Religion Dispatches
…w as its residual protestant Christian undertones. In the past few years a number of court cases in Canada have been brought against AA charging the organization with discrimination on the basis of excluding secular or atheist groups in a variety of ways. The trouble with defining “religion” AA is a fascinating case study for thinking about how definitions of “religion” change over time. In an article for The Conversation earlier this year I sugge…
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…to the WCC’s call that he condemn violence in Ukraine, Kirill invoked the Toronto Statement, one of the WCC’s foundational documents, which notes that the WCC can’t become “the instrument of one [school].” And there’s little doubt that Kirill is using both his association with the WCC and his ongoing dialogue with the Vatican as a means by which to assert his ever waning legitimacy. But there’s no reason to suggest that there is anything more tha…
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…down? The Grab doesn’t venture an answer. But how we answer the question shapes our politics, our ethics, and (now) our very existence. *The Grab actually premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022, but was only just released in theaters and streaming services this month….
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…pan: Return to the “Floating World” on gender? Todd Crowell writes about a Toronto art exhibit that explores attitudes toward gender in Japan: Long before the term LGBT came into vogue, Japan went its own way regarding gender definitions, as the exhibition shows. It harkens back to a more relaxed era, depicted in art as the “Floating World,” before the Meiji restoration in the 19th Century opened Japan to Western ideas and concepts, including a mo…
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…c colleges aud universities: Regis College and St. Michael’s University in Toronto, for example. Obedience, even servility, to ecclesial power reigns. Critical Catholic thinkers who diverge from the views of the magisterium are excluded. One thinks of Charles Curran, Hans Kung, Roger Haight. Think of the feminists, some in Canada, made utterly invisible. Rosemary Ruether’s response to small-mindedness is to write another bestselling book. This tim…
Read More…photo essay including interviews with LGBT Muslims, featuring the work of Toronto photographer Samra Habib. “Mainstream Islam isn’t always welcoming of LGBTQ Muslims, yet a lot of the Muslim traditions and rituals bring queer Muslims comfort and provide a sense of belonging,” Habib says. “I wanted to show everyone the creative and brilliant LGBTQ Muslims I identified with the most and would hang out with at art shows, queer dance parties, and Jum…
Read More…ased, openly gay Muslim,” secretly videotaped his journey to Mecca on his iPhone and other small phones. “I was terrified because they reserve the death penalty for people like me,” Sharma said. Several times he had his equipment seized and video files deleted by authorities. But he persevered with both his spiritual journey and his film. “I was there making this pilgrimage for the thousands of gay Muslims who were too scared to go to Saudi Arabia…
Read More…e “out of the closet”. What we were hearing – and it has snatched the microphone of homosexual life in the same unrepresentative way that Islamism has grabbed the public voice of Muslims – was the voice of a self-appointed moral policeman. If you are gay, Mr Strudwick seemed to assert, there are certain things you must believe. Nothing else is permitted under the gay rights sharia. Nigeria: Presidential candidate denies marriage-equality deal We r…
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…s the stories of some gay Kenyans.” The film premiered in September at the Toronto Film Festival. Uganda: Legislators Prepare Renewed Push for Anti-Gay Law Gay Star news reported on a renewed effort by anti-gay Ugandan legislators to re-pass the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Act, which was overturned by the courts on a procedural issue. It quotes Member of Parliament Latif Ssebaggala saying, “We want to ensure everybody that we have not backtracked…
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…f treating “Muhammad as punk rocker?” BU: What an ignorant question. Anglophone world? Punk is ten times bigger in Kuala Lampur than it ever will be in the UK, France, or Germany. Or America. No, the reason for forming the Dead Bhuttos, and the rush to put a single online was to show, at least cosmetically, that Pakistan was as capable of putting out punk rock as Turkey, Malaysia, Japan, and Lebanon. The USA is good to sell obscure Malaysian and…
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