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Recovering From Rejection: The Second Coming of Ted Haggard

By Wendy Norris

…ons or any alteration of that has the moral equivalence of a heterosexual, monogamous marriage.” At the pinnacle of Haggard’s power, he moved seamlessly between the firebrand populism of evangelical believers and the institutional halls of fundamentalist realpolitik. Now, from his rustic pulpit (not unlike the basement from which he launched New Life, or, perhaps, an intentional manger), Pastor Ted weaves a personal metaphorical tale of running af…

Yes, It’s Worse To Be Gay in Russia

By Chrissy Stroop

…this sort of false equivalence from socially liberal Russians. I reside in Moscow these days, and most of the Russians I know to any degree of depth have no problem with same-sex relationships—and this includes at least one intellectual who supports the Putin regime and United Russia in general. These Russians can sometimes be surprised by the results of public opinion polls such as the one described above. Loving their country without being natio…

Swiss Priest Sacked for Blessing Lesbian Couple; Mormon Equality Advocate Excommunicated; Pope-Backed Anti-Gay Referendum Fails; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ws this week by calling couples who choose not to have children “selfish.” Mormon Church: Pro-LGBT Advocate Excommunicated John Dehlin, a supporter of marriage equality and the host of the “Mormon Stories” podcast was excommunicated following a disciplinary hearing on Sunday. The conflict between Dehlin and church leadership has been brewing for some months; Dehlin wrote in July that he thought he was “being considered for disciplinary action” bec…

“Giving Godhead”: A Bloody Vision of Religion’s Deepest Influence

By Spencer Dew

…us moments at a revival, goes slack sometimes, and this book has its limp, cheap moments, cellophane grass and gassy puns that might only elicit an “organ yawn” from readers. It may not be the best poetry collection in English published this year—that may, in fact, like rivers of milk and honey or peace and goodwill between all humans on earth, simply not be a thing—but Giving Godhead is a worthwhile example of art using the so-called sacrilegious…

After Mumbai: Winning the Global War on Terror

By Mark Woodward

…uth Asian Muslim militant organizations, including Laskkar-e-Taiba, as the most commonly mentioned. The Indian press has also blamed national and local security forces for not preventing the attacks, or responding quickly and effectively enough. A previously unknown group calling itself the “Deccan Mujahedeen” sent e-mails to Indian media claiming responsibility and explaining that their goal was to “Indianize” the war against America. The Deccan…

Transgender and Christian: Finding Identity

By Jori Lewis

…ets at the church every Sunday in a makeshift library on the second floor. Moshay Moses, a transwoman with warm brown skin and a curly, honey-blond bob, said when she and some other people started the group they had a vision. Here, there should be no talk of drugs or passing or surgery. Here, they would be doing “spiritual surgery” to break down those negative walls of Jericho that have kept them from recognizing themselves as spiritual beings. On…

Anti-Gay Violence Rages in Gambia; Conservative ‘Complementarity’ Confab; Coming Out in Iraq Can Be Death Sentence; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ME magazine’s Elizabeth Dias found the collaboration between evangelicals, Mormons, and Catholics notable: Skepticism about the other’s faith tends to run deep between Catholics, evangelicals and Mormons. In strict economic terms, the three faiths all compete for followers. They are heavily missionizing, and often they evangelize precisely in ways that distinguish themselves apart from the other faiths. But the Protestant work ethic runs deep in b…

Hajj Journal: Using the Toilet at the Grand Mosque

By Amina Wadud

…like we did, for several prayers in a row. There’s lots of sleeping in the mosque, another reason this trip to the toilet might be inevitable. The toilets themselves are the seatless ones, and the istinjaa’ is just a piece of rubber hose attached to the water spigot. There is also a shower in there, so if necessary, a woman could shower in each toilet stall. Therefore, these elements all combine to make this a place of complete wetness. I’m trusti…

In the Aftermath of the “Himalayan Tsunami”

By Luke Whitmore

…e officially involved with the rebuilding of Kedarnath. Modi is one of the most famous faces of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main national rival of the Congress party. At the same time, Uttarakhand has announced that the rebuilding of Kedarnath will take place in partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India, a national organization connected to the central government. The temple is going to be rebuilt, better than ever, with safeguards i…

On Pi Day, Puzzling Over the Most Famous Transcendental Number

By Ilana E. Strauss

…of digits, reciting them like mantras. In medieval times, the philosopher Moses Maimonides wrote that pi’s reality has not been found, only approximated. “The ratio between a diameter of a circle and its distance around is not known,” writes Maimonides, who goes on to recommend 22/7 as an approximation. More recently, Pi, the main character in 2001 novel Life of Pi, calls pi an “elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand t…