Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Vladimir Kara-Murza and a Friend

Vladimir Kara-Murza and a Friend

Last updated on: July 3, 2022 at 9:24 pm by Dan Peterson

Vladimir Kara-Murza and a Friend 2022-07-03T21:24:33-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A 2002 aerial view of the “Museuminsel” or “Museum Island” in Berlin
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

***

The obituary for our friend Michael Lyon, who died yesterday afternoon, has now appeared. He was one of the most interesting people I’ve ever known:

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/deseretnews/name/michael-lyon-obituary?id=35508241

I wrote yesterday about our visit to Michael’s room at Utah Valley Hospital — by which time, sadly, we could not communicate with him — and about noticing the prominent display of the Pride Flag at several locations on the hospital’s campus. (See “Of Rainbow Flags and Anarchy.”). One of my readers here, who posts under the moniker tangata neneva, offered a comment that I found quite helpful. So I’m sharing it here so that more readers will see it:

Utah Valley Hospital is owned by Intermountain Health Care. Often healthcare facilities and other places fly the flag to indicate “this is a safe place.” Local government buildings often fly a variety of flags on the third pole, including occasionally the rainbow flag. Most often it is a POW flag or the like. Recently there was a lawsuit against the City of Boston. The city had a policy that allowed groups to fly their flag for a day if they used the city hall for an assembly or meeting. This included LGBTQ groups flying the rainbow flag for assemblies in front of city hall or meeting in the building. But the city disallowed a Christian group (Camp Constitution) from flying their flag when they held an assembly at city hall in 2017. The US Supreme Court ruled against the city for discriminating in May 2022. Therefore, if governments allow the rainbow flag to be flown, they need to allow equal access to flags of all groups served by that government.

That makes sense to me, and I’m fine with the presence of the Pride Flag, so understood. Another reader, though, shared this item with me out of England, and I certainly see its author’s point of view, as well:

“It’s time to take down the Pride flag”

Just a side note: We saw Ukrainian flags on government and other buildings all over Germany during our recently-concluded visit there. I had absolutely nothing against this, of course. Quite to the contrary, I was very pleased. I myself own a tee-shirt with the Ukrainian flag on it, and I strongly support Ukraine’s resistance to Vladimir Putin’s immoral aggression against it. Even so, I was particularly struck by the multitude of Ukrainian flags flying atop the various buildings on Berlin’s Museuminsel (“Museum Island”) during the last full day of our tour. It was a beautiful day, and I was suddenly aware that I could see a Ukrainian flag gently rippling in the breeze on the pinnacle of every single one of the museum buildings that I could see. For just a moment, I felt as though we were in Ukraine rather than in Germany. After all, flags can be powerful symbols. It was more than slightly jarring, for example, after we had spent two or three days in Munich’s Marienplatz, which is dominated by the massive but beautiful neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus or “New City Hall,” to visit the former concentration camp at Dachau, in the Munich suburbs, and to see a display there that included a 1930s photograph of the Neues Rathaus draped in red, white, and black Nazi banners bearing the swastika.

Furthermore, incidentally, a critic of mine has written to tell me that, contrary to what I wrote yesterday, Utah Valley Hospital belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But he’s wrong. It doesn’t.

Das Neue Rathaus in München (the New City Hall of Munich)
Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph

Here, by the way, is another item out of England, which has kindly been brought to my notice by yet another reader:

“The shameful silence on the plot against Brett Kavanaugh: Why aren’t we talking about the attempted murder of a Supreme Court justice?”

Vladimir V. Kara-Murza in 2017 (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

I can’t do very much. I’m a realist. Vladimir Putin and his revanchist regime aren’t exactly moved by appeals to morality or motivated by surveys of sensitivity-trained focus groups. But I’ve resolved to do what little I can do to keep his name before at least my little piece of the public. Please read this piece:

“Russia’s Imprisoned Democracy Leader, Vladimir Kara-Murza: A brave man in dark times”

***

Just so you don’t grow soft and spoiled, though, and just so you remember that life isn’t always a bed of roses, I close with a quartet of appalling horrors that I’ve selected for your indignation from the unfathomable abyss of the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File©. Full disclosure: The first of them was actually called to my attention by Dr. Lynn Johnson, who, like me, likes to climb into the bathyscaphe occasionally and take a plunge down into the depths of the Hitchens File

“Adolescents’ relationship with God and internalizing adjustment over time: the moderating role of maternal religious coping,” Journal of Family Psychology (2014), by Marcie C. Goeke-Morey (Catholic University of America), Laura K. Taylor (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), Christine E. Merrilees (University of Notre Dame), Peter Shirlow (Queen’s University Belfast), and E. Mark Cummings (University of Notre Dame)

A growing literature supports the importance of understanding the link between religiosity and youths’ adjustment and development, but in the absence of rigorous, longitudinal designs, questions remain about the direction of effect and the role of family factors. This paper investigates the bidirectional association between adolescents’ relationship with God and their internalizing adjustment. Results from 2-wave, SEM cross-lag analyses of data from 667 mother/adolescent dyads in Belfast, Northern Ireland (50% male, M age = 15.75 years old) supports a risk model suggesting that greater internalizing problems predict a weaker relationship with God 1 year later. Significant moderation analyses suggest that a stronger relationship with God predicted fewer depression and anxiety symptoms for youth whose mothers used more religious coping.

“The Church of Jesus Christ Donates Millions to Flood Relief Efforts in South Africa: More than 8,700 households in the flood-ravaged province of Kwazulu-Natal will be assisted through this contribution.”

“Church Donation Helps Arizona Food Pantry Devastated by Fire: Commodities included 48 pallets of food, canned goods and frozen meat”

“A Juneteenth Update on How the NAACP and the Church Are Blessing God’s Children: 58 students have received scholarships, 47 more are headed to Ghana in July, and humanitarian projects are being planned in five U.S. cities”

Previous Post

June 29, 2022

Of Rainbow Flags and Anarchy

Next Post

July 2, 2022 "The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the mother of Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mary Ruth Sarah Elizabeth