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The sins of the Argentine church - The Guardian, 2011
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance

The extent of the church’s complicity in the dark deeds was excellently set out by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina’s most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentine navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship’s political prisoners. Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate. The most shaming thing for the church is that in such circumstances Bergoglio’s name was allowed to go forward in the ballot to chose the successor of John Paul II. What scandal would not have ensued if the first pope ever to be elected from the continent of America had been revealed as an accessory to murder and false imprisonment

#Argentine

Bergoglio, l’Eglise catholique argentine, et la dictature militaire argentine.

Un article de 2011 :

The sins of the Argentine church | Hugh O’Shaughnessy | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance

The extent of the church’s complicity in the dark deeds was excellently set out by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina’s most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentine navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship’s political prisoners. (...). Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate. The most shaming thing for the church is that in such circumstances Bergoglio’s name was allowed to go forward in the ballot to chose the successor of John Paul II.

Les dirigeants étasuniens, par contre, étaient élogieux,
http://cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=05VATICAN466&q=bergoglio

Bergoglio exemplifies the virtues of the wise pastor that many
electors value. Observers have praised his humility: he has
been reluctant to accept honors or hold high office and commutes
to work on a bus. What could count against him is his
membership in the Jesuit order. Some senior prelates,
especially conservatives, are suspicious of a liberal streak in
the order, perhaps most pronounced in the U.S., but also present
elsewhere.

The Buddhist organisations that are thriving during the debt crisis | Mary Finnigan | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/nov/18/buddhism-debt-crisis

Here we are stuck in an economic downturn, with the threat of a financial tsunami gathering momentum in the eurozone and with pundits telling us it can only get worse. You might expect people to be careful about their budget priorities – and that nonessential expenditure like spiritual teachings would be put on hold.

Evidence suggests, however, that the opposite is true – especially if you happen to be Buddhist. It seems that in this period of acute financial stress, Buddhists are still willing to part with their pounds, dollars, roubles and rupees in order to sustain their meditation practice. Because meditation calms the mind and generates insight, this is a predictable response – but what does come as a surprise is the amounts of money involved.

#religion

Here’s a mystical secret: Indians are no more spiritual than anyone else | Priya Shetty | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/nov/03/indians-no-more-spiritual

Searching for inner peace in a world where the Earth and the economy seem to be screeching into apocalyptic meltdown is understandable, and finding that peace elsewhere seems the obvious answer.

India has long been an ad man’s dream, with a spiritual brand firmly embedded on the global consciousness. But this myth not only reduces a complex, capable country to a giant spa with cheap food, people travelling there in search of salvation lose out too. It’s time to set the record straight and let you in on a secret: Indians are no more spiritual than anyone else.

#religion

Catholicism has always been America’s foreign devil | Sam Haselby | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/oct/15/catholicism-america-forign-devil

Then as now, speaking of the US as Christian nation remains as much a negative as a positive act, though the excluded has changed from Catholics to Muslims. Despite the anti-Islamists’ claims of endemic conflict, their particular cause is a new and superficial characteristic of American political culture. The relevant history is not in any inherent conflict with Islam, but in the need of American political culture for a foreign devil. Not so long ago, atheistic communists played that role. For most of American history, however, the foreign devil was Catholicism.

#religion

The political #Bible, part 5: equality | Nick Spencer | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/sep/07/political-bible-equality

We should not, therefore, underestimate how counterintuitive and countercultural human equality is. Nor should we underestimate the extent to which our contemporary commitment to equality is drawn from biblical Christianity.

Genesis 1.26-27 – “… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them,” – is perhaps the single most influential biblical text in the British political history.

#religion

The political #Bible, part 4 : toleration | Nick Spencer | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/aug/29/political-bible-toleration

Yet, if the Bible carried with it the logic of intolerance, it also bore the logic and language of tolerance. This came in the concept of adiaphora – “things indifferent” – derived primarily from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and referring to the conviction that some matters, such as eating meat sacrificed to idols, were not essential to faith.

#religion #christianisme

The theology of #Harry_Potter | Danielle Tumminio | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/12/harry-potter-theology-christian-thought

But such an undertaking takes a fair amount of time, say one college term. So I gathered my two good friends Matt and Kat – my very own Ron and Hermione – and over pizza in my attic apartment we brainstormed until I organised the Christian theology and Harry Potter syllabus: each week, students would read 250 pages of the series alongside 150-200 pages of theology.

#religion

#Science_fiction probes at #religion | Roz Kaveney | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/11/science-fiction-religion

The one thing that cannot be said about SF’s attitude to religion is that it is pious – SF is a fundamentally irreverent literary form which is never really happy with certainty or solemnity. It is perhaps for that reason that some American fundamentalists put it on the list of forbidden genres along with books about witchcraft and wizards. SF is not hostile, essentially, to religion, but it is not comfortable with closed minds.

It’s hard to make light of the plight of my people, the #Bahá'ís | Omid Djalili | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/10/bahai-iran-repression

Nowadays, the climate feels different. In February 2009 a group of Iranian intellectuals, writers, activists and artists signed an open letter to the Bahá’ís stating their regret concerning the Iranian government’s treatment of its Bahá’í minority. They made an open apology for their silence during Iran’s long-running persecutions: “a century and a half of oppression and silence is enough”. This letter was welcomed by the Bahá’ís, who have always made it clear they are humanitarians, not political activists, working towards social transformation for all at a grassroots level, not concerned with overthrowing governments.

#iran

Eco-mosque is another powerful symbol of Islamic ingenuity | Bilal Badat | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/24/eco-mosque-wind-turbine

Traditional Muslim societies therefore had no qualms about absorbing and learning from the cultures that they encountered and adjusting them within the philosophical framework of #Islam: Islamic #architecture is, and always has been, a medium for syncretism rather than proselytisation.

#religion

Heard the one about the pope? Sadly, yes | Patrick McKearney | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/21/stand-up-comedy-religion

But when it comes to #religion, contemporary #stand-ups are not giving us this new perspective. They endlessly ridicule tired stereotypes of religion, but fail to turn their critical attention to secularism, atheism or liberalism. And that is problematic. Because when comedians mock the faults of a standardised “other” they leave their own assumptions, ignorance and flaws untouched. They just reinforce our world view, rather than critically engaging with it. They are not giving us a fresh pair of glasses, but returning some old and dusty spectacles that we have had for years.

The true spiritual leader of #Iran is Rumi | Melody Moezzi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/10/rumi-spiritual-guide-iran

Iran’s officially recognised “spiritual leader” today may be Ayatollah Khamenei, but for hundreds of years before the current establishment of mullahs and ayatollahs, Iranians of all creeds have looked to another spiritual leader: Jalal ad-Din Rumi. While this 13th-century Persian Sufi poet is known in much of the west as “Rumi”, he is referred to more affectionately in Iran as “Mowlaana,” or the Master.

#poésie

Compulsory #crucifixes in Italian classrooms? Not a good sign | Paul Sims | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/25/crucifixes-italian-classrooms-echr

A neutral state is crucial to secularism, which is why those in favour of such a system view the Lautsi case as a defeat. The crucifix is not, as the Italian government laughably tried to argue, an “ethical symbol” which “could be perceived as devoid of religious significance”, but the single most recognisable symbol of the Christian faith. How could its compulsory display in classrooms possibly be compatible with a plural society, in which the state favours no single religious or philosophical position?

It’s worth noting, also, that the Lautsi judgement has implications beyond the classroom.

#religion #laïcité

The Book of #Genesis, part 6: Patriarchs and others | Jane Williams | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/18/book-genesis-patriarchs-women

Feminist rereadings of these texts have allowed us to recover the anger and outrage that they should provoke. But much debate has also revolved around what is to be made, theologically, of the unabashed patriarchy of texts like Genesis. If the theologians of Genesis had the insight and authority to critique many other assumptions in the cultures in which they lived, why not this one about women? Does that imply that #patriarchy has some kind of divine sanction, or, at the very least, that God turns a blind eye to it in order to achieve ends that then become, by implication, more important?

#religion #féminisme

Beware evolutionary ’just-so’ stories about religious belief | Denis Alexander | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/06/evolutionary-just-so-stories

#Evolution may have delivered tendencies to believe certain things and to disbelieve others. But that in itself does not tell us whether those beliefs are true or not

#religion