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

By Nick Street

…ugh Rio de Paz, a human right group led by a local pastor. By that time I knew something about prison culture, and I also knew there would likely be a prison church leader. What was the culture of the prison? At night, there was one guard for 800 prisoners. In the Rio prison system there’s no real government presence; state control in the prisons is just a façade. The prison gangs are the most powerful presence, but the church exerts a strong infl…

DADT Repeal: The New “Religious Freedom” Issue

By Sarah Posner

New Washington Post On Faith blogger Jordan Sekulow wrote on the eve of the DADT repeal, “social conservatives are not enraged about the end of DADT.” If that’s true, then halleleujah. But just one month ago Sekulow wrote in the same pages, “If DADT is repealed, the American Center for Law & Justice is committed to advocating for the ability of military chaplains to do their job according to the dictates of their faith. The ACLJ has a long histor…

Prophecy and Prosperity are Keys to Republican Christian Nationalism According to New Poll

By Daniel Schultz

…egory, let’s list some general points of interest: Mainline Protestants outnumber evangelicals by a very slim margin Only nine percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans are looking for a new “religious or spiritual home” Almost half of the people who reported leaving a religious tradition did so because of that tradition’s teachings on the LGBTQ community, and Disaffiliation and decreases in worship attendance can be seen across the board, aff…

Beck Condemns “Bigotry for Sport” in New York

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…mn the anti-gay attacks on two teens and another man earlier this month in New York. This unimaginable hatred in the attacks that happened in the Bronx left me with a sinking feeling and a burning question: Who are we and who are we becoming? I think before we go any further as a nation, it’s time that we honestly examine ourselves. And to have a complete honest examination, we need to hear both the worst and the best. Hatred is growing in this co…

Exodus “Ex-Gay” Ministry Closes Up Shop

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…nsforming communities.” When LGBT people hear “safe” and “welcoming” and a new organization from Exodus, it’s natural to be suspicious. Julie Rodgers, a speaker for Exodus who has been with the ministry for ten years, since she was 17, says she understands that. “Time will reveal as we begin this new venture,” she told Religion Dispatches. “Alan coming out with this apology and this move is already an enormous step. We’re saying that gay people…

Time for Jews to Abandon the Old Foundation Myth of Israel?

By Ira Chernus

…hs of mutual benefit. Many Jewish peace advocates are not yet aware of the new myth they are implicitly telling, nor of the magnitude of change in Jewish life it can create. But new myths rarely arise by conscious effort. They simply grow organically as people pursue the goals they value most and talk to others about their efforts. Then one day someone wearing the mantle of authority (perhaps even a future prime minister of Israel) looks back and…

‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa Receives Threats; ‘Blood Test’ for ‘Degeneratism’: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family. Elisabetta Povoledo wrote in the New York Times that “in Francis’s new, more forgiving church, these otherwise familiar domestic arrangements were not considered an impediment.” No same-sex couples were included. Vatican watchers said the public marriages, the first by a pope since 2000, were meant to send a message, something Francis has done previously to soften the church’s image on social issues. Durin…

New Southern Baptist Curriculum Bashes Gays

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ul and bullying lesson. The angry tone of this unit undercuts the wisdom of another unit that concludes with a quote from renowned religion scholar Robert Bellah: “We should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a new vision of a just and gentle world. The quality of a culture may be changed when two percent of its people have a new vision.” Hopefully, some of these SBC teens will come to understand that demoniza…

The Political Strategist’s Conversion that Led to Ron Paul’s New Faithiness

By Sarah Posner

…ul’s opposition to the Iraq War got his attention, said Wead, who says he knew that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and that “we were conned.” Wead, who was instrumental in intertwining religious conservatives in presidential politics, now says he’s undergone a conversion: he thinks evangelicals have been led astray by the culture war focus on establishing a “Christian nation.” He pointed to Paul’s support for building mosques, despite…

Global LGBT Recap: “Lavender Fascism,” Rage in India, Pope Francis Ousts Culture Warrior

By Peter Montgomery

…Advocate, the latter choice angering some gay-rights activists. Ethopia: Newsweek Reports ‘Cheered on by Americans, Ethiopia has Declared War on Gay Men” A major story in Newsweek reports on the extraordinary legal and cultural hostility toward LGBT people in Ethiopia. Seventy-six countries criminalize sexual activity by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and 38 of them, including Ethiopia, are in Africa. According to the 2007 Pew G…