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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

…Wellington, New Zealand Per the National Catholic Register: “The only Anglophone nominee is Archbishop John Dew of Wellington, New Zealand. In 2005, he advocated a new ‘pastoral approach’ for allowing divorced-and-civilly-remarried Catholics to receive Communion. During last year’s synod on the family, he also voiced his support for a change in language when ministering to persons with same-sex attraction.” Archbishop Alberto Suárez Inda of Moreli…

Are You Doing Your Part in the Baby War?

By Katherine Stewart

…e role from the government to religious organizations. In other words, transferring even more public money and power to religious entities. Sandler asserts we now have “two Americas,” who “confront the same dire challenge of parenting without state support. The unchurched do it increasingly by having one child, or none. And the churched do it by depending on the resources provided by their faith community.” Eric Kaufman, author of Shall the Relig…

Chatting with Myanmar’s Buddhist “Terrorist”

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…f groups such as al Qaeda and ISIS as examples. He also thought that their numbers were greatly expanding in Myanmar through immigration and having relatively larger families, and that this was a purposeful design to dilute the purity of Buddhist culture in the country and eventually take control. “They are trying to transform Myanmar into a Muslim state,” Wirathu said. He claimed that this was the reason that he and the 969 movement are trying to…

Netanyahu’s (Republican) Esther Moment

By Sarah Posner

…ng, as the Pew report explains, divides that are religious as well as partisan: “Among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants have the most favorable impressions of Netanyahu (50% favorable, 17% unfavorable).” Christian Zionists have been using the Purim analogy for contemporary Iran for years. Here’s an example from a piece I wrote in 2006: On Purim, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the day Queen Esther saved the Jews from annihilation…

Indonesian Clerics Issue Anti-Gay Fatwa; Anti-Civil Union Peruvian Lawmaker Cites Hitler; Is Christianity more ‘un-African’ than Homosexuality?; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ica is a homogeneous entity. In reality, however, Africa is made up of thousands of ethnic groups with rich and diverse cultures and sexualities. As appealing as the notion of African culture may be to some people, no such thing exists. Moreover, even if we wanted to imagine an authentic African culture, like all others, it would not be static. African history is replete with examples of both erotic and nonerotic same-sex relationships. For exampl…

Cruz Backs Bishops on Religious Liberty Claims

By Patricia Miller

…ortion coverage isn’t an accident. It’s no coincidence that the most successful religious liberty claims to date—Hobby Lobby, Little Sisters of the Poor—have involved baseless accusations about religious organizations being forced to cover abortion. Without this, the claims have much less resonance. To wit, there isn’t much sympathy for allowing religiously affiliated adoption agencies to refuse babies to LGBT couples or bakers to refuse to make c…

Russian Attack on LGBTs at UN Rejected; Gay Cake Controversy Rages in N. Ireland; Bishop Calls for Marriage Referendum in Puerto Rico; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Company. The hundreds who couldn’t make it into the full-to-capacity hall sang “Amazing Grace” on the sidewalk. A bakery supporter said it seems as though Christians “have no rights.” One pro-marriage-equality columnist, Fionola Meredith, said she was supporting Ashers in the name of free speech and said that forcing the company to endorse same-sex marriage would to “nothing to advance the cause of equality.” United Kingdom: Thatcher biographer d…

Hagee’s New Film Uses Jews and Science to Prove Christian, Pro-US God

By Michael Schulson

…Is it a sign? John Hagee has a penchant for seeing such signs. The popular San Antonio pastor is the founder of Christians United for Israel, an organization that makes AIPAC look wishy-washy, and the author of the book Four Blood Moons, which he’s now turned into a docu-drama of the same name. Ostensibly, FBM is about biblical prophecy, the contemporary Middle East, and the role of Jews in history, though it’d be more accurate to say that FBM is…

To Let It Go and So To Find A Way: U2, (A)Live with Grief and Grace

By Cathleen Falsani

…concert at The Forum arena in Los Angeles on May 27. Photo by Cathleen Falsani for Religion Dispatches. After attending a U2 show in San Jose, Calif., earlier this month, Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis described it as a “psychedelic experience” that was “staggering.” “It starts off as a punk rock gig but then it gets intimate, there’s a lot of truth in it about where they come from and the people that they are,” the notoriously prickly Gallaghe…

Transitions: Caitlyn Jenner, Gender Identity, and Christians Behaving Badly (Again)

By Daniel Schultz

…se to be done with theories this thin. Complementarity just isn’t very satisfying. It’s the Taco Bell of theology. For example, complementarians often rely on a couple of scripture passages which tell us that God created humankind “male and female.” But neither of those passages describes gender roles, let alone prescribes distinct, complementary functions to them. In Genesis 5, the phrase comes at the end of a list of the descendants of Adam and…