Religion Dispatches
…ity in the relatively near future. So, if Euro-America is a lost Vatican cause, then where is the Church growing? Where is its future? The answer seems relatively clear. The Church is growing in South America, in sub-Saharan Africa, and is even making significant inroads in the Far East. And what these emerging Catholic populations want is a culturally conservative theology (recall the uproar in these same regions when the openly gay Anglican bish…
Read More…rized to make declarations of war, not the Executive branch, precisely because the Founders were so suspicious of centralized power, symbolized by kings and emperors. It did not matter to them whether the king’s rhetoric spoke of freedom, equality and democracy; he was still acting autocratically, like a king. That is precisely why a Congressional authorization of the use of force to retaliate against a terrorist attack is not a declaration of war…
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…attend sessions to “normalize” them. The rector said that students who refuse to “give up” their LGBT identity would have their scholarships revoked and would not be permitted to use campus facilities other than attending classes. Another official, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa suggested making college dorms “doorless” to prevent college students from having sex. Also this week, hard-line Muslims violently protested against Jak…
Read More…mposed sanctions on the Chechen security official Ayub Kataev, likewise accused of gross violations of human rights and abuses against gay men, as well as three others accused of involvement in the corruption case uncovered by deceased Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.” Kataev is a prison warden who “allegedly oversaw the detention and torture of gay men in Chechnya” in the first half of 2017. Bermuda: Governor still weighing options on law…
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…areness of the value of condoms in HIV prevention on the basis that condom use promotes promiscuity. There is some worry that the horrific wave of extrajudicial killings being carried out by government and vigilantes in the name of fighting drug trafficking could be turned against others, including LGBT people. Malta: Ban on conversion therapy adopted along with law ‘depathologizing’ gender identity Two pieces of legislation were adopted on Decemb…
Read More…ircumstances of domestic violence. H.B. 3859 violates the Establishment Clause by allowing state funds to be used to compel minors into religious education, without providing ample opportunities for comparable secular instruction or support. Where private individuals have no or insufficient choice in selecting a religious program, government support for a religious organization violates the Establishment Clause. Courts are particularly sensitive t…
Read More…Religious Studies major before law school, and now an advocate engaged in promoting an accurate understanding of Hinduism and countering misrepresentations on a near daily basis, four words in the AAR statement—to offer any interpretation—leap out at me. To a lay person who deeply respects my religious tradition, it is this unconditional and self-proclaimed right ‘to offer any interpretation’ which lies at the root of what is wrong with religious…
Read More…“new age babble” and denial of moral distinctions: The protesters are confused. They reject morality clauses but call the archbishop’s behavior sinful, shameful, and wrong. They belong to a church but seem to think it shouldn’t forbid anything. They insist that no one can be judged, except for issuing judgments that contradict their own. They can’t explain or even acknowledge the moral differences between homosexuality, contraception, and abortio…
Read More…about race; Edwards said that frequently progressives speak “in their own code,” which “sends people away” rather than “draw[ing] them in.” She added, “I want to make sure we’re using language to draw people in who share the same concerns about declining jobs and opportunity.” Edwards was reacting to someone in the audience bringing up the term “white privilege;” Edwards, who is African-American, cautioned that when people of color use that termi…
Read More…orth Vietnam, the way he turned to the thought of his fellow captives, the code of honor of the US military, to the Constitution itself, one never hears that he turned to his God, or to prayer. I do not suggest that he ought to have done, of course. I simply note that this absence is glaring, and his religious silence is deafening. That is what made the appearance of both men together on the bizarre political platform of a Baptist church all the m…
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