short thread on my latest in @LaCroixInt
Turkey's decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque again fits a pattern of curtailing non-Muslim minorities in Erdogan's Turkey. https://international.la-croix.com/news/signs-of-the-times/hagia-sophia-and-places-of-religious-freedom/12792

The main issue with Hagia Sophia is not the preservation of its artistic or architectural masterpieces.
It's about whether we care for minorities whose future as communities and individuals is inseparable from the future of particular places.

it would be a naïve and spiritualist reaction to say that Hagia Sophia is only a place, and Christians really don't need a specific place of worship as long as they can worship God in spirit and truth.
Hagia Sophia is part of a much larger national, regional and global picture.

Global religion and Christianity are also made of symbols on the stage of the world, where everything is carefully positioned as in a theatre.
Places of worship play a particular role in this theatre. It's the theater of the real, and not of what we would like religion to be.