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Does Multiverse Theory Bring Theology Into Science?

By Andrew Aghapour

…to explain the bounty or harmony of the world around us. Given an infinite number of universes, a few of them are bound to be life-friendly at some point, and we’re in one of them. The problem, of course, is that the price of getting rid of God is an infinite number of universes we can’t see. So sober-minded contemporary scientists end up on the same side as (some) theologians in arguing that the multiverse is extravagant, unnecessary, and unscien…

The Silly Calls for Congress to Investigate Planned Parenthood

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…is increasing its (as the report likes to say) “market share” of the total number of abortions performed in the United States. If you were hoping to then see a careful accounting of why other variables do not explain this phenomenon—income factors that may have made low-cost clinics more appealing, or the number of abortion clinics in the U.S. and how that has changed over the time period in question, or the possibility that people in private prac…

United Nations Affirms the Human Right to Blaspheme

By Austin Dacey

Having followed the debates on religion and freedom of expression at the United Nations over the last several years, I have become accustomed to passing on bad news, such as a decade of resolutions by the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly “combating the defamation of religions.” Now that there is some good news, almost no one has noticed. Late last month, the UN issued a new statement on the extent of freedom of speech under internati…

Bishop Minerva Carcaño Has a Nearly Impossible Job

By Mary E. Hunt

…ustice. On matters of same-sex love, this is not as easy as it sounds. The United Methodist Church in its Book of Discipline holds that “no self-avowed, practicing homosexual shall be ordained or appointed in the United Methodist Church.” The Reconciling Ministries Network and many individual Methodists oppose this policy. To date, there has been no church-wide General Conference agreement on changing the policy. But in 2008, the Methodists entere…

UN Human Rights Council Creates LGBT Watchdog; Orthodox Council Affirms Traditional Teaching on Family; Pope Francis Says Church Should Apologize to Gays; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ty and same-sex marriage as well. Already, 25 percent of Adventists in the United States favor same-sex marriage, and of the 64 percent that oppose it only 21 percent are 18 to 29 year-olds. Perla notes response to the Orlando massacre: The North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (NAD) joined the chorus of supporters, offering a ray of hope to LGBT members in an otherwise desolate moment. The same day of the tragedy, the NAD issued a sta…

Religious Opposition To LGBT Equality Softening

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…percent thought so back in 1982. The trend among Christian churches in the United States has also been toward acceptance. The United Church of Christ, on July 4, 2005, became the only mainline denomination to affirm its support for marriage equality. Other denominations, like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), have moved to remove bans on the ordination of gay and lesbian ministers. The Presbyterian Church (USA), remains on the ver…

Trump Order A ‘Death Sentence’ For Some LGBT Refugees? Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…trate that even the most reliable of left-wing voters may be up for grabs. United Kingdom: Activists celebrate posthumous pardons, decry continuing deportations The government posthumously pardoned about 49,000 men who had been convicted in previous decades under laws used before 1967 to criminalize homosexual activity. Under the law people who are still living will also be awarded pardons if they apply for them. Huck Magazine commented, “Before y…

Feared Taliban Leader Killed, But Military Strategy is Not the Answer in Afghanistan

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…stan and expand it to include its six neighboring countries along with the United States, Russia, and NATO. It is important for the United States to respect such initiatives and work with them to encourage progress along regional lines. The key to this five-point framework for US policy in the South Asia region is to demilitarize the US presence while utilizing its influence for regional cooperation and viable self-determination. The politics of t…

Proposition 8, The Mormon Coming Out Party

By Michelle Goldberg

…ins feels very strongly that when the Equal Rights Amendment failed in the United States, a lot of its advocates didn’t go away, they just went to the United Nations,” said Scott Loveless, Executive Director of the World Family Policy Center. “It appeared to be a pretty concerted effort to shape customary international law into, essentially, the Equal Rights Amendment.” Soon, Wilkins began working with conservative activist Allan Carlson to stage…

“Project Blitz” Seeks to Do for Christian Nationalism What ALEC Does for Big Business

By Frederick Clarkson

…ncil. RD asked Samantha Sokol of the legislative affairs unit at Americans United for Separation of Church and State to compare the 20 models bills of Project Blitz with the bills they track and she found that 71 bills introduced in 2018 (or carried over from the 2017 state legislative session) are based on the model bills or are similar in intent. Of the bills tracked by Americans United [see bill descriptions in side bar]: 23 fall under the Nati…