Mongolia

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Plug-In: That openly prayerful coach is back on the sideline, after his Supreme Court win

, , , , , , , , , , ,
Plug-In: That openly prayerful coach is back on the sideline, after his Supreme Court win

NEW YORK — I filed this edition of Weekend Plug-in from my temporary, 38th-floor apartment in Midtown Manhattan. I’ve spent the week enjoying a mix of work and fun in Metropolis.

As I typed this, Pope Francis had just arrived in Mongolia, “becoming the first pope to visit the vast country with one of the world's smallest Catholic populations, nestled between Russia and China — two nations with complicated Vatican relationships,” as the National Catholic Reporter’s Christopher White reports.

Francis has long expressed an interest in visiting Russia and China, but Mongolia might be as close as he gets, the Wall Street Journal’s Francis X. Rocca explains.

As Mongolia Catholics welcome Francis, the nation’s evangelicals wrestle with growing pains, according to Christianity Today’s Angela Lu Fulton. Also, check out this Julia Duin background report at GetReligion.

This is our weekly roundup of the top headlines and best reads in the world of faith. Our big story concerns the return of a Washington state high school football coach who won a school prayer case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

What To Know: The Big Story

God on the gridiron: “Joe Kennedy — also known as the “praying coach” — is back as an assistant coach for the first time since the Supreme Court ruled that the Bremerton School District in Kitsap County had violated his religious freedom.” That’s the synopsis from Duin, who goes in depth on Kennedy’s return for The Free Press.

Readers may recall that Jovan Tripkovic interviewed Kennedy for ReligionUnplugged.com after the coach’s SCOTUS victory in 2022.

Friday night lights: The Seattle Times’ Nine Shapiro sets the scene for Kennedy’s return:

This much we can say for sure: Bremerton High assistant football coach Joe Kennedy will pray after Friday night’s opening game of the season, as the U.S. Supreme Court said he could.

“I’ll just go over to mid-field, like I always do, face the scoreboard, take a knee, and thank God for being here,” the 54-year-old coach said, sitting in the grandstands after practice Wednesday, having returned to coaching the Knights in early August following an eight-year absence.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , ,

Off to Mongolia: As oldest traveling pontiff, Francis visits a country with few Christians

, , , , , , ,
Off to Mongolia: As oldest traveling pontiff, Francis visits a country with few Christians

One of the most interesting, but least publicized religious events of the year happens this weekend, starting today actually, when Pope Francis travels to Mongolia. The papal schedule is here.

I spent three weeks in Mongolia in 2019. While there, I got to meet a variety of Protestants and Buddhists (Buddhism is more than half the population), but never saw any sign of the Catholics.

The logical question: What are the news hooks for this visit? What should journalists be covering?

Let’s do some math. There are only 3 million people in the country and 41,000  60,000 of them (estimates vary) are Christian — the vast majority evangelical Protestant — after three decades of evangelizing.

When missionaries poured into the country in the early 90s, they had to start from ground up, as much of the  populace was atheist thanks to Communism. Catholic missionaries were among them and, today, there are 1,300-1,500 Catholics there, which is pretty low compared with the many Protestants. There are roughly 196 churches in the entire country,out of which eight — plus one chapel — are Catholic.

Even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims more members (12,500) than that. See this Vatican overview for more on Mongolian Catholics.

There’s a lot of spiritual hunger there. When evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Billy) visited Mongolia last year, 17,000 showed up to hear him and 2,000 indicated conversions. I help support a Mongolian evangelist (her biography is here) who just completed a tour of the country and her sessions were packed (see this short video).

Evangelistically speaking, Mongolia is virgin territory, and everyone wants a cut of that pie. I am willing to bet that Francis’ new cardinal there unofficially told him the Protestants are making a lot of gains and he needs help. There are so many good stories in this trip, it’s hard to know where to start.

First, AP’s bare-bones intro:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Sunday described his visit later this week to Mongolia, the first-ever pilgrimage by a pontiff to the east Asian country, as a much-desired occasion to encounter a “noble, wise” people.

Speaking to the public in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said the trip would also be an opportunity to embrace the Catholic community there, describing the church in Mongolia as “small in numbers but lively in faith and great in charity.”


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , ,

Yet more synagogue and church shootings and a farewell (kind of) to arms from Julia

, , ,

It is that time of year again when I’m listening to Lutheran Public Radio’s Christmas music, lighting candles for Hanukkah (wanted to teach the kiddo what that is all about) and reflecting on the end of the year. This year is different in that my nearly five-year stint with GetReligion comes to an end with this post.

You may have already seen Tmatt’s writing on the changes afoot and while much is still up in the air, funding is tight, so I will be moving on.

I’ll miss the breaking news, of which there’s been plenty over this weekend, all of it sad, unfortunately. Not only were people stabbed at an innocent Hanukkah celebration Saturday night at a rabbi’s house just outside of New York but two people were killed Sunday at a Fort Worth church by a gunman who killed two churchgoers before security shot him dead. Our own Bobby Ross wrote this about the Texas carnage.

One weird factoid concerned the first attacker’s weapon. He was using a sword (or very long knife) instead of a gun. What was up about that? And why have recent attacks against Jews been carried out by blacks? This Jerusalem Post editorial explains why black anti-Semitism is the new boogyman that no one wants to name.

About the shootings in Texas, what if the attack had taken place in a zip code where people -– in this case the security team at the church — aren’t as likely to carry guns? Would there be a lot more dead? And why that church?

I’ve been asking such questions for four years and 10 months now. I was teaching journalism in Fairbanks and the snow was still deep on the ground in February 2015 when Tmatt asked if I’d join the team on March 1. I’d never blogged professionally before, so it was a steep learning curve figuring out the intricacies of Squarespace, how to attract readers and how to operate while four time zones behind the other writers. I am grateful that Tmatt burnished off a lot of the rough pieces in my copy, especially when I was frequently up past midnight doing posts. One gets the late-breaking news when posting from Alaska.

Now I am merely three zones behind most of the GetReligion team, with whom it’s been a pleasure to work with and compare notes and observations of America and the world’s wild and crazy religion scene. Reporting is often such a lonely occupation, so I have really enjoyed the camaraderie.

My daughter and I now live in the Seattle area and one of my assignments was to monitor religion coverage west of the Rockies which, unfortunately, is as sparse as ever.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , ,

And this just in from the 13th century: What did the popes (secretly) say to the Mongols?

, , , , , , ,

I’ve been in Mongolia the past two weeks helping a friend write a book and seeing as much of this Central Asian nation as I possibly can. I say “central” because the ethos of this place is high steppe, not the coastlines of the Far East.

English-language media are almost non-existent here, but I have found one: Montsame, a government-run national news agency, that ran a tiny piece last week about letters between Mongol emperors and medieval popes during the 1200s.

Is that breaking news? Maybe not. But today we will focus on new information.

St. Francis had been dead about 20 years when all this started. Marco Polo was being born (in 1254). A photo I’ve included with this entry shows how folks (minus the 21st century interlopers) dressed during this time.

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME — On July 9, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received official copies of letters of khans of the Ilkhanate to the Popes.

Copies of letters from Pope Innocent IV to Guyuk Khan (March 13, 1245), Pope Urban IV to Khulegu Khan May 23, 1263, Abaqa Khan to Pope Clement IV (summer of 1268), Pope Nicholas III to Abaqa Khan (April 1, 1278), a travel permit given to the envoys of Roman Catholic Church by Abaqa Khan, two letters from Pope Nicholas IV to Argun Khan (April 2, 1288) and the letter from Argun Khan to Pope Nicholas IV were received.

Never knew the 13th century had so much ecumenical activity, did you?

The letters were copied according to the official agreement with the Vatican Secret Archives established with the support of the officials of Mongolian Embassy in Italy headed by Ambassador of Mongolia to Italy Ts. Jambaldorj.

This is pretty stilted, but there’s a fascinating story behind it all.


Please respect our Commenting Policy
, , , , , , , ,

Friday Five: 2020 politics, doctrine-defying Catholic teachers, Mormons in the news, Mongolia fundraiser

, , , , , , , ,

Happy Fifth of July!

OK, that doesn’t have the same ring as “Happy Fourth of July!” But I’m too late for that.

I hope you enjoyed the Independence Day holiday. Perhaps you’re still celebrating it, if you have today off. That’s my plan, as soon as I finish this Friday Five post.

So let’s dive right into it:

1. Religion story of the week: The role of religion in the 2020 presidential race keeps making significant headlines.

In case you missed it because of the holiday, Richard Ostling wrote about Democratic candidates seeking a modernized faith formula that works.

Earlier in the week, Terry Mattingly reflected on this Trump-related question: “How many Democrats would back a pro-life Democrat?”

And this morning, Julia Duin posted on the battle at the border and evangelical leaders jostling for Trump-era media relevancy.


Please respect our Commenting Policy