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Is Religion to Blame for Violence? Karen Armstrong’s Flawed Case

By Paul Harvey

…tric. No other cultural tradition has anything like it, and even premodern European Christians would have found it reductive and alien. In fact, it complicates any attempt to pronounce on religion’s propensity to violence.” Besides there is no universal way to define religion, and for most of human history has simply been a catch-all for “imprecise connotations of obligation and taboo.” NA: Whatever. We can blame religion more than anything else f…

Netherlands’ “War on Xmas” is “War on ‘Black Pete’”

By Joseph Laycock

…ghty children. This makes Black Pete a close cousin of the Krampus—another European Christmas devil. Medieval iconography depicts Saint Nicholas with a devil bound to his service. The current image of Black Pete is attributed to an 1850 children’s book Sint Nikolaas en zijn Knecht (“Saint Nicholas and his Servant”). The celebration of Black Pete suggests the festival is less about equating black people with devils and more about the mythic functio…

Vatican Enlists Allies Against Gay Marriage; Iranian Gays Pushed to Change Gender; And More in This Week’s Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…partnerships was deemed unconstitutional. Daniele Viotte, a Member of the European Parliament, responded, “I do not understand how the Constitutional Court ruled that these questions are in line with the Slovak Constitution, which specifically forbids referenda on issues of fundamental rights and liberties.” Iran: Gays Forced to Change Gender Ali Hamedani of the BBC reports that in Iran, where homosexual acts are punishable by death, gay people a…

‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa Receives Threats; ‘Blood Test’ for ‘Degeneratism’: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e mayor’s move will spur the Italian parliament to move the country toward European standards for LGBT equality. Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said he would follow Bologna’s lead and start the process in Italy’s capital city “for the recognition of marriages contracted abroad, both heterosexual and homosexual couples”. England: Priest’s Same-Sex Celebration Gets Backing as Bishops Meet on Sexuality Dominic McClean, an Anglican priest who has entered a…

Let Us Now Praise Wealthy Men? Structural Poverty, Religiously (Re)Considered

By Peter Laarman

…ies workers and their contributions are much more highly regarded; in some European countries, in fact, worker representatives hold seats on corporate boards, which is one way of acknowledging and honoring the value and wisdom of working people. But working people do much more than make valuable contributions at the level of production; they also uphold democracy and counter the power of corporate owners. We forget that things like sick days and w…

What to Wear When Praying with the Pope

By Donna Schaper

…ack.” I wore my clerical collar, of course, ordered from Clergy Couture, a European outfit that dresses ordained women with flair and fit. But should it be paired with a black skirt, the kind you wear to a foundation visit, or blue jeans, just to join the Pope’s appreciation for those who work “in their quiet ways and sustain our life…”? Or what about something with feminist flair, like my pink tights? Too hot. The skirt won. Plus, I talked with m…

American Horror Story: Hotel and Monotheism’s Dirty Little Secrets

By W. Scott Poole

…, blood-drenched gore-fest that television has ever seen. So far, it’s the best season yet. Past seasons certainly inflicted some fairly can-they-even-do-that-on-basic-cable moments on the tender-hearted. Still, this time around there’s plenty going on in just the first episode that competes with the Minotaur sex of yesteryear. Ghosts in rubber bondage suits now seem so 2011. Lady Gaga somehow managed to upstage herself in an early scene that open…

Bill to Stone Gays to Death Introduced in Kenya

By Peter Montgomery

…tarian operations in Uganda were already worth more than $2bn annually – a number which has doubtless grown – and they compete aggressively with secular NGOs to secure US government grants…. Evangelical groups’ close ties to Ugandan government leaders have cemented their influence in my country. Charismatic humanitarian pastors like Rick Warren and evangelical NGOs such as World Vision are increasingly invited to the official forums that help to s…

It Is Time For American Orthodox Christians to Protest Russia’s Persecution of LGBT

By Katherine Kelaidis

…e United States as an immigrant church, the church of Southern and Eastern European immigrants, as well as Arabs—all of whom occupied the lower rungs of America’s all-important racial pecking order. Consequently, respectability and assimilation quickly became important goals of these communities. This longing for assimilation, if not always respectability, has arrived over the last three decades in a rather unexpected form. For the first time, Ort…