Religion Dispatches
…otection the EU gives us,” she said. “We now risk losing that protection. The government must promise that there will be no rollback on LGBT rights after Brexit.” Japan: Local officials form pro-LGBT equality league Several dozen local officials launched a new group to advocate for LGBT human rights….
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…fied as AIDS, did not receive ongoing or thorough coverage. By 1982, nearly 800 AIDS cases had been diagnosed. According to one study, infants and children were increasingly infected. Although a threat to the general population was quickly dismissed, the implication was clear: anyone could be infected. The epidemic had exposed social and cultural fault lines that made coverage more than just a medical story. Its initial outbreak in the homosexual…
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…and nuns, Christian and otherwise, live in monasteries and convents; and a number of historic Protestant churches, especially those best endowed financially, provide parsonages. But over time, an increasing number of clergy have made their own living arrangements. Churches found parsonages prohibitively expensive; congregants preferred to see their donations go toward services rather than clergy housing; and new religious ventures, especially the…
Read More…ong after, the former acquaintance called to threaten Subhi from a Turkish phone number. Power noted that Subhi spoke at a recent UN Security Council Session, the first-ever dedicated to LGBT rights, which she said was an important precedent to set: But also, it allowed us to convey, in a single voice, and with the authority of the Security Council – which is the premiere global enforcement body for peace and security – it allowed us to convey tha…
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…s, UFO buffs, and New Agers were naturally attracted by the mystery of the site. New myths were created that the monument was built upon a “power-nexus” or a place sacred to Native Americans. One legend holds that visitors who point both arms at the monument (one palm up, one palm down) will receive a psychic message from the stones. Another Guidestone admirer, Yoko Ono, composed a three-movement score entitled “Georgia Stone.” In 2000, Dr. Reagan…
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…ing continues to cite Tanton groups as authoritative, tellingly describing NumbersUSA as an “immigration reduction advocacy organization” in an August 2010 piece and citing FAIR in a story claiming that “illegal aliens” would “trump veterans at US medical offices.” Groening also praised a Mississippi immigration raid, citing the Mississippi Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (MFIRE); listed on FAIR’s Web site as a “local group,” one…
Read More…image of ourselves and our community that young and urbane Mormons love. (Site designers describe the site’s design principles as “joyful, reverent, inspiring, authentic, and relevant.”) It’s also clearly an effort to address the major PR problems facing the Church as it continues to contend with century-old stereotypes about Mormons as clannish polygamists as well as with recent fallout from its heavy involvement in California’s Proposition 8 ca…
Read More…s related to the rise in anti-LGBT rhetoric. “This time around, government officials have even stoked the cacophony of hatred.” Some officials – including Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan – have defended the LGBT community. “Whoever they are, wherever they work, he or she continues to be an Indonesian citizen. They have the right to be protected as well,” Pandjaitan was quoted as saying in The…
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…ion by joining other denominations or leaving Christianity altogether. The number of priests and nuns was at an all-time low even before the recent sexual scandals, and the number of self-identified Catholics world-wide keeps declining. Many of those who remain in the Church ignore standard doctrines and believe what they want. How many Catholics disobey Church rules? About as many as the angels dancing on a pinhead. Believers know that Jesus prom…
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…eligious Freedom Day hasn’t exactly caught on, and there’s no official web site (although an evangelical education outfit managed to purchase the web address for Religious Freedom Day and make it look rather official). Since 2015, the Coalition for Liberty and Justice, an alliance of more than 60 civil liberties, human rights, and religious and secular groups (originally formed in response to the 2014 Supreme Court case, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby) ha…
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