Search for "World News The New York Times cleantalkorg2.ru Breaking News bbc news world Stories and Videos on News Mutual news word news word"

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ylum because of his “non-traditional sexual orientation.” On Saturday, the New York Times reported that the fact that the boy “chose not to return home and sought asylum on the basis of his sexual orientation” had been confirmed by an “American official, who was not authorized to comment on the case and so spoke on the condition of anonymity.” Susan Reed, an attorney for the teen, disputed the Russian government’s claims, saying, “He is in federal…

Gandhi, his Grandson, Israel, and the Jews

By Shalom Goldman

…news story that did not get wide coverage in the American print media (the New York Times chose not to cover the story) made headlines in India—in today’s media world, it seems, there are no more “backpage stories.” Exactly a month after his resignation from the institute, Arun Gandhi and his son Tushar Gandhi attempted to organize a protest in Bombay. Unlike the Calcutta Telegraph, Bombay newspapers reported the story but didn’t editorialize abou…

Time for Jews to Abandon the Old Foundation Myth of Israel?

By Ira Chernus

…ntransigent, prejudging outcomes, and inflicting defeats on your opponent. Breaking any of these rules, and certainly all three of them, dooms the negotiation to be fruitless from the outset. Thus, the call for “substantive” negotiations sows the seed of a new Jewish myth, whose basic elements are just the opposite of the old one: Jews and gentiles have to live together; they are inextricably woven together in a single web of relationship, what Ma…

Mitt Romney’s Best-Known Mormon Critic Tells it All. One Last Time.

By Joanna Brooks

…rived home, the tape on my answering machine was full of messages from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and so forth, all saying, “We know that you’re a Mormon feminist and a political scientist and you’re in his ward. You’ve worked in Massachusetts politics around women’s issues. Please talk to us.” I immediately called Mitt’s home, and Ann answered. She encouraged me to go down and visit with him at the campaign of…

#OpenTheseDoors: A Movement to Turn New York’s Closed Churches into Shelters

By Kaya Oakes

…of the media coverage was focused on the emotional impact. Generations of New Yorkers had worshipped in some of these parishes, and knowing that community ties would soon fray and sever was a painful experience. Cardinal Dolan argued that the decision was “about the future” and “about strength and renewal,” but parishioners felt angry and betrayed. The archdiocese, after all, is the largest landowner in New York: what would be done with these pro…

‘Christian Warriors’: Who Are The Hutaree Militia And Where Did They Come From?

By Chip Berlet

…like the John Birch Society, claimed that George H.W. Bush was planning a New World Order before attacking the Clinton administration for political assassinations and drug running. The storyline morphed in recent years into fears that the government of the United States planned to destroy national sovereignty by merging with Mexico and Canada to form a North American Union. That theory first surfaced among right-wing opponents of President George…

Egypt Goes After Gays to Silence Islamist Critics; South Africa’s ‘Open Mosque’ is Closed; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…have studied the implementation of sharia in countries like Saudi Arabia, Brunei Darussalam and Jordan to draft this law and we are happy with it,” he said. But the director general of regional autotomy at the ministry of home affairs, Djohermansyah Djohan, said earlier that his department could shoot the law down if it violated human rights. United Kingdom: South Asian Gays Wed to Avoid Violence from Families The Independent’s Pavan Amara reports…

‘Culting’: From Waco to Fundamentalist Mormons

By Catherine Wessinger

…hat descriptive manner by scholars (especially in the study of the ancient world). Since the 1970s, the word “cult” has been used in popular discourse as a pejorative term for religions people fear, or hate, or do not want to recognize as a “real religion.” The use of the word “cult” can also be seen to imply that it is only in small, unconventional religious groups that believers commit hurtful and illegal actions; socially dominant religious gro…

High Ark: A Geologist on the True Meaning of Noah’s Flood

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…ies are more about control of nature… the point is not “which one of these stories is true.” The point is to connect the stories to actual facts on the ground. One of my favorite places is the Valley of the Tsangpo River in China, where I begin the book. It’s rare as a geologist to go somewhere where there has not been a lot of work done, somewhere where you feel you can put the story together yourself. You see land deposits, and you start making…

Can Poetry Heal the Planet?

By Gary Gach

…s poems likewise kindle higher consciousness. Aloud, they awaken awareness—words become stepping stones. He writes, “The words offer handhold after handhold as I climb/ Grace in every breath,” and “My prayers are in the silence/ between breaths.” In a breath-based culture, we can become aware how each moment holds a range of texture and nuance (image, idea, and sound), taking us beyond the fixation of the skin-encapsulated ego and the logjam of di…