The Netherlands: Protestant church's declaration of guilt towards the Jews is a historic step

The Dutch Protestant Church is to admit that it helped to ‘sow the seeds’ of anti-Semitism and failed to protect the country’s Jewish population before, during and after the Second World War.

On Sunday, November 8, René de Reuver, the church’s official scribe, will read out a ‘declaration of guilt’ in the Rav Aron Schuster Synagogue in Amsterdam as part of the commemoration of Kristallnacht, the ‘night of broken glass’ in 1938 seen as the moment when the Nazis’ oppression of the Jews tipped over into outright persecution.

Read more at: Protestant church's declaration of guilt towards the Jews is a historic step - DutchNews.nl

Religion: Swiss Protestant church supports gay marriage

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Swiss Protestant church supports gay marriage - The Local

USA: Christians: Why evangelicals love Trump - by Josh Dawsey

After bowing his head during a blessing before dinner with evangelical leaders in the Blue Room last month, President Donald Trump cracked a joke.

"I'm the only person on Fifth Avenue that would have a prayer like that," the president said, according to two attendees, seeming to separate himself from much of Manhattan's swanky Upper East Side.

One evangelical leader present offered that Cardinal Timothy Dolan, whose palatial cathedral and residence is blocks from Trump Tower, may also suggest a blessing before dining. Trump agreed before commenting on the cardinal's lavish digs.

He then pointed to several of the religious leaders before saying an iteration of: "The Christians, they know what I'm doing for them, right?" He grinned and nodded as he was praised.

The episode provides a window into Trump's symbiotic relationship with evangelical voters, according to more than a dozen White House officials, advisers and religious leaders.

Several senior White House officials say they've never heard Trump reference the Bible privately or pray in the Oval Office — even though he has, at times, asked Vice President Mike Pence to pray. He swears frequently, even startling some aides with his coarse language. He was famously caught on tape saying he could grab women by their genitals because he is famous. In New York, he was well-known for cheating on his wives and encouraging coverage of his sex life in the tabloids.

Though he has declared the Bible to be his favorite book, just ahead of his autobiography, he has not exhibited a deep knowledge of it. On the campaign trail, one of his more famous moments was calling the communion "my little wine and my little cracker" and incorrectly calling Second Corinthians "Two Corinthians."

Yet he has told advisers he sees evangelicals as among his most important constituencies, and he has enjoyed fervent support, as evidenced by another rapturous reception on Friday at the Values Voter Summit.

A Reuters poll in September showed more than 60 percent of white evangelicals back Trump, far higher than his overall approval rating, which has often fallen below 40 percent. 

“Trump has been focused like a laser beam on the evangelical vote since the day he entered the presidential race in June 2015, and that has never changed," said Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, who said Trump called religious leaders repeatedly during the campaign.

Those who have known Trump longest guffaw at his approach to evangelicals and say they believe he is only pandering. Even some of the religious leaders who wanted to praise Trump publicly asked to go off the record and say they don't believe the self-described Presbyterian is religious. 


Read more: Why evangelicals love Trump - POLITICO

France: President Macron:"we must not repeat the mistakes of the Middle Ages to demonize Islam as we did to Protestants"

French President Emmanuel Macron

A fascinating debate is bubbling along among intellectuals in France following M Macron’s election as President of France, concerning something the French political system is supposed to be completely free from: religion. In 1905 a law of laïcité formally separated Church and state.

Most French people are notionally Catholic, and a significant proportion appear to be observant. The Protestant church in France estimates a following of just over a million people, or 2% of the population.

President Macron grew up in a secular household, and he has several times expressed his commitment to the idea of laïcité: but when he was 12 years old, feeling, as he has put it, the need for some “spirituality”, he asked to be baptised as a Catholic.

It is worth parsing Mr Macron’s ideas about religion because he has a particular interest in the subject.

He was baptized into the Catholic faith at his own request at the age of 12, and schooled by Jesuits, brainy Catholics who often live on the border between their own religion and other faiths and cultures.

Mr Macron has in his speeches likened the internal problems of the European Union and its monetary system to a religious conflict. The Protestant north had a rigid and moralistic attitude towards debt while the Catholic south, with its culture of confession and absolution, took a more happy-go-lucky view, he once said.

On the subject of Islam, some of what Mr Macron says is broadly what you would expect from a centrist politician in France.

French Muslims must be encouraged to develop their own, enlightened reading of the faith, fully compatible with the laws of the republic. They must be helped to wean themselves off dubious sources of foreign funding. They must be part of the struggle against terrorism. Although the state can facilitate all these developments, the main responsibility must be borne by Muslims themselves.

Most of these sentiments have been expressed by other French office-holders, and they are worthy if difficult to put into practice. But in that Montpellier speech, Mr Macron said one thing which was highly contentious for Muslims and non-Muslims alike:

"Our mission…it will be difficult, it will take time, it will be demanding for all men and women…will be to act in such a way that French people of the Muslim faith are always more proud of being French than of being Muslim…"

Is that actually conceivable? Being a citizen of the French republic, with all its rights, obligations and ideological axioms, is a demanding business. For its most fervent adherents, French republicanism is supposed to supersede all previous loyalties, be they Catholic, Protestant or Jewish.

But being a Muslim, a member of the umma, the global community of believers, is pretty demanding too. In practice, people do find ways of negotiating their political and religious loyalties.

Traditional Islam does not urge its followers to disobey the laws of well-organized states: on the contrary, it encourages a cautious and conservative way of life. But for many Muslims, asking them to be “less proud” of their faith than their passport will still be asking too much.

For all his cerebral intensity, Mr Macron was not giving a history lesson for its own sake. His aim was to warn his compatriots not to repeat the mistakes of the Middle Ages. Just as it was wrong and inexpedient for medieval France to demonize the Protestants, so too it would be wrong for today's politicians to demonize Islam or its followers.

EU-Digest

Christianity needs to go back to basics - it's not about behavioral modification or performance - by RM

''whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst".

The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary estimated there were 34,000 Christian denominations in 2000, rising to an an estimated 43,000 in 2012. These numbers have exploded from 1,600 in the year 1900.

Of over 2 billion Christians in the world, less than 30% say they ever read through the entire Bible. The fact is over 82% of Christian Americans only read part of their Bibles on Sundays while in church. In recent studies, the Pew research also indicated that only 25% of Americans who cal themselves Christian now attend church on any given Sunday, significantly down from 47% in 1990.

Obviously the above figures also reflect two things, One, that Christians are struggling among themselves to create a culture that mirrors the values of God as described in the Bible and two, that many Christian Pastors are generally doing a poor job in bringing the truth of the Gospel ---God’s astonishing purpose for mankind,  to their congregations.

Another question which comes up a lot by many non-Christians and even some Christians, especially during the past weeks terrorist attacks  is: "what about the Crusades from 1095-1291, wasn't that similar to what the radical Muslims are doing today" ?

The answer to this question, unfortunately, has either been avoided or never been told with any clarity by the Christian hierarchy or local Pastors. The answer is double sided  - Yes and No.

Barbaric killings took place during the Crusades, even in far greater numbers than in all the recent terrorist killings put together. The difference, however, between today's radical Muslim terrorists and the crusaders is that the crusades were considered national state organized military campaigns, supported by the Vatican and the nations around Europe they controlled.

Today's terrorists groups on the other hand, including al-Qaida and ISIS are not supported by any national state or even traditional Islamic states, at least not officially.

The other question that Christians are struggling with is the difference between Christianity and Catholicism – this also has never been quite clear to most average church goers and often "hush-hushed" by local  Pastors as a "non-question". Sometimes, also, because they themselves were not quite comfortable about the issue.

The fact is that Martin Luther back in the 1500's broke away from the Vatican controlled Catholic Church and initiated the Reformation, the basis of today’s non-violent-Bible based global Christian movement. It is a reality which needs to be made crystal clear to Protestant Christians and all the other Christian denominations that are a result of that movement. 

It must also be made clear to the world at large that the Pope is not the spokes-person for Christians around the world.

Catholics might call themselves Christian, but there are seven key issues which continue to distinguish their beliefs and practices, making their doctrine not compatible with the Reformation.

These are: 1) the Magisterium which refers to the official teaching body of the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope being the representative of God on earth - Protestants do not accept this. 2) Tradition, While Protestants don’t view tradition as equal in authority with the Scriptures (Bible), the Roman Catholic Church has a different perspective—one which clearly distinguishes itself from Protestant churches. 3) Salvation and Grace, Protestants often express the idea that salvation is by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone.

The Roman Catholic Church views justification as a process, dependent on the grace you receive by participating in the Church---which is seen as a repository of saving grace. 4)The Eucharist, When it comes to the Eucharist, which most Protestants call ‘The Lord’s Supper,” or “Communion,” the Roman Catholic Church in this holds to the doctrine of transubstantiation—the idea that the edible ritual elements used during the mass literally become the body and blood of Christ.5) Justification, protestants view justification as the moment God declares that a guilty person is righteous because of the sacrifice Christ has done on the Cross for that person.. 

Catholic doctrine does not believe this and looks at man's redemption as a life-long process. 6) Priesthood of All Believers: Protestants see the church as having a horizontal structure, whereby everyone is equal in the eyes of God, while the Catholics see the Church as a vertical structure ( much like today's corporations)..7) Veneration of the Saints and the Virgin Mary, Roman Catholics see veneration, not as praying to the Saints and the Virgin Mary, but as praying through them. As is commanded in the Bible, Protestants do not pray facing statues or other objects jnstead either pray in solitude or ask a brother or sister in Christ to pray for them or with them..

Indeed, there is a lot most Christians don't know about their own religion, but should know.

As Pastor William Graham Tullian Tchividjian said from the pulpit of the Fort Lauderdale Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church on Sunday January 11, "Christianity has a major PR problem".

Yes indeed.

EU-Digest

Christians - Middle East: Religious summit to unite Middle East’s Christians

A religious summit between Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs of the Middle East will take place in the next few months, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai announced Wednesday.

Speaking to the Fides Agency in Rome, Rai said that preparations were under way to hold an “important summit” that would address the challenges facing Christians in the Middle East.

“We are preparing a meeting of all Orthodox and Catholic Patriarchs of the Middle East, to promote unity among Christians and deal with the problems and sufferings that we share in this difficult moment in history,” Rai said.

The cardinal arrived in Rome earlier this week to attend the religious conclave at the Vatican to elect a new pope to replace Pope Benedict XVI.

Note EU-Digest: no mention is made if Protestants and Evangelicals Christians and the World Council of Churches have also been invited in order to create a unified, broader and stronger platform. 

 Read more: Religious summit to unite Middle East’s Christians | News , Local News | THE DAILY STAR