Religion Dispatches
…bout the cover? I love the cover. I took that picture myself (with my cell phone), and the press did a great job with the layout. The picture is of a hallway in Dystopia Haunted House, a big haunted attraction in Denmark. I’m doing some scientific consulting for them and have also done two large-scale quantitative research projects on recreational fear in the haunt, so it seemed only appropriate to use an image of one of their sets. It’s atmospher…
Read More…ian Money are given for the same cause, which is anti-LGBT policies,” says Sandu. “That’s just insane.” India: Author urged Hindus to explore pre-colonial history on LGBT relationships Raj Rao, author of “Criminal Love? Queer Theory, Culture, and Politics in India,” writes that he is not optimistic that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding the right to privacy would bring about an end to Section 377, the colonial-era anti-sodomy law that wa…
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…chool curricula and restrict abortion rights. Scotland: Anglican Communion Sanctions Scottish Episcopal Church Over Marriage Anglican primates have sanctioned the Scottish Episcopal Church for its decision to embrace same-sex couples’ marrying. From The Herald: It means the Scottish Church will join the US Episcopal Church in being barred by Anglican primates from taking part in certain votes and decision-making processes in the Anglican Communion…
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…coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, here. — eds Amidst a recent layover, my phone pinged to indicate I’d been “mentioned” on Twitter, which is never a good sign. Right-wing provocateur Andy Ngo had tweeted a photo from my 2018 book event suggesting it was an “antifa training” session. He then tagged Haaretz—a left-leaning Israeli newspaper I occasionally write for—asking why they would publish an “antisemitism denier.” Pointing to a recent intervie…
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…of their pilots. Reflecting the optimism of the early nuclear age, a good number of these experiences portrayed these extraterrestrials as comical, or even friendly. A journalist named Frank Scully wrote a book claiming that aliens dressed in “the style of 1890” had been recovered from a saucer crash in the Mojave Desert in 1949. The Californian George Adamski claimed that in November 1952 a cigar-shaped spacecraft landed near his campsite in sou…
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…force us to leave,” Robertson concluded. “I felt the full weight of their fear, and where there is such fear, we can be certain that there is no possibility of love. Phone calls and an email inquiry to representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention were not returned….
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…women and LGBTQ persons” was incongruous with the seminary’s values. In a phone interview, Calvo, who sits on the board of PTS’s Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Supporters, said that “there was a lot of anger, a lot of disappointment among women and LGBT students and faculty.” “I’m training in ministry because I believe that regardless of your theological position you are worthy of dignity. However, that doesn’t mean your exclusionary values…
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…onhood standard that applies to every state so that we don’t have abortion sanctuaries, for instance, like California or New York. That’s what they want. Following the lead of Florida Republicans, some might hold off for the moment on attempts to impose these laws until they believe the public outcry has subsided. In fact, a bipartisan bill to protect IVF was passed overwhelmingly by the Alabama legislature, though it’s just a temporary measure. B…
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…own legislative agenda. In any case, this is all really very simple: partisan problems have partisan solutions. To stop the extremist conservative agenda, Democrats have to step through the minefields of race and religion to take more than just a few conservative districts away from the Republican party. That’s the very definition of a partisan project, and it’s the only thing that will work. The only way “to protect our neighbors and our nation…
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…erything. So now if I’m trying to open up a bank account, I’m doing a cell phone application, or anything, that statement is there, it has just gone into everything, every aspect of one’s life, it’s there. It’s ridiculous to have that, but nonetheless it’s real. The problems are not just administrative: Ahmadis have a “glass ceiling” in the civil service, and discriminatory use of voter registration lists (Ahmadis are enrolled separately) keeps th…
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