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Evangelicals are the new internationalists, says The New York Times' Kristof
"America's evangelicals have become the newest internationalists," says Nicholas D. Kristof in today's New York Times. "The old religious right … [which tried] to battle Satan with school prayers and right-to-life amendments, is on the ropes. It is being succeeded by evangelicals who are using their growing clout to skewer China and North Korea, to support Israel, to fight sexual trafficking in Eastern Europe and slavery in Sudan, and, increasingly, to battle AIDS in Africa."

Kristof, a Times columnist who regularly writes on foreign affairs, likes what he sees. "While the old religious right was destructive when it launched the cultural wars, the new internationalists are saving lives in some of the most forgotten parts of the world." He laments that "a simple-minded moralistic streak often leads them toward sanctions that would hurt precisely the people they aim to help," and says evangelicals are wrong for trying to freeze the U.N.'s population fund. But at the end of the day, he says, "this new constituency for foreign affairs in Middle America" is a good thing. "I've lost my cynicism about evangelical groups partly because I've seen them at work abroad."

It's an interesting article that's likely to be forwarded around a lot of evangelical organizations today, but it's important to realize just how limited Kristof's view is. Many evangelicals and those who watch them would likely question his assertions that the old religious right is on the ropes, that there's that much of a difference between the domestically minded and internationalist evangelicals (see, for example, the story of Gary Bauer), and that Christian aid and relief organizations and Christian advocacy organizations are so closely tied together.

Still, this column raises a significant issue. Are American evangelicals thinking more globally? Are Christian culture warriors moving the battle abroad? Researchers, go forth.

Sydney's Catholic archbishop refuses communion to protesting homosexuals
Gays and lesbians protesting Roman Catholic teachings on homosexuality showed up at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney Sunday morning to be denied communion. The group, known as the Rainbow Sash, had done at least 10 times in Melbourne when George Pell was archbishop there, but now they've followed him to Sydney. "We're here to break the code of silence and invisibility that the church has imposed on gay and lesbian people as their price for involvement in the church for so many centuries," a group spokesman said after the service.

But Archbishop Pell was steadfast, refusing to offer the group communion, and spelling out church teaching in a brief address before the final prayer. "While I accept that people may hold views on the appropriate expression of their sexual life and identity which differ from the church's teachings, I deeply regret that such people—who profess the Catholic faith—would choose to mount an ideological demonstration during Mass, and especially at communion," he said.

Receiving the sacrament is the ultimate expression of our Catholic faith, an intensely personal matter between communicant and God. An unworthy communion, willfully made, is a serious matter. It's not a question of refusing homosexuals or someone who is homosexually oriented. Sexual orientation is morally irrelevant. The rule is the same for all Catholics.

A person who publicly defines himself at any given time as supporting or practicing activities contrary to church teaching in a serious matter is not entitled to receive Holy Communion. This would apply, for example, to a married person openly living in or advocating adultery. Similarly, persons who openly declare that active homosexuals should be able to receive communion take a position which is contrary to the teaching and discipline of the universal church. …

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May (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46