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US Names Int’l Envoy for LGBT Rights; Marriage revolution spreads in Mexico; Scott Lively Warns World of Anti-Christ; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ance from journalist Rex Wockner, reports on the wave of marriage equality rulings in Mexico since a Supreme Court ruling in late 2012 in favor of a lesbian couple from Oaxaca: “Courts in more than two-thirds of Mexico’s 31 states have granted same-sex couples the right to marry over the past two years in a series of rulings that will likely make marriage equality a reality nationwide in the near future.” Attorney Alex Alí Méndez Díaz, who has bee…

‘Rising Global Tide’ Of Anti-Gay Crackdowns; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ities across Muslim-majority regions of the former Soviet Union. In March, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said authorities in the Russian region of Chechnya were imprisoning and torturing gay men. One Chechen resident publicly testified in Moscow this week about being detained and tortured because he is gay. And last month, Amnesty International raised alarm over the apparent detentions of LGBT people in the Caucasus country of Azerbaijan. Radio…

African Religious leaders complain about Obama advocacy for LGBT rights; Ultra-Orthodox Man Stabs Jerusalem Pride Parade Marchers, Again; Struggles over sexuality in Islam, Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican Churches; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…iot in 2013 wielded weapons against a handful of pro-tolerance protesters. Russia: struggle over ‘gay lobby’ in Orthodox Church; Russia as world’s “moral leader” A controversy over a supposed “gay lobby” within the Russian Orthodox Church drew the attention of Russian media and was reported on by Le Temps, a French-language newspaper based in Geneva, Switzerland. Monday night, in [Ulyanovsk] this city 560 miles west of Moscow, the faithful gathere…

LDS Church, US Government Swap Positions on Polygamy

By Holly Welker

…on the LDS psyche—it only exposes it. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young did cruel, cruel things to their followers and their wives as they taught and practiced the doctrine of polygamy. My ancestors, admittedly clannish, self-righteous people, paid for their faults by being repeatedly evicted from their homes and being threatened with extermination on order of the governor in Missouri. The Mormon migration to Utah involved tremendous suffering, as e…

From Organized Religion to Organizing Religion: Brian D. McLaren Wants Christians to Be Better

By Peter Laarman

…here’s also a sense in which what needs to be born takes time and can’t be rushed. So I feel a mixture of real urgency and yet a caution about pushing or rushing or forcing. Your book invites readers to join the migration toward a courageous love-centered Christianity, but it’s been so much easier for people to migrate out altogether and join the ranks of the “nones.” Do you think that the religiously-unaffiliated can still be Jesus followers in a…

“Far Too Extreme For America To Accept,” Hamas “Endorsed Obama,” “Forced Abortions,” and More

By Sarah Posner

…ing in the final days leading up to the election. The National Republican Trust PAC, run by conservative conspiracy theorist Scott Wheeler, has purchased airtime in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, and North Carolina to broadcast its 25-minute “Breaking Point” political attack ad, starting last Friday. Using clips from Townhall.com, World Net Daily, Fox Business, CNSNews.com, and Glenn Beck, narrator E. W. Jackson invokes the boogeymen of…

Navy Yard Shooting: Why It’s Not a Religion Story

By Michael Jerryson

…rned to profiling the killer. What were his motivations for violence? Many news stories initially focused on Aaron Alexis’ religious identity: Thai Buddhism. In England, Kristi Kinard of The Times began her piece highlighting what she considered Aaron Alexis’ self-contradictions—he was a former Navy reservist and a Buddhist convert. Al Jazeera America and the Associated Press ran similar stories, remarking on the contradiction between military ser…

6 Overlooked Takeaways From a Reviewer of Controversial Texas Textbooks

By David R. Brockman

…December 5, 2014. 4 Truth in Texas Textbooks, “TTT Report to Texas SBOE on Worldview World History B incl publisher response,” p. 71. URL: http://truthintexastextbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/TTT-Report-to-Texas-SBOE-on-Worldview-World-History-B-incl-publisher-response.docx. Accessed December 5, 2014. 5 Ibid., p. 38. 6 Pearson Education, “P2015_Pearson Rsp to Public Comment_World History_11_19,” p. 16. URL: http://tea.texas.gov/Curriculum_a…

Why Liberal Religious Arguments Fail

By Peter Laarman

…e past masters at painting a picture and forging a narrative about how the world works. Remember too that our big stories don’t have to be logical in ways that Wittgenstein would approve; they just have to be internally neat and emotionally satisfying. Like this: Good people tend to have money, because why would they be rich if they were not good? Conversely, there might be something wrong, some moral deficiency, in those who aren’t doing well. Go…

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ramadan

By Haroon Moghul

…friend’s bathroom, go vomit your ignorance out. ‘Lota’ is the South Asian word for this implement, and the South Asian word wins, because we’re one-third of Muslims, so demography rules; built-in ‘Muslim showers’ today come in the form of hoses or in-toilet jets, present from Bangkok’s airport to Istanbul’s. A parking lota is just one you keep in the car for, you know… Ramada: Hotel chain that has been confusing recently-arrived immigrants to the…