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South Asian Religious Leaders Challenged to Take on Stigma and Discrimination: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…is to be treaded carefully. The recent arrest of 27 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community shows that those not so lucky – those belonging to the more vulnerable tranches of society – are always at risk of experiencing the darker side of Lebanon. On August 9, a raid targeted Hamam Agha, a popular public bath in the hipster Hamra area in the capital Beirut. Of the 27 men arrested, “there are still 14 non-Lebanese in…

How to Choose a Tour Company for Your Hajj

By Amina Wadud

…more than once. I had a friend (not Saudi herself, but married to a Saudi), who, when she learned late one year that the day of Arafat would be on a Friday, which is supposed to have added blessing, she decided in less than a month’s time that she would go. That works for her. For me, I like this specialness of the “first time.” I’m also quite happy if it is the only time. Who knows, maybe I will go again—but if I do, I would know better what to…

Holey Holey Holey: The Problem with a New Study Valuing Religion at $1.2 Trillion Per Year

By Michael Schulson

…rossFit. And it’s not clear whether religious disaffiliation would bankrupt, say, a Baptist hospital. Studies like the Grims’ produce wildly ballpark figures, and they put the sheen of science on something that, ultimately, comes down to some very subjective questions. What is religion? What makes an institution religious? What makes a person’s or company’s motives religious, as opposed to something else? Should churches cite their economic impact…

Does Record Number of Religious “Nones” Mean Decline of Religiosity?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…ously unaffiliated” to the more popularly used “None.” But this terminology, too, is problematic, as it focuses on a particular, institutional, belief-based mode of spiritual association that reveals itself, as well, in the survey’s questions on community-seeking. Nones, the report states, “attach much less importance to belonging to a community of people with shared values and beliefs; 28% of the unaffiliated say this is very important to them, c…

Union Busting for God: Catholic Colleges Invoke “Religious Freedom” to Violate Catholic Teaching

By Kaya Oakes

…maintain any changes that are made.” According to the adjunct I interviewed, SEIU, the union working at DePaul, “saw a losing battle” and backed out when DePaul began to make the same religious freedom arguments used at Duquesne and other schools. Additionally, concerns that a Trump administration’s NLRB would be more sympathetic to religious freedom arguments than Obama’s, has led to a collapse of the union drive at DePaul, where sixty percent of…

Trump the Totem: Like Other Fascist Leaders, Trump has Turned from Man to Symbol — And That’s the Danger

By Robert P. Jones

…ts, bumper stickers, digital art (often featuring Jesus and Trump), tattoos, and, of course, Trump’s “God Bless the USA”-branded Bible flooded into public spaces. This explosion of symbolic material was the result of the energy unleashed by the Big Bang of the MAGA movement. Yet, this chaotic cloud of symbols are only mediating objects of devotion, held in loose orbits around the gravitational force of Trump, transposed from man to totem. It’s tru…

Why Even Progressive Christianity Must Own Its Complicity in Anti-LGBT Violence

By Layton E. Williams

…I love. From my vantage point as a faith leader in the largely affirming PCUSA, I recognize a tendency in progressive Christian circles to separate ourselves from “those Christians” whose theologies contribute to homophobia and anti-LGBT violence. However, as long as the prevailing cultural perception of Christianity holds it as non-affirming of LGBT people, all of us who claim Christian faith have some degree of complicity in anti-LGBT culture an…

Proposition 8—the Rematch?

By Bill Berkowitz

…coming up for a reconfirmation vote in two years. On the face of it George, who, according to a mid-August report from the Associated Press, “has spent more than half his life cultivating an image of a cautious jurist and earning a reputation as a politically skilled court administrator,” appears to be an unlikely target. However, as soon as he was branded a “judicial activist,” all bets were off. “I really felt that as chief justice I had to hav…

How Fitbit Helps a Conservative Evangelical College Monitor Students’ Bodies For Christ

By Jonathan Root

…ke your fitness to the next level” by tracking your heart rate, steps taken, and, with some devices, your GPS coordinates. These wearable devices have become popular despite the outspoken concerns of privacy advocates, security experts, and even the Federal Trade Commission, who have all warned that the trackers could be used to sell consumers’ information to corporations, or to spy on people. In 2015, Oral Roberts University (ORU), a four-year li…

Religious Opposition To LGBT Equality Softening

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…s on the ordination of gay and lesbian ministers. The Presbyterian Church (USA), remains on the verge of giving that right to its gay and lesbian clergy. The General Assembly removed restrictions during its 2008 meeting, but the measure did not receive enough support among the presbyteries to pass. Supporters remain hopeful as the denomination begins its General Assembly in Minneapolis next week. Lisa Larges, head of That All May Freely Serve, sai…