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Methodists Vote to Keep Homosexuality “Incompatible”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ks for the full inclusion of LGBT people into the UMC: “We grieve that the United Methodist Church really had the opportunity to live into inclusive gospel of Jesus Christ and live into its tagline of Open Hearts, Open Doors, Open Minds and extend its welcome to LGBT people and unfortunately, chose not to do that. We grieve that UMC continues to harm and discrimination against LGBT people. We’re already here in the United Methodist Church and we w…

Even Amid Controversy, ‘My Soul Still Sings,’ Says UMC’s First Lesbian Bishop

By Sunnivie Brydum

…more committed than ever to bringing peace, clarity, and acceptance to the United Methodist Church’s decades-long struggle over how to treat LGBTQ congregants and clergy. Before her consecration as bishop, Oliveto “broke the stained glass ceiling” at the 12,000-member Glide Methodist Church in San Francisco, becoming the first woman to serve as a senior pastor at any of the denomination’s 100 largest congregations in the U.S. It was there that she…

Tutu’s Daughter Marries Woman & Loses Anglican Priest License; Romanian Anti-Marriage Activists Get 3 Million Signatures; Australian State Apologizes For Harmful Sodomy Laws; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…l drew a welter of criticism from multiple rights groups, governments, the United Nations Human Rights Council and the European parliament… This is the second piece of contentious and patently Russian-inspired legislation to come off the rails in Kyrgyzstan in recent weeks. Earlier this month, parliament rejected a bill that would have seen internationally funded nongovernment group designated as “foreign agents.” The provision included in that la…

Anti-Trans Bus Tour Is Not Very Welcome In Spanish Cities; Gay Rights As A Weapon In Nationalist War On Muslims; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…der notes in Egyptian Streets: “In July, Egypt’s permanent delegate to the United Nations said that Egypt will not comply with any pro-homosexual resolutions passed by the United Nations.” Hungary: Mayor pushing anti-gay, anti-Muslim enclave TIME reports on László Toroczkai, right-wing mayor of Ásotthalom who has banned burka wearing, mosque-building, and the Muslim call to prayer. The town also gays “gay propaganda.” Argentina: UN expert to study…

Can a Church Split Truly Be Gracious?

By Adam J. Copeland

…alled the “reunification” of the southern-based Presbyterian Church in the United States with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. There’s a great family photo with my grandfather, great-uncle, father—all pastors—and me sleeping in my stroller in the foreground. Reunification brought my family’s pastors back into the same denomination. In the intervening years while I’ve flirted with Lutheranism and interned in the Church of Scotland, the…

At the UN, Conservative Christian Agenda Cloaked in Human Rights Language

By Austin Dacey

…merica). In the spacious Room XXIII of the Palais des Nations, home of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, six pre-adolescent children were declaiming a text that sounded very human-rights-ish, with articles—one for each youth—on protecting, respecting, and establishing a number of things. But if you had listened carefully, everything would have started to sound a bit off. The text being read was in fact not the 1989 human rights tr…

What Do Christians Think About the Netanyahu Speech?

By Sarah Posner

…is a “leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States,” and that its “37 member communions — from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches,” represent 45 million Americans. It’s hard to imagine a more sharply defined divide between these two groups. CUFI supports sanctions against Iran, not what it calls a “sham agreement allows Iran to ob…

Russia Expels Gay American Pastor, An Epidemic of Anti-LGBT Violence in Brazil, And More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…m ahead? Claude Summers explores the possibility of a global schism in the United Methodist Church over the issue of acceptance and ordination of LGBT people. An excerpt: The denomination has been debating the issue for 50 years and has reached no consensus, in part because conservatives have blocked every attempt to forge a compromise. While American members of the UMC are by a slight plurality in favor of reform, most of the denomination’s recen…

Indonesian Court Rejects Religious Conservatives’ Bid To Criminalize Gay Sex; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…conflict and politics in a Muslim majority nation.” The abstract: While a number of investigations have examined how gay Muslim men view homosexuality in relation to religious Western homophobia, this research constitutes the first account of the experiences of self-identified gay men living in an African, Muslim nation, where same-sex sex is both illegal and actively persecuted. We interviewed 28 gay men living in Tunisia in order to understand…

The Brutality of Life for Syrian LGBTs; Saving the Anglican Church by Dissolving It; Backlash to Hindu Gay Wedding Ceremony in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…legislation; more recently he called for Facebook to be blocked in Russia. United Nations: Analysis of politics behind recent resolution on protecting the family Arvind Narrain of LGBT advocacy group ARC International published a commentary this month on the politics underlying the Human Rights Council’s passage of a controversial resolution to “protect the family.” The Resolution was sponsored by a cross-regional group of states including Egypt,…