Religion Dispatches
…ty years ago once explained to me, the reason many Jews did not leave Nazi Germany until they could no longer leave was principally because they thought anti-Semitism would never reach them. Buzzfeed has published two very important articles this week. In “Welcome to America – Now Spy on Your Friends,” Talal Ansari and Siraj Datoo report on a disturbing trend that was, additionally, expressly prohibited by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez nine ye…
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…ho compared the advancement of gay rights to the rise of Nazism in pre-war Germany.” The event that weekend featured American religious right figures Eric Metaxas and Jeffery Ventrella, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom. Gay rights leaders have called for the Treasurer to pull out of the event and have warned that the Australian Christian Lobby’s alignment with the US group is a sign it plans to step up its campaign against the LGBTI…
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…t her go. What I remember most from growing up during the Cold War in West Germany is how it felt to have “No Future” because the US and Russia had overwhelming arsenals of atomic warheads pointed at each other. From my point of view, the world seems safer now in some ways, and so much less safe in others. Still, it is we who must make some decisions about how we deal with such a heightened level of anxiety. Authoritarian forces in governments all…
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…on ORAM…. But activists in countries where US support has been critical to promoting LGBT rights say they are afraid more broadly that a Trump victory could tacitly encourage governments with weak commitments to human rights or democracy. “I don’t think he’d be able to hold our leaders accountable or uphold American values abroad,” said Clare Byarugaba, who co-chaired the coalition of groups in Uganda that fought the sweeping Anti-Homosexuality Ac…
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…could not stand idly by when the U.S. turned away Jewish refugees fleeing Germany during the 1930s and 40s,” said Hetfield. “Our history and our values, as Jews and as Americans, require us to fight this illegal and immoral new policy with every tool at our disposal — including litigation.” Given that the Trump-Pence administration has gone out of its way to portray itself as a stalwart defender of “religious liberty,” the blunt allegations in th…
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…ainst each other, claiming that the legacy of the Holocaust was preventing Germany from adequately screening out Muslims that “hate Jews,” Representative Steve Cohen—Tennessee’s first Jewish congressperson—called Islamophobia the “latest form of dog-whistle politics” and noted that he himself had received an increased number of “jabs” for his faith in recent months. Thus Trump’s EO on immigration has shed a clear spotlight on what many advocates a…
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…countries to provide assistance to them. The Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany — the ultimate destination for many of the refugees and migrants who have made their way to Europe — has opened a center for LGBT refugees in Berlin. Jovanka Todorović of Labris, a Serbian LGBT advocacy group, told the Blade that members of her organization have offered assistance to those who have passed through her country. The story notes that Hungary’s Prime Min…
Read More…final vote tally showed India breaking away from countries such as France, Germany, United Kingdom and many Latin American nations, exposing the fact that New Delhi’s loud proclamations about being an international player didn’t extend to the human rights arena. But India voted in favour of at least two amendments that restricted the scope of the watchdog, betraying what the country’s intention was. Devirupa Mitra at the Wire has more on India bac…
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…’s very small and marginal. But you don’t have to have a lot of people. In Germany, there are not so many creationists, but they’re widely influential, they’re quite active. They are quite capable of making themselves heard. In the book, one contributor talks about the German state of Hesse, where a minister seemed to defend the teaching of creationism in a pair of state-funded schools. There was also an incident in the Netherlands in 2005. The mi…
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…ack in March, liberal Catholics took to the streets to protest Huonder for promoting “a policy of exclusion.” Canada: Controversy over food bank’s worship, dogmatic requirements Richard Friesen was banned from volunteering at a food bank in Winnipeg after objecting to a form he was asked to sign which required him to “respect the relationship of only a man and a woman in marriage.” After Friesan contacted Winnipeg Harvest, which distributes food t…
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