Religion Dispatches
…prevailing sense of early 21st century LDS institutional life is that the best way to deal with such anxieties is to push through them, and that the best expression of the faith is the projection of a sense of assurance as polished and attractive as the storefronts at City Creek Mall. That’s how most Mormons plan to walk through what may very well be a season of public relations nightmares, as Romney’s GOP candidacy brings even greater scrutiny t…
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…Physicsworld.com user asks, “What could be more mystical than an imaginary number interacting with real numbers to produce nothing?” Where infinity merges with the earth When you dig into pi, you encounter questions that are as much theological as mathematical: is there a pattern to the universe? Or is it fundamentally random? And how do we reckon with the infinite? Some people have always insisted that there must be a pattern behind pi. If only h…
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…ting based on moral and religious reasons rather than on the legal issues. European Union: Parliament calls for recognition of adoptions without discrimination The European Parliament adopted a report on February 2 “demanding the automatic recognition of domestic adoption orders” – without discrimination on the basis of parents’ sexual orientation – across EU member states. Sudan: Mini-documentary on brutal realities of life for LGBT Sudanese Mesa…
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…stitutional Court ruling in 2015. A group promoting the initiative cites a number of studies to support their argument that the initiative is needed to protect the best interest of children; among them is the widely discredited New Family Structures Study by Mark Regnerus. Their use of other studies has also been publicly challenged. From Human Rights Watch’s April 28 letter to Speaker Pinto [citations removed], which notes that the bill has alrea…
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…involving perhaps one in twenty-five adults.” In the 19th century growing European dominance in the region began to align gender norms with that of Europe. Muslim modernists and reformers increasingly adopted Victorian sexual values and gender norms as signifiers of modernity. The Egyptian reformer Rifa’a al-Tahtawi wrote approvingly of the French: “Amongst the laudable traits of their character… is their not being inclined toward loving male you…
Read More…of being Satanic. Europe: Legal Victory for Same-Sex Couples This week the European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was discriminatory to deny same-sex couples the same treatment as other couples regarding resident permits to facilitate family reunification. Daniele Viotti MEP, Co-President of the Intergroup on LGBTI Rights, reacted: “I strongly welcome this judgement by the European Court of Human Rights, which illustrates just one of the pra…
Read More…onal Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (GHM) submitted an action to the European Court of Human Rights because of the exclusion of civil partnerships. In a statement to VICE, their Department of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity said: “A civil partnership plan that makes no distinction between heterosexual and same-sex couples is obviously a positive development. It means that Greece will be in compliance with the rulings of the European C…
Read More…City tag.” He notes that anti-gay religious activists, while not large in number, are relatively vocal: Choi Chi-sum, general secretary of the conservative Christian group, the Society For Truth And Light, for example, has been given an increasingly prominent stage to present his views following Taiwan’s legislative change. His opinions on same-sex marriage, sexual minority anti-discrimination laws, and even the recent “controversy” over a homose…
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…ng, our lifestyle, hardly at all. I’d like to think that we’d maintain the best of the past, and merge it with the best of the present. More steak, but still antibiotics. I really think there is a module in our brains, a neurological assembly, that says steak is really good, or meat is really good for us. I mean, it is the best kind of thing to eat. We have mental constructs about what is an attractive woman or what is an attractive man, for matin…
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…inted by mutual recriminations and historical prejudices. Africans accused Europeans of imperialist racial attitudes, while some Europeans implied African backwardness. Obviously, this precedent does not suggest that different regions are rigidly set in their attitudes, and cultural differences may well diminish over time. Significantly, it has been European and North American prelates who have led recent conservative resistance to Pope Francis, w…
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