Saturday, February 13, 2016

Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, February 13

by Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch



I. POPE FRANCIS AND GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY


POPE ON CHINA; CHINA ON MEN: An interview with Asia Times and Pope Francis. Understanding the deep patterns of agreement of Catholic categories and Asian thought - a review of Chan on Asian theologies.

POPE AND RUSSIA AND THE GREAT COUNCIL OF ORTHODOXY: A truly historic meeting of Pope Francis and the Russian patriarch. The need for the Christian nations to unite against Salafist Islam to save the Mideast Christians from erasure, and the African Christians from murder, is driving the Christian East and West back into a communion of dialogue and shared protective mission. The Bishop of Rome and Patriarch of Russia meet in Cuba on February 12, while the patriarchs and autocephalus bishops of Orthodoxy will meet for several weeks (opening June 19, 2016) on the island of Crete. Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican reports on Catholic-Orthodox relations with a special authority. John Chryssavigs in First Things gives a good introduction to the Great Council in Crete.

THE POPE AND THE PATRIARCH MEET IN CUBA: Their common declaration. Our comments next week.


II. PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS

NEOCONSERVATIVES, REPUBLICANS, AND RUBIO: An interesting analysis of why Marco Rubio is now the favored representative of neoconservative war policies rather than the Bush family. Stephen Walt, dean of the "realists," looks at the foreign policy positions of five top candidates. He agrees with the American Conservative article cited above that Marco Rubio is a more reliable (more pliable?) carrier of neoconservative influence.

TRUMP AND ASIA - A REAL DIFFERENCE: From a good source on Asia - the Diplomat. This is one area of foreign policy in which Mr Trump has been very clear and very different.

KASICH - WHICH ANGLICAN CHURCH?: John Kasich is an Anglican. But he belongs to the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) - the group that broke from American Episcopalians over the normalization of homosexuality. He is now aligned more with traditionally Christian black Anglicans of Africa than with white 'gender ideologues' of Canada, the US, and England.

THREE REPUBLICANS DEFEND THE "RIGHT" OF WOMEN TO REGISTER FOR THE DRAFT: Ted Cruz said they were "nuts" in a speech the next day. Two men on a wedding cake and all women registering for military combat are fruits of the same twisted tree. If the point of the the Trump campaign is to rise up from the restricted speech patterns of politically correct 'femspeak,' he was MIA on that question. Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, and Jeb Bush all were in favor of the inclusion of our daughters in the registration system for the military draft. On the big questions the "Republican establishment" is tongue-tied. They have no religious vision of the sacred sexual order which is foundational to our American political community. 


III. ISLAM, THE MIDDLE EAST, AND RUSSIA

THE HEADSCARF AND ME - A LESSON FROM A TURKISH LADY: An essay on manners, modernism, and religion in Turkey. And it was in the New Yorker magazine.

WHY IS AMERICA RESTARTING THE COLD WAR WITH RUSSIA?: A question asked by California GOP Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher. Rohrabacher (chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats) questions cutting in half the military spending to fight ISIS while doubling the spending to raise arms against Russia. His arguments should be strongly considered by our presidential candidates and reported in the broader media.

IV. AFRICA AND ASIA

LOOKING DOWN ON AFRICA: Fr. George Rutler takes us from Albert Schweitzer to modern German bishops in a tale of racial conceit.

NIGERIA - SPLIT AGAIN BY TRIBE: The Igbo tribe of the Southeast again stirs for separatism (mindful of the Biafran War 1967-70). The Christians need a much more robust spiritual basis for the nation to counter these separatist ethnic claims. Southeastern Nigeria is home of the Igbos and 75% of the country's oil.

JAPAN RESTORED - A SECULAR VIEW: A book review.

CHINA AND MALE TEACHERS: The need for masculine role models and masculine character traits is treated like a cultural given - many lessons here as Chinese seek to increase male teachers for boys.

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