…rstood and felt empathy for the PFLAG members and for the LGBT community.” India: Recriminalization of homosexuality leaves gays vulnerable to violence, blackmail Reuters reports that thousans of LGBT Indians have faced persecution since the country’s high court reinstituted the colonial-era sodomy law in 2013. The article recounts the story of a gay man whose attackers filmed the sexual assault and threatened to tell report him to police. “What i…
…serve in the military, and the Ministry of Education requires textbooks to promote tolerance for gays and lesbians. In recent years, legislators here have passed protections for gays, including a law against workplace discrimination. A bill to legalize same-sex marriage has been introduced in Taiwan’s legislature, although it still faces strong opposition from Christian activists and their allies in the governing Kuomintang…. Religious life here,…
…gesture. More than that, it’s part of a healing process that includes toning down eid celebrations; though India seemed hopelessly torn apart just a couple of weeks ago, Indian Muslims are pulling together with other Indians to help heal their country and the people they share it with….
…ay. ** Did it make a difference to his followers that Sri Chinmoy was from India? Did it give him extra authority? In the late 1960s, there was a trend to look to the East for alternatives to Western religions and philosophies. Many people felt that the ancient traditions of the East might hold the answers to their modern longings. As a result, there were many gurus, yogis, and spiritual teachers that headed to America eager to establish themselve…
…r-General last month. Spain: LGBT activists challenge ‘change’ therapy The LGBT group Arcópoli has filed a complaint against Elena Lorenzo Rego, a psychotherapist who offers therapy to help people “change” from homosexual to heterosexual. India: Video aims to help families talk about sexuality The Indian Express reports on the latest episode of a Web series designed to show people how to talk about sex and homosexuality to their children or their…
…ge your day-to-day relationship with tempting foods. Chocolate cake has to code-switch, from “a thing I want and must resist” to “a thing I don’t want right now,” and that happens in the ACC. As Roundling’s study shows, religious thoughts seem to help with short-term code switching because they offer a concrete set of alternative values. Similarly, when Warren says that caring for his body is a “stewardship issue,” he might be actively molding his…
By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston
…But the center is an assertion, not a fact; an etiquette, not a place. Its code, its theology, is most fully embodied in Americanized Arminianism—a Protestant tradition of good works and propriety, “distinguished liberals” and polite realpolitik. “Arminian moralism,” notes historian Charles Sellers in his study of Finney’s age, The Market Revolution, “sanctioned competitive individualism and the market’s rewards of wealth and status.” It did not e…
…re about the “film noir” feel of Caprica. It’s a cross between a 1930s pre-code movie and Metropolis. The cops, the smoking, the old-fashioned cars; I thought Caprica was supposed to be technologically savvy, not a cross between the future and the past. What does this say about its inhabitants—and the show’s creator? I agree with Diane, this week seems to be a placeholder for something to come, but in the process, I did not learn much. To be fair…
…, the “replacement” is part of a larger plan by a shadowy Jewish or Jewish-coded “global elite” trying to rule the world.) The origins of this myth in France have to be seen against the backdrop of French colonial history, especially the fear of white slave owners of slave uprisings when it comes to the construction of the social in- and out-group. The “Great Replacement” became more widely known after Jean Raspail published his novel Le Camp des…
…des, but exploded in 2003 with the publication of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code which, more than anything, showcases Brown’s muddled if provocative incorporation of the Gnostic worldview into the novel. Fans of The Da Vinci Code don’t need to go out and purchase Robinson’s translation, they can simply read the Gnostic texts online at the Gnosis Archive. Or, if they’re interested in other early contenders for New Testament inclusion—the Gospel of P…
