COVID-19 Crisis, Human Dignity and Freedom of Religion or Belief 


Ján Figeľ was nominated in May 2016 by the European Commission as the first Special Envoy for promotion of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) outside the European Union. He was European Commissioner for Education, Training & Culture and State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was the Chief Negotiator for Slovakia’s accession into the EU. 

The theme I wish to explore briefly is the relation between human dignity, religious freedom and current corona virus pandemic. Evidently, medical situation in the world is critical in many countries. It will take time and make serious impact on economies, on social situation and on human, interpersonal and international relations. Our world will change.

Each crisis in history left repetitive lesson: We can get out of crisis to the new perspective or fall even more deeply into problems, conflicts and tragedy. Second lesson is that (only) two fundamental components and inputs are decisive to get out of any crisis: Common sense (sound reason) and living conscience (ethics of responsibility). (more…)

Continue Reading COVID-19 Crisis, Human Dignity and Freedom of Religion or Belief 

Religion and the Rule of Law: Elements of Desperation and Inspiration

Paul Gowder is Professor and O.K. Patton Fellow in Law, the Iowa University College of Law

This post is part of an ongoing Series about Religion and the Rule of Law.

The rule of law is a normative principle governing the conduct of state (or state-like) coercive power. It requires that such power be exercised pursuant to the law, and, more fundamentally, pursuant to public-regarding reasons and for public-regarding goals which recognize the equal standing of those who hold power and those who have power exercised over them. A rule of law state deploys the active participation of the beneficiaries of law in their own collective self-defense against the powerful, and operates through individual access to the legal system on equal terms to vindicate individual rights. In that form, the rule of law is recognizable as a demand that citizens have made against their political authorities at least since Classical Athens.

For just as long, citizens have sought to back up these demands with divine sanction. Hesiod, in Works and Days, traditionally dated to the 7th or 8th century B.C., threatens his reprobate brother—and the bribe-taking lords to whom his brother appeals in an inheritance dispute—with the wrath of Zeus. From the classic Hugh G. Evelyn-White translation: (more…)

Continue Reading Religion and the Rule of Law: Elements of Desperation and Inspiration

Competition of Conspiracies: Conflicting Narratives of COVID-19 within the Grassroots Russian Orthodox Milieu

       

Post by Elizaveta Gaufman, Assistant Professor of Russian Discourse and Politics at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, and Dmytro Vovk, Director for the Center of Rule of Law and Religion Studies at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Ukraine

While many Western Christian churches suspended religious ceremonies and turned to online worship in response to COVID-19, Orthodox churches have reacted to the COVID-19 threat ambiguously. Some of them encourage their flocks to take the pandemic seriously and follow anti-pandemic measures imposed by governments. But others see it as a punishment or a challenge from God, and some see it as a conspiracy of the “global financial elite.” (more…)

Continue Reading Competition of Conspiracies: Conflicting Narratives of COVID-19 within the Grassroots Russian Orthodox Milieu