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Elephant Orphans and Ecological Spiritualities: An Earth Day Reflection

By Jacob J. Erickson

…ysteries of these creatures. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. A large number of the “spiritual but not religious” crowd in the West are self-proclaimed ecologists or naturalists. A large number of atheists and agnostics are deeply passionate about ecological ethics, or how we might be more “in tune” with nature. Culturally, they become fascinated in the personalities of cats and cat videos, the companionship of dogs who offer a kind of faithf…

Why We Must Reclaim “Religious Freedom” from Christian Conservatives

By Bill Berkowitz

…lition and the way it carries out its politics has dynamically evolved. “A number of Christian right legal agencies have produced manuals for churches and related institutions, to rewrite such things as job descriptions to extend the legal definition of ‘ministry’ in order to seek exemption from labor standards and civil rights laws, and to inoculate themselves against discrimination lawsuits.” Thus, assumptions most of us have about the nature of…

Pope’s US Visit Provokes Intense Attention; New Vatican Book on Man-Woman Complementarity & New Int’l Report on Christian Role Models for LGBT Equality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ctor of Sexual Minorities Uganda. “It’s very vague.” Inside the bill are a number of provisions that aim to monitor potential “subversive activities” by NGOs, according to a parliamentary committee report. Among those is a stipulation that would allow the Ugandan government to refuse registering any nonprofit organization if it’s “in the public interest to do so.”’ While the term “public interest” is defined in the Ugandan constitution, human righ…

We Would Be Wise to Pay Attention to Trump’s Apocalyptic QAnon Posting Spree

By Thomas Lecaque

…ding a variety of Democratic politicians, celebrities, and public servants numbering in the thousands, and then public executions and the works. That last bit is really the key: the Day of the Rope, from the White supremacist guidebook/novel The Turner Diaries, reimagined for a Christofascist eschatological vision. That call for violence permeates the current campaign, from its opening rally in Waco last year onwards. And that image is not a one o…

Anglican Bishops Punish Episcopal Church Over LGBT Inclusion; Secularization’s Role in Moving Latin America ‘Beyond Machismo’; Greek Orthodox Bishop Says Gays Deserve Respect; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…frican bishops, but Ugandan Archbishop Stanley Ntagali left the meeting on January 12, explaining later that he did so because his resolution asking the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada “to voluntarily withdraw from the meeting and other Anglican Communion activities until they repented of their decisions that have torn the fabric of the Anglican Communion at its deepest level.” The Ugandan church broke bilateral ties with th…

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Blames Gays For ISIS; ‘Christian Nationalist’ Sworn In As Guatemala’s President; Vatican Resists Civil Unions in Italy; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…hop Angelio Bagnasco, “has given his blessing to a demonstration in Roe on January 30 promoting the supremacy of heterosexual family life and backing Catholic MPs within Renzi’s own party who plan to sabotage a gay unions bill on which the prime minister is staking his credibility.” The Catholic News Agency reported last week that Honduran Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga “has acknowledged the presence of a ‘gay lobby’ in the Vatican” and that “Pope Franc…

Is Pope Francis Yogaphobic?

By Andrea R. Jain

…owing and increasingly global yogaphobia. In a homily at a morning mass on January 9 in the Santa Marta residence, Francis reflected on that day’s gospel reading, which described how the apostles were frightened when they witnessed Jesus walking on water. The Pope explained that they were afraid as a consequence of their hearts being hardened. He went on to list a variety of potential reasons why peoples’ hearts might become hardened, such as a pa…

Both the Joy and the Uproar Over the Pope’s Blessings for LGBTQ Catholics are Small Potatoes Compared to this Age-Old Church Problem

By Mary E. Hunt

…he Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office in charge of such matters, on January 4, 2024. This move contradicted the clear statement in the original Declaration that “no further response should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type” (par. 41). The Declaration caught so many people off guard that the new and controversial Prefect of DDF, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández (whose earli…

Should Barbie Get Her Feet Washed at Church?

By Mary E. Hunt

…n competition for the surreal is keen. Rome got out ahead with its news on January 21, 2016. Women are now eligible to have our feet washed in the Holy Thursday liturgy, a privilege heretofore reserved officially for men though anatomically it appears that women’s and men’s feet are remarkably similar. Even Pope Francis has been known to wash women’s feet in these ceremonies. Now it is company policy, proving there are some perks to being the pope…

The “Religious Freedom” Issue That May Cost the Accused Boston Bomber His Life

By Anthony Santoro

…the state’s six million residents identify as Catholic, however, a sizable number of potential jurors—those who follow the Church’s teaching on capital punishment—are likely to be excluded from jury service for their religious beliefs.1 This regularly happens in capital trials across the country, and it’s important to reflect on this case to highlight both the potential Establishment Clause problem and a remedy to that problem. The basics of crimi…