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Pride Month & Prejudice; ‘Worrisome Time’ For LGBT People; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ciety,” he said. CNN traces the start of the backlash to early 2016 when a number of political leaders began making “unprompted attacks on Indonesia’s LGBT community.” It notes that conservative Islam is a growing political force, evident in the arrest and conviction of Jakarta’s Christian governor on blasphemy charges. The report says human rights activists have been disappointed by President Joko Widodo’s “lackluster” defense of LGBT people. Sal…

Religious Affiliation, ‘Mankind’: India’s Anti-Corruption Activist Leads Second Freedom Struggle

By April L. Bogle

…good move. When I got to the lobby another something told me to dig out my phone and check it for messages. Sure enough, I had one from an unfamiliar number. A woman’s voice said Bedi was still sleeping, exhausted from the previous day’s overseas flight, and needed to reschedule our interview for that afternoon. I called the number back, convinced the opportunity was lost. “I’m here at the hotel now, but I’m booked solid this afternoon—” “Hold on,…

The Queerness of Christian Ethics: A Conversation with Rev. Elizabeth Edman

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

If the mass killings in Orlando and in Charleston have anything in common it’s that both the dance club and the church were thought to be “safe space.” The horrors that unfolded in both places tell us that no place is truly safe—but marginalized communities will still gather and claim sacred space for themselves, no matter the risk. This spirit of risk—to be able to be both authentic and remain hospitable to strangers—is the message queer people…

Our Dance Clubs, Our Churches

By Peter Laarman

…aise and yet more praise for all of God’s blessings. So yes, this thing in Orlando is difficult to take, and it feels personal. There were goosebumps when I woke to the news, and there were unbidden tears when I discovered that a young friend’s college classmate was in that club when the slaughter began. I’m not ready for the reflexive liberal things that we do: the sign-on statements, the interfaith vigils, the finger pointing and the placing of…

Gimme Shelter: Queer Space Is Sanctuary

By Kaya Oakes

…When violence enters a sanctuary, that is a violation of sacred space. The phones of the dead at Pulse continued to ring for hours as those who loved them frantically dialed and re-dialed, hoping to find them alive. Violence tore open the sanctuary throughout history, tore it open over and over again. Violence brought queers into the streets of Orlando to hold one another and weep, brought queers into the streets to riot at Stonewall, brought peop…

Are We Living Through World War III?

By Haroon Moghul

…t worse. We’re in the middle of a Third World War. In last week’s column, “Orlando and Trump’s America,” Roger Cohen tries to predict the consequences of Omar Mateen’s nightclub attack. He fears Mateen’s massacre “just ushered Donald Trump to the White House, Britain out of the European Union, Marine Le Pen to the French presidency, and the world into a downward spiral of escalating violence.” Omar Mateen, Cohen argues, is the 21st century’s Gavri…

More Mixed Signals from Pope Francis; Church of England Wrestles with Rifts; Faith Groups Lobby Pro & Con on Irish Referendum; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e group did not get a private meeting with Pope Francis, but was given VIP tickets to the pope’s weekly audience in St. Peter’s square. Religion News Service reports that several bishops, including “San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone – point man or the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ battle against gay marriage – had written a letter to the Vatican on their behalf.” A group of LGBT Catholics from London who met up with the New Ways…

Waiting for Lightning to Strike: A Wobbly Agnostic among the Atheists

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…applaud this news, a murmur through the convention hall, Blackberries and iPhones tweeting on all sides of me. “When you come out of the closet, shut the door behind you because you won’t need it anymore,” he continues. (Who’s he talking to? He’s preaching to the choir, isn’t he? As far as he knows?) “If you don’t have a deity,” he says, “you are an atheist.” I’m an English teacher and I agree this may indeed define an atheist—someone without a g…

The Sacred and the Dead: The Trouble with Sugar Magnolia

By Kaya Oakes

…omething-year-old Deadhead guys hit on my teenage friends by offering them tickets to shows. Deadheads were anathema to my chosen subculture of socially conscious punks. East Bay punks were aggro and in your face about social justice, feminism, human rights; Deadheads, in our eyes, were too stoned and obsessed with their god Jerry to care. Sometimes, I’d be out in Berkeley at night, coming out of a punk show in some basement or garage, and I’d hea…

The Religious Implications of Nudity

By Steve A. Wiggins

…ance-enhancing drugs. The sense of freedom and fun (and free food, even if airline food) was exhilarating. The airport has now become a place of horror. Do they have full-body scanners? I wonder as I’m herded into a long, bovine line. Abattoir or boudoir? Why is this bothering me so much? Don’t Touch Me There Even cursory reflection reveals my embodiment issues are buried deep in my religious upbringing. I was a teenage fundamentalist. That remark…