Researchers and practitioners gather to explore insights into the complex and multidimensional challenges related to the availability of and access to food.
INDORE, India — The Bahá’í Chair for Studies in Development at Devi Ahilya University, Indore, recently held a seminar on food security and nutrition, an issue that has come to the fore across diverse social discourses globally and in India during the pandemic.
“This seminar aims to bring academics and practitioners together, in an atmosphere that does not reinforce divisions of ‘us’ and ‘them’, so that participants can examine some of the underlying causes of food insecurity and malnutrition,” says Arash Fazli, Assistant Professor and Head of the Bahá’í Chair.
This is the most recent in a series of gatherings the Chair has organized on issues related to urban migration, education, and gender equality that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Among the topics discussed by participants was the impact of agricultural policies and market forces on agrobiodiversity. Attendees noted that a major challenge caused by policies that promote monocropping is that farmers tend to focus on cash crops to the exclusion of edible plants that provide a rich source of nutrients and have been part of a region’s diet. As a result, foods that are locally grown have become expensive and less accessible for the masses.
Slideshow 6 imagesParticipants at a seminar on food security and nutrition held recently by the Bahá’í Chair for Studies in Development at Devi Ahilya University, Indore. Left to right, top row: Arash Fazli, Assistant Professor and Head of the Bahá’í Chair; Dipa Sinha, a professor at Ambedkar University, Delhi; Vandana Prasad of the Public Health Research Network. Bottom row: Richa Kumar, professor of sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Rohini Mukherjee of Naandi foundation.
Speaking about the limitations of a purely centralized approach to agricultural policies, Vandana Prasad of the Public Health Research Network said: “Are we… [dictating] what every single village is going to eat? Participatory work is a starting point for all programs and policies, which means not setting things in stone at a central level. … Decentralization is the key.”
Richa Kumar, a professor of sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, highlighted that the participation of local communities should extend to knowledge generation. “What you will produce and consume in Bikaner,” she said, “is very different from what you will produce and consume in Bengal. You need to empower, build capacity at the local level to do the research to support the farmers…”
Slideshow 6 imagesPhotograph taken before the current health crisis. Participants in the seminar noted that a major challenge caused by policies that promote monocropping is that farmers tend to focus on cash crops to the exclusion of edible plants that provide a rich source of nutrients and have been part of a region’s diet.
Beyond economic factors and the need for decentralization of decision-making, participants looked at links between gender disparities and the causes of hunger and malnutrition. A paper prepared by the Chair and discussed at the gathering says in part: “Women face disparities in the form of educational neglect, lack of reproductive choice and inadequate nutrition from childhood which perpetuates an intergenerational cycle of malnutrition. … Under-nourished women, in all likelihood, become under-nourished mothers.”
Slideshow 6 imagesPhotograph taken before the current health crisis. The Bahá’í community of India has been involved for years in efforts to develop local agriculture as a means for addressing social and economic challenges. Seen here, participants of the Bahá’í-inspired Preparation for Social Action Program in India study techniques for local agriculture.
Rohini Mukherjee of Naandi foundation said, “There are many surveys, including our own, that have shown that the more years of schooling a mother has, the less likely her child is to be malnourished.”
Addressing the challenges women face in accessing education, however, would not on its own resolve the issue of malnutrition, noted participants. Dipa Sinha, a professor at Ambedkar University, Delhi, stated: “Malnutrition is multidimensional and there are so many factors that go into it–the role of gender, women’s empowerment, education, and livelihood.”
“In these seminars we try to explore the fundamentals, which at their heart are moral issues,” says Dr. Fazli. “Such discussions are often neglected or deemed too idealistic because of a lack of recognition that the underlying nature of society is spiritual, a reality that is true for all human beings and gives local communities and individuals capacity to handle their affairs.
Dr. Peter Ben Embarek from the World Health Organization (WHO) was speaking during a press conference in Wuhan, China, at the end of a four-week mission to the city where the new coronavirus first emerged in December 2019.
“Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific targeted research”, he said.
The international team convened by WHO consisted of 17 Chinese experts and an equal number of counterparts from other nations, looking at three areas: epidemiology, molecular research and animal and environment.
They visited hospitals and other sites in Wuhan, including the Huanan Market where the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected, and identified four main hypotheses of how it could have been transmitted to humans.
“However, the findings suggest that the laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain introduction of the virus into the human population, and therefore is not a hypothesis that implies to suggest future studies into our work, to support our future work, into the understanding of the origin of the virus”, Dr. Embarek said.
Frozen food link?
While ongoing research continues to suggest that bats are a natural reservoir for the new coronavirus, Dr, Embarek ruled out the possibility in Wuhan, as the city is not near to any environments where these animals are found.
One hypothesis suggests the virus could have come through the food chain, as frozen products can provide a surface for transmission.
Dr. Embarek said frozen animal products, mainly seafood, were sold at Huanan Market, along with products made from wild and farmed animals, some of which came from other parts of China or were imported.
“So, there is the potential to continue to follow this lead and further look at the supply chain and animals that were supplied to the markets in frozen and other processed and semi-processed form, or raw form”, he said.
Virus circulating elsewhere earlier
It has been nearly a year since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared and as of Tuesday, there were more than 106 million cases worldwide, including some 2.3 million deaths.
The investigations conducted in Wuhan will lay the groundwork for virus origin tracing elsewhere, according to the team’s Chinese lead, Dr. Liang Wannian.
He said their review of unpublished studies suggests the virus was circulating earlier in other regions.
“These studies from different countries suggests SARS-CoV-2 circulation preceding the initial detection of cases by several weeks”, said Dr. Liang, speaking through an interpreter.
“Some of the suspected positive samples were detected even earlier than the first case reported. This indicates the possibility of the missed reported circulation in other regions.”
Dr. Liang added that research also found “no indication” of virus transmission in Wuhan in the period before December 2019.
London – A baby left without a nationality after she was born in Spain to a same-sex couple from Bulgaria and Gibraltar is at the centre of a test case to be heard by the European Union’s top court on Tuesday.
Lawyers say Bulgaria has put one-year-old “Baby S” at risk of prolonged statelessness after refusing to provide a birth certificate and citizenship because of discrimination towards her parents’ sexual orientation.
The hearing at the Luxembourg-based court is being seen as an important test case for many other so-called “rainbow families” in Europe who face similar dilemmas.
Experts on statelessness say if “Baby S” cannot acquire citizenship she may not be able to go to school, access healthcare and state benefits, or get jobs later in life.
Black people are in the future. They are in the past too, and not always dedicated by the narrative of slavery and colonization. Science fiction and fantasy books helped me to see this. I discovered Tananarive Due’s novel “My Soul to Keep” when I was casually browsing at a used bookstore.
As a teenager, I read mostly sci-fi and fantasy books by white writers, and when I picked up Due’s novel, I was stunned to see that a Black writer was a part of the genre. I bought the novel, and stayed awake reading the book that night. “My Soul to Keep” is about a group of immortals from Lalibela, Ethiopia. The novel removes the white predatory gaze of Africa, and invites readers to employ a radical imagination about the continent’s past and its future. For the first time in literature I saw Africa without the gaze of subjectivity. The next day, I returned to the same bookstore to purchase Due’s second book “The Living Blood.” Due’s novels not only inspired me to travel to Africa, but showed me the magic and importance of seeing oneself in books. Black sci-fi and fantasy books compels us to employ a radical imagination when viewing our history, present, and future.
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These stories are “against the status quo,” author of “The Lesson” and forthcoming “No God, No Monsters” Cadwell Turnbull recently told me. “We are looking at the steps needed to change society because imagination is part of the journey in creating better futures.”
I spoke with Turnbull, along with fantasy writer LaShawn M. Wanaka and Silver Unicorn Bookstore’s Kyra Wilson Cook for their book recommendations. Ahead, they share five Black sci-fi and fantasy books to read.
Coming out in March, Wanaka highly praised the debut novel from author C.L. Clark. The novel deals with the effects of colonization on two people: Touraine, the one who was captured, and Luca, the one in power. Touraine was stolen as a child from her country and she was placed into the army where her own culture was beaten out of her. As she becomes older, she begins working as a personal assistant for Luca who wants to end the conflict between the two nations. Touraine has to protect the empire that captured her and at the same time, she has to keep her own people as second class citizens. Wanaka said, “This novel was gut wrenching. It shows that reconciliation is a messy process and in order for it to happen, both parties must be on equal standing.”
Wanaka loves this novel by Brissett. As soon as we started talking about it, she rushed to her bookshelf to pick out the book. “Elysium” is a tale about a catastrophe that has happened and only the people with dark skin were able to survive. It tells the story of a survivor who finds out about her history. “What drew me to this novel is the unconventional storytelling — it’s scientific and very heartful. It’s a different spin on reading sci-fi fiction,” Wanaka said. “This book made me smile and it’s one of those gorgeous reads that teaches you to discover yourself, your purpose, your community in a very scientific way.”
This young adult novel that came out during the Black Lives Matter protests centers its theme around the power of the Black woman’s voice. Wanaka said of the modern fantasy novel, “The whole book is like a love letter to the Black girl experience set in a contemporary fantasy world where pixies and gargoyles are real.” The story also highlights an older generation that can’t speak about traumatic events from the past. In addition to an unbeatable combo of protests, play-sisters, and proms, Wanaka said, “It’s got BLACK GIRL MERMAIDS!”
This “superhero origin story,” according to Turnbull, is a coming of age novel that blends Caribbean folklore with high-concept science fiction, and tells a story of overcoming trauma through heroism. A young woman named Tan-Tan finds power through embodying a mythic figure from Caribbean folklore, the Midnight Robber. Tan-Tan uses this identity to right wrongs, but also to cope with her own difficult and traumatic experiences. “I recommend it for the inventiveness of the narrative, especially because it does such a fantastic job of pushing the language conventions of fiction—and science fiction in particular,” Turnbull said. Hopkinson made linguistic choices that made “Midnight Robber” a joy to read for Turnbull. The author uses “Caribbean vernacular like a knife, telling a compelling story through vibrant language,” he said. “Hopkinson plays a lot with language and her characters are constantly code switching in their Caribbean dialect which feels very comfortable and approachable.”
“The Dreamblood Duology,” which includes two novels, “The Killing Moon” and “The Shadowed Sun,” is a work that should be better known, according to Kyra Wilson Cook. “I want to uplift ‘The Dreamblood Duology’ because it’s a beautiful work and not too many people talk about it.” This novel is about priesthood whose main character, Ehiru, known as a “Gatherer,” shows his new disciples the ropes, gathering dreamblood and influencing how people dream. According to Wilson Cook, this complex tale “forces readers to ask the question: Is the priesthood good or evil?” Wilson Cook wants the reader to dive into this “phenomenal” read. “It’s fun, different and full of intrigue.”
Join the Boston.com Book Club’s next discussion: “Riot Baby” with author Tochi Onyebuchi
“Riot Baby” is a 2020 science fiction novel by Massachusetts-born Tochi Onyebuchi. In his first novel for adults, Onyebuchi’s “Riot Baby” explores a dystopian reality of Black America exploring race, justice, and resistance.
Join us on Wednesday, February 24 at 6 p.m. with Onyebuchi and moderator Meg Wasmer, co-owner/operator of Copper Dog Books in Beverly.
Myanmar’s junta leader has called on the public to prioritise facts and not feelings, and said an election would be held and power handed to the winning party, in a rare national address, as anti-coup protests took place nationwide on the third day in a row. Thousands of anti-coup protesters marched in towns and cities across Myanmar on Monday, witnesses said, demonstrating for a third straight day against the military’s removal and detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi a week ago. Calls to join protests and to back a campaign of civil disobedience have grown louder and more organised since last Monday’s coup, which drew widespread international condemnation.
In the biggest city of Yangon, a group of saffron-robed monks marched in the vanguard of Monday’s protest with workers and students. They flew multicoloured Buddhist flags alongside red banners in the colour of Ms Suu Kyi’s National league for Democracy (NLD), witnesses said.
“Release Our Leaders, Respect Our Votes, Reject Military Coup,” said one sign. Other signs read “Save democracy” and “Say No to Dictatorship”. Many protesters wore black.
Police in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw used water cannon against protesters on Monday, video from the scene showed.
Police fired the water cannon in brief bursts against a group of the thousands of protesters who had gathered in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Monday. Video from the scene showed some protesters appeared to have been hurt when they were knocked to the ground.
Police appeared to stop using the water cannon after protesters appealed to them, but the demonstration continued.
Protests that swept the country on Sunday were the biggest since the “Saffron Revolution” led by Buddhist monks in 2007 that helped prompt democratic reforms that were upended by the Feb. 1 coup.
“Marchers from every corner of Yangon, please come out peacefully and join the people’s meeting,” activist Ei Thinzar Maung urged followers on Facebook, using VPN networks to rally protesters despite a junta attempt to ban the social media network.
Protesters attempt to block riot police arriving to form a barricade outside Yangon City Hall on the weekend – GettyThousands marched in the coastal city of Dawei, in the southeast, and in the Kachin state capital in the far north, where they were dressed head to toe in black.
So far gatherings have been peaceful, unlike bloody crackdowns during previous widespread protests in 1988 and 2007. A convoy of military trucks was seen passing into Yangon late on Sunday, raising fears that could change.
Myanmar’s generals have justified the coup by claiming fraud in last November’s elections, which the NLD won in a landslide.
The junta has proclaimed a one-year state of emergency, and promised to then hold fresh elections, without offering any precise time frame.
The coup has triggered widespread international condemnation, although neighbouring China has declined to criticise the generals.
US President Joe Biden has been leading the calls for the generals to relinquish power.
Pope Francis on Sunday also expressed “solidarity with the people of Myanmar,” urging the army to work towards “democratic coexistence.”
Britain and the European Union requested on Monday that the United Nations Human Rights Council hold a special session in response to the ongoing political crisis.
The call comes came a week after Myanmar’s generals conducted a coup in the country.
With much enthusiasm and excitement, more than 60 thousand Tibetans in over 30 countries took part in the preliminary round of elections to choose their new leader known as Sikyong and the members of the exile Tibetan Parliament.
The results will be announced by the Election Commission through a press conference tomorrow (Monday 8 February) at 11am IST.
For the Sikyong results, the Election Commission will announce Penpa Tsering as leading in the first round with close to 24 thousand votes, followed by Kaydor Aukatsang securing close to 14,000 votes. Gyari Dolma trailed Kaydor with a difference of around 700 votes, leaving her out of the race for Sikyong.
A total of about 60 thousand exile Tibetans cast their votes in the elections, which also chose candidates for the 45 members of the exile Tibetan Parliament.
Of the members of Parliament, five incumbent and five new from the younger generation are expected for each of the three provinces. The two incumbent representatives from North/South America have been voted out, to be replaced with two new representatives. In Europe, a veteran member who was ousted in April of last year has been elected to be representative again, along with a fresh representative. Australasia will also see a new representative.
Those who could be candidates will be declared on 21 March, with two contestants for the post of Sikyong, and more than 90 candidates (along with some volunteer candidates) for members of Parliament. There will be time for about a month for those in the list to withdraw their names, so that the final list could be drawn.
The final round of voting will be held on 11 April, and the official results will announced on 20 May. The new members of the Parliament will take their oath of office on 28 May, and the new Sikyong will likely be sworn-in in the following days.
Everyone commended the smooth and peaceful conclusion of the preliminary round of voting. However there were a few incidents of malfunctions.
The counting in Bodh Gaya took place the next day on the 5th January, but the election rule 34 (6)(a) has it that there wouldn’t be any counting in the 24 hours following an election.
There was re-voting for about 30 people at a polling station in Ladakh following a complaint that someone helping another voter had written the name of his choice rather than what the person wanted.
Tibet Sun has learned that the complainant was an election staff, who asked the voter for whom he was voting. Upon learning whom this voter was favouring, the staff checked his ballot paper and found out that the helper had written a different person’s name.
Following the row, all 30-something people there were asked to re-cast their votes, which is not according to the rules.
Explaining this issue, the Speaker Pema Jungney said that the re-poll has infringed the election rules. He said that the matter should have been investigated and the wrongdoer should have been punished.
Jungney also added that the election staff have no right to ask who someone was voting for, nor to check the ballot paper of any voter. He said that the staff member had also violated election rules by this behaviour.
In Sataun settlement, the results have not been made public at all. According to election rule 34(6)(a), the results need to be made public within 24 hours of the counting. Tibet Sun’s attempts on clarification didn’t convince the Regional Election Commissioner of the settlement.
The Chief Election Commissioner remained unapproachable throughout the election process. Tibet Sun then approached the secretary of the Election Commission, Tenzin Norbu, about the Sataun REC not making the results public, Norbu supported the action of the REC Sataun, and insisted that it was not required to make the results public. “To make it public is not mentioned in the rules,” said Norbu.
Pema Jungney said that to say it is not required to announce results publicly is distortion of the rules. “It is clearly mentioned in the rules that election results should be made public, within 24 hours of the counting” he said.
Perhaps the most serious gaffe in this election was the Election Commission;s appointment of Assistant Regional Election Commissions, rather than Regional Election Commissions (REC), in countries outside India, Nepal, and Bhutan.
Australia, Europe, and North/South America have only one REC each. All the Representatives are RECs in these countries.
Election rule 12 mandates that the EC appoint RECs at all the regional election committees. The Regional Election Commissioner could be a CTA employee, or, in the absence of a CTA employee, any reliable local resident could be appointed Regional Election Commissioner.
Without the Regional Election Commissioner, counting cannot take place, but in all the polling locations in Australia, Europe, and North/South America, counting took place with the Assistant Regional Election Commission.
Determined to create awareness on the danger of cancer disease in the state, Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, has said that he has engaged traditional and religious leaders on the cancer awareness programme of the state.
Bagudu, who stated this yesterday at Government House, Birnin Kebbi, while receiving the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who was on an assessment and inspection tour of the state’s cancer treatment centres, adding that his administration had been committed to the development of the diseases and health sectors at large.
He said Kebbi State shared borders with two countries, which gave it more courage to establish medical tourism. “We do supported some sick people from the neighbouring countries on healthcare service delivery, we thank the Federal Ministry of Health for rating Kebbi State as one of the best in terms of cancer programme” he added.
In his remarks, the Minister of Health, who was represented by Dr. Uche Nwokun, a consultant Haematologists, National Cancer Control Programme, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, said their aim of visiting was to access and inspect the two centres in the state.
He commended the efforts of the Kebbi State governor for contributing immensely to the development of the health sector in the state, assuring him of their support and love towards eradicating the disease.
The Hungarian government is making no attempt to conceal its violation of the law. You can read all about it on an official website, which meticulously records the statistics for every single week of the year, by category, with precise case figures.
These concern the deportation of refugees by Hungarian border guards from Hungary to Serbia. According to the official statistics, which can be found on the website of the Hungarian police, 2,824 refugees were apprehended near the border fence and forced to return to Serbia in January this year alone. Added to this, another 184 refugees were apprehended who must first stand trial in Hungary. They, too, will usually be deported back to Serbia.
These “pushbacks” not only contravene international treaties to which Hungary is a signatory, such as the Geneva Convention. Since December of last year, they also violate a legally binding ruling by the highest court of the European Union, the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Its ruling declared the pushbacks unlawful — but the Hungarian government is ignoring the judges’ verdict. So far, Hungarian border guards have sent around 5,000 refugees back to Serbia since December 17, 2020, the day the verdict was announced. Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, and several members of his government have repeatedly confirmed that they intend to continue the practice.
Some 60 migrants tried to break through this border fence to enter Hungary in late January
Andras Lederer, the migration policy expert of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, one of the country’s most important non-governmental organizations, says this is “open and very serious defiance” of ECJ rulings, and thus of EU law, which is binding on Hungary. “It’s not very often in the legal field that things are crystal clear,” Lederer told DW. “But that is the case with ECJ rulings. They are binding, and Hungary must obey and implement them. But the Hungarian government is not doing it.”
In Hungarian officialese, the pushbacks are called “escort of apprehended illegal migrants to a gate opening of the Provisional Border Security Barrier (IBH).” This refers to the fence along the Serbian border, which since 2015 has been upgraded to a high-security installation. Gates have also been set into it at regular intervals. Refugees are sent back through these, usually immediately after they are picked up.
Many migrants are currently in the Serbian town of Horgos near the Hungarian border
Violation of EU directives
Until recently, at least according to the Hungarian government’s interpretation, there was a trick that covered this practice. The fence along the border with Serbia is situated on Hungarian territory, a few meters back from the actual border. So Hungary could argue that “escorting” refugees through a gate in the border fence was not deportation — because on the other side of the fence they were still, de facto, on Hungarian territory. This, at any rate, was the argument repeatedly put forward by Hungarian government representatives, as for example with regard to the question of whether the pushbacks constituted a violation of the Geneva Convention on Refugees.
However, in its December verdict, the ECJ explicitly ruled that taking refugees to the other side of the border fence was illegal, even though this was still Hungarian territory. As the persons concerned then had no option but to leave Hungarian territory, it said, this was equivalent to deportation. And sending them back without specific guarantees, such as individual assessment of their case, was a violation of EU directives.
Wear them down, starve them out
This is not the first time the ECJ has condemned the Hungarian government for its refugee policy. In May last year, the court in Strasbourg declared that the conditions of Hungary’s accommodation of refugees in so-called transit zones was unlawful.
At the end of 2015, Hungary established two transit zones near the fence along the Serbian border. Here, refugees were able to apply for asylum. However, in recent years, the conditions for staying there had become more and more restrictive. Couples and families were separated; only babies were allowed to stay with their mothers. The accommodation was extremely cramped, and resembled the high-security wing of a prison. Finally, refugees were also hardly being given any food.
Hungarian civil rights campaigners criticized these practices, which they described as “wearing them down and starving them out”. The Hungarian government argued that the refugees had not been imprisoned and could leave the transit zone at any time in order to get provisions. However, according to Hungarian asylum law, leaving the transit zone automatically resulted in the termination of the asylum process, with the refugee banned from reapplying.
The ECJ ruled that conditions in the transit zones constituted unlawful imprisonment. Hungary closed the transit zones as a result. Ever since, refugees have been able to apply for asylum only at the Hungarian embassies of non-EU member countries, primarily Serbia and Ukraine. Last autumn, the European Commission responded to this regulation by initiating further proceedings against Hungary, and these are still ongoing.
The transit camp near Tompa on Hungary’s border to Serbia was closed in May 2020
European Commission irresolute
Responding to an inquiry from DW, the Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs did not explain on what basis the Hungarian government was refusing to implement the ECJ’s December ruling.
A written statement from his communications department, which repeats almost word-for-word a Facebook post by the Hungarian justice minister, Judit Varga, from December last year, says: “The government continues to protect Hungary’s and Europe‘s borders and will do everything to prevent the formation of international migrant corridors.” It goes on to say that the conditions that were the subject of the verdict no longer pertain and that the ruling is therefore invalid. Kovacs does not explain what exactly is meant by this.
Given the Hungarian government’s refusal to implement the ECJ’s December 2020 ruling, Andras Lederer from the Helsinki Committee is calling on the European Commission to take action. “It would be possible to impose financial sanctions on Hungary, in the form of significant daily fines, for the non-execution of ECJ rulings,” Lederer says.
However, the civil rights campaigner is not optimistic that this will happen: “Unfortunately, it looks as if the European Commission is not as resolute as it needs to be when a member state violates existing laws.”
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (AP) – If you’re Christian in Bluefield — and most everyone is, in this small city tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains — you have your choice.
You can follow Pastor Doyle Bradford of Father’s House International Church, who has forcefully backed Donald Trump — doubting Trump’s defeat in November and joining some congregants at the Jan. 6 “Save America” rally that degenerated into the Capitol riot.
Or you can go less than 3 miles away next to the rail yard, to Faith Center Church, where Pastor Frederick Brown regards Bradford as a brother — but says he’s seriously mistaken. Or you can venture up East River Mountain to Crossroads Church, where Pastor Travis Lowe eschews Bradford’s fiery political rhetoric, seeking paths to Christian unity.
The three churches have much in common. All of them condemn the desecration of the Capitol and pray for a way to find common ground.
But they diverge on a central issue: What is the role of evangelical Christianity in America’s divisive politics?
Bradford and his flock defend his actions as expressions of freedom of speech and religious freedom, and say they should be allowed to voice their views against what they feel is an assault on democracy and Christian values. But his fellow pastors fear that fiery rhetoric and baseless claims made online and from the pulpit could stoke more tensions, rancor and divisiveness.
Though AP VoteCast found that about 8 in 10 evangelical voters supported Donald Trump in November — and though broadly, they have backed the political efforts of church leaders — they are not monolithic.
As is evident in this Appalachian town of just more than 10,000.
Long before he followed his pastoral calling, Doyle Bradford dug for coal underground — a traditional vocation in Bluefield, where folks proudly recall how rock extracted from the surrounding hills powered ships in the two world wars and helped build the skylines of cities across America.
Joe Biden carried parts of Bluefield itself, small splotches of blue in the sea of red that is West Virginia. But Mercer County gave more than three-quarters of its votes to Trump, and Bradford and his pronouncements are very much in line with that.
Travis Lowe, second from right, pastor of Crossroads Church in Bluefield, W.Va., raises his arm during services Sunday Jan. 23, 2021. Lowe, who has expressed concern over the divisiveness of American politics, believes collaboration by churches will help heal his town and the country. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) ((AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski))
“For those of you who are surprised at my attending (the Washington rally), we have 2 choices,” he wrote on Facebook, “I stand with the platform that most closely aligns with my faith and values. Those do not include the murder of babies in the womb, and not knowing which bathroom one should use and banning pronouns.”
He said he did not participate in or even see the violence Jan. 6. On Facebook, he said he believed it was a “planned response from non Trump supporters.” He claimed there was “plenty of evidence of fraud” in the presidential election — though there is no evidence that that is the case — and called on people to “wake up” because “America is at stake.”
In an interview, Bradford fiercely defended his actions and denied he was part of a larger movement toward Christian nationalism, described by a coalition gathered by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty as an ideology that “demands Christianity be privileged by the state and implies that to be a good American, one must be Christian.”
“I consider myself a Christian who loves America, but what we’ve got going on in the Earth today is, if a Christian does love America, they’re automatically called nationalist,” Bradford said.
“I do not believe that America is any greater in the eyes of God than any other country. But as a minister of the Gospel, I do not want to be shut out of the public arena. I do have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and it is my personal belief that America is going in a direction that will cause great harm to America.”
The sky lights up at dawn behind First Presbyterian Church and the rail yard in the historic coal city of Bluefield, W.Va, on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) ((AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski))
At Faith Center Church, Frederick Brown does not deny Bradford’s right to speak, but he does question the wisdom and even the godliness of some of the things he’s said.
Brown wants other religious leaders to return to “real Christianity” instead of getting wrapped up in the political arena. Although he respects Bradford as a “tremendous teacher” who loves God, he criticized some of his comments.
“With all love and due respect to my brother, I just feel that he has been completely out of order. I believe that he has said things publicly that just were not biblical,” he said.
“I’ve watched him declare that the wrath of God was coming upon people that did not vote for Trump, and the wrath of God was coming on the people that rigged the election. All of these things, from my perspective, that is totally contrary to what we teach and what we preach in Christendom.”
During a recent Sunday service — the first in-person one since November, due to the pandemic — Brown thanked the mostly Black congregation for its support after he contracted the coronavirus along with his wife and 17-month-old twins. Then he asked them to put politics aside and trust God.
“I don’t know about you all,” he said, “but I’ve been through 11 presidents, and I have survived them all.”
In a town where another church marquee read, “Don’t look to the White House. Look to heaven,” Brown’s message reverberated.
A congregant of the Faith Center Church lifts her hands toward the sky as she worships with others in Bluefield, W.Va., on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski) ((AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski))
“I’m ready for this political jockeying to be over with,” said congregant Jonathan Jessup. “You know, I’m sick of it because the only thing it’s doing is causing more division.”
At Crossroads Church, Travis Lowe has struggled with his own inclination to preserve Christian unity at all costs. He supported Black Lives Matter protests, but was reproached by a friend because his comments were divisive. He resolved to rein in his political speech.
In a post on Medium, he recounted how he struggled to remain silent as “pastors and prophets began to publicly take sides in the U.S. election. I was silent as scriptures were used to demonize political enemies. I was silent as the language of violence flowed from the mouths of `people of peace.'”
He recalled Bradford posted on Facebook after the first presidential debate that leaders in the church had supported Trump for years for not being a politician but were now backpedaling because he was not acting like one: “If you said he was the leader God chose, own it.”
After Jan. 6, Lowe finally spoke out: “I can no longer risk having blood on my hands for the sake of unity.”
“I struggle to see the way that people can wave a banner of Christianity and still employ the language of violence, and even a lot of the imagery that I’ve seen used will reference Jesus as being a lion, a lion of the tribe of Judah,” he said. “But one of the things that I recognize in the New Testament is that every time that we expect Jesus to show up as a lion, he shows up as a lamb.”
Bradford takes pride in the diversity of his congregation, which includes white, Black and Latino members. His flock defend their pastor and say his church has transformed their lives through acceptance and love.
That does not mean that they are happy with the violence they saw in Washington on Jan. 6, or that they are all certain that their faith offers clear instruction on how they should act politically.
“My biggest prayer is just that, God, that we would see the truth … and that this country would come together in unity,” said 21-year-old Kara Sandy, a congregant and junior at Bluefield State College.
Congregant Brenda Gross teared up when she was asked about Jacob Chansley, an Arizona man who was part of the insurrection at the Capitol. Known as the “QAnon Shaman,” Chansley led a prayer at the Senate chamber thanking God “for allowing the United States of America to be reborn,” while shirtless and wearing face paint and a furry hat with horns.
“I don’t know what prayer he prayed, but our Jesus was meek and mild. … He wasn’t representing the Jesus that I know and love,” she said.
Her husband attended the Washington rally with Bradford. Gross said she both stands by her pastor and prays for Biden, though she worries about Biden’s support for abortion rights, and how her community might lose jobs if he limits the use of coal.
Gina Brooks, who leads the children’s ministry at Bradford’s church, agreed that the Capitol melee was a sorry spectacle: “It’s sad, it’s really disheartening to see people take on the name Christian and they’re not.”
Brooks said she voted for Trump because she’s pro-life, but was often outraged by his behavior and felt it clashed with her Christian values.
Her 18-year-old son Jacob, who is studying music at Bluefield College, a private, Christian liberal arts college, said that at times it’s best to try to remain impartial.
“It’s important that people like us realize that we shouldn’t take sides, because the sides are what’s basically dividing the country,” he said. “As the body of Christ, our duty is to realize that this is sort of, I don’t know if I want to say like above us, but above our understanding. So, I think it’s just important that we just seek answers from our creator.”
But his mother said politics and religion are often deeply intertwined. She backed the decision to demonstrate by her pastor, whose most recent Facebook posts have been less strident, focusing on a message of unity and humility.
“I agree with him … was there things that were wrong in our election? Absolutely. Is it our responsibility to intercede for this nation? Absolutely,” she said.
“The end result is what the Lord’s will is, and if the Lord’s will is this, then so be it. But it doesn’t mean that we stop interceding in the spirit.”
Associated Press writer Elana Schor in Washington contributed to this report.
