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Global LGBT Recap: Culture War Claims More Victims

…cussion of the church’s teaching and their reasons for departing from it.” India: Out LGBT people vulnerable under recriminalization BuzzFeed’s Lester Feder reports this week on the violent consequences of the Indian Supreme Court’s decision to recriminalize homosexuality. An anti-gay police raid and beatings that happened before the decision were being investigated by activists as lawless violence by police; now the victims of the raid wait to be…

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Global LGBT Recap: Francis’s First Year; Homophobia and Development; African Activists Push Back

…Lee Badgett from the University of Massachusetts presented a case study on India, which concluded that the economic costs of homophobia and LGBT exclusion ranged from .1 to 1.7% of the country’s GDP – a figure she said represented the tip of the iceberg because it was based only on labor and health impacts on which data is available. Luiz Loures, deputy executive director of UNAIDS and assistant secretary general of the United Nations, said that e…

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Spiritual Unplugging, Or What to Do When There is Wifi at the Ashram

…on’t know how not to do this. Yet here I was at the Ananda Ashram in rural India, expecting (and craving) swift condemnation by the monks and nuns at the sight of an iPhone. I was on a university-sponsored trip to the subcontinent with other journalists, all of us covering politics and religion. The reporting would come later, however. First came three days in an ashram, and I hoped for a 72-hour hiatus from the compulsion to connect. But this ash…

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Raelian Swastika Campaign Calculated to Stoke Controversy

…oses. I witnessed another example of “swastika-phobia” on a trip to Kochi, India, once home to a sizable population of Indian Jews, a part of which is still known as “Jew Town.” I overheard an American tourist exclaim with alarm, “I was in Jew Town, and there were swastikas everywhere!” When her friend tried to explain that in Kochi the swastika is a symbol of Hinduism and not Nazism, she responded, “I know, but still!” Because the swastika inspir…

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It’s Theology, Not Baseball: Misunderstanding Iraq’s Sectarian Conflicts

…nfined to Muslim-majority societies. Buddhist Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Hindu India, and Christian Uganda and Zimbabwe have done their share of official hate-mongering. So has the United States’ principal ally in the Middle East, Israel. As David Sheen has noted in these pages, none other than the former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef, invoked biblical passages to call for the eradication of Palestinians. Far from being an isolated outburst, She…

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Cyclops Baby of the Apocalypse? Another Day in ISIS Fundamentalism

…ld born in 2008 in Bolivia and another child that died in 2006 in Chennai, India. As for the Dajjal, hadith describe him as being blind in his right eye—not a cyclops. Of course this rumor is no more absurd than the American obsession with the antichrist, which has equated Proctor & Gamble, Ronald Reagan, and even Monster energy drinks with the Beast described in Revelation. Prior to reports of the birth of the false prophet, there were unconfirme…

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What’s Wrong With the Virgin Mary Depicted as a Barbie Doll?

…ocation and bad taste?” Commenting on the Barbie dressed as Kali, Times of India noted a long pattern of the West appropriating Hinduism for commercial purposes. Rajan Zed, a Hindu cleric and interfaith leader remarked, “Barbie-fication of Kali is simply improper, wrong and out of place.” The most outraged group appears to be devotees of Argentinian folk saint Difunta Correa (the deceased Correa), who’s also “Barbie-fied.” According to legend, Cor…

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Pope Decries ‘Ideological Colonization’ of Family; Islamic State Executes Gays and Others; Gay Couple Gets Long-Delayed Wedding in Mexico; Global LGBT Recap

…e crucifixion of 17 young men in 48 hour period. In addition, the Times of India reported on Tuesday that the United Nations was warning about a new wave of violence targeting “educated women.” Ireland: Marriage Referendum Language Set; Health Minister Comes Out The language of May’s marriage equality referendum was announced this week: It proposes to add to the Constitution a declaration that “marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by…

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LGBTs in Philippines Reflect on Papal Visit; Francis Meets Trans Man Shunned by Parish; French Group Turns ‘Bar of Sodom’ into ‘Pub of Mercy’; Global LGBT Recap

…ubject to violence and discrimination in many parts of the world. In 2013, India re-criminalised homosexuality while Nigeria, Uganda, and Gambia have all passed laws that make homosexuality a crime punishable with life imprisonment. In seven countries, homosexuality is punishable by death, the statement said. Philippines: LGBT rights advocates reflect on papal visit We reported last week on the visit by Pope Francis to the Philippines. This week G…

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It’s Not Yogaphobia, It’s Theology

…r). To take a somewhat parallel case, Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has promoted an appreciation for Jesus, but not for the Christian theology writ large. After all, a Buddhist would rightly be critical of a system that posits a belief in an essential soul. But where some Catholic voices (and Protestant ones as well) go out of their way to disparage yoga, Thich Nhat Hanh never uses incendiary rhetoric to tell his audience not to become Christia…

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