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Marriage Equality Coming To Taiwan In Spite of Religious Objectors?; Anti-Gay Ruling Sought By Indonesian Islamists Threatens Women & Poor Couples; LDS Church Launches New ‘Mormon and Gay’ Site; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ame-sex conduct in Nigeria, the report found that the SSMPA, in many ways, officially authorizes abuses against LGBT people, effectively making a bad situation worse. The passage of the SSMPA was immediately followed by extensive media reports of high levels of violence, including mob attacks and extortion against LGBT people. Human rights groups and United Nations “TELL ME WHERE I CAN BE SAFE” 2 officials expressed grave concern about the scope t…

As Court Prepares to Rule on Sacred Apache Site, Religious Freedom Faces an American Right Prized Above All Others

By Dana Lloyd

…. Apache Stronghold, a grassroots organization devoted to defending sacred sites, has challenged the proposed mining plan in court, arguing that destroying their sacred sites would infringe on their free exercise of religion, a right promised to them by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978), and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (1993). This case has precedent working against them, howev…

Francis Visits the Church that John Paul Broke

By Patricia Miller

…umber of marriages within the church has declined by nearly half. Only the number of Catholic funerals has held steady. And while the number of Catholics overall has remained level, that’s largely due to Hispanic migration to the US; some 40 percent of those born Catholic have left the church. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. The church Francis will encounter is fundamentally different in character from the church of John Paul in two import…

Why are Nuns and Monks in the Streets? (Parts I & II)

By José Cabezón

…ten have an “unofficial” monastic population that can be up to half of the official number of resident monks—a kind of waiting list. Although residents of the monasteries, where they work and study, these unofficial monks and nuns have little status and no real privileges in these institutions. (For example, they are not allowed to receive a share of monetary contributions made to the clergy by the laity.) Whereas monks and nuns used to be the one…

Is the Bible Too Holy to Be Tennessee’s State Book?

By Adam Shapiro

…identity. The religious nature of the text aside, adopting the Bible as an official state book also entangles Tennessee’s identity with a specific interpretation of its history. The fight over official public memorials of American history has intensified, especially in the South—with activists calling out the valorization of Confederate relics without acknowledgement of the role that racism and slavery played in that history. The same concern is p…

Missing the Forest for the Witches

By Joseph Laycock

…Netsweeper, the library’s Internet filtering service, blocks all of these sites because they are categorized as “occult” and “criminal skills” sites. Netsweeper, a global corporation based in Canada, categorizes websites and allows clients to choose which ones to block. In addition to following state and federal laws to block child pornography, the Salem Library also elected to block all sites that Netsweeper categorized as related to the “occult…

US Archbishop and Vatican-Appointed “Overseer” Attends Annual Meeting of Women Religious

By Emily Baxter

…nference rooms aside, it is possible to read between the lines of both the official and unofficial messages that slipped out of the LCWR conference: The sisters were uncompromising—perhaps still feel betrayed by Rome—and Sartain offered a sort of double-message, emphasizing both dialogue and submission. The Archbishop addressed the Sisters during mass on Wednesday and focused on obedience and submission to God. He did not directly address the cont…

Christian Founder of Online Dating Site Wants to Ease Gay Pain

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…Finance, the 78-year-old Christian co-founder and CEO of the online dating site eHarmony, said being gay or lesbian “has been a painful way for a lot of people to have to live.” But, he’s ready to pony up $10 million “and ask other companies to put up money and do a really first-class job of figuring out homosexuality.” I’m so glad that Warren is so concerned with my “pain” and is ready to start “figuring out” homosexuality. Never mind that scienc…

The Brutality of Life for Syrian LGBTs; Saving the Anglican Church by Dissolving It; Backlash to Hindu Gay Wedding Ceremony in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…al ally Javier Maroto and his partner Josema Rodriguez. Maroto is a senior official of the governing Popular Party, or PP, which Rajoy leads. Not only has Rajoy said he plans to attend; a PP colleague has disclosed he’s an official witness of the marriage. “Will he, won’t he go?” has taken up acres of Spanish media coverage and spawned a new hashtag on Twitter: #laBodaDeMaroto (the marriage of Maroto). While it’s unlikely to dominate the election…

Snake-Handlers, False Messiahs, and a Few Great Souls: 14 Who Died in 2014

By Daniel Silliman

…tion of 71 temples between 1998 and 2005. These included three at historic sites: the Palmyra New York Temple, the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple, and the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, whose re-construction Sorenson called “one of the great spiritual experiences of this life.”Sorenson died at 81. Robert K. Larson A Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing altar boys, Robert K. Larson died at 84. Ordained in 1958, he was a priest in the Wichita, Ka…