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Why South Korea (and the US) Use Amusement Parks to Push Creationism

…the 30-year average.  Gallup also reports some unsurprising relationships between creationist views and religious affiliation, education levels, and political views. Creationism is strongly correlated with church attendance (two-thirds of weekly churchgoers subscribe to the view). Creationism is negatively correlated with education level (it is endorsed by only 25% of postgraduates, but 52% of Americans with high school educations or less). Final…

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Jack Ryan Uses Bible to Exonerate Wall Street, CIA

…pulpy example of a larger pattern of scriptural citation that obscures and promotes tensions between market forces and nationalism, dynamics I discuss in depth in my book, The Babylon Complex (Oxford University Press, 2014). A reboot of the older Jack Ryan series—based on Tom Clancy novels like Hunt for Red October—Shadow Recruit uses an all new screenplay by Adam Cozad and David Koepp. Still, the film is highly reminiscent of the earlier series’…

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Rage Against the New Age Machine: Three Days at the Osho International Meditation Resort

…ther as “friend.” No ego and no anger. My loud assertions violated a basic code of the center: rather than transcending my base self, I was wallowing in it. From what I could see, Osho’s clientele were well-heeled seekers from across the globe. During the weekend, there were (mostly young) men and women from France, Italy, Germany, Russian, Israel, the U.S., Japan, Argentina and India. Some, like us, were there for a short stay, but others came to…

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More Mixed Signals from Pope Francis; Church of England Wrestles with Rifts; Faith Groups Lobby Pro & Con on Irish Referendum; Global LGBT Recap

…uired to solemnise same sex marriages, and continues to regard marriage as between one man and one woman, the advent of same sex marriage, widely supported across the political spectrum, creates an acute divergence between the church’s teaching on marriage and the civil law of the land. “It is likely that the ease with which same sex marriage was accepted in Parliament reflects a more general social move away from the church’s traditional understa…

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Global LGBT Recap: Adventists Talk About, Not To, LGBT People; British Muslim Group Welcomes Gay-Rights Activist; Homophobia Exports Continue

…hist Nuns On Sunday, Christian churches held a “Happy Family” rally by “to promote the idea of a family as consisting of one father, one mother and their children.” One participant held a homemade sign praising anti-gay laws in Uganda and urging the government to “be courageous” and follow Kampala’s example. The event was crashed by about 100 pro-marriage-equality activists shouting, “Let us in, we also support faily values, we also want to have a…

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Pentecostal Prayer Gangs: New Film Documents Religion in a Brazilian Prison

…imed part of the prison as its own. But most importantly, the relationship between the gang and the church mirrored the relationship between churches and people in favelas. There was mutual respect, which was essential to preserving the peace. Gang members could leave the gang and join the church as long as their participation was deemed genuine. It would be very difficult to fake a conversion in prison because someone’s observing your actions 24…

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Pope Francis, Breeding Bunnies and Ideological Colonization

…es. And for anyone who thinks that it’s a big breakthrough for the pope to promote “responsible parenthood,” here’s Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae: Married love, therefore, requires of husband and wife the full awareness of their obligations in the matter of responsible parenthood, which today, rightly enough, is much insisted upon, but which at the same time should be rightly understood. Thus, we do well to consider responsible parenthood in the l…

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Anti-Gay Forces On Offense in Europe; ‘African Islam’ Challenged by Extremists; Irish Marriage Foes & ‘Sounds of Sodomy’; Global LGBT Recap

…d year went into effect on January 1. The country’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, is openly gay. Gambia: Anti-Gay President Survives Coup Attempt The anti-gay dictator-president of Gambia, Yayha Jammeh, survived a clumsy coup attempt last week, which seems likely to lead to even more brutal political repression. Vietnam: New Law Drops Ban on Same-Sex Couples Marrying “Vietnam’s new marriage law, which went into effect New Year’s Day, abolished re…

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American Nuns and the Vatican: More Pain than Promise

…e the Vatican’s careful effort to claim an “essential difference” (par. 3) between vowed religious and their associates or co-members. This is purposely divisive as women’s religious communities are finding creative and life-giving ways to share their ministries and goods broadly. Just as I hope LCWR will not fall into the trap of being compared to CMSWR, neither should the rest of us take the bait nor allow ourselves to be divided over different…

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Vatican Enlists Allies Against Gay Marriage; Iranian Gays Pushed to Change Gender; And More in This Week’s Global LGBT Recap

…ke Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law, a major step backward: Consensual sex between men was a crime in Soviet times but Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished country of 5.5 million, adopted a new criminal code in 1998 that made it legal. Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have also taken similar steps but the two other ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, have not. Kyrgyzstan would, however, be the first of them to ban “gay propaganda” am…

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