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The Gray Lady’s Regard: Ritual and the Wedding Pages

…r a partnership registration, we must have the name of the person who will sign the official certificate,” advises the online instructions for announcement submission, “For an interfaith event, please include the names and affiliations of any other officiants who will participate.” Religion here is a first-paragraph shibboleth, the entry code to the subsequent curriculum vitae. Over the course of the announcements, the so-called “Episcopacy” has b…

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Biggest, Best & Worst LGBT Religion Stories of 2016 and more in Global LGBT Recap

…Ayatollah Khomeini issued a hand-written fatwa that “God willing, sex reassignment, if advised by a reliable doctor, is permissible.” More from the BuzzFeed story: Hundreds have undergone sex reassignment surgery in Iran since Molkara’s meeting with Khomeini. Almost 1,400 people applied for permission for the process between 2006 and 2014, according to government figures published in Iranian media, and the country’s State Welfare Organization eve…

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The Hypocrisy in Protests against Ultra-Orthodox in Israel

…—often more adroitly than their modern counterparts. In his Mishneh Torah (Code of Law), Maimonides explicitly advocated the position that women should stay mostly in their homes. The kabbalistic literature now so popular in modern Israel is in many ways worse. We have evidence that in the heyday of Safed in the sixteenth century a “council for rectifying sins” (va’ad le tikun avonot) was established to seek out and corporally punish those who wer…

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Inspired by the Anti-Abortion Movement and QAnon, Anti-Trans Rhetoric is a Blatant Call for Violence

…This moved swiftly into the revision of Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code in 1935, which “would amount to a death sentence for gay men,” according to historian Andrea Carlo. The banning of books on the LGBTQIA+ experience and the closing of libraries; the legislation and platforms against transgender healthcare and LGBTQIA+ rights; these all draw from that playbook. All of these components–physical assaults, book banning, and legislation–are…

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Bonnaroo 3: With a Buzz in Our Ears

…e strings of his electric bass to bang out a rhythm that sounds like Morse code. When all twelve performers are on stage, the sounds that they make together are nothing less than astonishing. On top of it all rests the falsetto voice of the band’s vocalist, Jón Birgisson, who sings the lyrics with a keening wail: Bakvio sk´yjaból vaknar sól úr dvala Svalar sér vio kalda dropa regnsins leikur sér vio heita loga eldsins Byr til regnboga A rough tran…

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Beck Botches Social Justice

…it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, the idea, hang on, am I advising people to leave their church… yes!… If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish.” And the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good responded. Beck needs to get out more. I don’t know about the Book of Mormon, but here are just a few of the Bible verses concerning the poor and believer’s…

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Only Fetuses and Popes are Worthy

…e men from murdering women or to send a moral message. In the 1983 Revised Code of Canon Law, only two groups are protected. A Catholic may incur automatic excommunication if he or she attempts to assassinate the Pope (you don’t even need to succeed, just trying is enough) or if one successfully procures an abortion. Only fetuses and popes are worthy of consideration. The rest of us are on our own. Perhaps most cruel in the Brazilian case is the f…

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Why Bill Maher Gets a “C” in My Introduction to Religion Class…

…a sentence, and then give some paragraphs of support to back it up. The assignment has no singular answer, of course; I’m looking for their ability to think coherently and offer support for their ideas. This is something at which Maher and cohorts would mostly succeed. But I’m also looking for my students to do a little reflection on their own assumptions about what religion is and does, to do a little research, and to think about the variety of…

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On the 20th Anniversary of Waco

…never be discovered embezzling money, enjoying kinky sex, or (The Da Vinci Code notwithstanding) fathering surprise children. It’s not necessary to label something a “cult” to understand the potential peril involved in looking to a living guru. However honest and virtuous that guru might be, she—like the rest of us—is susceptible to tripping and falling right up until the day she dies. What makes some folks willing and able to trust in a charismat…

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Catholic Bishops Meeting For Family Synod; South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church OKs Gay Weddings, Ordination; Court in Malaysia Deals Setback To Transgender Advocates; Global LGBT Recap

…rom throughout the Western Hemisphere joined a conference in Tegucigalpa designed to bolster LGBT advocacy in the region. The Washington Blade’s Michael Lavers covered the conference. Randy Berry, the special U.S. envoy to promote global LGBT rights, spoke at the gathering that took place at a Tegucigalpa hotel alongside gay Peruvian Congressman Carlos Bruce, transgender Venezuelan National Assembly candidate Tamara Adrián, Costa Rican Deputy Mini…

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