CREEDE HINSHAW: Some stories you might have missed

Three religious stories you might have missed:

BUDDHIST-MUSLIM ANTAGONISM: From the standpoint of the West, religious strife usually involves Christians, Muslims and Jews. But sectarianism can rear its ugly, suspicious head anywhere.

When national elections were held in Myanmar earlier this month the opposition party led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, won a decisive, overwhelming victory. Now as her National League for Democracy bears the fruits of victory they face long-festering religious animosity between the overwhelmingly Buddhist majority and a weak, impoverished and disenfranchised Muslim minority.

Though Myanmar is 90 percent Buddhist a very conservative group of Buddhist monks, the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, has successfully pushed Myanmar to restrict conversions to other faiths and to make illegal interfaith marriage. The targets of these harsh laws are the powerless Rohingya people, even forbidden to vote in Myanmar. Suu Kyi will be called upon to denounce this hate-filled movement and to take steps to begin to include the victimized, isolated Rohingya into a newly democratized nation.

MORMONS CLARIFY THEIR POSITION ON GAY MARRIAGE: The Mormon Church recently added gay marriage to the list of sins their church considers apostasy, meaning that married gay and lesbian Mormons can be excommunicated from the church. In addition, children of same sex couples will not be able to join the church until they turn 18 and then only if they move out of their parents’ home. The Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) has long opposed gay marriage, spending millions of dollars of church money to oppose a gay marriage referendum in California.

The LDS was recently a key player in passage of laws in Utah to protect gay and lesbian persons in civil society. But within their church they will not tolerate such married persons in their congregation. Although I disagree with their church decision I respect their willingness to advocate in society for civil rights they will not embrace in their church. The Bill of Rights protects churches to set law and doctrine according to their belief structure. Not all that long ago Mormons were persecuted almost as severely as the Rohingya.

TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF RESTORED DRESDEN LUTHERAN CATHEDRAL: The Wall Street Journal, (Saturday/Sunday Oct. 24-25, 2015) notes that Dresden’s Frauenkirche (Lutheran), was completely destroyed during the allied firebombing of that German city in 1945. Reduced to a pile of rocks it stood for decades until Dresdeners rallied after the fall of the Berlin Wall to restore the church as a House of Peace.

Atop the altar, rebuilt in its entirety from splinters, is a cross of nails similar to a cross on the altar of the restored Coventry Cathedral, England. Coventry Cathedral, also a monument to reconciliation, was destroyed by German bombs. The cross topping the Dresden bell tower was created by an artisan whose father was one of the British pilots who bombed Dresden. Such tender touches surely make this 1743 church in the heart of Dresden a must-see for all who seek peace and reconciliation in our world. I hope, in light of the Paris massacre, that the church has been full these days.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].