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Shocked by Aung San Suu Kyi’s Insensitivity to Ethnic Cleansing? Don’t Be.

By Michael Jerryson

…is not unique. In my forthcoming book If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence, I explore this phenomenon. One of the causes for Aung San Suu Kyi’s blindness to the current violence is her fetishist disavowal of the Rohingya. In his book Violence, Slavoj Žižek argues that people have a tendency to overlook a particular group or community in our ethical systems. It is a conscious effort—so persistent it acts as a fetish…

Steve Bannon and the Conservative “Cafeteria Catholics”

By Patricia Miller

…ugh according to Joshua Green, the author of Devil’s Bargain, the new book about Bannon and Trump, Bannon grew up in an observant Catholic family and, despite some dalliances with world religions like Buddhism, considers himself a practicing Catholic. As America magazine’s Michael O’Loughlin notes in a Washington Post profile of Bannon’s somewhat opaque relationship with Catholicism, while Bannon proclaims that both the Catholic Church and the Wes…

Talking With the “Religious Terrorist” that Turkey Wants Trump to Extradite

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…etween Erdogan and Gulen began to sour, however, when information surfaced about corruption within Erdogan’s inner circle, and about the president’s autocratic attempts to solidify power. Gulen supporters within the police, the judiciary, and the news media were leading the corruption charges. Soon Erdogan began rounding up the more vocal of his Gulen-related critics and shutting down Gulen-related newspapers. Then came the July 15, 2016 attempted…

Trump Election Could Threaten LGBT Rights Globally

By Peter Montgomery

…hurch was completely out of touch with the people. And if you want to talk about an agenda, that in itself is an agenda. You [are] talking about the moral and social fabric of a society and a country and you completely ignore that gun violence has been on the rise in Barbados and people are not safe in their communities any more.” Australia: Senators reject marriage plebiscite Senators blocked a proposed plebiscite on marriage equality; LGBT advoc…

Marriage Equality Coming To Taiwan In Spite of Religious Objectors?; Anti-Gay Ruling Sought By Indonesian Islamists Threatens Women & Poor Couples; LDS Church Launches New ‘Mormon and Gay’ Site; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…es to be legally married. The Equality Rights Group expressed some concern about a Conscience Clause that allows deputy registrants with religious objections to opt out of providing marriage licenses, but notes that under the law, the government will be required to provide a replacement celebrant. Australia: US anti-gay group providing materials to anti-equality groups The Australian Family Association is reportedly distributing an anti-marriage-e…

Anti-Gay Campaign In Indonesia Leads to Arrests; Mexico’s Religious Right Wars Against Secular State & LGBT Equality; Muslim Preacher Sparks Controversy in UK Re Death Penalty For Gays; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…aaretz that the response has been overwhelmingly positive, telling a story about an Orthodox Jewish woman who recently stopped to offer congratulations: Ben-Ari was nervous about announcing her unconventional pregnancy, but she said the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. The nation’s celebration of childbearing seems to have trumped, or at least tempered, any discomfort with Ben-Ari’s nontraditional choice of family, even among the Orthodo…

Turning Students into Citizens, Religious Studies Edition

By James Miller

…joring in religious studies. It asks them to consider how their studies of Buddhism or Christianity will help them negotiate a world whose climate is changing rapidly and without precedent. It asks them to make a creative leap across disciplinary boundaries. It asks them to apply their knowledge to the problems of the real world. Surely it is far more important that thousands of young people can think critically about the nexus of religious worldv…

Reverend Billy For Mayor: Is He For Real?

By Nathan Schneider

…ll. With an ironic take on televangelist religion and a vigorous social conscience, Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping have become icons for the growing community of people who think of themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” This phenomenon, which many observers have dismissed as self-indulgent and apolitical, reveals itself in this case to be anything but. F the Fare Hike It certainly isn’t unheard of for a successful prea…

Russian Politician Wants to Ban Apple CEO Who Says Being Gay is God’s Gift; Violence After Preachers Blame Liberian Gays for Ebola; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e end synod on the family, Pope Francis was back in the news with comments about the family. The context was not directly about same-sex couples, but have been interpreted as an embrace of the more conservative positions that were dominant at the synod. From the Catholic News Agency: In an audience with members of an international Marian movement, Pope Francis warned that the sacrament of marriage has been reduced to a mere association, and urged…

Conversion Story #643 (not a real number)

By Amina Wadud

…the spirit. Entering Islam was partially an accident. I was still reading about traditions other than the one of my birth. Likewise I began to read about Islam. I knew I understood only a part of it from books alone. So I finally took myself to a mosque to investigate the other part: the lived reality. Although I had no intention at that time of becoming a Muslim, I think the fact that I already dressed covering my legs, arms, and hair was taken…