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Famous Atheists, Fat Ministers, Papal Tweets, and a Mega-Hoax

By Michael J. Altman

…o issue a code for how Christians ought to evangelize. No word on how this code effects the use of Chick Tracts. A village in the Philippines celebrates its patron saint, John the Baptist, with a Mud People Festival. Reminds me of my weekend at Bonnaroo 2004. The Pope tweeted—from an iPad, no less. It’s all part of the Vatican’s new multimedia news portal, news.va. Biblical criticism is getting high-tech. A new computer program uses an algorithm t…

Televangelist Watchdog May Be Forced to Close Its Doors

By Sarah Posner

…as Trinity has argued repeatedly, the problem results from gaps in the tax code, and lax enforcement of rules within it: because televangelism ministries, granted tax-exempt status as “churches,” do not have to file tax returns, their financial activities remain hidden. What’s more, although IRS rules prohibit excessive compensation of non-profit executives, and theoretically authorize the agency to fine non-profits whose executives receive such c…

In Russia It Is Now a Crime to Insult Someone’s Religious Feelings

By Chrissy Stroop

…less familiar to Western readers than the Pussy Riot trial itself, which caused a sensation in the Western media. (In my opinion, the most nuanced coverage of the events associated with Pussy Riot can be found here, in a piece that I readily admit I wish I had written myself.) The protection of religious believers’ feelings has been enshrined in the Russian Civil Code for quite some time, but making it a criminal offense to insult the feelings of…

Will IRS Crack Down on Church Politicking?

By Sarah Posner

…p, whose tax exempt status is under section (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, risk their tax-exempt status if they use tax-exempt resources to endorse political candidates. Although the law is clear, no audits have been initiated since 2009, after a federal court ordered the agency to issue regulations clarifying requirements that audits of churches be authorized by an “appropriate high-level Treasury official.” During the uproar over the suppo…

War Is Not “Hell” It’s “Sin”: Jews and Muslims Hunger Strike Against Violence

By Shaul Magid

…tragedy, the great legal codifier Moses Maimonides states in his medieval Code of Law (Mishneh Torah) that the very act of fasting, for whatever reason (and here he may have been influenced by Sufi doctrine), is really about repentance. The Hunger Strike against Violence is not a fast intended to commemorate past Jewish disasters. It is not a fast in response to collective violence against the Jews. It is a fast of protest. And in that sense it i…

‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa Receives Threats; ‘Blood Test’ for ‘Degeneratism’: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…t academics, religious institutions, and churches in Africa have played in promoting social justice and human dignity, Troubled by the misuse of religion to further marginalize and exclude sexual minorities from society and faith communities, Noting the recommendations on human sexuality from the World Council of Churches 10th Assembly to the Central Committee, and the subsequent approval of the Terms of Reference for the Human Sexuality Reference…

Anti-Gay Violence Rages in Gambia; Conservative ‘Complementarity’ Confab; Coming Out in Iraq Can Be Death Sentence; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…attacks. “I call on The Gambia to fulfil its international obligations to promote and protect the human rights of all persons without discrimination, to repeal all provisions of the Criminal Code that criminalize relations between consenting adults and to put in place an immediate moratorium on arrests on the basis of such laws,” the High Commissioner said. Amnesty International also sounded the alarm on Gambia this week, highlighting the detenti…

International reax to US Marriage Ruling; Official violence at Turkey’s Pride; Marriage Advances in Mexico Over Church Objections; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Turkey: Police violently disperse pride parade, banned with Ramadan as excuse Police in Istanbul used tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons against Pride Parade participants on June 28. The Istanbul LGBTI Pride Week Committee, a group that organized the series of events during the 23rd Pride Week, said the 13rd Istanbul LGBTi Pride Parade, which was scheduled to start at 5 p.m. on June 28 at Taksim Square, had “suddenly been banned by the I…

Catholic Bishops End Family Synod With Little To Say To Gays; World Congress of Families Has Plenty To Say, None of it Good; How Same-Sex Marriage Came to a Buddhist Temple in Japan; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Schubert, the notorious mastermind of the gays-as-threats-to-children ads used to promote Prop 8 and other anti-gay initiatives in the U.S. The conference also included an “emerging leaders” training track, which provided scholarships to about 260 young people from more than 40 countries and 25 states. A conference organizer estimated that they were part of a group of about 500 under-30 participants out of the more than 3300 who joined at least p…

“Love Them As Yourself”: God’s Words or IKEA Instructions?

By Marcia Pally

…in Latin. In Aquinas’s work, this is developed in the idea of “secondary causes.” Because we have the capacity to grasp and further God’s principles, we act secondarily to him in doing so. God is the ground for sun, moisture, oxygen, and the principles of seed germination, and we secondarily plant and make crops grow. The Jewish tradition expresses this as “co-creatorship.” The medieval Islamic philosophers Al-Ash’ari and Al-Ghazali called it “per…