Religion Dispatches
On the occasion of the anniversary of 9/11, and in honor of the end of Ramadan, four New York Muslims reflect on piety and patriotism, on sharing classrooms and rituals of community life, on the courage and goodness of New Yorkers, and on the horrific event that has shaped a generation of American Muslim life. Hussein Rashid_________ September 11, 2001. The day I became Muslim. That’s a lie. I am now a Muslim. I was not always. America made me…
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…ps have also listened closely to members of the Catholic LGBT groups Drachma and Drachma Parents. Indeed, Bishop Mario Grech said his encounter with parentshelped him understand the urgent need for new pastoral care of LGBT people. Marriage equality’s passage is but the latest step for LGBT equality taken by the small island nation: it passed a law on transgender and intersex rights that is considered the gold standard in Europe; it was the first…
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Relatively little fanfare accompanied U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb’s ruling in October that a tax exemption for clergy housing dating back to 1954 violates the First Amendment. Crabb confirmed her ruling in the case Gaylor v. Mnuchin this past Wednesday, declaring unconstitutional a provision of the tax code that’s made it possible for clergy to enjoy higher standards of living than their salaries might suggest. At issue is section 107 of th…
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…up” seeking exceptions, as suggested by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s new analysis of employer health benefits plans? Kaiser found in fact that 10 percent of nonprofits with more than 1,000 employees have requested an accommodation to the contraceptive mandate, as did five percent of firms with between 200 and 999 employees. According to Kaiser, “many of the nonprofits who have sought the accommodation are likely health systems or educational ins…
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…aders and the police.” Soon afterward, when homosexuals organized protests against discriminatory employment practices, police entrapment, and raids on gay bars, the press paid scant attention. Even the iconic Stonewall riots, the June 1969 clashes between police and gays in New York’s Greenwich Village, were barely noted by the mainstream news. The Times’ piece was on page thirty-three and the Daily News’ story ran on page thirty. Coverage expand…
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…a 14 year church-ordered suspension of the rite, indigenous deacons would again be ordained in the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas—where the local church serves a largely Maya population. A rare reversal in church policy, resumption of deacon ordinations in Chiapas appears to signal an end to official ecclesiastical suppression of liberation theology and practice. In a striking statement, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the current…
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…test examples of the heartless approach to poverty and unemployment that characterizes contemporary policy making. Not only have millions of the long-term unemployed started the New Year with no safety net, but many of those with full-time jobs earn less than the poverty level for a family of four (18 million people in 2012 or 17.5 percent of all full-time, year-round workers). It was not always like this. There was a time in our history when the…
Read More…s part on the television series Growing Pains and more recently nicknamed Banana-man (along with Ray Comfort) for the anti-evolution DVDs that became the source of tremendous internet humor, said he hadn’t actually been invited to be part of Divine Destiny. But he declined anyway: I had heard that there were plans to put me on the list of speakers. I bought tickets… then there was a mix up… and I was cut from the list, if I had indeed been on a li…
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…d protests have forced a stand-off that has threatened to split the church apart. My mother was kind enough to sit down with me and share her thoughts on the issue. The following has been edited for length, clarity, and the occasional interruption from my father, who is also a UMC minister. Thank you for doing this, Mom. Before we dive into what’s happening with the United Methodist Church I thought we could hear a little bit about your history. H…
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…Profile of LGBT Activist Alturi has posted a profile of activist Michael Taalaibekov, whose work is “especially crucial at this moment in history.” Kyrgyzstan’s parliament is considering proposed legislation similar to Russia’s “propaganda” law. “In fact, this draft law is much worse than its Russian counterpart,” Michael explains. “It imposes a criminal penalty of up to one and a half years of imprisonment.” The bill, which is supposed to addres…
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