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‘Rising Global Tide’ Of Anti-Gay Crackdowns; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ities across Muslim-majority regions of the former Soviet Union. In March, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said authorities in the Russian region of Chechnya were imprisoning and torturing gay men. One Chechen resident publicly testified in Moscow this week about being detained and tortured because he is gay. And last month, Amnesty International raised alarm over the apparent detentions of LGBT people in the Caucasus country of Azerbaijan. Radio…

Secular Group Calls On Obama To “Keep His Word” on Faith-Based Office

By Sarah Posner

…ts, fired three employees for “not being the right kind of Christians” and World Relief, an arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, fired a qualified Muslim because of his religion: World Vision’s president, Richard Stearns, was tapped by Obama to serve on the faith-based Advisory Council, and has been an outspoken proponent of taxpayer-funded hiring discrimination. After the Supreme Court handed down its decision this week in Christian L…

How an 1843 Revelation on Polygamy Poses a Serious Challenge to Modern Mormonism

By Benjamin E. Park

…ly ceased but will be restored in the next life. Plural marriage, in other words, remains a live possibility as long as it’s part of the scriptural canon. Further, beyond the explicit defense of polygamy, D&C 132 also contains some of the most direct statements concerning eternal gender roles in LDS scripture. At his first press conference as church president, Nelson explicitly drew from the revelation when he explained that a woman’s divine purpo…

Toni Morrison, Prophet of America’s Demons (1931-2019)

By Ed Simon

…on reminds us in Playing in the Dark, it’s also language’s ability to construct new and better, fairer, and more beautiful worlds, so that the “ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.” God takes prophets from us when we’re most in need of them—perhaps the better to recruit new voices unto the wilderness. Morrison’s witness to language’s power to both destr…

The Islamophobia Dodge of the Religious Freedom Pledge

By Sarah Posner

…s apparent willingness to overlook his endorser Jay Sekulow’s anti-Muslim crusades) are “considering” signing the pledge, with no questions raised by Open Doors. It seems that Open Doors is more concerned about what it perceives to be anti-Christian sentiment. According to the pledge, religious freedom includes the right to employ religious arguments “contending for or against laws and policies, such as laws designed to protect the unborn and trad…

Religious Opposition To LGBT Equality Softening

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…y laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” If Gandhi’s words are true, then the vicious and vocal fighting over gay and lesbian people in both society and the church is actually very good news. The gay and lesbian community has long been ignored and ridiculed, and now our mere presence is causing fights among denominations, in courtrooms, and legislatures across the country. All this fighting, while it can become discouraging and dispirit…

Interfaith Group to Political Candidates: Ditch Divisive Religious Appeals

By Sarah Posner

…the president over how Obama came to accept Christianity. * * * * ON SANTORUM: “Do you believe Rick Santorum is a Christian?” asked Geist. “I think so,” responded Graham. “How do you know, if the standard is: only the person knows what’s in him when you apply it to the president, why is it different for Rick Santorum?” replied Geist. “Well, because his values are so clear on moral issues. No question about it. I just appreciate the moral stances…

Photo of the Week: “If I Wanted the Government in My Womb…”

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…. Skerbitz said that this “display of vulgarity from a sitting senator is truly shocking[,]” and that it “is more evidence of the hardness of heart behind a movement that would deny the right of a helpless pre-born baby to be recognized and protected by the law[.]” Well, look. Respectfully, in my experience, there is NOTHING about the gestating, birthing, or raising of human beings that precludes the occasional F-bomb dropping. (Ask a labor and de…

US Catholic Bishops Elect a Culture Warrior

By Marian Ronan

…much nicer man than Cardinal Edward Egan, his predecessor as archbishop of New York. And he certainly did smile a lot at the vespers, and sounded convincing when he thanked Pax Christi for inviting him. What I’ve been mulling over, though, is Archbishop Dolan’s sermon about Day, who, having spent most of her life in New York, often worshiped in the very church where we were singing vespers. And while Dolan said a number of things about Day in his…

Back to School at The First Public School In the Country To Require a World Religions Course

By Joseph Laycock

…student has converted to another religion but we have educated tens of thousands of students in world religions over the past 15 years and I’m sure some have looked into other religions later in life. If they did it was not due to the class itself, but possibly because they knew the differences and most importantly, similarities between the religions of the world. I’ve had students tell me they intended to study world religions in college and I’v…