Religion Dispatches
…d the dawn of contemporary Charismatic Christianity (see the Los Angeles Azusa Street revival, 1906-1915, and great evangelical preacher Billy Sunday, who must have served as namesake for Eli), and we’re left with a multifaceted story that goes well beyond “history.” Blood posits intriguing parallels with creation myths as worlds emerge from, and remain in contrast to, chaos. Throughout world religious history, creation myths often tell of the cha…
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…xuals currently can sponsor their undocumented spouses for citizenship, thousands of gay and lesbian couples face the possibility of their families being separated unless the UAFA becomes law. That Schumer had to plead with anti-LGBT rights conservatives to even bring Republicans to the table points not only to the dysfunction of the Senate (where the majority party needs a supermajority to get anything done), but also to the dysfunctional way Dem…
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…ernational agenda” in developing a “preventative, civilian-led framework.” USAID and others have taken steps to incorporate CVE into their programming. There is talk of women’s CVE initiatives. According to Sewall, “women’s empowerment is not only essential for defeating violent extremism; defeating violent extremism is essential for women’s empowerment. CVE is a feminist agenda, because it is about inclusion and rights.” It is not only the US. In…
Read More…versary of its founding this year; ASEAN is being chaired this year by the Philippines. A statement by ASEAN’s SOGIE caucus celebrates the association’s resiliency and regionalism, but called attention to inequities faced by LGBTIQ people, which the caucus says ASEAN “has failed to seriously address.” The statement decries the increasing criminalization of LGBTIQ people as well as stigmatization in media and school curricula as well as “employment…
Read More…councils and 1.7 million members throughout the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, Poland, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Guatemala, Guam and Spain. In a press release about the $1 million donation, spokesperson Patrick Korten stated: “From the day we were founded 126 years ago, strengthening and protecting the family has always been central to the mission of the Knights of Columbus. Pres…
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…As Christians, we share one another’s joys, and in this case, sorrows.” Thousands of Catholics from more than forty countries have signed statements supporting such blessings. Some clergy and laity pledge to bless couples, engaging in ecclesial disobedience that Rome might notice. Priests and bishops in many countries, notably Germany, Belgium, and Austria, have voiced their support for LGBTQ+ people against what former Irish president Mary McAlee…
Read More…No word on how this code effects the use of Chick Tracts. A village in the Philippines celebrates its patron saint, John the Baptist, with a Mud People Festival. Reminds me of my weekend at Bonnaroo 2004. The Pope tweeted—from an iPad, no less. It’s all part of the Vatican’s new multimedia news portal, news.va. Biblical criticism is getting high-tech. A new computer program uses an algorithm to discern various writers in the biblical text. Kudzu J…
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…public seems prepared to stomach Super Bowl advertisements that offend any number of other ethical sensibilities. The barrage of images at a Super Bowl is relentless: fast cars, fast women, talking animals and infants, cold beer… You know the drill. ACT ONE: Watch men pulverize one another on the field. ACT TWO: Watch men pulverize one another in an ad, then wash down the hurt with beer. ACT THREE: Pop the top on a cold frosty one. Repeat as neces…
Read More…at Stonewall, want to see it simplified and extended. “There are still thousands of men out there who face difficulties because of convictions on their records,” Taylor says. “The fight for gay rights is not over.” These are some of their stories. BBC Scotland Radio documentary talks with trans people in Scotland about their lives. Malta: Catholic nation adopts ‘world’s most progressive’ gender identity law The officially Catholic nation of Malta…
Read More…ion the Vatican officials took, repeatedly and disingenuously, on their refusal to act on local clergy sex abuse crimes. Charging that the policy of the church institutions that ran the Laundries has not been to turn over their records, a blunt Sandberg issued a challenge: “I trust that you will ask the local churches to do that.” Neither Tomasi nor Scicluna, formerly the Vatican’s top sex abuse prosecutor, said that they would. The chairwoman als…
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