Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/category/religion/page/7/)
A “Global Symposium” hosted by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and Jewish Federations from around the Midwest drew around 200 attendees on Monday.
Ikram Al Huq is short, but it is not his height that bothers him.“If you don’t like me because I am short, that’s fine,” he said. “If you don’t like me because of my religion, that’s a problem.”Al Huq is the interfaith and religious coordinator of Bloomington’s Ar Rahman Muslim Community Center, one of 55 such centers in the state. The mosque is growing, and so is the Twin Cities Muslim community. But Al Huq is concerned that Minnesotans still don’t take the time to know their Muslim neighbors.The Muslim Community Center is a participating site in Taking Heart, a program that seeks to introduce people to their Muslim neighbors and begin building bridges across faith communities. Sponsored jointly by the Minnesota Council of Churches (MCC) and the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MASMN), Taking Heart promotes interfaith understanding by hosting social gatherings.The program began in 2004, when MASMN reached out to MCC after noticing increasing levels of hate speech and Islamophobia. Continue Reading
The investigation of alleged cover-ups of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has brought a flurry of court documents which reveal some details of Archbishop John Nienstedt’s war on gay marriage. In one case, the Archdiocese allegedly considered having a priest labelled disabled to silence his support of marriage equality.Father Michael Tegeder of St. Francis Cabrini and Gichitwaa Kateri has been an outspoken critic of Nienstedt’s assault on LGBT rights. He was sharply critical of the anti-gay marriage amendment that was on the ballot in 2012.He was so outspoken, Nienstedt threatened to remove him from ministry.“If you choose not to offer your resignation, but continue to act openly or speak publicly about your opposition to Church teaching, I will suspend your faculties to exercise ministry and remove you from your ministerial assignments,” Nienstedt wrote to Tegeder in a letter in November 2011.But behind the scenes, Nienstedt was considering other measures to silence Tegeder. Continue Reading
I was raised Roman Catholic, and took it fairly seriously, but not super-seriously, as a youth. At least as an altar boy (it was only boys doing that, then) I had something to do during Mass, to cut the boredom, a little. Then I got to college and got sunk in philosophy and became an atheist, as I am now. At the time I thought pretty highly of myself and my “intellectual courage,” but I recognize now that “courage” was not a factor. My temperament is scientific/skeptical, much more so than religious, and that’s that. Continue Reading
“The contraceptive mandate, as applied to closely held corporations, violates RFRA.”
Justice Alito for the majority in Burwell v Hobby Lobby. Continue Reading
Madeleine Baran isn’t used to being in the spotlight. The Minnesota Public Radio reporter is more comfortable asking the questions and listening to others’ stories.But when she took the lead on an investigative story about sexual abuse by local Catholic priests, she started getting noticed. Her use of documents and interviews shed light on coverups and inaction by top-level church officials and prompted legal authorities to dig deeper into allegations.And that, Baran said, is a victory for her profession.”It shows the value of journalism, because here’s a story where the public did not know about it, and it was important and it required journalism – it required doing interviews, knowing how to fact-check things” and analyzing documents, she explained. “People want investigative reporting. It resonates with people. Continue Reading
Two years after the Anoka-Hennepin School District entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice after multiple suicides of LGBT students, and a lawsuit by six students alleging rampant bullying and discrimination, conservative Christian parents continue to fight the inclusion of LGBT students in the district.At the June 30 school board meeting, the board heard the recommendations of the Anti-Bullying/Anti-Harassment Task Force, a group established by the consent decree. The task force is composed of 29 parents, teachers, principals, district administrators, and additional community members who are charged with making developing ways to make Anoka Hennepin Schools safer for students.The task force presented 5 recommendations which included: Increase messages of kindness in the Anoka-Hennepin community, provide comprehensive communication about safety and inclusiveness for all people in our schools, increase adult presence in unstructured common places in middle schools through the use of volunteer school ambassadors, and increase awareness and acknowledgement of the variety of family structures & characteristics.But it was Recommendation 3 that has caused outrage amongst Anoka-Hennepin’s conservative Christians. That recommendation reads:Recommendation 3: Honor and celebrate the contributions of diverse people and families in our community, country, and world, including the LGBT community. In an effort to affirm and celebrate the diversity represented by district students, families, and employees, the Task Force recommends Anoka-Hennepin Schools recognize, affirm, and assess specific LGBT activities including, but not limited to, continuing to support student-led Gay Straight Alliance clubs; hosting school-related family nights for our diverse populations, including LGBT families and LGBT students and their parents; and creating public displays honoring LGBT history month each October beginning in 2014.During the June 30 meeting, the school board heard from task force member Bryan Linquist who used thinly veiled language to urge the board to reject Recommendation 3 [find video of the meeting at the Anoka-Hennepin School District Streaming Media Archive].Linquist notes that he opposed the recommendations even though he wasn’t there to vote on them. “I was not present for the voting or part of the 19 that voted to move all 5 recommendations forward.”“I ask you to aware of what is being recommended and whom the recommendations benefits. Continue Reading
Political and economic instability in Europe are in the news, and a lot of people are wondering, to borrow the well-known phrase: “What does it all mean for the Jews?” Continue Reading
Five votes. Five Catholics. Five men. One decision. Potentially millions of American women denied contraceptive coverage. This what the recent Hobby Lobby decision is about, but it also reveals three deeper problems–the sexism pervading the current Supreme Court along with its religious parochialism, a serious problem with the role that religion has come to occupy in American society, and the elevation of corporate rights and power that is strangling American society. Continue Reading
The Fourth of July used to mean a BBQ with friends, then fireworks later in the night (if I could stand the Minnesota mosquitos). Some time in the past few years, however, my husband Bryan has taken over the way we celebrate so that we can teach our kids how grateful we are to live freely as Jews in this country. It’s not that we don’t feel that gratitude during other times of the year, but the Fourth of July is the most natural time to express it. Continue Reading