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Rick Warren Busts a Gut Over Cultural Revolution

By Rob Shryock

…is on the cusp of opening an international branch of Saddleback Church in Hong Kong (as well as one in Berlin and one in Buenos Aires), rethought his position after reading this post by Hong Kong Baptist Professor Sam Tsang: Does Warren mean that his staff is like the Red Guard woman here who persecutes him daily or does he mean that his staff is marching forward like good little Red Guard in the Cultural Revolution, killing of their kinsman in t…

More Bleak Times For Indonesian LGBTs; South Africa Bans Extremist Anti-Gay US Pastor; Mexican Marriage Struggle Heats Up; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…saying ‘no’ to same-sex marriage is a way of showing love, not rejection.” Hong Kong: Openly gay legislative council member re-elected Ray Chan Chi-chuen celebrated his re-election to Hong Kong’s legislative council, saying it demonstrated that being openly gay or supporting LGBT equality is not “box office poison,” reports Fridae, even though Chan also spoke of facing some homophobic abuse while campaigning. Tunisia: Feminist and LGBT advocate sa…

Mormon Leader Affirms Doctrine on Marriage; and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…d that suspected homosexuals can no longer be forced to take an anal exam. Hong Kong: Court Rules for Lesbian on Spousal Visa, Says Ruling Not ‘Validation’ of Same-Sex Unions An appeals court ruled in favor of a lesbian who had been denied a spousal visa to allow her to stay in Hong Kong where her partner works. “While the court ruled that it was a form of indirect discrimination for the Immigration Department to base its definition of ‘spouse’ on…

Civil Unions Battle Heats Up in Italy; Church Leaders in Malawi Defend Criminalization of Homosexuality; Report on LGBT Student Group Sparks Backlash in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…which entails many, but not all of the rights of a heterosexual marriage. Hong Kong: Majority Support Nondiscrimination Laws on Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity A survey released by the Equal Opportunities Commission found that 55.7 percent support legislation banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status, nearly double the support measured in 2005. Support was overwhelming – more than 90 perce…

Mile-High Identity Politics: What We Can Learn From the Same-Sex Seating Controversy

By Eboo Patel

…, not the fourth century … You’re not free to practice your religion in my airline seat.’ ‘This is male entitlement .. the height of male arrogance.’ One comment referred to this as a ‘back of the bus’ issue; as in, women being asked to move in such circumstances was tantamount to assigning them a lesser status as citizens and lower dignity as human beings. Other readers proposed that airlines set aside special seating for men requiring such accom…

Burning Down the Temple: Religion and Irony in Black Rock City

By Sarah M. Pike

…out the city this year, as did artwork addressing rites of passage such as San Francisco based artist Peter Hudson’s Charon: a three-dimensional stroboscopic zoetrope of life-sized skeletons rowing across the river Styx. Just to make sure Burners don’t take any beliefs they brought with them too seriously, Burning Man abounds with parodies of organized religion. Although it is billed as an art festival, it is also a lively site of religious critic…

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

By Peter Schwartz

…notions of “human dignity” and “human flourishing,” Catholic natural law—an 800-year-old tradition dating back to Thomas Aquinas—is a lens that offers utter clarity to conservative Catholic jurists, activists, policymakers, and scholars as they observe, describe, and engage the world. The power and sharpness of this lens allow them to confidently snap every human movement—every human desire and motive and act—into its divinely appointed and proper…

Aung San Suu Kyi: The Verdict is Unfair

By Juliane Schober

…er from playing a role in national elections scheduled for next year. Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Burma’s national martyr and founder of the armed forces, Aung San, who was assassinated on the eve of his ascension to prime minister of an independent Burma. For much of her adult life, Aung San Suu Kyi lived and studied at Oxford University, where she raised a family. She entered politics in 1988, during the course of a popular uprising that…

Atheist Nazis? The Pope’s Cheap Atonement

By Susannah Heschel

Adam Clayton Powell called it “cheap grace,” but we might call it “cheap atonement”: the effort by sinners to select which sins to acknowledge and repent. Pope Benedict XVI ended his heavily protested visit to England with a heartfelt apology for German bombings of England during the Battle of Britain; though he refused to accept Christian responsibility for the Holocaust, blaming it instead on pagans and atheists. Given that Cardinal Walter Kasp…

World Congress of Families Draws Anti-LGBT Activists to Budapest; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…‘make a big deal’ of” Taiwan’s marriage equality ruling. The government of Hong Kong has appealed a ruling by the city’s high court that the city must provide spousal benefits to civil servants who married same-sex partners abroad. Alfred Chan, the South China morning post reported that the chairman of Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunities Commission, said he thinks he “can do better in terms of fighting for the legal protection and rights of sexual and…