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Conservative Bishops Headed For Synod Victory?; Indonesian Sharia Official Says Gay Caning Law Meant To ‘Safeguard Human Dignity’; Slovenian Court OK’s Referendum on Marriage Equality Law; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

The World Congress of Families, which brings together American Religious Right activists with their counterparts from around the world, gathers next week in Salt Lake City, Utah, the first time one of its annual summits has been held in the U.S. WCF officials have responded to sharp criticism about the anti-gay work carried out by its partners and participants by declaring themselves committed to respect and civil dialogue. That claim does not st…

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…

My Congregation Tried to Help a Syrian Family Settle in the US

By Thomas Warming

…’t need protection, thank you very much. Something has shaken loose in the American psyche this week, a vein of paranoid xenophobia that for a long while has been inflated with poison by people eager to take advantage of the cultural and economic anxieties of the nation. The rottenness has finally burst for everyone to see and those responsible for pumping it up are scrambling to take advantage. All I want to do is be free to live my faith as best…

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

…anti-LGBT violence and discrimination that remains rampant in the Central American nation. Conference participants also highlighted the strong influence the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical Christians have on Honduran society and how they can try to use the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to ensure LGBT people in the country are treated equally. El Salvador: Report on vulnerability of LGBT people Human Rights First…

Is the Pope’s Concern for Immigration Just a “Numbers Game”?

By Megan Sweas

…so implicit in the latter explanation is the misperception, common to many American observers, that the United States is at the center of the church’s concerns. In reality, the Catholic Church’s interest in immigration ranges far beyond the Latino and Asian immigrants bolstering the ranks of the U.S. church. “For us Christians [working for refugees] is an expression of the love of the Father in Christ Jesus,” Pope Francis said of working with refu…

What NOT to Expect from the Pope’s US Visit

By Anthea Butler

…ents about doctrinal issues or specific political issues particular to the American scene. Francis, after all is a head of a global church. So whatever reading is given to his statements, those must not be filtered through popular hope or punditry, but through Catholic teaching. Pope Francis’s straightforward messages on issues like poverty are discordant to American ears because of the religious vitriol we are constantly hearing from pundits, pre…

The Question is: What Kind of Football Does God Fancy?

By Jeffrey Scholes

…the rest of us), all of the Packers effort for 90% of the game was in the service of an 11th hour drama—just as the holy screenwriter drew it up. Two days after the NFC Championship, Rodgers countered Wilson’s theology by quipping, “I don’t think God cares a whole lot about the outcome. He cares about the people involved, but I don’t think he’s a big football fan.” We can read this rejoinder as a classic minimization of the opposing teams’ skill…

Sterilization Denial for Woman with Brain Tumor Highlights Religious Liberty Conflict

By Patricia Miller

…rom discriminating on the basis of sex: “When providers seek out a medical service specially affecting women’s reproductive capacity for exclusion, they target pregnant women or women of childbearing age for unequal treatment.” She says Section 1557 should be “viewed as a federal counterweight to conscience protections, requiring us to reassess the balance between sex equality and religious liberty.” In addition to challenging Church Amendment pro…

Pricey Tickets, Cranky Citizens, and Priests Behind Bars as Philadelphia Prepares For Papal Visit

By Anthea Butler

…me restless, and their ire has been focused on Mayor Nutter and the Secret Service. In a hastily put together meeting last week, Donna Crilley Farrell, the executive director of the World Meeting of Families (WMOF) announced that the papal events were going to be ticketed—after having already promoted the Papal visit as “free and open” to the public on the conference website. As a result, some hotel rooms are being cancelled, people are angry, and…

Kim Davis, County Clerk, is Not a Person

By Ivan Strenski

…,” the use for which you have to pay what he demands on top of the cost of service. Tony’s “businesses” are very personal things, part of himself. And, thinking this way about public offices is precisely what defines “corruption” means. Flip the coin, and just as Kim Davis does not own the County clerkship, despite her mother having served in it before her, Kim’s private property, say, her body, does not belong to the state. The temptation is grea…