Religion Dispatches
…. Bosnia: Attack on gay film festival in Sarajevo On February 2, a group of 10 to 15 hooded people burst into a movie theater hosting an LGBT film festival “yelling and intimidating participants” and injuring three people. According to Agence France-Presse, Bosnia is a largely conservative Muslim country and the capital Sarajevo has usually been hostile towards hosting events linked to homosexuality. The only attempt to organise a Gay Pride march…
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…intense presidential election season. The two issues at stake are opposite: 1) Freedom of speech, which includes the freedom to poach on the fine line between public critique and satire (allowed), and defamation or hate speech (not allowed); and 2) Protection of US interests, including and especially diplomatic posts and personnel serving the US government abroad in a variety of other conflict settings. Much will be made of the murky elements on b…
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…Schiwy, Teilhard de Chardin: sein Leben und seine Zeit. 2. (München: Kösel, 1981): 105. “I hate nationalism…” : Günther Schiwy, Teilhard de Chardin: sein Leben und seine Zeit. 2. (München: Kösel, 1981): 261. “The philosophical…”: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Letters to Léontine Zanta. Translated by Bernard Wall. (London: Collins, 1969): 117. “For a complex of…”: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “Human Energy” in Human Energy. (New York: Harcourt Brace J…
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…d from the Deists (who inherited it from the scientific rationalists of the 17th and 18th centuries) is no longer convincing. This God is either not scientific and rational enough—God cannot be proven—or, conversely, God is too academic a proposition, not enough a matter of personal heartfelt piety. The tension between the personal God of the pious and the remote God of science (or the academy, as it were) is a remnant of modern theologizing. Toda…
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…arriage… Taiwan would join Canada, Colombia, Ireland, the United States and 16 other countries that have legalized same-sex marriage over the past 15 years, according to the Washington, D.C.-based LGBT rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign . But it would be a notable exception among Asian and Middle Eastern countries, at least 20 of which continue to ban same-sex intercourse. Still, reports AP, “as legalization grows closer, opposition to sa…
Read More…lia – one of whom is Bermudian — were married on Friday. Finland: More than 1,500 same-sex couples married since March The Helsinki Times reported that more than 1,500 same-sex couples have married since marriage equality laws went into effect in March. Malta: Marriage equality sets stage for celebratory pride The Allied Rainbow Community’s annual gay pride march on Saturday was set to be a “huge celebration” marking the officially Catholic countr…
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…t was responsible for openly gay Mormon Todd Herzog’s victory in Survivor: China. No divine grace was extended to openly lesbian clergy Kate Lewis and Pat Hendrickson during season 12 of The Amazing Race. Of course, they had the gall to say they didn’t think God cared who won. The notion of a God interested in the outcome of reality show contests shouldn’t be surprising to any observer of American religion. After all, prosperity gospel preachers h…
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…e by peaceful means, not by violence. Gandhi’s opposition to Zionism in the 1920s and ’30s did not preclude support for the rights of Jews in Europe, however. In 1931, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, one of America’s most prominent Reform Rabbis and a leader of the Zionist Organization of America, was invited to address the Friends of Gandhi Dinner in New York City on the occasion of the Mahatma’s Sixty-second birthday. Rabbi Wise, who had long admired Gan…
Read More…tic Party; that’s not my calling. I’m not an ideologue. I do wish Obama had 10 years experience in the Senate and Sarah Palin had [more experience]. I am a Republican, but I’m not comfortable with giving the Republicans four more years. I don’t see John McCain differing enough from the incumbent, and yet Obama is a work in progress, pretty much, so we’d be taking some risk with him. It’s a conundrum. For more, see “Evangelical leader smacks McCain…
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…les, often aimed at the “enemies of Buddhism.” Monks not only fought in the 1950s as members of the famed guerilla organization, Chushi Gangdruk (Four River and Six Ranges) against the People’s Liberation Army; some of the monks served as key commanders. More recently, a significant number of monks took part in the much-reported demonstrations against Chinese rule in 2008 and 2009 in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. We have seen it not only in…
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