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Hope for an End to Mexico’s Narco-Violence: Response to Jennifer Scheper Hughes

By Stephen Andes

…resident Plutarco Elías Calles finally erupted in all out civil war between 1926-1929. The Catholic crusade to topple the anticlerical government ended in disaster: 250,000 soldiers, pro-Church guerillas, and civilians perished. A 1929 peace accord put an end to the violence; the Vatican and a new moderate archbishop of Mexico pushed conciliation with the government and sought to pacify the Catholic militants. Thus, after 1929 the combination of a…

Election Reporters: Here’s Why Simply Descriptors Like ‘Christians’ Can Have Enormous Consequences

By Daniel Schultz

…from Communist threats. That same protection, complete with bloody, strong-arm repression, is, according to historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, what Trump explicitly promises his Christian nationalist base. Given what could be done in the name of all Christians, it’s critical to refuse to allow any candidate to claim by default the legitimacy of speaking for the group as a whole. I know how difficult it is for journalists steeped in the ethic of neutrality…

Pope Francis Says Teaching Gender Is Nasty; Far-Right Religious Groups Helping Mexico’s Anti-Equality Movement; Colombia’s Peace Deal Killed by Anti-LGBT Campaign?; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…h … always with an open heart.” Mexico: In-depth look at forces behind anti-marriage-equality movement BuzzFeed’s Lester Feder and Diego Olavarría published an in-depth story on the backlash to marriage equality, which has included rallies across the country over the past month. This was not simply a spontaneous backlash to the president’s proposal. This was an event more than a year in the making, coordinated by a network of conservative groups w…

Satanic Temple Considers Legal Action Against School Censorship

By Joseph Laycock

…is active in 35 countries and contracts with 6,500 school districts in the United States alone. The company estimates that 15 million students are affected by their software. TST sent two letters to Lightspeed Systems, both of which went unanswered. This is not the first time private companies contracted to filter web content have censored material about minority religions. In 2012 the ACLU sued a public library in Missouri because their computers…

Cozy Cottage or House on Fire? Thomas Kinkade’s Theo-Aesthetic Legacy

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…relapse just the night before his death. —Eds.] Kinkade challenged the high-brow haughtiness of the art world, grew rich in the process, and seemed to fumble around, rock-star like, with drinking and bad behavior. Liberals scoffed at the hypocrisy of yet another social-religious conservative who couldn’t live up to a decent set of moral standards, while his mass-produced images were hugely loved, especially by evangelical Christians who felt that…

Until the World Laughs with God

By Nathan Schneider

…blogosphere. By 2006, he had adopted “Mariska Hargitay” as his solemn, faux-Sanskrit greeting, raising a chuckle for fans of the Law & Order actress. But not, to echo Myers’s onetime concern, for “many Indians.” By March of this year, the internet lit up with protests. Word got out that Paramount bought into the idea and Guru Pitka was soon to have a movie of his own. Leading the charge was Rajan Zed, a Punjabi priest who rose to prominence as…

Pope’s Liberal Defenders are Missing the Point

By Jorge A. Aquino

…wise suggested that campaigns to give sacramental or civil equality to same-sex-headed families, or same-sex-loving individuals, arise from the ungodly politics of secular cultures (#64) that, according to Francis, must countered with “objective moral norms which are valid for everyone.” In support of this proposition the pope cited sentences from the U.S. bishops’ 2006 guidance on “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination,” criticizing t…

African Religious leaders complain about Obama advocacy for LGBT rights; Ultra-Orthodox Man Stabs Jerusalem Pride Parade Marchers, Again; Struggles over sexuality in Islam, Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican Churches; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…de celebration, which will run concurrently with the country’s Emancipation and Independence celebrations from August 1-8. …

A Pope, a Poet, and a Drug War

By Stephen Andes

…enedict made his first appearance in the region as pope, attending the once-a-decade Latin American bishops conference held in Aparecida, Brazil. There, he outlined the contours of the Holy See’s mission of “New Evangelization,” poised to bolster an institution losing its grip on the region’s cultural identity. Thus, the pope arrives in Mexico this week to address the Latin American Church at a crossroads. Inroads made by Protestant, especially Pe…

Trump Considers Pulling USA Out Of Human Rights Council; Indonesian President Blames Democracy For Rise of Militant Islamism; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ess of Families gathering, a networking and strategy-sharing event for anti-LGBT and anti-SRHR groups worldwide. Malaysia: Human Rights Watch reports on rise of anti-LGBT Sharia codes Human Rights Watch reported on the brutal murder of a transgender woman in Kuantan city, connecting it toward a shift in government policies in recent decades – including passage of state-level Sharia criminal codes that institutionalize anti-trans discrimination — t…