Kamala Harris “at ease navigating religious traditions”
As Kamala Harris moves towards nomination as the US Democratic presidential candidate, her diverse religious history is being analysed in the American press as representative of a changing, diverse nation. She was raised by a Baptist father and Hindu mother and attended a temple and church, she married a Jewish man and has settled as a regular worshipper at a Baptist church. The Religion News Service says she has an ease about navigating different religious traditions and it quotes Prof Anthea Butler saying “nobody grows up in a straight line with religion any more”. The Republican’s vice-presidential nominee JD Vance is a convert to Catholicism, married to a Hindu. The article quotes Pew Research showing 20 per cent of marriages are inter racial. Four in ten Americans who have married since 2010 have a spouse in a different religious group. RNS article by Yonat Shimron is here
Vice president is a Baptist committed to her church for decades
Rev Dr Brian Kaylor, editor of “Word&Way”, analyses Kamala Harris’ commitment to Christianity, saying he has interviewed multiple times the minister of her church where she has worshipped for decades, the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco. He quotes her pastor the Rev Amos Brown, saying she is a woman of enlightenment and intelligence. The church is the oldest Black church in the city and is aligned with both the American Baptists and the National Baptist Convention USA. In 2022, Kamala Harris addressed the Convention’s national conference saying “faith teaches us that a brighter future is always ahead” and faith requires action. If elected, she would become the fifth Baptist US president.
Kamala Harris’ husband would be first Jewish spouse in the White House
A profile of Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’ husband, says he would be the first Jewish spouse in the White House. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency website says that he’s embraced “being second gentleman” and has been a visible presence in Harris’ campaigns. Since he came into the role in 2021, Mr Emhoff has especially “leaned into” his position’s Jewish aspects, from lighting a menorah in the official residence to focusing on antisemitism and Holocaust remembrance. He has been centre of the Biden administration’s efforts to fight antisemitism, including the unveiling of its national plan on the issue last year. In 2023, he took a five-day working trip to Holocaust and Jewish heritage sites in Germany and Poland with Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy They visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, met Holocaust survivors and Jewish leaders, and visited Gorlice, his ancestral village in Poland. Doug Emhoff called the conversation with survivors a “real emotional and intense way to finish the trip.”
Other news
Football one of few areas of British life where expressions of faith are common
The headline in The Times says it all, “Hand of God rests easier on this England”, referring to the football team, not the country. The article, by Tomiwa Owolade, takes a deep dive into the theory that the embrace of religion by young footballers with a black African heritage reflects an important shift in UK society. He argues that football is one of the few areas of British life where public expressions of religious faith are common. He cites the Brentford striker Ivan Toney – a devout Christian who made the sign of the cross as he came on in the last minutes of the Euro final against Spain. The same is true of his international teammates who have also publicly expressed their Christian faith – such as Marc Guehi, his fellow Crystal Palace forward Eberechi Eze and winger Bukayo Saka. The son of immigrant Nigerian parents, Saka reads the Bible every night before bed. “Religion is a big part of my life,” he told GQ magazine in a 2022 interview. Last season Everton had a starting midfield that consisted of three players — Amadou Onana, Idrissa Gueye and Abdoulaye Doucouré — who are all Muslim, all come from a Francophone African family background and pray together before games.
GP suspended for comments on Hamas is re-instated by NHS England
NHS England has lifted its suspension of a GP who was a leading member of an organisation now banned for promoting terrorism. Dr Wahid Asif Shaida, also known as Abdul Wahid, made various social media postings after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, regarding the occupation of Gaza by Israeli forces and the conflict in the Middle East. He appeared on Piers Morgan’s Talk TV show in December 2023, during which he said the Hamas attackers were resisting an occupation. He was the chairman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK, until it was proscribed as a terrorist group by the Home Office in January for praising the Hamas attacks and “actively promoting and encouraging terrorism”. It has always denied links to violence. On 19 January, Dr Shaida was suspended by NHS England. But a decision by an NHS England panel yesterday, determined that there was insufficient evidence to warrant removal of his fitness to practise on either suitability or efficiency grounds. It also concluded that continuing the suspension would not be appropriate and accepted that Dr Shaida does not condone violence and that social media posts he sent were made “in the heat of the news feeds he was receiving”. Prior to his suspension, the hearing heard that Dr Shaida had worked for 33 years with patients exclusively in the NHS with no concerns about his professionalism.
Jesuit Refugee Service urges government to create a more humane asylum system
The Jesuit Refugee Service has written to the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, thanking her for abandoning the Rwanda bill, which would have seen asylum seekers forcibly transferred. It is urging action on three fronts: restore the right to asylum by repealing the Illegal Migration Act and Nationality and Borders Act to allow asylum claims and create routes for people seeking asylum; end immigration detention in degrading conditions and support asylum seekers to make their claims in the community; end the hostile environment which removes access to services. In short the JRS urges the Home Secretary to “deliver a more humane system and help create a society rooted in justice and care for one another”.
DofE stats show Religious Education under pressure in schools
The National Association for the Teaching of RE has drawn attention to DofE stats from the national school census which show a challenging state of affairs for RE in schools. Of the 16,168 teachers who taught at least one RE lesson in the last academic year, only 44 per cent hold any qualification in the subject, compared with 80 per cent of English teachers and 78.5 per cent of history teachers. In addition, 51 per cent of those teaching RE, mainly teach another subject. The recruitment target for RE teachers was cut from 643 in 2018-19 to 450 in 2022-23, while UCAS applications to train as an RE teacher have dropped by a third. The government has pledged to recruit 6,500 expert teachers in key subjects and bursaries of £25k and £28k are offered to people training to teach computing, geography and languages, but for RE the bursary is £10k for career changers and graduates. NATRE says that despite RE being identified as a shortage subject, its recruitment target has been missed for 12 of the past 13 years, leaving a significant shortfall in the workforce at a time when religious literacy is becoming increasingly important in society.
Multiple sex abuse allegations against late Bishop of Galway, Eamonn Casey
The former CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Irish Catholic Church has described the late Bishop of Galway, Eamonn Casey, as “a sexual predator”. Ian Elliott made the comments in a joint RTÉ-Irish Mail on Sunday documentary. The programme examined the Catholic Church’s handling of allegations against the bishop, who died in 2017. “Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets” included an interview with one of the former Bishop’s accusers, his niece Patricia Donovan, who waived her right to anonymity, and claimed that Casey began raping her at the age of five and the sexual abuse continued for years. The investigation revealed that Casey was formally removed from public ministry in 2007 by the Vatican, following allegations which included his niece’s complaint. That restriction continued for the last 10 years of his life but was never publicly known. In 2019, the Galway Diocese informed the Irish Mail on Sunday that it had received one allegation of child sexual abuse against him. It has since confirmed that, in fact, it had a record at that time of “five people who had complained of childhood sexual abuse against Bishop Casey”. These independent accusations relate to alleged events in every Irish diocese where the bishop worked. Casey made earlier headlines in 1992 when it emerged he had fathered a child with an American woman, Annie Murphy, in 1974. He served as bishop of Galway from 1976 to 1992 and denied all the allegations against him. Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets will be available worldwide on the RTÉ Player.
Appeal for help to write musical telling story of British Jews going back 1,000 years
The award winning English composer, director and film-maker, Benjamin Till, is working on a new musical which tells the stories of Britain’s Jews, this country’s oldest immigrant community, going back 1000 years. In an article in the Jewish Chronicle, he writes that he worries that “our community is looking to Israel and the USA for a sense of its own Jewishness and not celebrating the uniqueness and beauty of what we already have.” He says that for years there has been a tendency “for British Jews to sweep their Jewishness under the carpet. As a result, it sometimes takes a bit of digging to unearth the stories which I believe we have a duty to protect for future generations”. He is appealing to the UK’s Jewish community to send him stories about their experiences in the UK. The 50-minute musical, which will be split into ten movements, will be called “The Jews of Britain” and will represent 10 different periods of Jewish history in Britain.
God is watching, says former wrestler turned vicar in Kent
A former wrestler has swapped headlocks and takedowns for weddings and baptisms after being ordained at Canterbury Cathedral. 43-year-old Rev Steven Horne, serving in Ashford, Kent, was one of a cohort of new priests and deacons ordained in June. An ex-police officer, Dr Horne took a PhD in Theology, before joining the South East Professional Wrestling Club. He appeared at his first event in 2016 as an amateur, before going on to compete hundreds of times. He told BBC Radio Kent: “Life can be difficult and sometimes unpredictable, but I rest comfortably knowing that although life is full of slams and ‘suplexes’ [an offensive move used in wrestling which involves lifting the opponents and slamming them on their backs], God has oversight of it all and knows what the end will be”. He explained the moment he felt a “green light” call to ministry: “I had heard that particular call very distinctly… on 30 December 2022 and the next day I popped an email off and the process for discernment started two months later.”
