Religion Dispatches
…system is designed for unequal treatment of unbelievers. The constitution officially recognizes the religions of Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism, and stipulates that every citizen must believe in a supreme being. Desecrating Secularism As the Indonesian activist Karl Karnadi points out, the persecution of Alexander Aan comes in the context of broader trends of “increasing religious intolerance in Indonesia…
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…the wave of the future. The nuns embody it since they are lay people, not official representatives of a church, and are more than willing to work in effective coalitions. Finally, the message is clear. As the nuns chant it, “reasonable revenue for responsible programs,” the message of the Faithful Budget Campaign, makes a good deal of sense. “Question Austerity” is another of their mantras. Anyone who works in social change realizes that it takes…
Read More…conferences is understood within the Mormon community as something like an official seal of approval. Matheson wrote the official workbook for Evergreen and has received grants from Evergreen to develop his own research on root causes of homosexuality. Wyler has keynoted Evergreen conferences. According to sources in the gay Mormon community, both Matheson and Wyler are all-stars in the world of Evergreen. And both Journey into Manhood and Evergre…
Read More…a better culture or advanced culture,” said Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian official. In Haaretz, Barak Ravid writes: [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu embraced Romney as no Israeli prime minister has ever before embraced a candidate running against an incumbent U.S. president: Aside from their working meeting in the morning, Netanyahu also hosted Romney and his wife and sons for dinner at his official residence. Romney’s entire visit to…
Read More…lities, the rulers of the day focused on persecuting Sikhs such that their numbers dwindled into the low thousands. The regime literally put prices on the heads of Sikhs, offering to pay citizens who helped wipe out the whole community. In fact, Sikhs remember two particular periods in the 18th century as “The Lesser Holocaust” and “The Greater Holocaust.” According to Sikh historians, the state issued an official declaration in 1739 that the enti…
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…r Mormon, and a low class Los Angeles Times advertisement feature for a website selling faux LDS temple garments. Could it be that as fewer Americans report religious affiliation and Protestants lose their American majority, the idea that an elected official may believe and practice differently than you matters less? Indeed, the Hartford Courant / Religion News Service reports that the “God gap” between religious and non-religious voters has shru…
Read More…ch. Since Proposition 8 in 2008, the LDS Church has largely dropped out of official political involvement in boots-on-the-ground anti-LGBT equality initiatives and the aggressive anti-gay rhetoric those campaigns have engendered within Mormon communities. (It did, however, file an amicus brief against gay marriage in the Supreme Court last week.) The Church has acknowledged that gay people are a part of the Mormon community and sought to foster an…
Read More…any other country, except here they have to nod along with the homophobic official rhetoric. Meanwhile, a story in the Globe and Mail says that homophobia in Russia “isn’t just about Mr. Putin – or the skinheads, church activists and often-hostile police who show up at Moscow’s occasional gay-rights demonstrations. Opinion polls show that 80 per cent of Russians support the new law – in fact, many want the Kremlin to go much further.” The story b…
Read More…he Pearl of Great Price—includes editorial changes that reflect a shifting official view on issues like polygamy, the Church’s history of racism, and the historicity of LDS scripture. Perhaps the most significant is the inclusion of a new heading to precede the now-canonized 1978 announcement of the end of the LDS Church’s ban on black priesthood ordination: The Book of Mormon teaches that “all are alike unto God,” including “black and white, bond…
Read More…Argentina. Hale cites NBCLatino’s reference to an interview with Francis’ official biographer, Sergio Rubin: …Bergoglio was politically wise enough to know the church couldn’t win a straight-on fight against gay marriage, so he urged his bishops to lobby for gay civil unions instead. It wasn’t until his proposal was shot down by the bishops’ conference that he publicly declared what Paulon described as the “war of God”—and the church lost the iss…
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