Religion Dispatches
…ership. Komov suggested that during the era of Ronald Reagan, the U.S. was free, pro-Christian, and pro-capitalist, while Russia was mired in communism. He suggested that under Obama and Putin, a role reversal is under way. He said he would hesitate to say which country is more free, Russia or the U.S. Komov denied that there is any connection between passage of anti-gay legislation and anti-gay violence. WCF officials, by the way, are delighted t…
Read More
…there was no imminent danger of mass slaughter. We waited for too long in Bosnia, and tens of thousands were slaughtered. UN peacekeepers could do nothing to prevent the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. And in Rwanda, by the time it was over, up to 1,000,000 were dead, and we had done nothing; but we had no regional mandate to act, and there was no army for us to destroy from the sky. So does that mean I’m okay with this? Actua…
Read More
…and Islam as director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Program to Promote and Protect America’s Freedom. Santorum, who is considering a presidential run, depicts an American battle against radical Islam as a civilizational war against “Christendom.” The theological warriors include Jewish groups as well. “Shari’ah is an Arabic term referring to a legal framework to regulate public and private aspects of life based upon specific Islamic te…
Read More
…to ground their actions. I’m opposing religion providing the language and codes that shape the public. The public, I’ll say again, should be a secular space. BRAXTON: Let me say again, I gladly embrace a secular public sphere. Yet in a secular public sphere that is democratic, no singular person or group should decide what language and codes will shape public discourse and practice. As diverse individuals and groups engage, debate, and persuade o…
Read More
…mor in the Syrian war frontlines, among other things. As a critical space, Free Arab should be commended for promoting individual rights and civil liberties in the Arab context. The site’s work is also significant because it tries to locate secularism as a vernacular practice, a lived experience in a part of the world exclusively defined by a narrow religiosity and a perpetual combative relationship with the West. The founders believe the remarkab…
Read More
…its people and places. Jolie used regional actors, and the dialogue is in Bosnian. Hungary, where the film was shot, is a near approximation of Bosnia, though it subtly lacks in local color and feel (too much Austro-Hungarian and not enough Ottoman). But it is the intention here that matters, and such quibbles are minor. The bigger problem is that Blood and Honey seems to be several movies, few of which fit together, or even know what to do with…
Read More
…e theme was “Law at the Tipping Point: Conflicts, Challenges and Changes.” Bosnia: LGBT protest protected by police A protest against homophobia held by a “few dozen” people in Sarajevo on Sunday went off “without incident” thanks to have police protection, According to Gay.it. Cambodia: Pride Week gets underway with call for marriage equality, nondiscrimination protections Cambodia’s annual Gay Pride Week celebrations started on May 12. The Cambo…
Read More
…ls living in a northern city because not arresting LGBT people “amounts to promotion,” reports Pink News. Homosexuality is illegal put the government has put a moratorium on enforcement of the law. Malawi’s Justice Minister, Samuel Tembenu, said it would be better for pastors to focus on pastoral care than matters of state. He said: “Let our pastors continue doing their good work of saving lost souls. However, they should let experts in human righ…
Read More…is may be the first time news has broken of women being arrested under the codes’ prohibition on lesbianism in Malaysia, said Justice for Sisters’s Thilaga Sulathireh. Scotland: Clergy Leaving Church of Scotland; LGBTs Debate Leaving UK The Scotsman reports this week that two more clergy members have left the Church of Scotland in protest of the denomination’s “continuing drift” from the Bible, including the naming of gay clergy. They have applied…
Read More…his religion (as well as his privacy rights). The Phelps case relied on a free speech claim instead of freedom of religion, and they won. So as the Supreme Court sees the right to freely practice one’s religion as “constitutionally irrelevant,” religion has been reduced in popular rhetoric to the right of the dominant religion to be free of any challenges to its dominance: wishing someone “happy holidays” in thought to violate the religious freed…
Read More