Religion Dispatches
…he common usage come from? The evolution is gradual. Catholic scholar Mark Jordan, in his exhaustive book The Invention of Sodomy, shows that the term “sodomy” (sodomia) originated in the eleventh century as a new classification of certain clerical sins by theologian Peter Damian. But the general association goes back further. The thinking of the early Church fathers echoed their rabbinic contemporaries. Origen, for example, associates sodomy with…
Read More
…se FedSoc publicly casts itself as a non-partisan debate club, though, the code effectively protects Neil Gorsuch’s sacred right to don a bow tie next time FedSoc conclave rolls around. This ethics code exists largely as a marketing tool for reporters willing to buy what the FedSoc Six are selling, but also as cover for the justices’ clear preferences. Its language, which allows justices to participate in “a nonprofit civic, charitable, educationa…
Read More
…nt, and a pledge at the end. A final admonition declares that breaking the Code will result in immediate execution. The Code is illustrated with images pulled from a website promoting the 2007 Swedish film Arn: The Knights Templar. This past spring, copies of the Code were mysteriously distributed across Michoacan. Like La Familia, members of the Knights Templar must refrain from drugs and must commit to routine drug testing, but unlike La Famila…
Read More
…llywood Censored. The code they designed became the Motion Picture Conduct Code, popularly know as the Hays Code after it was adopted by William Hays, a Presbyterian elder who was hired by the major studios to help clean up the industry’s image after it was rocked by a series of scandals. The code, says Black, “was a fascinating combination of Catholic theology, conservative politics and pop psychology—an amalgam that would control the content of…
Read More
…ame message over and over again. Steven Newcomb, a Shawnee Indian, said it best in a column in Indian Country Today: What the hell were they thinking… the code name was based on an extension of the metaphor “Indians Are Enemies” to “Geronimo was a Terrorist,” thus perpetuating the US tradition of treating Indian nations and peoples as enemies. Maybe if the lessons of the Indian wars had been pondered before the misdirected invasions of Afghanistan…
Read More
…n between the rich and poor didn’t play prominently, either in the event’s promos or at the stadium rally itself. PK did offer a “pay what you can afford” program to woo low-income rally-goers, and it also urged attendees to bring food donations for the Denver Rescue Mission. At the rally itself, there was no sustained talk about the spiritual or political effects of the global financial crisis, but there was a call to support something called the…
Read More…sets out to restore peace and order in the Middle East, I do wish him the best of successes. And when Putin defends marriage and family at the UN, I also wish him all the best. There is not only black and white in this world. There are also many shades of grey. Scotland: Debate Over ‘Conscience’ Clause for Sex Ed Guidelines Among the policy debates that will be taken up now that the referendum on independence has been held is the ongoing developm…
Read More
…bited,” as well as for “sexual relations between partners of the same-sex, bestiality, and other perversions to remain a criminal activity.” Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai agree that homosexuality should remain illegal. Mugabe has, for example, called LGBT people “worse than dogs and pigs” and his regime has harassed, censored, and interfered with members of the nation’s only LGBT rights organization, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe. According to the 20…
Read More
…order to “save” him from further abuse at the hands of Satanic cults. Gigi Jordan had been trying to communicate with her nonverbal son using a discredited technique called “facilitated communication.” Jordan would place her son’s hand on her Blackberry and then place her own hand over it to “help” him type. The text produced through this process described how her son was being horribly abused by Satanists, seemingly right under his mother’s nose….
Read More
…frica, who were among 13 human rights activists detained and charged with “promoting homosexuality,” were deported: Local police chief Lazaro Mambosasa said they had been “promoting homosexuality”. “Tanzanian law forbids this act between people of the same sex, it is a violation of our country’s laws,” said Mambosasa. Just days later an NGO, the Community Health Education Services and Advocacy (CHESA) centre, was suspended on the same charge and a…
Read More