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Clash of the (Scottish Islamic) Tartans

By Amanullah De Sondy

…give me sleepless nights. I was told I had a few choices: I could wear the official Glasgow tartan (having been born and raised in the city), the University of Glasgow tartan (as a graduand), or I could just wear any Scottish tartan without reflecting upon detail. In the end I chose the Hebridean Heather for purely aesthetic reasons—it matched the color of my hood. (Officially it’s a heather color but some say it’s pink.) Tartans continue to fasci…

Global LGBT Recap: World Vision Caves, World Congress of Families Vamps, God Weeps

By Peter Montgomery

…ligious people, they tell us. The other kind.” Dominican Republic: Vatican Official Backs Down in Diplomatic Standoff with Gay Ambassador We previously noted that a diplomatic event in the Dominican Republic was cancelled after the Vatican’s ambassador and dean of the diplomatic corps Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo told U.S. Ambassador James “Wally” Brewster that he would not be allowed to attend with his husband. The Washington Blade’s Michael La…

Can You Be Liberal and Catholic?

By Patricia Miller

…rked to suppress visible dissent against their teachings related to sexuality, especially by anyone who could be considered an “official” Catholic, like nuns….

When Churches Do Business

By Sarah Posner

…tate agent accidentally forwarded the couple an e-mail in which a diocesan official said the church was no longer interested in a deal “because of the potentiality of gay marriages there.” The couple sued under the state’s anti-discrimination law, and Coakley weighed in on this point (emphasis mine): Our laws provide important protections for religious organizations and people of faith,” Coakley said in a statement. “These laws also strike a bala…

His Holiness, Inc.: The Dalai Lama as a Spiritual Mega-Brand

By Elizabeth Drescher

…heartland on his way back to D.C. for a final engagement next Friday. His official schedule shows a certain thematic predictability in his talks, which generally highlight happiness, fulfillment, and compassion—key nodes of Buddhist thought and the subject of the many books he has published over the past fifty years. As an author, a speaker, and a gatherer of often otherwise disparate devotees, HHDL—if I may—is nothing less than a late modern spi…

The New Manson Family or Teens at “Play”?

By Joseph Laycock

…murderer Miranda Barbour announced last week that she was “a high ranking official in the Satanic world” and had murdered at least 22 people before losing count of her victims. While we don’t have all of the facts, it seems highly unlikely that these murders are related to organized Satanism and that claims of Satanic involvement may be the product of police interrogation. It goes without saying that these are tragic cases, though it will be even…

Mormon Church Claims DNA Studies Can’t Affirm or Reject Book of Mormon

By Holly Welker

…of Latter-day Saints posted yet another undated, unsigned document on its official website, this one on the topic of “Book of Mormon and DNA Studies.” The essay addresses issues raised by the fact that there is little to no DNA evidence supporting the Mormon claim that the indigenous people of the Americas are the descendants of Hebrews who left Jerusalem around 600 BCE. This belief was so ingrained that for a very long time, Mormons referred to…

Global LGBT Recap:Culture War Exports, Mob Violence and Kidnapping as Weapon of Homophobia

By Peter Montgomery

…ular on a case of a trans woman arrested in a salon for “imitating the opposite sex” and “entering a space dedicated to women-only.” A 2007 law against “imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex” was criticized in a Human Rights Watch report from 2012. Littauer cites a newspaper’s publication of an open letter to written by a psychologist to the Minister of Education complaining that LGBT people are converting others into their “way…

Russian Orthodox Church Supports Referendum on Sodomy Laws

By Chrissy Stroop

…Church-Society Relations functions in many respects as the public face of official Orthodoxy, exhibits a pattern of such behavior. He has praised the radical Orthodox activist known as Dmitry Enteo, for example, and even joined with Enteo in a prayer service for the passage of laws against abortion, ‘propaganda of homosexuality,’ and blasphemy. Chaplin’s is a prominent voice among Orthodox Russians, and the message he consistently sends is that t…

Little Sisters: When Exemptions Are Not Enough

By Sarah Posner

…,” PRC writes. According to Politico this morning, an unnamed White House official is “confident that our final rules strike the balance of providing women with free contraceptive coverage while preventing non-profit religious employers with religious objections to contraceptive coverage from having to contract, arrange, pay, or refer for such coverage.” In the case of employers with “church plans,” though, it seems like their employees will be o…