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Russia Expels Gay American Pastor, An Epidemic of Anti-LGBT Violence in Brazil, And More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ourt announced that delivery of the ruling had been postponed until August. 10. Isle of Man: First same-sex couple legally married Marc and Alan Steffan-Cowell became the first same-sex couple to legally marry, converting their civil partnership into a legal marriage under a new law that recently took effect. Sweden: Prime Minister joins pride parade Prime Minister Stefan Lofven took part in Stockholm’s gay pride parade, which drew about 45,000 pe…

Women Are Leaving Church, And the Reason Seems Clear

By Patricia Miller

…st increase in women’s full-time employment” actually “occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which time the gender gap on religious service attendance actually widened somewhat.” If women aren’t too busy with work to go to church, maybe it’s because they’re becoming too well educated. Higher rates of educational attainment are correlated to less church going, except McClendon notes that both more educated and less educated women are g…

Indonesia Hears Islamist Arguments For LGBT Criminalization; Zambian Churches Oppose Condom Distribution in Prisons; Lithuanian Conservative Manifesto Calls LGBTs Enemies of Freedom; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…heir conscience. Olympics Postscript: Team LGBT beats every country that criminalizes gays Outsports reports, “The publicly out gay, lesbian and bisexual Olympic athletes in Rio outperformed expectations, with 25 of the 53 publicly out athletes winning medals.” Together they accounted for 14 medals (accounting for team sports such as the four out women played on the US basketball team). Notes Outsports, “Those 14 medals beat every single country t…

Why Nobody Should Be Surprised That Pope Francis Made Problematic Comments About Judaism — And That He Remains Unapologetic

By Ilan Benattar

…promulgation of Nostra Aetate (“Our Time”) by the Second Vatican Council in 1965 was spurred in large part by criticism of official Vatican neutrality during World War II. At the time, it was hailed as a forward-thinking document which attested to deep introspection on the part of the Church. Nostra Aetate forms the additional reason why Pope Francis’s comments were surprising to so many, from scholars to Catholic theologians to Jewish leaders. We…

As a Minister I’m Fed Up With Anti-Trans Legislation Written by Adults to Pick on Children, All in the Name of Religious Freedom

By Welton Gaddy

…had forced Stella to carry this burden at all. What kind of country makes a 16-year-old appear before Congress to plead for her rights as a human being? As a person of faith and religious leader, I embrace the historic meaning of what is called “the gospel of Christianity” as” good news,” which moves me to share my faith lovingly and devote myself to service for others. Never am I comfortable religiously, conscientiously, or constitutionally when…

The Christian Right’s Main Moral Argument Against Abortion Rights Completely Ignores This Critical Issue: It’s Time to Raise It

By Elizabeth Freese

…d pregnancy,” it’s forced labor, which is explicitly prohibited by both the 14th and the 13th Amendments to the Constitution and is generally condemned as wrong by all contemporary religious and ethical traditions; and Public support for equitable access to birth control, maternal healthcare, and abortion is essential to “justice for all,” as comprehensive reproductive services are necessary to address gender, racial, and economic inequalities. Th…

The Theology of Westboro: The “World’s Meanest Church” Is More Than Picket Signs

By Rebecca Barrett-Fox

…g I cut out is nearly as good as Primitive Baptists of the Wiregrass South: 1815 to the Present by John G. Mathis or Predestination: The American Career of a Contentious Doctrine by Peter J. Thuessen, who present these ideas in a way far more engaging that I would have been able to do. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? Characters clearly based on Westboro Baptists show up a lot in our pop culture—in films ranging from I…

Bishops’ Attempt to Deny Communion to Biden Will Backfire Even More Spectacularly Than Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage

By Mary E. Hunt

…ve, by turns criminal, and, in recent decades, the reason former Catholics number as many as current Catholics in the US. For the bishops to pronounce who among the laity is worthy to receive communion is absurd. At most, such decisions are made pastorally and in private, on a case by case, diocese by diocese basis. But these days, with the institution mired in bankruptcies because of priests’ criminal conduct, costs and market share plunging beca…

The ‘Health Freedom Movement’ Enters the Covid Era by Disseminating Medical Disinformation

By Susannah Crockford

…advancing the idea that good health requires the right diet, exercise, and spiritual growth. Good health is a personal responsibility that requires individual discernment. Any infringement on this by the requirements of social services or public health agencies is an attack on corporeal freedom. This sentiment has been radicalized and popularized by opposition to Covid-19 regulations, especially lockdowns and mask wearing, which are seen as an att…

Largely Overshadowed by the Election, ‘Red Pill, Blue Pill’ Transcends Standard Explanations of Conspiracy Culture Which is ‘Killing Us All’

By Katherine Stewart

…ted texts and willful misrepresentations dating at least as far back as the 1990s. As Neiwert explains, Paleoconservative William S. Lind, an associate of the New Right leader Paul Weyrich, built a cottage industry around his ‘cultural Marxism’ theory. “Cultural Marxism is a branch of western Marxism, different from the Marxism-Leninism of the old Soviet Union,” wrote Lind. “‘It is commonly known as ‘multiculturalism’ or, less formally, ‘Political…