http://www.iirf.eu/ www.iirf.eu: Blog en http://www.iirf.eu/fileadmin/templates/multiflex3/img/favicon.ico http://www.iirf.eu/ 16 16 www.iirf.eu: Blog TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:33:00 +0100 http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=178&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=949&cHash=fd02f658440eecceb7163f084352933d Prepared by Association of Protestant Churches Committee for Religious Freedom and Legal Affairs
Problems that have come to the forefront can be summarized as follows: Hate crimes directed toward Christians continued in 2009. Protestants are faced with serious barriers in their efforts to establish places of worship. Establishing associations has not provided a complete solution, even though it has helped gain legal status to some degree. And finally, intolerance toward different religious continues to be a problem in Turkey. It is hoped that the removal of this backdrop of intolerance is urgently taken up as a priority.

Download the full report here.]]> Featured Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:33:00 +0100 http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=178&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=941&cHash=f4a43840a2ca49b7b06e0dc92200f72f The Co-Director of International Institute for Religious Freedom offers a summer school at Humboldt...
The participants will assess the statement and contributions of the international consultation held in September 2009 in Bad Urach, Germany on „Developing an evangelical theology of suffering, persecution and martyrdom for the global church in mission“. That consultation was organized by the IIRF on behalf of the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance.

As the Berlin seminar will be held in German, interested readers are referred to the details in the German section of this site here.]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:12:00 +0100 http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=178&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=936&cHash=b99d0f5b79b3a6c5470d618a86111ef1 The International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) of the World Evangelical Alliance pays...
Glenn has authored In the Shadow of the Cross: A Biblical Theology of Persecution and Discipleship (Bartlesville: Living Sacrifice Books, 2004), which has been translated into several languages, among others Chinese and Korean and will shortly be published in German by the IIRF.

He has also contributed a series on the biblical theology of persecution and discipleship to the International Journal for Religious Freedom since 2008, which he could unfortunately not maintain beyond two installments.

As the Chief Executive Officer of Voice of the Martyrs in Canada, Glenn was the first to provide sponsorship for the major research project of the IIRF on theologies of suffering, persecution and martyrdom and followed the progress with great interest.

He also submitted a paper to the Bad Urach Consultation organized by the IIRF on the same topic in September 2009, but was kept from attending.

Glenn pioneered the teaching of a biblical theology of persecution as a regular course in theological education as a visiting Professor of Oklahoma Wesleyan University 2003-2006 and developed a curriculum for it. He has taught on this topic to Christian leaders in religiously restricted and hostile nations in South America, Africa and Asia as well as in seminaries and colleges in Europe and North America.

We remember Glenn Penner and his valuable and lasting contributions for the sake of the persecuted and to related academic research with deep gratitude.

As Christians, we believe that Glenn has now been promoted to glory and gone ahead of us to be part of the ‘cloud of witnesses and martyrs’ who are watching on as we complete our race.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely; and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Glenn wrote in this context:

“The testimony and example of those who have successfully faced
and overcome persecution should provide inspiration
and hope to those who are wavering,
as it reminds them of the constancy of God.”
(Glenn Penner, In the Shadow of the Cross, p. 232)

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher and Dr. Christof Sauer
as directors of the International Institute for Religious Freedom
on behalf of its boards and staff]]> Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:32:00 +0100 http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=178&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=937&cHash=13659ace7fd137a8562b18e9f28ea872 December 2009: We are delighted to present you with Volume 2 Issue 2 of the International Journal... More Information here!]]> Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:54:00 +0100 http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=178&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=916&cHash=ff850ed236b996c52e0e790a3f035f47 This is a translation of a German news article by A. Wirth written for ProKompakt on the... This is a translation of a German news article by A. Wirth written for ProKompakt on the publication of my book „Rassismus“, see here, see the German original here: proKOMPAKT 28/2009 pp. 17–18. An English translation of the book is underway.

With his new book „Racism“, the Evangelical scholar and author Thomas Schirrmacher wants to do away with prejudices – this is something which is still important nowadays. Furthermore, Schirrmacher is convinced: Evangelicals have always vehemently fought against racism.

The core of racism, writes Schirrmacher, is “what is different in the other person” and the belief that this otherness makes people superior or inferior. Nevertheless, in reading his work it quickly becomes clear: Racism is, from a biological point of view, nonsense. The results of modern genetics have unobjectionably demonstrated that there are no different human races, and rather that there is only one species of mankind.” Schirrmacher also justifies this position biblically with the aid of the Epistle of James in the New Testament, saying that even proven differences between human races express nothing about the equal dignity everyone has.

In this passage we find the following “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right.But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.” In the United Nations charter the following is stated and holds to Christian tradition: “All human beings belong to a single species and are descended from a common stock. They are born equal in dignity and rights and all form an integral part of humanity.”

Evangelicals called for the Abolition of Slavery

In conversation with the Christian media magazine pro, the author empahsized the positive connection between the fight against racism and the Evangelical movement: “Evangelical revivalism was significantly involved in bringing an end to slavery. It was at this point that the designation Evangelicals came about in the first place. This applies to the legal abolishment of slavery in Great Britain as well as to the anti-slavery movement in the USA. Among Evangelicals in general, free church Quakers and Methodists, for instance, played a central role in the anti-slavery movement in the USA. Best known in this connection is the Evangelical classic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In my book I quote a historian who shows that racism had much better chances in France and Germany, because there are hardly any Evangelicals there. In India William Carey, a British missionary and language researcher whom many view as the father of Evangelicals, fought racism found in Christian churches in India under the caste system in the 18th century.”

Nowadays the internationalization of the Evangelical movement means that racism does not have a chance, says Schirrmacher. “In my Evangelical environment, from the time I was small, there were Indonesians, Kenyans and Latin Americans whom I got to know as role models, so racism was obsolete before I got to know about it on the school playground. Additionally, the World Evangelical Alliance has repeatedly and clearly taken a position against all forms of racism,” says Schirrmacher. “As far as the present is concerned, I really would not know where racism could be expected to find a home in Evangelical churches. For a long time now we have been used to reading books from all over the world, taking the foremost spiritual leaders from all cultures as role models and welcoming people of all cultures and ethnic groups. Since the majority of the Evangelical movement stems from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, they set the tone in many committees.”

And what about North America, we ask the German professor of the sociology of religion? “The Evangelical movement in the USA”, he say, “is often criticized for having right-wing leanings. But at the same time a lot of people forget that there are not only ‘white’ Evangelicals. Rather, a lot of African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians are Evangelicals. Unfortunately, in the USA there is a broad right-wing spectrum that says America is white, English-speaking, and Christian. That has little to do with Christian churches.”

Schirrmacher primarily wrote his book in order to provide enlightenment about racism. This is something that is still important to do today. “First of all, racism is such a seriously mistaken position that there simply cannot be enough written against it. However, you would really be astonished at how few books in the German book market there are on racism. And most of them are very technical, very specialized, and hardly understandable for the man on the street.”

Against ‘Blacks,’ Jews and ‘Gypsies’

In his book the theologian writes about three “types of racism that are the most internationally widespread and can be tracked over the course of many centuries.” They are directed against the co-called ‘blacks’ or people with darker skin color, against Jews, and against so-called ‘gypsies,’ which is to say against Sintis and Romanies. Schirrmacher has determined that it is simply nonsense to speak of ‘racist differences.’ If anyone in Central Europe wants to speak of some sort of race that is in any way stable after all the ‘racial mixing’ that took place in the Roman Empire, subsequent migrations, campaigns of conquest from every direction, the invasion of Asian troops on horseback, and immigration from all over the world, then the only explanation is that the wish is father to the thought and the modern nation state would like to have a biological, religious, or other type of fixed anchoring for its citizens. Studies of Y-chromosomes suggest that the people of Europe have no identifiable origin, but that they all go back to repeatedly new waves of immigration from all different directions.

Thomas Schirrmacher is the head of the Martin Bucer Seminary, a Professor for the Sociology of Religion at the State University of Oradea in Romania, and the Director of the World Evangelical Alliance’s International Institute for Religious Freedom. He received his doctorate in 1985 in Ecumenical Theology in the Netherlands, in 1989 in Cultural Anthropology in Los Angeles and in 2007 in Comparative Religious Studies at the University of Bonn. He has released other works relating to the topic at hand, most recently The Multicultural Society and Hitler’s Religion of War.]]> Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:44:00 +0100 http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=178&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=938&cHash=928abcb7dbe8e9b34a9ff48c6b22d127 July 2009: There is an urgent need for a deeper evangelical understanding of the theology of the...
Conference: Developing an evangelical theology of suffering, persecution and martyrdom for the global church in mission

Bad Urach (Stuttgart area), Germany
16-18 September 2009

more here]]> Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0200 http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=178&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=939&cHash=18feccdebea74c5b9373ff20d1126d17 March 2009: We are delighted to present you a new book series called WEA Global Issues Series. More Information here!]]> Tue, 05 May 2009 18:02:00 +0200