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News hooks abound: How will religious faith shape the 'birth dearth,' and vice versa?

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News hooks abound: How will religious faith shape the 'birth dearth,' and vice versa?

Two January headlines a week apart signal that the past generation’s “population explosion” worries have reversed.

Observers fretted as China announced its population began to shrink last year as its birth rate reached a record low. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned parliament that a declining birth rate means the rapidly aging nation is “on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society.”

Then last Saturday a New York Times op-ed asserted that unfair burdens on wives and mothers created a “birth strike” and “marriage strike” that are “killing South Korea.” The nation has posted the world’s lowest fertility rate the past three years and deaths now outnumber births.

Such realities provoked the ever-interesting Times columnist Ross Douthat to ask whether “the defining challenge of the 21st Century” will be climate change decried by so many analysts or, instead, the globe’s accumulating “birth dearth” a.k.a. “baby bust” or “population implosion.”

The second trend could well undercut societies’ “dynamism and innovation” and pit “a swollen retired population” against the “overburdened young,” he warned, while listing geopolitical factors in the coming “age of demographic decadence.”

Attention newsroom managers: This is an apt time for media to consider U.S.-focused big-think pieces on how religious communities are shaping population trends and, vice versa, how those trends affect religion.

Pro-procreation government programs appear to have limited impact in boosting birth rates, which instead reflect cultural values regarding marriage and children, and complex individual decision-making. . Articles might examine related abortion policy.

Traditionally, all religions cherish children and favor reproduction, notably in the case of the Catholic Church, as The Guy discussed here a year ago (though today there’s little difference in fertility between U.S. Catholics and Protestants). On the other side of that equation, there’s universal acknowledgment that married couples raising children have been a pivotal constituency drawn to religious involvement.


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Concerning Pope Francis, hockey, Pride night and putting 'scare quotes' around 'beliefs'

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Concerning Pope Francis, hockey, Pride night and putting 'scare quotes' around 'beliefs'

I have no idea if Pope Francis follows professional hockey — but that really isn’t what this post is about.

This post starts with some fascinating “scare quotes” in a headline with a Reuters report about another Pride Night controversy in the National Hockey League.

The use of “scare quotes” is a topic that, to put it mildly, consistently pushes buttons for GetReligion readers. Once again, here is a Merriam-Website definition of that term:

scare quotes …

: quotation marks used to express especially skepticism or derision concerning the use of the enclosed word or phrase

This brings us to that Reuters headline: “Rangers back right to 'beliefs' after Pride Night jerseys absent from warm-ups.” Actually, based on the context, that should have been “religious beliefs” — because it’s clear that this reference refers to centuries of religious doctrines, in several faiths.

What happened here? New York Rangers players were scheduled to take part in pre-match warm ups, as part of the team’s seventh annual Pride Night festivities, with Pride-themed jerseys and hockey sticks. That didn’t happen, which made headlines. Here is a key part of that Reuters story, which I will note did not contain “scare quotes” around the controversial term.

… one player told the New York Post … that he saw only his standard jersey hanging in his locker when he went to get ready and did not know why the alternate top was not available.

"Our organization respects the LGBTQ+ community and we are proud to bring attention to important local community organizations as part of another great Pride Night," Rangers said in a statement.

"In keeping with our organization’s core values, we support everyone’s individual right to respectfully express their beliefs."

I guess it is possible that a professional athlete could have “political” beliefs that were relevant in this case. There may even be Seinfeld-ian “compelled speech” issues here (Click here for classic clip on YouTube). In light of recent news, it’s clear the headline writer’s “scare quotes” nod refers to centuries of Christian doctrine on marriage and sex.


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Plug-In: Listening to the voices of Holocaust survivors -- while we still can

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Plug-In: Listening to the voices of Holocaust survivors -- while we still can

Good morning, my friends!

I’m your Weekend Plug-in columnist, and I need to let you know I’ve checked all my files. I didn’t find any classified documents from that time I toured the White House. Whew!

So let’s dive right into the top headlines and best reads in the world of faith.

What To Know: The Big Story

It’s Jan. 27, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Today’s commemoration marks the 78th anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The United Nations “urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism.”

Telling their stories: Toby Levy, now 89, was one of only 31 survivors in the town of Chodorow — then a part of Poland, now Ukraine.

“Like my father said, ‘God needed witnesses’” to the horror, Levy tells the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner. “That’s why I don’t say ‘no’ to anybody, as tired as I am,” she says of opportunities to relate her experience.

Like Levy, David Schaecter, 93, knows he is running out of time, Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron reports:

So this week he agreed to a weeklong recording of his life story using a new technology that will allow future generations to interact with a hologram-style likeness of him.

That story will form the base of an exhibit at Boston’s future Holocaust museum, which is scheduled to open in 2025.


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Cardinal Pell's final sermon quietly echoed themes from his fierce attacks on Pope Francis

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Cardinal Pell's final sermon quietly echoed themes from his fierce attacks on Pope Francis

Cardinal George Pell had no way to know, as he rose to preach during a spiritual retreat in southern Italy, that this was his last sermon -- opening with the biblical cry, "Repent, because the Kingdom of God is near."

Catholics should stay focused on truths proclaimed during the reigns of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, he said, at the Shrine of St. Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo.

These popes "were missionaries of the truth. We don't build the truth. We don't have the ability to change the truth. We can only acknowledge the truth, and sometimes the truth isn't all that pretty. Sometimes the truth is disconcerting, difficult," said Pell, three days before his death on January 10, after routine hip surgery.

"These two Popes did not affirm that the teaching of Jesus was conditioned by the time, by the Roman Empire, by the pagans. They did not claim that the essential and central teaching should be updated, radically changed. They didn't say: 'We don't know what Jesus said because there were no tape recorders.' … As for them, and also for us, Jesus remains the way, the truth and the life."

On this day, the burly 6-foot-4 cardinal faced a gathering of Catholic charismatics, not an audience of Vatican power brokers. Nevertheless, this final sermon -- translated from Italian by Inside the Vatican magazine -- touched on themes in his recent writings that fueled raging debates about Pope Francis and the modernization of Catholic doctrines and worship.

In that sermon, Cardinal Pell offered only one nod to Pope Francis, while noting the potential for future popes from Africa, Asia and the Global South. "Today we have a Pope from South America -- praiseworthy and good," he said.

But after Pell's death, Italian journalist Sandro Magister revealed that the Australian cardinal -- using the pseudonym "Demos" -- had written a fierce March memo circulated to members of the College of Cardinals focusing on issues that loom over the next conclave to select a pope.

The Francis pontificate has been "a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe," this memo claimed.


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Tradition, custom, religious law: How should worn-out Bibles or Qurans be disposed of?

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Tradition, custom, religious law: How should worn-out Bibles or Qurans be disposed of?

THE QUESTION:

How should worn-out Bibles or Qurans be disposed of?

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:

Due to occasional news about Muslim riots when a copy of the Quran is believed to be mistreated, you’re probably aware that Islam takes very seriously the way its sacred book is handled, about which more below.

But The Guy has rarely if ever heard of such discussion about a printed Bible and therefore was intrigued this past week when Joe Carter (a GetReligion alumnus) responded online on behalf of the Gospel Coalition to a reader who asked, “How do you dispose of a worn-out Bible? Is there a protocol like with a flag?”

As the question indicated, federal law states that an American flag “in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.” Patriotic groups often provide public boxes to collect discarded flags that are then burned in formal ceremonies.

As for the Bible, the book itself contains no rules on proper disposal, so the Coalition regards this as “a matter of personal preference.” But many people naturally feel that respect for Scripture rules out simply tossing the holy book into the trash alongside cookie wrappers and egg shells.

As a conservative Protestant resource, the Coalition warns against any “unconscious sense that the printed pages of a Bible gain something of the spiritual essence of God’s Word,” which “could easily slip into a superstitious, or even idolatrous, view of print Bibles.”


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Podcast: 60 Minutes visits Lourdes and asks (some) very good questions about 'miracles'

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Podcast: 60 Minutes visits Lourdes and asks (some) very good questions about 'miracles'

Back in the 1980s, I wrote a profile of a remarkable Episcopal priest in Colorado who was approaching his 100th birthday. He had been raised in pre-World War II Japan — the son of a samurai.

As a young man he became terribly ill and slipped into a coma. At one point, doctors said he flatlined — but they were able to restart his heart. When he awakened, he reported having a near-death experience in which a man in white robes told him that he would live and that there was much work for him to do.

The young man knew almost nothing about Christianity, other than a brief exposure to the New Testament in an English-language class. Nevertheless, he truly believed that this man was Jesus. This led to his conversion, the priesthood and a journey to America. During the war, the U.S. government put him in an internment camp — a painful episode in a long and amazing life.

Now, here is a question linked to this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (CLICK HERE to tune that in). Was this man’s transformation during his NDE a “miracle”? That was the term he used when he described it.

Actually, his vision took place during a life-and-death medical drama that was unusual — but these things happen. Was there a way to test his claims in a laboratory? No. Near-death experiences happen.

What is a “miracle,” anyway? This brings us to a recent 60 Minutes report that, on the CBS website, was given this headline: “France's Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes — Where 70 medical miracles have been recognized by church officials.”

This must-see-TV report ventures into complicated territory where faith, science and centuries of church tradition overlap. The best thing about it is that it allows people to share their beliefs as well as information that, well, can be studied in a laboratory. The visuals are stunning, as thousands of pilgrims visit the site seeking healing for infirmities of body, mind and soul.

The Roman Catholic Church has, in the 160-year history of Lourdes pilgrimages, studied thousands of reports about miracles linked to the shrine. This brings us to the heart of this report:

Stories of inner peace and acceptance don't meet the bar for the Office of Medical Observations, and with just 70 medical miracles recognized in 160 years, you'd have better odds playing the lotto. Yet, thousands of faithful line up at the baths and at this grotto — where the first miracle is said to have occured.


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OK, we get it: That whole 'Christian nationalism' thing is hot, right now. But what is it?

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OK, we get it: That whole 'Christian nationalism' thing is hot, right now. But what is it?

By all indications, urgent warnings against “Christian nationalism” (CN) will continue as a major media theme through Election Day 2024.

Journalists will need to be careful with a tricky label that’s mostly shunned by supposed participants in the CN movement and employed by opponents (as with “fundamentalist” or “ultra-“ or “cult”). How complex is the fighting about this term? Click here to tune in some of the YouTube debates.

Critics’ typical definition comes from attorney Amanda Tyler, who leads Christians Against Christian Nationalism (with a large “N”) and the proudly progressive Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. She says CN “seeks to merge American and Christian identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy.” Its “mythological” view of founding of a “Christian nation” means America is singled out “to fulfill God’s purposes on earth.” Further, CN “demands a privileged place for Christianity in public life, buttressed by the active support of government at all levels.”

Writers could pursue this sort of theme sideways by reviewing or collecting pro and con reactions to “How to Be a Patriotic Christian: Love of Country as Love of Neighbor,” the latest book by middle-roading evangelical Richard Mouw of Calvin University, formerly president of Fuller Theological Seminary.

Otherwise, here's a rundown to guide journalists on some of the notable CN chatter since The Guy took a whack at the definition issue last year year at GetReligion.

Hang on, because this gets complex. For starters, ambiguity abounded in an October Pew Research survey.

Some 60% of adults think -- yes -- the founders intended the U.S. to be a “Christian nation,” and 45% think it actually “should be” such, though for many that means only generalized moral guidance while only 18% think the phrase indicates Christian-based governance. Importantly, a 54% majority had never even heard of CN.

That belief the U.S. “should be” a Christian nation was favored by fully 65% of Black Protestants (compared with e.g. only 47% of Catholics). Yet University of Texas political scientist Eric McDaniel wrote for TheConversation.com that CN believes the only “true” Americans are “white, Christian and U.S.-born and whose families have European roots.”


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That timely AP interview: What, precisely, did Pope Francis say about homosexual 'sin'?

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That timely AP interview: What, precisely, did Pope Francis say about homosexual 'sin'?

Let’s say that Pope Francis decides to sit down for an Associated Press interview, thus guaranteeing coverage that will appear in the maximum number of mainstream publications around the world.

The basic headline is generic, but points to newsworthy topics: “Pope discusses his health, critics and future papacy.” As you would expect, editors just love a papal interview addressing the potential for a political horse race before a Vatican election (with armies of dangerous right-wing “critics” in the wings).

Now, what angle of this interview would you expect to immediately jump into headlines and social media? Maybe something like, “The AP Interview: Pope says homosexuality not a crime.”

Obviously, the reaction have been different if AP editors had used this accurate headline (written by me), based on this interview: “The AP interview — Pope says homosexual acts are sins, not crimes.”

Hold that thought. First of all, I would like to know more about the backstory for this interview. The timing is interesting, in light of recent news linked to the death of Pope Benedict XVI (“Pope Francis meets Benedict's top aide as memoir rattles Vatican") and yet another powerful conservative leader (“Cardinal Pell authored controversial memo critical of Pope Francis, journalist reveals”).

It is also possible that the timing of this interview is linked to headlines such as this one, at The Telegraph: “ ‘Gay clubs’ run in seminaries, says Pope Benedict in posthumous attack on Francis: New book by the late pontiff makes extraordinary claims about the Catholic Church under his progressive successor.”

Say what? You haven’t seen coverage of this story in your local newspapers or on evening newscasts? Here is a sample of that report:

In a blistering attack on the state of the Catholic Church under his successor’s papacy, Benedict, who died on Dec 31 at the age of 95, said that the vocational training of the next generation of priests is on the verge of “collapse”.

He claimed that some bishops allow trainee priests to watch pornographic films as an outlet for their sexual urges.


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