Religion Dispatches
…case in Mogadishu, and I’ve seen it for myself in Sudan. I currently live south of the country’s “front line,” contested area, Abyei which Griswold profiles through the story a local southern Sudanese chief who knew the fate that awaited him and his people when she was interviewing him in the spring of 2008. In May of that year, chief Nyol Paduot and his people were forced to flee for their lives when northern Sudanese troops razed the nearby tow…
Read More…hat was convened by the global leadership of the Seventh Day Adventists in South Africa last week. As a commenter noted in response, the church’s Director of Legislative Affairs Dwayne Leslie wrote critically about Uganda’s anti-gay law last week in the Huffington Post. He called the law “astonishingly severe” and “abhorrent,” and affirmed recent comments by Adventist President Ted Wilson in favor of strong separation between church and state. Lov…
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…ic Victorian mores penetrated the legal and political domains of Asian and African societies colonized by Britain, including the world of local Anglicized elites. It’s clear that much of the homophobic legislation we see in postcolonial societies today is an expression of the Victorian ethos. That’s why Pakistan (where Islam is most widely practiced), India (where Hinduism is most widely practiced), Singapore (where Buddhism is most widely practic…
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…theology, ritual, and doctrine to the experiences and beliefs of enslaved Africans. Within most of these traditional African-born religious practices, women served as powerful healers, conjurers and priests. To evoke these traditions in “Lemonade” contrasts with the skewed demographics of contemporary Christianity, where black women represent more than 80 percent of the membership of their churches, but less than 10 percent of the leadership. Why…
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…at contribute to the Global Equality Fund, a public-private partnership to promote LGBT rights around the world that the State Department manages with the U.S. Agency for International Development. Uruguay in July hosted the first global LGBT rights conference to have taken place in Latin America. Uruguayan Minister of Exterior Relations Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Special U.S. Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons Randy Berry and more than 150 activ…
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…legally married in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory located off the southern tip of Spain. United Kingdom: Former Tory leader opposes ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools Lord Norman Tebbit, a former Conservative Party chair, spoke out against “promotion” of homosexuality in the schools, saying “I think it is damaging to children to introduce uncertainty into their minds.” Kenya: Activist profiled The Star’s Lydia Matata wrotes about gen…
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…ne. Humans should be mature enough to develop and maintain our own ethical code informed by scientific knowledge of its consequences, he argues, rather than rely on an ancient moral code inscribed in scriptural texts of human origin composed in a different era for reasons that no longer apply. Dawkins finally brings the story to where Rev. Adam Sedgwick feared that it would end 150 years ago when he read this pre-publication copy of Origin of Spec…
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…d lesbian brothers and sisters is our issue in Nigeria and other places in Africa,” he said. “The prophetic task for African Anglicans is to denounce violence… that (is) supported by members of our communities and leadership. This is about changing attitudes and we need the space to do this work on our own.” The theologically conservative Idowu-Fearon’s appointment as secretary general in 2015 had drawn criticism over some of his previous anti-gay…
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…ience, and then you add to that DNA, which has been called things like the code of codes, the holy grail. We give it this kind of supernatural significance. So, I think it’s a combination of being a society that values data, being a society that equates progress with scientific development, and being a society that thinks that genetics—in part because DNA comes from you, from us, from we—is the ultimate information, the ultimate data. It’s like th…
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…lous for non-believers” and asked for forgiveness from earthquake victims. South Africa: Gay Imam profiled Deutsche Welle profiles Muhsin Hendricks, an openly gay imam whose Inner Circle congegation “helps queer-identified Muslims reconcile their sexuality with their religion.” Hendricks lends support to gay Muslims who have been exposed to intolerance from more-orthodox Islamic leaders in their communities. He experienced this firsthand, having g…
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