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How (Not) to Understand Romney’s Time as an LDS Bishop

By Joanna Brooks

…cigarette and a beer (both forbidden according to the LDS Church’s dietary code, “The Word of Wisdom”), more substantial coverage this week is focusing on Romney’s service as bishop of his LDS congregation in Belmont, Massachusetts in the 1980s. On Monday, the Washington Post offered a revealing account of Bishop Romney’s interactions with Boston’s robust Mormon feminist community during tense years for the movement, when the LDS Church played a…

How Many Ways to be Mormon and Gay?

By Joanna Brooks

…nce “same-sex attraction” or “same-gender attraction,” while adhering to a code of morality that forbids all sexual contact outside the bounds of heterosexual marriage. Others claim and openly affirm a gay identity while carefully negotiating a path to maintaining church activity and membership. All of these paths entail profound risks, costs, and consequences. All require a level of conscious deliberation on matters of sexuality and spirituality…

Mississippi’s Personhood Bill Makes God Look Bad

By Daniel C. Maguire

…oing to voters on November 8 has a good chance of passing and it should be coded as ED, E for embarrassing and D for disgraceful. Both Republican and Democratic candidates for governor of that great state have endorsed the measure. It proposes to redefine the basic word “person,” applying it to fertilized eggs. The goal of this mischief, as many have noted, is to outlaw all abortions with no exceptions—even for rape or incest, or when a woman’s li…

#Occupy: A Deeper Form of Protest?

By Jay Michaelson

…sly is. If we still had a Democratic Congress, we’d have a much fairer tax code (plus better health care, plus a thousand other things). But okay, that’s me. When I look at vast movements in history—fascism, socialism, American capitalism—they arise out of contexts that were, themselves, created by lots of large-scale circular movements which are impossible to trace precisely. Who knows, perhaps the collective weight of Occupy-style consciousness-…

Democrats Have Seized the Narrative Frame From the GOP, But Can They Find a Better Story to Tell About an Inclusive, Pluralist US?

By Chrissy Stroop

…ed values. After all, “religious” or “friendly to religion” is essentially code for deference to the conservative Christian values of exclusion and exceptionalism. If Democrats wish to embody their espoused values of inclusion and freedom for all Americans, they ought to ignore the Republican framing of the question entirely and instead find a better story to tell. Christianity remains hegemonic in American discourse, and that’s a key reason Democ…

Istanbul ‘Haven of Sorts’ For LGBT Syrians and Iraqis; Cayman Islands Affirm Marriage Ban with ‘Holy Bible Evidence’; No Room for LGBTs in Malaysia’s ‘Islam-Based’ Human Rights Policy; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…en – of sorts’ U.K.’s Independent reported on Sunday that LGBT Syrians and Iraqis “have found a haven – of sorts – in Istanbul.” The story by Bradley Secker begins at Tek Yön, a nightclub “where you’ll find gay exiles from every sect and ethnicity in the Middle East.” Says Subhi, from Syria, “Istanbul is a bubble of freedom and gay rights in the region, and Tek Yön is a good meeting point for gay Syrians and gay Arabs in general.” The story report…

The Black and White (and Blood-Red) Roots of ISIS

By Hasan Azad

The latest gruesome video released by ISIS showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff, just thirteen days after the execution of James Foley, is a stark reminder – if such reminders are necessary – of the blood-thirsty brutality of ISIS. ISIS’s flag is black and white, the perfect colors for a group that seeks to implement “Islam,” which it sets against a world of disbelief (kufr). Christians, who’ve been living amongst Muslims f…

James Foley Prayed, But He Was Not a Martyr

By Alana Massey

One of many of the unbecoming habits of career non-believers is the mockery of prayer. From citing research studies about the inefficacy of prayer to accusing those who pray of narcissism to believe that a god of any significance would care to listen to them, prayer is one of the primary targets of those who dismiss the religious. And while I’ve admittedly rolled my eyes at proclamations of, “Prayer works!” when people experience what looks like…

Christmas Candy Jesus, Black Magi, Jewish Xmas

By Michael J. Altman

…. Nicholas’ home town was in Turkey and the town of Demre is cashing in on their favorite son. The story of the nativity through social networks. Jamaicans are using the first patois version of the Gospel of Luke in this year’s Christmas celebrations. Under continued threat from al-Qaeda, Iraqi Christians leaders have canceled Christmas celebrations. A holiday flash mob in California forced an evacuation when the 5,000 singers and their audience c…

Feared Taliban Leader Killed, But Military Strategy is Not the Answer in Afghanistan

By Mark Juergensmeyer

Though dreaded Taliban leader Baitullah Massoud may have been killed, the Taliban is still very much in control. Though this might seem like a time for US military forces in the region to celebrate, it is also a good time to assess what its mission should be in a post-Massoud Pakistan. The strike by an unmanned US drone in Waziristan appears to have destroyed one of Pakistan’s most feared insurgents; the man who was likely behind the assassinatio…