Search for "airline tickets cheap chicago to orlando florida phone number 1-800-299-7264"

The Islamophobia Election: How “Muslim” Became a Racial Identity

By Michael Schulson

…that racialized component? If we look at the statistics and we look at the numbers, we have more mass shootings in this country than terrorist attacks. The majority of people committing these terrorist attacks are not Muslims. There need to be policies that take into account behavior and political motivation rather than religion or religious identity. Mass shootings are overwhelmingly committed by white men, yet we don’t say, “Well, we need to mon…

Mexico’s Religious Conservatives Seek Anti-LGBT Constitutional Amendment, LGBT Activists Defend Secular Government; Cash From Qatar Funds ‘Traditional’ Family Activism Worldwide; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait have all rushed to condemn the crime in Orlando labeling it terrorism while insisting Islam has nothing to do with it,” said a spokesman for Mesahat, an LGBT service organization operating in Egypt and Sudan. “These same governments keep arresting and torturing gay people and are putting them in jail. Meanwhile they are sponsoring a religious discourse that feeds homophobia.” The Quran mentions homosexuality only…

‘God Made Them Male and Female…and Eunuch’: Why the Biblical Case For Binary Gender Isn’t So… Biblical

By Tony Keddie

…mic fundamentalist who slaughtered forty-nine people at a gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016. Many conservative Christians have believed that liberals’ campaigns for sexual rights would bring about God’s wrath. AIDS “may be a judgment of God on the nation,” Billy Graham proclaimed as gay men and other marginalized persons fought for their lives during the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s. Jerry Falwell concurred and added that homosexuality was “Sata…

Even Amid Controversy, ‘My Soul Still Sings,’ Says UMC’s First Lesbian Bishop

By Sunnivie Brydum

…ard for the episcopacy in June 2016, they awoke to news of the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, where 49 mostly LGBTQ Latinx people were murdered. That “confirmed the need” for Oliveto’s voice in the upper eschelons of church leadership, she explained. “Too often, LGBTQ people and queer folk are talked about, instead of talked with,” Oliveto said. “And lives are turned into issues. And when we turn anyone into an issue, it makes it easier to…

Katy Perry’s Evangelical Hangover

By David Mihalyfy

Despite an American Idol judging gig, a baby girl with Orlando Bloom on the way, and her new album Smile due out August 28th, Katy Perry hasn’t been capturing the public’s attention like she did with 2010’s Teenage Dream. Back then, songs from “Firework” to “E.T.” dominated the airwaves, and she reached the still unsurpassed height of tying Michael Jackson’s Bad for most chart-topping singles off of one album. And yet, separate from the ebb and f…

Opponent of LGBT Equality Lauded for His Great Courage

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…s of people. Oh, my—those vicious lions! Trying keep homophobia off their iPhones! Here’s a thought: Perhaps the lions wouldn’t be so testy if they didn’t have to justify their very existence. Perhaps the lions would be more willing to lie down with the lamb (or the “Daniel”) if the lions weren’t being continually tossed into the political ring for a blood sport sideshow over their “right” to exist. Of course, the article is quick to point out tha…

At National Prayer B’fast Obama Defends His Faith… Again

By Daniel Schultz

…skepticism at that point,” said Hunter, who leads an evangelical church in Orlando. “All of us ought to be able to say who we are and taken for our word. It’s frustrating because he still has some people questioning his faith.” This is curious, since Obama has said again and again that he is a Christian. But more to my suggestion, there aren’t “some people questioning the president’s faith,” there are some people lying about it. It is a fraud to p…

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

By Peter Montgomery

…ders of culture war activism, including anti-gay work abroad, will meet in Orlando at The Gathering, an invitation-only event for the leaders of deep-pocket evangelical foundations. Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights President Kerry Kennedy spoke with the Washington Blade this week about the “global problem” of anti-LGBT legislation. “It’s really important to recognize that this is not just an Africa problem,” said Kerry Kennedy…

Republican Presidential Candidate Courts Televangelists. So What Else Is New? (Updated with video)

By Sarah Posner

…founder Jan Crouch, who is also the president of a Christian theme park in Orlando. As it came to an end, televangelist Paula White said Trump wanted them to pray for him. Trump nodded, and the faith leaders laid hands on him and prayed. Many evangelical leaders look askance at the crowd the businessman is courting. “The people that Trump has so far identified as his evangelical outreach are mostly prosperity gospel types, which are considered by…

The Religious “Right” to Denounce Homosexuality

By Sarah Posner

…environment around 2005, when there was a highly noticeable uptick in the number of services, prayer breakfasts, emails from chaplains, displays of crosses, and other evangelical activity that struck her as “excessive.” But what bothered Major Williams most was the Strong Bonds program, which she attended at an Orlando hotel in January 2008. Included in the Strong Bonds conference tote bag was a camouflage box with a New Life Ministries inscripti…