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Russia Expels Gay American Pastor, An Epidemic of Anti-LGBT Violence in Brazil, And More in the Global LGBT Recap

…loving to you; How can I be more kind? WMFE’s Renata Sago reports that the Orlando massacre opened a door for a progressive Muslim perspective to be heard more widely, quoting Muslims for Progressive Values’ Ani Zonneveld: “We had so many requests for media interviews—Let’s hear the LGBT Muslim perspective. You know, all of a sudden you start hearing, ‘Oh gay Muslims actually do exist!’ It’s like ‘Yeah! They do exist’” she laughs. Zonneveld’s orga…

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Updated: Netflix’s Gay Jesus Upsetting Brazilian Christians Has a Centuries-Old History

…dos depict Jesus as a gay man who introduces his cross-dressing boyfriend, Orlando, to his family. Incongruities abound when Orlando, who wears massive amounts of makeup and a blonde wig, performs ‘Jingle Bells’ on a digital keyboard in Judea ca. 30 A.D., endearing himself to the holy family (and his relationship with Jesus).1 Of course, this is merely the nth iteration of the irreverent Jesus motif, with countless gay-Jesus memes being the most o…

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Florida Primary Winner: ‘War on Religion’ Talking Point

…tion for him. Debbie Earle, of Atlanta, was at Gingrich’s event tonight in Orlando. “I love Newt,” she told me, “he’s a genius.” Based on the Bishops’ letter, Earle believed that the Obama administration rule would require not just contraceptive coverage, but coverage for abortion as well. (It does not.) “It’s against what we believe, the right to life,” she said. “Where’s the separation of church and power?” At a a campaign stop in Orlando yester…

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Bearing Witness: The Work of Hospital Chaplains

…in the contemporary United States. This results, in part, from their small numbers. Researchers estimate that there are 10,000 health care chaplains across the country. Colleagues and I found that between 1980 and 2003, 54% to 64% of hospitals had chaplaincy services, with no systematic trend over the period. In 1993 and 2003, smaller hospitals and those in rural areas were less likely to have chaplaincy services while church operated hospitals we…

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What Did ISIS Have to Do With Nice?

…ts of terrorist violence—in Baghdad, Dacca, Istanbul, Paris, Brussels, and Orlando—to shore up its credibility as a global player and give the illusion of power. Its followers are taking credit for anything that might be construed as an ISIS-related assault. Branding a terrorist act has become as important as what motivates it. Even if it turns out that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel did in fact have some jihadi connections, the initial evidence is that his mo…

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#SorryNotSorry: What U.S. Christian Denominations Teach About Homosexuality

The massacre of 49 individuals in an Orlando gay nightclub on June 12 has ignited a fierce and ongoing public debate about whether anti-LGBT laws and rhetoric lead to violence. Yesterday’s New York Times lists some of the more horrific statements made by Christian pastors, like Tempe, Arizona’s Steven L. Anderson, whose only objection to the tragedy was that “they should have been executed by a righteous government.” Both conservative religious f…

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The Americans Season Finale: Teach Your Parents Well

…on would staunchly oppose any freeze, a message he carried with him to the Orlando pulpit. What he said toward the end of his half-hour-long address (sentiments that, reportedly, were added by Reagan after speechwriters had given him the original text) made it one of his most influential and memorable (or infamous, depending on your perspective). He said in part: I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position…

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The Loneliness of Men: A Father’s Day Reflection

This year, Father’s Day comes just a week after the Orlando tragedy—seven days of mourning, of national self-searching, and of urgent effort to understand how the Orlando shooter became who he was. I believe I have seen that same toxic mix of homophobia, militant right-wing religion, and self-hatred before. And I’ve seen it transformed by unflinching truth and wise love. While I was working on a doctorate in theology I volunteered in a high schoo…

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Burying the Future: Youth Violence in Chicago

…Walcott Avenue to be exact). It’s become a statistic to keep track of: the number of school-age children who are murdered, sometimes on school grounds, during a school year, which means the academic year is properly hyphenated. The punctuation gives bone to the unholy facts, but it also creates another set of suburban record-keeping to conjure with. In other words, it makes the reality more abstract, a bit easier to study as citizens. I teach in D…

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An American Muslim Abroad, Or, Things I Saw in Dubai

…h buildings, starting right around the same time. Talk about luxury on the cheap; it’s hard to deny a feeling of similarity. (The tower is to the Burj as a certain toupee is to hair: might the Trump Tower inadvertently mimic an Islamic motif?)   The regal twin palm trees in the foreground are the world’s tallest, at some 3,500 feet each. Recently a falling coconut crushed an entire apartment complex, punching a massive hole that has filled up with…

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