Religion & Law

The Olympics

By Rick Garnett

So, I am getting depressed about the fact that the 2008 Summer Olympics are going to be held in China.  And, even more depressing are the stories I have been reading in recent weeks about weak-kneed corporate-sponsore types who are terrified of anything that might embarass the regime, and Olympic teams that are demanding that athletes refrain from any expressions of disapproval of China's human-rights policies.

I have blogged more than a few times here at MOJ about religious freedom, and the Freedom of the Church, in China.  What I'm thinking about now -- and I'd really welcome readers' and other bloggers' thoughts -- is:  what should I be thinking, and what should "we" be thinking, about the facts that the Olympics are being held in China; are being used there as an occasion for, I gather, more, rather than less, repression (see "Swifter, Higher, Crueler," by Joshua Kurlantzick, in the current New Republic); and will serve as a non-trivial propaganda weapon (taking the torch to Mt. Everest, in Tibet!) for a regime that, I think, is morally problematic.

Full post as published by Mirror of Justice on February 17, 2008 (boomark / email).