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Crisis in Philly: Trial Date Nears for Priests Indicted in Sex Abuse Scandal

By Anthea Butler

…is is the fifth civil suit to be filed since a grand jury report issued in February. More than a year ago, I wrote in these pages about the Catholic Church and the sex scandal unfolding in Germany, Belgium, and other European countries. At the time, I surmised that the story would end much like it has here in the U.S., with rules, regulations and recriminations—but with abuses still occurring. What I didn’t anticipate was that the story would unf…

Uganda Shelves Kill the Gays Bill—For Now

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…id he would try to re-introduce it when the next parliament convened after February’s elections, and said it had achieved his goal of sparking debate. “We have made important steps in raising the issue and that will continue,” he was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. In “raising the issue,” Bahati and his supporters—some members of the US evangelical community—have accomplished little more than ramping up the harassment and threats against…

Do Polls Show American Public Favoring Bishops’ Position on Contraceptive Coverage?

By Sarah Posner

…pporting an “opt-out” jumps to 57%. The framing of the question is new. A February poll by the NYT/CBS asked the question this way: “Do you support or oppose a recent federal requirement that private health insurance plans cover the full cost of birth control for their female patients?” (emphasis added). Sixty-six percent said they supported the requirement, with 26% opposed. The follow-up question was: “And what about for religiously affiliated…

A New Goal for Anti-Choice Activists: Targeting “Sex-Selective” Abortion

By Andy Kopsa

…support for similar legislation. Live Action even addresses the issue in a February blog post quoting a Canadian Medical Association Journal interim editor who called the abortion of “female babies” “discrimination against women in its most extreme form.” There is no real evidence given in the PRENDA hearing to support the GOP’s claim that unborn girls are under siege in America. Census data is offered from California which shows boy births increa…

Gay Men Detained and Killed in Chechnya, and More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…nly gay former US ambassador to the country. The New York Times profiled a number of everyday people, Muslims and Christians, who are taking part in legal challenges to the Trump administration overs its executive orders banning entry into the U.S. from a number of countries. Paul Harrison, an American man engaged to an Iranian man is among the individuals profiled: Like the other plaintiffs, the couple veer between dread and hope with each succes…

Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church: When Adults are Victims

By Kathryn Joyce

…priests and nuns carried out most of Church ministry. Since then, as their numbers declined, lay men and women in great numbers have committed themselves to work alongside priests and nuns. This partnership is essential for the Church’s mission to thrive. The Jesuit School of Theology is preparing ministerial leaders—Jesuit, religious, and lay—to work together as partners for tomorrow’s Church.” No Hierarchy of Abuse There’s a critical disconnect…

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

By Elizabeth Drescher

…an religiosity—about religion as it is lived in the United States today? A number of what I would see as problems in the Pew report suggest to me that our growing fixation with religion-by-the-numbers may be distracting us from richer, more nuanced understandings of American religious practice. Wanted: A Community that Doesn’t Share My Beliefs and Values Take the demographic category of “Nones” itself. The Pew report notes the difficulty with sur…

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

By Michael Schulson

…f the total revenue of American religious congregations. To get that final number, the Grims took one estimate of the total number of congregations in America (344,894) and multiplied it by another estimate of the average revenue of each ($242,910). Depending on how you look at it, $378 billion is a lot of money, or it’s not very much money at all. It’s more than the net worth of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffet, combined…

How to Choose a Tour Company for Your Hajj

By Amina Wadud

…nts than their quota allows. Most Muslim countries have a quota; a limited number of hajjis permitted from that country in any one year. This number is set by hajj authorities in Saudi Arabia, because, in all fairness, there has to be a cap on how many Muslims converge on the place. Right now, it stands at around 3 million! Countries with large populations of Muslims have many more applicants than their allotted number of pilgrims. This means you…

Conservative Bishops Unhappy At Synod, But Ignore Walkout Call; Australian Religious Leaders Step Up Marriage Equality Opposition; Italy Debates Civil Unions; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ong after, the former acquaintance called to threaten Subhi from a Turkish phone number. Power noted that Subhi spoke at a recent UN Security Council Session, the first-ever dedicated to LGBT rights, which she said was an important precedent to set: But also, it allowed us to convey, in a single voice, and with the authority of the Security Council – which is the premiere global enforcement body for peace and security – it allowed us to convey tha…