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Sanctuary and the Second Amendment: Do Guns Deserve Special Protection?

…Indeed, the tradition of sacred spaces as gun-free (weapon-free, violence-free, force-free) zones makes the use of sanctuary language in recent “Second Amendment Sanctuary” legislation curious. The turn from the use of “sanctuary” from its origins in restricting vengeance, violent enforcement, and weaponry to the protection of gun-keeping within the sanctuary borders, while rhetorically brilliant, feels particularly cynical when research shows th…

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Competing Visions of Family & Freedom at UN; Methodists Try to Avoid Schism on Sexuality; Catholic Cardinal Denounces LGBT ‘Demonic Ideology’; Global LGBT Recap

…at marriage is now our sole agenda. That is not the case—at least not now. Freedom of assembly, freedom of expression—that’s what we’re fighting for.” Also recognized by OutRight were U.S. Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons; the UN Free & Equal campaign; and Dan Bross, who heads Microsoft’s Global Corporate Responsibility Program. In other UN news, the Organization of Islamic States, along with Tanzania, Cameroon, and Russia, are…

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In the Papal Pocket: Benedict XVI and the Press

…the media. Rather than to please advertisers, I take it that the role of a free press, on religious issues as well as secular ones, is to raise issues of common concern, examine them, and help readers and viewers form their own opinions. If the issues are obscured, no such process can play out. A little practice with Catholicism would go a long way toward improving press coverage of smaller, less well known groups. Second, if the American press ca…

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The Conservative Bible Project: Looking for Conservative Diamonds in a Liberal Dung-Hill

…the modern concept of Hell is a post-biblical conflation of motifs from a number of sometimes conflicting biblical and apocryphal notions of sheol, gehenna, Hades, judgment in the end-times, etc. More starkly anachronistic are claims that Jesus taught parables about the “free market” (a late-medieval concept at best), and that the Bible includes “later-inserted liberal passages.” In describing the project, Schlafly has repeatedly cited two such “…

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The Resurgence of Right-Wing Anti-Semitic Conspiracism Endangers All Justice Movements

…in full swing, hard-right strategists William Lind and Paul Weyrich at the Free Congress Foundation had a vision for the future of the American right. They argued that American conservatives, having successfully mainstreamed a free-market consensus, should pivot to the terrain of social issues, and adopt a “cultural conservatism” centered on family, education, crime, and morality, in order to shape public discourse. Needing a new enemy to rally th…

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No ‘Christian Compassion’ in Tony Perkins’ Response to Anti-Gay Bullying, Suicides

…tion [to pursue changing from gay to straight].” True. That’s the point of free will. However, it wouldn’t be free will unless the partnered gay Christian has the ability to choose to live as a partnered gay Christian. Once these ideas were given voice the conversation quickly shifted, as each heard the other for the first time. When social policy, theology, and personally-tied emotions are parted for even the slightest moment, it becomes clear th…

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‘Religious Freedom’ Rally Sets Stage for 1st Amendment Collision

…xactly what the Establishment Clause prohibits. The Stand Up for Religious Freedom rallies emphasized the Free Exercise Clause and their own “religious freedom,” but they ignore, most certainly not by accident, the principle upon which Judge Stearns’ decision rests: “[t]o insist that the government respect the separation of church and state is not to discriminate against religion; indeed, it promotes a respect for religion by refusing to single ou…

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Broadcast Officials in China Censor Gay TV Characters

…a model among others,” reports Basilica.ro, the Romanian Patriarchy’s news service. According to him, the family is in a fragile and difficult situation, as some think that the traditional family model is outdated. “The number of those who treat marriage as a simple contract or partnership between two persons of different gender or the same gender keeps increasing nowadays. However, the social partnerships between people can’t be classed as tradit…

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Catholic Archbishop Takes On Jesuit Magazine’s Slam on “Ecumenism of Hate”; and More in Global LGBT Recap

…ion/gender identity) “anti-discrimination” laws. But working for religious freedom has never precluded service to the poor. The opposite is true. In America, the liberty of religious communities has always been a seedbed of social action and ministry to those in need. The divide between Catholic and other faith communities has often run deep. Only real and present danger could draw them together. The cooperation of Catholics and evangelicals was q…

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Dispatches from the Borderlands: Missing Voices

…osthumously praise the beneficiaries of that amnesty for dying in military service in Iraq. While demanding stricter border security, we forget that such measures have grossly inflated the number of undocumented immigrants residing in the US. Half of these used to return to Mexico annually, but researchers now estimate that only one-fourth do so today; stricter border enforcement measures since 1994 have staunched the cyclical flow of the return h…

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