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Obama Missing Islam Opportunity with Religious Freedom Ambassador

By Anthea Butler

…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…

Anglican Bishops Punish Episcopal Church Over LGBT Inclusion; Secularization’s Role in Moving Latin America ‘Beyond Machismo’; Greek Orthodox Bishop Says Gays Deserve Respect; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ions on LGBT rights.” Encarnación writes that both home-grown activism and international pressure have played a role: Last but not least has been the timely intervention by several individual foreign nations, most notably Spain. After 2005, when Spain became the first Roman Catholic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the Socialist administration of José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero made LGBT rights a priority in its diplomatic relations with Latin A…

The “Shrinking Influence” of Social Conservatives at the United Nations

By Sarah Posner

…ese decisions granted such status to an LGBT group for the first time. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission finally prevailed in its three-year effort to obtain the status, a sign “of the shrinking influence of American social conservatives at the United Nations.” Congressional conservatives Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Christopher Smith (R-NJ) — heroes of the religious right — had joined with Muslim countries in an effort to block…

Burma’s Spirit Festival, and More in This Week’s Global LGBT Roundup

By Peter Montgomery

…n, who has warned LGBT people against becoming “provocative,” and with any number of European populists who promise a return to a mythical “traditional” past. Gessen notes that a year ago she wrote that she believed Trump would target the LGBT community ”because its acceptance is the most clear and drastic social change in America of the last decade, so an antigay campaign would capture the desire to return to a time in which Trump’s constituency…

Oh, For God’s Sake

By Daniel Schultz

…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…

Scott Lively’s Crimes Against Humanity Aren’t Conservative Christian Outliers

By Sunnivie Brydum

…ze, intimidate, and injure LGBTI people in Uganda constitute violations of international law. They do.” The case may have been complicated but what it exposes about the American religious right is not. Crucially, this narrow victory is already being claimed as a powerful turning point in the “culture wars” by the likes of Liberty Counsel, which represented Lively. As a refresher, Liberty Counsel is the far-right legal nonprofit founded by Mat Stav…

Anti-Gay, Anti Catholic Evangelical Sworn In As Mayor of Rio; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…inst homosexuality and stop bowing down “to pressure from donor community, international bodies and local human rights campaigners.” New Ways Ministry’s Robert Shine notes that Catholic bishops have significant influence even though only 20 percent of the country if Catholic, due to the bishops having “played a key role in the country’s 1992 transition to democracy and have been described by some as the conscience of their nation.” Comments Shine,…

None Means None (Not Atheist, Agnostic, Unbeliever…)

By Elizabeth Drescher

…liated in the United States does focus substantially on belief, offering a number of significant findings among Nones. I’ve discussed some of these previously here and here, but the pervasiveness of the idea that Nones are unbelievers suggests that the major data highlights bear repeating: 68% of the Unaffiliated in general believe in God or a Universal Spirit Among those who self-identify as Atheist/Agnostic, 38% say they believe in God or a Univ…

Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and Pro-Home Birth

By Katherine Don

…professor of medical anthropology at Oregon State University. The growing number of women seeking a secular midwife has created a gap in care, however. In some areas the preponderance of Christian midwifery, in tandem with restrictive laws, can make it difficult for secular women to locate a well-matched midwife. Anna Waterland-Dykstra, a nurse and director of community options at the Spearfish Family Planning clinic of the South Dakota Departmen…

Republicans “Evangelizing” Catholic Voters

By Patricia Miller

…Catholicism, is in many ways the most traditional Catholic of the sizeable number of Catholics jostling for the GOP nod. Bobby Jindal has labeled himself a “Catholic Evangelical” and even hosted “The Response,” a prayer extravaganza that amounts to a full-out paean to Christian nationalism. Rick Santorum has long courted the Christian right with his anti-abortion rhetoric and was once named by Time magazine as one of the nation’s “25 Most Influent…