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Romania’s “Witch Tax”: Magic Meets Bureaucracy

…tories throughout the west.  But there is a deeper story to the witches of Romania. With Romania’s entry into the EU, an indigenous folk practice that was once persecuted under communism has come face to face with a global economy. The Romanian “witch tax” is a fascinating study in how the forces of modernity and globalization are shaping an ancient tradition. One Person’s Psychic, Another Person’s “Witch” Most cultures have figures that sociologi…

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Gandhi, his Grandson, Israel, and the Jews

…s concern for making distinctions between the Jewish situation and that of Indians in South Africa and India. Buber addresses the Mahatma respectfully: I have been very slow in writing this letter to you, Mahatma. I made repeated pauses—sometimes days elapsed between short paragraphs—in order to test my knowledge and my way of thinking. Day and night I took myself to task, searching whether I had not in any one point overstepped the measure of sel…

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A Debate Rages in India Over Conversion, Secularism, and “Spiritual Violence”

…spike in social unrest. Despite the complex nature of identity politics in India, one thing is more apparent: the unease with which Indians of all faiths are dealing with the conversation about conversion, as well as its ramifications beyond the country’s borders. As Pawan Deshpande and Padma Kuppa note, the discussion about ghar wapsi should be broadened to include the international implications of conversion politics in India. If evangelical gro…

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First Draft Of History Today Could Be Fox News Promo Tomorrow

As President Obama signs the health care bill into law today, we are watching the first draft of history. But imagine what students a generation from now will be taught about the most significant overhaul of this nation’s health-care system since Medicare if the conservative activists on the Texas Board of Education are successful at their long-range goal of using the public education system to rewrite history. If publishers kowtow to the board a…

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Driscollpalooza Time… Must Be Book Promo Time

…ownright bizarre things “Cussing Pastor” Mark Driscoll says, usually while promoting a new book, as well as the ensuing negative publicity and essays critical of Mark Driscoll, which somehow increase the popularity of Mark Driscoll’s new book.  Mark Driscoll has a new book coming out, and with suspiciously good timing, he’s managed to initiate back to back controversies. First, he showed up at John MacArthur’s “Strange Fire” conference uninvited a…

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You Can Take The Boy Out of the Crack House: MyPillow CEO’s New Book Promo Has Deep Roots in American Christianity

…It might as well be as old as Moses, given what a commonplace it is for right-wing Christians. The rest of it is a chestnut of its own. We ought to just be grateful that Lindell isn’t enforcing coronavirus rectitude with a hatchet. (Carrie Nation was also an unabashed self-promoter, by the way.) It’s a strand that goes back to Wesleyan perfectionism and Calvinist propriety, some of the deepest roots of American religion. It may look like faith se…

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Marriage Debate in Australia Shifts To Push For Religious Exemptions; and More in Global LGBT Recap

…e “registration and control of eunuchs” and marital rape exceptions in the Indian Penal Code. … Depictions of gender-fluid identity are common in ancient texts found in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, gods transform into goddesses, or they cross-dress. Men become pregnant. But when the British colonized India, they imported “a great discomfort with all things pleasurable and sensual,” said Devdutt Pattanaik, the author of several book…

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U.S. Religious Right Groups Support Move Toward ‘Illiberalism’ of Hungary and Poland; and More in Global LGBT Recap

…,” says the Coalition for Family’s website. All major political parties in Romania have expressed support for the constitutional change, with the exception of newcomer Union to Save Romania (USR), and the initiative is expected to be approved in parliament. The government has said it wants to call a popular referendum as soon as November, but the Constitutional Court’s announcement this week that it would analyze the law’s compatibility with the r…

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Religious and Political Silence on India’s LGBTQ Decision Speaks Volumes

…eme Court unanimously voted to extend all constitutional protections under Indian law to LGBTQ Indians and that any discrimination based on sexuality would be illegal, those voices remained largely silent. There were a few exceptions like Swami Chakrapani, for example, president of the right-wing organization All India Hindu Mahasabha, who said, “It’s shameful. We are giving credibility and legitimacy to mentally sick people.” Did religious voices…

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The World’s Most Influential Yoga Teacher is a Homophobic Right-Wing Activist

…the Hindu nationalist mantra “Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” meaning Honor to Mother India. (Some Indian Muslims consider the mantra incompatible with their religious commitments, since it personifies India as the Goddess). The consequences of a sustained campaign against India’s religious minorities could be devastating: India has more than 200 million religious minorities, the majority of them Muslims. Alone, they would form the sixth largest country in t…

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