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Pope’s US Visit Provokes Intense Attention; New Vatican Book on Man-Woman Complementarity & New Int’l Report on Christian Role Models for LGBT Equality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…week, a survey of members of the parliament o the Faroe Islands found that 16 were in favor of marriage equality, 11 were opposed, and 6 did not answer. Recent elections led to a two-seat gain by the Social Democrats in the territory’s 33 member parliament; it was reported that the new government is expected to pass legislation allowing same-sex unions. “While its former colonial master Denmark was the first country in the world to recognize same…

Is Pope Francis Yogaphobic?

By Andrea R. Jain

…angels” by distorting the words of Francis: Pope Francis said ‘do not seek spiritual answers in yoga classes’. Yoga is certainly a risk. There’s the spiritual health risk. When you take up those practices from other cultures, which are outside our Christian domain, you don’t know what you are opening yourself up to. The bad spirit can be communicated in a variety of ways. I’m not saying everyone gets it, or that it happens every time, and people m…

Pittsburgh Paradox: A City Haunted by God and Steel

By Ed Simon

…hat coincidentally matches Paul, Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (also published in 1905) describes how for “Those people in possession of spontaneous, fun-living dispositions” the creed of endless material accumulation coupled with a disdain of pleasure was “absolutely meaningless.” Pittsburgh’s central creed was exactly as Weber described it, a cold city governed by a tough gospel, and so Paul absconds with his fat…

The Pope is Not a Biblical Literalist

By Kate Childs Graham

…phrase: ‘the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.‘ But the liberating Spirit is not simply… the exegete’s own vision. The Spirit is Christ … Who shows us the way. With the word of Spirit and of freedom, a further horizon opens up, but at the same time a clear limit is placed upon arbitrariness and subjectivity, which unequivocally binds both the individual and the community and brings about a new, higher obligation than that of the letter: na…

‘Always Pray to the Father’: Mormon Leader Calls Desire for Knowledge of Heavenly Mother ‘Arrogant and Unproductive’

By Holly Welker

…us Christ of Latter-day Saints. Confused about which church he should join, 14-year-old Joseph Smith read James 1:5: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” Joseph therefore decided to ask God for wisdom. In response, God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph and told him to join no church, for they were all false. Instead, Joseph would be guided to restore God…

Glenn’s at it Again, and Again

By Joanna Brooks

…pace right there between Washington and Lincoln with the Reflecting Pool—a spiritual space in our nation—the Spirit of the Lord is going to be unleashed like I think you’ve never felt it before. In the world of Mormonism, we call this rhetorical move “bearing one’s testimony.” When one bears testimony, one attests to the truth of a spiritual principle. The phrase “the Spirit is so strong” is a conventional Mormon phrase to describe one’s perceptio…

Historical “GOTCHA!” and the Planned Parenthood Sting

By Tom Davis

…te. Sanger flatly disagreed. She said that a woman who understands and can manage her reproductive functions is the one who should decide when to have children. She insisted it was their right; that reproductive decisions should always be in the hands of women. As far as the future improvement of humanity was to be achieved, she thought that would come through the cumulative decisions of individual women. Her compassion was for women—of any color….

New Mormon Anti-Gay Policy Sparks Mass Exodus From Church; Christian AID Workers in Africa Refuse to Help Gay Refugees; Ukraine Rejects, Then Accepts EU-Required Gay Rights Law; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…DP signed the LGBTI Rights Agreement upon being elected. After the November 1st repeat of the general election, 16 of these candidates were elected once again. European Union: LGBT Rights in progress reports for nations seeking EU membership On Thursday, the European Commission published its annual progress reports on seven countries’ progress toward EU membership: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey….

Exclusive: Columnist Jonathan Merritt on his Sudden Departure From Religion News Service

By Kaya Oakes

…ract. According to Merritt, the contract he finally received was dated June 1, a one-year contract “like what I’ve had for the longest time.” After Merritt had signed the contract, MacDonald informed him that, not only had RNS formed a partnership with WNET, but that Merritt would be expected to write three additional articles for WNET and that they would have to be pitched to MacDonald, who would edit them. In addition to being more work, Merritt…

Zeroes and Sums: Is It Wrong to Praise Paul’s Positions?

By Peter Laarman

…I do worry these days about the capacity of even the chattering classes to manage complexity. I believe that it was a second-rate intelligence—a mind belonging to one F. Scott Fitzgerald—that pleaded for the importance of the capacity of a first-rate intelligence to hold contradictory ideas in one’s head at the same time. I do, however, view it as lamentable that a lightweight like Fitzgerald gets the credit for what is essentially a theological i…