World Religions News

For students at Jewish schools, armed guards, security gates, and ID checks are now woven into the rhythm of daily life.

The post Thoughts on Security appeared first on Jewish Journal.

The playground in Jerusalem didn’t stop antisemitism, and renovating playgrounds in New York City is not likely to stop it there, either — because antisemitism in America today is not rooted in a lack of slides or swings.

The post Can Playgrounds Defeat Antisemitism? appeared first on Jewish Journal.

(RNS) — In the hours before President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war with Iran, religious leaders across faith traditions responded with alarm after the president’s message Tuesday morning  (April 7) warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

In response, X and other social media platforms were flooded with reactions from lawmakers, clergy and faith leaders.

The deadline, originally set for 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, was being described by the Trump administration as a last chance for Iran to agree to U.S. demands tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for the world’s oil and gas. If Iran did not comply, Trump warned the U.S. could carry out military strikes on major infrastructure targets.

Pope Leo XIV, who has made speaking up for peace a cornerstone of his early, sometimes soft-spoken papacy, called Trump’s threat targeting “all the people” of Iran “truly unacceptable,” as he was leaving Castel Gandolfo, his country house in Italy.

“I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved,” Leo said, “to contact the authorities — political leaders, congressmen — to ask them, to tell them, to work for peace and to reject war and violence.” 

Advocacy groups and religious leaders in the U.S. were also quick to denounce Trump’s comments, criticizing his threats to attack civilian infrastructure.

Several U.S. Catholic bishops echoed Leo’s comments on social media. The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, also used unusually strong rhetoric in responding. Coakley said in a statement that “the threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified.” 

“There are other ways to resolve conflict between peoples,” the archbishop wrote. “I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost.”

The USCCB has often avoided directly naming Trump in its criticism of his policies, including in special messages opposing indiscriminate mass deportation, which makes Coakley’s choice to call on Trump directly stand out.

Coakley was the first Catholic bishops’ president to meet with a U.S. president in nearly a decade. A January meeting between him and Trump, which produced smiling photos of the two together, seemingly paved the way for the administration to announce religious visa changes sought by the conference.

In his statement, Coakley invited U.S. Catholics to join Pope Leo XIV’s prayer vigil for peace on Saturday in their parishes, virtually or in individual prayer.

Since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began at the end of February, more than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 1,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, The Associated Press reported. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, 23 people have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. military members have been killed.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy organization, condemned Trump’s rhetoric as “unhinged, racist and genocidal.” The group called on Congress to reconvene and vote to end the war on Iran.

Imam Steve Elturk, co-chair of the Imams Council of Michigan, condemned Trump’s Sunday social media comment, which Elturk said seemed to mock the sacred religious expression “Praise be to Allah.”

“(Trump’s) statement, which includes threats of devastation against Iran and the use of vulgar and inflammatory language, represents a dangerous escalation that undermines both international stability and the moral fabric of public discourse,” Elturk said at a press conference organized by the council in Dearborn on Monday. He was joined by nine other religious and community leaders.

The National Iranian American Council, a lobby and advocacy group, said the president’s rhetoric on the war “has reached an unprecedented and deeply alarming level.”

“This language represents a dangerous shift into genocidal rhetoric, where the destruction of civilian life is an explicit goal,” the group wrote in a blog post Tuesday. “This is a direct threat to a civilization of more than 92 million Iranians, whose survival depends on electricity, transportation, water, and public services.”

A survey of 508 Iranian Americans by NIAC and Zogby Analytics last month found 66% opposed the war, while 33% supported it (1% didn’t answer). 

Robert P. Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute and a leading scholar on Christian nationalism, said Trump’s comments diverge from long-standing Christian moral teachings on war.

“For an administration that has been using religious language to justify the war, it’s remarkable that they have completely avoided engaging Christian moral theology on this point,” Jones said. 

Even in cases where war is considered justified, Jones said, moral theology places limits on conduct in war, including on proportionality and protecting civilians from harm. 

“The kind of thing that President Trump is talking about doing is not only a war crime in international law, but it runs afoul of the most plain teaching of the Christian just war tradition,” he said. 

The Rev. Jacqueline Lewis, senior pastor of Middle Church, an inclusive Protestant congregation in Manhattan, echoed Jones’ assessment, saying Trump’s comments have shocked her and members of her church community. “This is a war crime,” Lewis said. “This is an intent to commit genocide.”

Trump has made comments online and at public appearances throughout Easter weekend threatening large-scale strikes on infrastructure such as bridges and power plants in Iran. Jones said his recent rhetoric can also be understood through the lens of Christian nationalism, which often depicts geopolitical conflict as a struggle between good and evil. 

“This vision of a clash of civilizations is absolutely at the heart of a Christian nationalist worldview,” Jones said. “If you cast a political conflict as a cosmic war between good and evil, it lends itself to an unlimited war with unlimited means.”

Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, who is bishop president of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi USA, told RNS in a text message that Trump is “every day” surpassing “his previous outrageous statements.” Stowe said, “I never thought I would hear a US President publicly threaten to annihilate a civilization. 

“Someone in government needs to restrain him before he does more irreparable damage. The US cannot exempt itself from restrictions on war crimes,” he wrote.

Art Laffin, a Catholic Worker and peace and nuclear disarmament activist, also condemned Trump’s remarks, calling them “an affront to God and a crime against humanity,” and he urged faith leaders to speak out against the threat of military action. 

In a statement, Laffin called for nonviolent resistance. “Lay down your weapons! Remember that you are brothers and sisters!” he wrote. 

Some Democrats, as well as former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican, have called for Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which would remove a president unfit for office. Others, including some lawmakers, have publicly speculated Trump may intend to use nuclear weapons.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, Archbishop John Wester, known for his outspoken advocacy against nuclear weapons, told RNS that he did not interpret Trump’s comment as being about nuclear weapons. However, he said he was not surprised that some people were concerned about nuclear weapons use, calling those concerns “one of the many reasons we have to get rid of them because they’re always a threat.”

But criticism of Trump’s comments is also coming from the Catholic right. Catholics for Catholics, a group that has historically supported Trump, tweeted that “threatening to eliminate an entire civilization should make us all pause today to pray for peace in the world.” 

Russell Moore, a prominent evangelical theologian, editor-at-large of Christianity Today and an ardent critic of Trump since 2016, wrote on X: “That one can excuse or ignore this while claiming to be ‘pro-life’ is a sign of a seared conscience. God have mercy on us all.”

Still, some evangelical Christians, who make up a crucial base of Trump’s supporters, commended his rhetoric. Joel C. Rosenberg, an American-Israeli evangelical writer, posted on X that although Trump’s language may be “vulgar,” he was “deeply impressed with the President’s decisiveness and resolve,” adding that Trump is “sending a clear and strong message to Tehran” and “has not backed down.”

The liberal Jewish Zionist lobby group J Street said it was “appalled” by the president’s remarks. “This language — a threat to carry out war crimes — is a searing violation of Jewish and American values, certainly will not lead to the de-escalation we desperately need and is a terrifying example of the senseless violence that has characterized Trump’s leadership,” it said in a Tuesday statement.

And for refugee aid organizations, the consequences of such rhetoric could extend far beyond politics with real-world implications for civilians already affected by the conflict, said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, a prominent Christian humanitarian organization.

“Rhetorically dangling the fate of an entire people group as leverage is incredibly troubling,” Greene wrote in a statement. “We are already serving families who have had to flee their homes in the Middle East related to this conflict … we are deeply concerned we will face a massive displacement crisis for which the region and world is not prepared.”

(RNS) — On Monday (April 6), NASA astronauts finally were about to commence Artemis II’s flyby of the moon, the first such close observance of Earth’s satellite in nearly 60 years. The four astronauts had spent days on the Orion spacecraft, hurtling toward the moon, and they were about to travel farther away from Earth than any human being in history.

But moments before the crew would enter into roughly 40 minutes of radio silence as they passed behind the moon, the voice of astronaut Victor Glover — who has been open about his Christian faith and worships at Churches of Christ congregations in Texas — crackled over the broadcast channel to offer a message of love.

“As we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth — and that’s love,” said Glover. “Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said this: ‘I give you equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Glover added: “And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth and to all of you down there on Earth, and around the Earth, we love you from the moon.”

The spiritual appeal recalled perhaps one of the most widely broadcast moments of religious expression: the 1968 Apollo 8 mission, when three astronauts read from Genesis on live television as they, too, orbited the moon. Both missions also happened to coincide with religious holidays: Apollo 8 circled the moon on Christmas Eve, and the 10-day Artemis II mission overlapped with the Christian celebration of Easter and the Jewish holiday of Passover.

But for all their similarities, the four astronauts participating in the Artemis II mission have collectively showcased a broader, more pluralistic approach to public religious expression than the three men who rode aboard Apollo 8. It’s a subtle change that showcases NASA’s evolving relationship to public displays of faith, a tonal shift that likely traces its origins to the legal challenges that followed the reading of Genesis aboard the lunar module back in 1968.

Much of the God-talk on the Artemis mission has centered on Glover, who is also the most publicly religious astronaut on the mission. He reportedly brought a Bible along with him for the 10-day journey in space, which is something he’s done before: He told The Christian Chronicle in 2020 that he had a Bible and Communion cups sent to the International Space Station in preparation for his arrival aboard a Space X capsule in November of that year. At the time, Glover suggested he planned to worship virtually with his church while in orbit, as he had been doing throughout the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NASA officials did not offer a direct response when asked by Religion News Service if Glover or other Artemis II astronauts have made special arrangements to worship while aboard the Orion capsule. But Glover did offer some public religious reflection while hurtling toward the moon over the weekend, when CBS reporter Mark Strassmann asked him to comment on the journey’s overlap with Easter.

“When I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created, it’s you have this amazing place, this spaceship. You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe and the cosmos,” Glover said.

He added that whether listeners “believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that … we got to get through this together.”

A similar sentiment was expressed a few days before the astronauts blasted off from Earth. A reporter in the press pool asked the astronauts about traveling to the moon during Easter. Reid Wiseman, Artemis II’s commander, and the two other astronauts — Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — all glanced over to Glover, who said something inaudible that sparked a chuckle among the group.

Wiseman then stepped forward and acknowledged the legacy of Apollo 8, gearing his answer to a multireligious audience.

“We have our own different opinions, our own individual opinions and our own individual beliefs,” he said, gesturing to his fellow astronauts. “I think that’s one of the best parts about this mission right now: As we have said from the beginning, we really are for all, by all, and we want to take the whole world along with us.”

Wiseman then referenced Ramadan — “we just came out of a very important Muslim holiday” — noting that it ended less than a month before Easter.

“I think that that’s great — that we celebrate all of this all the way around the world,” he said.

It’s a different tone than the one struck by astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 mission.

Whereas Artemis II shot past the moon only once before heading back to Earth, the Apollo 8 mission entered into lunar orbit, circling Earth’s satellite multiple times over the course of 20 hours. As the astronauts rounded the planet for the ninth time, all three astronauts — William Anders (a Catholic at the time), Jim Lovell (Presbyterian) and Frank Borman (Episcopalian) — took turns reading from the Book of Genesis on a broadcast, reciting verses 1-10 from the King James translation of the Bible. The men read from the mission’s flight manual, where the Scripture passages had been printed after Christine Laitin suggested them to her husband, a government official assisting with the mission.

“From the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth,” Borman said.

Fifty years later, Lovell reflected on the moment while addressing a crowd at the Washington National Cathedral.

“I arrived on a planet with a proper mass to have the gravity to retain water and an atmosphere — the essentials for life. I arrived on a planet orbiting a star at just the right distance to absorb that star’s energy,” he said. “In my mind, the answer was clear: God gave mankind a stage on which to perform. How the play ends is up to us.”

That broadcast prompted a lawsuit from atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who argued it violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Although the U.S. Supreme Court eventually threw out the case due to “want of jurisdiction” — presumably referring to space — historians have long argued the lawsuit had a lasting impact on NASA, as astronauts were effectively discouraged from openly engaging in worship or religious activity during a mission.

Many point to Buzz Aldrin, who celebrated Communion on the moon shortly before walking out onto the lunar surface, but waited more than a year before commenting on the moment publicly.

In the intervening years, it has become common for astronauts to speak publicly about religious practices that occurred during their missions, even as the space-farers and NASA have taken pains to avoid giving a specific faith tradition center stage as on Apollo 8. Bibles were brought to the moon and returned in the Apollo era, and Christians of several varieties brought crucifixes, icons and other religious symbols with them aboard various rockets. Teams of Islamic scholars were convened to help guide Muslim astronauts who wanted to pray and maintain their religious observance while orbiting Earth on the International Space Station — including during Ramadan. Jewish astronauts have brought Torah scrolls aboard the space shuttles, with one reading from Genesis while in orbit.

Sometimes religious expression can be more subtle. Aboard the Artemis II, the personal mission patch worn by Canadian astronaut Hansen includes references to spirituality embraced by Indigenous communities he has spent time with. According to the Canadian government, his patch, which was designed by Anishinaabe artist Henry Guimond, includes a representation of the “Seven Sacred Laws, a traditional First Nations teaching shared with (Hansen) in preparation for his journey around Grandmother Moon.”

But while religious ritual is space is common, the profundity of a moon mission appears to have inspired Artemis astronauts to broaden their public religious appeals. It’s an approach that may be drawn from the wisdom of past astronauts: Wiseman’s desire to “take the whole world along with us” is reminiscent of Aldrin’s thoughts on his moon Communion. In his 2010 memoir, he explained he now envisions major space missions as something for all people — be they religious or otherwise.

“We had come to space in the name of all mankind — be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists,” Aldrin wrote. “But at the time I could think of no better way to acknowledge the Apollo 11 experience than by giving thanks to God.”

How a Mark Twain passage at our Passover seder led me to reflect on the themes of envy and Jewish self-esteem.

The post How Do We Regain Our Mojo? appeared first on Jewish Journal.

As the hours and minutes ticked off on Tuesday, and an anxious world waited for the 8PM EST showdown, rumors began to fly that perhaps the Persian civilization wouldn’t die that night after all.

The post Trumpian Whiplash: From “Ending Civilization” to “Close to Resolution” on the Same Day appeared first on Jewish Journal.