As COP29 begins, some voice concerns over religious freedom in host country Azerbaijan

(RNS) — When RNS reached out to the faith groups that have had a leading presence at recent COPs for comment on how they would approach their work given religious liberty violations, most were silent.

Activists demonstrate for climate justice and a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Aleja Hertzler-McCain
November 11, 2024

(RNS) — Global leaders, diplomats and climate advocates are gathering to hammer out climate finance agreements at the latest U.N. climate summit being held today (Nov. 11) through Nov. 22 in Baku, Azerbaijan. But the host country for the annual summit has come under international scrutiny for human rights and religious freedom violations, leading some activists to question why there has not been more pushback from the global climate advocates, including faith organizations.

Days before COP29, the climate summit, began, the Azerbaijani government held a summit of religious leaders working on climate issues, calling itself “well-known for its traditions of tolerance, multicultural values and inter-civilizational and inter-religious cooperation,” even as outside observers have repeatedly raised concerns about religious freedom in the former Soviet country.

The government, led by President Ilham Aliyev, part of a family that has led the Muslim-majority country since 1993, requires religious groups to register with the government in order to operate legally. In the last two years, the number of religious activists who are being held as political prisoners has sharply increased, according to Azerbaijani watchdog Institute for Peace and Democracy, part of a broader escalation of a campaign of repression that has also led to the arrests of journalists and other opposition figures.

The country, funded in large part by fossil fuel revenues, has strengthened its army and recently carried out what the European Parliament called an “ethnic cleansing” of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which though internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, had been governed by ethnic Armenians since the fall of the Soviet Union. Armenians, who trace their heritage to the establishment of the oldest Christian nation, have called attention to Azerbaijani destruction of their religious sites in the region, even as the Azerbaijani government has said Armenians have destroyed Azerbaijani religious sites.

These concerns helped Azerbaijan land on the U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom’s 2024 “countries of particular concern” list, its designation for governments that engage in or tolerate “particularly severe” violations of religious freedom.

But when RNS reached out to the faith groups that have had a leading presence at recent COPs for comment on how they would approach their work given these concerns over religious liberty, most were silent.

Azerbaijan, red, is located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

 (Map courtesy Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

Of the core team of faith groups organizing faith activities at the last COP, the World Evangelical Alliance, the Episcopal Diocese of California and the Muslim Council of Elders, none responded to requests for comment.

(After this story was published, the Episcopal Church issued a press release saying it “seeks to balance the urgency of climate change with concerns about ongoing human rights violations in Azerbaijan,” and noting that its government relations office sent an action alert urging Episcopalians to ask their congressional representatives to vote for the Supporting Armenians Against Azerbaijani Aggression Act of 2023.)

The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development and the Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development declined to respond to requests for comment, with PaRD citing its small team and limited resources. Several other faith groups that took secondary roles also did not respond.

The Rev. John Pawlikowski, a professor emeritus of social ethics at Catholic Theological Union, said that in the months leading up to the U.S. election, “there’s a fear right now on the part of some in the religious community to publicly criticize the COP” because it might encourage now President-elect Donald Trump to pull out of the process.

The Servite priest, also a member of the climate action task force of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, said he knew of religious actors who had boycotted previous COPs where there were limits on what participants could say about local human rights and intended to boycott the summit in Azerbaijan. Nonetheless, he said the majority believe in continuing with some level of involvement.

As a formal party to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Vatican, Pawlikowski said, “could raise the human rights issues more strongly and the religious liberty issues more strongly than it has.”

However, Pawlikowski said that the religious groups that participate in the COPs are not ignoring religious liberty but simply making a strategic decision not to pursue the issue during COP.

For some of the religious groups impacted by the Azerbaijani government’s repression, the silence of faith groups attending COP29 is a bitter betrayal.

“When something is happening to the first Christian nation in the world, they don’t care,” said Arshak Makichyan, an ethnic Armenian climate activist who lost his Russian citizenship after speaking out against the war in Ukraine. The Armenian Apostolic Christian, who said his faith sustains his activism, is an icon of the Russian climate movement because of his solo protests as part of Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement and his arrest in Russia for those protests after attending COP25 in 2019.

“What is happening to Armenians is really terrible and we need international solidarity,” he said, warning he worries that Azerbaijan will be emboldened to go to war with Armenia.

The activist sees Armenian issues as a natural part of the COP discussion of Indigenous issues. “If you have been colonized by Western countries, then it is colonization, but if you were colonized by Turkey or Azerbaijan, then it’s not colonization,” he said of Western people’s ignorance of Armenian history, which included centuries of Ottoman control and repression before between 600,000 and 1. 5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, in what is widely considered a genocide.

Makichyan had planned to go back to COP this year, but he said Azerbaijan denied his visa, even after he said the United Nations had approved his accreditation for the event.

Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 president, speaks during an opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

The U.S. embassy of Azerbaijan and the U.N. Framework Convention of Climate Change offices did not respond to RNS’ requests for comment on the denial of Makichyan’s visa.

Makichyan explained, “I think it’s really important to raise the Armenian issue at the conference,” saying he was motivated to go “even though my grandfather’s uncle was killed in Baku, and though my grandparents, they were deported from Nakhchivan,” part of modern-day Azerbaijan.

Makichyan is part of a group calling for the international community at COP29 to demand the release of Armenian and other political prisoners held by the Azerbaijani government, sanctions, the right of return for “Artsakh Armenians to Indigenous lands,” an end to anti-Armenian destruction of cultural heritage and propaganda and divestment from Azerbaijani oil, in addition to a commitment to cease holding COPs in countries with political prisoners.

Azerbaijan has dismissed international concerns about religious freedom in the country as holding pro-Armenian bias.

Kamal Gasimov, a researcher on Islam in Azerbaijan who is currently visiting assistant professor of Arabic at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, said the USCIRF report should have cited third-party sources instead of relying on Armenian scholars to write about Armenian monuments.

Gasimov said the USCIRF report is a “political document,” which is indicative of relationships between Azerbaijan and the U.S. Some Azeris see the document as evidence of U.S. imperialism, while others whose family members are imprisoned are grateful for it, he said.

Mohamed Elsanousi, a commissioner who joined USCIRF after the most recent report’s deliberation process had been completed, said, “Our aim here is not really to blame and shame countries. Our aim is to improve religious freedom.”

USCIRF is made up of appointees by the U.S. president and congressional leaders. A minority of four dissented the Azerbaijan decision, expressing concerns that the country should be given a less severe designation for its religious freedom violations.

Despite controversy over the report, Gasimov said the Azerbaijani government plays a significant role regulating religion in the Muslim-majority country, adapting an approach from the Soviet Union that is common across post-Soviet countries.

“If you are a registered religious community within the state institution, the state gives you a passport, then you exist. If the state refuses your registration, then you don’t exist,” he said.

The goal is “making Islam part of the state bureaucracy, which makes Islam predictable,” as well as “easily observed” and “controlled.” They also accomplish this by “controlling books” and “trying to co-opt the religious leaders, charismatic leaders, (by) offering them jobs in the government.”

RELATED: USCIRF chair rebukes Azerbaijan for imprisoned Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector

Other religious groups, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have not been able to register. Jehovah’s Witnesses also highlight that the state has not followed through on its stated exemptions to compulsory military service for conscientious objectors, with some believers experiencing beatings and legal sentences.

While USCIRF cites the 2009 Azerbaijani law requiring registration as a major source of the violation of international human rights standards, Gasimov said the Arab Spring protests motivated the government to double down on control in the name of preventing radicalization and legitimized those actions by juxtaposing “the security of Azerbaijan with what’s happening in the Middle East.”

Azerbaijani watchdog Institute for Peace and Democracy says that the majority of the 319 political prisoners in the Muslim-majority country are “peaceful believers,” coming in at 228, which includes members of the Muslim Unity Movement and other Muslim theologians. Before early 2023, the number of religious political prisoners had been below 100.

Elsanousi said USCIRF had some documentation that “law enforcement also utilized and threatened torture, sexual assaults, and other mistreatment toward non-conforming Shia Muslims in the state custody.”

The Muslim Unity Movement, a Shia group, gained popularity, according to Gasimov, by mixing their religious discourse with concerns about social issues, like bribery and police violence.

Makichyan said that Azerbaijan has previously used “greenwashing,” or a type of spin that portrays the country as an environmental protector, to get away with human rights violations, including against ethnic Armenians.

Looking forward, he emphasized the importance of religious pluralism. As a Christian who knows of genocides that Muslim Indigenous groups have lived through, “it’s really important to be against Islamophobia because we Armenians, hopefully we will be able to return to western Armenia also and try to coexist with other people,” he said.

This story has been updated.

Faith groups resolve to protect migrants, refugees after Trump win

(RNS) — ‘Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,’ Omar Angel Perez, Faith in Action’s immigrant justice director, said.

Immigrants from Honduras recount their separation from their children at the border during a news conference in 2018 at Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas. AP Photo/Matt York
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
November 6, 2024

(RNS) — Former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term prompted faith groups that work with migrants and refugees to reaffirm their commitment to continue their work on Wednesday (Nov. 6), after Trump campaigned on blocking migration and carrying out record deportations.

“Given President-elect Trump’s record on immigration and promises to suspend refugee resettlement, restrict asylum protections, and carry out mass deportations, we know there are serious challenges ahead for the communities we serve,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, in a statement.

On the campaign trail, Trump also promised to end automatic citizenship for immigrants’ children born in the U.S.; end protected legal status for certain groups, including Haitians and Venezuelans; and reinstate a travel ban for people from certain Muslim-majority areas.

If Trump carries out his plans, FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, projects that by the start of 2025, about 1 in 12 U.S. residents, and nearly 1 in 3 Latino residents, could be impacted by the mass deportations either because of their legal status or that of someone in the household.

“If the mass deportation articulated throughout the campaign season is implemented, it would tear families, communities, and the American economy apart,” Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit working with refugees, said in a statement. “The solution to the disorder at the border is to prioritize comprehensive immigration reform that updates our antiquated immigration laws while protecting people who need refuge.”

“We will continue to speak truth to power in solidarity with refugees and displaced people seeking safety around the world,” Hetfield said. “We will not be intimidated into silence or inaction,” his organization wrote.
RELATED: Threats to Catholic Charities staffers increase amid far-right anti-migrant campaign

Omar Angel Perez, immigrant justice director for Faith in Action, a social justice organization, said in a statement, “We recognize the fear and uncertainty many are feeling and pray that we can channel that energy into solidarity and resilience.”

“This moment calls us to take immediate action to protect the communities targeted throughout this campaign and during the prior Trump administration,” Perez said. “We remain committed to providing resources, support, and training to empower people to know their rights and stand firm against attempts to undermine their power.”

Matthew Soerens. Photo courtesy of World Relief

Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, pointed to polling by Lifeway Research earlier this year that showed that 71% of evangelicals agree that the U.S. “has a moral responsibility to accept refugees.”

“A majority of Christian voters supported President-elect Trump, according to the exit polls, but it’d be an error to presume that means that most Christians align with everything that he’s said in the campaign related to refugees and immigration,” he said.

Soerens explained that when Christians “realize that most refugees resettled to the U.S. in recent years have been fellow Christians, that they’re admitted lawfully after a thorough vetting process overseas and that many were persecuted particularly because of their faith in Jesus, my experience has been that they want to sustain refugee resettlement.”

“We’ll be doing all we can to encourage President-elect Trump, who has positioned himself as a defender of Christians against persecution, to ensure that the U.S. remains a refuge for those fleeing persecution on account of their faith or for other reasons recognized by U.S. law,” he said.

In a statement, Jesuit Refugee Service said Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric and his previous term had harmed “forcibly displaced people.”

Policies in his first term “separated families, set up new hurdles in the asylum process, dramatically reduced the number of refugees the U.S. resettled, introduced a ban on admitting travelers from predominantly Muslim countries, and deprioritized international efforts to address the exploding global refugee population,” the Catholic organization said.

To welcome and serve migrants is “an obligation” for Catholics, the JRS statement said. “How we respond to the tens of millions of people forced to flee their homes is a serious moral, legal, diplomatic, and economic question that impacts all of us,” the organization wrote.

Despite the disproportionate impact that Trump’s proposed immigration policies would have on Latino communities, Trump made significant gains among Latinos compared with previous elections, winning Latino American men’s vote by 10 points.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, attributed Trump’s success to several factors, including a rejection of progressive ideologies, economic concerns and concerns about government overreach

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The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez in 2013. Courtesy photo

But the evangelical megachurch pastor also said, “While immigration is a nuanced issue within the Latino community, there is a growing sentiment against open-border policies and the provision of resources to illegal immigrants at the perceived expense of American citizens.”

Karen González, a Guatemalan immigrant and author of several books on Christian responses to immigration, called Trump’s victory in the popular vote “especially crushing” in light of his anti-migrant rhetoric. She attributed Trump’s success with Latinos to white supremacy and misogyny within the community.

“We really aspire to be secondary white people, and we think that aligning ourselves with white supremacy is going to save us, and it’s not,” she said.

González was among the faith leaders who said they had not emotionally reckoned with the possibility of a Trump win before the results were announced.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, a Catholic organization that supports migrants in El Paso, Texas, and in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, across the U.S.-Mexican border, told RNS, “I was hopeful that we had turned the page because I think (the first Trump term) represents a really challenging time in our country.”

Corbett called for “deep reckoning” in churches and grassroots communities. “There’s the perception that the (immigration) system is broken, and I think the longer we wait to really fix the situation, you open up the door to political extremism. You open up the door to incendiary rhetoric, to cheap solutions,” he said.

While President Joe Biden’s administration had begun with “some really aspirational rhetoric,” it “left a mixed legacy on immigration,” opening the door to Trump’s “dangerous politics.”

“Faith leaders in particular are going to have to assume a very public voice in defense of the human rights of now a very vulnerable part of our community,” he said.

Corbett expressed concern that Trump might mirror Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s tactics in Operation Lone Star in his push for massive deportations, citing deaths due to high-speed chases on highways and record migrant deaths.

RELATED: Judge rules against Texas Attorney General Paxton in campaign against migrant shelters

“It’s going to fall to border communities like El Paso to deal with the fallout of what we can expect will be some very broken policies and some very dangerous rhetoric,” Corbett said. “And so I think we have to prepare for that. And that means turning back to our faith, going back to the Gospels, going back to the witness of Jesus, the witness of the saints, martyrs,” he said.


In Global Refuge’s statement, the organization encouraged Americans to support immigrants and refugees, “emphasizing the importance of family unity, humanitarian leadership, and the long-standing benefits of immigrant and refugee contributions to U.S. communities and economies.”

Vignarajah added, “In uncertain times, it is vital to remember that our role as Americans is to help those in need, and in doing so, we advance our own interests as well.”

Perez told RNS before the election that Faith in Action had prepared for a potential Trump win and that the organization would draw on its experience “responding to the attacks on the immigrant community” and mounting protection defense campaigns to prevent deportations.

González recalled working in a legal clinic after Trump’s 2016 election and helping migrants process citizenship and sponsorship applications before he took office. “This is really the time for that sort of practical action of how we can serve our neighbors,” she said.

“Together, we will transform our grief into a force for change that will build a more just, equitable society that respects the dignity of all people,” Perez said.

Catholic bishops say they will defend migrants if Trump violates rights

BALTIMORE (RNS) — At their annual meeting in Baltimore, the bishops' chair on immigration said, 'This is going to be a test for our nation. Are we in fact a nation based on law, on the most fundamental laws about the rights of the human person?'

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
November 12, 2024

BALTIMORE (RNS) — Gathering in Baltimore on Tuesday (Nov. 12), just a week after former President Donald Trump won reelection, leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops promised to defend immigrants and poor people in the coming years.

“As the successors of the Apostles and vicars of Christ in our dioceses, we never backpedal or renounce the clear teaching of the Gospel. We proclaim it in and out of season,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the conference, who also leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services.

Broglio’s comments expanded on an appearance last week on the Catholic media network EWTN, where the archbishop said the majority of Catholics had supported Trump due to concern for the “dignity of the human person.” In Baltimore Broglio made clear that human dignity should be protected “from womb to tomb,” saying the bishops were committed “to see Christ in those who are most in need, to defend and lift up the poor, and to encourage immigration reform, while we continue to care for those in need who cross our borders.”

Cautioning that the bishops “certainly do not encourage illegal immigration,” he said, to applause from his fellow bishops, “we will all have to stand before the throne of grace and hear the Lord ask us if we saw him in the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, stranger, or sick and responded to his needs.”

RELATED: US Catholic bishops elect Archbishop Timothy Broglio as conference president

At a press conference, El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, current chair of the migration committee, said that while the conference was waiting to see how Trump’s campaign rhetoric will materialize as policy, the conference would speak out for migrants in the event of mass deportations.

FILE – El Paso Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz talks with Celsia Palma, 9, of Honduras, as they walk to the Paso Del Norte International Port of Entry on June, 27, 2019, in Juarez, Mexico. (AP Photo/Rudy Gutierrez)

“We will raise our voice loudly if those basic protections for people that have been a part of our country from its very beginning are not being respected,” Seitz said, referring to both legal and human rights. “This is going to be a test for our nation. Are we in fact a nation based on law, on the most fundamental laws about the rights of the human person?”
RELATED: Judge rules against Texas Attorney General Paxton in campaign against migrant shelters

When asked how he would respond if Trump followed through on suggestions about involving the military in mass deportations, Broglio said he had a responsibility to “ensure pastoral care” for the military.

“Unfortunately, the way the military is set up, you cannot conscientiously object to a policy or to a certain war, you have to conscientiously object to war in general, and so that doesn’t really provide an avenue out of the service,” Broglio said.

However, he said he would counsel that “no one can be obliged to go against his or her conscience,” and said that chaplains would work to defend those conscience rights as best as they could within the system. Broglio also raised concerns that mass deportations would not be economically sound given the number of open jobs.

Arlington, Virginia, Bishop Michael Burbidge, who leads the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, celebrated three instances where state ballot measures securing abortion rights failed on Election Day and commended bishops on their efforts in the seven states where abortion rights came out on top.

Burbidge said the bishops had learned they needed to get out early in messaging. “The truth has to be conveyed concisely and in a clear way to all the faithful because distortion of the truth has been a big part of these ballot initiatives,” he said, also asserting that the bishops could not compete financially with the abortion rights movement and explaining that underlining the “extreme” nature of the ballot measures was persuasive for voters.

Migrants seeking asylum line up while waiting to be processed after crossing the border Wednesday, June 5, 2024, near San Diego, Calif. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia)

He said they also intended to practice perseverance and continue to look to partner with others on anti-abortion work.

Kansas City, Kansas, Archbishop Joseph Naumann told his fellow bishops during a discussion period that the success of and votes of many Catholics for abortion rights ballot initiatives should be a “wake up call,” similar to a 2019 Pew poll showing low levels of belief in Catholic teaching on the Eucharist. Though later polls called that 2019 Pew poll into question, the bishops’ concern about Communion led to their three-year evangelization project, the National Eucharistic Revival. Kansas was one state where an abortion rights ballot measure was successful in 2022.

The bishops also voted for new chairs for various committees of the conference, including the bishop who will chair the conference’s committee on migration through the bulk of Trump’s presidency. Bishop Brendan Cahill, of the border diocese of Victoria, Texas, was elected to that position and will take the helm of the committee after next November’s meeting in 2025.

Generally, the bishops elected the higher-ranking bishop in the match-ups for who would lead their committees. One exception was the election for the chairman of the committee of divine worship, for which the bishops chose Cleveland Auxiliary Bishop Michael Woost over Portland, Oregon, Archbishop Alexander Sample. Sample banned Mass at a Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical community in his diocese last winter and is seen as among the most conservative wing of the conference on liturgy and LGBTQ+ issues.

Bishop Stepan Sus, a leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, delivered an extended address to the conference, speaking of Ukrainian suffering, warning against Russian framing of their military action as holy and thanking the U.S. church for their prayers and material support. “We believe God will not abandon us and will help us stop this evil,” he told the bishops.

Bishop Sus received lengthy standing applause from the bishops in the room. Last week, Trump called Vladimir Putin, reportedly urging the Russian leader not to escalate the country’s military campaign in Ukraine. He also reportedly supports a peace deal that would allow Russia to keep some captured territory.

On Tuesday, bishops spoke of the various initiatives in the church that they hoped would lead to greater devotion among the faithful.

“We redouble our efforts to introduce civility into the everyday discourse. Christians should be catalysts for a more humane and worthy approach to daily life,” said Broglio.

Bishops and bankers meet to help Catholics seeking to ethically invest

MAKE IT REPATRIATIONS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 

(RNS) — The financial community lags behind amid a surge in the demand for faith-consistent investments.

Vatican bank President Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, left, and Peter Hugh Smith, chief executive of CCLA Investment Management, converse during the Mensuram Bonam Summit in London, Nov. 11, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Gordon Stabbins)
Claire Giangravé
November 14, 2024

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Religious communities are increasingly seeking to invest in companies that match their faith values and ethical concerns, but experts say the financial market lags in providing the appropriate options.

A conference in London on Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 11-12) sought to bridge that gap by bringing together financial service industry experts with Anglican and Catholic leaders, who represent dioceses and congregations all over the world and an estimated portfolio of $1.75 trillion.

“What we are seeing is that there’s increasing interest from religious organizations, not just Catholic, but also other Christian denominations, to make sure money is indeed managed in an aligned way with their faith,” Peter Hugh Smith, chief executive of London-based CCLA Investment Management, told RNS in an interview

CCLA, a London-based organization that manages funds for the Church of England and other religious charities, hosted the conference. The Mensuram Bonam Summit, from the Latin meaning “for good measure,” was named after a document published in 2022 by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which laid out guidelines for Catholic companies and investors seeking to invest their money for good.

The document, inspired by Pope Francis’ teachings, followed dozens of regional guidelines issued by Catholic bishops’ conferences around the world and suggested a practice of “engagement” with investment companies and, when necessary, to offer a faith-based perspective to “enhance” their portfolios. Only if these two methods failed, the document called for Catholics to “exclude” investing with those companies.

While Muslims have created sophisticated methods to promote investment in Shariah-compliant funds — ones that aren’t, for example, involved in pork, tobacco or alcohol — Christians lack similar resources. “I think people of faith are becoming more aware that they actually do have a choice with where they invest their money, and not a very good choice at the moment, and that’s what we’re trying to fix,” Smith said.

“Just generally, the industry is not servicing that demand particularly well,” he added.


Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia, from left, Alan Smith, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Turkson, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, Sister Helen Alford and Bishop David Urquhart at the Mensuram Bonam Summit in London, Nov. 11, 2024. (Photo by Marcin Mazur)

To achieve this goal, the conference focused on educating financial services providers about the demands and concerns of Christian and especially Catholic investors. Mensuram Bonam listed 24 ethical questions Catholics should ponder before they invest, including abortion, the environment and social issues.

“We’re continuing down a road of education to try and inform financial advisers that there are other things besides the financial return on investment,” said the Rev. Séamus Finn, an expert in faith-based and socially responsible investing and a priest of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, speaking to RNS.

Finn noted that even among Catholics there are diverging opinions about what should disqualify an investment, citing different positions on the death penalty or on animal rights in different regions of the world. But most Catholics agree on core issues of the faith, he said.

“It’s important that you feel that through the money that you’re investing, what you are building is a better and a more sustainable future on the planet for your grandchildren and for those who are marginalized, the poor and the thousands of migrants that we have crossing the world every day with barely enough to survive,” Finn said.
RELATED: Vatican and Microsoft partner to showcase St. Peter’s Basilica through AI technology

The conference was supported by U.S. firms and organizations, including the Knights of Columbus, Catholic Investment Services and CBIS Catholic Responsible Investments, as well as other organizations in Europe. Cardinals from the bureaucratic offices at the Vatican, the Roman Curia, attended the event, as well as Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, the president of the Institute for Religious Works, commonly referred to as the Vatican bank.


Peter Hugh Smith presents at the Mensuram Bonam Summit in London, Nov. 11, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Gordon Stabbins)

Plagued by financial scandals in the past, the newly reformed Vatican bank has made an effort to set itself as an example of transparency and efficiency for Catholic institutions, which are often led by clerics with limited understanding of financial issues and are dependent on outdated reporting and budgeting systems.

Finn said he hoped the conference would also “get the Vatican to be more proactive on this front” by sharing best practices and would “encourage those who have been afraid of doing any of this because they don’t feel like they’re experts in the area of finance, that there are ways to start, and there’s plenty of help out there.”

Participants at the conference looked for a middle ground between Christian concerns about where to invest their funds and the practical reality of needing financial returns. “Our point is that you can invest ethically, and it will not affect your return,” Finn said. “There are companies out there who want to do good and want to do right.”

For these Hindu Americans, a pivot from the Democratic Party was long overdue

(RNS) — In the Trump coalition, they see a burgeoning multiracial religious right that has ample space for Hindu Americans.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump listens as Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during a campaign rally at Thomas & Mack Center, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Richa Karmarkar
November 12, 2024

(RNS) — Days after Donald Trump’s sweeping presidential win, reactions around the country ranged from surprise and sadness to, in Texan Burt Thakur’s case, relief.

“What a moment,” he told RNS. “The biggest comeback in political history, I would say, for any world leader in modern times.”

A Republican congressional hopeful who ran in Frisco, Texas, under the slogan “one nation under God, not one nation under government,” Thakur — a former Navy sailor, nuclear power plant worker and immigrant from India — has much in common with the average faith-based Trump voter. Though Thakur lost his March primary in northeast Texas, “arguably the most evangelical part” of the state, Thakur said he had “never felt more welcomed” than when he campaigned as a conservative in his district

For so long, says Thakur, Hindu Americans had to wait their turn to enter the political space as anything other than a Democrat. But now, with openly Hindu Republican figures like Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard and even Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Vice President-elect JD Vance, Thakur sees a burgeoning multiracial religious right that has ample space for Hindu Americans.

“If we want to build a bridge, if we want the Vivek Ramaswamys of the world to get into office, if we want our voice heard, these groups are waiting for us,” said Thakur, who added he has often been “one of the only brown faces in the room” at Republican-led events. “We just have to show up.”

Political observers have noted the uptick in Trump-supporting Americans from various ethnic and immigrant backgrounds, especially Latinos and Asians, as the marker of a changing America. The Democratic Party has too often relied on the support of Indian Americans, says author Avatans Kumar, who, like many in his immigrant cohort, initially leaned to the left.

“Indians, Hindus specifically, are very deeply religious people,” said Kumar, who moved to Chicago for a Ph.D. in linguistics in 1994. “And progressivism is not alien to us. It comes to us because we are Hindus — very progressive, liberal minded. But there’s a limit to it. So I think we may have, you know, broke that limit for many of us.”

Notions of DEI, Critical Race Theory and affirmative action led Kumar to question the state of the meritocracy he once valued in his chosen country. For him, the breaking point came, as it did for many Hindus, in 2023 with a senate bill in California. Bill 403, supported by many Democrats, would have codified caste as a protected category under existing anti-discrimination laws. Governor Gavin Newsom ultimately vetoed the bill after fierce opposition from prominent Hindu advocates who argued it misrepresented the Hindu faith as intrinsically caste-based.

RELATED: As caste bill meets defeat, Hindu Americans on both sides make their voices heard

Trump’s “America First” views, where ideology is more important than identity, greatly appealed to Kumar.

“I don’t think identity should be a big factor,” he said. “You are who you are, and our dharma tells us to be loyal to our nation, the country where we live. You know, we made this country home, and we will be very loyal. But also, India is our spiritual homeland, that’s the connection we have.”

In a pre-election 2020 survey, 72% of registered Indian American voters said they planned to support Biden, a share that fell to 61% percent for Kamala Harris in the month before the 2024 election — while Trump support went from 22% to 32%, according to the Indian American Attitudes Survey conducted before both elections.

President Joe Biden’s administration of “mostly activist ideologues,” said Kumar, did little to support a diplomatic relationship with India. In contrast with liberals’ criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule, and the occasionally violent Hindu nationalism of his Bharatiya Janata Party, Trump has instead publicly shown his great appreciation and admiration for the leader of the world’s largest democracy.

“We will also protect Hindu Americans against the anti-religion agenda of the radical left,” posted Trump on Diwali. “Under my administration, we will also strengthen our great partnership with India and my good friend, Prime Minister Modi.”

The majority of Indian Americans either approve of or have no opinion on Modi’s performance as prime minister, and most value a strong partnership between India and the U.S., according to a 2023 survey by Pew Research Center.

But Trump’s foreign policy is only a small piece of the puzzle, according to D.C. native Akshar Patel. Increased inflation and pathways to legal immigration, the latter of which is especially relevant to the majority-immigrant population with a decadeslong backlog for citizenship, were the issues strong enough to sway otherwise progressive-minded Hindus like himself into a Trump vote.

“Diversity, tolerance, pluralism, things like that: those are Hindu ideals,” said Patel, who in 2018 founded the independent news outlet The Emissary, which discusses Indian and American history and politics. “On the flip side, though, ideas around God, family and natural patriotism, you could say those are also Hindu values.”

But Patel warns against characterizing the multi-religious coalition as a “pan-Republican phenomenon,” instead calling it a distinctly “Trumpian” one. He noted the backlash over Harmeet Dhillon, a practicing Sikh, reciting a prayer to Waheguru (the Sikh name for God) at the Republican National Convention, with some calling it “blasphemous” and “anti-Christian.”

“I think that is a real part of the Republican Party, which I guess Hindus need to be cognizant of, and keep one eyebrow up,” Patel said.

Srilekha Reddy Palle, a board member of the nonpartisan American Hindu Coalition, has been a vocal supporter of Trump throughout the 2024 campaign season. Some of her colleagues were “instrumental,” she said, in getting Trump to mention the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh in his October X post. “Kamala and Joe have ignored Hindus across the world and in America,” added the post.

But her support for Trump goes beyond “superficial” identity-based lines, says Palle, who ran for county supervisor in her home state of Virginia in 2019. “I just want us to be at a point where anyone can stand on the stage,” she said, noting how in local elections in her state candidates still feel a need to emphasize their Christian faith.

“That kind of thing should go away from America,” she added. “That’s what I call religious freedom. Religious tolerance alone is not religious freedom. It just means that you practice whatever you want, but you should be agnostic when it comes to running, when you come into the public eye.”

On either side of the American political spectrum, many Hindus like Reddy feel pride in the influx of Indians in lawmaking positions, like the six Congress members elected just this cycle, or Hindus like Ramaswamy, Gabbard and Kash Patel — who are all expected to have a role in Trump’s government.

The goal for AHC, she says, is to move the community away from opening wallets and photo ops, and towards getting more like-minded people into leadership positions.

For Indu Viswanathan, director of education for the Hindu University of America, “there’s nothing more Hindu than viewpoint diversity,” or the ability to empathize and understand other perspectives, including those of her more right-leaning colleagues. The former public school teacher says too many in the Indian American community, among the wealthiest and most educated ethnic group in the nation, live in their enclaves and are not exposed to the reality of mainstream America.

“This is where the culture wars, and a lot of social justice has done us a disservice, because in the name of being inclusive, it’s actually created a lot of more isolating categorization of people,” she said. “It’s really easy to get fired up, and it’s really easy to feel like you’re drowning.”

But Viswanathan sees Trump, with his felony convictions, as “not at all aligned with dharmic values,” and is especially cautious of the alignments some Hindus are making with an increasingly nationalist form of Christianity in a nation that has historically misrepresented or even denigrated ritualistic forms of the religion.

“Your everyday American is actually really open minded,” she said. “So we don’t need to make ourselves fit in that way. We can actually be really authentic in our representations and expressions and understandings of the world. Don’t try to dilute or make your sort of experience of Hinduism digestible to others,” she said.

“The more diversity of expression that we see, not just in politicians, but in media and entertainment, in all of these different spaces, the richer our country is, the richer the representation of Hinduism is. And I think we’re all better off for it.”

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM

What evangelicals say they want from a second Trump term

(RNS) — ‘Our people were elated, for the most part, over the election results,’ said Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist pastor.

President-elect Donald Trump is escorted by House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana for a meeting with the House GOP conference, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Jack Jenkins
November 13, 2024


(RNS) — Shortly after President-elect Donald Trump finished his victory speech last week in West Palm Beach, Florida, the room burst into a rendition of the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art.” The moment, which was captured on video, was a reminder of Trump’s robust support among conservative evangelical Christians, who have consistently backed the former president with upward of 80% voting for him in all three of his elections.

Among the crowd in Florida on election night Tuesday (Nov. 5) was longtime Trump supporter Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, who preached a sermon to the businessman on the morning of Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Jeffress described the atmosphere at Trump’s victory party as “electric” and suggested the vibe was similar when he returned to his church last Sunday.

“Our people were elated, for the most part, over the election results,” Jeffress said.

Conservative Christians have long celebrated what they see as the landmark successes of Trump’s first term, particularly his appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court and their overturning of Roe v. Wade to end nationwide abortion access. This time, however, Jeffress and other evangelical advisers of Trump say they are hoping for more — although exactly what form those policies will take appears to be the subject of debate.

For Jeffress, a key policy concern for Trump’s second term is “protecting the religious freedom of all Americans.”

“The things (Trump) is most interested in is anything that will prohibit not only pastors from preaching what is in their heart, but what would keep laymen from exercising their faith in the workplace, whether it be doctors being forced to perform abortions or high school football coaches not allowed to pray before a football game,” Jeffress said.

Pastor Robert Jeffress and then-President Donald Trump pray after Trump signed a full pardon for Alice Johnson in the Oval Office of the White House, Aug. 28, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Trump, for his part, promised during his campaign to create a federal task force to fight “anti-Christian bias,” saying if he didn’t win, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris would “come after Christians all over the country.” He also promised to get rid of the so-called Johnson Amendment — a part of the tax code that prohibits churches from endorsing candidates — “permanently the next time,” after signing an executive order that weakened the restriction during his first term as president.

“They didn’t want you to speak to people, and if you did they take away your tax-exempt status,” Trump told a group of mostly pastors in Powder Springs, Georgia. “And I said, ‘But these are the people that me and others want to hear from, and you’re not letting them speak. What’s that all about?’”

The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham and head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said he hoped Trump would address a myriad of foreign policy concerns. He said he was especially hopeful Trump would “find a way to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine,” suggesting there should be a special ambassador appointed to go to Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Democrats demonized the Russians so much that if you talk to them, it looks like you’re doing wrong,” said Graham, who also praised Trump’s efforts to forge a relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

People pray with Franklin Graham before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump takes the stage at a faith event at the Concord Convention Center, Oct. 21, 2024, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Graham also said he hoped Trump would work to establish peace amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that has spread to southern Lebanon and the surrounding region, noting the president-elect helped bring about a bilateral agreement on Arab-Israeli normalization known as the Abraham Accords during his first term in office. Trump criticized Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and has urged Israel to “finish the job” and destroy Hamas.

“Now (Trump’s) got somebody who can help restart that and come up with a comprehensive peace deal for that region,” Graham said, referring to Trump’s decision to appoint real estate tycoon Steven Witkoff as his Mideast envoy.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez and the Rev. Tony Suarez, the president and vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and both Trump faith advisers, listed a desire for Trump to take action on “children’s and parental rights,” especially in regards to transgender children who seek out gender affirming surgery, something conservative Christians have grown increasingly vocal in opposing.

Trump campaigned on the issue, pledging to roll back civil rights protections for transgender students and running an ad that declared “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” The president-elect has not detailed his plans to address the topic, although some conservatives have floated excluding transgender students from Title IX protections. Doing so could alter policies in public schools regarding bathrooms, locker rooms and which pronouns students use. Since Trump was elected, transgender youth have flooded crisis hotlines, according to The Associated Press.

“We want policies that prevent government intrusion into children’s medical and personal development, particularly regarding sensitive issues like gender identity,” Rodriguez wrote in an email. Evangelicals and other conservative Christians, he argued, oppose state-level policies that have “enabled government involvement” in “matters that should remain private and family-centered, respecting faith-based values in both education and public spaces.”

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures as he walks with former first lady Melania Trump at an election night watch party last week at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Rodriguez also wrote that he hoped Trump would protect religious liberty in the U.S. and globally — including “policies that protect people of faith from government overreach and hostility.”

“Additionally, on the international stage, we hope to see the administration champion religious liberties, building a robust defense against all forms of totalitarianism, whether religious or secular,” according to Rogriguez.

Virtually every conservative Christian leader RNS spoke with mentioned abortion as a key issue of concern, although there were differences in terms of policy focus. The discrepancy may be a byproduct of the Republican Party’s struggles since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Since then, multiple red states have either rejected attempts to curtail abortion rights or backed ballot initiatives that enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. This election, advocates for abortion rights achieved victories in seven of the 10 states where abortion was on the ballot.

Even so, many conservative Christians are unwavering in their opposition to abortion. Suarez conveyed that he hoped Republicans would be firmer in their anti-abortion stance despite recent political setbacks. Doug Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho, who has advocated for Christian nationalism and become a rising star among conservative figures in Trump’s orbit such as Tucker Carlson, said he hoped the next president would focus on appointing conservative judges and justices, adding that he hopes “the pro-life issue” would “become an explicit litmus test” for any Supreme Court nominees.

Evangelical leaders were less uniform when discussing a potential national abortion ban, a policy liberals have warned could happen now that Republicans are projected to regain control of the U.S. House along with the Senate and the presidency. Trump distanced himself from the idea during his campaign, although he responded vaguely when asked during a debate whether he would veto a ban were he to occupy the Oval Office.

A man wears a Make America Pray Again hat before former President Donald Trump speaks at the National Religious Broadcasters convention at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, Feb. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Ralph Reed, the head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, dismissed the plausibility of a national abortion ban in a conversation with reporters last week, saying the policy is unlikely to get approved by Congress in the first place. But Jeffress was more precise: The pastor focused on the need for exceptions in abortion legislation.

“I think the majority of Americans … do not support banning abortion with no exceptions,” Jeffress said. “They may disagree on what those exceptions should be, but most people I know, including evangelicals, don’t believe that a mother ought to be forced by government to give up her life to possibly save the baby.”

He added: “I think what the president will do is what the president has said, and that is no national abortion ban — certainly (not) one that would outlaw abortion with no exceptions. He believes in the exceptions.”

The faith leaders also noted support for other policies that are not tied explicitly to faith, such as a desire to reduce immigration, which Trump has paired with a plan to enact mass deportations. Rodriguez and Suarez also said they hoped Trump would help pass a form of immigration reform

But no matter what, for Jeffress and other evangelicals, there is trust Trump will pursue policies that reflect the support they’ve given him throughout his political career.

“I think what appeals to many evangelicals about Trump is they believe that President Trump will do effectively what (God) has commanded government to do,” Jeffress said. “God never commanded government to lead a spiritual revival in America. That is not the responsibility of government. It’s the responsibility of the church and the responsibility of government, according to Romans 13 and 1 Timothy 2, to keep citizens safe from evildoers and leave Christians alone to practice their faith, that’s it.”

Ascension nurses receive tepid response from US Catholic bishops after rally

BALTIMORE (RNS) — The nurses distributed handouts alleging that Ascension has failed to follow the bishops' directives by disproportionately divesting from hospitals in higher-poverty communities, closing labor and delivery units and pediatric units, understaffing hospitals and engaging in unfair labor practices, including retaliation, threats and intimidation.

National Nurses United demonstrate outside the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference fall meeting, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baltimore. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Aleja Hertzler-McCain

RNS
November 13, 2024


BALTIMORE (RNS) — As the U.S. Catholic bishops gathered for their conference’s fall meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 12), they were expected to discuss their response to the presidential election, implementing Pope Francis’ agenda and the recently ended Vatican summit on the church’s future.

A group of nurses was there to remind them that Catholics wanted them to talk about the Catholic Church’s role as a major provider of health care in the United States too. At a rally outside the Marriott Waterfront Hotel, members of National Nurses United demonstrated to bring to the bishops’ attention their concerns about Ascension, one of the largest Catholic hospital systems in the country.

“Church fathers, tell Ascension it’s time to start acting Catholic,” Meghan Ross, a Catholic nurse who has been at Ascension St. Agnes in Baltimore for eight years, said at the rally.

In January, National Nurses United, a union representing about 225,000 registered nurses, released a report charging that Ascension had closed labor and delivery units at a rate higher than the national average between 2019 and 2021. Those closures disproportionately impacted areas with high poverty rates and Black and Latino communities, the report said.

Beyond the union’s concerns, national reporting from The New York Times has raised concerns about Ascension’s staffing practices, and Stat, an online magazine focused on health care, characterized the hospital system as “moonlighting as a private equity firm.”
RELATED: Catholic bishops silent as Ascension hospital system shrinks maternity care

Nurses from Ascension hospitals in Wichita, Kansas, and Austin, Texas flew in to join the Baltimore nurses.

The nurses asked the bishops to intervene to ensure Ascension complies with the bishops’ stated guidance for Catholic health care, officially called the Ethical and Religious Directives.


The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel in Baltimore. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Some nurses went inside the Marriott to distribute handouts alleging that Ascension has failed to follow those directives by disproportionately divesting from hospitals in impoverished communities, closing labor and delivery units and pediatric units, understaffing hospitals and engaging in unfair labor practices, including retaliation, threats and intimidation.

“Right now, were Jesus to come into a hospital, he would not get the care that he deserves,” said Monica Gonzalez, a Catholic nurse who works on the neurological unit at Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin. “Ascension isn’t doing that. As a Catholic, that hurts the most because I know what Jesus’ mission was.”

“Ascension is doing their utmost to not abide by his teachings. And it’s unfortunate because that’s all we want to do, is make sure we are caring for our neighbor,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said she had spoken with several bishops, who mostly seemed “open” and said the issue was “on their radar.”

“But I feel like being on the radar is not enough. We want them to pressure the hospital to call them to do what their mission statement says and provide for our patients,” Gonzalez said.

Union leaders told RNS they had invited the bishops of Baltimore, Austin and Wichita to join their rally, but none of them appeared outside along the chilly, windy waterfront.

Fort Worth, Texas, Bishop Michael Olson, chair of the health care issues committee, declined a request for an interview, indicating the nurses’ concerns would be better addressed by the doctrine committee, which issues the Ethical and Religious Directives. The incoming leader of that committee, Brooklyn, New York, Auxiliary Bishop James Massa, also declined a request for an interview.

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori’s executive director of communications, Christian Kendzierski, told RNS in an email that the “Archbishop recognizes and commends the dedication and commitment of nurses and the critical care they provide and is looking forward to a hopeful outcome as the negotiations continue in good faith.” Lori declined an interview request.

Baltimore Ascension nurses voted to form a union last November and have been in negotiations since February of this year. The union says that Ascension has failed to bargain in good faith on safe staffing levels, protections from cuts to patient services and protections against lawsuits over billing disputes and surprise billing and excess charges.
RELATED: Ascension Catholic hospitals outsource staffing to private-equity-owned partners

Melissa LaRue, a member of the collective bargaining team and a nurse in the intensive care unit, said in a statement, “The church teaches that all human beings should be treated with dignity, but at our hospital, we see indignity on a daily, even hourly, basis – with rampant unsafe staffing and workplace violence due to Ascension’s relentless pursuit of profit.”

She told RNS she frequently sees unsafe staffing on her unit, where each nurse is supposed to tend to two patients. “A lot of times we have to flex and take care of three, and that’s just dangerous,” she said.

In a statement, Justin Blome, director of marketing at Ascension St. Agnes, said the hospital’s approach to staffing and patient care “is rooted in evidence-based practices and flexible staffing models designed to respond to our patients’ needs.” The hospital works to recruit and retain associates, part of a commitment “to supporting our associates and ensuring safe, quality care for our patients,” he added.

Ascension St. Agnes also said that it had “engaged in good-faith bargaining since contract discussions began” and is committed to continuing “in alignment with the principles of Catholic Social Teaching that call on us to respect the human dignity of all and ensure we are acting in a fair and just manner with our associates and our union partners.”

At their rally, the nurses were supported by Baltimore City Council President-elect Zeke Cohen and several local Catholics.

The Rev. Ty Hullinger, pastor of Transfiguration Catholic Community in Baltimore, told the nurses that the bishops “have the duty and the obligation to listen to you.” He said, “They need to hear it and then they need to act.”

As the first workers in a Catholic institution in the archdiocese to form a union, Hullinger told the nurses that they were drawing on the legacy of Moses, who formed the first labor union.

“How many times was Jesus doing the exact same work that you do?” Hullinger asked of the nurses’ healing. “With Jesus at your side, with Moses at your side, with all of our sisters and brothers throughout the millennium at your side, you will win this fight.”

A Christian Zionist will be US new ambassador to Israel

(RNS) — Mike Huckabee’s theology about the end times may be unclear, but his views on today’s Israel aren’t.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee takes questions from the media, prior to laying a brick at a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Trump said Tuesday that Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Mark Silk
November 13, 2024
(RNS) — You’ve got to hand it to President-elect Donald Trump.

After cuddling up to Muslims and winning more of their votes than his Democratic rival a week ago, he’s thrown them under the bus with an alacrity remarkable even for him. In a dream come true for Israel’s annexationist right wing, he announced Tuesday (Nov. 12) that his ambassador to Israel will be former Arkansas Gov. and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee.

From the Israeli right: “He’s a great friend to Israel,” said Yishai Fleisher, spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron, on the West Bank. “We’re thrilled to have him.”

From America’s Arab American community: crickets.

It should surprise no one that Trump would send a pro-Israel evangelical Christian to the Jewish state. At the ceremony marking the opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, the clergy speakers comprised one American rabbi and two prominent evangelical ministers: the Rev. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, and the Rev. John Hagee, pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio and founder of Christians United for Israel.

Huckabee has connections to this crowd. He made an appearance at Hagee’s church in December 2007, when Huckabee was seeking the Republican presidential nomination. That year, Hagee was dealing with the controversy he had stirred up in the evangelical world with “In Defense of Israel,” a book that rejected what’s known as supersessionism, the idea that “Israel has been rejected and replaced by the church to carry out the work once entrusted to Israel,” as Hagee explained in the book.

But Hagee called this notion that “the Jewish people have ceased to be God’s people, and the church is now spiritual Israel” a “misconception … rooted in the theological anti-Semitism that began in the first century.” It was time, he wrote, “for Christians everywhere to recognize that the nation of Israel will never convert to Christianity.”

So much, evidently, for the widespread evangelical belief that come the end times, Jews will return to Israel and many will convert and be saved.


Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee prays for political leaders at an American Renewal Project pastor luncheon in Henderson, N.C., Sept. 24, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)

What Huckabee himself believes about Judaism is not so easy to determine. Reporters covering his impressive 2008 presidential run — which included a victory in the Iowa caucuses — were able to come up with a tape of just one of the innumerable sermons he recorded during his 12 years as a Baptist pastor. In a 2010 New Yorker piece, he hedged on the question of end times Jewish conversion.

In 2008, he did say that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” and that the notion of a Palestinian state is used as a “political tool to try and force land away from Israel.” Visiting the West Bank seven years ago, he said, “There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria,” adding that “there’s no such thing as an occupation.”

He’s long been an advocate of a one-state solution (i.e., Israel) and, according to the AP, he recently said, “the title deed was given by God to Abraham and to his heirs.” That would be a reference to the 12th chapter of Genesis, where God says to Abraham, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” Huckabee calls himself a Zionist.

“President-elect Trump has made an inspiring choice,” Hagee said in a statement from CUFI after Huckabee’s appointment was announced.

Speaking on Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday, Huckabee was asked whether Israeli annexation of the West Bank would be a possibility after Trump takes office in January. “Well, of course,” he answered. “I won’t make the policy, I will carry out the policy of the president.”

That policy is best characterized as Christian Zionist.

In Mike Huckabee, Israel will have a longtime friend and true believer as ambassador

(RNS)—The former Arkansas governor and pastor-turned-Fox News host has been a supporter of Israel since his first visit in the 1970s. He sees the growth of Israel as a sign that biblical prophecies are true.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee takes questions from the media, prior to laying a brick at a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Trump said Tuesday that Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Bob Smietana, Yonat Shimron, and Jack Jenkins
November 14, 2024

(RNS) — Mike Huckabee’s journey to becoming the U.S. ambassador to Israel began 50 years ago.

The former Arkansas governor, presidential candidate and Fox News host first visited Israel with a friend on a tour of the Middle East not long after graduating from high school. “This is a place I’d never been, but I felt at home,” Huckabee said in a podcast interview at the National Religious Broadcasters convention earlier this year, about his experience as a teen.

“I felt an overwhelming spiritual reality of understanding this is the land that God has given to the Jews,” he told Paul Lanier, board chair of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, for the “Nourish Your Biblical Roots” podcast.

Huckabee said he began hosting his own tours of Israel in the 1980s and has visited the country more than 100 times. He’s a longtime supporter of pro-Israel groups like IFCJ — a nonprofit that seeks to strengthen ties between Christians and Jews and does humanitarian work in Israel — and has helped raise money for the group.

Huckabee has also long articulated staunchly pro-Israel political views. As a candidate for president in 2008, Huckabee said he believed there is “no such thing as a Palestinian,” according to CNN. He argued that the very concept of Palestinian identity is “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”

When he ran for president again in 2015, he held a fundraiser in one of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

In his conversation with Lanier, Huckabee compared the origin of Israel to the founding of the United States, saying both were started by people who moved to a new land to find peace and security. He also said the growth of Israel since 1948 is like biblical prophecies come true.

“I’ve seen Scripture come to life,” he said. “The desert has bloomed before my eyes.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Huckabee may be the first political appointee — as opposed to interim career foreign service officers — to come to the U.S. Embassy in Israel from a group known as Christian Zionists, who back Israel for theological as well as geopolitical reasons. (The current U.S. ambassador is Jack Lew, an American Jew who served as secretary of the Treasury under Barack Obama.)



Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee during a roundtable at the Drexelbrook Catering & Event Center, Oct. 29, 2024, in Drexel Hill, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Many Christian Zionists are millenarianists — they view the creation of the modern state of Israel as a necessary precondition for the second coming of Jesus and the apocalyptic purification of the world in the end times. Israel, along with the occupied territories it captured in 1967, is considered given by God to the biblical patriarch Abraham, who is told in the Book of Genesis, “God will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”

Huckabee’s own biblical approach to Israel shows up in his habit of referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria” — a way of signaling a belief that the land has always belonged to the Jewish people.

That divine patrimony, believers say, should shape how nations, including the United States, treat Israel and how individual Christians should view the nation. Over the past 30 years, evangelicals, including Southern Baptists like Huckabee, but also growing groups of charismatic nondenominational Christians, have duly formed strong alliances with Israeli leaders and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular.

They give more to Israeli causes than Jewish Americans do and have formed strong support groups. With 5 million members, Christians United for Israel, led by San Antonio pastor John Hagee, is thought to be the largest pro-Israel nonprofit in the United States. In 2017, when then-President Donald Trump moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the move was applauded by Christian Zionist supporters, and Hagee spoke at the dedication of the new embassy.

RELATED: What evangelicals say they want from a second Trump term

Mordechai Inbari, a professor of religion at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, said Huckabee’s appointment as U.S. ambassador to Israel would be greeted “with open arms” by the Netanyahu government. “Huckabee belongs to the network of supporters of Netanyahu and his government among evangelicals and is considered to be a strong supporter of Israel,” said Inbari.

Huckabee was pressed by Israeli radio Wednesday (Nov. 13) on whether he believed the Trump administration would support annexation by Israel of the occupied territories, principally the West Bank, but also Gaza. He demurred but made it clear that he sees his job as following the decisions made by the president.

“There’s never been an American president,” he added, “that has been more helpful in securing an understanding of the sovereignty of Israel — from the moving of the embassy, recognition of the Golan Heights, and Jerusalem as the capital, no one has done more than president Trump and I fully expect that will continue,” Huckabee said.

Inbari, for one, didn’t think the new Trump administration would rush to see Israel annex the territories. Trump has shown a desire to expand the Mideast peace deal known as the Abraham Accords, inked in his first administration, to include Saudi Arabia. The accords, signed in 2020, normalized Israeli relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and later Sudan and Morocco.

Israel and Saudi Arabia appeared close to a deal in 2023, but the negotiations were derailed by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Saudi Arabia now insists it will only normalize ties with Israel if there is a pathway for a Palestinian state, which the Israeli government currently rejects.

“I think Trump would want peace with Saudi Arabia rather than Israel annexing the West Bank,” said Inbari. “And so I don’t think that this is something that’s going to happen.”

Yael Eckstein, president of the IFCJ, who traveled to Israel with Huckabee earlier this year to deliver humanitarian aid there, said the former governor has the best interests of the United States and Israel at heart and she views his new role as ambassador as a good thing.

“I think it’s wonderful news, not just for Israel, but for America and the entire world,” she said. “Because I think the stronger Israel and America are in their bond and relationship, the stronger the entire world is.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee prays for political leaders at an American Renewal Project pastor luncheon in Henderson, N.C., Sept. 24, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)

Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project, a pro-Israel group, likewise called Huckabee a good choice. Moon cited Huckabee’s past support for Israel and the fact that as an evangelical, he’s not involved in the internal politics of the American Jewish community.

Moon also said that the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the war in Gaza — and the campus protests in the U.S. against that war — likely played a role in the 2024 election.

Whether people were voting for Israel or they were opposed to pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, said Moon, “either way I’ll take it.”

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said he was encouraged that Huckabee was one of the first ambassadors to be named by Trump.

“That shows that Israel is top of mind for President-elect Trump,” he said. “I think that is a good thing.”

Signature campaign for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan in Latin America

Many institutions, organisations and individuals in Latin America have launched a signature campaign for the freedom of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.


ANF
BUENOS AIRES
Thursday, 14 November 2024

Following the call of several institutions, organisations and movements, including trade unions, feminist movements and political party representatives, a signature campaign was launched at the Latin American continental level within the framework of the ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign launched globally in October 2023. The campaign was announced at a press conference at the CTA-Autonoma Centre in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.

Many MPs, representatives of women's movements, social movements and trade unions attended the conference, where all participants expressed their common demand to take action for the freedom of Öcalan



The organisations that attended the conference and presented messages are as follows: PTP-PCR (Partido del Trabajo y del Pueblo y Partido Comunista Revolucionario) – Party of Labour and People and Revolutionary Communist Party; MST (Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores) - Socialist Workers’ Movement; PTS (Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas) - Socialist Workers’ Party; Partido Obrero - Labour Party; Izquierda Socialista - Socialist Left; Gremial de Abogados - Lawyers' Association; Feministas Abya Yala; APDH (Asamblea Permanente de DDHH) - Permanent Assembly for Human Rights; CTA-Autónoma; Liga por los Derechos del Hombre - League for Human Rights; Encuentro Militante Cachito Fukman - Cachito Fukman Militant Meeting; Asociación Americana de Juristas - American Association of Jurists; Poder Popular - People's Power; Pañuelos en Rebeldía- Scarves in Rebellion.

Leandro Albani made a presentation about the genocide policies against Kurds in four parts of Kurdistan and drew attention to the prison policies of the Iranian state and the death sentence against Kurdish activist Warisha Moradi. He also stated that the dirty war policy of the Turkish state continues in Rojava and that genocide policies are being implemented against the people by destroying civilian areas such as hospitals, schools and food stores.

Speaking on behalf of the Kurdish women's movement, Aida emphasised the importance of Abdullah Öcalan to the Kurdish people.

Felipe, who connected to the conference via Zoom on behalf of ADM, drew attention to the third world war in the Middle East and the strategic importance of the Kurdish people and their geography in the middle of this war.

The conference participants emphasised that mere words are not enough and that actions are important for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan.

82 organisations and 9 individuals from 10 countries participated in the signature campaign on its first day.

Internationalist Youth Communes protest in Berlin: Refuse the Third World War!

Activists of the internationalist youth communes covered the ‘Molecule Man’ sculpture in Berlin with a banner: ‘Refuse the Third World War– no medium-range missiles in Germany – no Eurofighters in Kurdistan’.


ANF
BERLIN
Thursday, 14 November 2024

On Thursday morning in Berlin, activists of the internationalist youth communes climbed the thirty-metre-high sculpture ‘Molecule Man’ in the Spree and hung a banner reading ‘Refuse the Third World War – no medium-range missiles in Germany – no Eurofighters in Kurdistan’.

According to the activists, they are protesting against the German government's war preparations and confrontational course, particularly towards Russia. The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the NATO Summit that US medium-range missiles would be redeployed to Germany. The activists said that the decision would make Germany a target for Russia.

“The rich want war, the youth want a future!” the activists said, reacting to the approval of the sale of Eurofighter fighter jets to Turkey. The activists stated that Germany, with its support to the AKP-MHP regime, is a partner in the ongoing bombardment and occupation in Kurdistan.

‘We will refuse the Third World War!’

“Every day we have to watch as wars become increasingly brutal and human rights are trampled underfoot. The German government is making a profit from death. Whether it's supplying weapons to Israel or selling jets and tanks to Turkey for use in attacks on Kurdistan in violation of international law, Germany is a warmonger. We can no longer stand idly by. We will refuse the Third World War! We are rising up against the wars – worldwide,’ said Marie, a spokeswoman for the internationalist youth communes.



‘The German government is preparing for war’

Mark, an activist, said: “Young people in Germany don't want to end up at the front, riddled with holes like the Molecule Men. To date, almost one million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine. The German population is also already feeling the effects of the war, with rising prices and an intensified domestic political situation having become part of everyday life. 100 billion euros have been invested in rearmament, while social benefits continue to be cut.”

“The German government is preparing for war by reintroducing compulsory military service and rearming Germany. This is the wrong approach, because we know that more soldiers and more weapons do not create peace. We need real solutions for the many crises of our time, not blind warmongering,” Mark continued.

Fighter jets for war crimes in Kurdistan

According to the statement, the activists have a clear idea of how solutions might look: “The self-determination of young people and a new democratic culture that goes beyond parliaments and into every school, university and company. In many places around the world, people are standing up to war and trying out new democratic paths through self-government, as in Kurdistan. Erdoğan is trying to destroy this with his illegal invasions of Syria and Iraq. Nevertheless, on Wednesday, Olaf Scholz agreed to the delivery of fighter jets worth four billion dollars to Turkey.”

Azad, an activist from Afrin who had to leave his home because of the Turkish occupation, said: “I fled from the war in Kurdistan and now I see how it is just beginning here in Germany. But whether in Kurdistan or Germany – people don't want war!”