Opinion

Remembering Gustavo Gutiérrez

(RNS) — A group of priests, most of us working in parishes in the slums, met with Gutiérrez to talk about our experiences. Only later did we realize that what he told us in return were the first moments of what would come to be called liberation theology.

Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez attends a news conference at the Vatican, May 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Joseph Nangle
October 30, 2024

(RNS) — On an ordinary weekday in the basement of a downtown church in Lima, Peru, in the late 1960s, a gathering of priests, most of them working in slum parishes, heard theology being done in an entirely new way: from the bottom up, based on day-to-day events, working from practice to theory.

Only later did we realize that something quite remarkable was taking place, and that we were experiencing the first moments of what would come to be called liberation theology.

The leader of the group was the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Catholic priest who was leading the discussion that day. It was there that I first heard Gutiérrez, who died Oct. 22, say, “I think the Exodus story in the Hebrew Scriptures has much to do with what we are doing here — the movement of a people from slavery to freedom: liberation.”

For several months he had invited us to meet with him weekly and share our pastoral experiences from the slum parishes where most of us we worked. Gustavo would simply listen as we spoke of the events taking place in our ministries, then, at the end, sum up what he had been hearing. We never sensed he was there to instruct or correct us. In fact, he sometimes remarked that the events we were describing were “the raw material for his theologizing.”

As the term “liberation theology” went viral, Gustavo expanded his initial reflections on this process, saying we were grappling with a fundamental question: Does God’s Word (the Holy Scriptures) have anything to say to the poor of the earth? The best way to begin answering that question, he said, was to look at the experience all around us in the so-called Third World of poor, marginalized, oppressed human beings.

Today the answer to that question and its instinctive affirmative reply is readily agreed upon: “Yes, of course, a principal theme in God’s Word to us concerns the poor among us.” At that time and place, however, this answer was not so clear. The institutional Catholic Church in Latin America was identified with powerful forces – economic, political and military elements that maintained an iron grip on the generally impoverished lives of its citizens. One archbishop in Peru celebrated the fact of so many poor, saying “this allowed the church the opportunity to be charitable toward them!”

The question about God’s Word and the recognition of victims of “institutionalized oppression” — another insight of liberation theology — were keys to understanding this “new grace” in theological terms, and, more importantly, in Catholic spirituality and pastoral practice. It turned the entire process of theologizing on its head, from ethical and doctrinal propositions to a new beginning place: reality. One can make the case now that this process has become a norm in most theological circles, even without labeling it liberation theology.

Gutierrez’s instinct about reflecting and acting on human experiences as the starting place for understanding God’s Word to humanity ran into serious obstacles. The most famous of these was the reaction of St. John Paul II and then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) at the Vatican. As the inevitable consequences of entire communities of oppressed people beginning to learn of God’s liberating Word, the Vatican leaders reacted sometimes violently against their status quo.

One can conjecture that the Polish pope and his German theologian moved from their deeply felt opposition to communism. They felt that poor people were being incited to Marxist-style revolution such as those the hierarchs had experienced, particularly in Soviet-dominated countries.

This attitude was 180 degrees apart from the intent of liberation theology. One cannot continue to oppress a people. They will protest. In the Bible’s Book of Exodus, we hear the Lord say, “I have heard the cry of the poor,” and Moses say, “Let my people go.” Liberation theology brought this consciousness of God’s will ever more clearly to oppressed human beings in Latin America and eventually far beyond. This is Gutierrez’s lasting and glowing legacy.

Sometime after my return from Peru to the United States in 1975, Gustavo called me to ask if I would approach an American religious superior and urge him to intervene with a member of his congregation in Peru. The superior was influential in many circles there and was undermining liberation consciousness among the people. Gustavo’s comment on that occasion is significant: “What’s important is not some arcane argument among armchair theologians, but essential for the popular organizations being moved by this new understanding of their religion.”

This request speaks of the importance that liberation theology has come to represent not only for marginalized people but for the Catholic Christian world and beyond. Judging, challenging, interpreting the Word of God by its relevance in ordinary life is a new spirituality. Gustavo was very strong on this point, often insisting with us who were engaged in ministry that the message of a liberating God was essentially a pastoral task.

In that and many other ways, Gustavo was a dedicated and faith-filled son of the Catholic Church. His adherence to it, despite official opposition from the highest levels of that institution, speaks volumes about his integrity as a loyal member of the church.

As a Christian, a Catholic, a member of the Franciscan order and an ordained priest in those institutions, I can say with utter honesty that Gutierrez has been the most important influence in my life. From a typically conservative cradle Catholic, educated theologically in the decade of the 1950s, I had my eyes opened to a whole new way of praying, celebrating the Catholic sacraments and above all engaging in pastoral work.

I began as a popularizer who saw his vocation as making people happy, without addressing the underlying causes of deep, widespread tragedies in the world. Gustavo opened my eyes. I was never the same again. He showed me that the Hebrew Scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ come with an expensive price tag, that of standing with and speaking on behalf of the millions who are denied a voice. And without promoting it, that view of Christianity inevitably provokes deep opposition.

In the words of another “liberationist,” Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “It is the cost of discipleship.”

(The Rev. Joseph Nangle is a Catholic Franciscan priest. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

Gutiérrez's liberation theology still inspires young Latin American theologians

(RNS) — While liberation theology has been criticized for a view of oppression that is too simplistic, young Latin American theologians say Gutiérrez opened the doors for new movements in Catholic thought, even as the Vatican warmed to his legacy.

Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez speaks during a news conference at the Vatican, May 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
Eduardo Campos Lima
October 29, 2024

SÃO PAULO (RNS) — The death of the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, called the “father of liberation theology,” at age 96 on Oct. 22 has set off a reconsideration of the theological and pastoral movement spawned by the publication of the Peruvian priest’s 1971 book, “A Theology of Liberation.”

Once a powerful influence on both faith and politics in Latin America, liberation theology grew out of Gutiérrez’s concern for the poor amid the collapse of political projects in the 1960s that tried to modernize the region’s economies, exacerbated by the political repression by military juntas in several South and Central American countries.

The result was widespread violence and poverty — something that, for Gutiérrez and his colleagues, was not natural, but produced by severe social and economic inequality.

“That was the innovation introduced by Gustavo Gutiérrez and others – including myself – when we conceived theology starting from the suffering and oppression faced by the great majority of the Latin American people. The poor are oppressed, and all oppression cries for liberation,” said Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and a prominent proponent of liberation theology himself, who called Gutiérrez “a dear friend.”

Before writing his book, Gutiérrez had visited Brazil, where a new kind of church organization was already being set in motion by urban and rural workers: so-called basic ecclesial communities, known by their Portuguese and Spanish acronym CEBs, which gathered workers in a given neighborhood into a single community where they could discuss their lives and their faith.

The CEBs inspired Gutiérrez, and his writings spread the CEB model to peasants, landless rural workers, members of Indigenous groups, factory workers and the unemployed.

Liberation theology, however, encountered criticism from Catholic Church leaders, especially in Europe, who said it owed too much to Marxist ideas in its analysis of poverty and was too sympathetic to ideas about violent revolution. Boff recalled that “Gutiérrez’s work was seen as a kind of Trojan horse designed to promote Marxism in Latin America.”

At the same time, the early years of liberation theology were also a time of intense debate as the church absorbed the changes of the Second Vatican Council, and Gutiérrez’s thought was not given its due. “Europeans couldn’t care less about the thought coming from the peripheries, especially about theological or philosophical thought,” Boff said.

But under Pope John Paul II and his doctrine watchdog, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), the Vatican would closely monitor liberation theology. Boff described how Gutiérrez once had to clarify some of his ideas for Vatican officials and the whole Peruvian episcopate. In 1984, liberation theology was officially censored, and though he was never silenced by Rome himself, Gutiérrez was relegated to the fringes of the church’s theological debates. Meanwhile, the Latin American church saw many of its most progressive leaders replaced by conservative prelates.

With the end of the Cold War a few years later, new ideas changed how Latin American thinkers, especially conservatives, saw politics and societal transformation. New generations of progressive theologians also found themselves rejecting liberation theology’s view of the poor and oppressed.

Over the past few decades, the fragmentation of categories such as “the poor” into smaller social groups and identities has been leading to several new theological movements in Latin America, more focused on the needs and realities of specific segments. Works like Gutiérrez’s may be seen by younger generations as classics from the past in that context.

“We realized that such rhetoric was too broad and nonspecific. Those ‘poor’ had no color. We’re all poor, but some of us are racialized, some of us are Black or Indigenous, some of us are women,” Colombian theologian Maricel Mena López, a professor at the Santo Tomas University in Bogota, told RNS.

A proponent of Black feminist theology, Mena said that, little by little, younger theologians also came to see liberation theology as patriarchal. “Apparently, women’s issues were not important in that theology,” she said.

Bolivian theologian Heydi Galarza, an expert in biblical studies, told RNS that the first generation of liberation theology thinkers “had great difficulty grasping the relevance of women’s issues.”

“That has been and continues to be a strong criticism,” Galarza said. “Latin American theology has gone a long way since then, with the development of new schools of thought.”

Both Mena and Galarza agree, however, that Gutiérrez opened the doors for those new movements.

“His theological work made other ones possible. I consider myself to be a liberation theologian – as well as a Black feminist theologian,” Mena said, adding that in her opportunities to talk with Gutiérrez at academic events, he always listened with great attention to all she had to say.

“He was very welcoming of feminist ideas, for instance. I never felt he was critical of them. He even told me, on one occasion, that he was glad that we were seeing things they couldn’t see back then,” she said.

The fact that his theological work started from the reality of social groups and from the practical experience with them still forms the basis for new theological approaches, Galarza said. “That nonspecific view of the poor has been overcome, but the way his theological work related to them — starting from the praxis — is still valid and can be applied to all social groups,” she said.

Pope Francis’ pontificate has also returned some vigor to liberation theology. A longtime acquaintance of Gutiérrez, the pontiff has always rejected what he considers to be “excess” in liberation theology, referring to its Marxist tendencies. But Gutiérrez’s focus on the poor and his preference for concrete theology directly connected to the people are ideas close to the pope’s own.

Indeed, under Francis the Vatican “rehabilitated” Gutiérrez, and he was invited to take part in official meetings there.

Bolivian theologian Tania Avila, a member of the women’s and Indigenous’ hubs of the Catholic Church’s Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network, known as REPAM, writes on “integral ecology,” a holistic approach to thinking about the environment that Francis included in his 2015 environmental encyclical, “Laudato Si’.” Avila told RNS that she considers Gutiérrez a “brave theologian who challenged his own time’s limitations to see the social context.”

Avila also agreed that Gutiérrez and some of his colleagues “made an effort to recognize, decades later, that they failed to take into consideration the feeling and thinking of the women in their theological work.”

Francisco Bosch, a young Argentine theologian who has been accompanying the Latin American CEBs as an adviser to the Episcopal Conference of Latin America, said he feels close to Gutiérrez. “Theology, for him, is a love letter between God and his people. The work of the theologian is about that letter. And we’re living amid projects of hatred in Latin America,” Bosch told RNS.

In a time of political crisis and a general feeling of lack of representation, of economic hardships and environmental catastrophes, “Gutiérrez’s words are more urgent than ever,” Bosch said.

“His thought is part of the great Judeo-Christian tradition, which still has much to offer to humankind, especially in times of disorientation,” said Bosch. The “struggles of different social groups — Blacks, Indigenous, women and so on — converge and strengthen each other, telling the same narrative of emancipation when their agents discover that God walks with them.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez, founding father of liberation theology, dies at 96

Opinion

St. Augustine was no stranger to culture wars – and has something to say about today’s

(The Conversation) — Augustine had divisive opinions – and didn’t mind sharing them. But his writing also has lessons about talking to people who don’t see eye to eye.

Michael Lamb
November 1, 2024

(The Conversation) — Americans are deeply divided, and the results of the 2024 presidential election are unlikely to heal these divisions. If the 2020 election is any indication, they might even become worse.

As a scholar of character and politics, I think a lot about how to bridge differences. In this heated election season, I keep returning to a surprising source: a thinker who lived in a time of deep division, 1,600 years ago.
Augustine’s culture wars

Augustine of Hippo is one of the most influential thinkers in Western history, holding sway across religious and political divides.

A celebrated Catholic saint, the theologian and bishop was also foundational to Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. Public intellectuals from New York Times columnist David Brooks to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham cite his influence. President Joe Biden quoted Augustine in his inaugural address, while Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, chose Augustine as his patron saint when joining the Catholic Church.

Yet Augustine’s reputation in his own day might give us pause. Born in North Africa in the fourth century C.E., he lived at a time of deep division in the Roman Empire and was often seen as a culture warrior.

An Algerian stamp commemorating the life of St. Augustine.
State Library and Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

Augustine experienced the tumultuous decline of the Roman Empire, as internal struggles and invasions drove the vast realm toward collapse. He died while his own city of Hippo was under siege by the Vandals.

Meanwhile, the empire had seen dramatic religious change. Over Augustine’s lifetime, Christianity went from being a persecuted sect to the official religion of the empire – but not without controversy.

In his influential book “City of God,” written between 413 and 426, Augustine vigorously defends his religion against “pagan” critics who blamed Christianity for the sack of Rome. At the same time, he challenges “heretics” and “schismatics” who questioned the authority of the Catholic Church

These debates were acrimonious. Some Catholic priests were killed, beaten or blinded by Circumcellions, a radical group of Christians that attacked opponents with the hopes of becoming martyrs. Once, Augustine narrowly avoided being assassinated because he took an alternative route home.

Despite such violence – and even because of it – Augustine advocated for political and religious unity. In “City of God,” he offers a vision of the political community, or “commonwealth,” that emphasizes “peace” and “concord” among diverse citizens.
Common objects of love

While advocating for peace, Augustine combined rigorous critique with efforts to find common ground – one reason his example is relevant today. In my recent book on his political thought, I identify three practices of his that can help people today deliberate across differences.

First, in his book, Augustine didn’t require diverse citizens to share the same faith or ideology. He defines a commonwealth as a “people” united “by a common agreement as to the objects of their love”: the goods, values and aspirations they share. These common objects need not be religious. In fact, the bishop of Hippo advises Christians to unite with non-Christians, and he encourages citizens with different beliefs to agree on specific common goods without agreeing completely on why.

An illustration from ‘The City of God,’ showing Troy’s construction – and destruction.
Mel22/Philadelphia Museum of Art via Wikimedia

Living in an empire riven by violence, Augustine focused especially on civic peace. He understood peace not simply as the absence of violence, but as a relationship of justice and friendship among citizens. Centuries later, another Augustinian, Martin Luther King Jr., described a similar vision of “positive peace” in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

For Augustine, sustaining this peace requires securing other basic goods, from physical health and a sense of community to “breathable air, drinkable water, and whatever the body requires to feed, clothe, shelter, heal or adorn it.” Many recent debates in the U.S. – from climate change and COVID-19 to economic security and health care – reflect disputes over basic goods that contribute to peace.

But civic peace does not mean repressing dissent. Augustine invoked the Roman statesman Cicero, who lived 500 years before and compared civic concord to musical harmony among “even the most dissimilar voices”: “What musicians call harmony in singing is concord in the city, which is the most artful and best bond of security in the commonwealth.”

Like harmony, civic concord is not permanent or stable. Harmonizing with other citizens requires careful attunement, attentive listening and sustained practice.
Common goods – and common evils

Second, Augustine knew that sharing a good in common can get conversation off the ground – keeping dialogue alive when disagreement threatens it.

This focus on common goods may be especially useful in our current political environment. A March 2024 poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that most Americans agree that specific rights – for example, to vote and assemble, and to privacy and equal protection under the law – are essential to the country’s identity, as are freedoms of speech, of religion and of the press.

Similarly, an early 2024 Ipsos poll found that, though Americans feel the country is more divided than in the past, 69% believe “most Americans want the same things out of life.”

Yet, even if citizens cannot agree on what they support, they might at least agree on what they oppose. A “lover of the good,” Augustine wrote, “must hate what is evil.” Focusing on common evils might help to secure consensus.

As philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah has observed, social movements often begin not by agreeing on a vision of justice, but by uniting around what they resist – whether that be slavery, domination or discrimination. This is why community organizers ask people what makes them angry: Agreement on common threats can help diverse citizens form coalitions to secure common goods.

A bipartisan task force of the American Bar Association provides a recent example of citizens with different politics uniting against common challenges: threats to democracy, fair elections and the rule of law. Since an October 2024 New York Times/Siena College poll shows that 76% of likely voters believe “American democracy is currently under threat,” this shared concern could provide a basis for finding common ground.

Scholars debate in an illustration from ‘The City of God’
Maître François/National Library of the Netherlands via Wikimedia Commons

Speaking their language

Finally, Augustine recognized that persuasion is often more effective when we engage other people on their terms rather than on our own. In “City of God,” he advances his arguments by appealing not only to “divine authority,” but also to reason. His criticism of the empire’s moral corruption, for example, was rooted in his religious convictions, yet he also cites the Romans’ own intellectual authorities, such as Cicero and the historian Sallust, to press his points.

Appealing to others’ authorities shows respect for their values. It’s also effective. Across a range of issues, from same-sex marriage to military spending, research shows that engaging opponents according to their own moral values is typically more persuasive than trying to convince them based on ours. Social scientists describe it as “the key to political persuasion.”

Americans cannot expect complete harmony. Differences are real, and conflict is inevitable. But as Augustine believed, identifying common goods and engaging others on their own terms might help diverse citizens find concord – and perhaps even sing in the same key.

(Michael Lamb, Executive Director of the Program for Leadership and Character, Wake Forest University. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Jason Yates promoted Christian values as CEO of My Faith Votes. He now faces child porn charges

(RNS) — Yates was charged with eight felony counts after a relative allegedly found a stash of child porn on a hard drive in his office.

Jason Yates, former CEO of My Faith Votes. Images courtesy of myfaithvotes.org

Bob Smietana
November 5, 2024

(RNS) — The former president of an evangelical get-out-the-vote nonprofit, which seeks to motivate Christian voters to promote family values and “biblical truth” in the public square, was charged Monday (Nov. 4) with eight counts of possessing child pornography.

Jason Yates, former CEO of My Faith Votes, was charged during a video court hearing in the District Court of McLeod County, Minnesota. State officials allege that from February 2023 to July 2024, Yates possessed a hard drive with digital pornographic images of minors under 14 years of age.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension began investigating the 55-year-old Yates at the end of July after a relative, identified in court documents as “Witness #2,” accidentally discovered a hard drive containing over 100 images of child porn in Yates’ office, according to a statement of probable cause filed in the case. That relative told a second relative, identified as “Witness #1,” who turned the hard drive over to law enforcement. According to court documents, the hard drive allegedly contains both still images and videos of pornography involving minors under 14.

During an interview on Sept. 13, Yates allegedly confirmed that the hard drive did not belong to Witness #2 but declined to give law enforcement a password for encrypted files on the hard drive.

“Defendant stated that he had a prior conviction, which had been expunged, related to CSAM/child pornography,” the complaint filed against Yates alleges.


An attorney for Yates declined to comment.
RELATED: Four Gateway elders removed over pastor’s sexual abuse scandal

For much of its history, Jason Yates was the CEO and president of My Faith Votes. He was still listed as CEO on the group’s website as of Aug. 19 but his name and image were removed sometime after that date.

“In early August 2024, the My Faith Votes board of directors separated Jason Yates from My Faith Votes and board member Chris Sadler assumed the position of Acting CEO. Over the last three months Chris has been working with the dedicated My Faith Votes team to encourage millions of Christians to vote, pray and think biblically about this election in America,” a spokesperson for My Faith Votes told RNS in an email.

The group’s website blames Christians for failing to stand up against “secular progressives” — which the group faults for a host of social ills.

“As a result of apathy at the voting booth and in public life, we’ve suffered devastating moral decay, declining religious freedom, immoral national debt, and the erosion of traditional family values,” the group’s website reads.

In early July, a few weeks before the hard drive allegedly containing child porn was turned over to police, Yates wrote an op-ed for The Washington Times, urging Christians to fight “sexually deviant” messages aimed at children, mainly about LGTB issues.

“This infernal programming is being downloaded into our children, and it becomes far easier when it finds no resistance in our public square — when it is allowed to fill the void left by the absence of our faith,” he wrote.

A biography of Jason Yates from April 2024 describes him as having left a corporate career in 2015 to become CEO of My Faith Votes. Along with promoting voting among Christians, he served on the board of several other ministries.

Yates’ hearing on Monday occurred just a few hours before My Faith Votes held an online pre-election prayer event, urging listeners to vote for candidates who support Christian values.

Founded as the Vision Charitable Trust in 2007, My Faith Votes began spending millions starting in 2016 to motivate Christian votes. The group was founded by Sealy Yates, an influential Christian literary agent for best-selling authors such as Chuck Swindoll, John Maxwell, Mark Driscoll and Ben Carson — with Carson serving as an honorary chairman when the nonprofit began focusing on voting. Former presidential candidate turned conservative talk show host Mike Huckabee currently serves as the group’s honorary chair.

Sealy Yates did not respond to a request for comment. His relationship to Jason Yates is not clear.

Wired magazine recently described My Faith Votes as one of a group of nonprofits aimed at rallying support for former President Donald Trump through get-out-the-vote efforts. My Faith Votes is also one of the partners of the “Letter to the American Church” film based on a book by pro-Trump radio host Eric Metaxas, which claims America is being overtaken by secular forces.

Jason Yates expressed concern in an interview this past summer that evangelical Christians might sit out elections and said, as a result, My Faith Votes was asking Christians to sign a pledge to vote in every election.

“As a Christian, I commit to voting for candidates and policies that uphold the sanctity of life, the traditional family, religious liberty, and justice for all,” the pledge reads. “I believe that my biblical values should guide my choices at the ballot box, ensuring that our nation’s laws and leaders reflect God’s truth and righteousness.”

My Faith Votes also produced a series of videos, called “Think Biblically,” aimed at educating church small groups about social and political issues. Launched this past summer, the video series features speakers such as Albert “Al” Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Texas pastor and author Voddie Baucham; and former Planned Parenthood staffer-turned-anti-abortion advocate Abby Johnson.

“It’s time Christians let their faith guide their politics — aligning their views with God’s Word and boldly confronting today’s cultural challenges,” Yates said in a video announcing the series. “It’s critical that we reject apathy and think biblically about the issues in front of us, and this series is the ideal resource to help Christians navigate every political issue through the lens of the Word.”

Opinion

Exvangelicals, none's, secular Americans are undertapped in fight against Christian nationalism

(RNS) — Just because they’re no longer invested in a better Christianity doesn’t mean they aren’t a crucial part of the battle for a better country.

In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, violent rioters storm the Capitol, in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Blake Chastain
November 5, 2024

(RNS) — In January 2024, Pew Research published a study showing 28% of U.S. adults are now religiously unaffiliated, making the “nones” (as they’re nicknamed) the largest religious cohort in the country, outnumbering Catholics and evangelical Protestants. Yet when it comes to the groups trying to resist Christian nationalism, you’d be hard-pressed to find adequate representation of this demographic. This is an unfortunate oversight, and one faith-based and secular advocacy groups alike should seek to correct.

For nearly a decade, on my podcast “Exvangelical,” I have spoken to people who have left the evangelical church. While some discovered new forms of faith-based community and beliefs in more liberal Christian denominations, Buddhism and so on, many found religious spaces untenable altogether and migrated toward a wholly secular worldview.

Progressive Christians are fortunate to find representation and participation in politics through campaigns such as Christians Against Christian Nationalism and the Faith & Democracy Tour. But these initiatives tend to spend as much time trying to reform conservative Christianity and reaffirming liberal faith as they do trying to repudiate far-right agendas. Secular exvangelicals with zero interest in trying to rescue Christianity get left out of the conversation

This is a problem because Christian nationalist groups are tightly organized, well-funded and well-represented in both the media and the government. Opposing such forces will require more than vying for reform in faith communities — it will require a strong coalition of both religious and secular people.

Those who have exited religion completely form a key part of this coalition. Whether they’ve left evangelicalism, Catholicism or other faith traditions, they have a deep well of knowledge and personal experience to offer the movement. Many were directly harmed by Christian nationalism, and so intimately understand the threat it poses. They’ve experienced firsthand the decades of partisan politicization of reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, the staunch opposition to gender equality and the resistance to reckoning with racism and endless abuse scandals. Just because they’re no longer fighting for a better Christianity doesn’t mean they aren’t a crucial part of the fight for a better country.

In fact, exvangelicals and other formerly religious embody one of the traits that’s essential to defeating Christian nationalism: the ability to change one’s mind. They prove that you don’t have to keep identifying with a toxic set of beliefs once you understand the harm it causes. And while shifting to a benevolent form of faith is valid, it’s equally valid to opt out of religion altogether. People who have done so (increasingly women more than men) still have as much at stake as anyone else and still belong in the political conversation.

Chrissy Stroop, co-founder of the feminist media collective The Flytrap, says, “As a queer exvangelical atheist who advocates for pluralism, I often feel left out by those who have the largest platforms to talk about American secularization and the roles of religion in our society. Too many liberal and progressive Christians give lip service to pluralism without checking their Christian privilege and continue to treat secular Americans like second-class citizens. For us to work well together, respect must be mutual and reciprocal, which would require giving secular Americans a meaningful seat at the table.”

Stroop argues that instead of emphasizing shared belief, interfaith coalitions must emphasize shared values such as democracy, social justice and pluralism.

Andrew L. Seidel at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, whose membership is roughly split between religious and nonreligious members, agrees: “I would rather have a drink and a chat, maybe split some guacamole, with a group of Christians who value anti-racism and social justice than [with] a group of anti-equality atheists (there aren’t many of those, but they exist and they are loud). But here’s the capper: shared values matter far more when we as a nation face an existential threat like white Christian nationalism.”

Tori Douglass, creator of the anti-racist education initiative White Homework, was raised evangelical and now identifies as atheist but sees opportunity in forging alliances between “nones” and religious groups. They told me over email that “as an antiracism educator, about half of the groups I work with are faith-based. These groups have already done a great deal of work around community-building, which is great! I love working with faith-based groups because they bring the same sense of urgency to the work that I do. They understand the threat that Christian nationalism poses to our fragile democracy in a way that secular groups don’t always see.”

Douglass also recognizes the importance of joining together on the basis of values rather than beliefs. “A meaningful approach for faith-based and secular groups to collaborate with religious nones in opposing Christian nationalism would center on shared values rather than religious identity or beliefs. Recognizing our common interest in pluralism and the value of democracy, regardless of belief in a higher power. By focusing on values like democracy, human rights, and social justice, we can find common ground and stop Christian nationalism in its tracks.”

With the final day of voting concluding Tuesday (Nov. 5), the stakes are high regardless of its outcome, and a failure to build an inclusive enough coalition could have grave consequences. Seidel puts the situation in stark terms: “Our country is on fire. Our democracy isn’t slipping away, it’s being stolen. The republic is being strangled. Those of us who share values like equality and justice and truth and fairness must come together to stop the arsonist, the thief, the murderer. And that means coming together and fighting Christian nationalism.”

By inviting exvangelicals and “nones” to participate fully in advocacy, faith-based and secular groups gain allies. This is all the more important in a world where people require the freedom to shift in and out of religious groups and beliefs as they see fit — a freedom that is under threat by Christian nationalists who seek to privilege their own way of life above all others.

(Blake Chastain is author of the book “Exvangelical & Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That’s Fighting Back” and host of the “Exvangelical” podcast. The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

State ecumenical groups ramp up efforts to combat Christian nationalism

(RNS) — Church members are seeking ways to respond to family members, friends and neighbors taken up with Christian nationalism. Ecumenical and interfaith groups on the state level are offering some tips.

James Gailliard, the pastor of Word Tabernacle Church in Rocky Mount, N.C., takes questions from the audience after a screening of the movie “Bad Faith,” which examines Christian nationalists’ quest for power. Seated on stage in back are Duke University historian Nancy MacLean, left, and the Rev. Jennifer Copeland, executive director of the North Carolina Council of Churches. RNS photo by Yonat Shimron

Yonat Shimron
November 5, 2024


ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. (RNS) — After watching a documentary on the threat of Christian nationalism on a Tuesday evening last week, members of Word Tabernacle Church, a predominantly Black congregation about 55 miles east of Raleigh, had lots of questions.

Mostly, they wanted to know how to confront the movement’s adherents who have so distorted their faith.

“What’s one concept or two that we can really engage in conversation with people who may be under the chains of this way of thinking to help them start to transition to a free space?” asked Kyle Johnson, whose title is next generation pastor at Word Tabernacle Church.

That concern is shared by many who are grappling with an ideology that has rooted itself at the heart of Republican Party politics and in the candidacy of Donald Trump. Christian nationalists deride anyone outside their movement as evil and hell-bent on stripping Christianity from the public square.

The Rev. Jennifer Copeland, executive director of the North Carolina Council of Churches who sponsored the event, offered one answer that many were searching for.

“I would say the answer to the question is, love God, love your neighbor,” she said. “If we can think of ways to engage in conversations with our neighbors by calling on the great themes of Scripture, by reminding people that God is the God of the vulnerable, that God always tells us to look out for the people in our communities who are most vulnerable. And then maybe you can begin to ask some of the harder questions, like, do you see this policy as good or bad for the vulnerable, do you think the minimum wage is really enough for vulnerable people to support their families?”


Members of Word Tabernacle Church hold hands and pray before watching a documentary on the rise of Christian nationalism on Oct. 29, 2024, in Rocky Mount, N.C. RNS photo by Yonat Shimron

Church members, such as those in the 4,000-member Word Tabernacle Church, want to better respond to family members, friends and neighbors taken up with Christian nationalism — the ideology that holds the United States is a country defined by Christianity and that Christians should rule over government and other institutions — by force, if necessary.

While many white evangelicals and members of nondenominational charismatic movements have been swayed by the ideology, mainline Protestants, Black churches and some Roman Catholics are now attempting to challenge its tenets. Church councils and interfaith groups have published resources, voter guides and educational materials on the subject. Some have bought licenses to screen documentaries such as “Bad Faith,” directed by Stephen Ujlaki and Christopher J. Jones, which examines the origins of Christian nationalism leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (The documentary is streaming on multiple streaming services.)

RELATED: With Bible verses and Baptist zeal, Amanda Tyler offers how-to for dismantling Christian nationalism

After receiving an anonymous gift of $100,000 to combat Christian nationalism, the Rev. Jeffrey Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches, convened a meeting of his fellow church council executives earlier this summer to decide how to use it.

“We spend a lot of time talking about, how do we humanize this? How do we avoid demonizing people? How do we present our case in nonacademic language?” Allen said.

Fourteen council leaders ended up applying for a mini grant of $3,000 to $7,200 to provide programming on Christian nationalism.

The fight against Christian nationalism has become a wide-ranging effort drawing in dozens of nonprofit groups across the nation, some of them faith-based. Among them are national groups such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Interfaith Alliance.

“Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy.”

 Poster courtesy of film site

But state councils of churches and interfaith groups are rooted in particular places and better able to address the ways Christian nationalist ideology may be affecting local races and issues. For example, Christian nationalists may be pushing state legislatures to beef up educational funding for private Christian schools, passing laws requiring prayer in schools or displaying the Ten Commandments outside of public building

Their local work can help people of faith draw connections between national ideology with no recognizable leader and the way it may be implemented in their state.

They do so not to debate their opponents but to talk to one another.

“The people in the room are already thinking about Christian nationalism as a problem,” said Copeland. “What they seem to be most grateful for is that they’re in a room full of people like themselves, where often they might feel like they’re the only person that thinks that way.”

The North Carolina Council of Churches has across the state sponsored seven screenings of the documentary “Bad Faith,” with a discussion forum after the screening. Copeland often invited Duke University historian Nancy MacLean to join her on her talks to church groups in part because understanding Christian nationalism requires a historical and political understanding of the rise of the far right.

Members of Word Tabernacle Church appreciated the event, which was also livestreamed to 300 members at home. The church, started in 2005 as a Southern Baptist-affiliated congregation, is now nondenominational. As such, it is not a member of the state’s Council of Churches, which is composed of 18 denominationally affiliated congregations. But its pastor, James Gailliard, a former Democratic state legislator, said he wants to work more closely with the council.


Lorenza Johnson of Rocky Mount, N.C., a member of Word Tabernacle Church, expressed some thoughts after watching the movie “Bad Faith.” RNS photo by Yonat Shimron

Lorenza Johnson, a church member who attended the screening in person, said he appreciated what he learned and said he felt mobilized to do more.

“We can be happy in here and shout in here and be safe and go to heaven,” said Johnson, who lives in Rocky Mount. “But in reality, we still have another generation that’s gonna be here. And if we don’t find out the power of a vote and get the right people in place, then we may be going to heaven, but we can be living in hell while we’re here.”

Although much of the effort of state councils of churches will conclude after the presidential election, several others have decided to keep going.

The Wisconsin Council of Churches, for example, is putting together a sermon series for Lent, which begins on March 5, and soliciting hymns, songs and other artwork that address ways of countering Christian nationalism.

“So often, people look at these large election cycles and they think, ‘OK, we’re, we’re going to pay attention to this issue and then once the election cycle is over, we all calm down,’” said the Rev. Kerri Parker, executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. “We need to pay attention to these moral and ethical issues all along.”

The Arizona Faith Network, an interfaith group, is also going to continue exploring the issue in 2025, with a focus on religious nationalism in other faith traditions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

Allen said he thinks these efforts at the congregational level may be the most meaningful.

“People who are feeling lonely and left out and connecting with folks who are manipulating them,” said Allen. “I think the church can provide an alternative to that — an authentic community that doesn’t seek to take anything from them, but instead to give.”

(This story was reported with support from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation.)

We tried Christian nationalism in America. It went badly.

(RNS) — Nostalgia for a ‘Christian America’ overlooks the realities of religion in the founding era — which included taxes, jail time, exile and even public hangings for anyone who defied state-run churches.

Mary Dyer being led to her execution on Boston Common, June 1, 1660. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
Bob Smietana
October 30, 2024

NORTH MIDDLEBORO, Mass. (RNS) — The Rev. Jason Genest loves God and his church.

He also loves U.S. history.

Which is why he gets nervous when he hears people talk about America being founded as a Christian nation. Or wanting to make America Christian by using the power of politics.

America tried that in the past, he said. It did not go well — including for the founder of Genest’s own church.

First Baptist Church of North Middleboro, Massachusetts, was founded by Isaac Backus – a champion of religious freedom in the 1700s — who often found himself at odds with leaders of the Congregational church, which at the time was the official religion of the Bay State.


The Rev. Jason Genest. (RNS photo/Bob Smietana)

So-called New Light Baptists like Backus, who were followers of the famed evangelical preacher George Whitefield — a leader of the First Great Awakening who stressed the need for personal conversion — were seen as troublemakers and threats to public order by leaders of the official church, which was essentially a state bureaucracy, said Genest.

New Light Baptists questioned social institutions, by claiming the baptisms — and sometimes the marriages — of the unconverted were invalid. They also set up rival churches to draw worshippers away from parish churches and, more importantly, refused to pay taxes to support those parish churches. That led to government crackdowns, with some gatherings of New Light Baptists banned as illegal.

“When you get along with a state bureaucracy, it’s great,” Genest said. “When you disagree, you have problems.”

Today, as America has grown both more secular and more religiously pluralistic, there has also been a rise in Christian nationalism — an insistence that America was founded by Christians and should be run by Christians. But the founding era was not a religious utopia, where Colonists were free to choose their faith. Instead, disputes between different kinds of Christians were fierce in the Colonies that became the United States. Those Colonies often had official churches that used government power to collect taxes, enforce doctrine and crush their rivals.

Catherine Brekus, a religious historian at Harvard, says there’s a powerful myth that the early American Colonies were founded on the idea of religious freedom.

“That is not true,” she said.

“We think that religious freedom was enshrined from the beginning, and instead it was a long and hard fight,” she said.



Portait of Isaac Backus at First Baptist Church of North Middleboro, Mass. (RNS photo/Bob Smietana)

In the 1700s, some Christians, like Backus’ mother and brother, ended up in jail. Others found constables at the door, hauling their possessions away for back taxes — taxes meant to subsidize the state church. Still others were banned from meeting altogether in so-called illegal churches.

Backus’ concerns about the power of government to dictate what people believed — and to punish those who disagreed — fueled his efforts to separate the church and state in Massachusetts. (This became reality in 1833, nearly three decades after Backus died.)

While Genest believes churches should be active in public life, that’s different from trying to mandate what people believed. When the government has that power, bad things happen, he said.

“I hate to say we use God, but I think God is often used as a means of people getting what they want,” Genest said.

RELATED: What is Christian nationalism, anyway?

About 30 miles west of North Middleboro stands another First Baptist Church — also known as the First Baptist Church in America — with its own story of clashing with Christian nationalism

This year on Oct. 13, the guest speaker at First Baptist was John McNiff, a retired national park ranger and historical reenactor who often portrays Roger Williams, the church’s founder. Williams was exiled from Massachusetts in the 1600s because of his “dangerous ideas” about religious freedom.

Among those ideas: State leaders should not use civil power to make people go to church or observe religious rules. During his talk, McNiff pointed out that none of the worshippers in the service were there because the law required them to be.

Historical reenactor John McNiff portrays Roger Williams at the First Baptist Church in America on Oct. 13, 2024, in Providence, R.I. (Photo by J. Stanley Lemons)

“These politicians, these rulers, were compelling people to a faith that they did not believe in,” he said, drawing from Williams’ writings. “The civil sword can make a nation full of hypocrites, but not one true Christian.”

That fear of state-run religion was shaped in Williams’ childhood, said Charlotte Carrington-Farmer, a professor of history at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

“Williams grew up in a world of religious turmoil, where the ‘official’ state religion changed on the whim of a monarch,” Carrington-Farmer wrote in a 2021 book chapter about religious freedom and Williams, who was born in England.

When he arrived in New England, Williams realized he had not come to a place where people were free to worship.

“When he gets to Massachusetts, he’s horrified,” said Carrington-Farmer, editor of a forthcoming collection of Williams’ writing, called “Roger Williams and His World.” “He’s seen the same persecution, just under a different umbrella.”


“The Banishment of Roger Williams” by Peter F. Rothermel, circa 1850. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia/Creative Commons)

Williams became an outspoken advocate for religious freedom, often holding meetings in his home to advocate for his ideas. In particular, he believed government should have no right to enforce religious rules. That put him at odds with other Puritan leaders such as Gov. John Winthrop and clerics who felt it their God-given duty to keep their community holy.

Tired of Williams’ “diverse new & dangerous opinions,” a Boston court banished him on Oct. 9, 1635, giving him six weeks to leave — or else government officials would remove him by force. He eventually fled the state during a blizzard that winter, going to Narragansett Bay, where he founded the town of Providence and later, First Baptist.

Carrington-Farmer said Puritan leaders had tried to avoid banishing Williams, whom they held in high esteem, and tried to get him to moderate his views. But Williams would not compromise

Puritan leaders, she said, felt caught between a rock and a hard place. They had experienced persecution for the faith in England and wanted to create a new community that was faithful to the Bible and Christianity — which, as John Winthrop put it, would be a city on a hill. They feared troublemakers like Williams would put that vision at risk. The Puritans believed God would punish them if they allowed sin and dissent to flourish.

Ironically, in being banished, Williams was lucky. Several decades later, Mary Dyer, Marmaduke Stephenson, William Leddra and William Robinson—all members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers — were hanged on the Boston Common for defying the power of the established church.

On a sunny afternoon in early September this year, a pair of tourists who identified themselves as descendants of Williams stopped in the church he started, to have a look. After settling them in to watch a short video about the history of First Baptist, the Rev. Jamie Washam, the church’s current pastor, sat on the church stairs for a conversation about Williams’ legacy.

The Rev. Jamie Washam. (RNS photo/Bob Smietana)

Washam, the pastor of First Baptist since 2015, said she worries that the hard-won lessons of Williams’ life have been forgotten.

“The story and legacy of Roger Williams reminds us that it has always been a struggle to advocate for religious liberty,” said Washam, sitting on the church steps. “We continue to fervently believe that that cost is worth it.”

She’s skeptical of the idea that voting for the right candidate will make America more Christian.

“Better legislation doesn’t make us better Christians,” she said. “Being more faithful and loving and just people make us better Christians.”

Some Christians, however, worry something essential is being lost as the country becomes less religious. That’s the case for Jerry Newcombe, executive director of the Providence Forum, which has produced a series of videos about the Christian origins of the United States.

“I feel like there’s been a great deal of misinformation and forgetting,” said Newcombe, whose organization seeks to “preserve, defend and advance the Judeo-Christian values of our nation’s founding.”

First Baptist Church in America in Providence, R.I. (RNS photo/Bob Smietana)

While he fiercely promotes the idea that America was founded on Christianity, Newcombe admits things did not always go well — especially for religious groups that clashed with political leaders over matters of faith.

“It’s not as if everything was Shangri-la, especially if you were a nonconformist,” he said in a phone interview.

“In retrospect, we don’t agree with that,” he said. “But don’t throw God out of the whole equation.”

Other conservative Christians go much further, saying America must return to its Christian roots or perish. Josh Abbotoy, head of American Reformer magazine and an investor who wants to rebuild a Christian America, has suggested the U.S. might need a “Christian Franco” — a reference to the longtime Spanish Catholic dictator — to restore Christianity to its rightful place in American society. Others, like the National Conservatism movement, believe the government should use Christianity to shape society. During a recent Nat Con event, Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, praised the Protestant empire that built America — saying that religious foundation must be restored.

“I want to say that I do not believe this nation and all that it represents can survive abandoning its theological roots. We will recover those roots and commitments or lose everything,” Mohler said earlier this year.

Conservative activists such as Charlie Kirk have called for a return to America’s Christian roots, praising the fact that the early Colonies had religious tests for office and were run explicitly by Christians.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk speaks before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives at the Turning Point Believers’ Summit, July 26, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“One of the reasons we are living through a constitutional crisis is that we no longer have a Christian nation but we have a Christian form of government. And they are incompatible,” said Kirk, in advocating for an end to the separation of church and state and a return to a Christian America during an online panel discussion.

Douglas Winiarski, professor of religious studies at the University of Richmond and author of “Darkness Falls on the Land of Light” — which details the end of established churches in New England — said that nostalgia for a Christian America can overlook how complicated religion was in the founding era.

He said that by the early 18th century, the Congregational church — which had descended from the Puritans — had become fairly tolerant, allowing space for dissenters as long as they paid their taxes and didn’t cause trouble.

That tolerance ended, however, with the rise of New Light Baptists and others who disagreed with the teachings of the Congregationalists and refused to submit to their authority on religious matters.

Ironically, Congregationalists, who had dominated religious life in Massachusetts and other New England states for two centuries, would learn the downside of having a state religion, with the rise of Unitarianism in the early 1800s. Residents began electing Unitarian ministers to lead parish churches over the objections of Congregational church members, who were Trinitarians.

That led to court battles over church property, with the state Supreme Court siding with Unitarians in 1821. As a result, the Congregationalists found themselves losing the buildings and congregations they had controlled since the 1600s.

First Baptist Church of North Middleboro, Mass., was founded in 1756. (RNS photo/Bob Smietana)

Eventually, because of the efforts of Backus and others like him, Massachusetts allowed a kind of moderated religious freedom, in which the taxes paid to the state church were diverted to other congregations — including Baptists and the breakaway Congregationalists. But it was an uneasy peace and led to the disestablishment—the end of official status—of a state church in Massachusetts.

The archives from First Parish in Cambridge — which was an official government church from the 1600s to the early 1800s — were filled with letters from residents of that city, requesting their taxes be sent to other churches in the 1800s, said Gloria Korsman, a First Parish historian and a Harvard librarian. At that time, the clerk of the parish church — a state church that eventually became Unitarian — was responsible for collecting taxe=s.

Korsman said she can’t imagine why anyone would want to go back to that time.

“I don’t know what there is to long for,” she said. “During the time of disestablishment, neighbors were against neighbors on this issue. It wasn’t like a peaceful time or a time when people were unified. There was a lot of division.”

(Photo by Brad Dodson/Unsplash/Creative Commons)

RELATED: Whose Christianity do Christian nationalists want?

This story was reported with support from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation.

KURDS IN TURKEY

DEM Party Women's Assembly: Government is trying to legalize misogyny

The DEM Party Women's Assembly said that the AKP-MHP male-dominated government wants to legalize misogyny with the laws it enacts, and added: "We will never allow it."


ANF
NEWS DESK
Wednesday, 6 November 2024

The Women’s Assembly of the DEM Party issued a statement condemning the AKP-MHP government for trying to reinforce its "male-dominated" agenda through legislation, particularly targeting women’s rights. "We will never allow this," they declared, specifically opposing the reintroduction of Article 187, which mandates that women adopt their husband’s surname upon marriage.

In the statement, the Women’s Assembly reiterated their firm stance against any legal framework that confines women to family roles, upholds male dominance, or denies women’s autonomy. "We reject all legislation that defines half of society – women - solely within the family structure, reinforcing male authority,” the statement said.

The assembly highlighted that recent legislative moves by the AKP-MHP coalition aim to legally institutionalize sexism by undermining women’s rights, with the proposed changes to Article 187 of the Civil Code, titled "Woman's Surname," as a recent example. They affirmed that this approach "fails to recognize women as individuals, instead defining them within the confines of family and through men."

'We will expand our struggle in the streets'

The Women’s Assembly pledged to intensify their resistance, committing to take their struggle to the streets to protect women’s rights.

AJÊ: We say 'Jin, Jiyan, Azadî' against violence against women

The Yazidi women's movement TAJÊ is running a "Jin Jiyan Azadî" campaign in Shengal for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Demonstrations, discussions and educational work will be held.


ANF
SHENGAL
Wednesday, 6 November 2024, 11:19

The Free Yazidi Women's Movement (TAJÊ) is running a campaign in Shengal until 25 November under the slogan "With Jin, Jiyan, Azadî against violence against women". The planned activities were presented on Tuesday in the old market of the city in northern Iraq that was destroyed by ISIS in 2014.

TAJÊ spokeswoman Riham Hico said that the Yazidi women's movement invited all women in Iraq to take part in the "Jin, Jiyan, Azadî" campaign for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November). Hico said: "The 21st century will become the century of the women's revolution with the common struggle of women and the unity of the peoples. We are fighting for a free and democratic life."

Program of activities against violence against women

As Riham Hico announced, various activities are planned in the Şengal region. The activists want to distribute brochures on the subject of violence and a life in free partnership on the streets and use posters to raise awareness of the issue. In addition, seminars will be offered at various locations. A three-day training course is aimed specifically at men, while another seminar will be held for the Asayîşa Êzidxanê security forces. Other program items include panel discussions in Shengal and Mosul.

SYRIAN KURDISTAN

‘Operation Enduring Security’ in al-Hol Camp and its vicinity launched

Internal Security Forces, YPJ and SDF reaffirm their determination to ensure the success of the operation and strengthen the fight against ISIS to protect the region from attempts to undermine security and stability.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Wednesday, 6 November 2024

The Internal Security Forces, Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched ‘Operation Enduring Security’ to search the Hol camp and its surroundings. The operation aims to pursue ISIS remnants and collaborators within the camp and secure the rural areas near the camp.

A press statement was made in Hol Camp regarding the operation. YPJ Press Officer Rûken Cemal and Internal Security Forces Management Member Qehreman Murad read the statement in Kurdish and Arabic, which said the following:

“Over the past year, ISIS terrorist cells have intensified attacks and movements in and around the al-Hol camp, particularly in the southern and northern countryside of Hol town. These cells have carried out numerous terrorist attacks against the camp IDPs and security forces and planned other attacks that were thwarted and their operatives were captured.

In response, our forces have conducted more intensive preemptive operations and sustained pressure on ISIS terrorist cells. This has yielded significant results, including the elimination of many cells and their leaders, and the prevention of attacks on security and stability, as well as on the people and the military and security forces.

Given the importance of the Hol camp and ISIS prisons, which hold ISIS detainees, ISIS has repeatedly attempted to reach the camp and mobilize its cells. The desert and remote areas in the countryside of Hol and Shaddadi have served as a hub for terrorist operations and the planning of attacks on camps and prisons. This has coincided with the movements of terrorist cells in and around the camp, as well as multiple escape attempts and efforts to sow chaos within certain sectors of the camp to distract the security forces responsible for its security.

With the world’s attention focused on multiple wars in the Middle East, the possibility of ISIS resurgence remains a real threat, especially in remote areas where ISIS often resorts to planning attacks on prisons and camps. ISIS’ goal is to reunite its elements with their families and revive their terrorist acts. This year has witnessed numerous attempts by ISIS to reach the Hol camp and prisons holding ISIS detainees in north and eastern Syria, which ISIS considers crucial strategic targets that are fueled by its propaganda.

In response to this threat, our forces, who have demonstrated professionalism and dedication in countering the plans of ISIS terrorist cells, remain committed to pursuing ISIS and eradicating the sources of terrorism.

As a continuation of our ongoing struggle, and with the support and assistance of the international coalition forces, we announce today the launch of Operation Enduring Security to search the Hol camp and its surroundings. The operation aims to pursue ISIS remnants and collaborators within the camp and secure the rural areas near the camp.

This operation is based on information and confessions obtained from ISIS elements captured during previous operations, which indicate the resurgence of terrorist cell activity in desert areas and their planning of attacks. The treacherous attack on an Internal Security Forces patrol on the Hol-Shaddadi road on September 26, which resulted in the martyrdom of three members, serves as a stark reminder that ISIS terrorism continues to pose a threat to the region, and the necessary to initiate a large-scale operation to pursue and eliminate terrorist cells.

On this basis, the forces of Operation Enduring Security, comprising the Internal Security Forces, Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reaffirm their determination to ensure the success of the operation and strengthen the fight against ISIS to protect the region from attempts to undermine security and stability.”

KURDISTAN MAYORS REMOVED BY ERDOGAN

Co-mayor of Batman: We will never surrender

Batman Co-Mayor Gülistan Sönük, who was replaced by a trustee, stated that they took over the municipalities with the labour and approval of the people and said, “Only the people take the initiative to govern the municipality from us.”


ANF
BATMAN
Tuesday, 5 November 2024,

Following the appointment of trustees to the municipalities of Batman, Mardin and Halfti by the Ministry of Interior, protests continue in many cities of Kurdistan.

As demonstrations in Batman continue, the democratically elected and unlawfully ousted co-mayor, Gülistan Sönük, spoke to the Mezopotamya Agency (MA) about the trustee policies.

Noting that the Governor of Batman usurped the municipality, Sönük stated that the governor's threatening statements against the municipality have continued since the day they were elected in 31 March local elections this year. Sönük said, “The Governor of Batman did not get a wink of sleep for 8 months. Just because people breathed a sigh of relief, they themselves could not breathe for 8 months and could not stand it, so they came and usurped the municipality. Of course, this usurpation is not just occupying the municipality building. We consider the trustee as an attack on the Kurdish language, the will of women, the right to life of the disabled and citizens. We took over the municipality with a debt of 3 billion, and it was one of the municipalities with the biggest debt. We do not only see this as a physical blockade of a municipality building. This is also ignoring the labour of the people who went from street to street, house to house during the election process despite the rain, mud, cold and heat. It means not recognising the will of the people in this city who took part in this struggle and paid the price. We do not consider it a simple civil servant entering the municipality building.”

Stating that there is no decision notified to them regarding the appointment of a trustee, Sönük said, “We would like the Governor of Batman himself to come and make a statement both to us and to the whole public and convey the decision himself. No notification has been made to us so far, but we are prevented from entering the municipality. There are thousands of police and soldiers, as well as armored vehicles. There is also the reality of a people in resistance against this. We are here. We are not a people who will hand this municipality over to two cheap officials. Someone did not give us these municipalities. We won them with our own labour, with the labour of the people, with the votes of the people. Therefore, only the people can take the initiative to govern the municipality from us.”

Sönük pointed out that a special war concept was put into effect during the election process, but women responded to this in the strongest way. “We won these municipalities together, and we will defend them together,” said Sönük and invited everyone to gather in front of the municipality to defend their will. Stating that they will increase the resistance, Sönük said, “We are here, we will not surrender our municipality. Because we are one of those who say ‘Surrender leads to betrayal’. Therefore, we will never surrender.”

Red Party: Norway must protest Turkish government's appointment of trustees to 4 municipalities

Red Party MP Hege Bae Nyholt asked the Norwegian government to protest against the undermining of democracy in the Kurdish areas by deposing legally elected mayors and replacing them with trustees.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Wednesday, 6 November 2024, 08:33

Storting representative for the Norwegian Rødt (Red Party), Hege Bae Nyholt, was an observer in the city of Mardin during the local elections in Turkey in March 2024.

After the Turkish government's decision to remove four mayors and replace them with trustees, Nyholt asked Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide the following questions: "In March 2024, local elections were held in Turkey. The questioner participated as an international observer in the Kurdish areas, Mardin province, invited by the DEM party.

The election was won by the Kurdish parties in the area. Turkish authorities have now deposed the mayors of the Esenyurt district in Istanbul, Mardin, Batman and Halfeti, and have now installed their own representatives.

The ruling authorities have accused them of having ties to the PKK, which the DEM and CHP parties have condemned as an attack on democracy. This is not the first time that Turkish authorities have deposed and/or imprisoned democratically elected representatives from Kurdish parties. Does the Norwegian government intend to protest against the undermining of democracy in the Kurdish areas by deposing legally elected mayors and replacing them with trustees?"

People’s resistance against the usurpation of their will continues in Halfeti

The resistance against usurpation in Halfeti continues on its second day.


ANF
URFA
Tuesday, 5 November 2024

Protests against the usurpation of the municipality in the Halfeti district of Urfa continue on the second day. In the early hours of the morning, people started to gather in front of the blockaded municipality building and danced to Kurdish music. During the resistance led by the members of Urfa Peace Mothers Assembly, slogans of ‘Bijî berxwedana Xelfetî’ (Long Live the Resistance of Halfeti) are frequently chanted.

Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) MPs Ömer Öcalan, Zülküf Uçar, Ayten Kordu, Ferit Şenyaşar, Mithat Sancar, Dilan Kunt Ayan, Halfeti Co-Mayors Saniye Bayram and Mehmet Karayılan, Hilvan Co-Mayor Serhan Paydaş, Birecik Co-Mayor Berivan İlkaya Manas and many others participated in the resistance in front of the municipality building which remains blockaded by hundreds of police.

DEM Party Urfa MP Mithat Sancar said, “The methods used in the trustee system mean a clear violation of the law. It means trampling the law underfoot.”

Sancar said, “We continue our struggle for the construction of a Democratic Republic. There cannot be a Democratic Republic without local democracy. When the trustee regime started in the Kurdish cities, we said at the beginning that it would spread to the whole country.”

Underlining that the DEM Party wants a democratic solution for everyone, Sancar said, “The Kurdish people did not and will not surrender to the trustees. Efforts to subjugate them are futile. Kurdish people insist on democratic politics. Let's oppose this practice against democracy all together. Let's pave the way for a democratic republic together. Let's increase the common struggle. The trustee regime will never reach its goal. There is a strong will and belief here.”

The wait in front of the blockaded municipality building continues with Kurdish songs.

At least 92 people detained during protests against usurpation of municipalities

Dozens of people were targeted by the police in the wake of protests against the appointment of state officials to replace the mayors elected by the Kurdish population in the 31 March local elections.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Tuesday, 5 November 2024

People have been taking to the streets since yesterday in protest at the usurpation of the municipalities of Mardin, Batman and Halfeti and the appointment of trustees by the Ministry of Interior in the place of the democratically elected representatives of the Kurdish people for the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).

75 people detained in Batman

In Batman, 75 people were taken into custody during the protests that started yesterday. The detainees were subject to brutal police violence and their detention procedures continue.

Gürcan Turşak, who was battered and detained during the anti-trustee protest in Adana yesterday, was released at night after procedures at the police department. The Adana Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) will file an official complaint against the police officers who battered Turşak.

House raids in Halfeti

Many people were taken into custody in house raids in the Halfeti district of Urfa. Those detained are being held at the District Security Directorate and the number of detainees is expected to increase.

Some of those detained in the operation were named as follows: Adle Fidan, Muhammet Algaç, Elif Yalçın, Berivan Kocaoğlu, Yusuf Yeşiltepe, Gürkan Göktaş, Seve Yalçınkaya and Musa Yalçınkaya.

9 detained in Mardin

9 people were detained in house raids in Mardin and taken to the Provincial Security Directorate. The reason for the detentions was not disclosed.

Police attack people in front of the usurped municipality of Batman

People in front of Batman Municipality resisted the police crackdown with gas bombs and water cannons. 2 journalists and many people were detained.


ANF
BATMAN
Tuesday, 5 November 2024, 17:31

The police attacked the people waiting in front of the usurped municipality of Batman.

Following the attack with gas bombs and water cannons, people resisted the police at the barricades they set up at some points. While fires were lit in some streets, people frequently chanted ‘We will win by resisting’.

After a while, the people regrouped at Basın Junction and responded to the police forces that blocked the roads leading to the municipality. DBP Co-Chair Keskin Bayındır, women politicians Ayla Akat Ata and Sebahat Tuncel were among the people.

JINNEWS reporter Pelşin Çetinkaya and many people were beaten and detained during the police crackdown. Pelşin Çetinkaya was dragged on the ground before being taken into custody. Yeni Yaşam newspaper employee Veysi Aküren was also detained.


Young people defend Batman

On Tuesday night, protests continued in response to the appointment of government-appointed trustees over the municipalities of Batman, Mardin and Halfeti.


ANF
BATMAN
Wednesday, 6 November 2024

Following the recent appointment of trustees in the DEM Party-run municipalities of Batman (Êlih), Mardin (Mêrdîn), and Halfeti (Xelfetî), people remain in the streets to protest the decision.

In neighborhoods of Batman like Hilal, Karşıyaka, Petrolkent, Bağlar, Cudi, and Ipragaz, organized groups such as the Kurdistan Freedom Militia (MAK), the United Revolutionary Forces of the People (HBDH), and youth councils set up barricades to counter the attacks by Turkish police forces.

Protesters chanted slogans including 'Bijî Serok Apo' (Long live Leader Apo), 'Bê Serok jiyan nabe' (There is no life without our leader), 'Trustees will go, and the people will rise,' and 'The PKK is the people, and the people are here,' signaling their resistance to what they consider an unjust takeover of local governance.

In a statement about the events, the MAK said: "On the evening of 5 November, at around 8:00 pm, our militia took to the streets in the Ipragaz and Bağlar neighborhoods of Batman. Alongside HBDH militias and local youth councils, we resisted and erected barricades with the support of residents. Security forces heavily attacked our militias and the local community, sparking violent clashes in several areas. Our militias responded to the armored police and military vehicles of the occupying forces using stones, fireworks, and improvised explosives. Many security personnel were injured in these confrontations."

The MAK added: "As long as these attacks go on, we will continue to defend our people and respond to the occupiers."

The group issued a broader call for resistance "from Gever to Istanbul, from Serhed to Botan," urging everyone to form a united front against what they see as "encroaching occupation and repression."