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First U.S. Visit of the Virgin Mary Confirmed in Wisconsin

By Lewis Wallace

…ike a parking lot. It might look to Lourdes to improve its website: on the official site for the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, visitor FAQs tell you how to get to Lourdes, how to get your hands on some holy water from the grotto, and how to leave an ex-voto offering (look elsewhere for hotel bookings—there are dozens of hotels in Lourdes, all advertising their proximity in meters and yards to the grotto). If you can’t travel, stay on the websi…

Our Lady of Good Hope and Excellent Behavior: Why this Apparition and Why Now?

By Lisa Bitel

…kets to Medjugorje and Civitavecchia. Pilgrims learn from major apparition sites exactly how to watch for the Virgin and what to do when someone spots her. And it’s much easier for the news of an apparition to reach reporters, now that visionaries and their witnesses use video cameras and the World Wide Web. President Obama made the news last week when he made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Oscar Romero, the murdered archbishop of San Salvador whom t…

Australian Church Leaders See Marriage Vote as Battle for Soul of Australia: Global LGBT Recap 10/30

By Peter Montgomery

…who recounts the kinds of racial discrimination he faced as an aboriginal Australian. He noted that Australians voted in 1967 to give aboriginal people Australian citizenship, and says people should vote Yes to give gay and lesbian Australians “a fair go.” Egypt: Anti-gay crackdown continues with introduction of harsh criminalization law Some lawmakers have introduced harsh new anti-gay legislation that would impose prison terms not only for “per…

Caste First, Christ Second, for Some Indian Christians

By Megan Sweas

…Caesar Thomas of the National Council of Dalit Christians doesn’t need the reservation system. A fourth-generation Catholic and son of a teacher, he was educated as an engineer and lawyer. But when he was working in recruiting at Indian Railways, he noticed a pattern. “With my own eyes, I saw how Dalit Christian applications were rejected, whereas our Hindu Dalit brothers, their sons and daughters, they came through the reservation,” he says. Thom…

Australia’s Harsh Refugee Policies Stirring Backlash; Malawi Court Sides With Pastors To Lift Moratorium on Sodomy Prosecutions; Uzbek President Says God Has Taken Gays’ Reason Away; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…The effort drew opposition even from local human rights advocates. Church officials strongly opposed the plan but asked officials to protect Tatishvili from potential reprisals. Georgia and the rest of the Caucasus are known for widespread homophobia. Three years ago an LGBT rally in Tbilisi was stormed by a crowd led by priests from the country’s influential Orthodox Church. The church’s ruling body, the Patriarchy, distanced itself from the vio…

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

By Peter Montgomery

…to marry same-sex couples: To the contrary, the marriage equality bill in Australia specifies that religious ministers cannot be compelled to marry same-sex couples. Of course, even without such provisions, churches in Australia, the United States, and elsewhere can’t be forced to marry same-sex couples under existing law. In these circumstances, using freedom of religion as a weapon to deprive LGBT people of any partnership recognition at all is…

Evangelical “Sexual Purity” Is Not About Sex—It’s About Power

By Sara J. Moslener

…ve. Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing? I’ve always had official and unofficial audiences in my mind. Primarily, I think about other scholars working on questions of religion, sexuality, and adolescence. Being part of a conversation about these topics has always been my goal. And I hope that my colleagues are able to use Virgin Nation to conduct their own conversations with students and readers. My unofficial audience is the gro…

Evangelical Tells Beck He’s “Off The Reservation”

By Julie Ingersoll

…Mormonism. They even read and ridiculed comments from people on Beck’s website, who indicated that they were Mormon. Decker said Beck has been “using terminology that Mormons manipulate. . . terms that have double meanings . . . and that now he’s getting into things right out of the Book of Mormonism itself.” Howse had been a big Beck (and David Barton) supporter—and Howse continues to believe that “Christians” should work with Beck when they agr…

The Key to Understanding the Federalist Society Isn’t Originalism — It’s This 800-Year Old Tradition

By Peter Schwartz

…pter of Columbia University Law School. The Federalist Society never takes official positions on matters of jurisprudence and legal reasoning. It never participates in court proceedings, submits no amicus briefs and never serves as legal counsel. Which leads to the insistent claims of legal conservatives that the organization and its originalist methods are politically and substantively neutral. Of course, there’s more than a little bait-and-switc…

Pope Mum on LGBTs in Uganda; Church Defends Anti-Marriage-Equality Efforts in Australia; Cyprus Passes Civil Partnerships; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ct violate the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community. Australia: Catholic Church in free-speech battle; official changes mind on marriage Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher is defending the Catholic Church’s freedom of speech in response to a complaint arguing that a recent pastoral letter sent home with Catholic high school students in opposition to marriage equality violated Tasmania’s strict anti-discrimination law. “Austra…