Religion Dispatches
…has the Church launched any campaign either to effect or prevent a policy change.” An earlier version of the Church’s official statement had characterized the as a “moral issue,” but [as the Salt Lake Tribune reported] this language was quickly scrubbed—a clear signal that wheels are turning inside LDS Church headquarters. [UPDATE: The LDS Newsroom disputed the Salt Lake Tribune’s report that the language of the statement had been changed, expla…
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…n as well as without. In the late ’60s, the internal chaos of rapid social change — forever after known as “Liberalism” — joined communism as the prevailing symbol of evil in conservative circles. The Republican party presented itself as the guardian of a familiar, dependable, eternally true moral order on both the domestic and foreign fronts. Indeed, the cold war became primarily a way to symbolize and whip up fervor for the culture war. The enem…
Read More…ghts law that allows trans people in the South American country to legally change their gender on official documents without surgery and an affidavit from a doctor or another medical provider. A bill that would allow trans Chileans to legally change their name and sex without sex reassignment surgery advanced in the country’s Senate earlier this year. Cuba in 2008 began offering free sex reassignment surgeries to trans Cubans under the country’s n…
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…Service, David Gibson writes that Martin’s book “does not advocate for any changes in doctrine nor does it touch third-rail topics like same-sex marriage.” The book, he says, “calls on the Catholic Church to be more respectful and compassionate toward gay people.” Among those with positive things to say about Martin’s book is Cardinal Kevin Farrell, picked by Francis to lead the Vatican office on laity, family and life issues. Gibson says the fact…
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…lly endearing: “And that’s why I like changes.” The world does nothing but change; that was a recurrent refrain in his quiet reflections. To remain open to such change, to maintain the childlike spirit of egoless abandon and wonder that perhaps, just perhaps, promotes the soulful elasticity necessary to survive in this world for well over a century. The talk turned—again, predictably enough—to the current economic downturn. Mr. Breuning was asked…
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…licals. Shifting evangelicals would shift overall public opinion and might change the votes of congress members representing districts with strong evangelical representation. From the end of last year until now, there’s been a steady, persistent attempt to do just that. And much of that pressure was directed toward Mike Johnson. The number of stories about Russian persecution of evangelicals appearing in the religion press increased. A good exampl…
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…gh this window of political opportunity for our nation to achieve systemic change. In other crucially necessary areas of our society, the passage and enforcement of civil and human rights legislation correlated to changes in public attitudes toward protections for vulnerable communities and the role of government. New regulations that cast unfettered police power and police violence as unambiguously criminal and normalize it as punishment may set…
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…ming America’s Israel Lobby: The Limits of Its Power and the Potential for Change (excerpted below), Dan Fleshler, an American Jewish activist in what he calls “the pro-Israel left,” explains the reluctance of Jewish liberals to criticize Israel on the human rights front, even when they share the rest of the world’s objections to Israeli behavior. And he urges them to stop censoring themselves, both for moral and practical political reasons. _____…
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…ed within a larger context and subordinated to a more fundamental call for change. It is a twenty-first century return to Martin L. King Jr.’s call for the “content of character” as the final marker of our being. As scholars remind us, the “reading” of bodies in ways that support white supremacy marks much of our history. Through what Cornel West references as the “normative gaze,” white bodies were “read” or viewed as beautiful, markers of intell…
Read More…gned two executive orders that allow transgender and transsexual people to change their gender on their driver’s license and protect their rights when seeking medical services. You can see a collection of wedding photos at Huffington Post and more at TelesurvTV. Northern Ireland: Gay couple makes religious liberty claim against marriage ban A gay couple that was married in England last year has filed a lawsuit claiming that Northern Ireland’s refu…
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