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“Muslim Gospel” Revealing the “Christian Truth” Excites the Da Vinci Code Set

By Annette Yoshiko Reed

…t. Today, the GBarn has a prominent place within Christian/Islamic debates online and is known to many Christians as well as Muslims. Recent speculation about the Syriac manuscript in Turkey, moreover, dovetails with the growing place of this gospel in the realm of Internet conspiracy theories about Vatican secrecy. Theories about its suppression may have been developed many centuries ago, but they speak no less to our own age—a time in which onli…

Orthodox Church’s Authoritarian Anti-LGBTQ Statement Poses Serious Threat to Academic Freedom

By Sarah Riccardi-Swartz

…might be taking a page from the playbook of far-right Orthodox ideologues online who call for the excommunication and even “the purge” of American Orthodox scholars. For years the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University (not affiliated with the OCA) has been one of the most engaged institutions in the academic study of Orthodox Christianity. And for years the Center has been maligned by conservative and far-right Orthodox, who oft…

Mexico moves toward national marriage equality; Greek govt announces civil partnership legislation; Pope warns against ‘secularism and relativism’; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…or their families. …The seven couples are winners out of 400 entries in an online contest hosted by Alibaba, a huge Chinese e-commerce company based Hangzhou, Zhejiang, with collaboration from Alibaba’s online shopping market, Taobao— where the “We Do” contest was first posted last Valentine’s Day—as well as Blued, the Beijing LGBT Center, PFLAG China, China Luxury Advisors, Bliss, a Chinese bedding brand, the L.A. LGBT Center and the City of West…

Why The Book of Mormon (the Musical) is Awesomely Lame

By Jared Farmer

…ss of “cast members”/missionaries; the imagineering and the edutainment in service of a well-groomed corporate brand. Imagine There’s No Hell Many of the The Book of Mormon’s ethnographic details are wrong, however. Pairs of missionaries are never equals; there is always a “senior companion” and a “junior companion.” The various missionaries (men and women) in an area are supervised by one (male) “mission president” and his wife, not by a three-pe…

Australian Church Leaders See Marriage Vote as Battle for Soul of Australia: Global LGBT Recap 10/30

By Peter Montgomery

…s,” said Mambosasa. Just days later an NGO, the Community Health Education Services and Advocacy (CHESA) centre, was suspended on the same charge and accused of organising a workshop at the Peacock hotel. CHESA and ISLA insisted they were merely coordinating a “legal consultation” to challenge a government decision to limit the provision of some health services. In February, Tanzania provoked criticism notably from the United States after announci…

Wichita, the Sequel: A Clinic Reopens at Ground Zero in America’s Fight over Abortion

By Kathryn Joyce

…ring abortion providers is biblically sanctioned—had identified the church online, on a web page dripping with digital blood, and anti-abortion activists had frequently protested at Reformation Lutheran, sometimes entering and jumping up mid-service to cause a disruption. Nonetheless, it was a shock on May 31, 2009, when Roeder entered the building and shot Tiller as he performed his usher duties, with his wife Jeanne singing up front in the choir…

Broadcast Officials in China Censor Gay TV Characters

By Peter Montgomery

…for minorities.” China: Broadcast Officials Censor Gay Characters From TV, Online Streaming Chinese officials have moved to censor gay characters from television and online streaming, reports BuzzFeed. New government guidelines state, “No television drama shall show abnormal sexual relationships and behaviors, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on.” Also banned are histo…

Will Internet Kill Mormonism Too? Or Just Missionaries?

By Holly Welker

…missionaries convert, on average, six people during their 18- to 24-month service, the online apostles in Provo have averaged around 30 converts per missionary per year, says [BYU Professor Gideon] Burton. And these people stick around. Ninety-five percent of the Internet converts have kept active, a retention rate more than triple the norm…. The idea that a “self-selected cohort curious enough to reach out directly” yields better teaching contac…

Obama Quietly Declares June “LGBT Pride Month”

By Nick Street

…cked up by several conservative Christian news outlets, including Catholic Online and Anglican Mainstream, and by aggregators like Pro Life Blogs and Christian Portal News. One of the ironies in the broader reaction to Obama’s maneuvering around the issue of legal parity for queerfolk in various domains of American life is the fact that, like the busybodies on the religious right, many of my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters have a hard time le…

No to Church, Yes to Jesus?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…the spiritual heart of most churches as they present themselves in worship services, websites, and other public platforms. An “atheist most days” from Virginia who had been raised in a progressive Episcopalian church talked warmly about annual youth group service trips to Haiti, Mexico, New Orleans, and other “areas in need.” He insisted that these trips had been incredibly important in his personal and spiritual development. But, he said, they we…