Religion News in Brief 24th February 2017
Pope seen as exemplar of religion
According to Crux Now, a Muslim refugee has proclaimed Pope Francis an example of religion to her. Nur Essa, a Syrian Muslim refugee, was surprised at the openness of the Pope to the Muslim refugee. That openness was expressed in tolerance of other faiths.
“(He is) very open to all of the cultures, all of the religions,” Nur Essa exclaimed, “and he sets an example for all the religious people in the world, because he uses religion to serve the human being.”
Essa described the Pope as a very simple and modest individual, which was seen by her, and her husband, as a positive thing. The family was chosen to see the Pope after travelling from Damascus to Turkey, and then Turkey to Greece.
Migration changes religion
The Anxious Bench reports that migrants carry their religion with them and the lands that the religions a
re brought to do not remain unchanged. The author of the report used Oscar Handlin’s The Uprooted to quote and make a point.
Handlin wrote, “Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.” The report makes the argument that migration, firstly, encourages people to form new communities, typically religious.
As well, it tends to sever those individuals from their homelands, where there is a “special spiritual significance” to it. Both “taken together, these factors stir both religiosity and religious innovation.” So migration changes religion.
Religion education changes to happen in Greece
Greek Reporter states that the Greek Education Minister, Constantinos Gavroglou, announced the new changes to be ma
de in the education surrounding religion in Greece in the near future.
The change will be in “History, Ancient Greek, and Mathematics.” Gerasimos Kouzelis, President of the Institute of Educational Policy, told the outlet, Proto Thema, “That there will be radical changes in Religion classes and in the beginning of the new school year.” “We will try the new material in the new (school) year and make an assessment,” Kouzelis said, when he was explaining that “Greek Orthodoxy will be prominently presented, as it is the nation’s official religion.”
Originally published at conatusnews.com on February 24, 2017.
