Our “Kairos” Moment: The G20 and the Challenge of Immunizing the World

Brett G. ScharffsBrett G. Scharffs is Rex E. Lee Chair, Professor of Law, and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University

This post is adapted from a presentation at the G20 Interfaith Forum held in Bologna, Italy on September 13, 2021. The Panel, “A ‘Kairos’ Moment: Accountability to Address Inequalities” was co-chaired by Stefano Fassino, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and Katherine Marshall, Senior Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Georgetown University. The other speakers were Rajeev Bhargava, Director of the Parekh Institute of Indian Thought at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi; Arntraud Hartman, Professor of Development Economics, SAIS Europe John Hopkins University in Bologna; Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA Network; and Jonatas Machado, Faculty of Law at the University of Coimbra.

I’m grateful for the framing of today’s discussion, a “Kairos” moment addressing inequalities. As Stefano Fassina explained, Kairos is a Greek term that refers to a unique and unusual opportunity. Our Kairos moment is shaped by the coronavirus crisis. And I believe it is a unique opportunity as illustrated by Professor Katherine Marshall’s framing this with the assignment she gave her students at Georgetown University. She asked them to write a letter to their grandchildren describing what they experienced and how they responded to the pandemic.

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Summary of Remarks: “Religion’s Impact on World Issues and the Necessity of Freedom of Religion”

David H. Moore is Sterling and Eleanor Colton Endowed Chair in Law and Religion; Associate Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies

Moore summarized the global impact of the pandemic and the role religion has played in responding to those challenges:

  • Physical health impacts from the pandemic causing untold infections and deaths. The World Health Organization has released statements on how treatments for HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis have stalled, hindered by the focused response to the pandemic.
  • Mental health impacts from the pandemic with effects of anxiety and depression.
  • Economic impacts include loss of jobs, disruption of supply chains contributing to inflation and debt burdens.
  • Increasing gender inequality in forced lockdowns and gender-based bias.
  • Development effects include lost progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals on hunger, poverty, and education.

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Private Beliefs, Public Platforms and the Rule of Law

Sohail Wahedi is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Erasmus School of Law in the Netherlands and the 2022 Niels Stensen Fellow at the University of Toronto

This post is also a part of an ongoing discussion about Religion and the Rule of Law.

Introduction

In January 2021 Twitter decided to delete the account of one of its fervent users, Donald Trump, who insisted on spreading disinformation about election frauds during the 2020 Presidential elections.  A significant number of people will remember Trump as one of the most surprising political leaders in the history of the U.S. Not only because he was a champion of “fake news,” battled for fewer immigrants,  framed his legal and political opponents as “losers,” “stupid,” or “double-faced,”  but also because he—as “the King Social Media”—got deleted from Twitter.

Although some have supported Trump’s Twitter ban because of his use of social media in a way to target political opponents and to mobilize his supporters, others,  such as German chancellor Angela Merkel, have been very critical of the ban, calling the suspension “problematic” because of the importance of free speech in a real democracy. This free speech dimension and the considerable precedential force of the Trump Twitter ban has urged constitutional law scholars to scrutinize the power public platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter possess to intervene in matters of civil liberties.

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