Religion Dispatches
…hat once enjoyed huge popularity have fallen on hard times.” Without Walls International Church, a Tampa, Florida-based charismatic church, “which once attracted 23,000 worshipers and was heralded as one of the nation’s fastest-growing congregations,” is facing foreclosure. Part of Without Walls International’s problem may be related to the 2007 announcement by co-pastors Randy and Paula White that they were getting a divorce. “On Nov. 4 their ban…
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…p to 15 years if convicted under multiple provisions, according to Amnesty International. “If passed, this law would further entrench stigma and abuse against people based on their perceived sexual orientation,” Amnesty International’s North Africa campaigns director, Najia Bounaim, said in a statement. India: Pride celebrations called ‘short gasp of breath’ for LGBT people living in ‘choked’ situations In a commentary for the Hindustan Times, Dhr…
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…Population and Development where the Vatican faced stunning defeats as an international consensus was achieved on a new paradigm for reproductive health which placed women’s needs and rights front and center. While the Conference document was limited in that it fell short of recognizing the need for safe and legal abortion, it refused to accept Vatican attempts to enshrine so called conscience clauses into the document and was forthright in accep…
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…religious freedom, which has focused exclusively on perceived domestic and international violations against Christians’ rights. Perkins has said that evangelical Christians “were tired of being kicked around by Barack Obama and his leftists.” “I think they are finally glad that there’s somebody on the playground that is willing to punch the bully,” Perkins said of Trump and his team in January. “Look, Christianity is not all about being a welcome…
Read More…ur hospitality. They are exercising their fundamental rights guaranteed by international law. Turkey is not doing them a favor. Refuge is a fundamental human right. This is the direction that we need to give to the public opinion…The economic and social burden needs to be shared internationally. But putting that aside for a minute, when the first waves of Syrians started coming into Turkey, their legal status was not recognized. They were called “…
Read More…Spain: Religious conservatives oppose proposed nondiscrimination bill The international arm of the U.S.-based conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom has called on the Spanish parliament to reject a proposed nondiscrimination bill, claiming that the law would likely have “a significant and detrimental impact on citizens’ fundamental freedoms.” ADF International called the Spanish bill “the most harmful and damaging we have s…
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…she came for a leadership meeting to plan for the 25th anniversary of the International HIV/AIDS Candlelight Memorial. Learning about her life and her practice led straight to the obvious question: “How does she get away with it?” Sister Sol sees herself as a pioneer, an international and public figure, a feminist, an eco-feminist, a peace and social activist, even a radical. But she insists that she has never challenged church doctrine and has e…
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…s concluded that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid, a category of international law named after the old South African system but distinct from that specific case. The basis of the accusation is widely and deeply documented. Charges include extensive and ongoing dispossession of land and property, unlawful killing and arrest, denial of basic rights and freedoms, restrictions on movement, and much more. Some of these—particularly ongoing cr…
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…own them, but that has had more to do with the pastor taking a job with an internationally funded NGO than with the offerings of parishioners. I think that if we tell the story of the prosperity gospel, and of Pentecostalism more generally, as a story of hucksterism, we miss a lot of what makes this religion so compelling. Plus, we suggest that the folks who flock to Pentecostal churches can’t tell when they’re being duped, and after watching the…
Read More…f years of grinding military occupation and the most egregious flouting of international law in prisons ranging from Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib, to other places whose names we do not know. One more thing is glaringly absent this time around. There are no treaties. Even Napoleon consolidated his achievements by treaty; treaties negotiated in relative good faith and mediated by other signatories. There was at least the veneer of a commitment to in…
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