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Why Are Some Religious Progressives Reinforcing the Religious Right on Abortion And Health Care Reform?

By Daniel Schultz

…s to point out that it isn’t part of a good-faith effort to bring down the number of abortions. Call it what it is: a partisan attempt to hamstring a president of the opposing party on his signature issue. At the same time, it needs to be said that not many religious progressives are worried that health care reform will lead to more abortions. Some of them are, and they’re entitled to their worries. But by no means do all progressive religious peo…

How (Not) to Understand Romney’s Time as an LDS Bishop

By Joanna Brooks

…ment and threatened Mormon feminists with excommunication. It was the Salt Lake Tribune’s award-winning religion reporter Peggy Stack who first told the story in 2008 of Bishop Romney and his interactions with Boston-area Mormon feminists. (The New York Times’s Sheryl Stolberg followed Stack’s trail of sources for her solid piece on Romney as bishop last month.) The Post’s story adds nuance through in-depth interviews with Boston-area Mormon femin…

55% of Utah Mormons Believe LGBT People can “Change”

By Joanna Brooks

A new poll released today by the Salt Lake Tribune shows that among Utah Mormons surveyed, 55% believe it is possible for people who are attracted to members of the same sex to change their sexual orientation. Twenty-five percent of Utah Mormons reported being “unsure,” and 15% believed gay people could not voluntarily “change” their own sexual orientation. Among non-Mormon Utahns surveyed, 66% believed it was not possible for gay people to “chan…

Time for Mormons to Come to Terms with Church History

By Joanna Brooks

…gton Post, Reuters, and religion reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack of the Salt Lake Tribune have all addressed the growing incidence of disaffiliation among LDS Church members for whom the digital age has brought new access to conflicting perspectives on Mormon history and doctrine—scrutiny that is certain to intensify if Romney gets the GOP nomination. It’s not uncommon for LDS people to grow up in contexts where most information about Mormonism come…

Mormon D.C. Pride Delegation Continues Nationwide Movement

By Joanna Brooks

…r Marriage Equality.” Like the Mormons Building Bridges contingent in Salt Lake City, most of the LDS marchers wore Sunday dress. At one point along the parade route, a man dressed in a blue t-shirt, camouflage cap, and Mardi Gras beads around his neck yelled, “Mormons! You’re Mormons!” He pushed through the parade watchers and with tears in his eyes jumped into the Mormons for Marriage Equality contingent and started to hug the marchers. “Oh my g…

LDS General Conference in the “Mormon Moment”

By Joanna Brooks

…world convened—whether in person at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, or by internet, cable television, satellite broadcast, and radio—for the Church’s semi-annual General Conference. For Mormons, Conference means listening to a set of sermon-like addresses by Church leaders, not “conferring” in committee and deliberating policy, as is the case for other Protestant denominations. And although Church spokespeople stressed that Confe…

Mormon Missionary Service: Now with More Service

By Holly Welker

…areas devote time 5 days a week to community service. Last Friday the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Mormon missionaries in San Jose, Dallas and Denver are doing less tracting-going door to door in search of people to teach-and more service. The change began three years ago, when “San Jose leaders proposed that missionaries provide two hours of nonproselytizing community service every day, five days a week—up from the normal four or s…

Talking Back to a Mormon Elder: Religion versus Reality

By Brent D. Beal

…e cannot change” Less than three hours after Elder Packer’s talk, the Salt Lake Tribune ran the following headline on its Web site: “Apostle: Same-sex attraction can change.” It’s bad enough when Church members are boxed into a corner and obligated by their faith to deny their own sense of reality, but in an age when communication is nearly instantaneous (and when the Church is still struggling with the fallout from its support of Prop. 8 in Calif…

Conservative Bishops Headed For Synod Victory?; Indonesian Sharia Official Says Gay Caning Law Meant To ‘Safeguard Human Dignity’; Slovenian Court OK’s Referendum on Marriage Equality Law; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…s with their counterparts from around the world, gathers next week in Salt Lake City, Utah, the first time one of its annual summits has been held in the U.S. WCF officials have responded to sharp criticism about the anti-gay work carried out by its partners and participants by declaring themselves committed to respect and civil dialogue. That claim does not stand up to the clear record of WCF partners, allies, and speakers, many of whom have prai…

Photo of the Day: Uganda’s First Gay Pride Parade

By Peter Montgomery

…Earlier this month in the lake town of Entebbe (where the president’s official residence is located), Uganda’s first gay pride parade took place. Abdoulaye Bah writes: In spite of widespread homophobia on the part Ugandan politicians and the public, the event was reportedly well attended. Ugandan police raided the event and detained LGBT activists who were later released. Now this is courage: Photo courtesy of David Robinson…