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Speaking to Salman Rushdie at a recent PEN World Festival event in New York, controversial Israeli novelist Dorit Rabinyan asked how the celebrated author continued to write after facing life-or-death persecution (a fatwa from Ayatollah Khomeini) over his 1988 work The Satanic Verses.

Although Rabinyan has never had a price on her head, the Israeli government censored her novel All the Rivers, a Palestinian-Israeli love story, when it was published in Hebrew in 2014, making her a punching bag for right-wing zealots in the country.

"You have to learn how to think, 'Fuck them,'" Rushdie told her.

With her book just released in English (Penguin/Random House), she's trying to learn to care less and to put the past behind her. But it's hard to shake the shock of being at the center of one of Israel's biggest arts scandals, a symbol of the internecine culture wars between right and left.

"It was so delicate [that there seemed to be] no chance that it would be controversial," she thought while she wrote the novel, in part a tribute to Palestinian artist Hasan Hourani, who drowned in 2003 sometime after their love affair in New York City. "It's such a sweet memory of love. Sweetened by the forbidden color we were both very young," Rabinyan tells Rolling Stone of the romance.

But the Israeli government didn't see it that way. Benjamin Netyanyahu's conservative regime has increasingly taken to meddle in non-state matters; its cultural minister, Miri Regev, has said she wants to overthrow the liberal, secular European elite, denying public funding to any projects that don't support her Zionist values.

Upon the book's release, Rabinyan woke up one morning to find herself on the cover of every newspaper in her country. "The education system does not need to promote values that are against the values of the country," Education Minister Naftali Bennett said of her decision to remove the book from the country's compulsory high school reading list in order "to preserve the identity and heritage of the students. Intimate relations between Jews and non-Jews threaten individual identity."

International media camped out on her doorstep in Tel Aviv. Rabinyan got spat on at her local minimart. Literati like David Grossman, Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua threw their support behind her, fearful of the fate of the arts.

Book sales skyrocketed.

It all overwhelmed her. Rabinyan, now 44, found early fame when she published her first novel, Persian Brides, at 22 in 1995. She had no idea that All the Rivers would cause such a stir.

And to the American reader, it might be similarly perplexing. This Romeo and Juliet tale opens in post-9/11 Manhattan, with a chance meeting between two Middle Easterners: 29-year-old Israeli Liat and Hilmi, a Palestinian painter two years her junior. The two bond over being expats, hating the brutal winter, missing their families and the sweet smell of jasmine back home. While their past and backgrounds color almost all their interactions, this is not a political novel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

That's why the censure took Rabinyan by surprise. "[It wasn't] provocative, or trying to inflame conservative thought," she says, pointing out that Liat never really considers a long-term relationship with Hilmi because of her own deep-rooted prejudices. In fact, when the book first came out, Rabinyan got flak from the left because they thought it went too easy on Israelis. Only months later, when the Education Ministry banned it (the government denies the term, only admitting they removed it from the curriculum) did Rabinyan begin to understand their problem.

"Why the hostility?" she wonders now. "The same reason witches were hunted in medieval times. They were practicing magic. Literature is our magic. Our potion is identification, this ability to step out of your own skin and your own realities to ... to sink into an identity that is foreign to you, to wear the gaze of the other." Her book's crime, she muses, is that it presented Palestinians with empathy. "In Israel today, to prove your patriotism, you need to carry only one perspective. Otherwise it's considered disloyal."

Rabinyan says what happened to her should serve as a warning in the U.S.. "Israel has never had been so tribal, so fundamentalist, so chauvinist, so isolated, so self-righteous. This is the spirit of our times walls and barriers and buffers and obsessing about your national identity being preserved, the fear of letting in outside influences; I can see it happening in America," she says.

But the author also has trenchant advice for Americans struggling to cope in the Trump's era where, on her current book tour, she sees how our own culture wars are tearing us apart, just like in her homeland."First, take a deep breath," she suggests. "Acknowledge there's going to be some time of alienation, that the people who govern, who decide your future and the next generation's don't reflect any of your common values, what you consider to be American." She counsels patience and community not devastation. "[That's] a privilege you cannot indulge in or you will be defeated."

She continues, "We have to engage with the other side, the one that you're so hostile to, and is so annoying to you, the obstacle to everything you aspire [to]."

Now, she adds, it's more important than ever for artists to continue to create.

"This is the only thing that literature can do: it makes us humanistic creatures," she says. "People know this intuitively, they know that empathy is the cure."

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Banned Israeli Author Warns Americans: It Could Happen Here - RollingStone.com

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Bolshoi Ballet Swept Up in Russia's Cultural Debate Wall Street Journal (subscription) MOSCOWIt was supposed to be the hottest ticket of Moscow's theater season: A ballet based on the life of legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Instead, critics say it has become a casualty of Russia's culture wars. Days before a scheduled Tuesday premiere ... and more »

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Bolshoi Ballet Swept Up in Russia's Cultural Debate - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Liberals have won enough big battles in Americas culture wars in recent years most notably the growing support for same-sex marriage that they may have persuaded themselves that their views were universal and their victories would continue. But as two new Supreme Court decisions relating to religion made clear, conservative forces are far from down and out. Last Monday, the high court used a unanimous unsigned opinion to announce it would take up the constitutionality of President Trumps proposed temporary ban on incoming travelers from six mostly Muslim nations. In so doing, justices overruled several federal trial and appellate courts and allowed the ban to take effect. Liberals who say its irrational for Americans to worry about domestic Islamist terrorism havent gotten far in the court of public opinion one poll showed one-third of Democrats are for Trumps travel ban and now theyve been rebuffed by the highest actual court as well. In the second decision, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the state of Missouri could not exclude a Lutheran religious school from receiving a grant from a government program that reimburses the cost of rubberizing the surface of playgrounds to make them safer. In writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that it was odious to exclude a religious organization from public benefits available to other groups. But in dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor depicted the decision as a profound break with American legal tradition by holding, for the first time, that the Constitution requires the government to provide public funds directly to a church. In another decision, the court confirmed it would hear a case involving a Christian bakery owner who declined to make a cake for a gay couple indicating at least some sympathy for the argument that religious freedom may extend to business owners decisions on whom to serve. How will the court rule? Thats unclear. Whats clearer is what impact Trumps Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch could have. If the 15 cases in which he has ruled are any indication, the Fivethirtyeight website found that Gorsuch may settle to the right of the conservative lion he replaced, Antonin Scalia. In each of these cases, Fivethirtyeight noted, Gorsuch has sided with the courts most conservative member, Justice Clarence Thomas. Gorsuchs selection may also be driving the swirling rumors that the courts swing vote libertarianconservative Justice Anthony Kennedy may soon retire. If Kennedy is confident his replacement would be someone he finds as impressive as Gorsuch, his former clerk, that might make retiring an easier decision. If that happened, the court could swing substantially to the right. If Kennedy retires, CNN wrote, Donald Trumps legacy is set. Time will tell if last weeks opinions are as farreaching as they seem. But theres no disputing the decisions reflect a view of the world much closer to one shared by millions of Trump voters.

The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Culture-War Victories In Supreme Court - The Daily Record (registration)

I recently re-watched the classic movie Chariots of Fire. Scottish missionary-to-be Eric Liddell is chosen to run in the 1924 summer Olympics. When he discovered that he must run a qualifying heat on Sunday, he refused. His religious belief was that running on Sunday would violate the commandment to honor the Sabbath. Even in 1924, Liddells decision and his beliefs were met with disbelief, criticism and confusion. Whats the big deal about running a race on Sunday? How quaint to have such an old-fashioned religious restriction.

Many readers will remember that it was not so many years ago that going to a movie on Sunday was forbidden to the faithful. Stores closed on Sunday. Professional sports teams played on Sundays, but most good folks would have been horrified at the thought of kids having organized sporting events on a Sunday. How quaint those days were. Now we have Walmart and Kroger and CVS and countless other stores so routinely open on Sunday that we barely remember a time when it was not so. Tournaments and traveling sports teams for kids also routinely schedule events on Sunday. Many still go to a worship service, but otherwise Sunday is just another day.

I was raised in a church where the accepted belief was that dancing was a sin. (I still have bungling feet if I attempt to dance because of my teenage taboo). When we went to church camp in the summer, boys and girls could not swim at the same time because mixed bathing was a sin. Given the two-piece suits and the amount of skin displayed at pools and beaches, I think I can safely assume that even the most conservative believers have accepted the culture and abandoned the war and the old ideas I was taught about faithfulness and the swimming pool.

At a far more destructive level, a culture war that too many believers fought and lost is that of slavery and racism. The history of slavery is a terrible stain on our national and spiritual soul. Yet in its day there was widespread justification of slavery based on random texts distorted from the Bible. Sermons were preached about the curse of Ham and white superiority was defended as being Gods order of creation. The KKK used a cross, the most central symbol of Christian faith, to make a fiery statement of hatred and intimidation. Though black churches were in the forefront of civil rights activism, white churches were all too often in opposition or guiltily silent. Today only the most radical racists would openly promote slavery, but we still struggle with racism. We have far to go indeed to make a reality of the song Jesus loves all the children of the world.

I write, not to complain about the way Sundays are spent, nor to bemoan swim practices or attire. I write recognizing both the progress made and the great distance yet to go regarding racism in our culture. I write, not to air the dirty laundry of the faithful, nor to make fun of quaint beliefs. I gladly celebrate the positive cultural changes that have come about because people of faith have worked to make a better world.

I write because so many of my evangelical brothers and sisters have enlisted as soldiers in the culture wars. My belief is that culture warriors with short memories have a history of fighting battles in the name of God that have far more to do with defending tradition than defending the faith.

As nearly as I can tell, the culture wars of today swirl largely around the issues of abortion, gay rights, and the role of religion in public life. In fighting the wars, conservative religion and conservative political theory have become inseparable allies. People of faith may well draw conclusions from their reading of the scriptures that they find consistent with their political stance, but these are conclusions and interpretations. Others of good faith and of no faith at all may come to different conclusions. As much as warriors would like the issues to be simple, they are not simple. As much as the warriors may see themselves as taking a faith-based stand, their fierceness is too often an invitation to an extreme posture. In the posture of extremism, they risk the trap Jesus recognized when he warned against trying to remove the speck in anothers eye when one has a 2 x 4 in ones own eye.

Frank Stagg was my New Testament seminary professor. His stated belief was that there is so much of the Bible we understand very clearly and do nothing about that we have no business wasting time arguing about the things we dont understand. What I believe to be lost in the culture wars are Biblical teachings that are absolutely clear. Teachings about compassion, Gods love for all people, humility, love your neighbor as yourself; faith/hope/love these are the heart of Jesus teachings. They are lost when fear, anger, prejudice and self-righteousness rage in the form of culture warriors. People of faith must live out that faith in a culture that is rapidly changing but they must constantly seek the wisdom to know whether they are living their faith or merely following their culture.

The Rev. Gary Batchelor is an ordained Baptist minister and active church member. He is retired after a nearly 40-year local ministry as a hospital chaplain. His particular interest lies in issues of faith and culture.

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GUEST COLUMN: A truce for the culture wars? - Northwest Georgia News

In the culture wars it is all too easy for some Catholics to react against the gay culture by rejecting all people who experience same sex attraction. The difficulties that people with same sex attraction experience are complex and the Catechism of the Catholic Church says they should be treated with compassion, respect and sensitivity.

If people who experience same sex attraction are not bullied and rejected by Catholics they are often ignored. A culture of dont ask dont tell exists in which people with same sex attraction are accepted but expected to keep their sexual orientation under wraps. Instead of this, there are calls for Catholics to build bridges and welcome homosexual people.

One of the challenges in this conversation is the definition of terms. For the vast majority of people the term gay indicates a homosexual person who is sexually active. The word gay began to be associated with homosexuality and the gay liberation movement in the mid 1960s. Gay then became the chosen terminology of homosexual activists.

It is certainly correct therefore, to use the word gay for active homosexuals and homosexual campaigners, but it would not be accurate to use the term for all people who experience same sex attraction. In other words, there are many people who experience same sex attraction who are not gay.

Therefore to use the term gay for them puts them into a category or social group they do not wish to belong to. Some people might choose the word gay as an identifier, but many would not. Saying all people with same sex attraction are gay is to put them into a cultural ghetto.

This is often accompanied by the usual stereotyping. Thus we hear sympathetic Catholics say things like, Gay people bring many gifts to the church. So many of them are wonderful musicians Really? That sounds like the person who says, Gay men are so talented. My friend Randy is just marvelous when it comes to choosing wallpaper and curtains. Such stereotyping is one of the unconscious habits of the prejudiced and contributes to the misunderstanding of people with SSA.

To use the term gay is degrading to people who experience same sex attraction but who are not actively gay. It is degrading because it defines them only by their sexual urges, and all of us are more fascinating, complex and expansive than our sexual inclinations.

Those who would demand that we use the word gay for all people with same sex attraction ignore and marginalize the many Catholics who pursue chastity and reject the gay subculture and gay activism.

Happily, the true Catholic approach is not to marginalize and create a ghetto for a gay community but to welcome and integrate individuals with same sex attraction. All of us are created in Gods image and, although that image is wounded by sin, God looks on all his children and says, Thats good! This is why, as long ago as 1980, Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York established a ministry that built bridges of compassion, respect and sensitivity to people who are attracted to the same sex.

He called on Father John Harvey, a priest who was already working in this field of ministry. With the help of Father Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., and others, Harvey began the Courage Apostolate with its first meeting in September, 1980 at the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in New York City.

For nearly forty years the Courage Apostolate has reached out to people with same sex attraction and their families. Endorsed by the Vatican as an authentic apostolate, Courage now has more than a hundred chapters and personal contacts with over 1,500 people worldwide. In addition, hundreds of individuals receive assistance from the main office and website every week.

It is important to understand that Courage works one on one with individualsnot with a vaguely defined gay community or pressure group. Instead of stereotyping, they meet each man or woman and their families where they areeach with their own story and their own set of circumstances.

Courage is sometimes criticized for attempting to pressure people with same sex attraction to change. Former director of Courage, Father Paul Check denies that they use any kind of conversion therapy. Instead they offer counseling, fellowship and support based on the classic twelve step program pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Courage accepts and welcomes people with same sex attraction as they are, and describes its goals as chastity, prayer and dedication, fellowship, support, good example.

The dissident group New Ways Ministry, on the other hand, suggests that having a lesbian or gay identity is a blessing from God, and that Courage is being anti-pastoral in its work. New Ways Ministry calls for acceptance not only of people with same sex attraction, but for acceptance of those who campaign for gay identity and same sex marriage.

The leaders of New Ways Ministry do not recommend Courage, while the executive director of another dissident group DignityUSA, said in 2014 that Courage is really problematic and very dangerous to peoples spiritual health. And we have been very concerned about it for a lot of years.

The Courage website outlines the resources the apostolate offers to individuals and their families. One of the dynamic things about the Courage apostolate is the diverse background of participants. The testimony of a man who took part in one of the apostolates sports camps, for example, reported the powerful experience of sharing the weeks activities with plenty of non-Catholic Christians, Jews, a Muslim and men from France, Israel, Haiti and every part of the U.S.

The website also connects readers to the resources for chaplains, parish priests and counselors as well as books, websites and an annual conference for support and fellowship. Meanwhile their subset EnCourage offers support and fellowship for family members of people who are attracted to the same sex.

It is easy to put our heads in the sand and ignore people with SSA, but following Jesus example, we are to welcome everyone to the narrow way of following Christ the Lord. We should recall the meeting Jesus had with the tax collector Zacchaeus. Jesus welcomed him, and Zacchaeuss immediate humble response was not pride, but repentance and reparation.

Reaching out to individuals who experience same sex attraction may be difficult, but following Jesus example with Courage it can be done.

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Courage: Offering compassion, respect and sensitivity - Crux: Covering all things Catholic