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Australian Church Nixes Straight Couple’s Wedding Over Their Marriage Equality Support; and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…d the church to “respect their dignity”. Picture: SuppliedSource:News Corp Australia But Philip Freier, the head of the Anglican Church in Australia, has said there will be no “whole of church” position on the controversial plebiscite. Last Wednesday, Bishop Van Nguyen wrote that the postal survey concerns “the legal definition of civil marriage” and is therefore “not a referendum on sacramental marriage as understood by the Catholic Church”. He s…

Religious Traditionalists Resist Marriage Equality, Artist Questions What Is “Un-African” & More in This Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…a and homophobia At Vice, Mahmood Fazal profiles and interviews Imam Nur, “Australia’s first openly gay Imam,” who discusses the prejudice he has received both for being Muslim and for being gay. We don’t need to tell you that being a gay Imam—the Islamic equivalent of a priest—is controversial. As Australia throws itself into a One Nation renaissance, and the Muslim community continues to frown upon homosexulity, being both gay and Islamic is har…

More Bleak Times For Indonesian LGBTs; South Africa Bans Extremist Anti-Gay US Pastor; Mexican Marriage Struggle Heats Up; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…s and florists are all free to discriminate.” The Greek Orthodox Church of Australia is among those opposing marriage equality; a recent post on the marriage page of the church’s website explains why the author believes “saying ‘no’ to same-sex marriage is a way of showing love, not rejection.” Hong Kong: Openly gay legislative council member re-elected Ray Chan Chi-chuen celebrated his re-election to Hong Kong’s legislative council, saying it dem…

Australians Vote Overwhelmingly For Marriage Equality; and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ized campaign to defeat the referendum. It also demonstrated deep rifts in Australian society. Opposition was concentrated in suburbs with high numbers of working-class immigrants on the suburban fringes, including locations popular with Islamic communities. Brazil: Conservative Christian activists protest gender theorist Judith Butler At Inside Higher Ed, philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler describes to Scott Jaschik her experience earl…

Francis Visits the Church that John Paul Broke

By Patricia Miller

…umber of marriages within the church has declined by nearly half. Only the number of Catholic funerals has held steady. And while the number of Catholics overall has remained level, that’s largely due to Hispanic migration to the US; some 40 percent of those born Catholic have left the church. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. The church Francis will encounter is fundamentally different in character from the church of John Paul in two import…

‘A Slice of Heaven’: Lakota Look to Buy Back Stolen Sacred Lands

By Johnny P. Flynn

…to the Lakota since the Before Time. Pe’sla is part of a complex of sacred sites which include Devil’s Tower in Wyoming and various other sites in the Black Hills, all of which link to Lakota mythology of the union of earth and sky, and many are still used for ceremonies and prayer. As noted in the excerpt above, the Black Hills was set aside for the Lakota people as part of what was then called The Great Sioux Reservation. Less than ten years la…

The Brutality of Life for Syrian LGBTs; Saving the Anglican Church by Dissolving It; Backlash to Hindu Gay Wedding Ceremony in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…n to hold a national plebiscite on marriage equality, saying “every single Australian will have a say.” Polls show that about 70 percent of Australians support marriage equality. Spain: Prime Minister who opposes gay marriage attends gay wedding Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy created a furor when he announced that he would attend a wedding between two men today. According to CNN, “This is news in 2015 because Rajoy has consistently opposed t…

Is the Bible Too Holy to Be Tennessee’s State Book?

By Adam Shapiro

…identity. The religious nature of the text aside, adopting the Bible as an official state book also entangles Tennessee’s identity with a specific interpretation of its history. The fight over official public memorials of American history has intensified, especially in the South—with activists calling out the valorization of Confederate relics without acknowledgement of the role that racism and slavery played in that history. The same concern is p…

Beyond Alarmism and Denial in the Dominionism Debate

By Anthea Butler

…es, and teachings if they want a reductionist argument they can spin out in 800 words. As someone who has studied and written about Pentecostalism for over 15 years, their lack of basic knowledge is staggering, and although I don’t expect people to get it like I do, I do expect reporters and journalists to do their homework—like you do, Sarah! This lack of “homework” has also led to a whole cottage industry of those who write about dominionism, th…

My Womb for His Purposes: The Perils of Unassisted Childbirth in the Quiverfull Movement

By Kathryn Joyce

…publicized and derided as cultish and irresponsible, though Above Rubies’ Australian director, Val Stares, appeared on national news to give a tepid defense of the book, arguing that the mother’s death was not necessarily a “failure” of Balizet’s philosophy, but rather showed the mother had been “seeking truth and walking in faith.” Above Rubies in Australia and the United States later declared they would no longer carry Balizet’s book. Other Qui…