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Global LGBT Recap: Mandela and Equality; Elton John Defies Russian Ban; Fake-Healing of AIDS

By Peter Montgomery

…gainst the LGBT community here in Russia.” He dedicated the concert to a 23-year-old man who was recently tortured and killed after he came out. US Embassy in Manila Issues First Fiancé Visa The US Embassy in the Philippines announced it had granted its first fiancé visa to a same-sex couple. Same-sex couples cannot get married in the Philippines, the announcement noted, but thanks to the Supreme Court ruling striking down the portion of the Defen…

Ringing in a Christian Nationalist 2019 With an Even Larger Legislative Playbook

By Frederick Clarkson

…ew state legislative playbook for 2019. This year’s playbook has grown from 116 to 148 pages, thanks to some new bills, a discussion of three areas of “Prime Focus,” a new section on responding to critics, and a model resolution condemning religious persecution elsewhere in the world. But what’s past is certainly prologue with Project Blitz. According to an analysis by Samantha Sokol in the legislation department at Americans United for Separation…

Six Overlooked Gems from the Future of World Religions Report

By Timothy King

…of the country’s population of 1.3 billion—including the two sects of state-sanctioned Christian churches and rough estimates of those who belong to non-state-sanctioned or “underground” churches. The truth is—and the Pew researchers admit as much—it’s really difficult to accurately estimate what percentage of China’s population is Christian. Because it accounts for such a large portion of the global population, the assumptions researchers make ab…

From Here to Eternity: Of Mormons and Celestial Marriage

By Holly Welker

…riage provides these statistics for the year 2000: *Utah’s marriage rate is 10.6 per 1,000 populations, well above that of the United States, which stands at 8.7 *Median age at first marriage in Utah—Groom: 23 Bride: 21 *Median age at first marriage in United States—Groom: 26.8 Bride: 25.1 Marriages contracted so early face significant challenges, so it is good that the Mormon church does not forbid divorce, although the fact that Mormon couples o…

Shari’ah (Panic) Threatens the Constitution

By Sarah Posner

…nited States.” That’s right, Frank Gaffney, speaking on the grounds of the United States Capitol with his band of fear-stoking propagandists. Gaffney is right. The Constitution is under attack. The panic that the Constitution is so weak that it would collapse under the weight of a few contracts providing for alternative dispute resolution, or wither from upholding the Free Exercise clause for Muslims or conducting criminal trials in accordance wit…

Science, Syphilis, and the Evolution of Ethics

By Arri Eisen

…d just as disturbing experiments on black men with syphilis in Alabama from 1932-1972. In Alabama, the disease wasn’t given to the men, but rather they were identified as having the disease and followed for many years to see its progression. The men were deceived into believing they were being treated for syphilis, while attempts were made to actually withhold from them the best treatments of the day (even when penicillin was introduced as an effe…

India’s Elections and the “Doniger Affair”

By Murali Balaji

…nationalist groups—particularly within the left—grew into open conflict. In 1946, a Communist-backed revolt of peasants in Telangana (which became a state called Andhra Pradesh) spilled over into post-independence India. Not only did the peasants want land reform, but they chafed under the brutal conditions of the ruling Nizam (Muslim Prince) of Hyderabad. The revolt posed a challenge for Jawaharlal Nehru, who saw the need to quash the rebellion a…

It’s Not Just About Ground Zero

By Mark S. Byrnes

…and they make it political. This is what anti-Catholic bigots like the Know-Nothings did in the 19th century. Since the structure of the Catholic Church was monarchial, with a king-like pope and nobility in the form of cardinals and bishops, it was obvious to them that Catholicism was inherently anti-democratic and thus anti-American. The current anti-Muslim hysteria has now found its purest, clearest expression in the now-notorious words of Ameri…

Why ‘Do You Believe in God?’ Is at the Heart of Our Religious Problem

By Michael Jerryson

…eeply flawed. Take for instance the choice for some people to identify as a-theists, which many believe means “no religion.” Notice in this choice of self-identification, atheists decide to use the Abrahamic focus on believing in a god as the basis for their belief system. Belief in a god is not central to Jains, Buddhists, or other religious systems (many of their sub-traditions include belief in gods, but they largely think of them as flawed or…

Arizona is the Hispanic Alabama

By Anthea Butler

…he ministry, yet are in the country without “proper documentation.” His pro-SB 1070 vote has aroused considerable ire in Hispanic circles. It remains to be seen how Hispanic leaders like Rodriguez will deal with him, but I suspect it will not be pleasant. Is there something in the air in Arizona that breeds racial division? Given the current situation and the notable struggle to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday (enshrined…