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Personhood Activists Regroup as “Next Civil Rights Movement”

By Sarah Posner

…rld ignited the actual civil rights movement. Last year, House Republican crusader Chris Smith suggested creating a new protected class entitled to equal protection of the law: immaturity. And at a presidential candidate forum in South Carolina a few months ago, Manhattan Declaration author Robert George stunned even the GOP hopefuls with his question about whether, as president, they would “propose to Congress appropriate legislation pursuant to…

Presbyterians, Change Hearts & Minds, Begin Ordaining Gays

By MaryAnn McKibben Dana

…e larger church—to settle things. But it hasn’t settled things at all. The new language is about trusting governing bodies to interpret the scriptures and the confessions. And finally, there were personal and pastoral arguments. “Time after time, when issues stop being philosophical and start being personal, for a lot of people that makes the difference,” says Kirby. “Gay people aren’t scary, because [commissioners] know gay people, so they’re not…

Is the Metaverse the Hero We Need to Rescue Us From Suffering and Enchant the World?

By Robert M. Geraci

…ample, the artist Michael Takeo Magruder offers an experience of the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21) in one of his VR projects, aptly named “A New Jerusalem.” Representing transcendent states—whether in places like heaven or conditions like bliss—has challenged artists for centuries. In the 21st century, look for an expanding array of attempts to use the metaverse to provide a glimpse of transcendent realities (through an Oculus darkly?). While the…

Religious Hostility to Gay Nigerians; The Pope’s Visit To Africa; Ireland’s Religious Schools Can’t Discriminate Against Gays; Orthodox Church in Georgia Leads Anti-Gay Forces; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…of “Pope Francis: The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism,” declared in a New York Times op ed that the pope’s visit to Africa was a missed opportunity in which he offered “deafening silence” on the way gay people are treated in many countries. His defenders will say that gay rights are a Western obsession and that it would have been counterproductive for Francis to raise the matter on such a brief visit to a continent which is hostile to the pop…

Transforming America’s Israel Lobby

By Dan Fleshler

…ho have served in the territories speak for themselves about the level of brutality and wanton cruelty there. They are not refuseniks. Most of them return to the Israel Defense Forces every year for reserve duty. They want their own society to wake up to what Israeli soldiers are being asked to do and, sadly, what some of them eagerly volunteer to do. In the organization’s traveling exhibitions and on its Web site are firsthand reports of soldiers…

Mitt Romney’s Best-Known Mormon Critic Tells it All. One Last Time.

By Joanna Brooks

…rived home, the tape on my answering machine was full of messages from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and so forth, all saying, “We know that you’re a Mormon feminist and a political scientist and you’re in his ward. You’ve worked in Massachusetts politics around women’s issues. Please talk to us.” I immediately called Mitt’s home, and Ann answered. She encouraged me to go down and visit with him at the campaign of…

Marriage equality and ‘the end of Catholic Ireland’; Gambian Prez vows to slit gays’ throats; Colombian govt affirms support for marriage and adoption; global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…imidated,” George Barasa, a Kenyan gay rights activist told Uganda’s Kuchu Times, a news outlet run by LGBT activists in east Africa…. Indeed, Kuchu Times reflected on the hostile environment LGBT Africans face in the media, lamenting that “Such incidences where the media has incited violence to the point of death should serve as a lesson not to put other people’s lives in danger, but not in Africa.” Critics included many of the paper’s own reader…

LDS Church Disavows “Mormon”-ism

By Holly Welker

…properly be called anti-Mormon since the church itself is now officially anti-Mormon). Restoredchurchofjesuschrist.org says that it’s “under construction, but Ldsnewsroom.com was still available as of this writing….

Maybe Millennials Are Just Realizing That ‘God is Dead’

By Hollis Phelps

…in another context as the death of God, and mainline denominations have felt the effects of this death for some time, a fact written in a steady decline in membership and attendance since the 1960s. Nietzsche also knew that word of God’s death takes a little while to get around, and it seems that it’s just now getting around among evangelicals. Contra Evans and McCracken, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing….

Jay Bakker on LGBT Justice and the Demands of Grace

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…id you don’t even have to become more religious or believe more, just accept that you are accepted and allow that to transform you. I’ve found that to be true. I’ve learned to trust God in these situations and I’ve seen the power of grace….