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The Brutality of Life for Syrian LGBTs; Saving the Anglican Church by Dissolving It; Backlash to Hindu Gay Wedding Ceremony in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…urch’s problems that eluded his predecessors. Stephen Castle writes in the NewYork Times: The creation of a lighter and looser relationship among the churches might be enough to allow Canterbury to maintain relations with the Episcopal Church and, say, provinces in African countries, which have encouraged their governments to criminalize homosexuality…. If such an outcome were agreed upon, members of all the churches would be able to call themselv…

Pride Month & Prejudice; ‘Worrisome Time’ For LGBT People; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…geted by BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) activists , reports the Jerusalem Post, who charge that the festival is a form of “pinkwashing.”Among those deciding not to participate was Fawzia Mirza, a Pakistani-Canadian actress and filmmaker, “citing her identity as a ‘Muslim queer person.’” Mexico: Governor apologizes after dismissive reference to same-sex marriage The Governor of Nuevo León Jaime Rodríguez Calderón—also known as “El Bronco”—…

Conservative Bishops Still Mad at Pope; Oligarch Launches Orthodox Network; Yoga Won’t Change Sexuality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ian Houston, head of the evangelical megachurch Hillsong, was asked by the New York Times about his position on same-sex marriage. Houston, whose congregation is based in Australia but boasts around 100,000 weekly worshipers at campuses in a dozen cities around the world (including New York City and Los Angeles), responded to the question by saying that while he wouldn’t offer a firm position on the matter, he also wouldn’t rule out further conver…

The Protestant Mainline Makes a (Literary) Comeback

By Gary Dorrien

…Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), quote 287; N. Jay Demerath III, “Cultural Victory and Organizational Defeat in the Paradoxical Decline of Liberal Protestantism,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 34 (1995), 458-469. Leigh Eric Schmidt, Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality from Emerson to Oprah (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005); S…

Will a New Dawkins Foundation-Sponsored App Help Atheists Talk to Believers?

By Alana Massey

…ve ones are wrong. If user reviews are any indication, Atheos has been instructive to several non-believers who sought structure and resources for their conversations. Atheist blogger Courtney Heard wrote a glowing review on her site, Godless Mom, where she described what a great learning experience the app was. “It’s not just taking me through common conversations that I get frustrated with frequently, but it’s also proving, with each step furthe…

How to Wreck Your Faith: A Theologian Teaches “Outlaw Christianity”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…me when Thomas is talking in the Bible, when Jesus decides to go back to Jerusalem, and all the other disciples say, “You can’t do this. You’re going to get killed. They hate you,” but Thomas is like, “I’ll go!” So, it’s weird that we take this one aspect of Thomas and call him “Doubting Thomas” rather than “Willing to Die With Jesus Thomas,” which he really is. He’s the only person close to Jesus willing to do that. I became fascinated by the fac…

RD News Round-Up—September 22, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…is featured at the BornAliveTruth website. In addition to coverage in the New York Times, CNN and the Associated Press, the organization’s launch received blanket coverage from such likeminded sites as Conservative Grapevine, Catholic News Service, LifeSiteNews, LifeNews, Stop the ACLU, OneNewsNow and many more. The main donor to BornAliveTruth, a 527—an organization allowed to raise money from individuals in unlimited amounts—is Raymond Ruddy, w…

Mitt, Moochers, and Mormonism’s “Other” Legacy

By Mary Barker

…oo, Illinois, the site of the original Garden of Eden and the future New Jerusalem, punctuated normal conversation. As an elementary school student, I used to draw crayon farms with imaginary fields that could provide for all our needs, and I am still plagued by an obsessive-compulsive ritual that must stem from these days. I harbor secret fears about being able to provide for my own children in the event of apocalypse, and play mental games in wh…

‘Imagine Better’: Can Harry Potter Change the World?

By B. Howell Belser

…, which held its fourth annual Quidditch World Cup on Nov. 13-14, 2010, in New York City. Potter fans are often passionate, creative, and imaginative, and no organization demonstrates this more clearly than the Harry Potter Alliance. The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) was founded in 2005 by Andrew Slack, Executive Director, and Paul DeGeorge, of wrock band Harry and the Potters, as an organization whose mission is to draw on the language and lessons…

Imagining Fear and Anxiety in Post-9/11 New York

By Haroon Moghul

…allowed to worship so publicly and noticeably near Ground Zero. And since New York City is home to the largest Muslim population in America (probably well over 600,000, or close to ten percent of the city), a number of uncomfortable questions came to the surface. In her debut novel, The Submission, journalist Amy Waldman manages to predict, prepare for, and parse, many of them. We open with a September 11 widow persuading her fellow committee me…