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| EPPC Programs |
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EVENT: Conversions to Christianity in India: Causes and Repercussions
A Discussion with the Most Rev. Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Cuttack – Bhubaneswar (Orissa, India)
Cosponsored by Hudson Institute
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
12:00 PM
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
1:30 PM
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| Location: |
Hudson Institute
Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center
1015 Fifteenth Street N.W., 6th Floor
Washington D.C. 20005
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The Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Hudson Institute were pleased to welcome Archbishop Raphael Cheenath for a discussion on the state of religious freedom in India. Archbishop Cheenath, priest of the Society of the Divine Word, has been the Catholic Archbishop of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, in the region of Orissa, since 1985. Orissa has been at the center of violent attacks against Christians in recent months. Archbishop Cheenath is now working along with Protestant and Evangelical church leaders to bring peace and stability to the region.
On August 23, 2008, violence reignited against the Christians of Orissa when an extremist Hindu leader was killed by suspected Maoist rebels. Though Maoists took responsibility for the killing, the Hindu leaders embarked on a large-scale campaign of arson and killing against the Christian community. According to news reports, by October 13, over 60 Christians had been killed and 18,000 wounded; 181 churches razed or destroyed; 4,500 Christian homes burned; and more than 50,000 Christians were displaced, of whom more than 30,000 remain in refugee camps or in hiding in the jungle. The local government failed to take effective measures to quell the violence, and the central government was slow in responding to this crisis.
The religious violence in Orissa was enflamed by accusations from hard line Hindu organizations and their political parties that Christian churches have been "forcibly" converting the local population. Although India's Constitution guarantees religious freedom to all of its citizens, Hindu political parties demand laws to curb the conversion of Hindus to other faiths. The Archbishop will examine the underlying cause of these accusations and offer recommendations toward ending the bloodshed. Introductory remarks were given by Rick Santorum, Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Nina Shea, Director of Hudson's Center for Religious Freedom, moderated the event. For more information, please contact Beth Kerley at bkerley@hudson.org or Anne Snyder at asnyder@eppc.org.
More Information
Anne Snyder
1730 M Street N.W.
Suite 910
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-682-1204
Fax: 202-408-0632
E-mail: asnyder@eppc.org
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Give the Gift of Ideas
Gift subscriptions to EPPC's journal 'The New Atlantis' now available
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| Technology and Society |
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The Age of Neuroelectronics
For decades, experiments at the border between brains and electronics have led to sensationalistic media coverage, vivid science fiction portrayals, and dreams of cyborgs and bionic men. But recently, this area of science has seen remarkable advances -- from robotic limbs controlled directly by brain activity, to brain implants that alter the mood of the depressed, to rats steered by remote control. In this New Atlantis article, EPPC Fellow Adam Keiper explores the peculiar history and present directions of this research, and considers the challenges of staying human in the age of neuroelectronics.
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Blogging on the Courts
EPPC President Edward Whelan, the director of the program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture, is a leading contributor to Bench Memos, National Review Online's award-winning blog on judicial nominations and constitutional law. You can read a list of all of his postings here.
Here is some of the praise Mr. Whelan has received for his blogging:
 From Steve Schmidt, who, as special adviser to President Bush, led the White House's efforts to confirm the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito: "Ed Whelan was the most influential and valuable commentator on the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. His remarkably rapid, thorough, and reliable responses to the distorted attacks on the nominees prevented those attacks from gaining traction. The White House was deeply grateful that he was on our side."
From Paul Mirengoff of the influential Power Line blog: "Blogs like NRO’s Bench Memos … enable legal super-stars like Ed Whelan to shoot down bad arguments against nominees within hours."
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