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By Holly Meyer and David Crary |
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By Holly Meyer and David Crary |
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Greetings, World of Faith readers,
This week, we spoke to pastor Doug Wilson, who leads the small archconservative church network that has the U.S. secretary of defense in its ranks. We also bring you an update on the social media-related legal case against a Baha’i leader in Qatar, and how cemetery restoration is mending mistrust in Cyprus. |
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to reporters in the Pentagon courtyard. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) |
Defense Secretary Hegseth belongs to an archconservative church network. Here’s what to know |
Pete Hegseth has expressed pride in being part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a conservative Christian network. Hegseth recently shared a CNN video about the church, showing its pastors arguing women should not have the right to vote. The U.S. defense secretary attends a CREC church in Tennessee. The church network has connections to Christian nationalism and emphasizes traditional gender roles. Network co-founder Pastor Doug Wilson leads the flagship Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, and is known for his hardline theology and patriarchal views. Read more.
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Wilson’s church and wider denomination practice complementarianism, the patriarchal idea that men and women have different God-given roles. Women in CREC churches cannot hold leadership positions; married women are to submit to their husbands.
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Founded in 1998, CREC is a network of more than 130 churches in the United States and abroad. It ascribes to a strict version of Reformed theology that puts a heavy emphasis on an all-powerful God who has dominion over all of society.
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CREC now has a closer relationship to the upper echelons of government. This has renewed scrutiny of Wilson’s other controversial views, including his downplaying of the horrors of Southern slavery in the U.S. But it’s also given Wilson a bigger stage.
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Qatar sentences the country's Baha'i leader to 5 years for social media posts |
The leader of the small Baha’i community in Qatar was sentenced to five years in prison for social media posts that allegedly “cast doubt on the foundations of the Islamic religion,” according to court documents obtained by an international Baha’i organization monitoring the case. A three-judge panel of Qatar’s Supreme Judiciary Council issued the verdict against Remy Rowhani, 71, who has been detained since April. Read more.
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The verdict came just two weeks after a group of U.N. human rights experts expressed “serious concern” about Rowhani's arrest and detention, which they depicted as “part of a broader and disturbing pattern of disparate treatment of the Baha’i minority in Qatar.”
The Baha’i faith — a small but global religion with an interfaith credo — fits comfortably into the religious spectrum of most countries but in several Middle Eastern nations, Baha’i followers face repression that is drawing criticism from rights groups.
- The abuse is most evident in Iran, which bans the faith and has been widely accused of persecuting Baha’i followers, human rights advocates say. They also report systemic discrimination in Yemen, Qatar and Egypt.
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Grave by grave, a new project in divided Cyprus tries to mend mistrust |
Greek and Turkish Cypriots are working together to restore cemeteries on both sides of divided Cyprus. They aim to mend mistrust and push for peace in a nation split since a Turkish invasion of the Mediterranean island five decades ago. Restoration work began in May and is seen as a symbolic act of reconciliation. The project is funded by the European Union and supported by the United Nations. Read more.
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Crews are fixing markers and clearing graves of weeds and detritus at 15 cemeteries on each side of the so-called Green Line cutting across the island. Expansion of the roughly 700,000-euro project ($815,000) to more cemeteries is being considered.
Turkey's 1974 invasion, triggered when Athens-backed supporters of uniting Cyprus with Greece mounted a coup, prompted some 160,000 Greek Cypriots to flee their villages to safety in the south, where the internationally recognized government is seated.
- Some 45,000 Turkish Cypriots moved north, where authorities declared independence a decade later.
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