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Anti-Gay Celebration in Uganda; Weddings in England; ‘Francis Effect’ at the Vatican

By Peter Montgomery

…ts at the United Nations and the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council. In international bodies, the Holy See regularly teams up with groups like Family Watch International and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute as well as groups of Islamic and African nations to oppose any effort to apply human rights language or principles to same-sex relationships, or to extend the definition of “family.” The Holy See, Feder concludes, “seems to rem…

Global LGBT Recap: Homogeopolitics; Dalai Lama Says Gay is OK; Pope Says Civil Unions May Be

By Peter Montgomery

…ted D.C., New York, Texas and California as part of the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. Activists from Latvia, Serbia, Russia, Georgia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and other countries have traveled to the U.S. over the last year. BuzzFeed’s Lester Feder also takes a global look at what he calls a new cold war over human rights, in which Russia becomes a more important ally to politicians like Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. The…

Trump v LGBT People At the UN; ‘Bible Beer’ Backlash in Australia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…cating hunger and poverty, maternal health and abstinence. OutRight Action International has launched a petition to Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the UN, calling C-Fam a hate group and urging that the group be removed from the delegation. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, has threatened that the US will withdraw from the Human Rights Council unless it implements “considerable reform.” Graeme Reid, director of Human Right’s Watch’s LG…

Who Is “Sam Bacile?”

By Sarah Posner

…d that the film was intended to be a provocative political statement assailing the religion. He denied being Sam Bacile, the pseudonym for the video’s purportedly Israeli Jewish writer and director, but AP said the cellphone number it called for a telephone interview with Bacile on Tuesday matched Nakoula’s address. —- For more RD coverage of the events in Libya see “Tragic Violence in Libya: No Excuses,” by Haroon Moghul — ed….

How to Choose a Tour Company for Your Hajj

By Amina Wadud

…nts than their quota allows. Most Muslim countries have a quota; a limited number of hajjis permitted from that country in any one year. This number is set by hajj authorities in Saudi Arabia, because, in all fairness, there has to be a cap on how many Muslims converge on the place. Right now, it stands at around 3 million! Countries with large populations of Muslims have many more applicants than their allotted number of pilgrims. This means you…

Bill Gates’ Comments on Covid-19 Vaccine Enflame ‘Mark of the Beast’ Worries in Some Christian Circles

By Christopher James Blythe

…t buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name… his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” (Revelation 13:16-18) In the early twentieth century, this prophecy became linked to American fears of a powerful federal government. A 1943 letter to the editor of the Pampa Daily News was representative of this growing resentment coupling conspiracy with apocalypticism: We should count it dishonorable for…

Who’s Scared of Polygamy? A Restrained Case for the “Slippery Slope” Argument

By William E. Smith

…t polygamy, arguing that advocating for polygamy would be untimely for the international fight for same-sex marriage rights, that there are compelling state interests in not legalizing it (e.g. staving off practical issues around things such as visas for spouses), and that polygamy is essentially and damagingly patriarchal in a way that monogamy is not (or so we are to believe). I must confess that I do not find these apologetics for monogamy conv…

The Bible is a Good Book, But God Didn’t Write It

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…her book is published that way except encyclopedias, dictionaries, and telephone books. You don’t want to read those books, you go to them for authoritative answers and you don’t argue with the dictionary. If you’re playing Scrabble you go to the dictionary to settle the argument. We’ve encouraged people to think about the Bible as this kind of book, a source of authority, the final word, not to be debated. I think that helps people to think that…

A Truly Fearless Human Being: Rev. Howard Moody, 1921-2012

By Tom Davis

…dimension of empathy. Perhaps the best tribute to him came from one of our number who famously and irreverently said: “I put my trust in Howard Moody and God, in that order.” We are forever grateful for this good man. ____________ Editor’s Note: As a generalist, an editor frequently must guide and shape work on unfamiliar topics. Having heard only that Rev. Moody was one of those “hip, old preachers in the Village,” I set out to do the obligatory…

With Methodist LGBTQ Vote and GOP Support for Trump, White Protestantism Has Hit Bottom

By Peter Laarman

…ose reading of Scripture is cramped, at best. Seen in this context, it’s a cheap dodge for liberals within the UMC to blame churches and delegates from the Global South for the vote to retain (and even heighten) the denomination’s ban on all things queer. Yes, the UMC does have a much heavier Global South representation in its governance than any of the other “sisters”; fully 41% of the delegates in St. Louis represented churches outside of the Un…