By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston
…But the center is an assertion, not a fact; an etiquette, not a place. Its code, its theology, is most fully embodied in Americanized Arminianism—a Protestant tradition of good works and propriety, “distinguished liberals” and polite realpolitik. “Arminian moralism,” notes historian Charles Sellers in his study of Finney’s age, The Market Revolution, “sanctioned competitive individualism and the market’s rewards of wealth and status.” It did not e…
…ivists from around the globe, will hold its next summit in Georgia in May. India: Hindu Nationalist Leader Calls for Decriminalization of Gay Sex Dattatreya Hosabale, a top official with a traditionalist Hindu nationalist group, said on Thursday, “Sexual preferences are personal issues” and that homosexuality should not be a crime “as it does not affect the lives of others.” He later clarified that he considers homosexuality a “socially immoral ac…
…ivilege from the government.” But both the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and the National Council of Churches in India, a Protestant organizing body, have backed Thomas. In doing so, church leaders have had to admit that Christianity in India is tainted by caste—a strange argument for American Christians, especially evangelicals, who pour millions of dollars into missionary work in India. Is religion, and Christianity in particular, as Das…
…y in a country torn between conservative mores and proximity to the West.” India: Actress discusses role as lesbian in film banned in India Preeti Gupta, a popular TV and theater actor, plays a lesbian girl Leela in Unfreedom, a movie released in the U.S. in May but banned in India. The film, by US-based Raj Amit Jumar, is set in New York and Delhi. The Hindu published an article and interview with Gupta on June 19: The film approaches sexuality a…
…e “registration and control of eunuchs” and marital rape exceptions in the Indian Penal Code. … Depictions of gender-fluid identity are common in ancient texts found in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, gods transform into goddesses, or they cross-dress. Men become pregnant. But when the British colonized India, they imported “a great discomfort with all things pleasurable and sensual,” said Devdutt Pattanaik, the author of several book…
…ovie screens across India, the Supreme Court reinstated Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which places homosexuality, alongside bestiality, as “against the order of nature.” What the ruling in practice has come to mean is that gay sex for the most part is permitted — the authorities turn a blind eye — but is criminalized on the books, which means of course that marriage, or even any social or legal acknowledgment of same-sex love, is a distant…
…ustice system. The manner in which the legal and justice system operate in India is inconsistent with the obligations that the Indian state has under international human rights law to prevent violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Manvendra Singh, a 40-year-old gay man described as “India’s first openly gay prince,” is urging the decriminalization of homosexuality. Israel: Gay couple part of military ad campaig…
…. What inspired you to write that book when you did? In 1995 I returned to India for the first time in 35 years and rediscovered an old college friend who had become a medical doctor and professor. N. M. Samuel, M.D., was now specializing in HIV and AIDS, but told me that the church was totally non-supportive of his efforts. Together we decided “to change the church” and to work together on projects that brought education, prevention, care, and tr…
…cultural conservatism in the United States. The foundation of this source code (the motherlode of the code, as it were) is Catholic natural law moral philosophy. Natural law is the 800-year-old Thomist tradition that absorbs (from revelation and scripture) and communicates (into public discourse and legal practice) a quite specific understanding of the human individual as the summit of God’s creation. First Things has hosted some of the most impo…
…my worst possible self. That’s almost true. I took my journalism class to India this past spring to cover the role of religion in the recent election. I’d done similar trips before to Israel and Ireland, but this time I wanted the students to have more than a fleeting encounter with the religion they were covering. During a previous trip to India, the class had visited one of Delhi’s Hanuman temples, where the synesthetic overload of traditional…