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Philly Gives Doctors Wide Leeway with Religious Exemption

By Patricia Miller

…iders with religious objections to “redirect” patients who ask for a given service to appropriate sources in a “nonjudgmental fashion.” While the policy ensures that patients who ask about contraception will receive some type of referral, formal or not, it still falls far short of the current standard of care for adolescent patients. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend that…

If Modesto’s Public Schools Can Teach World Religions, It Can Happen Anywhere

By Jonathan Homrighausen

…lism. Modesto is the city where, as a teen, I was invited by a friend to a service at his church. It turned out to be a performance of “Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames,” a dramatization of the final moments of peoples’ deaths. The play vividly promised eternal hellfire for those who had not given their heart to Christ. My fourteen-year-old self wanted to know: what about the Dalai Lama? Was he destined for Satan’s eternal presence? Modesto is also t…

Religious Hostility to Gay Nigerians; The Pope’s Visit To Africa; Ireland’s Religious Schools Can’t Discriminate Against Gays; Orthodox Church in Georgia Leads Anti-Gay Forces; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…CHIFRIN: Reverend Joshua Maina leads the state’s 50,000 Christians. As his service begins, the band starts a hymn about Christ’s sacrifice and then it delivers a warning: “end times are here.” Reverend Maina says they’re here because of one thing. JOSHUA MAINA: Homosexuality, sodomy. It is evil to this country. It is evil to our culture. It is evil to what we believe and that is Christianity. It is evil to what we inherited from our fathers. It is…

Clashing human rights visions for LGBTs at United Nations; More Mixed Messages from the Vatican as Family Synod Begins; Timeline of Worsening Homophobia by Turkey’s AKP Party; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…tion; LGBT activist gets ‘alternative Nobel’ Renee Gadoua at Religion News Service profiles anti-gay religious right activist Scott Lively, who is on trial for promoting persecution of LGBT people in Uganda in a case brought by Sexual Minorities Uganda and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Lively also urged Russia to criminalize the public advocacy of homosexuality and called the country’s anti-gay propaganda law “one of the proudest achieveme…

The Surprisingly Short History of Popular Yoga

By Andrea R. Jain and Michelle Goldberg

…part of a consumer culture in which practitioners choose yoga products and services based on individual desires and needs. Consumption of this kind appears rather hedonistic, or perhaps, as Jeremy Carrette and Richard King have put it strongly, is characterized by an “obsession with the individual self and a distinct lack of interest in compassion, the disciplining of desire, self-less service to others and questions of social justice.” The last p…

Militias, Trump, Guns, and ISIS: Too much Masculinity?

By Stewart M. Hoover and Curtis D. Coats

…ed invigorated spaces where men might express purpose in ways that lead to service and civic engagement instead of to hostility and violence. But the first step is to understand that in an age defined by sensational expressions of purpose in an outrage-focused media sphere, changing the subject will be quite a challenge. * We interviewed 55 Protestant men for the study—24 Evangelical men and 31 Ecumenical men. Since we did a round of family interv…

A Moral Galaxy: War and Suffering in “Star Wars: The Old Republic”

By Robert M. Geraci and Nat Recine

…rk moral decisions the players make, with their own loyalty (and continued service) dependent upon each player’s choices. It is common for people to treat computers as though they were people, and this is clearly magnified in the accountability systems of SWTOR’s companions. The computer controls the companions—but they accompany the players, fight with them, and respond to the decisions that the players make. The companions will like or dislike p…

Post-Paris Reflections: We May Have to Learn to Hope

By Donna Schaper

…te of the terrorist attack. Paris itself was extraordinarily open to COP21—free subway rides, guides everywhere to help you find yourself. And French President Hollande gave extraordinary leadership throughout. Some even speculate that there was a sympathy vote for the French because of the attack. People from all over the world were everywhere, so that you felt you were in a special part of the globe. And you were. Kairos is the right word. And t…

America No Longer a Christian Nation: And Other Critical Data from 2015

By Daniel Cox and Joanna Piacenza

…white mainline Protestants (53%)—are opposed to these so-called “religious freedom” laws, with one important exception: a slim majority (51%) of white evangelical Protestants favor them. 5) …but Christians are divided on same-sex marriage. Similar numbers favor (46%) and oppose (46%) allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally—but attitudes vary significantly by denomination, with white Evangelical Protestants, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witness…

Beyond Tolerance: Helping Religions “Come Out”

By Mychal Copeland

…with open arms. A Jewish transgender young woman went to her first Sabbath service at an LGBT synagogue and discovered a warm, embracing community. These individuals are ready to bring their entire selves to their spiritual lives. We must ensure that our religious institutions are safe spaces for people to bring that kind of authenticity. When we find ways to integrate the diversity of people who are ready to bring their fullest selves to the tabl…