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Pope Backs Anti-Gay Referendum; Islamic State Executions Include Gay Syrian; ‘Conscience Clause’ Debated in Northern Ireland; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

The Boston Globe reported this week that the U.S. State Department will appoint a special envoy “to advocate for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people overseas.” Legislation calling for such an envoy had been introduced in Congress last week. But in Congress, Rep. Chris Smith, who heads the subcommittee whose jurisdiction includes human rights and international organizations, declared, “I am a strong believer in traditional…

No to Church, Yes to Jesus?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…“I think of Jesus first and foremost as a healer,” a secular humanist from Boston who had been educated by Jesuits in Brazil told me. “He’s such an icon for reaching out to people most in need. That didn’t end up making me believe in a supernatural being who gives out miracle cures,” he made clear, “but it’s a big social lesson. It’s really the best side of Christianity.” Indeed, so compelling is this understanding of Jesus to many Nones that in c…

Yes, Virginia, There Were Cannibals

By Paul Harvey

…locale. Worse, English settlement of Jamestown predates Plymouth Rock and Boston. Recent archaeological studies aren’t helping matters any. As it turns out, what many historians have long assumed to be true, based on evidence from documents, has confirmation in bio-archaeological findings—namely, that starving Jamestown residents gnawed on human flesh: Archaeologists excavating a trash pit at the Jamestown colony site in Virginia have found the f…

Makers of Depopulation Doc Have a Past

By Kathryn Joyce

…ast depopulation because women have stopped having enough children. As the number of women in the workforce has soared, many have delayed marriage and childbearing, or decided against them altogether. The Sexual Revolution, by making sex readily available without marriage, removed what for many men had been a powerful motive to marry. Skyrocketing rates of divorce have made women less likely to have as many children as in generations past. Years o…

Obama Administration Won’t Defend Federal Defense of Marriage Act in Court

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…back in July of last year by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro, in Boston. He ruled that Section 3 violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment and “violated the Tenth Amendment and fell outside Congress’ authority under the Spending Clause of the Constitution.” The Department of Justice appealed the decision in October, but now apparently will abandon that appeal. It’s good news for supporters of marriage equality, even if the f…

Winners and Losers in the “Visitation” of American Nuns?

By Patricia Miller

…d a central contention of Catholic conservatives: that the drop-off in the number of nuns is due to the modernization of the many orders who left their cloisters and shed their habits to tackle social justice problems in the real world. The report said that “the very large numbers of religious in the 1960s was a relatively short-term phenomenon that was not typical of the experience of religious life through most of the nation’s history.” In seeki…

Joyless Primaries Grind On

By Joanna Brooks

…g, highly observant LDS father. My friend described a brief, tension-laden phone call between father and son, wedged into a few free minutes after a church meeting. “Now, I’m going to serve my family,” said the father, bringing the call to a close. “Because that’s what I do.” And Mitt Romney is going to serve his country. Because that’s what he does. Like it or not. That joyless put-your-shoulder-to-the-wheel tenacity is setting the tone for the G…

Pro-Gay Marriage Mormon Keeps Faith Despite Church Pressure

By Joanna Brooks

…and within days an official at LDS Church headquarters placed a concerned phone call to Melanie S.’s local clergy. Three times her bishop met with Melanie to discuss the video. Because she had affiliated with “Mormons for Marriage,” he questioned whether or not Melanie and her husband should be allowed to keep their temple recommends—certificates that allow the most worthy and devoted Mormons to participate in the faith’s sacred temple rites. Nor…

Under Water: Waiting for the Flood (of Awareness) in Louisiana

By Drew Konow

…ion has a strange way of inspiring reflection on personal property. On the phone, I told my mom, “I love your house. It is so perfect for you.” And I do. I love her house not because I grew up there (I did not) or because I’ve spent much time there (I’ve only visited once) or because of anything to do with the way it looks. I love her house because of what it stands for. It’s a symbol of her freedom. Freedom from every man who raised a hand to her…

Not All American Muslims Feel the Dread I Do

By Huma Mohibullah

…(correctly) at the uncertainty consuming me. Similar messages poured in by phone, email and social media throughout the day. It was as if someone in my family had died and people felt compelled to offer me condolences. The reality of living in a country in which the most blatant expressions of Islamophobia and other forms of hate are normalized does worry me. Even as Trump flip-flops on his promise of a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims ente…