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Swimming Against the Tide: Religious (Non) Affiliation Might Not Mean What You Think It Means

By Timothy King

…thern Baptist Convention-affiliated Lifeway Research has argued that these numbers indicate a redefining of Christianity in which those who had been marginal or nominal Christians all along feel a greater comfort in simply reporting what was true about them all along, that they are unaffiliated. The percentage of American adults who identify as “born again” or evangelical increased over the timeline of these studies. What is even more interesting…

2017 Around the World: Progress and Persecution For LGBT People

By Peter Montgomery

…e criminalized; according to Pink News, the commission “ruled that atheism can cause ‘mental imbalances’ which in turn leads to homosexuality.’” It is believed that the commission hopes that by pushing through the law it will support the bid of another law which has been deemed the most homophobic law in the world. The second law which is currently being pushed through targets the community by punishing gay sex in a public or private place with a…

Obama Caves on (Another) Contraception Exemption

By Patricia Miller

…contraceptive mandate will be small. But imagine a scenario where a larger number of employers seeks to escape a costly mandate, such as equal access to in vitro fertilization procedures for straight and gay couples, for supposedly religious reasons and hundreds flood HHS with generic opt-out letters that don’t identify a specific insurer. Or a future administration that is less dedicated to contraceptive access. It’s not hard to see how the lack…

Dieting, Sex, Jesus: The Body as Moral Battleground

By Lynne Gerber

…really backfire when people stop making positive changes in their lives because the number on a scale doesn’t change. In terms of ex-gay ministries I think it is the perception that people who engage in these ministries are in deep denial and are self-deluded. Some probably are. But many whom I spoke with who have been in these ministries for years or decades foster no illusions about having become heterosexual. What they do know is that they hav…

Morality and Marriage Vigilantes and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…nd the controversial “Don’t Mess with Marriage” flyer. The pair also run a Catholic marriage service called the Marriage Resource Centre, and run a “marriage enrichment seminar” called SmartLoving Marriage. Chad: Parliament criminalizes homosexuality The parliament approved legislation criminalizing homosexuality; the vote was nearly unanimous. The legislation also increases the legal marriage age from 16 to 18. The ban on homosexuality was initia…

Two Women and a Mosque: A Convert Community Grows in Panama City

By Aliyya Swaby

…shopping at the fish market in Panama City, a West Indian man parking his car called out to her with the Muslim greeting of peace: “Assalam Alaykum.” She hopes Al Haqq will draw people like him from the margins into a larger community. Though Islam in Panama has a different history and context than in the United States, I saw my parents in some of the older black Panamanian converts. Many spent time in the United States during the formative soc…

Rick Warren Busts a Gut Over Cultural Revolution

By Rob Shryock

…number of supportive and sometimes racist posts outnumber those who advice caution. I can’t suspect such hideous posts are all from Saddleback membership. I’m sure quite a number are. It’s as disturbing as it is disgusting. Warren commented on Tsang’s article, “Thanks so much for teaching us! It was removed instantly.” However, Warren did not get around to posting a formal, public apology until the next day, once again, via Facebook: Finally ba…

‘Cult’ Is an Inaccurate, Unhelpful and Dangerous Label for Followers of Trump, QAnon, and 1/6

By Catherine Wessinger

…n Fox News and One American News Network (OANN), along with a not insignificant number of elected members of Congress. A great deal of the concern on the part of white people is over their potential loss of status in America. This concern is being expressed in current Trumpist Republican efforts to curb access to voting by people of color and the social panic being fomented about “Critical Race Theory,” which has been turned into a pejorative term…

Hajj Journal: Using the Toilet at the Grand Mosque

By Amina Wadud

…is helpful, again, for negotiating the terrain without undue hassle. In my case, because I speak Arabic, I “pass” as Arab and therefore supposedly a bit more in the know. It also let me bargain my way through the shops, whatever little shopping I did in Makkah. The shopkeepers are mostly not Saudi, so they detect an accent, but usually think I’m Egyptian, the dialect I use the most. My roommate said many of the shopkeepers are Urdu-speaking, but s…

Religious Practices on Trial in Arizona: The Problem With “Experts”

By Johnny P. Flynn

…xty people in a plastic-covered hut less than the size of the average American living room. Because, that is how Indians become warriors. Right now Indians who do practice their tribal ceremonies are walking on edge. Already in Arizona, state legislator Senator Albert Hale, who happens to be Navajo, has introduced a bill to regulate native-style religious practices on non-Indian lands. The bill would require the State Department of Health to draf…