Church Politics and the Genocide in Rwanda

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Longman
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Lay Leaders ◽  
Church Involvement ◽  
Major Site ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
The Face ◽  
Church Personnel

AbstractChristian churches were deeply implicated in the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsi in Rwanda. Churches were a major site for massacres, and many Christians participated in the slaughter, including church personnel and lay leaders. Church involvement in the genocide can be explained in part because of the historic link between church and state and the acceptance of ethnic discrimination among church officials. In addition, just as political officials chose genocide as a means of reasserting their authority in the face of challenges from a democracy movement and civil war, struggles over power within Rwanda's Christian churches led some church leaders to accept the genocide as a means of eliminating challenges to their own authority within the churches.

Óscar Romero and the Politics of Sainthood

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-291
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Vasquez ◽  
Anna L. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil War ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Holy See ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
Crisis Of Modernity ◽  
The One

In this article, we explore the debates surrounding the proposed canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, an outspoken defender of human rights and the poor during the civil war in El Salvador, who was assassinated in March 1980 by paramilitary death squads while saying Mass. More specifically, we examine the tension between, on the one hand, local and popular understandings of Romero’s life and legacy and, on the other hand, transnational and institutional interpretations. We argue that the reluctance of the Vatican to advance Romero’s canonization process has to do with the need to domesticate and “privatize” his image. This depoliticization of Romero’s work and teachings is a part of a larger agenda of neo-Romanization, an attempt by the Holy See to redeploy a post-colonial and transnational Catholic regime in the face of the crisis of modernity and the advent of postmodern relativism. This redeployment is based on the control of local religious expressions, particularly those that advocate for a more participatory church, which have proliferated with contemporary globalization

scholarly journals Public Health, Systems Change, Justice and the Work of the Kingdom

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-19
Author(s):  
Robert E Aronson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Public Health Systems ◽  
New Jerusalem ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
The Face ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Personal Decision ◽  
The Church

Disparities in population health statuses are tied to inequities in society, and not just differences in personal decision-making and behavior.  Christians should (and must) play a role in confronting these inequities, based upon three biblical themes: 1) the instructions in the book of Leviticus regarding the Sabbath year and the Year of Jubilee as a way to protect the economic system from producing insurmountable inequities and degrading the environment; 2) the eschatological image of the New Jerusalem in the book of Isaiah, with its focus on Shalom in contrast to a religion focused on personal piety in the face of oppression and social injustice; and 3) Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom, which include its imminence and the counter-cultural nature of its ethic.  The notion of the kingdom can be applied in the lives of Christians (particularly those involved in public health) through individual acts, corporate acts in the context of the church, and state-led actions to bring about social change to achieve social justice. Social change can be described as an act of reconciliation in which systems of society are redeemed by the power of kingdom principles.  

scholarly journals Unknown Siberian Poems by Vasily Yan

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-227
Author(s):  
I. V. Prosvetov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Free Verse ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Face ◽  
Poetic Style ◽  
At Home

The first publication of poems by the Soviet writer-historian, 1st degree Stalin Prize laureate Vasily Yan (Yanchevetsky), composed in 1920–1923, when he lived and worked in Siberia. Source – handwritten miscellany “Poems of Wanderings”, recently discovered in the Yanchevetskys’ family archive. The publication is accompanied by detailed biographical comments. In the civil war, V. Yanchevetsky took part on the side of the whites as one of the main propagandists of the Kolchak army – the head of the Informative Department of the Special Chancellery of the Supreme Commander’s Staff, editor of the front newspaper “Vperyod”. After the collapse of the white movement, V. Yanchevetsky had to hide his past, changing occupations and places of residence (Achinsk, Uyuk, Minusinsk). The Siberian po- etic cycle, created at this time, makes it possible to understand not only the mood of the author in the last years of the turning point in Russian history, but also literary searches, and the atmosphere of the time in general. The main themes are homeland, revolution, freedom, atheism, building a new life, preserving the personality in the face of political upheavals. Obviously, the influence on the poetic style of the author of such trends as symbolism and futurism, which he was interested in. In Omsk V. Yanchevetsky closely communicated with the writer, poet and avant-garde artist Anton Sorokin, attended his literary evenings at home. Probably, as a result, some of the Siberian poems were written in free verse, to which V. Yanchevetsky had never used before.

scholarly journals An attack on the Cross: Spiritual leaders’ accounts of fear and resilience during COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mammusa Rosinah Lekoa ◽  
Sibusiso Louis Ntuli
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Spiritual Leaders ◽  
Vulnerable Communities ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Essential Services ◽  
The Face ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

This paper provides accounts on the impact that COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown(s) had on the Church and its leaders in the South African context. The study explores challenges that the leaders faced and how they dealt with them to remain standing despite their fears. The context is COVID-19 pandemic, which brought mass deaths, fear, confusion and frustration to congregations globally. Church leaders faced a challenge to show resilience amid fear because they too were directly affected. Governments introduced regulations that imposed lockdowns to control the spread of the virus. Limiting contact by restricting distance amongst citizens. The church was one sector that could not operate. Although some sectors were never declared essential services like churches, this left vulnerable communities without support in the face of fear. Spiritual leaders had to demonstrate resilience to support the congregants. The key question the researchers seek to understand is to what extent did the church remain resilient during COVID-19 pandemic? And how did the church leaders deal with fear despite anointing and expectations from the congregants and communities? A qualitative approach was used in this study. COVID-19 has shown that Church leaders are humans and they are also fearful, however their faith in God has assisted them to show resilience even at this difficult time. The study also asserts that governments should consult different groupings of faith-based organisations, not only those that are under organised bodies before embarking on restrictions for pandemic control. Communities encompass many churches and leaders require support to assist them from church members.

We Are Men and Braves

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Cutrer
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Santa Fe ◽  
Western Frontier ◽  
Santa Fe Trail ◽  
The Face

Deals with the Union’s attempt, during a greater civil war in the East, to retain control of the Western frontier and, in particular, the Santa Fe Trail and other routes to California, in the face of Native American—particularly Apache and Navajo—resistance.

Godly Pastors and their Congregations in Mid-Seventeenth-Century London

Church Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Elliot Vernon
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Lord's Supper ◽  
Lay Leaders ◽  
Parish Community ◽  
Church Life ◽  
Parish Churches ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the relationship between pastor and congregation in the London parishes during the Interregnum. It addresses how godly ministers, called on by Parliament at the outbreak of the Civil War to reform parochial discipline and prevent the ‘promiscuous multitude’ from polluting the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in England’s parish churches, negotiated issues of authority, changes to worship and liturgy, and the already contentious issues of patronage and finance. These factors forced ministers to look to the lay leaders of the parish, whether as elders or vestrymen, making them subject to factional struggles within the church life of the parish community. This chapter assesses the establishment and operation of Presbyterianism in London’s parishes during the 1640s and 1650s, as well as the practical difficulties, economic and administrative, that godly pastors experienced at the parochial level as a result of the dismantling of the Church of England.

Democracy in Spain

2018 ◽  
pp. 53-76
Author(s):  
Javier Fernández-Sebastián ◽  
Gonzalo Capellán de Miguel
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
The People ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Revolution

Spanish traditions of mixed monarchy were revived in the face of Napoleonic occupation, and later championed by opponents of restored autocracy. Discussions of ‘democracy’ as an option for modern Spain were both encouraged and constrained by this setting. Popular support for the absolutist claimant in the civil war of the 1830s set the scene for endorsements of Doctrinaire liberalism, entailing vesting power in the propertied and educated, for the benefit of the people. But sharp differences over how inclusive such a governing class should be encouraged some to argue for something more radically inclusive. A ‘democratic party’ first emerged among left-liberals in the 1840s, persisting as a force in Spanish politics thereafter. During the 1850s and 60s, there were many calls for democracy, variously interpreted. Democracy provided a leitmotif of politics after the revolution of 1868, leading subsequent historians to describe it as having inaugurated a ‘democratic sexennio’.

Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Apocalyptic Trajectories

2020 ◽  
pp. 217-270
Author(s):  
Christopher James Blythe
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
First Century ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
The Face ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Final Group

This chapter documents the fracturing of end-of-world belief among Latter-day Saints in the twentieth century. Church leaders re-envisioned apocalypticism as a “moderate millenarianism.” At the same time, Mormon fundamentalists—deemed heretics by many church leaders—deployed apocalypticism to challenge the processes of Americanization, adding the church’s own apostasy as a distinctive part of their last days chronology. Finally, radical apocalypticism continued to find resonance with a contingent of committed Latter-day Saints. This chapter wrestles with how this final group has been able to negotiate their apocalyptic sentiments and LDS affiliation even in the face of continual criticism. Most importantly, it is in this chapter that the author demonstrates how apocalyptic ideas of any variety continued to be perpetuated in private and family circles.

Mao, Lin Biao and the Fifth Encirclement Campaign

1980 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 250-280
Author(s):  
Chi-hsi Hu
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
The Third ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
The Face ◽  
Important Landmark ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

In more respects than one, the Fifth Encirclement Campaign launched by Chiang Kai-shek in 1933–34 against the Jiangxi Soviet may be considered as an important landmark in contemporary Chinese history. From a purely military standpoint, in view of its scope and the particular means used, it is undoubtedly the first modern Chinese campaign. General Jacques Guillermaz points out, quite rightly, that “the methodical nature of the operations, the importance given to fire power and logistical resources, and the tactical use of large and small units all bring the Fifth Campaign closer to certain phases of the 1914–18 war than to traditional Chinese civil wars.” Precisely because of its scope and its methodical nature, the Fifth Campaign, rather than the first four, led Mao, after the Long March, to evolve a theory of guerrilla warfare which “has broken out of the bounds of tactics to knock at the gates of strategy.” This theory, applied first of all to the war against Japan and later to the Third Revolutionary Civil War, was to change the face of China.

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