Views on relationship between government and religion

Views on relationship between government and religion

Results of the Pew research Center survey:

Generally speaking, Western Europeans do not look favourably on entanglements between their governments and religion. Indeed, the predominant view in all 15 countries surveyed is that religion should be kept separate from government policies (median of 60%), as opposed to the position that government policies should support religious values and beliefs in their country (36%).

Non-practicing Christians tend to say religion should be kept out of government policy. Still, substantial minorities (median of 35%) of non-practicing Christians think the government should support religious values and beliefs in their country – and they are much more likely than religiously unaffiliated adults to take this position. For example, in the United Kingdom, 40% of non-practicing Christians say the government should support religious values and beliefs, compared with 18% of “nones.”

In every country surveyed, church-attending Christians are much more likely than non-practicing Christians to favour government support for religious values. In Austria, for example, a majority (64%) of churchgoing Christians take this position, compared with 38% of non-practicing Christians.

The Pew survey also gauged views on religious institutions, asking whether respondents agree with three positive statements about churches and other religious organizations – that they “protect and strengthen morality in society,” “bring people together and strengthen community bonds,” and “play an important role in helping the poor and needy.”
Three similar questions asked whether they agree with negative assessments of religious institutions – that churches and other religious organizations “are too involved with politics,” “focus too much on rules,” and “are too concerned with money and power.”

Once again, there are marked differences of opinion on these questions among Western Europeans across categories of religious identity and practice. Throughout the region, non-practicing Christians are more likely than religiously unaffiliated adults to voice positive opinions of religious institutions. For example, in Germany, a majority of non-practicing Christians (62%) agree that churches and other religious organizations play an important role in helping the poor and needy, compared with fewer than half (41%) of “nones.”

Church-attending Christians hold especially positive opinions about the role of religious organizations in society. For example, nearly three-in-four churchgoing Christians in Belgium (73%), Germany (73%) and Italy (74%) agree that churches and other religious institutions play an important role in helping the poor and needy. (For more analysis of results on these questions, see Chapter 6.)

Is Europe going to become a dictatorial bastion

That we are now living in the middle of a spiritual night we have noticed already. Though how many are seeing what certain political parties are trying to do?

By certain people at the top darkness has probably come into or over their minds.

It might sound unbelievable, but we should look at it seriously ... In a country where vegetables are often dressed with anchovies and tomato sauce may involve anywhere from one to three kinds of meat, being vegan would appear to be somewhat of a challenge.

Can you imagine it that a country is going to dictate what parents are allowed to give their children to eat physically and spiritually. In England and France there are already parents fined because they wanted to bring up their children in the biblical truth. In Italy the governement wants to penalise also those who want to bring up their children in the vegan way of life.

In France, Belgium and Italy the governement wants to have more say over what people are allowed or not allowed to wear in public. Whilst in our childhood everything had to be covered now they seem to find that those who want to go back to those times and want to have their body parts covered, should be fined.

If the center-right Forza Italia party has its way, raising future generations of Italians on a vegan diet could become a crime. And if France and Belgium continue the path they want to go on, Italy shall follow to prohibit the bourkini or burkini/burqini.

Imam Izzeddin Elzir had good reason to place the photograph of bathing nuns in their clothes, where no European seems to protest against, though if ordinary women would wear covering clothes everybody seems cross with it and complains. When those women in bourkini have to take those body coverings off should the nuns also not do that? When in Belgium the N-VA (by Nadia Sminate) says such covering is against our morals and values should we also not penalise such nuns and priest who enter our country in their habit?




It is also strange that Europeans make such a fuss about women who want to cloth themselves as in the old times. Why would those people not be free to cloth themselves how they want?

It is good to hear that on Thursday, Austrian politician Ahmet Demir caused uproar after publishing a photo of two nuns and joking that they were "oppressed women" in burqas. Later, he took the post down and apologized, but defended his post saying that he was attempting to convey the message that

"every woman should be able to wear what they want as long as they chose the clothes themselves."

It can well be that on Tuesday, Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told Corriere Della Serra that Italy wouldn't follow France's suit and ban the burqini, but will step up regulations of imams and mosques, but there are enough who would like to see a prohibition of the burqini.

When we hear all such controversy we should take care to keep an open mind and to show others how respectful we do have to be for others their opinion but also for their personal rights what to eat or wear or how to bring up their children. If that is going all to be decided by the state apparatus we shall be living a a dictatorial state.

Let it no come so far and let us make sure darkness does not come over our minds – for surely Jesus, in heaven, will very soon come, as we read his predictions yesterday in Mark 13, but he has also shown how we do have to behave against others and have to love them, even when they have an other way of life than ours.

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Phoenicians sacrificed infants

A new paper co-authored by Peter van Dommelen, the Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and professor of anthropology, attempts to put to rest a long-standing mystery about infant bones found in Phoenician cemeteries in modern Tunisia and Italy. Experts have long been conflicted over whether the bones, found packed in urns and buried under tombstones, were the result of ritualistic sacrifices or simply carefully buried remains of children who died before or soon after birth. Van Dommelen's research, conducted with colleagues from several European institutions, concludes that the Phoenicians did kill their own infant children, burying them with sacrificed animals and ritual inscriptions in special cemeteries to give thanks for special favors from the gods. Published in the journal Antiquity, the researchers used the manner in which the remains were buried and the inscriptions on the tombstones as evidence that pointed toward the sacrifice rather than natural death. Additionally, although hundreds of remains were found, there were far too few to account for all of the stillbirths and infant deaths in that area, according to the study.

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