World War I at 100: New books examine the battle of beliefs behind the ‘Great War’

(RNS) Some called it “The Great War.” Others called it “The War to End All Wars.” History proves it was neither.

As the world marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I — a conflict that left 37 million dead or wounded and reshaped the global map — a number of scholars and authors are examining a facet of the war they say has been overlooked — the religious framework they say led to the conflict, affected its outcome and continues to impact global events today.

More than that, they argue, today’s religious and political realities — ongoing wars, disputed borders and hostile relationships — have their roots in the global conflict that began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.

“You can’t understand the war fully without investigating the religious dimensions of the war,” said Jonathan Ebel, an associate professor of religion at the University of Illinois whose “Faith in the Fight: The American Soldier in the Great War” has just been issued in paperback.

“I would be the first to tell you the Great War was not a war of religion, but I think a big part of people’s understanding of what they were doing in the war, or why the war made sense to them, comes from religion.”

“Faith in the Fight” explores how American soldiers, field nurses and doctors and other aid workers used their religious experience to face the war. Reading through letters, memoirs and other contemporary accounts, Ebel discovered that rather than disillusioning those who fought the war, it somehow reinforced their ties to religion.

“The experience might have been something that knocked people off their beliefs, made them question,” Ebel said. “But based on the material I was able to draw on, the war for many Americans was not a disillusioning experience. Rather, it confirmed the illusions — if you want to call them that — of why they entered the war.”

Ebel draws a line from the “masculine Christianity” of the early 20th century (evangelist Billy Sunday’s enormously popular revivals often included military recruiting tents) to the way combatants and support workers thought of the war. Soldiers scribbled lines of Scripture on their gas masks, marked their calendars with a cross for each day they survived combat, and opened the pages of the Stars and Stripes military newspaper to read poems comparing them to the heroes of the Old Testament.

“The culture of pre-war America gave America images, ideas and beliefs perfectly tailored to war,” he writes.

VIEW: SIX MUST-READ BOOKS ON RELIGION’S ROLE IN WORLD WARS I & II

That is echoed on a global stage in “The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade” by Philip Jenkins, a professor of history and religion at Baylor University. The book pulls the lens back from individual Americans to highlight the religious imagery, rhetoric and symbolism used by all sides in the war to further their goals.

Several countries — especially Russia and Germany — saw the war as a fulfillment of their unique destinies as the kingdom of God. But Europe did not have room for so many countries with the same aspiration.

“You can toss a coin as to which country to blame, but their two clashing visions made war inevitable,” Jenkins said. “If you do not understand the messianic and apocalyptic imagery used by all sides, and how wide-ranging those images were among all classes, all groups, all nations, you cannot hope to understand the war.”

Jenkins gathers numerous examples of biblical images of angels, demons, apocalypse and righteousness and shows how both sides in the war used them to justify the fight and rally support at home. It is no wonder, he writes, that the war was frequently referred to as “apocalyptic,” or even as Armageddon, the final battle the New Testament says will restore a heavenly kingdom.

“I could almost rewrite my book in terms of angels,” he said, citing one of the most frequently used — and believed in — images of the war. The most famous example are the so-called “Angel of Mons” — ghost soldiers from the 15th-century Battle of Agincourt led by St. George who supposedly appeared on the the British lines in France.

But the ghost soldiers were the post-Mons invention of Welsh poet Arthur Machen. Yet when he pointed out they were a fiction, people accused him of suppressing the truth.

“You don’t get anything like that in World War II,” Jenkins said of the belief in angels on the battlefield. “In World War II, there were hundreds of depictions of angels, but they were all in films and books that were clearly fantasy and fiction. But the angel stories in World War I were taken seriously.”

But if the angels were fictions, the new realities established at the end of the war in 1918 were very real and still affect global religion and politics today, Jenkins writes. After the war, Jenkins said, Jews felt a more urgent need for a land of their own. The push for a Jewish homeland gained momentum and led to the establishment of Israel in 1948 — and to the conflicts between Israel and some of its neighbors today.

Adolf Hitler, too, latched on to the widespread humiliation that permeated a defeated Germany to establish his Third Reich, sowing the seeds for the Holocaust that would leave 6 million Jews (and millions of others) slaughtered.

Jenkins also traces the contemporary push for an Islamic caliphate — or Muslim kingdom — by contemporary groups such as The Islamic State and al-Qaida to World War I. In many ways, the Middle East map we know in 2014 has its origins in the aftermath of World War I.

“The end of the caliphate (after World War I) removed the certainty of faith and state for Muslims,” Jenkins said. “It was an uncharted wilderness. And what most of them have tried to figure out for the last 90 years is how do you live in that wilderness?”

He also tracks the rise of African Christianity to World War I, which he said exposed the previously isolated continent to new ideas and new faiths as they fought alongside or supported their European colonizers in the war.

“This was an era of mass movements, healings, religious risings, nationalist Christian restructuring, Marian visions,” Jenkins writes of Africa in 1918 and beyond. “When the newer churches write their history, they will give pride of place to those critical years after 1915, when believers tried to make sense of a world plunged into destructive insanity.”

KRE/AMB END WINSTON

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Pope Francis appeals for peace with Shimon Peres, Mahmoud Abbas

VATICAN CITY (RNS) As Israel continued its ground offensive into the Gaza Strip, Pope Francis urged Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end the spiraling conflict.

Pope Francis reviews the honor guard with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during an arrival ceremony at the presidential palace in Bethlehem, West Bank, on May 25, 2014. Photo by Paul Haring, courtesy of Catholic News Service This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

The pontiff telephoned the two leaders on Friday (July 18) to express “his very serious concerns” only six weeks after both joined him at the Vatican for a historic prayer meeting.

Francis said he was concerned about the “climate of growing hostility, hatred and suffering” that was claiming many victims, resulting in “a serious humanitarian emergency,” the Vatican said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not attend the Vatican prayer meeting in June, has said he is prepared to “significantly widen” Israel’s action against militants in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of troops moved into areas of Gaza on Thursday night, backed by tanks and artillery fire, while Hamas, the Palestinian organization that controls Gaza, has warned Israel will “pay a high price” for the invasion.

At the end of the joint prayer service with Peres and Abbas in June, Francis urged the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to act with courage and seek peace in the Middle East.

Given the rapidly degenerating situation in Gaza, the pope’s plea now seems like a very dim prospect.

The Vatican said the pope considers the two men to be “men of peace” and Francis reminded the two leaders of the need for both sides and those who hold political office to work to end the hostilities and promote peace.

The pope also sent a personal message to 200 Catholic missionaries working in Gaza to express his support and tell them he was praying for them, according to the Italian daily La Stampa.

KRE/AMB END McKENNA

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Obama to employers: Notify workers if you’re dropping contraceptive coverage

WASHINGTON — Employers that intend to drop coverage for some or all forms of contraception in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision must notify employees of the change, the Obama administration said Thursday (July 17).

The Obama administration, through the U.S. Department of Labor, has announced that employers who intend to drop coverage for some or all forms of contraception in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision must notify employees of the change. Public domain image

The notice was posted on the Department of Labor website as a new “frequently asked question” about the Affordable Care Act, the health care law passed in 2010 and still being implemented.

The Supreme Court ruled last month that closely held corporations whose owners have religious objections to offering certain types of birth control in their health plans must be allowed to opt out of the government’s contraception requirement. The case was brought by Hobby Lobby, a national chain of craft stores, and Conestoga Wood Specialties.

The timing of the notice came after the Senate failed Wednesday to pass Democratic legislation that would have reversed the high court’s ruling. Faced with Republican opposition, the measure failed to get the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle.

Under the health care law, most corporations are required to provide 20 forms of birth control to female workers without cost-sharing. Churches and other religious organizations are excluded. Religious non-profit groups are allowed to sign a form indicating their objection, triggering a process in which employees still will get the coverage — but that accommodation is being contested in court.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling, which came on the last day of its term, more companies are likely to drop coverage of some or all contraceptives. The Labor Department notice is intended to warn employees.

“For plans that reduce or eliminate coverage of contraceptive services after having provided such coverage, expedited disclosure requirements for material reductions in covered services or benefits apply,” the department said.

(RIchard Wolf writes for USA Today)

KRE END WOLF

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COMMENTARY: Why evangelicals’ love for Jews is a case of unrequited love

(RNS) According to a new survey, white evangelical Christians feel a lot of warmth toward Jews.

Michael Schulson is a freelance writer based in Durham, N.C. RNS photo courtesy Michael Schulson

As for Jews, they feel colder toward evangelical Christians than they do about any other religious group.

Cue the Taylor Swift ballads: We have here a serious case of unrequited love.

To gauge the interreligious emotions of the American public, the Pew Research Center asked thousands of Americans about their religious identification, and then asked them to rate other religious groups on “a feeling thermometer,” where a zero was “the coldest, most negative possible rating” and 100 was “the warmest, most positive” response.

With a wildly subjective metric and results that invite massive generalizations, the survey deserves a skeptical look.

Still, the discrepancy in the Jewish-evangelical relationship is too large to dismiss. White evangelicals gave Jews a full 69 percent of emotional warmth (very high, by the survey’s standards), while Jewish respondents gave evangelical Christians a frosty 34 percent — one of the lowest ratings in the entire Pew data set.

Jews rated Catholics pretty favorably, so we can’t explain this result as a response to Christianity as a whole.

Heavy-handed efforts to convert Jews — such as the Southern Baptist Convention’s 1996 resolution on Jewish evangelism — have not endeared certain evangelical denominations to their Jewish neighbors. And some Jews may struggle to forget anti-Semitic comments made in the past by evangelical leaders, including Billy Graham.

But the real issue here is not that evangelicals don’t love Jews enough. It’s that certain evangelical communities sometimes love Jews way, way too much — or, more accurately, love an image of what they believe Jews to be.

Seeking a return to pre-Christian roots, churches hold Passover seders and blow shofars during services. Evangelical support for Israel is legendary. Liberty University, the evangelical school in Lynchburg, Va., even has a Judaic studies program that, as its director told the Liberty student newspaper, “tries to communicate to the Liberty community that we as Christians owe a debt of gratitude to the Jewish people.”

An employee of a Jewish federation recently told me about the letters, overflowing with praise for the Jewish people, accompanied by donations that occasionally arrive from eager Protestants.

There’s a term for this flavor of affection: philo-Semitism, or the love of Jewishness and Jewish culture. For some, this kind of love may represent an unmitigated good — especially in contrast to the anti-Semitism that has haunted so much of Jewish history.

More often than not, though, evangelical upwelling of philo-Semitism seems to have little to do with actual Jewish people, and more to do with Jewishness as an abstract theological concept.

A lot of evangelical support for Israel, for example, grows out of certain strains of dispensationalist theology, in which the Jews’ return to Israel is seen as a prerequisite for the Second Coming.

Meanwhile, in a 2004 address, televangelist Pat Robertson didn’t even try to hide the degree to which his understanding of Jewish history served his own theological ends: “You are the living witnesses that the promises of the Sovereign Lord are true,” he told an Israeli audience, after suggesting that the last 2,500 years of Jewish survival served as “primary evidence” for the existence of God.

Elsewhere, in an essay at the orthodox Christian magazine First Things, Joe Carter examined “our philo-Semitism” and concluded “we evangelicals have a special affection for our Jewish neighbor” in part “because we know that God had a special affection for them too.” The sentiment, while kind, should be familiar: Jews are likable because of their role in Christian theology.

When evangelicals speak about Jews this way, they shouldn’t be surprised if their love goes unrequited. At its core, philo-Semitism has much in common with anti-Semitism. Both approaches view Jewishness as an abstract monolith, and both endow Jews with particular historical roles — roles, it seems, that are rarely of the Jews’ own choosing.

For centuries, the powers that be defined Jewish people in terms of New Testament themes and archetypes. The modern world has offered remarkable opportunities for Jews themselves to figure out what, exactly, Jewish peoplehood might look like.

As a young Jew, I can’t help but see expressions of evangelical philo-Semitism as an attempt to keep Jewishness in its New Testament box, and to continue the old fallacy of conflating the Jewish people (of Bible fame) with living Jewish people — a diverse bunch of folks, muddling along, who have not always benefited from being evaluated in light of ancient Scriptures.

Fortunately, for those evangelicals who find themselves prey to an unreciprocated philo-Semitism, the annals of unrequited love may hold some useful advice: In relationships, you really can’t start out trying to change someone. And if you genuinely want things to work, you have to court an actual person, not just a projection of whoever you wish them to be.

(Michael Schulson is a freelance writer in Durham, N.C. He writes about religion, science, and culture.)

YS/AMB END SCHULSON

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English fashion designer launches updated clerical line for women

Camelle Daley, a London-trained fashion designer who founded the label House of ilona, has launched a new range of clerical wear for women in the Church of England. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Self This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

CANTERBURY, England (RNS) A London-trained fashion designer has launched a new range of clerical wear for women in the Church of England.

Camelle Daley, who founded the label House of ilona, says it’s high time for a shake-up among Anglican clergy who, like Roman Catholic priests, still wear traditional black shirt and collar.

Daley said she got the idea when a recently ordained friend said she wanted a new look for a new age.

The result?

Daley’s collection, now selling briskly, includes peplum dresses and tops, classic black dresses and a fitted green blouse with chiffon detail.

She has received hundreds of orders from women, who now make up one-third of the clergy in this country’s established church.

“Today, more than ever, women in ministry are complaining about the boxy, shapeless shirts on offer,” she said. “Why should a woman’s style go from stylish and elegant to manly and boxy when she is dressed in her clerical attire for ministering?”

Camelle Daley, a London-trained fashion designer who founded the label House of ilona, has launched a new range of clerical wear for women in the Church of England. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Self This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

The launch of her clerical clothes coincides with the 20th anniversary of the ordination of women as priests in the Church of England.

Within a year or so it’s likely that women will be consecrated as bishops.

“The style is not about flaunting the body,” added Daley. “It is about clothes that accommodate the female shape in cut and fit.”

For Daley, the latest line is a labor of love.

“I love designing,” she said. “This is my way of giving back to the women in ministry who have affected my life so greatly.”

YS/MG END GRUNDY

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Pope Paul VI to be beatified this fall: Will one miracle be sign of sainthood?

VATICAN CITY (RNS) After weeks of speculation, Pope Francis made it official on Saturday (May 10) that Pope Paul VI could become the latest pope poised to become a saint after a miracle was accredited to Paul’s intercession.

(1978) Pope Paul VI died Aug. 6, 1978, at the age of 80 after suffering a heart attack in his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Religion News Service file photo This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

Paul VI died in 1978 after a 15-year pontificate. He is remembered by many for his 1968 ban on contraception and as the first pope to visit Israel before the Vatican officially recognized the Jewish state.

The Vatican said Francis had approved the decree authorizing the beatification of his predecessor, less than two weeks after the canonization of two other iconic popes of the 20th century — John XXIII and John Paul II.

The beatification ceremony is scheduled to take place Oct. 19 at the end of the Synod of Bishops’ meeting on the family in Rome.

At least one miracle is required for beatification, and a second miracle is normally required for sainthood. Francis, however, waived the second miracle requirement in the case of John XXIII. It is unclear whether Paul VI, born Giovanni Battista Montini, will be similarly fast-tracked.

Paul was elected in 1963 and implemented the reforms started by his predecessor, John XXIII, with the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). During Paul’s pontificate, he wrote seven encyclicals, including the “Humanae Vitae” (Of Human Life), published in 1968, which outlined a hard-line position on birth control.

The Vatican did not confirm details of the recognized miracle, but according to a report in Credere, the weekly magazine of the Pauline Fathers, it involved the birth of a baby in California in the 1990s.

In a recent report, the magazine said the fetus was in a critical condition during the 24th week of the pregnancy and doctors advised the woman to terminate the pregnancy. Instead, she reportedly placed an image of the late pontiff and a remnant of his vestments on her stomach and began praying to him.

The baby was born healthy at the 39th week of the pregnancy and witnesses were unable to explain the change in the baby’s condition. The Vatican launched official inquiries into the case in 2003, and medical experts officially confirmed the inexplicable nature of the child’s recovery last year.

KRE/MG END McKENNA

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Fired Tenn. pharmacist sues Walgreens alleging religious bias

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) A Tennessee pharmacist and a Baptist church deacon who lost his job after an ongoing dispute over selling Plan B contraception has sued his former bosses, claiming he was fired because of his religious beliefs.

Lawyers for Philip M. Hall of Jamestown, Tenn., filed suit against the Walgreens drugstore chain in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on Tuesday (Feb. 11), claiming it discriminated against Hall’s religious beliefs.

Hall was fired in August after working six years for Walgreens. He believes Plan B contraceptives cause abortions and refused to dispense them. Plan B is a form of birth control that can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Many medical experts say it does not cause a miscarriage or abortion and won’t work if the fertilized egg is already implanted.

For several years, Walgreens worked out a compromise with Hall. If a customer came into the store with a prescription for Plan B, Hall would refer them to another staff member.

Things changed in the summer of 2013, when the FDA approved Plan B as an over-the-counter medication.

Hall said in the complaint that his boss informed the staff that pharmacists were expected to stock and sell Plan B. Hall told his bosses that he still did not want to sell the drug. He also contacted the main headquarters of Walgreens in suburban Chicago, to express his concerns about selling the drug.

Things came to a head in mid-July, according to the complaint. Hall claims six boxes of Plan B were delivered to the store but were mislabeled as behind-the-counter drugs. He bought all six boxes for $328.43 and threw them away.

When his boss learned what happened, Hall was initially accused of stealing the drugs. After he showed the receipt, he was then asked if he would sell Plan B.

Hall said he would not, and was fired, according to the complaint.

“He doesn’t object to Walgreens selling Plan B,” said Jocelyn Floyd, a lawyer at the Thomas More Society, a Christian legal group representing Hall. “He’s just asking that they accommodate his religious beliefs.”

Floyd said Hall got rid of the Plan B medication because it was mislabeled. She said it didn’t matter what he did with the medication.

“Walgreens is not out anything as a result of these actions,” said Floyd. “It’s an improper reason for firing him.”

Jim Graham, a spokesman for Walgreens, would not comment on the specifics of Hall’s suit. He did say in an email that the company respects the religious beliefs of employees.

“While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we can tell you that Walgreens company policy allows pharmacists and other employees to step away from completing a transaction to which they have a moral objection,” he said in an email.

“Our policy also requires the employee to refer the transaction to another employee or manager on duty who will complete the customer’s request.”

YS/AMB END SMIETANA

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Video: Free Valentine’s Day weddings

Interfaith couples, Buddhist couples, same-sex couples…couples of all kinds celebrated their relationships on Friday (Feb. 14) at Unity Temple in Kansas City, Mo. The only requirement was love.

As a gift to lovebirds, Unity Temple offered free weddings, holy unions, and vow renewals this Valentine’s Day. Three ministers took turns pronouncing husbands and wives, and unifying more than 20 couples.

The invitation stated, “Unity Temple embraces diversity and welcomes people of all faiths, lifestyles, abilities, racial and ethnic backgrounds for this special, once-a-year event.”

Video by Sally Morrow | Religion News Service

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On Feast of St. Valentine, a papal blessing

Thousands of couples from some 30 countries gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Feast of St. Valentine Friday (Feb. 14), receiving a blessing from a visibly pleased Pope Francis who also gave them his advice on how to have a happy and successful marriage. RNS photo by Eyal Baruch (www.eyalos.com) This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Thousands of couples from some 30 countries gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Feast of St. Valentine Friday (Feb. 14), receiving a blessing from a visibly pleased Pope Francis who also gave them his advice on how to have a happy and successful marriage.

The event was originally supposed to take place indoors, but organizers moved it outside as interest grew. Estimates ranged from 10,000 to 15,000 couples, some married, some engaged, partaking of an unusually crisp and sunny day in Rome, which has been pounded by heavy rains in recent days.

“My dear engaged people, you are getting ready to grow together, to build a home, to live together for good,” Francis said. “Do not just base it on those feelings that come and go, but on the rock of true love that comes from God.”

He added that couples should not get married once their problems are solved, but rather solve problems together.

“Today, many people are afraid of making definitive decisions that affect them for all their lives because it seems impossible,” Francis said. “This mentality leads many who are preparing for marriage to say, ‘We will stay together as long as our love lasts.’ Just as God’s love is stable and lasts forever, we want the love on which a family is based to be stable and to last forever.”

On Twitter, the pope took advantage of Valentine’s Day to tweet: “Don’t be afraid to marry. A faithful and fruitful marriage will bring you happiness.”

One of the engaged couples who came to celebrate Valentines Day with the Pope Francis’ blessings at St Peter’s Square on February 14, 2014. RNS photo by Eyal Baruch (www.eyalos.com) This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

The feast day, named for the third-century saint who died Feb. 14 on the outskirts of Rome, is not usually celebrated in such grand fashion. It wasn’t clear if the event will become a regular tradition under Francis.

It got underway at 11 a.m. local time with a series of testimonials from couples mixed with music and readings. At 12:30, Francis arrived in the popemobile and circled the square before making his way to the altar to meet several couples personally, bless the crowd and offer his advice.

“I have seen all the popes since John XXIII, and Francis is the most humane,” said 75-year-old Anna Pollio, who came to the event to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband, Michele Iaccardo, 79. “I am very pleased to celebrate this momentous date with the pope.”

Enzo Stafferini, a 32-year-old businessman engaged to 24-year-old Alexia Costantini, a bartender, agreed: “Francis is a figure who comforts us in the difficulties that young people face, both material and spiritual,” he said. “Francis helps me find courage.”

YS/AMB END LYMAN

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