Here are the key sentences that directly address your concerns about the Hagia Sophia’s conversion, the controversy, religious undertones, and its political implications:

1.

**Muslim worshippers at the mosque on Friday said they viewed its rededication as an Islamic site to be a national win for Turkey.

**

2.

**With the new application that will start on January 15 at the Hagia Sophia Mosque, tourists will be able to visit the mosque without disturbing the prayer environment, the ministry said in a statement.

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3.

**Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched the reopening and operation of Ayasofya Mosque's Fatih Madrassa — Istanbul’s first religious school under the Ottoman Empire.

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4.

**Once known as the Chora Church, the site spent the last 79 years as a museum.

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5.

**The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora was built by the Byzantines in the 5th century.

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6.

**Though we cannot venerate as Orthodox Christians, we have to try to find things we can be united on.

**

7.

**This is an issue of vital importance for local Christian communities whose places of worship are entrusted to and managed by their governing bodies.

**

These sentences reflect:
- The perception among some Turkish Muslims that the conversion is a national victory.

- New policies attempting to balance tourism and prayer in the site.

- Erdogan’s role and the revival of Ottoman-era religious institutions.

- The broader trend of converting former Byzantine churches (once-museums) into mosques, signaling both political and religious motives.

- The concern of local Christian and Greek communities regarding heritage and access.

- The effort to foster unity despite religious differences, and acknowledgment that certain communities feel excluded from worshiping in these spaces.

Use these points to acknowledge tourists' concerns while emphasizing efforts to maintain access and respect for all visitors.

Here are the key sentences that directly address your concerns about the Hagia Sophia’s conversion, the controversy, religious undertones, and its political implications:

1.

Title:

Content: After Hagia Sophia, Turkey converts a second ancient Byzantine church into a mosque

Hundreds of worshippers filled the narrow streets of Istanbul's Fatih district on Friday to hear the sounds of Friday prayers ringing out from the newly inaugurated Kariye Mosque.

Once known as the Chora Church, the site spent the last 79 years as a museum. But it is now the latest structure to be converted back into a mosque by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, following the conversion of Hagia Sophia in 2020. While viewed as a triumph by many Turkish Muslims, the Greek Orthodox Church has decried it as an "ill-advised decision" that "makes a mockery of the Turkish government's commitment to religious tolerance and religious freedom."

Chora's conversion was announced shortly after Hagia Sophia's, but its opening for prayer was delayed by years of restoration work.

The showing for the first Friday prayers at Kariye was relatively quiet compared to Hagia Sophia, which drew hundreds of thousands who filled the streets with prayer rugs for blocks and blocks away from the building. By contrast, the crowd on Friday was relatively average for a mosque in one of Istanbul's more religiously conservative neighborhoods, where Friday worshippers frequently spill out onto the streets.

Both the Chora Church and Hagia Sophia are 4th-century Byzantine constructions. They spent nearly a millennium as Christian holy sites before being converted to mosques by the Ottomans after their conquest of Constantinople in the 15th century. Despite their conversions, they remained revered by Orthodox Christians. After the founding of a secular Turkish Republic in the early 20th century, the decision was made for both to be neither mosque nor church but simply museums.

"Both Hagia Sophia and Chora embodied Byzantine and Ottoman pasts, and they became symbols of co-existence and multi-faith living practices. Their conversion fundamentally implies a hierarchy, prioritizing the Islamic past over all other layers, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Jewish, Syriac, et al," Dr. Özgür Kaymak, a lecturer and researcher on minority rights at Istanbul's MEF University, told Religion News Service in an email.

Rededicating the sites as mosques is more than just a status change. According to Islamic tradition, artwork of human figures are forbidden in places of prayer, while in Orthodox Churches, icons of Christ, saints and other biblical figures are a defining feature.

In Hagia Sophia, the mosaics of Jesus and Mary have been covered with curtains since the conversion. While Erdoğan promised Hagia Sophia would remain fully accessible and free to all visitors, Turkey reneged on that earlier this year, reimposing an entrance fee on tourists and relegating them to the upper level, while the main floor is exclusive to Muslim worshippers.

Observers have also criticized the Turkish Directorate of Religion's caretaking of the site, noting damage that did not exist when it was under the purview of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Though Chora is significantly smaller than Hagia Sophia, it is home to some of the best-preserved examples of late-Byzantine art, including mosaics, icons and frescoes, and is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site.

"For us it's a very important place because it remembers our culture and our traditions here," Father Evangelos Markantonis, an Orthodox priest who was leading a group of theology students to Chora on Friday, told Religion News Service.

"Though we cannot venerate as Orthodox Christians, we have to try to find things we can be united on. Only with dialogue and good deeds can we continue our lives," Markantonis, who is also a professor at the University of Athens, said when asked about the controversy.

Erdoğan had long refused calls from his right to convert churches like Hagia Sophia and Chora, telling supporters in 2018 to fill the nearby Sultan Ahmet Mosque (also known in English as the Blue Mosque) before they talked about needing to pray in Hagia Sophia.

Nonetheless, he made an about-turn in 2020.

"My dear nation, the conquest of Istanbul and the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a Mosque are among the most glorious chapters in Turkish history," Erdoğan said at the time in a speech inaugurating the Hagia Sophia as a mosque.

"This is the most honorable day that Islam has been looking forward to, Greek Constantinople has become Turkish Istanbul," he added, quoting the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet.

"The resurrection of Hagia Sophia heralds the liberation of the al-Aqsa Mosque. The resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the footsteps of the will of Muslims across the world to come out of the interregnum," Erdoğan said in his concluding remarks.

Chora's opening as the Kariye Mosque comes just weeks after Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered its largest electoral defeat in two decades during Turkey's nationwide municipal elections.

"The recent conversion of Chora into a mosque may be due to Erdoğan's many problems, including his geopolitical power politics, his appeal to religio-nationalism to revive his electoral popularity after the March elections or his tactic to divert attention from Turkey's economic downturn," Kaymak said.

Many analysts have attributed the loss to AKP bleeding votes to the more Islamist-leaning New Welfare Party, which has pressured Erdogan over his response to the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Muslim worshippers at the mosque on Friday said they viewed its rededication as an Islamic site to be a national win for Turkey.

"This mosque is one of the symbols of the Conquest. We are proud and happy. There are very beautiful frescoes inside. They were also nicely renovated before they were closed. May it be good for our country and our nation," a bystander, Ahmet Öteyüzoğlu, told Turkish media.

"Thank God for these days. Not everyone has the opportunity in their lifetime," another bystander named Mehmet Çelik told the Turkish news service Anadolu Agency, in reference to having been able to pray at both the rededicated Hagia Sophia and Kariye Mosques.

However, Greece, the U.S. State Department and Orthodox Christian institutions worldwide have all criticized the decision to revert the structure into a mosque.

"I want to publicly express my intense dissatisfaction, interpreting the feelings of all Greek women and men, for the completely unnecessary conversion of a historic Byzantine temple, the Monastery of Chora, into a mosque. It is, I believe, an action that offends the rich history of Istanbul itself as a crossroads of cultures," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said shortly before leaving for Turkey for a planned meeting with Erdogan.

"We encourage the Turkish government to preserve and ensure access to sites and buildings that have hosted different religious communities in a way that respects their diverse histories," a State Department spokesperson said in response to questions from Greek media.

"The Turkish government's appropriation of both as the property of one faith group not only constitutes yet another sign of that government's contempt for Turkey's rich Orthodox Christian heritage but further imperils the religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the remaining Christians of that land," the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate said in a statement.

© Religion News Service

**Muslim worshippers at the mosque on Friday said they viewed its rededication as an Islamic site to be a national win for Turkey.

How did Muslims and Orthodox Christians react to the reconversion?

What kind of domestic reaction did Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia receive?

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

**

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Title:

Content: Turkey’s iconic Hagia Sophia mosque to charge $28 entry fee for tourists

Published: Updated:
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Turkey’s Hagia Sophia mosque began charging tourists nearly $28 on Monday for entrance to the landmark site.

The UNESCO World Heritage site, renowned for its blue-tiled interior, will no longer allow free admission to foreigners, the Turkish tourism ministry announced.

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

The former museum-turned mosque has a new entrance in front of the Topkapi Palace Museum open for tourists.

Tunnel entrance at Turkey's Hagia Sophia. (File photo)

The Hagia Sophia was a museum space from 1934 until 2020 when Turkey decided to change it to a mosque. Various historical reports say the mosque with byzantine architecture was an Orthodox cathedral decades ago.

“With the new application that will start on January 15 at the Hagia Sophia Mosque, tourists will be able to visit the mosque without disturbing the prayer environment,” the ministry said in a statement.

The entrance to the mosque will be “provided in a controlled manner through the tunnel and entrance ramp where visitors will be transported to the gallery floor and exited via the ramp in the northeast direction,” the statement said.

“Tourists who come to the gallery section will be able to see the sanctuary floor of the mosque and the Ottoman Period annexes, pass through the heaven-hell gate, and examine the Byzantine Period mosaics in this section,” it added.

Security cameras, fire detection and emergency announcement systems were reportedly installed in the mosque along the tour route. Cleaning and conservation work on the marble coverings and wooden railings on the gallery floor of the mosque was also carried out by restorers and conservators.

Visitors will also have access to a headset guide with QR codes where information on the sight is available in 23 languages.

People visit the Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Istanbul, Turkey, July 10, 2020. (Reuters)

Read more:

Ramadan prayers return to Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia mosque after 88 years

Turkey says UNESCO criticism of Hagia Sophia conversion ‘biased and political’

Erdogan names ex-environment minister as his party’s Istanbul mayor candidate

Top Content Trending

**With the new application that will start on January 15 at the Hagia Sophia Mosque, tourists will be able to visit the mosque without disturbing the prayer environment, the ministry said in a statement.

**

3.

Why is Hagia Sophia considered an architectural milestone in world history?

It became a landmark of architectural innovation

**Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched the reopening and operation of Ayasofya Mosque's Fatih Madrassa — Istanbul’s first religious school under the Ottoman Empire.

Title:

Content: Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched the reopening and operation of Ayasofya Mosque's Fatih Madrassa — Istanbul’s first religious school under the Ottoman Empire.

The Turkish president has inaugurated the Ayasofya Fatih Madrassa, the first Ottoman school in Istanbul.

“We have taken a very important step to carry our magnificent past to the present and the future, and to bring it together with our people,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the inauguration ceremony on Friday.

“After the conquest of Istanbul, this place was put into service as the first madrassa of the city, next to Ayasofya," Erdogan added.

The religious school takes its name from Fatih (Conqueror), the title given to Sultan Mehmet II, who conquered the city in 1453. It was the first of its kind in the capital of the former Ottoman Empire.

Erdogan said the school continued to operate until 1924 with maintenance, repairs and construction during different periods, but was later demolished by "those who wanted to erase the country’s rich history."

Erdogan said the madrassa will again be an education centre, operated by the Fatih Sultan Mehmet University.

“Ayasofya Fatih Madrasa, which has been instrumental in the training of countless scholars for nearly four and a half centuries, will serve as an education centre from now on. I hope that tomorrow's scholars, intellectuals, scientists and researchers will be trained here,” the president said.

READ MORE: Türkiye to 'tirelessly' continue mediating Ukraine-Russia conflict: Altun

Ayasofya’s historical significance

Ayasofya was built in the year 532 CE, and turned into a mosque after the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehmet, who later established a mosque foundation.

The historic place of worship was converted into a museum in 1934, and it regained mosque status in 2020.

Besides being a mosque, Ayasofya is also among Türkiye's top tourism destinations and remains open for domestic and foreign visitors.

In 1985, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

READ MORE: Istanbul Airport ranked second busiest in the world last year

Source: AA

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**Once known as the Chora Church, the site spent the last 79 years as a museum.

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Content: >
December 9, 2021

Christian leaders look forward to Turkey's new law on religious foundations

This is an issue of vital importance for local Christian communities whose places of worship are entrusted to and managed by their governing bodies

Religious minorities in Turkey are looking forward to the increasingly Islamo-nationalist government making good its promise of outreach to non-Muslims by giving them freedom to establish and run their religious and social institutions.

The Turkish government is preparing to issue a new regulation on the administrative management of foundations linked to non-Muslim faith communities, which have been paralyzed for years by a legislative impasse that blocks the renewal of their governing bodies.

This is an issue of vital importance for local Christian communities such as Armenians and Assyrians, whose places of worship – many of them historic --, other real estate and public institutions are entrusted to and managed by foundations.

Burhan Ersoy, head of the state-run Directorate of the Foundations, has confirmed that the plan for the drafting of a new regulation concerning the elections for the assignment of offices within the foundations has come into being, Fides reported.

The draft of the text has been drawn up, taking into account requests and proposals from the various minority communities, and it is expected that the new rules, after obtaining government approval, would be implemented by April 2022.

The previous electoral regulation for the top management of foundations had been suspended in 2013, after the government chose to establish new procedures to make the management of real estate more functional and transparent.

This led to some confusion with representatives of the various minority communities unable to come to a consensus to either accept or reject the new electoral rules, Ersoy said.

The Syrian Orthodox Christian Süleyman Can Ustabaşı, current representative of the non-Muslim Foundations within the Assembly of Foundations, has said that the structure of foundations and their membership profiles had changed over time.

The Turkish government already had consultations with the representatives of religious minorities to resolve the dispute over board elections for their foundations.

But Ustabaşı now urges Turkish authorities to carry out another consultation with representatives of minority communities before the new text is to be implemented in 2022.

The legal status of the Foundations is still based on the Peace Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923 by Turkey and the Entente powers (British Empire, France and Russian Empire) victorious from the First World War.

The treaty guaranteed equality before the laws and the freedom to promote and manage "religious and social institutions" for non-Muslim communities in Turkey.

However, the state had seized properties run by these foundations and had to contend with litigation as these foundations claimed the rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne.

Also, starting from 1936, legislative provisions had allowed foundations of non-Muslim communities to acquire new properties. But in 1974, this guarantee was canceled and the state begun seizing assets acquired by these foundations.

Between 2013 and 2018 about 1,084 properties were returned to the foundations linked to non-Muslim communities, and 20 places of worship restored and given back to the foundations, according to official data.

Greek Orthodox Laki Vingas, in a speech published by the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, said that the legislative deadlock on the question of the regulation of the foundations has had a negative effect on the life of the different ecclesial communities.

The block in the processes of renewal of the governing bodies of foundations had led to the expulsion of young people from the institutions linked to their communities, and also that many voluntary activities were "unfortunately interrupted".

Non-Muslim places of worship

Within the general Assembly of the Turkish Foundations are some 167 minority foundations. The Turkish Greek community has 77, the highest number of foundations. The Armenian community has 54 and the Jewish community has 19 foundations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a cabinet meeting held on October 25 announced that authorities had put on the agenda the question of the elections of the directorates of the foundations linked to religious minorities.

He also spoke of fundamental tools for the management of assets and resources destined for non-Muslim places of worship.

The issue of the foundations come at a time when Turkish authorities have expelled more and more Protestant Christians -- foreigners and Turkish converts-- on grounds they constitute a "threat to national security".

Turkey had also recently transformed museums into mosques, such as the Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora.

Both churches had been turned into museums after the end of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of modern Turkey.

The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora was built by the Byzantines in the 5th century. The Ottomans then turned it into a mosque after they captured Constantinople in 1453. And it remained a Muslim worship space until the end of the Second World War when it was transformed into a museum.

The same happened to the Hagia Sophia Museum in Iznik, and the high-profile reconversion of the Hagia Sophia Museum, Istanbul's most identifiable monument.

Many observers believe that President Erdogan, weakened internally by a bad economy and a lack of political perspective, is compensating with erasing part of the country's multiculturalism, aimed at shoring up the ranks of his Islamo-nationalist base.

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**The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora was built by the Byzantines in the 5th century.

**

6.

**Though we cannot venerate as Orthodox Christians, we have to try to find things we can be united on.

What did the CALHSC president urge regarding decisions on Hagia Sophia?

Consider both Muslim and Christian voices

**

7.

**This is an issue of vital importance for local Christian communities whose places of worship are entrusted to and managed by their governing bodies.

Who was angered by the reconversion of Hagia Sophia in July 2020?

**

These sentences reflect:
- The perception among some Turkish Muslims that the conversion is a national victory.

How did Muslims and Orthodox Christians react to the reconversion?

What kind of domestic reaction did Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia receive?

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

- New policies attempting to balance tourism and prayer in the site.

- Erdogan’s role and the revival of Ottoman-era religious institutions.

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

- The broader trend of converting former Byzantine churches (once-museums) into mosques, signaling both political and religious motives.

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

- The concern of local Christian and Greek communities regarding heritage and access.

Who was angered by the reconversion of Hagia Sophia in July 2020?

- The effort to foster unity despite religious differences, and acknowledgment that certain communities feel excluded from worshiping in these spaces.

What did the CALHSC president urge regarding decisions on Hagia Sophia?

Consider both Muslim and Christian voices

Use these points to acknowledge tourists' concerns while emphasizing efforts to maintain access and respect for all visitors.


Here are key sentences relevant to your information request about the controversy regarding Turkish President Erdogan's reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020.

These sentences focus on the religious undertones and criticisms that the move was politically motivated:

1.

This controversy is particularly due to its historical significance as both a Byzantine cathedral and an Ottoman mosque, as well as its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Critics argue that Erdogan’s decision carried religious undertones, symbolizing a shift towards emphasizing Turkey’s Islamic identity over its secular traditions.

Many critics viewed the reconversion as a move to consolidate political support among conservative and nationalist voters in Turkey.

The international community, including UNESCO, expressed concern over the potential impact on Hagia Sophia’s status as a symbol of intercultural dialogue.

Some argued that the decision risked increasing religious tensions and undermining religious pluralism, especially given the Hagia Sophia’s shared heritage for both Christians and Muslims.

Opponents also claimed the move was designed to distract from domestic issues and bolster Erdogan's image as a defender of Islam.

These sentences sum up the main points regarding both the religious implications and the political motivations behind the reconversion of Hagia Sophia, which are likely to interest your Arab audience.

Here are key sentences relevant to your information request about the controversy regarding Turkish President Erdogan's reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020.

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Orthodox Christian churches are drawing in far-right American converts

When Sarah Riccardi-Swartz moved from New York City to a small Appalachian town in West Virginia in the fall of 2017, she was searching for an answer to a puzzling question. Why had a group of conservative American Christians converted to Russian Orthodoxy?

"It's typically an immigrant faith, so I was really interested in that experience and why it spoke to converts," said Riccardi-Swartz, a postdoctoral fellow in the Recovering Truth project at Arizona State University.

Riccardi-Swartz's study focused on a community of mostly former evangelical Christians and Catholics who had joined the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). The West Virginia location, in addition to having a church parish, was also home to the largest English-speaking Russian Orthodox monastery in the world.

Over a year of doing research, Riccardi-Swartz learned that many of these converts had grown disillusioned with social and demographic change in the United States. In ROCOR, they felt they had found a church that has remained the same, regardless of place, time and politics. But Riccardi-Swartz also found strong strains of nativism, white nationalism and pro-authoritarianism, evidenced by strong admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin as "king-like figure"

"For many of them, Putin becomes this sort of king-like figure in their narratives," she said. "They see themselves as oppressed by democracy because democracy is really diversity. And they look to Putin because democracy isn't really, as we see right now, an option [in Russia]."

She recently published a book based on her research that's titled Between Heaven and Russia: Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia.

The case study that Riccardi-Swartz provides adds detail and color to a trend that a handful of historians and journalists have documented for nearly a decade. In publications mostly targeted toward an Orthodox Christian audience, they have raised the alarm about a growing nativist element within the church. Despite Orthodoxy's relatively small imprint in the U.S., they warn that, unchecked, these adherents could fundamentally alter the faith tradition in the United States. They also warn that these individuals are evangelizing hate in the name of Orthodoxy in ways that could attract more who share those views.

"It's an immigrant faith. It's now being sort of colonized by these converts in many respects," said Riccardi-Swartz. "They're vocal in their parishes. They're vocal online. They're very digitally savvy and very connected to other far-right actors in the United States and across the globe. And that's really changing the faith."

Orthodoxy's changing footprint in America

Despite centuries of presence in North America, starting in what we now know as Alaska, the Orthodox church in the U.S. is still relatively small. Alexei Krindatch, a sociologist of religion who focuses on Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches in the U.S., estimates that active adherents make up about 0.4% of the population. Within that, nearly two dozen branches are divided between what's known as Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy. They include Greek, Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian and more.

Eastern Orthodox churches, which include ROCOR, flourished in the U.S. starting at the turn of the 20th century, when migrants flocked to major industrial hubs like New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland for jobs. Over time, these churches concentrated in the Northeast and West Coast. But more recently, the size and location of Eastern Orthodox churches in the U.S. has changed. According to Krindatch, who conducts censuses of Orthodoxy in the U.S., parishes declined in size between 2010 and 2020.

"This is in line with American mainline religion, [where] everyone is shrinking in size except nondenominational churches," Krindatch said. But ROCOR, which Krindatch estimated in 2020 to have roughly 24,000 adherents, experienced a striking shift. While the number of ROCOR adherents declined by 14%, Krindatch found that the number of parishes grew by 15%.

"So what it means [is], we have more parishes, but which are smaller in size. And if you look at the geography, those parishes were planted not in traditional lands of Orthodoxy," said Krindatch. The growth occurred in less populated areas of the Upper Midwest and Southern states, places with fewer direct links to Russia.

"So for me, those are a bunch of new ROCOR communities which are founded by convert clergy or by convert members," Krindatch said.

Aram Sarkisian, a postdoctoral teaching fellow at Northwestern University's Department of History, said this new growth from converts has helped some branches of Orthodoxy offset a decline in multigenerational families in the church. Sarkisian said these converts often find their way to Orthodoxy because they seek a haven for what they consider to be the most important cultural issues of the day.

"They're drawn to what they believe to be conservative views on things like LGBTQ rights, gender equality. Abortion is a really big issue for these folks, the culture wars issues, really," Sarkisian said. "And so they leave other faith traditions that they don't believe to be as stringent about those issues anymore."

Sarkisian said he began to see white nationalist and nativist views surface within Orthodox spaces online just around the time that these shifts began taking place.

"I first started noticing this around 2010, 2011 on Orthodox blogs, where I started to see language and rhetoric that was subtly racist and was subtly engaging in what we would now know as the alt-right," Sarkisian said. "They bring it with them into the church because they see Orthodoxy as amenable to these goals, to these viewpoints."

Orthodoxy and the Unite the Right rally

Perhaps the most well known among Orthodox converts who worked within alt-right circles was Matthew Heimbach. He had established the Traditionalist Worker Party, which helped organize a deadly gathering of neo-Nazis and white nationalists at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. But years before that, Heimbach's activities had already created waves within some Orthodox circles.

In 2014, he was excommunicated from the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America shortly after he had been accepted into it. During his brief time there, Heimbach's activities with other Orthodox converts on a college campus in Indiana drew scrutiny. In explaining the decision to cut Heimbach off from the church, the priest who had brought him into the church explained, "I did not understand at that time that he held nationalistic, segregationist views." Heimbach went on to join another branch of Orthodoxy.

"And then after that all happened, basically, the bishops said, 'OK, it's all done. There is nothing to talk about anymore and nothing here to see,' " said Inga Leonova, the founder and editor of The Wheel, a journal on Orthodoxy and culture.

Leonova, a member of the Orthodox Church in America, said she began following the trend of extremists joining Orthodoxy when she became aware of Heimbach's campus activities. When she writes about the topic, she said she receives threats from within the Orthodox community. Still, she has felt that silence on the issue has caused greater harm. In the wake of the Unite the Right rally, she said that bishops across Orthodox jurisdictions ignored calls to condemn the event and the rise of extremist ideologies in the church.

"I think that there must be a presence of a certain amount of aloofness and the lack of desire to engage with these topics because there is an Orthodox story that Orthodoxy and politics don't mix," she said.

But Leonova said this is fiction. An Orthodox Church in America priest from Ohio was briefly suspended after he was seen in a video wearing his cassock on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, after he attended the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C. And Leonova said other clergy members, themselves American converts to the faith, have signaled their political viewpoints on their social media pages and personal blogs.

"There is a significant number of clergy whose social media profiles sport Confederate flags and support of the Southern cause," she said.

ROCOR's media-makers

Those who have followed the influx of extremists into American Orthodoxy agree that those individuals are fringe within the church and are mostly concentrated in newly founded ROCOR parishes. But they also warn that it would be foolish to ignore them. Of particular concern are the ways in which these individuals are networking with outside extremist groups and broadcasting their ideologies in the name of Orthodoxy.

"I do actually think it's growing," said George Demacopoulos, a professor and the director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. "I don't think these people are necessarily changing the minds of people already in the church, but I do think they are bringing others culturally or politically like them into the church."

In a viral social media clip pulled from a far-right internet talk show on the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Lauren Witzke of Delaware praised Russia as a "Christian nationalist nation." Witzke is studying to convert to ROCOR.

"I identify more with Russian — with Putin's Christian values — than I do with Joe Biden," Witzke said in the video. She declined to speak with NPR for this story.

Sarkisian said Witzke's view typifies those of far-right converts to ROCOR, who have been receptive to Kremlin propaganda portraying Putin as a pious defender of Orthodoxy and traditional values. He said Putin also represents to them an appealing style of authoritarian leadership that challenges pluralism and liberal democracy in the United States.

"They are anti-democratic by nature," Sarkisian said. "They are a part of these larger networks on the American far right, like Nicholas Fuentes and his America Firsters. They connect into these nodes that are challenging the very fabric of American democracy."

Witzke, a MAGA supporter who ran on an anti-immigration platform in 2020, has appeared on Orthodox podcasts, where she has identified herself as aligned with the white nationalist America First movement. She also, at one time, seemed to support QAnon conspiracy theories but has since renounced QAnon. The media ecosystem she has participated in, a network of American converts to ROCOR who produce podcasts and live video chats online, presents a highly politicized interpretation of Orthodoxy to the world and one that many believe offers a distorted view of the church.

"This is how people are finding Orthodoxy now. They're finding Orthodoxy through these YouTube shows. They're finding it through these podcasts. They're finding it through these blogs," said Sarkisian. "They're being radicalized by these folks on the internet, and that's really dangerous."

The channels revolve around themes of antisemitism, contempt for women's and LGBTQ rights, xenophobia and support of white nationalists, including some who've been convicted of violent hate crimes. At times, clergy within ROCOR and other Orthodox branches have joined these online discussions, which may lend the appearance of sanctioning those views.

Some longtime ROCOR faithful have found these views bewildering, given the church's history. Lena Zezulin, whose parents were among the founding members of a parish in Long Island, N.Y., said that the community was always inclusive of non-Christian Russian immigrants living among it and proud of its immigrant roots.

"We had Muslims in the community," she recalled. "My summer camp had Buddhists in the community. So those people were kind of lovingly absorbed into the group because they all came over [to the U.S.] together."

She said that the congregation and clergy also welcomed her African American husband when they married roughly 40 years ago. But over time, their children started to encounter racism in the church. Zezulin said it tracked with the church's expansion to new regions of the U.S., where it was drawing new conservative converts. Zezulin said she believes tolerance for these views may explain why extremists with xenophobic and nativist views have been joining.

"It's outrageous, given that we came here as refugees and were accepted," she said. "I think it's racism based."

Russia's war in Ukraine

In general, those who have raised concern about racism and extremists' participation within the church say the issue has largely been left to parish priests to address — or not to address. NPR reached out to Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary near Jordanville, N.Y., ROCOR's theological training institution, for comment on a number of questions, including how clergy are advised to handle the airing of antisemitic or nativist views by parishioners. Representatives declined to answer questions.

Most recently, Russia's war in Ukraine has prompted painful reflection among some faithful. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, gave religious cover to the war. He claimed that the invasion of Ukraine is necessary to protect Orthodox Ukrainians from Western influence — namely, gay pride parades. Zezulin left her longtime ROCOR community and has started attending an Orthodox Church in America parish because her priest would not condemn the invasion.

"You know, somebody just said we should stand and pray for both sides. Well, were the Brits supposed to pray for Hitler and Churchill at the same time?" she said.

If anything, said Sarkisian, the war has exposed just how Putin has used the Russian Orthodox Church to further his country's influence.

"It is definitely an arm of soft diplomacy, and ROCOR is a really important part of that," Sarkisian said. "Putin is really interested in the church for its purposes for amplifying a particular aspect of Russian history politically, religiously, culturally."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

No--In 1934, Ataturk turned it into a museum, making it a major tourist attraction and secular symbol in Turkey.

Why did Erdogan restore Hagia Sophia as a mosque in 2020?

Because he wanted to end its 86-year museum status to return it to its original role as a mosque.

These sentences focus on the religious undertones and criticisms that the move was politically motivated:

1.

Title:

Content: News

(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland discusses his new YouTube channel, how Eucharistic devotion affects the way priests celebrate Mass, active participation in the liturgy, the Spanish Socialist government’s decision to stop a Rosary rally, and more.

Strickland addressed the decision of the Spanish government to ban Rosary rallies near the headquarters of the current ruling party, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). While the rallies began on November 12 in protest of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s amnesty for Catalan secessionists in an effort to create a coalition government, rally organizer José Andrés Calderón said in a November 27 post on X (formerly Twitter) that the government banned the rallies and other prayer events. Calderón received a fine on two days later for defying the government’s orders, and a 60-year-old woman was arrested.

His Excellency observed that if enough people resist the government’s ban, “they can’t throw the whole country in jail.” He also said that going to jail for praying the Rosary is “ridiculous,” “atheistic and anti-Christian,” and that people “shouldn’t put up with” the fact that people “get away with” persecuting Christians more than any other group, as that hurts humanity as a whole.

“When Christianity is persecuted, it diminishes the blessings and the availability of the Good News of Jesus Christ for all of humanity,” he said. “We have to resist prayerfully and peacefully, but we have to resist.”

Strickland, meanwhile, started a YouTube channel on November 28. He said he wants to do “shorter segments” so people can “listen about a topic if they find it interesting and to just talk about the faith.” The channel would be similar to the show, but in a format more accessible to a different group of people.

READ: Bishop Strickland barred from saying Mass in Diocese of Tyler, Texas

He also addressed Eucharistic adoration in the latter half of the show, saying that he wants to get priests to know Our Lord in the Eucharist more deeply. He explained that Eucharistic adoration had an immense effect on his life and on how he celebrates Mass – something that people notice whenever they attend his Masses. He also stated that every priest needs to treat the Mass with great reverence and hopes the YouTube channel will be a means to help priests to that end.

Reacting to an observation of show host Terry Barber – that the liturgical practices surrounding the Eucharist from before the Second Vatican Council should return, such as kneeling when receiving the Eucharist, receiving on the tongue, and an ad orientem posture for the priest – Strickland said that while the Council talked about the active participation of the laity at the liturgy, he thinks that what the Council meant was misunderstood.

“I think we missed the point that ‘full and active participation’ is being engaged in the sacred and really being alert and at work and praying actively, but not necessarily doing anything but kneeling there in the pew, and sitting and listening deeply to the Word of God, but really being spiritually present, I would say, rather than just saying, ‘Oh yeah, well, his homily’s still a little too long,’ or the distractions could easily come,” he said. He further observed that the devotion of the priest and the people during the liturgy bolsters both priests and laity, feeding each other’s faith.

According to Strickland, if people were to say the liturgy is too long, then “we’re not fully and actively engaged in the way we should be.”

“It’s really not a matter of how long it takes,” he noted. “I think it is a matter of taking the time to make sure that it’s a sacred event, and that we’re not just saying, ‘Okay, how quick can we zip through this?’”

At the end of the episode, His Excellency addressed a question posed to him recently on what to do if a priest faces a situation where his preaching of the Gospel without compromise earns him a scolding, or if he is told to avoid discussing certain topics.

Strickland answered that the world and all its troubles are temporary, but Catholics should focus on those things that are eternal. “We need to ask ourselves: ‘Can I dilute or ignore this eternal truth for the sake of a temporary consequence that I may avoid, but that’s only temporary?’”

While we are in the world, further, we are made for eternity, and “that’s a lot of what we’ve forgotten.” While most are worried about “today and tomorrow,” Strickland said we need to be worried about “everlasting life … and live today and tomorrow in that context, rather than saying, ‘Oh, I don’t want the consequences of what may happen.’”

“I think I’m an example of not worrying about the consequences, but you’ve got to speak the truth,” he chuckled. “It brings joy, it brings peace, it brings fulfillment, even in these temporary days.”

To watch all previous episodes of The Bishop Strickland Showclick here to visit LifeSite’s Rumble page dedicated to The Bishop Strickland Show.

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

The decision aimed to rally anti-Kemalist voters.

This controversy is particularly due to its historical significance as both a Byzantine cathedral and an Ottoman mosque, as well as its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Title:

Content: Plus, YouTube closes accounts of separatists in Ukraine, Greece and Turkey at odds over Orthodox monastery, and more.

The Big Story: Macron Shows Cautious Optimism After Meeting With Putin

What happened: After their meeting yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he will look into the proposals on defusing the situation in Ukraine put forth by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, AFP reports. “A number of his ideas, proposals … are possible as a basis for further steps,” Putin said. “We will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone.”

More context: “President Putin assured me of his readiness to engage,” Macron said, while adding “There is no security for the Europeans if there is no security for Russia.” According to French officials, the proposals included both sides avoiding any new military action, the launch of a new strategic dialogue, and efforts to revive the peace process in Kyiv’s conflict with separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Worth noting: Also yesterday, Washington and Brussels said they will work to ensure gas supplies can respond to potential disruptions in pipeline gas flows, Reuters reports. “We’re working together right now to protect Europe’s energy supply against supply shocks, including those that could result from further Russian aggression against Ukraine,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a joint press conference with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell

News from the Regions

Central Europe and the Baltics

  • A court in Latvia has fined the owner of a company that broadcasts Russian television channels in the three Baltic states, the Baltic News Network reports. Baltic Media Alliance (BMA) was hit with a fine of 3.1 million euros last week due to the company’s non-compliance with EU sanctions on Russia. At issue is the company’s contract and financial arrangements with the co-owner and board chair at Rossiya Bank, Yuri Kovalchuk, who has been on the EU’s blacklist since 2014. The court also issued fines of 25,000 euros to BMA co-owner Oleg Solodov and BMA Estonia branch director Margus Merima; in addition, authorities seized BMA property worth 3 million euros. In 2019, the Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council banned nine Russian television programs owned by Kovalchuk.

Southeastern Europe

  • Albania’s Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime sentenced a former interior minister to over three years in prison for abuse of office, Exit.al reports. According to a judge in the case, Saimir Tahiri “facilitated drug trafficking for a criminal group through his inaction and received gifts from its members during his term in office,” Exit.al writes. The case was a retrial; Tahiri was initially arrested in 2017 on drug trafficking charges, but was convicted in 2019 for abuse of office and sentenced only to community service. Tahiri is the second former minister of Edi Rama’s 2013-2017 government to receive a prison sentence, after former Environment Minister Lefter Koka.
  • Authorities in Bucharest are asking Moscow to return the treasure that Romania sent to Russia for safekeeping during World War I, BIRN reports. Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Sunday that Romania wants to reopen negotiations on the collection of valuables, which includes almost 94 tons of gold coins, jewels, and art objects, all currently estimated to be worth $5 billion. The then Soviet Union returned some of the collection in 1935 when it turned over 1,443 boxes – with broken seals – that contained old archives, documents, rare books, and religious objects, but no gold. The only body designated to manage the issue is the Joint Intergovernmental Commission of Romania and Russia, formed in 2004.

Eastern Europe and Russia

  • YouTube has closed down several accounts linked to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, Euronews reports. “YouTube complies with all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws, including with respect to content created and uploaded by restricted entities,” a Google spokesperson said. “If we find that an account violates our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines, we disable it.” No information was provided about the specific guidelines that the accounts violated. One of the channels shut down last week was the Luhansk People’s Republic Information Center, the official news website of the self-proclaimed republic in eastern Ukraine, which announced that its YouTube channel had been shut down “without explanation.”
  • A Siberian zoo in Russia’s third-largest city of Novosibirsk scrapped the public vote for a new mascot after the poll took on political undertones, The Moscow Times reports. Input from voters turned political when exiled city deputy Sergei Boyko, a former coordinator for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, chose Batu the orangutan as his favorite, which led to an outpouring of support for the ape. Batu was later dethroned by Shilka the polar bear cub, and then by Sayan, the white snow leopard, in developments that some denounced as fraudulent. The zoo eventually canceled the voting altogether and said it will announce its mascot at a later date.

The Caucasus

  • Azerbaijani officials announced the release of eight Armenian prisoners of war on the basis of “humanist principles” yesterday, RFE/RL reports. The prisoners, who have since returned to Yerevan, were captured in November 2021 during border clashes between the neighboring countries. “The release by Azerbaijan and reparation to Armenia of eight Armenian detainees is another sign of positive developments following the meeting with [French President] Emmanuel Macron, Azerbaijani President lham Aliyev, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan,” tweeted European Council President Charles Michel

Central Asia

  • The trial of a man suspected of involvement in the murder of a Kyrgyz opposition politician started yesterday in Bishkek, RFE/RL reports. In December 2021, Kyrgyz authorities announced the arrest of Sanjar Saparbekov, a suspect in the murder of opposition politician Medet Sadyrkulov, who was found dead in a burned-out car along with two of his associates near Bishkek in 2009. The incident was initially ruled as a traffic accident; after former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev fled the country in 2010, the deaths were reclassified as assassinations. Saparbekov is charged with murder, kidnapping, the destruction of private property, vandalism, and the organization of a criminal group and taking part in its activities.

Borderlands

  • The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that a social media video showing people dancing to electronic music at the former Orthodox Christian Sumela Monastery in Turkey was “offensive” and “a desecration” of the monument, Reuters reports. The monastery complex at Sumela, which is a candidate for UNESCO’s World Heritage list, no longer has a religious status and serves as a museum. “It is surprising that the permit was given to the band, as the Monastery … opens only for pilgrims,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said. “These images are offensive and add to a series of actions by the Turkish authorities against World Heritage Sites,” the ministry statement said, without further details.

No--In 1934, Ataturk turned it into a museum, making it a major tourist attraction and secular symbol in Turkey.

Title:

Content: Friday, April 21st | 30 Nisan 5783

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April 21, 2023 10:27 am

If We Accept Lies and Half-Truths, Society Will Not Function

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by Pini Dunner

Opinion

A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.

Benjamin Franklin declared that “half the truth is often a great lie.” Mark Twain put it slightly differently: “A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.” And this, from Tennyson: “The lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.”

Essentially, they were all saying the same thing — the lies that cause the most harm are the half-truths, which can ultimately cause far greater damage than outright lies.

A 2022 study issued by four academics at the University of Cincinnati — “The Half-Truth Effect and Its Implications for Sustainability” — identified what the authors referred to as the “half-truth effect.” Based on two carefully calibrated survey-based experiments, the study showed that people tend to believe a false claim more when it is preceded by a true claim, even if the claims are unrelated. On the other hand, when a false claim is presented before a true claim, it reduces belief in the entire statement.

Politicians are particularly bad when it comes to half-truths, and party affiliation is not a relevant factor — because they all do it. Two months ago, President Biden told an audience in Philadelphia that he had “created more new jobs in two years than any president did in their entire term.” But although it’s true that President Biden has recorded notable job gains in his presidential term so far, surpassing those of previous postwar presidents, the fact is that he took office just as the economy was recovering from a profound recession, which gave the job market a significant tailwind. So, a half-truth.

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April 21, 2023 10:17 am

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Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the political spectrum, last week former vice president Mike Pence told an audience in Indianapolis that “liberals” emptied mental health hospitals in 1960s. He failed to mention that they didn’t act alone. Many fiscal conservatives, including several Republicans, were instrumental in shaping the key legislation that resulted in shutting down mental hospitals. Ronald Reagan, who served as both California’s governor and later as president, was particularly prominent; he signed landmark bills that left a significant impact. Another half-truth.

The Torah portions of Tazria and Metzora delve into an extinct condition known as “tzara’at,” which was characterized by discoloration of the skin, on clothes, or on the walls of a person’s home. The consequence of a positive diagnosis was quarantine outside community boundaries for someone with the skin discoloration tzara’at, or the destruction of clothes or a home that had been infected.

While not explicitly stated in the Torah, the Talmudic sages reveal that tzara’at was the consequence of wrongdoing on the part of the afflicted person. The Talmud (Arachin 16a), drawing on various Biblical sources, suggests different potential causes for tzara’at, with speaking ill of others behind their backs being the best-known cause.

The divergence of opinions regarding the cause of tzara’at suggests that by the time the sages of the Talmud were writing about it, the condition had either disappeared or become exceedingly rare, leading the sages to speculate on its causes. But the persistence of this idea that gossip and tittle-tattle were the main cause of tzara’at is intriguing, especially as the Talmud mentions six other potential causes.

The enigmatic nature of tzara’at leaves us grappling with uncertainties as we attempt to understand exactly what we are meant to learn from it. Why would God choose to punish individuals for a seemingly minor transgression such as engaging in gossip? The notion of quarantine and public humiliation is also puzzling. Why would isolation be the remedy? Why is the destruction of clothes and a person’s home the only solution?

The answer relates to the issue of half-truths vs. whole truths. I vividly recall a classroom discussion during my childhood, and although I can’t remember the exact topic, I do recollect our teacher posing the question, “What is your parents’ greatest source of pleasure?” My hand shot up. Smiling, I confidently responded, “Me, of course!”

But he had a follow-up question: “What’s your parents’ greatest source of pain?” I paused, briefly, and then I smiled again. “Me, of course!” I replied. And I wasn’t lying — although, to be fair, my siblings probably shared this distinction with me. Being the source of pleasure and pain was the whole truth; had I said that I was the source of just one or the other it would have been a half-truth that distorted the picture completely.

Many aspects of our lives are wonderful, but we are also all plagued by aspects that are distressing and disturbing. Curiously, if we analyze our lives and are brutally honest with ourselves, we might discover that it is often the same thing which causes joy that also causes us distress. Presented one way they are irredeemably negative, but presented in another they can be upliftingly positive. Our personal reality is complex, and life is complicated.

Modern psychology has come to the conclusion that depressed people aren’t lying when they say that there are things in their lives which are bad — it’s just that they fail to appreciate that there is good in their lives as well. And often, the good is in the very same aspects of their lives which they cast in the most negative light.

Society descends into dysfunction when one “truth” is chosen over another without considering the coexistence of multiple truths. This idea is exemplified by tzara’at and its treatment. Tzara’at was an affliction that befell those who refused to acknowledge that good and bad can coexist. They spoke ill of others, perhaps sharing a half-truth about them that cast their target in an entirely negative light without allowing the listener to consider the broader context.

Often, the greatest lie is the truth seen through a narrow lens. The gravest evil is the undermining of complex reality by cherry-picking truths to support or perpetuate a biased viewpoint. A person with tzara’at needs to be removed from society, so that they cannot destroy it, and the tzara’at itself must be destroyed, as a symbol of the destruction created by those who peddle half-truths.

The message of tzara’at is clear: half-truths wreak havoc. They erode the fabric of society, and those who perpetuate them must never be tolerated, or society will fall apart.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.

The opinions presented by Algemeiner bloggers are solely theirs and do not represent those of The Algemeiner, its publishers or editors. If you would like to share your views with a blog post on The Algemeiner, please be in touch through our Contact page.

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Critics argue that Erdogan’s decision carried religious undertones, symbolizing a shift towards emphasizing Turkey’s Islamic identity over its secular traditions.

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

Title:

Content: Led by Malawi’s chief law enforcement officer, 19 armed agents surrounded Martha Chizuma’s home in the capital city of Lilongwe at 4 a.m. on December 6, 2022. Whisked away in her pajamas in the early morning darkness, Chizuma, the director general of Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau, was forced to kneel on the floor for questioning at a police station before being released. Her arrest was retribution for her efforts to expose high-level corruption in the government.

A London-trained lawyer and formerly Malawi’s government ombudsman, Chizuma was the first Malawian anti-corruption leader chosen through a purely merit-based process. “People fought against my appointment, and now they wanted to undermine me ,” she explained, especially because she was leading a grand corruption probe that was “a test case of the government’s commitment to integrity.”

Those who engineered her arrest presumably hoped to silence a godly public official determined to “spit fire at corrupt politicians,” as the Nyasa Times reported several days later. They have not succeeded.

The fight against corruption takes courage like Martha’s, in part because corruption offers massive rewards. Its global financial toll is notoriously difficult to estimate, but the total may exceed $1 trillion annually. Every year, 25 percent of the world’s adults pay at least one bribe. The demand for bribes from public officials causes many Christian-majority nations to have unfavorable rankings on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

Too often, evangelicals are part of the corruption problem, which takes many forms: bribery, fraud, nepotism, human trafficking, sex-for-grades schemes, money laundering, ghost teachers in schools, and more. An African trained at a US evangelical seminary, after exchanging US dollars for local currency, shocked me when she said, “I only do business with Muslim money-traders. I would never trust a Christian!”

“The Church needs to clear its Aegean stable,” said former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2017, comparing Nigerian churches to the manure-filled stables of a Greek myth. “They not only celebrate but venerate those whose sources of wealth are questionable. They accept gifts … from just anybody without asking questions. This gives the impression that anything is acceptable in the house of God.”

Why are Christians so insensitive to, and often even participants in, blatant corruption? There are at least six reasons.

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First, some in the church are unwilling to hold Christian workers accountable. Others live in willful ignorance, as if it is not possible for fellow believers to be corrupt; thus, we fail to address warning signs or to undertake proper investigations.

Second, in some cases, a shift from traditional folk religion to Christian affiliation can actually exacerbate corruption. A recent unpublished report, based on interviews with 48 Christian leaders in Africa, explained that many followers of African traditional religion do not dare to lie because they believe their ancestors are watching from beyond the grave and could deliver certain, swift punishment. In contrast, some respondents said, African Christians seem more willing to lie—even when swearing on the Bible—because they think the Christian God is merciful and delays judgment.

Third, if pastors “preach anti-corruption, they will lose members who give large offerings,” says Orinya Agbaji Orinya of the Palace of Priests Assembly, a church in Abuja, Nigeria. In many cases, Orinya says, Protestant churches’ dependence on offerings pushes them to avoid offending corrupt but generous donors.

Fourth, pastors or Christian workers in many countries feel an expectation to benefit their families and ethnic communities, a phenomenon that journalist Michela Wrong calls “it’s our turn to eat.” Also known as demand sharing, this pattern creates intense pressures on leaders to raid organization finances for the benefit of friends and relatives.

A fifth reason Christians are AWOL in the fight against corruption, says Munkhjargal Tuvshin, pastor of Truth Community Church in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is their dualistic mindset. “Most Christians,” Tuvshin states, “would say that corruption is a world matter, not a church matter. That dualistic mindset takes us away from standing with the truth.”

Orinya, who is developing a major anti-corruption campaign among Nigeria’s Pentecostals, proposes one more driver of corruption among Christians: the prosperity gospel. According to Orinya, the heretical movement’s message that “if you are poor, you must not be a child of God” sometimes motivates listeners to steal, believing that even ill-gotten gain is a divine blessing.

How can Christians make a substantial difference in bridling cultures of corruption around the world?

Article continues below

The first step is to disciple people to prioritize daily acts of integrity in the face of cultural norms that favor dishonesty. Citing Ephesians 4:25 (“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body”), pastor Taba Ebenezar in Bamenda, Cameroon, urges his congregation and community members to “make every day an integrity day.”

Well-trained disciples know that God is not a transactional spirit who pours out favors on those who pay the requisite bribe, whether to a shaman or a prosperity preacher. Ebenezar, whose nation ranks 140th of 180 nations on the Corruption Perceptions Index, says, “We cannot talk only about salvation when the country is going backward.”

Second, churches must become model societies. Secular leaders will be more able to envision corruption-free nations when churches exemplify a corruption-free life. Too many churches and mission organizations disguise unethical behavior through flawed management practices such as the use of nondisclosure agreements, thereby undermining the message of hope and honesty that the church should be living out.

Global Trust Partners (GTP), a worldwide spinoff of the US Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, is seeking to reshape the behavior of churches and Christian organizations through peer accountability groups that promote fiscal and ethical integrity along with generosity. As GTP’s CFO, Matthew Gadsden from Australia, commented, “Once transparency in governance comes in, then people can give with confidence that the gift is used for the purposes for which it is intended.”

Church leaders often fail to realize how much secular groups like Transparency International need them. Roberto Laver, a former World Bank lawyer who works on corruption issues in Latin America, says that secular groups “have all the tools on social accountability” but lack the social networks and universal ethic that the church offers.

Laver draws an interesting contrast between Catholics and evangelicals in Latin America, stating that the “Roman Catholic Church will speak out on every issue, including corruption … but their verbiage makes little difference [personally]. As for evangelicals, individually they are more honest, but they are more silent publicly.” Laver asks, “If the church is not exhibiting more public honesty, what hope is there in the gospel?”

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The third part of the strategy concerns education on aspects of the Christian worldview that discourage involvement in corruption: God’s sovereignty, his ethical expectations for believers, and the transformative potential of faith in Christ. Pastor Ebenezar in Cameroon has an open invitation from public school authorities to teach integrity to children, a key to breaking the corruption culture. Ebenezar’s visible public advocacy campaign includes a weekly radio program, pro-integrity caps and shirts, and integrity awards at halftime during youth soccer games.

As British anti-corruption expert Martin Allaby says, “There is no substitute for deep cultural change.” Whether through films or music, in churches, schools, or homes, and whether with adults or children, teaching a Christian worldview provides a rational basis for efforts to restrain corruption.

In Jinja, Uganda, along with the usual radio fare, station director Anyole Innocent champions a Christian view of integrity on Busoga One, which has 1 million listeners daily. Creative efforts like Innocent’s and similar initiatives on social media are persuasive ways to reinforce a Christian worldview and mobilize believers to oppose corruption.

A Christian worldview also acknowledges the messiness of situations in which temptations to corruption are deeply intertwined with poverty. Public officials seeking bribes may themselves be the victims of corrupt senior officials who withhold their salaries—or their salaries alone may be insufficient to feed their families. God may call us to share gifts with impoverished families—especially those within the church—so that they do not feel driven to consider seeking bribes. Interestingly, whereas the Bible frequently condemns receiving bribes, it nowhere condemns the giving of bribes. But those who feel compelled to offer one should consider to what extent, in their own situation, doing so perpetuates an evil system.

A fourth key strategy, highlighted by University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter, is the development of networks of high-performing leaders who can work together across sectors of society. William Wilberforce’s Clapham community of the late 18th and early 19th centuries brought together bankers, parliamentarians, authors, activists, pastors, writers, and educators in determined efforts that, with support from the Wesleyan revival, profoundly changed formerly corrupt England for the better. High-performing networks can coordinate overall anti-corruption planning while also linking what happens in churches to national conversations and reform efforts.

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Pathways for Integrity Network, which has recently launched in Uganda, shows the potential to become a high-performing anti-corruption network. Innocent, the radio station head, commented, “Looking ahead, we envision a network where organizations rely on us to train their employees, where job creators and seekers trust our recommendations, and where Western investors seek our assistance in Ugandan projects, including governmental initiatives, as reputable.”

The Faith and Public Integrity Network, cofounded by Allaby and Laver, brings together academics and Christian leaders for shared efforts. Some evangelicals, such as Martha Chizuma in Malawi, participate in high-performing networks, such as the Chandler Sessions, that are not specifically Christian.

The fifth part of the strategy involves a virtuous, sacrificial spokesperson as the face of the movement, much as Martin Luther King Jr. legitimized the US civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Activists need a cheerleader to bring their voices together for change. Ebenezar is one such voice in Cameroon, declaring ambitiously, “If we pastors engage with this issue, it will restore and liberate our nation!”

Perhaps we need a 21st-century James Yen to lead the fight against global corruption. Yen was a celebrated Christian agrarian reformer during China’s titanic struggle between the Nationalists (China’s ruling government from 1912 until 1949) and Communists. Both Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek recruited him for their respective governments; he declined both offers.

One day, after these polite but earnest refusals, a leading government official in a passing limousine watched Yen fall from his bicycle as he crossed trolley tracks. The next day, a new automobile mysteriously appeared where Yen was staying. He quietly mothballed the car in a friend’s garage, choosing embarrassment and muddy pants over betraying his Christian integrity by accepting gifts from a corrupt government.

Not all Christians should decline service in corrupt governments. But virtuous, sacrificial leaders like Yen can powerfully spotlight and expose corruption. When the “fruitless deeds of darkness” (Eph. 5:11) are exposed, they wither under the bright light of truth.

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In Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ) has focused relentlessly on corruption in public schools, achieving enormous dividends for the country’s 2 million school-age children. ASJ’s efforts reduced the percentage of ghost teachers (who don’t show up for class but continue to receive paychecks) from 26 percent to 1 percent in two years.

When schools reopened after a 28-month closure due to COVID-19, ASJ again mobilized its 20,000 volunteers to monitor schools and spot instances of ghost teaching. Thanks to the volunteers, says ASJ cofounder Kurt Ver Beek, Honduran students received their scheduled 200 days of education in the 2023–2024 school year. ASJ has persisted in spite of occasional harassment by some government officials.

In Malawi, Martha Chizuma is persisting too, with encouragement from some friends. Three days after her unexpected pre-dawn arrest, she was waiting for her driver when she saw ten very poor women approaching. “They hugged me, crying, because they knew what had happened to me,” Chizuma recalled. “One of them said, ‘I was so worried when they arrested you because we knew you were the only one fighting for us!’”

Although Malawi has an evangelical president, Lazarus Chakwera, the deeply rooted corruption plaguing the country has not yet been eliminated. In May, when corruption charges against a leading public official were suddenly dropped, the disappointment reminded Chizuma that hers is often a lonely path. We need more evangelicals like those ten women who encouraged Chizuma to continue in her difficult but crucial undertaking.

Robert Osburn is a senior fellow with Wilberforce International Institute and is author of Taming the Beast: Can We Bridle the Culture of Corruption?

Many critics viewed the reconversion as a move to consolidate political support among conservative and nationalist voters in Turkey.

What kind of domestic reaction did Erdogan's reconversion of Hagia Sophia receive?

The international community, including UNESCO, expressed concern over the potential impact on Hagia Sophia’s status as a symbol of intercultural dialogue.

Some argued that the decision risked increasing religious tensions and undermining religious pluralism, especially given the Hagia Sophia’s shared heritage for both Christians and Muslims.

Opponents also claimed the move was designed to distract from domestic issues and bolster Erdogan's image as a defender of Islam.

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.

These sentences sum up the main points regarding both the religious implications and the political motivations behind the reconversion of Hagia Sophia, which are likely to interest your Arab audience.

What political motivations influenced Erdogan's decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia?

Erdogan's decision was influenced by Turkey's Islamic resurgence.