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Gun Ownership as Sin—A Strategic, Secular Proposal for Gun Reform

By Ira Chernus

…’m looking at an advertising circular that I picked up in a motel lobby in Texas, touting a local “Gun Range and Training Center.” A buxom woman is pictured, wearing a black leather corset and holding a pistol in firing position. But she’s not looking at her target. She’s looking right at me, with a sort of “come hither, I dare you” stare. Below her are the words “Just Show Up and Shoot!” And further down, in bold: “Try Renting a Full-Auto Sub Mac…

Mexico’s Religious Conservatives Seek Anti-LGBT Constitutional Amendment, LGBT Activists Defend Secular Government; Cash From Qatar Funds ‘Traditional’ Family Activism Worldwide; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…topped,” he added. …In the release he said it could not be ignored that “a number of individuals, international groups and governments are exerting pressure on our communities to accept sexual practices that have not been previously accepted in most Caribbean communities”. … Although the PPM government has made it very clear it has no policy plans to introduce gay marriage or any kind of legal protection for same-sex couples, the fear that it migh…

Sex and the (Hipster) Church—Just a Gimmick?

By Nicole Greenfield

…NYC’s midweek eXchange service, and guest speakers Ed and Lisa Young (the Texas megachurch pastor and wife who attracted international media attention at the beginning of this year for spending 24 hours in bed on the roof of their church) preached to the young, hip congregation about God’s plan for intimacy. “It’s all about context: the marriage bed, a God-given gift and a God-united covenant,” Pastor Young declared, sitting on the bed and lookin…

The Higher the Dome, The Closer to God: “Megachurches” Explores the Arid Architecture of America’s New Sanctuaries

By Anita Little

…I don’t know yet if I’m going to do that. We’ll see. I just came back from San Jose where I photographed 15 megachurches there. Do you have any cities of interest that you’d feel most compelled to go to? Well, Texas has a huge amount of megachurches. That’s like the biggest state for megachurches and would be an interesting addition to the project. But I’m not really sure of where I would go. One of your megachurch “megazines” is on view at a gall…

Nuns Pray, Rangers Lose

By Lisa Webster

San Francisco was bedlam last night after the Giants broke a 53-year drought to win the World Series; you could hear the sound of the streets from way up in the hills over the Mission district. And near the ball park? Forget it. But amid the din, and my own rarely-elicited hometown pride, I found myself wondering about those elderly nuns who have been praying for so many years for the Texas Rangers. They’ve had a few minutes of fame this season,…

How Merle Haggard Saved My Soul

By Daniel Schultz

…2007: I supported George W. I’m not exactly a liberal. But I know how that Texas thing works, who those oil folks are and what they wanted in Iraq. I’m a born-again Christian too, but the longer I live, the more afraid I get of some of these religious groups that have so much influence on the Republicans and want to tell us how to live our lives. Haggard also took up for Obama in 2012: I don’t think it makes much difference who the president is. I…

Why The Church Can’t Stop Gun Violence

By Daniel Schultz

…stances, said Lydia Bean, a sociologist and executive director of Faith in Texas, which organizes churches for social justice. … Another obstacle for faith-based gun control activists is the intensity and homogeneity with which white evangelicals view guns. While the congregants in mainline Protestant churches are split on the issue, leading to fears of stoking intra-congregational conflict by raising it, evangelical churches have “sacralized” gun…

Does Conservative Watchdog Actually “Get Religion”?

By Joanna Brooks

…story on a recently-installed, openly-gay Mormon congregational leader in San Francisco. Get Religion insisted that this story on Mitch Mayne wasn’t really news, and that it was bad journalism to claim that Mayne’s call to serve indicated “evolving” views of homosexuality in Mormonism, because only orthodox institutional statements from high-ranking Church leaders count as evidence. But as someone who’s been writing about Mormonism and homosexual…

Catholic Bishops End Family Synod With Little To Say To Gays; World Congress of Families Has Plenty To Say, None of it Good; How Same-Sex Marriage Came to a Buddhist Temple in Japan; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…have been fleeing to Europe for years. But experts estimate that a record number of gays and lesbians seeking asylum, as many as 50,000, will arrive this year in Germany, the European nation accepting the largest number of refugees. Rather than leaving their home countries specifically because of anti-gay persecution, many are fleeing violence and war in nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Once in Europe, gays and lesbians are herded alo…

Pat Robertson’s Women Warriors Leading Spiritual Warfare In Zimbabwe

By Sarah Posner

…ential material,” said Mpofu. “Oh yeah,” echoes Bourland. “In my heart, I just begin to pray, God, let this woman rise to this place that you want her to go,” said Mpofu. “Number one, she’s a Christian. Number two, she’s a woman.” Watch a short video montage of the conference here. —Ed….