Religion Dispatches
…ou’ll read an excerpt below—has surprised me, too. I wish I could find my airline companion and give him this book, to surprise him, too—in a good way. (I would accept Lakers tickets in lieu of apologies, but I think that particular era is done.) This whole book is a result of a profound evolution, and needs to be seen as such. American Muslims have gone through a lot over the last few decades. We were never the caricature Islamophobes made us ou…
Read MoreAt oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties, Inc. v. Sebelius this morning, the Supreme Court justices spent a great deal of time questioning the lawyers in the case about whether corporations have a religious conscience, and whether Congress intended to protect it when enacting the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). What was most striking, though, was how all three female justices, Sonia So…
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…ed the “dark side” of society would be edited, or in severe cases stopped. Jamaica: Outgoing ambassador defends U.S. LGBT advocacy but says it’s not tied to aid Outgoing U.S. ambassador Luis Morena said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer that while the U.S. will not use foreign aid to pressure the government to address LGBT issues—such as the colonial-era “buggery” law defended by religious conservatives—the U.S. will continue to advocate f…
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…te segregation and economic favoritism. When I spoke with Rothstein on the phone, he underscored the long-term effects of this last policy. During the 1940s and 1950s, suburban subdivisions were built in St. Louis, and throughout the country, using federal loans stipulating that no homes be sold to African Americans. Priced at about $125,000 in today’s dollars, these were affordable—with a mortgage—to working class families, black or white. Yet bl…
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…GBTQ people in Egypt from the end of 2013 until this month, November 2016. Jamaica: Vogue profiles “Gully Queens” Earlier this month, Vogue published Julia Felsenthal’s profile of “Gully Queens,” transgender women “defying Jamaica’s Culture of Homophobia.” Among them are four tans women who appear in the music video to British R&B singer RAY BLK’s “Chill Out.” The article describes a Jamaica that, while progress has been made in recent years, “rem…
Read More…g societal norms…. Although there are growing pockets of LGBT tolerance in Jamaica, anti-gay attitudes continue to be fueled by some church leaders and dancehall reggae performers who disparage homosexuality. And as in other English-speaking Caribbean nations, sex between men, in fact, is unlawful in Jamaica, with violators subject to 10 years imprisonment and hard labour, although the anti-sodomy law is rarely enforced. US President Barack Obama…
Read More…that it be a priority. The March 15 New York Times magazine features “From Jamaica to Minnesota to Myself,” a story by Marlon James that chronicles his struggles as a gay boy and man in Jamaica, which had left him considering suicide. “I knew I had to leave my home country – whether in a coffin or on a plane,” he writes. He describes having been invited to church by an office colleague and getting “saved.” The church was called a clap-hands congre…
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…ivist Maurice Tomlinson announced plans for an international conference in Jamaica that will examine the role that churches have played in imposing and maintaining colonial-era anti-LGBT laws that ironically, “are now viewed as demonstrating the moral and political independence of Commonwealth countries FROM Britain.” Jamaica has been the host of anti-LGBT conferences attended by U.S.-based religious right leaders. Keynoting the October 12-13 conf…
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…ment of 50,000, as if the faithful at church. The devotion was audible, as tickets were distributed to friends of the Cuban government and not through a public sale. Here the religious nature of the Cuban sporting event is acknowledged only to be dismissed as inauthentic. The patriotic, quasi-religious crooning is suspicious because of its apparent production by the Cuban government, which distributed tickets to friends. Morosi recognizes religiou…
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…ust be made to enforce it. In the April 2007 priesthood session, a musical number was provided by a men’s chorus. The chorus was selected and trained by Brigham Young University professor Rosalind Hall, who also chose the music for the choir—but Hall was not allowed to attend the performance; instead, she was replaced by a male colleague, Ronald Staheli, for that one event. In fact, Hall was not even allowed to be in the conference hall to hear he…
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