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Gay Men Detained and Killed in Chechnya, and More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…al warfare against the openly gay former US ambassador to the country. The New York Times profiled a number of everyday people, Muslims and Christians, who are taking part in legal challenges to the Trump administration overs its executive orders banning entry into the U.S. from a number of countries. Paul Harrison, an American man engaged to an Iranian man is among the individuals profiled: Like the other plaintiffs, the couple veer between dread…

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Men “Stand Up” for “Religious Freedom”… On a Plane

By Kara Loewentheil

…ove. Ok, so no huge deal there—it’s annoying, perhaps, but hey, that’s the free market economy at work. The problem is what happens if the woman/women won’t cooperate. As one news source described a recent outburst: “Hundreds of ultra-orthodox Jewish men delayed takeoff of a transatlantic flight by refusing to sit next to women, and then caused chaos once it was airborne [by standing in the aisles for the entire flight and refusing to occupy their…

UNESCO on Religion, Culture and SOGI in Asia; Orthodox Family Sues to Stop Cremation of Israeli Trans Woman; Struggles of Iraqi Queer Activists; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…As a result, I was forced to leave the country, fearing for my life and my freedom…. “In addition, I had grounds to expect physical violence. I used to receive threats but in recent years they had grown to an enormous number. My public activities resulted in promises to hunt me down, beat me up, and kill me. Neo-Nazis, homophobes and pro-Putin agitators showered me with insults on social networks, harassed me on the phone and at events, and even c…

Hicksters, Stickers, and Affection: Why I Left D.C. for the Family Farm

By Timothy King

…turning to family land with significant existing infrastructure and a debt-free tractor. The root of affection, Berry argues, is imagination. Far from being ethereal and disconnected, imagination thrives “on contact or tangible experience.” It is when we imagine the well-being and future of the place where we are the things that share that place with us that we enter into a state of sympathy. Sympathy ignites a personal concern for the well-being…

Distant Churches and the Isolated Poor: Lessons from Katrina, Ten Years Later

By R. Drew Smith

…at the Superdome and at the airport. He also draws attention to the large number of congregations from New Orleans and elsewhere that rushed in to the city after the storm (ahead of and in spite of opposition from governmental agencies) “to serve as first responders . . . as relief centers and islands of stability and reconstruction for neighborhoods in crisis.” Ten years after Katrina, the poor continue to struggle in New Orleans, and in urban c…

Orthodox TV Channel Offers Gays One-Way Ticket Out of Russia; And More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…eader. He has faced accusations of imposing an autocratic rule by muzzling free speech and media freedoms. Tanzania: Government threatens LGBT activists and NGO supporters Government officials have “threatened to arrest and expel activists, as well as deregister all non-governmental organisations that campaign for gay rights,” reports Reuters. Singapore: Pink Dot rally succeeds without banned participation and funding from foreigners Thousands att…

Sit Down and Shut Up: Pulling Mindfulness Up By Its (Buddhist) Roots

By Max Zahn

…ement of the pressures of U.S. marketing to sell things by announcing them new or fresh or interesting,” added Loncke. Marketers and practitioners gravitate toward this newness, rather than “doing the sometimes tedious work of giving credit where credit is due.” Loncke and other mindfulness critics belong to an engaged Buddhist movement that itself is open to criticism for the appropriation of Buddhism, hitching the tradition to a progressive poli…

SoulCycle Looks to Sell its Soul

By Michael Schulson

…sses in the Hamptons (which includes early class signups) runs for $4,000. New York magazine interviewed one New York City rider who, by the magazine’s estimate, was spending more than $21,000 on SoulCycle each year. A single class, sans early sign-up perks, costs nearly as much as a month-long membership at my local YMCA. Meanwhile, back on SoulCycle’s website, instructors describe their work in frankly spiritual language. Here’s the lightly cond…

A ‘Vows’ Piece in ‘The Times’ Shows How Doctrinaire Christian Celibacy Has Become Compared to its Ancient Roots

By Joseph Amar

…d what other people their age did—with the exception, of course, of sexual contact. The chaste life, whether permanent or for a specified period of time, was meant to free those who practiced it to live more deliberately, to cultivate habits of empathy and compassion. Almost everything we know about the Covenanters comes from St. Ephrem the Syrian (307-373). Pious tradition reinvents Ephrem as a monk, a deacon, or a theologian. He was none of thes…

More Mixed Signals from Pope Francis; Church of England Wrestles with Rifts; Faith Groups Lobby Pro & Con on Irish Referendum; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…This is because society recognises the importance of the setting in which new human life, new members of society come into existence. “It is of vital importance to society that the definition of marriage is protected, sustained and supported.” India: Couple’s high-profile marriage in defiance of anti-gay law BuzzFeed reported last week on a gay couple that was married in a religious ceremony at the end of January. “A Sanskrit teacher conducted th…