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UNESCO on Religion, Culture and SOGI in Asia; Orthodox Family Sues to Stop Cremation of Israeli Trans Woman; Struggles of Iraqi Queer Activists; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…as indicated earlier. Some texts suggest that Buddhism, while regarded as mostly tolerant towards sexual and gender diversity, interprets ‘homosexuality’ as a result of bad karma – LGBT people are believed to have committed sins in past lives, and therefore are regarded as deserving stigmatisation and discrimination imposed upon them. Islamic sects vary in their interpretation of sexual and gender diversity. In certain areas of the region, sexual…

From A Belize Jungle, A Look At Creationist “Outreach” in Vancouver

By Lauri Lebo

…sh and making the United States look stupid before the international media. AiG does this every four years and claims that it saved 250 souls at the Athens Olympics. Since in most countries, people accept the reality of evolution, the rest of the western world, except for Turkey, will laugh at us….

Looking For Answers at the Oscars: A Guide to This Year’s Contenders

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…in basic human questions: Where did we come from? Where are we going? And, most potently, Who am I? Where tradition turned for answers to vision quests and pilgrimages, to rituals and sacred writings, our modern mass-mediated age offers a new text for exegesis: the movies. The films under consideration last year (the class of 2009) reflected a broad unease about the future status of Homo sapiens as a species. Humans were threatened with apocalypti…

James Foley Prayed, But He Was Not a Martyr

By Alana Massey

…ction that claims James Foley was praying during what are now his famous last moments on Earth. Despite good intentions, it was somewhat off-putting when Frank Weathers at Patheos described Foley as a Christian martyr in his death. Not only because he was killed explicitly for his nationality and not for his religion, but also because the prospect of the hellscape that is the battleground on which ISIS fights becoming a destination for competitive…

Maybe The Question Is: Should Shabbat Be The New Yoga?

By Michael Schulson

…ple in their 20s and 30s find, enjoy and share Shabbat dinners to make the most of their Friday nights and enjoy the best of life together.” The organization has an app that helps connect people with Shabbat dinners. It also offers “nourishment credits”—at $15 per head—to pay for bringing in food. Potential dinner hosts can meet with a designated Shabbat coach skilled at helping “elevate your dinner party to a Shabbat dinner experience.” The Schus…

Gay Marriage Bill Totalitarian Says Head Bishop

By Peter Montgomery

…l Organization for Marriage (NOM) urgently called on its supporters to get more phone calls into Senate offices. NOM is urging Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos to use his power to keep marriage from coming to the floor for a vote. Meanwhile, Archbishop Timothy Dolan is getting increasingly shrill in his efforts to stop the shift toward equality. This week, on his official blog, he wrote: “Last time I consulted an atlas, it is clear we are living…

Becoming Forever Lonesome: How Violence Changes Us

By Amanda Robb

…py. By the time the mother was halfway to the school the DJ had more news. Most of the shooting took place in the school library. There appeared to be fatalities. The mother was still focused on her mission. Getting to the school. But SWAT teams had set up a perimeter. Trucks. Sharp shooters. Big dogs. It looked like a war. It looked like a Bruce Willis movie. People in uniforms told the mother to go to an elementary school across the way. There,…

Star Trek: Politics Anti-Matters

By Nathan Schneider

…hand-to-hand fight over a bottomless-pit-area, which has made its way into most recent Star Trek (and for that matter, Star Wars) movies. But in that same spirit, once again the villain is beaten mostly by well-placed brawn rather than anything more worthy of utopia. Am I asking too much? It is, after all, just a sci-fi show. Not really. At least in retrospect, 1991’s The Undiscovered Country was a political masterpiece for the end of the Cold War…

ACLU and Thomas More Law Center Rush to Terry Jones Defense

By Lauri Lebo

…t to keep Jones from inciting a riot, I guess, by outraged Muslims. What’s most disturbing about the case was that Jones was locked up, not because he was suspected of committing a crime, but because he refused to promise that he wouldn’t go near the mosque. (Hey Wayne County, thought crime, much?) The ACLU submitted an amicus curiae brief to the 19th District Court in defense of Jones’ right to protest, which says, “If the First Amendment has any…

White House Position
on Exemption from Contraception Coverage
“Not a Done Deal”?

By Sarah Posner

…” The Washington Post reports this morning that Democratic Senators, on a phone call yesterday with White House senior advisor David Plouffe, argued against adopting the Bishops’ position. My source says it’s “not a done deal” yet, but expected action from the White House within a week. UPDATE: Another womens’ rights advocate tells me that she has “no reason to think” that the Obama administration feels it “owes” the Bishops for health care refo…