Religion Dispatches
…here is more than one version of the Bible. Obama was quoting from the New International Version while Fox Nation was pointing to the King James Version to “debunk” him. This would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic. Heh, indeedy, as they say, if for no other reason than that the NIV is one of the most popular scriptural translations for Evangelicals. That’s worth a double facepalm in my book. As Media Matters goes on to point out, factual accurac…
Read More…er wrote about here for RD. I wrote on Cook previously, citing her lack of international policy experience. Now more than ever, this post needs someone who has a handle on Islam, foreign policy, and other religious traditions. The people’s uprising in Egypt is a prime example why this ambassadorship needs someone who is more knowledgeable about religious traditions, diplomacy, and foreign policy experience. President Obama’s insistence on Cook may…
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…oro continue their hate-filled protests, other anti-gay groups like Exodus International are beginning to qualify their speech in very peculiar ways. Alan Chambers, president of Exodus, is reported to have said, “All the recent attention to bullying helped us to realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they’d like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not.” Focus on the…
Read More…e of politicians and evangelical Christians, according to the Public Radio International program The World. In yesterday’s broadcast on the role of evangelical Christianity in South Sudan, the reporter Matthew Brunwasser focused on the role of “evangelical” Christianity in getting out the message about genocide and war in Darfur and Sudan, and the missionary work being done in the country. The broadcast however, does the easy media conflation of “…
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…ity are brought up and celebrated in their public school.” In 2009, Exodus International, the world’s largest “ex-gay ministry,” took over sponsorship of the Day of Truth. But curiously the event became too divisive and confrontational for Exodus, as that group shifted its focus to the practice of “biblical tolerance” in the wake of increased media attention to anti-gay bullying after a string of highly publicized gay teen suicides late last year….
Read More…then? Nah, just some prayer. As Right Wing Watch notes, the event boasts a number of people involved in the Restoration and Renewal Projects, including David Lane, former Congressman Bob McEwen, and the American Family Association’s Don Wildmon. Perry’s effort also includes staffers from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, a 24-7 prayer project of Lou Engle and others. The inspiration for the event is a “solemn assembly” of “prayer a…
Read MoreHeads up: next week Mexico will host the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) World Conference. According to the Washington Blade, Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, executive director of Equal Ground, a Sri Lankan LGBT advocacy group, said the conference is “a unique opportunity” to network with fellow activists to ensure “there is a constant exchange of ideas and ideals which lead to furthering the LGBTI global movement…
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…dissemination of homophobic posters “is apparently being coordinated by a number of neo-Nazi organisations.” Junkee also explains that the government’s decision to hold a mail survey, rather than a formal referendum at the ballot box, means that election laws don’t apply, and “there is no requirement for campaigners to authorize any material with a name or address. That means any individual or organization can anonymously create posters or advert…
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As the XIX International AIDS Conference comes to Washington D.C., the issue of condom use to prevent the spread of HIV will certainly be a central topic of debate. For many involved, the statement that Pope Benedict XVI made in 2010 still resonates. In a great leap forward for the Catholic Church, he said that using condoms to prevent the spread of HIV can be “a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuali…
Read More…In 1970, just 5% of Brazilians considered themselves evangelical. Now that number is closer to one-fourth. Fundamentalists have grabbed power in Brazil’s Congress, forming a voting bloc that’s throttled anti-discrimination and hate-crime laws: Lower House President Eduardo Cunha, who claimes Brazil is “under attack” by gays, is trying to overturn the 2013 ruling that brought marriage equality. Jair Bolsonaro, a prominent congressman, recommended c…
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