Religion Dispatches
…m claiming that she incarnates the only kind of activism that can see us through to resurrection, and its name is fearless and abiding love. * * * I wish to acknowledge three books that influenced this essay: Susan Haskins’s excellent study Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor (New York: Riverhead Books, 1993), Christopher Beha’s The Whole Five Feet (New York: Grove, 2009), which in addition to being an affecting memoir of a man’s devotion to books…
Read More
…lics for Choice (then known as Catholics for a Free Choice), the full-page New York Times advertisement declared “a diversity of opinions regarding abortion exists among committed Catholics.” Many theologians, the statement read, believed abortion “can sometimes be a moral choice.” Feminist theologian Margaret Farley, novelist Mary Gordon, and then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo were among the signers. More than two dozen ordained persons also endorsed…
Read More…codify domestic partnership rights. The Progressive Labor Party, which the New York Times describes as “backed by many traditionally conservative church organizations,” took power in July “and began to mobilize legislative support for a reversal of the ruling.” Preserve Marriage, an anti-marriage equality group, had opposed giving same-sex couples even domestic partnership status. Before the Senate vote, Julia and Judith Aidoo-Saltus, who were mar…
Read More
…progressive demographics. That, at least, is my grim takeaway from PRRI’s new report, “The Politics of Gender, Pronouns, and Public Education.” The overall positions of various demographics are mostly what you would expect them to be. The report singles out White evangelical Protestants multiple times as, unsurprisingly, America’s most singularly anti-trans demo. In 2021, for example, 86% of White evangelicals said there are only two genders, wit…
Read More…ings, Schumacher-Matos read an article by Mimi Swartz and published in the New York Times Magazine about same-sex attracted religious people who accept being same-sex attracted but do not identify as gay. I was quoted extensively in that piece and one of my former clients was interviewed for it. Here is what Schumacher-Matos surmises: In 2009, a task force of the American Psychological Association came out clearly against trying to convert someone…
Read More
…s almost halved from 30 per cent in 2010 to 16 per cent in 2015, while the number who say they would be unhappy if a relative married someone who has undergone gender reassignment surgery has fallen from around a half to just under a third over the same period. Nicaragua: New web series has queer focus TeleSUR reports on MF, La Serie, the country’s first web series, “which will explore issues of violence, sexual harassment and queerness.” It is se…
Read More
…ad them that way? I spoke with Mary Gordon at the dining room table of her New York City apartment, across the street from Barnard College, where she now teaches English. What caused you to write a book about Jesus? What readers did you have in mind? When I started, I was concerned with the prevalence of fundamentalism today. The question that I kept asking myself, which I always try to ask myself as a fiction writer, was: why is this succeeding?…
Read More…ce, came under fire last week for making anti-gay comments while he was in New York drumming up support. Mejia is close to the notoriously anti-gay state Sen. Ruben Diaz. Blogger Andres Duque publicized comments Mejía made about a campaign advisor wanting him to sit like a “maritoncito,” which translates into “little faggot.” After he was criticized by New York City Counsil Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and LGBT groups in the Dominican Republic, M…
Read More
…legitimate among his core followers? Establishing his base in the midst of New York City, Sri Chinmoy always was driven with the ambition to become a world leader. In the early 1970s, one of his disciples who worked at the United Nations started a meditation club named after the guru. With that credential, Sri Chinmoy promoted himself around the world as the official spiritual leader and “Peace Ambassador” of the United Nations. Shortly after that…
Read More
…g in the economy in innovative ways. Greystone Bakery, founded in Yonkers, New York by Zen Buddhist priest Bernie Glassman has provided jobs, career training, low-income housing, and more, while producing high-end baked goods for nearly 30 years. Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries, founded by Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle more than 20 years ago, has actively engaged former gang members and at-risk youth in meaningful work, providing a range of soc…
Read More