VOA标准英语2013--美国新部门宗教办公室引起关注

 

New State Department Religion Office Provokes Concerns 美国新部门宗教办公室引起关注

WASHINGTON — After getting a scholarship to attend a women’s leadership conference in the United States, Dewirini Anggraeni decided¹ to create an interfaith youth council in Jakarta. The veiled Indonesian says she used to hate America because of its foreign policy, but what she experienced in New York changed her mind.

“I saw so many women using the hijab and they can also walk freely and pray, and even so many mosques² I saw,” she said, “and I feel like they really appreciate and respect each other among [different faiths].”

The State Department hopes to reach more people like Anggraeni with the Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, launched earlier this month by Secretary of State John Kerry.

The office, which will coordinate³ diplomacy⁴ with religious groups, is a response to criticism that U.S. foreign policy in the past has failed to take account of the religiosity of foreign people.

Partners in diplomacy

Kerry appointed Christian⁵ ethics⁶ professor Shaun Casey to head the office. A few days after his appointment, in an interview in his sparsely⁷ furnished office at the State Department, he said he would work with both domestic and foreign faith groups that can help prevent or resolve conflict abroad.

“We need to partner with those kinds of groups, know what they do, know what their impact is,” he said. “We ignore them, really, at our peril⁸.”

The office was lobbied for mostly by U.S. faith-based groups doing aid and development work and campaigning for religious freedom overseas. 

Chris Seiple of the evangelical Christian Institute for Global Engagement teaches diplomats⁹ in training at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia, to acknowledge religious sensitivities.

He said the State Department had traditionally been a “bastion of secular¹⁰ fundamentalism,” and that’s still the view of some diplomats.

“They don’t want to talk about religion because they say - or some would feel, or the culture would suggest - that religion and state should never be talked about at a cocktail¹¹ party, at an embassy, ever,” said Seiple.

Learning from the past

Proponents¹² and critics of the new office agree that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were complicated by a U.S. failure to understand local religious traditions and that a greater appreciation¹³ of religion is needed by those making foreign policy.

But the involvement of faith groups in the making of American foreign policy worries George Washington University professor Melani McAlister.

“You end up with certain organizations having more influence on foreign policy,” she said, “precisely because they say, ‘We need to talk to religious organizations and who better than us to help you figure out how to do that.’”

She said to engage one religious group or another would inevitably¹⁴ be political. And the State Department’s terrorist classification of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah was an example of how some factions¹⁵ will be off limits, she said.

“And so there are a lot of ways in which religion is being adjudicated as much as it’s being engaged,” said McAlister.

Casey, the office’s new director, does not talk about who he will approach, but he said there's no list of excluded groups.

“We’re going to talk to anybody who’s willing to talk to us. We’re not going to turn folks away because somehow they’re on a nonexistent hypothetical list," said Casey. 

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

3 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

4 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

7 sparsely   

adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地

参考例句：

• Relative to the size, the city is sparsely populated. 与其面积相比，这个城市的人口是稀少的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ground was sparsely covered with grass. 地面上稀疏地覆盖草丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

9 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

11 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

12 proponents   

n.（某事业、理论等的）支持者，拥护者( proponent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句

13 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

14 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

15 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别