Contemporary Issues in Credo: Religious Issues

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy before the embryo or fetus can live independently. Among physicians a miscarriage—the involuntary, spontaneous loss of a pregnancy for some physical reason—is also called an abortion, but in nonmedical circles the term is generally used to describe a voluntary procedure that ends a pregnancy before the fetus is viable.

Contraception is defined as the use of medications, devices, surgery, or sexual timing or practices to voluntarily avoid unintended pregnancy and to space childbirth. Birth control, family planning, fertility control, pregnancy prevention, and planned parenthood are other terms used for contraception. In the late 1960s the women’s movement gave rise to a reproductive rights movement whose goals encompassed legalizing abortion, promoting easier and safer contraception, and fighting racist and classist birth-control programs. The vibrancy and successes of that reproductive rights movement, as well as its broad attack on traditional gender roles, stimulated the backlash politics of the New Right.

Series of wars undertaken by European Christians between the 11th and 14th cent. to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Crusades constituted a global event for their times and provided a term that continues to be applied to strident, zealous effort. The Crusades were a set of religiously motivated military campaigns that occurred primarily from the 11th to the 13th centuries.

Amendment to the US Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion, of speech, of assembly, and of the press. Part of the Bill of Rights, it was ratified in 1791.

Rights (as freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution) regarded as belonging fundamentally to all persons. A right is an entitlement that is usually encoded in a legal context. One can distinguish between human rights and citizenship rights. citizenship rights are guaranteed by governments for nationals of a particular territory, whereas human rights are thought to be geographically and politically universal.

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is a U.S. law that specifies the conditions under which Native American human remains and certain classes of cultural items are subject to repatriation. The law covers human remains and items in the collections of US museums or federal agencies and also the remains of items that are recently discovered on federal or Indian land. The law remains controversial because it represents a compromise of Native American, scientific, and museum interests with respect to the disposition of these human remains or objects.

Same-sex marriage is the union of two people of the same sex that is sanctioned by the state. The term is often deployed to talk about legally registered same-sex civil unions or cohabitation. In everyday usage, the term is sometimes employed to denote unregistered same-sex partnerships that have been marked by commitment ceremonies.

From Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices
A test of the separation between church and state, the issue of mandatory prayer in public schools has been an ongoing and often controversial issue in the United States since the Cold War in the late 1940s and 1950s. The matter came to a head in the early 1960s, after a number of individuals filed federal lawsuits against public school districts for conducting prayer in the classroom and requiring students to take part.

1562-98, series of civil wars in France, also known as the Huguenot Wars.

From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
Term coined in 1879 by Wilhelm Marr, an anti-Jewish propagandist in Germany, to describe hatred of the Jews. The term is a misnomer, since it is used with reference to Jews only rather than to all Semites (including Arabs).

From Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices
In its engagement in the culture wars, Bob Jones University (BJU) fosters a tradition of Christian fundamentalism. As Bob Jones III said in 1989, we “are proud to be known as fundamentalist . . . we oppose all atheistic, agnostic, and humanistic attacks upon the scripture.” Mirroring the pattern of Christian fundamentalism generally, the university in recent years has become more actively involved in American politics.

US right-wing political pressure group founded in 1989 by the television evangelist Pat Robertson. The Christian Coalition aims to ‘stop the moral decay of government’ and to promote the election of ‘moral’ legislators.

Understood as a particular interpretation of the doctrine of creation, creationism refers to the belief that all species were created immediately by God rather than arising through evolution from pre-existing species, as taught by the scientific theory of natural selection.

Theory that some complex biological structures and other aspects of nature show evidence of having been designed by an intelligence. Such biological structures are said to have intricate components that are so highly interdependent and so essential to a particular function or process that the structures could not have developed through Darwinian evolution, and therefore must have been created or somehow guided in their development. Although intelligent design is distinguished from creationism by not relying on the biblical account of creation, it is compatible with a belief in God and is often explicitly linked with such a belief.

Afghan political and religious military force that seized control of southern and central Afghanistan, including the country's capital, Kabul, in September 1996. An Islamic regime was imposed, and by the end of 1996 the Taliban controlled two-thirds of the country. The Taliban (Persian “Madrasa Students” or “Seekers of Knowledge”) is a fundamentalist Islamist movement that ruled Afghanistan from September 1996, when they captured Kabul, through 2001, when a U.S.-led coalition forcibly removed them from power.

Sex segregation in education, including the issue of single-sex institutions, may be seen as one element in a much larger and extremely important issue-the question of women's and men's equal access to opportunity and equal position in society. Sex-segregated education is associated with beliefs about sex differentiation and the division of labor in societal institutions such as the family and the work-place.

Educators must be cognizant of gender when planning and implementing sexuality curricula. Expectations regarding appropriate gender role characteristics have changed considerably over past decades, especially for girls and women. The appropriate incorporation of gender differences in sexuality curricula should provide students with the climate for questioning the nature, validity, or origin of gender stereotypes.

The law governing the affairs of a Christian Church, especially the law created or recognized by papal authority in the Roman Catholic Church. In the Roman Catholic Church, the body of law based on the legislation of the councils (both ecumenical and local) and the popes, as well as the bishops (for diocesan matters). It is the law of the church courts and is formally distinguished from other parts of ecclesiastical law, such as liturgical law. However, when liturgical law overlaps with canon law, canon law normally prevails.

From The Reader's Companion to American History
In American religious and legal history, the terms church and state refer to the religious communities in their relation to the civil order. Strictly speaking, the two terms do not seem applicable to the United States.

From Dictionary of American Government and Politics
This is the clause in the First Amendment which lays down that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion' and thus makes it clear that the government – and Congress in particular – cannot establish an official national religion nor show preference to one religion over any other. Under the Incorporation Doctrine, the Supreme Court has applied the clause to state and local, as well as federal, government.

The pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, one of the five basic requirements (arkan or "pillars") of Islam. Its annual observance corresponds to the major holy day id al-adha, itself a commemoration of Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on Divine orders.

City in Saudi Arabia and, as birthplace of Muhammad, the holiest city of the Islamic world and a place of annual pilgrimage (the hajj).

Address to divine power, ranging from a ritual formula to attain a desired end, to selfless communication in meditation.

A system of thought, feeling, and action that is shared by a group and that gives the members an object of devotion; a code of behavior by which individuals may judge the personal and social consequences of their actions; and a frame of reference by which individuals may relate to their group and their universe. So far as archaeologists and anthropologists can tell, for as long as there have been humans there has been religion – at least in the sense that some of the earliest burials found show evidence of ritual associated with the dead continuing in another life. As to exactly how or why religion originated, and how it developed in pre-history, we can only make educated guesses.

A controversial 20th-century religion that aims at improving individuals and humanity as a whole.
Of all the new religions of the 20th century, Scientology is perhaps the most controversial. Its founder, its history, its beliefs and its practices have all come under intense scrutiny both from critics and in the courts.

Sharia is the religious law of Islam. As Islam makes no distinction between religion and life, Islamic law covers not only ritual but many aspects of life.

From Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices
With ties to mid-nineteenth-century tent revivals, televangelism in contemporary America pursues new converts through the mass media. Widely associated with bombastic preaching, gospel revelry, and sometimes faith healing, the “electronic church” is not merely the business of evangelical Christians. As a particularly North American phenomenon, it also reflects social, cultural, and economic currents.

Adoration and service of God or gods. This service involves reverence, awe, and wonder, and may take many different forms.

Pope (2005-2013); successor of John Paul II. Born Josef Alois (Joseph Aloisius) Ratzinger in Germany. He entered the seminary in 1939, but his training was interrupted by World War II. Named archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977 and cardinal shortly thereafter, he subsequently served (1981–2005) as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II. In February 2013, Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign in 600 years, breaking a tradition of life tenure that stretched back to Gregory XII. His stepping down, for reasons of age, was seen by some as establishing a new tradition for the modern era, a time requiring a more active pope. He officially became pope emeritus; Francis was elected to succeed him.

From Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices
The long-time outspoken leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Abdul Farrakhan has stirred controversy for decades over his advocacy of black separatism as well as his often incendiary social commentary and “hate speech.”

From The Religious Right: A Reference Handbook
Although less active politically than other key figures in the religious right, Billy Graham can be credited with practicing a biblically based and passionate style of evangelism that set the standard for many others. He helped to make evangelical Christianity acceptable once again to the general American public.

Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th and current Dalai Lama of Tibet, former head of the Tibetan government in exile, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and recognized spiritual leader of Tibet. Tenzin Gyatso was born into a relatively poor family on the northeastern borders of the Tibetan world. At the age of four, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama.

Pope (1978–2005) A Pole (b. Wadowice) named Karol Józef Wojtyła; successor of John Paul I. He was the first non-Italian pope elected since the Dutch Adrian VI (1522–23) and the first Polish and Slavic pope.

US Baptist minister and civil rights leader. Throughout his life, King remained committed to nonviolent direct action as a means of effecting social change. The son and grandson of prominent African American ministers, each of whom bequeathed a legacy of activism in the cause of black civil rights, Martin Luther King, Jr., born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, was the most influential leader of the American civil rights movement.

An Albanian nun who devoted her life to working among the sick and poor of Calcutta, Mother Teresa built up a worldwide order of more than 3,000 Missionaries of Charity in eighty-seven countries and was revered as a living “saint of the gutters”; her elevation to official sainthood now awaits the approval of the Roman Catholic Church.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African priest who became the first African to serve as archbishop of Cape Town.