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Malawi Catholic Bishops Call For Enforcement of Sodomy Law; Ukrainian Thugs Disrupt Equality Festival Opposed by Orthodox Church; Indonesian Islamists Continue Rhetorical War on LGBTs; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…a platform that included human rights and respect for diversity as a top priority. Kyle Knight, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said it feels like the cause of equality has been set back by a generation. Bigoted officials “actually do ruin people’s lives,” he said. Belize: American Anti-Gay Activist Slams Local Religious Practices As ‘Witchcraft’ Anti-gay missionary and pastor Scott Stirm was challenged by Rep. Frank “Pawpa” M…

Of God, But Not God: A Methodist Minister Speaks About Church’s Refusal to Open Its Doors to LGBT

By Joel Pitney

…lity. They’re outnumbered by the more conservative regions of the church, primarily in Africa and the Philippinnes, and to some extent, the American South. Yeah. That’s the crazy thing about this whole thing. What’s happening in our denomination right now is that we’re realizing we’re a global church. Early Christian missionaries went to the continent of Africa and the Philippines and Christianized people with a very, very conservative brand of Ch…

The Atheist Encounter with Christianity: A Failure to Disbelieve?

By Paul Wallace

…ck turns to Moses, God sits on a throne in heaven, “up there.” Also the stories of scripture (the flood, the tower of Babel, the burning of Elijah’s water-soaked offering, the nativity story, etc.) are understood as purely literal, historical events. These beliefs provide a strong skeleton on which to hang the child’s understanding of the divine. They give shape to her theology. Yet these beliefs do not, in general, remain in place for a lifetime….

Condemnation, Condolences in Wake of Orlando Massacre and More

By Peter Montgomery

…f LGBT refugees and with the reality that many immigrants from Muslim countries bring anti-gay attitudes with them. One advocate said “he believed it was unrealistic ‘to take someone from a culture where [homosexuality] is the most heinous they can conjure up, and expect them to change’ instantaneously.” The group Solidarity with Egypt LGBTQ posted a YouTube video contrasting official denunciations of the killings from Arab and Muslim governments…

Pat Robertson’s Women Warriors Leading Spiritual Warfare In Zimbabwe

By Sarah Posner

…tson’s first foray into Africa. Earlier this year, prosecutors in the war crime trial of former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor alleged that the televangelist had lobbied the Bush White House on his behalf in exchange for lucrative gold mining contracts—a claim Robertson denied. And in the late 1990s, Robertson was forced to reimburse his Operation Blessing charity after his pilots divulged that its planes were being used to support Robertson’s pe…

Fighting Demons, Raising the Dead, Taking Over the World

By Bruce Wilson

…rom its early days, New Life Church’s members worked to map out all the territorial demon spirits inhabiting Colorado Springs. At some point in the process, they fed the mapping information into a computer database. Methodically—street by street, block by block—they used prayer-warfare to expel the demons from their city. And they maintained a 24/7 prayer shield over Colorado Springs to prevent demon re-infestations. As with inner-city cockroaches…

The Religious Right’s Apocalyptic Visions of an Obama Presidency

By Bill Berkowitz

…ected U.S. intelligence services “to cease all wiretapping of alleged terrorist phone calls unless they first obtained a specific court warrant for each case.” Captured overseas terrorists are no longer given military tribunals but are “now given full trials in the U.S. court system.” The relaxing of the Bush Administration’s rules of engagement with terrorists has led to the explosion of “terrorist bombs in two large and two small U.S. cities, ki…

Ten Commandments of the Antichrist: The Georgia Guidestones

By Joseph Laycock

…ttle-known origin warning of future peril. These conditions allow for historical-critical as well as dispensationalist readings of both messages. Scholars believe the Book of Revelation was written sometime in the first century and is a warning to early Christians not to conform to the evils of Greco-Roman society. Although the Guidestones were constructed relatively recently, they too have a historical context. The letter from the Guidestones’ be…

Six Overlooked Gems from the Future of World Religions Report

By Timothy King

…to be a good thing for society. While growth among the “unaffiliated” is primarily being fueled by North America and Europe, fully 76% of the religiously unaffiliated globally resided in the Asia-Pacific region in 2010, a figure that is expected to drop to 68% by 2050. The “unaffiliated” group is rising much faster in North America than in Europe. Europe is projected to move from 19% to 23% of its population unaffiliated while North America would…

How an 1843 Revelation on Polygamy Poses a Serious Challenge to Modern Mormonism

By Benjamin E. Park

…ments, beliefs, and practices of past leaders when they clash with modern priorities. But the presence of a written revelation makes it a much more difficult issue. The document created to convert a single person in 1843, then, is the largest reason millions of members in 2020 are still forced to wrestle with the practice. History could have turned out differently: Emma Smith could have decided not to put up a fight; Hyrum Smith could have decided…