Religion Dispatches
…any kind of goods its citizens can imagine selling: “top off” cards to add minutes to cellphone accounts; dried, salted fish fanned out on tables; informal restaurants selling plates of kapenta or nshima to be washed down with homemade beer (called Chibuku or “Shake Shake”); a tub of water for bathing; bolts of cloth for the wife back home to make a new chitenge, or long skirt. These goods or services can be had for the right price. So can sex. In…
Read More…cently published a feature piece debunking myths about the social and economic harm anti-immigration activists attribute to undocumented immigrants. Many members of the LDS Church who are most vocal in the call for undocumented immigrants to be prosecuted and deported point to our faith’s Twelfth Article of Faith—”We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, and in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law”—as rationa…
Read More…ding sharp increases in the number of LGBT Americans protected by nondiscrimination and family recognition legislation at the state level. Less than one quarter of the indicators are negative, and four metrics show little change (either positive or negative). The report shows that an increasing number of people believe homosexuality to be morally acceptable (49% in 2009, up from 40% in 2000), and while only 39 percent support marriage equality for…
Read More…en reportedly executed for sodomy; UN Security Council hears testimony Islamic State militants reportedly executed nine men on Sunday “on charges of sexual perversion.” The killings came a day before the United Nations Security Council heard testimony about Islamic State violence against LGBT people, an informal session sponsored by diplomats from Chile and the United States at which diplomats heard the testimony of gay men from Syria and Iraq. Ac…
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…versation by invoking the strawmen of “26,000 dead people on the rolls” in Michigan, misinformation that has been soundly debunked. Over and over and over. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt is having a rough re-election season. While Tony Perkins lauds the Governor’s signature on a law prohibiting nonbinary people from updating their birth certificates, Stitt is actually under criticism for his doctrinal evangelical anti-LGBT stances. Stitt uses his t…
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…the Time subtitle further explains, “bashful survey respondents probably diminished the total reported number of online porn watchers in the U.S.” Shame and stigma could certainly be a factor in people underreporting their own pornography use. The Public Religion Research Institute found that 71 percent of Americans think watching pornography is immoral. Yet moral objection to porn doesn’t stop people from watching. Given the high rate of online p…
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…eeks off per year. I am well aware that one visit is hardly enough to determine the potential for violent extremism within a given church community, but I am confident that you and your people can assist me in making these visits worthwhile by helping me plant listening devices of various kinds. In fact, I am suggesting that each CHC volunteer spotter be partnered with a federal agent so that our collective effectiveness as a volunteer corps can b…
Read More…st only, in most cases, at the mercy of advertising revenues. So while the number of voices has increased, the number of well-funded reporters has decreased. It’s reassuring to think that as print news takes a hit, online media will be there to fill the gap, but the story isn’t quite that simple. Content is certainly being generated, but it’s proving no easy replacement for print. Many publications weren’t initially eager to embrace the online wor…
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…emerged, as well. In each case, the proponents have been ridiculed and dismissed, but with diminishing levels of rancor with each passing decade. What we’re witnessing right now is a reconfigured repetition of a 2500-year debate over the oneness or the manyness of the universe. Just as it was for the Atomist philosophers in the 5th Century BCE, the multiverse is a way to sidestep theology: if there are an infinite number of universes that take on…
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…wo-week Jewish Federation’s Master class in Tel Aviv. He has lectured academically at a number of institutions including The New York Public Library, and is proud member of Writer’s Guild and Dramatist’s Guild. Today he lives in Los Angeles with his partner, is pitching a new Muslim family sitcom, and is rarely beat up. Parvesh Cheena recently starred in NBC’s comedy series Outsourced as Gupta and is the voice of Blades on The HUB Network’s new ca…
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