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Last week, Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni was abducted by Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad members in Gaza. They posted a video online saying he’d be killed unless their rival Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, released Salafis in prison. Within hours, though, he was dead. The group, sometimes called Tawhid and Jihad, later denied kidnapping and killing Arrigoni, who was originally from Italy.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday, which meant special services for many Christians. My congregation gathered outside with palms for the first reading, then sang the 9th century hymn “All Glory, Laud and Honor” as we all processed into the sanctuary. Our children’s choir, bell choir and horns were all in action. And we also had what I’m sure is the longest Gospel reading of the year, so long that we took six singing breaks. The reading is literally 141 verses long, All of Matthew 26 and all of Matthew 27. I wrangled and threatened my children and somehow we got through it. I’m also happy to report that my 1-year-old has stopped shouting “No!” during the sermon. Mostly.
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the professionals who run many crucial mainstream newsrooms seem to be throwing up their hands, editorially speaking, when it comes to accurately describing the cracks and divisions inside the complex world of Islam?
Before I made my recent trip to Israel, as an Act for Israel media fellow, I was excited to learn more about how religion informs politics in the region. Many of my friends and acquaintances cautioned me that religion doesn’t play as big a role as one might think. I now realize that all they meant was that the story is much more complicated than just about religious differences.
A long, long time ago — pre-Internet, for heaven’s sake — I had a long conversation with Bill Moyers, then of CBS, about why the mainstream press has so much trouble covering religion. This was one of those occasions in which he used a striking image to describe this problem — that far too many reporters and editors are “tone deaf” to the music of religion.
I’m in Jerusalem at the moment, on an Act for Israel media fellowship. Sunday was our first day of activity and it was utterly exhausting. We began with a visit to Yad Vashem, the site for Holocaust remembrance.
Please let me make a few things clear before we look at a short, but very disturbing, Associated Press report out of Egypt.
As I have stated before, human-rights activists have long viewed the safety of Egypt’s ancient Coptic churches as a highly symbolic issue — the canary in the coal mine that is that complex land.
