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RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Those three events may have been more dramatic and grabbed more headlines than most instances of violent persecution, but they were by no means isolated. Open Doors, an organization which advocates for persecuted Christians, estimated that between October 2019 and September 2020, over 4,700 Christians were killed around the world for their faith. There were also close to 6,000 incidents of arrests or abduction of Christians due to their religion. By their estimation, 340 million Christians live in countries where they are subject to persecution.
TOLERANCE
But what about the person who gives his or her life willingly, for total strangers? How do you express the proper level of admiration and gratitude to those who have lost their lives in service to others through their humanitarian work?
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Courageously, former supermodel and fashion entrepreneur Kathy Ireland made the Yezidis her cause. According to the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation: “As this horrific genocide unfolded, Kathy not only lobbied Congress to respond, but responded herself by supporting women-led initiatives to rescue Yezidis and address the hatred and prejudices that created an environment where such atrocities could occur. To this day, almost 3,000 Yezidi women and children remain missing and almost 300,000 Yezidis still live in displacement camps in northern Iraq.
TOLERANCE
How many of us take care to verify the rumors we hear by making our own observations? Whether the source is trusted, questionable or entirely unreliable, are we keeping a watchful eye on how we are influenced by that source’s “information” or are we letting our opinions, actions and lives get knocked around by others like a ball in a pinball machine?
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
On the morning of June 24, safe in my studio in rural upstate New York, I tuned into my usual morning mix of email and news blurbs, casually rendering mental opinions on the latest political tempests-in-their-teapots.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The story reads like a sordid crime novel, with Ortega as willing accomplice, motivated by greed and devoid of human decency. It might be entertaining, were it not for the real-life victims of his complacency and collusion—children sold on Backpage as sex slaves, victims of sexual violence, physical and psychological abuse, and murder—the details of which are well-documented.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
It’s a familiar story the world over. To bigots, opportunists and fools, to be indigenous is a badge of inferiority. Over the centuries, indigenous people, be they the 40,000-year-old Hadzabe of Tanzania or the Yakye Axa of Paraguay or the Okieks of Kenya or the Nimiipuu of Idaho (known more familiarly as the Nez Perce), have seen their sacred lands desecrated, their people decimated, their territorial rights, culture, and language ignored and above all, the rights to their own identity threatened.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
When all is said and done, and when the ink has dried and the contest is at an end, in the game of baseball, as well as in the game of life, the only question that really matters is, “Can you play the game?”
TOLERANCE
If I were a traditional journalist, I would not interview Bishop Jon Fish of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He makes no accusations, nurses no grudges, minimizes conflicts, ignores those who denigrate his faith, and works to spread understanding and inclusion. He’s a “glass half full” kind of guy, and a journalist or an editor looking for a quick piece of clickbait or a mean-spirited comment for “controversy” would come up empty.
MEDIA & ETHICS
Reading the dramatic daily headlines, it seems as though things are falling apart. But it’s not usually as bad as it seems. It’s important to remember how modern press was built—on creating alarm.
