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Mexican Marriage Marches Show Struggle Between Church and Secular State; Pro-LGBT Mormon Group Grows After ‘Apostate’ Declaration; Botswana Gives Anti-Gay US Pastor the Boot; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…h, became the first openly gay British royal. Russia: Court bans LGBT news site Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports that a Siberian court has banned one of the country’s most popular LGBT news sites “without warning.” Uganda: Police block pride march before it starts Police blocked supporters of LGBT equality from convening on a beach and told them to leave the area, reports BuzzFeed’s David Mack. Minister for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo…

Kuwait “Morals Committee” Announced Deportation of 76 Gay Men; and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…a debate dominated by activists. … Lyle Shelton, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, said his advocacy group had collected 55,000 signatures on a petition demanding a plebiscite. Sheldon handed the petition to Sen. Cory Bernardi, leader of the minor Australian Conservatives party, to present to the Senate. Bernardi has said he would vote against gay marriage regardless of what the plebiscite found. Opponents of a national plebisc…

On Zion’s Mount

By Jared Farmer

…ork, to Nauvoo, Illinois (something like a Mormon version of Williamsburg, Virginia), to Martin’s Cove, Wyoming, the site of a terrible handcart disaster in 1856 that has been converted into a faith-promoting heritage site. These and other hallowed places allow Utah Mormons to commemorate the “pioneer trek” to the Great Basin. The sacred narrative of getting to Utah is more important than Zion itself. The other church program is the worldwide crea…

Death Couture: Not For Halloween Only

By Stephen Andes

…Mexico City’s Tepito neighborhood, with a long reputation for poverty and official municipal negligence, where fear of death pervades. Yet the image of La Santa Muerte has been exported from this local context and gone viral, tweeted hundreds of times daily, even appearing in roadside tourist tiendas like this one. Makeshift shrines and devotional paraphernalia have likewise crossed the border. Candles, prayer cards, t-shirts, and figurines dedic…

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…lice reportedly detained the pair at a bus stop and confiscated Mr. Cole’s phone. They then used images they found on the phone as evidence to arrest and convict Mr. Cole for homosexuality. Homosexuality is a criminal offense in Morocco, and relations outside of marriage can also be punishable by law. Italy: Mayors Resisting National Govt on Registering Gay Couples Several mayors are pledging to disobey the Interior Minister’s announcement that ga…

Evangelicals ‘Crossing the Tiber’ to Catholicism

By Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

…osing Faith: Stories of Conversion and Apostasy. Thomas Howard comes in at number five on McKnight’s list of significant conversions, behind former Presbyterian pastor and author of Rome Sweet Home, Scott Hahn, and Marcus Grodi founder of The Coming Home Network International, an organization that provides “fellowship, encouragement and support for Protestant pastors and laymen who are somewhere along the journey or have already been received into…

Purpose Driven Atheism: Secular Maharishis Seeking True Believers

By Frank Schaeffer

…s. Check out Richard Dawkins’ Web site and you could be looking at the Web site of any televangelist suffering from an acute messianic delusion. Add a dash of hucksterism, replete with scads of merchandise, including a “Scarlet A pin” to be worn by the faithful to identify them as followers and to provoke “conversations” with the uninitiated leading to their conversion to atheism. A secular “Maharishi” of atheism may also be a fruitcake cult figur…

The March for Life: Grassroots Movement or Agitprop?

By Patricia Miller

…for Life President Jeanne Mancini told the Times: I don’t think that these numbers are the most important. The number most important for us is 58 million, which is the number of Americans that have been lost to abortion. But either they have the numbers or they don’t. And if they don’t, maybe the media should take a hard look at how it covers a predictable, lightly attended act of agitprop which claims to represent hundreds of thousands of people…

Are They Jewish Bones? Battle for Separation of Synagogue & State in Israel

By Shalom Goldman

…service has fueled resentment again the Ultra-Orthodox, this sharing of the conscription burden has done quite a bit to lessen that resentment. But the Barzilai affair again painted Haredim as anti-modern and reactionary. Those Haredi groups that have Web sites (and there are quite a few) are now calling on their rabbis to go against Litzman’s demands. Last week’s Jerusalem Post quotes the Web site Kikar Hashabat as saying that Litzman “aggresivel…

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

…onal lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights association. Church officials accepted. “I wanted a chance to brief Vatican officials myself,” Berry says. “These issues of violence and extreme discrimination are of concern to us all.” Berry flatly denied claims by church officials that the U.S. was threatening to withhold foreign aid from countries as a means of pushing them to adopt marriage equality. Intrigue and media leaks continue at t…