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…)

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Can Human Dignity Help Heal Us In Our Coronavirus Moment?

Brett G. Scharffs is Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law at  Brigham Young University Law School. This post arises from his particpation in an international Webinar held 16 April 2020 [1]  and is part of a Talk About Conversation on COVID-19 and Human Dignity.

There are no magic wands in figuring out how to respond to the global medical and economic pandemic that is coronavirus. We are learning as we are going. There is much to be said. There is more to be done.

But I believe there is something useful in looking to our existing resources—especially when we are in the midst of a crisis (as opposed to before and after a crisis, when we have more time and capacity for institutional design and re-design). For example, I find myself returning to the words of the Apostle Paul in Corinthians 13, where he speaks so movingly about charity, or pure love, as embodied by Jesus Christ. He speaks of long suffering, envying not, humility, being not easily provoked, endurance, seeking truth, and above all, faith, hope and charity, with the greatest of these being Godlike love or what the King James Bible translates as charity. (more…)

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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…)

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