Religion Dispatches
…to defend “traditional” marriage and defend “religious liberty,” which is code for defending the religious right’s ability to bully gay and lesbian people at will using God as their shield. But, wait, there’s more. Gingrich has hit the conservative Christian trifecta by sitting down with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board to affirm that opposition to marriage equality stating that there is a “big difference between saying that you’re to ha…
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…s this common understanding of the relation of religion and politics truly useful? In critiquing the “politicizing” of evangelical Christianity, for example, Prothero implies that evangelicals’ authentic or essential identity is something other than “political,” which is to say, of course, that it is properly “religious.” The notion of “politicized religion” relies on the assumption that religion is apolitical in nature, and that religion and poli…
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…ative moral absolute. Indeed, contrary to Vatican theology, the failure to use condoms when one’s spouse is HIV positive is morally wrong. There are many other circumstances where the failure to use artificial contraception could not be morally justified. Abortion is also not seen by Catholic theologians as “intrinsically evil.” The following are cases from real life. Few theologians and few others would accuse these women of sin. Case #1: A woman…
Read More…, Kennedy struck down an anti-gay amendment to Colorado’s constitution because he found impermissible “animus” in the process of its drafting. Likewise, in Masterpiece Cakeshop Kennedy opined that the state civil right commission’s judgment against Phillips should be overturned because several commissioners made comments that, the justice believed, demonstrated unacceptable bias against religious people. Kennedy announced his retirement a few week…
Read More…r a referendum putting a marriage ban in the constitution, an effort being promoted by the Orthodox Church.) “It’s the only cause in the world that American money and Russian Money are given for the same cause, which is anti-LGBT policies,” says Sandu. “That’s just insane.” India: Author urged Hindus to explore pre-colonial history on LGBT relationships Raj Rao, author of “Criminal Love? Queer Theory, Culture, and Politics in India,” writes that h…
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…traditional marriage. It was only in 2000 that the discriminatory ban on ‘promoting’ homosexuality was lifted. Since 2004, Cyprus has implemented an anti-discrimination law (Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation Law 2004) that explicitly forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment. In 2013, the penal code was amended to include sexual orientation and gender identity thus criminalising all discrimination against…
Read More…ather than “Agnostic,” “Atheist,” “no religious preference,” or “none”—the codes previously approved by the Army Chaplaincy for service members with non-religious beliefs and practices. The new faith code is significant in a number of ways. First, for Bradley and Humanist service members, it means that their existential disposition and associated practices are designated in their military records with language not shaped primarily in opposition to…
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…icture.” Another said “If I ever see you, I’m going to give you a slap. A slap like you wouldn’t believe.” Another person said that if he ever saw me he would “stomp your ass. People like you need to be stopped.” Multiple messages were simply one word: “standby.” To be clear, threatening people because you don’t like what they have to say is a crime. Threatening a church because you don’t like the way they practice Christianity is a crime. Our Con…
Read More…SB-1433 is yet another data point suggesting that full legal rights for fetuses is a step too far even for many who consider themselves pro-life — precisely because of the possible unintended consequences. Perhaps the pro-choice cognate is the position which holds that nobody may ever raise a moral objection to any abortion ever, not even a theoretical abortion, and not even if that objection is offered with no attendant desire to legally enforce…
Read More…ions are suspect. Among the topics he mentioned: secularism, Islamic penal code, Muslim women’s rights, headscarf or burqa, and equality, it is interesting to note how many have to do directly with women or with gender identity and politics. He was concerned that using vaguely poetic or philosophical language might be seen as an attempt to mislead the readers. Otherwise, he should just stick to these button issues. Isn’t it curious that women are…
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