Mid-term elections and the poison of US politics – “everyone feels aggrieved”
As Americans go to the polls for the midterm elections, an influential pollster says the most worrying aspect is that everyone appears to think they stand to lose from them. Alan Cooperman, Pew’s director of religion and research, told a Religion Media Centre briefing that 72 per cent of the electorate including white evangelicals, Catholics, Jews and liberal religiously unaffiliated, think they are losing on things that matter to them: “The fact that everybody feels they can lose is part of the poison in our politics. Everybody feels on the defensive, everybody feels aggrieved”. The briefing also discussed the role of abortion in the vote, the rise of Christian nationalism and the impact on minority religions, including Muslims, who face the backlash from election rhetoric. Read Rosie Dawson’s article on the briefing here and view it again here >>
Moral duty to tackle climate change
The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has told world leaders that it is Britain’s moral duty to tackle climate change. Speaking at the Cop27 climate summit in Sharm El Sheikh, he said countries like the UK also had a moral responsibility to help developing countries de-carbonise, and he profoundly believed it was the right thing to do. Climate security went hand in hand with energy security, he said, as investing in renewables would insure against the risk of energy dependency. His address followed a warning from the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said the world is on a “highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator” unless drastic action is taken to curb global warming. Times report here >>
Faith groups and charities are a torn safety net at risk of closure
A Theos report into the safety net provided by charities and faith groups in the cost-of-living crisis, suggests that they are the last line of defence for the vulnerable but they too are in crisis, at risk of folding. The report “A Torn Safety Net” by Hannah Rich, senior researcher at the Theos think tank and director of Christians on the Left, is based on interviews with 48 people and identifies a growing sense of insecurity relating to income and employment, housing, access to food and migration status. Faith groups, once considered the final backstop when the welfare state failed, are also growing more insecure and cannot guarantee their future, it finds. Food banks are running short of supplies and churches fear being unable to afford to heat their buildings to keep people warm. The report recommends practical suggestions for sustaining charities such as grants and a cap on energy prices, and it calls on the government urgently to secure their future.
United Methodists set another date for conference decider on same sex marriage
The United Methodist Church has announced that its next general conference, due to vote on same sex marriage, will be held from 23 April to 3 May, 2024, at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The conference is usually held every four years, but its last due date in 2020 was postponed due to Covid and two further dates were also cancelled on logistical grounds. The delay meant that the contentious impending vote on same sex marriage was allowed to fester. Some churches set against the plan, didn’t wait for the official vote and have left for the alternative conservative Global Methodist Church organisation. The conference is based in America but has churches across the globe.
Ofcom ruling on BBC report of antisemitic bus attack
Ofcom has ruled that the BBC committed significant editorial failings in a report of an antisemitic attack on Jewish students, travelling on a bus in Oxford Street in November 2021. At issue was a line in the report that an anti-Muslim slur had been heard from inside the bus. There were complaints that the phrase had another meaning, “an urgent call for help”. Ofcom said the BBC failed to promptly acknowledge that the audio was disputed. The BBC had earlier acknowledged that more could have been done sooner to report the differing versions of what could be heard. Full Ofcom judgment here >>
Ukraine orthodox church plans Christmas services on 25 December
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is allowing people to celebrate Christmas on 25 December, the traditional date observed in western Christianity. Usually, the orthodox church marks Christmas on 7 January due to its different liturgical calendar, but following a synod meeting in October, it was decided to allow churches to hold Christmas services on 25 December instead and see how many people adapt to the change. Since the Russian invasion, many orthodox churches have abandoned their links with Moscow in protest at Patriarch Kirill’s support of the war and have moved their allegiance to Constantinople instead. The Guardian suggests that moving to 25 December “is part of a bigger national process of dismantling the symbols of Russia”.
