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By the Way: Religious Right Losing its Grip?

By Randall Balmer

…on on abortion and to his recent directive to expand the parameters of stem-cell research. John M. D’Arcy, the Roman Catholic bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, declared his intention to stay away from the commencement proceedings, and the Cardinal Newman Society, based in Manassas, Virginia, has collected petitions asking that the president of Notre Dame rescind the invitation to Obama. Such protests from hard-right Catholics are predictab…

Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church: When Adults are Victims

By Kathryn Joyce

…y whatsoever.” Despite the Archdiocese’s efforts to cast Hernandez as a low-level volunteer, he’d held a number of positions of influence and authority in the church’s Hispanic outreach: as a member of the Archdiocese’s council for Hispanic Youth and Young Adults; as a keynote presenter at the fifth Hispanic Catechetical Congress of the Denver Archdiocese in 2007; and a participant in the elite Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, alongside Archbishop C…

Meeting on the Bridge: Fr. James Martin’s Ministry to LGBT Catholics Becomes a Book

By Kaya Oakes

…es a unique place in religious media: still working a day job as the editor-at-large of America magazine (where I’m an occasional contributing writer), he’s also become a go-to explainer of Catholic issues to both religious and secular audiences. He’s so successful in this role that in April of this year, he took up yet another job when he was invited by Pope Francis to be a consultor to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications. In the past fe…

International reax to US Marriage Ruling; Official violence at Turkey’s Pride; Marriage Advances in Mexico Over Church Objections; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ing, the marriage equality movement has been movement forward in a long tug-of-war between the country’s federal courts and state officials, some of whom have resisted efforts to embrace equality legislatively. This month Mexico’s top court issued a ruling that should push states toward compliance. From a July 1 Reuters story: Now that Mexico’s top court has given the green light to gay marriage, a host of states should bring their laws into line,…

Contraception Isn’t Meat

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…s for some Jain institutions say, “Wait, now we have to facilitate the meat-getting by our non-Jain employees? This is an outrage! We’re being forced to violate our religious principles!” Their critics reply, “Oh, please. Nobody’s asking you personally to eat meat. Anyway, you didn’t have any qualms about hiring these people, and you’ve entered into contracts with lots of non-Jain companies. If you want to be a religious organization, fine, but th…

Gay Men Detained and Killed in Chechnya, and More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…s document ‘despair’ of LGBT youth; documentaries give them voice A husband-and-wife couple, Daneen Akers and Stephen Eyer released in March the second installment of “Outspoken,” a planned ten-part series of short documentaries “featuring the stories of LGBT+ Adventists.” The first segment was released in February. Spectrum also reported on a study carried out by four professors at Andrews University who surveyed hundreds of LGBT+ adults who were…

C Street Scandal, the Media, the Future of the Family: An Interview with Jeff Sharlet

By Bill Berkowitz

…ly. What is C Street currently up to? How do they connect with people’s day-to-day concerns, like health care, the economic crisis, Afghanistan and other issues, and how do they affect policy? The Family would say that it doesn’t do policy, and in the strictest sense, that’s correct. For years, the confidential memos the Family prepared for members of Congress involved with the group emphasized that the “prayer cells” were not to take action as p…

Catholic Bishops End Family Synod With Little To Say To Gays; World Congress of Families Has Plenty To Say, None of it Good; How Same-Sex Marriage Came to a Buddhist Temple in Japan; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…sion on messaging from Frank Schubert, the notorious mastermind of the gays-as-threats-to-children ads used to promote Prop 8 and other anti-gay initiatives in the U.S. The conference also included an “emerging leaders” training track, which provided scholarships to about 260 young people from more than 40 countries and 25 states. A conference organizer estimated that they were part of a group of about 500 under-30 participants out of the more tha…

Can Faith-Based Organizing for Gun Control Work?

By Sarah Posner

…owed a rifle to get in the hands of a murderous lunatic and then had a come-to-Jesus moment. He quits selling guns. He finds himself on the speaking circuit, the toast of pro-life politicians, a sought-after fixture at fundraisers and conventions. If these sidewalk protests stopped people from entering the gun show or the gun shop—or even reconsider it—the movement would add on. Drawing on funds donated by local churches, synagogues, mosques, and…

Why Do Evangelicals And Dems Want Immigration Reform?

By Daniel Schultz

…about which more in a moment. As for why the Obama administration and more-or-less conservative evangelical leaders might find common ground on the immigration issue, it’s simple math. Demographics explain why Democrats want immigration reform: Hispanics will drive minority growth above all. Their numbers will triple to 133 million by 2050 from 47 million today, while the number of non-Hispanic whites will remain essentially flat. Hispanics will…