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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

…a massive human rights injustice because homophobia is endemic in Africa; most countries there, including the three he visited, have laws against homosexuality. In Uganda a measure signed into law last year by its president compelled citizens to report suspected homosexual activity to the police. Increased levels of violence against the gay community ensued. For Francis such attitudes are an additional problem inside the Catholic Church, where th…

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…storal practice, not doctrine, that has the greatest impact on real lives. Most other Catholics are not unduly troubled by doctrine that firmly opposes any artificial contraception, or any form of sexual expression of love before marriage. In the same way, many Catholics in committed, publicly known same – sex relationships find that they can practice their faith in full participation in local parishes – until knowledge that they have formalized t…

Cloverfield: Sin & Redemption, with Monsters

By Gabriel Mckee

…ed to apocalyptic themes, but Cloverfield is the first to venture into the most apocalyptic of them all: the giant monster genre. Cloverfield owes much to Japanese giant monster films, or kaiju eiga. The monsters of these films are wrathful gods, either figuratively or literally. Godzilla, of course, began his life as a terrifying embodiment of nuclear holocaust, presiding over the 20th century’s Final Judgment. Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film launched a…

My Lowest Point

By Amina Wadud

…is a moneymaking time for many working-class people in Makkah and Madinah, most of whom are not Saudis themselves. So shops, taxis, buses, hotel staff, and restaurant staff all have a lot at stake in the event of the hajj for their profits. I guess the choices are: find a reduced option, pay as much as you can personally, ignore the cost altogether, or walk. The 50 Riyal bus dropped us off at the opposite end of the Haram Mosque from our hotel and…

The Real Story Behind Rick Perry’s Secret Meetings with Pastors

By Sarah Posner

…s, contributing editor Brian Kaylor last month broke what was probably the most under-noticed religion story of the campaign season. He reported that a group of about 80 pastors and other conservative Christian leaders met in Texas, under the direction of televangelist James Robison, to continue to plot what Kaylor describes as a “behind-the-scenes strategy” to defeat Barack Obama in 2012. In the second part of his two-part article, Kaylor reporte…

Sex, Violence, Art, and Religion

By Kent L. Brintnall

…own away. The release of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (and the almo*]}*st complete absence of gender in commentary on the film). And, of course, wondering why so few people share my passion for reading Freud and trying to give an account of why I think he remains valuable to thinking about gender and sexuality—and religion. The book was largely inspired by—and shaped around—my idiosyncratic obsessions and my intuition that there was some rel…

The Problem with Pew’s Science & Religion Poll

By Andrew Aghapour and Michael Schulson

…so reported two surprising aspects of these general views. First, although most Americans apparently believe religion and science to be in conflict, far fewer think that their own religious beliefs conflict with science. Second, the least religiously observant are most likely to say that science and religion are in conflict. Secular Americans, it seems, widely perceive religious believers to be anti-science. Meanwhile, those who attend religious s…

Are You There God? It’s Me, Donald: A President at Prayer

By Peter Laarman

…aham himself. He told me, “Donald, you pray better than I do, and I am the most famous Christian in the world.” He told me that last week in a great, great phone call. Oh, and Fred Douglass. I need to get his input, too. Just this morning I told them, the great African Americans who supported me completely, what an amazing job Fred is doing, being recognized more and more. They loved it. They love me. My speech was a the biggest success in the his…

Is There Hope for a Truly Progressive Evangelicalism? An Interview with Deborah Jian Lee

By Eric C. Miller

…. Bush administration, when your progressive commitments clashed with your mostly conservative evangelical community. At one point, a friend asked whether you were “even a Christian anymore.” I relate to this very personally, and I think many young evangelicals can tell similar stories. Was writing this book cathartic for you? It was cathartic to give language to this experience and to explore the history of how exactly evangelical culture became…

Is It OK To Use a Cellphone in Church? Pew Surveys the New Etiquette

By Michael Schulson

…phone use in church (cf. Matthew 7:5). But it’s also possible that the question was just confusing. The problem here is that when Pew asks questions about how people use their cellphones, they’re entering vague territory, because there’s no agreed-upon definition of “use.” I’d wager hard cash that if you asked the exact same question about churches after priming people to think of Bible apps, those opinions would be very different. “Oh, that kind…