Religion Dispatches
…ces like Tehran, or Athens, or Beijing, that are armed and enabled by cell phone technology and the almost instantaneous circulation of striking images of authoritarian crackdown, impossible to contain or control. There is an old philosophical quandary posed as follows: can a fish imagine water? Similarly, Religion Dispatches exists within the very medium that it is simultaneously attempting to theorize. It is as global as the instruments it use…
Read More…e Yoruba culture itself. In the northern part of Nigeria, yan daudu is a Hausa term to described effeminate men who are considered to be wives to men. While the Yoruba word might be more about behaviour than identity, this Hausa term is more about identity. You have to look and act like a yan daudu to be called one. It is not an identity you can just carry. These words are neutral; they are not infused with hate or disgust… In Boy-Wives and Female…
Read More
…he Washington Post reports. “Because, you know, it’s been banned.” Finland: 800+ same-sex couples married in first month; Lutheran priests barred from officiating More than 800 same-sex couples were married in March after marriage equality went into effect on the first of the month; 770 had already been in civil partnerships. The Lutheran Evangelical Church has decreed that priests are not permitted to marry same-sex couples and some bishops warne…
Read More
…grandparents, who turned their backs on him when he told them he was gay. Gazing toward Central Baptist with his hands tucked into his jacket pockets, Lucas says, “These are people who reinforce the beliefs that cause LGBT people to suffer. If I’m in a place where I can love myself and teach others to love me and others like me, I have to use that opportunity to the fullest.” A little before noon, a handful of students from Central Baptist approac…
Read More
…y stepped down from his pulpit, following a summer of protest against the Gaza war with the left-wing Jewish Voice for Peace, on whose Rabbinical Council he serves. (Compared to J Street’s 800-plus-member Rabbinic Cabinet, JVP’s two-year-old Rabbinic Council has just 50.) Rosen told me he was not forced out, but that his decision to step down was driven by “stress between individual congregants and me,” and was made “for my congregation’s well-bei…
Read More
…metimes skews their ability to have complete editorial control. America magazine is supported by the Jesuits, and its former editor, Thomas Reese, SJ, was pressured into resigning due to objections to magazine content from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the time headed by the same Cardinal Ratzinger. As a news outlet supported by a religious society, the magazine tends to strive for a neutral point of view. Matt Malone, SJ, its…
Read More…le that was married in England last year has filed a lawsuit claiming that Northern Ireland’s refusal to recognize their marriage, and treating it as a civil union, is infringing on their religious liberty. The pair’s solicitor Ciaran Moynagh told the Belfast Telegraph said: “They are saying the downgrading of their marriage isn’t lawful and one of the aspects is that they are arguing that their religious liberty is being infringed. “The petitione…
Read More…who chairs the Church and Society Commission, told the Church of Ireland Gazette that he broadly welcomed the bill. He said: “We will certainly encourage a comprehensive conversation around religious and civil freedom in Northern Ireland and I will be affirming the Church of Ireland’s position that marriage ‘is part of God’s creation and a holy mystery in which one man and one woman become one flesh’.” He added that he would seek amendments “to e…
Read More
…the Middle Passage, several no-purpose flour people have, as a kind of accusation, highlighted that Harris’ ancestor was a White plantation owner in Jamaica. Nothing says “child left behind” like the failure to understand that “[White] enslavers routinely sexually violated the people they enslaved, which is how Kamala can be related to a plantation owner.” I’m not sure what sort of “gotcha” that story was meant to be, but if there’s any takeaway…
Read More…o Seek ‘Cure’ Andrew Potts of Gay Star News reports, “Kuwaiti MP Hamdan Al Azimi, who earlier this month called for the police to raid gay people in their homes has said he is willing to meet with homosexuals who want ‘solutions for their issues.’” Kuwaiti MP Hamdan Al Azimi has called for homosexuals to come forward to have their ‘physiological and psychological issues’ ‘treated’ by health professionals just days after he called for police to rai…
Read More