No Images? Click here The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day. State Department: ISIS Poses a Grave Threat to Religious FreedomIn a recent report on international religious freedom, the U.S. State Department highlighted how the Middle Eastern terrorist group ISIS remains one of the world’s most significant threats to religious freedom. “America’s promotion of international religious freedom demands standing up for the rights of the world’s most vulnerable populations,” says Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the preface to the report. “ISIS’ brutal treatment of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East has drawn a great degree of attention over the last few years.” Tillerson adds that ISIS continues to “target members of multiple religions and ethnicities for rape, kidnapping, enslavement, and death,” and is “clearly responsible for genocide against Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims in areas it controlled.” Tillerson explained that the crime of genocide requires three elements: specific acts with specific intent to destroy in whole or in part specific people, members of national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups. Application of the law to the facts at hand leads to the conclusion ISIS is clearly responsible for genocide against Christians, Shia Muslims, and Yezidis in areas it controls or has controlled, he added. The State Department reports that in areas under ISIS control, the terrorist group continued to commit individual and mass killings, and to engage in rape, kidnapping, random detentions and mass abductions, torture, abduction and forced conversion of non-Muslim male children, and the enslavement and sex trafficking of women and girls from minority religious communities. ISIS has committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups, and in some cases against Sunni Muslims, Kurds, and other minorities, notes the report. More recently ISIS has claimed responsibility for attacks on Christian pilgrims and churches in Egypt. “The protection of these groups—and others who are targets of violent extremism—remains a human rights priority for the Trump Administration,” says Tillerson. The report also details the status of religious freedom in 199 countries and territories. “Almost 80 percent of the global population live with restrictions on or hostilities to limit their freedom of religion,” says Tillerson. “Where religious freedom is not protected, we know that instability, human rights abuses, and violent extremism have a greater opportunity to take root.” This week on ERLC podcasts: While there are no new podcasts this week, here are the ones from last week in case you missed them: Daniel Darling talks to Andrew Walker about his brand-new book, God and the Transgender Debate. On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Matt Hawkins and Steven Harris share a conversation as they process the events in Charlottesville and the bold revival of racism and anti-Semitism in America. And on the ERLC podcast, Sharn Ford talks about preparing for adoption’s hardships. Other IssuesAmerican CultureGod or the divine is referenced in every state constitution
Court Says Arkansas Can Block Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood
Hollywood Wants to Force This Profanity-Filtering Service Out of Business, and May Succeed
BioethicsThe disturbing, eugenics-like reality unfolding in Iceland
Christianity and CultureHow a Multiethnic Church Is Chasing the Dream in MLK’s Last Stop
4,000 Faith Leaders Oppose Repeal of Johnson Amendment
Floyd named National Day of Prayer president
Gaines, McKissic, others talk race and SBC
Family IssuesThe Biological Effects of Father Loss: An Interview with Daniel Notterman
International IssuesCambodia Lets Anti-Trafficking Ministry Stay After Controversial News Report
Religious LibertyCan Trump’s Religious Freedom Ambassador Actually Succeed?
St. Louis’s Unholy War on Religious Liberty
Sexuality IssuesMost ‘sex workers’ are modern-day slaves
Transgender students win legal battles
My ‘Sex Change’ Was a Myth. Why Trying to Change One’s Sex Will Always Fail.
|