Conversation asked Susan Shawa gender and sexuality scholar who studies Southern Baptist women to elucidate the election and other developments within the country's largest Protestant denomination.

The Southern Baptist Convention has rejected a proposal that explicitly stated that only men might be pastors. Does this mean that the SBC is changing and becoming more accepting of ladies in leadership positions?

Absolutely not. The day before the vote on the proposed constitutional amendment of the denomination to exclude churches with women in pastoral roles, the Convention expelled the First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia, for its position that girls can function pastors. The vote was not even close, 6,759 to 563.

How many female pastors are there currently within the SBC? Could you furthermore mght share a bit concerning the history of resistance to women in leadership positions?

There is somewhere between 1,000 To 1,800 Women who function pastors in Southern Baptist churches. Few, if any, of those women are senior pastors. Instead, they’re assistant pastors, youth or children's pastors, women's pastors, or other varieties of pastors, all of whom work under the supervision of a male senior pastor.

The SBC adopted a Resolution of 1984 Rejection of ladies as leading pastors.

While resolutions are usually not binding on local churches, the proposed constitutional amendment would have defined a church as cooperating with the SBC provided that it “[a]confirms, appoints, or employs only men as pastors or elders of any kind, as directed by the Holy Scriptures.”

To change its bylaws, the convention must first approve any proposed change at an annual meeting after which confirm it with a final vote at the next annual meeting. That vote requires a two-thirds majority for the change to turn out to be a part of the bylaws. The women pastors amendment was set to pass in 2023, but failed this 12 months since it received only 61% of the vote.

Some of those against the change argued that the assembly had already spoken on the problem, had mechanisms in place to deal with churches with women pastors, and subsequently didn’t need to alter its structure. Nothing on this argument suggests support for girls, and in reality, opponents of the change often reiterated their support for the denomination's stance against women pastors.

For many Southern Baptists, the exclusion of ladies from the position of senior pastors isn’t an obstacle to their participation in other pastoral roles who wouldn’t have the supervisory authority of the senior pastor or require ordination. That was definitely the language of the initiators of the 1984 resolution, and the try and exclude churches where women hold pastoral roles apart from senior pastor, as they recently did in Alexandria, Virginia, goes beyond the intent of the sooner resolution.

Southern Baptists also place great importance on what they call “the autonomy of the local church.” This deeply held Baptist belief implies that each local church is self-governing and isn’t controlled in any way by the SBC. By increasingly excluding women from pastoral roles, the SBC could have been perceived as encroaching on the autonomy of the local church.

In 2023, the Southern Baptist Convention refused to readmit Saddleback Church to its ranks after it was expelled from the church earlier that 12 months for appointing female ministers. What do you think that this vote will change?

I don't think the vote will change anything. Saddleback's pastors weren’t senior pastorsthey were ordained, and the church affirmed the flexibility of ladies to assume any pastoral role. We can see from this 12 months's expulsion of First Baptist Alexandria that the SBC will proceed to purge churches that endorse women in any pastoral roles.

The only thing this 12 months's vote has shown us is that a major minority of “Messengers” – as Southern Baptists call the delegates to the SBC's annual convention – don’t want to interfere within the structure of the convention.

At the identical time, the SBC has voted against in vitro fertilization. Could you explain this vote and the SBC's historical views on the personification of the fetus?

This resolution expands Southern Baptists' opposition to any procedure that kills fetuses or embryos. The resolution sympathizes with infertile couples but argues that the method is ultimately the “destruction of embryonic human life” because embryos are sometimes stored and destroyed after successful implantation.

In the Seventies, before the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC within the Eighties and early Nineties, generally against abortion on demandbut additionally they anxious about government interference in women's decision-making about their very own bodies.

In the Eighties, the Convention made a pointy turn to the fitting with the aim of Abortion banned again. The language of the SBC modified from “fetal life” to “preborn” or “unborn” individuals. Now we see the SBC speaking of embryos as fully-fledged people and calls for “the government to prevent actions that are incompatible with the dignity and worth of every human being, and this necessarily includes frozen human embryos.”

What else was necessary about this meeting?

Despite the pressure that has been placed on the SBC in recent times to do something about its Problem of sexual abusehas the Convention repeatedly failed to make significant progress, especially on the long-awaited database to trace perpetrators. This 12 months, too, the Messengers voted to pass several abuse reforms, but survivors were disillusioned how little change actually takes place. Significant changes all the time appear to fail as a consequence of concerns about insurance and liability.

Taken together, the vote against the constitutional amendment, the resolution against artificial insemination, and the inaction on sexual abuse reform underscore that the religion community's ultra-conservative views on women remain unchanged.