Washington Post Blog – On Faith
By A. James Rudin| Religion News Service,
6. The Dalai Lama stepped down as the political leader of the Tibetan people. The exiled 76-year-old Buddhist leader will instead focus on his role as a global religious teacher.
7. Anti-Semitism continued unabated in many Islamic societies, as well as within some European academic, cultural and athletic groups. Such animosity, often justified as simply an expression of “anti-Zionism,” includes boycotts and sanctions directed against Israel.
8. There was a sharp drop in the number of active churchgoers in Europe, the continent that has long been the spiritual center of Christianity. Protestant and Catholic leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, have expressed concern about the decline of a visible and viable Christianity and the growing impact of “secularism.” Running counter to this trend, however, is the robust post-Communist assertion of Orthodox Christianity in parts of the former Soviet Union.
9. Seoul’s Yoido Full Gospel Church now numbers more than 1 million members, and it’s only one of many South Korean megachurches. In September, Korean authorities began investigating Cho Yong-gi, Yoida’s leader since 1958, who is alleged to have embezzled $20 million in church funds.
10. Among notable deaths in 2011 were composer Debbie Friedman, who transformed much of Jewish music in the world; Ambassador Sargent Shriver, a leader in the movement to help Soviet Jews; Harvard professor Oscar Handlin, the dean of American Jewish historians; Tullia Zevi, the longtime leader of the Italian Jewish community; and Esther Broner, a pioneer of Jewish feminism.
On a personal note, Leonard Weinglass, my college classmate and a prominent civil rights attorney, died this year. Lenny’s motto was “Refuse and Resist,” and he took on some of the nation’s most unpopular cases, including the trial of the Chicago Seven in 1970. I will miss him.
