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Death Penalty, Debated (Dedicated to the Memory of Sarah Horowitz)

By Bill Berkowitz

…TCADP Executive Director Kristin Houle. “The state carried out a ‘typical’ number of executions in a record amount of time—averaging nearly one per week over a five-month period. Yet officials’ zeal for executions was not matched by public desire for new death sentences, as evidenced by the continued steep decline in the number of new inmates arriving on death row.” TCADP also pointed to some hard-earned victories over the past year, particularly…

Where Polls and Surveys Fall Short: A Conversation with Robert Wuthnow on “Inventing American Religion”

By Andrew Aghapour

…s pretty much it. Evangelical leaders themselves didn’t believe the Gallup numbers were right, and [they thought that] the best way to combat those Gallup numbers was to ask Gallup to do another survey. And so in 1978, Christianity Today, a leading periodical for evangelicals, paid Gallup to do a big survey and in addition to just asking the born-again question, they asked questions about belief in the Bible, belief in Jesus, and intent on convert…

End-Times Watcher Sees Satan in an Energy Drink

By William R. Black

…anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.” The author of Revelation meant that 666 was a person’s name turned into a number via the Jewish numerological practice of gematria. Since every Hebrew letter was also a number, the letters of a name could be added up to produce that person’s number. Here’s an example of gematria using an alphabet we’re more famil…

Biggest, Best & Worst LGBT Religion Stories of 2016 and more in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…er also published a recap of the year’s biggest LGBT stories, many of them international. Colin Stewart at 76 Crimes reported that “substantial advances for LGBT rights were achieved in 2016,” noting that three nations dropped anti-LGBT laws “amid anti-gay violence, arrests and setbacks that marred the past 12 months.” New Ways Ministry’s Bondings 2.0 blog reported on what its readers saw as the best and worst stories for LGBT Catholics in 2016. O…

Kuwait “Morals Committee” Announced Deportation of 76 Gay Men; and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ee status to avoid being exported to Uzbekistan. Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International spokesperson, said: Ali Feruz is openly gay, a human rights activist and a correspondent for the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper. This is a near-lethal combination for someone who is about to be handed over to Uzbekistan, where ‘sodomy’ is a crime and torture is endemic. And Human Rights Watch tells the tragic story of “Lilly,” a transgender woman from Uzb…

LGBT Victories at Olympics, Struggles in Brazil; Catholic Bishops Organizing Anti-Marriage Equality Protests in Mexico; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…rt, the Iraqi group Iraqueer and the US-based organization OutRight Action International (formerly the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission) documented the kidnapping and murders of gay men by members of Iraqi militia groups, including the Brigades of Wrath (Saraya al-Ghadhab) and League of the Righteous (Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq) between 2009 and 2015. The groups condemned the Iraqi government for “stand[ing] by and allow[ing] murderou…

Egypt Goes After Gays to Silence Islamist Critics; South Africa’s ‘Open Mosque’ is Closed; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…he revisions to the penal code are intended to integrate national law with international law, whereas this provision would do exactly the opposite.”. The US-based Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights called on Déby to strike down the proposed law. “By criminalising homosexuality, Chad’s proposed penal code is an instrument of discrimination, not of justice,” said its president, Kerry Kennedy. “I urge president Déby and the Chadian…

Anti-Gay Forces On Offense in Europe; ‘African Islam’ Challenged by Extremists; Irish Marriage Foes & ‘Sounds of Sodomy’; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…onal in its intensity.” Rights activists in Egypt have started calling for international pressure on the Egyptian government to respect the human rights of LGBT people. This is a dire sign, since international pressure can sometimes cause backlash against local activists. Such a call signals that human rights defenders believe the situation is desperate. This week the New York Times editorial page noted, “In a deeply conservative Muslim country, d…

Istanbul ‘Haven of Sorts’ For LGBT Syrians and Iraqis; Cayman Islands Affirm Marriage Ban with ‘Holy Bible Evidence’; No Room for LGBTs in Malaysia’s ‘Islam-Based’ Human Rights Policy; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…man rights” such as the rights of LGBT people, reports Rachel Middleton in International Business Times. Human Rights Watch’s Asia deputy director Phil Robertson later told a news conference that he was shocked by Najib’s promise to uphold human rights only within the Islamic context saying that Kuala Lumpur should withdraw from the United Nations if the government was not serious about upholding human rights for all. Amnesty International Malaysi…

Anti-Trans Bus Tour Is Not Very Welcome In Spanish Cities; Gay Rights As A Weapon In Nationalist War On Muslims; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ity. India: New report calls for decriminalization, so does gay prince The International Commission of Jurists published the in-depth report: “Unnatural Offenses Obstacles to Justice in India Based on Sexual Orientation.” From its conclusion: In describing the challenges that queer persons in India face while accessing justice, this report makes a number of arguments: First – laws which must guarantee and facilitate the full range of queer persons…