Religion Dispatches
…vers are not, in fact “a large portion of the unaffiliated,” suffering anti-anti-religious persecution. They are largely theistic in belief, and relatively traditional, if eclectic and inconsistent, in religious or spiritual practice. To paint Nones as a growing European-style secular/atheist population is to misread the available data. Perhaps a more compelling reason that interest in the political (and other) leanings of Nones has not attracted…
Read More…conservative Catholic running mate echoed the same sort of alliance of anti-equality bedfellows, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has launched a campaign aimed at softening its rhetoric toward the LBGT community and LBGT Mormons in particular. A new website, “Love One Another: A Discussion of Same-Sex Attraction” offers videos from Mormon leaders, gay Mormons, and their families by way of urging greater empathy and love for LBGT sin…
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…ived four consecutive life sentences plus 50 years. He also earned the less-than-terrifying nickname of “underwear bomber.” At first glance, Abdulmutallab’s story fits the conventional narrative about suicide bombers: devoutness, then radicalization, and finally the culminating al-Qaeda training camp. Indeed, at his sentencing last year, Abdulmutallab’s address to the court can be read as a string of jihadic clichés. He claimed that his goal was t…
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…or not you can actually get your hands on these records.” Similarly, the so-called “perversion files” pertaining to sex-abuse in the Boy Scouts were archived at the group’s Dallas headquarters. But unlike the LDS documents, lawyers were successful in getting those files released last year. Clark said that was mainly due to judicial precedent in rulings against the Catholic Church. A database of the Boy Scout files can be found on Clark’s website….
Read More…e brief (page 8) contains exactly the kind of distortion that anti-marriage-equality advocates have been making since the study came out. It characterizes the Regnerus study as “finding that children raised by married biological parents fared better in a range of significant outcomes than children raised in same-sex households.” “Same-sex households” sounds like children being raised by same-sex couples, right? But that’s not what the Regnerus stu…
Read More…S Church has largely dropped out of official political involvement in boots-on-the-ground anti-LGBT equality initiatives and the aggressive anti-gay rhetoric those campaigns have engendered within Mormon communities. (It did, however, file an amicus brief against gay marriage in the Supreme Court last week.) The Church has acknowledged that gay people are a part of the Mormon community and sought to foster an internal rhetoric shift towards compas…
Read More…e. Should that happen, John Ortved’s cover letter is already written. A welcome puff of humor from McSweeney’s, Ortved’s letter begins with a gaffe that betrays his gender-inclusive liberal arts education: “Dear sir or madam, I am writing to apply for the position of Pope,” and dutifully includes relevant experience: As your website notes, the role of Pope includes “Guiding the College of Cardinals, and the masses.” Through my participation in the…
Read More…nnot trust Muslims—they lie about everything. Allow me to summarize the one-on-one, in which I hit upon a good way to rebut the argument based on taqiyya on the very logic of taqiyya. I’d like to proudly call it my Stephen Colbert moment: Him: “We can’t trust Muslims! The doctrine of taqiyya means Muslims are allowed to lie.” Me: “Did you know that when Muslims tell you they’re allowed to lie, they’re actually lying?” Him: “What?” Me: “In fact I’m…
Read More…cow’s symbolically significant Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and who was freed on appeal in October, was among the performers. Marking the one-year anniversary of the performance that got her arrested along with Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova—both of whom are still serving time in penal colonies—Samutsevich has recently declared that she has no regrets. The interrupted performance serves to illustrate how the original Pussy Riot inc…
Read More…t; they want to be loving and accepting. That’s what I have found in my day-to-day experience among Mormon people. Of course, there will always be tension between that Mormon ethic of caring and the fact that the LDS Church is taking an opposing position in this case. The LDS Church has filed an amicus brief for the other side. Right. The brief states, “Utah’s system of laws ensures that gay students may never hear a school- or state-sponsored mes…
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