RELIGION HEADLINES WED 2-18

(SRN NEWS)-

(  )  The government of Belgium is unhappy with the U.S. ambassador.  Bill White has accused the country of anti-Semitism over the prosecution of several Jewish people.  Belgian authorities are investigating whether three men in Antwerp were performing circumcisions without certified medical training.  Writing on social media, Ambassador White says “You must make a legal provision to allow Jewish rabbis to perform their duties here in Belgium.”  He says he plans to visit the accused men in Antwerp and has asked Belgium’s minister of health to join him.  The law allows doctors to perform circumcisions but no one else.

(  )  Secretary of State Marco Rubio is backing Viktor Orbán ahead of Hungary’s April election during a visit to Budapest. Other conservatives in the U.S. and Europe admire Orbán and his efforts to enshrine traditional values in Hungary. He has campaigned hard against the LGBT agenda, effectively banning same-sex adoption and same-sex marriage, and barring people who are living as the opposite sex from changing their gender on official documents. On Monday, Rubio praised Orbán’s close personal relationship with President Trump, saying that bond strengthens U.S.-Hungarian cooperation.  

(  )  Lent has begun.  Ash Wednesday signals the start of the most penitential season of the church calendar for Catholics and many Protestants as well — in particular those who attend Episcopal and Lutheran churches.  In recent years, many clergymen in this country have begun offering “Ashes to Go” in parking lots, commuter-rail stations and elsewhere. Among other Protestants, such as Baptists and other evangelical groups, traditions vary. Some observe Ash Wednesday and Lent, others don’t. But they often have their own penitential and ascetic traditions.  Many Pentecostals, for example, fast for a period in January.

(  )  The patriarch of Armenia’s Apostolic Church has been indicted and banned from leaving the country.  Patriarch Karekin (CARE-uh-kin) has been charged with obstructing the enforcement of a judicial act and prevented from attending a major Church convocation in Austria.  Armenia is in the grip of a church-state conflict with priests accusing the government of failing to protect the country from incursions by its neighbor, mostly-Muslim Azerbaijan.  The Church decided to hold its next Synod outside of Armenia due to mounting concerns about government interference.  Religious freedom advocates are expressing concern.