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Pride Month & Prejudice; ‘Worrisome Time’ For LGBT People; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ciety,” he said. CNN traces the start of the backlash to early 2016 when a number of political leaders began making “unprompted attacks on Indonesia’s LGBT community.” It notes that conservative Islam is a growing political force, evident in the arrest and conviction of Jakarta’s Christian governor on blasphemy charges. The report says human rights activists have been disappointed by President Joko Widodo’s “lackluster” defense of LGBT people. Sal…

Saving Teens from Obama: When Bible Study Goes Wrong

By Vyckie Garrison

…waste American money to buy their expensive oil when we could have our own cheap oil?” “Why is he trying to make rich people poor?” “How is it right to punish rich people for working hard and realizing the American Dream?” It was late on a Friday night and I was tired, so I half-heartedly responded by explaining that there are other factors to consider in every charged question she’d been armed with. But I wondered, “Why the hell was the Salvation…

Burning Man: Religious Event or Sheer Hedonism?

By Lee Gilmore

…llar annual budget is funded almost exclusively by ticket sales, and these tickets are not cheap (ranging this year, for example, from $210-$300 depending on time of purchase). This pays for the basic infrastructure as well as expenses like a hefty per-person/per-day use fee charged by the Bureau of Land Management. In addition, a significant portion of each year’s budget is set aside to fund many of the large-scale art installations various parti…

Meet The Liberal Tea Partiers

By Abby Scher

…l to protecting funding for government programs hit hard by the recession. Oregon faced a $4 billion hole in 2010—one-quarter of its budget. In a January referendum, a union-led coalition which included some congregations won permanent tax hikes on individuals who make more than $125,000 and families earning over $250,000; corporations will pay anywhere from $150 to as much as $100,000 or more, depending on profitability. As one advocate explained…

Creationism and Global Warming Denial: Anti-Science’s Kissing Cousins?

By Lauri Lebo

…Atmospheric Science at the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. “The problem is that there are enormous economic and political consequences to accepting this idea.” A peer-reviewed study by the University of Illinois at Chicago from January 2009 of US-based scientists showed that of scientists most specialized and knowledgeable with regard to climate change (those who listed climate science as their area of expe…

It’s Not the Thought that Counts: Tragic Case Highlights Flaws in “Religious Liberty” Debate

By Kara Loewentheil

…some fundamentalist religious sects is not limited to these hot topics. In Oregon in 2011, a married couple, members of the Followers of Christ Church, were sentenced to prison because they didn’t seek medical help for their prematurely born infant despite the baby’s obvious illness and distress. The parents appealed their conviction on the grounds that because their failure to seek medical care was based on their religious beliefs, the State shou…

“Man of Steel” Brings Muscular Message to Oppose Right-to-Die Legislation

By Ann Neumann

…about the abuse of aid-in-dying methods. But nearly 20 years of data from Oregon have yielded no proof of such abuse. Hanson’s objective is to paternalistically prevent others, including the economically oppressed, from having medical decision-making autonomy—something supported by a majority of the population. Still, Hanson is being championed by many religious opponents of aid in dying as a clear voice in the movement; he has formed an alliance…

Trump Pardons the Hammonds, Arsonists Who Inspired Bundy Standoff

By Megan Goodwin

…1-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon. Ammon Bundy received testimony that “the Lord was not pleased with what was happening to the Hammonds,” and called on like-minded civilians to bring guns and supplies to the Wildlife Refuge. Bundy and many of his followers are Mormons; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expressed its concern that the insurgents were claiming scriptural justification but…

Convergence of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic Factions in the Northwest Could Provide a Model for the Rest of the Nation

By Frederick Clarkson and Cloee Cooper

…tic 2016 seizure and occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by armed rightwing activists. For this, he was characterized as a domestic terrorist in a well-documented December 2019 investigation commissioned by the state House of Representatives. “Shea is an active and influential leader of the Patriot Movement in the US,” the investigation concluded, who “presents a present and growing threat of risk to others through politic…

Global LGBT Recap: Nigeria Jails Gays, Russian Orthodox Spox Calls for Criminalization Referendum

By Peter Montgomery

…sion talking about the LGBT people being less than human. For example, the number two person in the state broadcasting company – actually now he’s the number one person – hosted a show devoted to the question of whether it was enough to protect our children to ban homosexual propaganda or whether more needed to be done. He argued that more needed to be done. He said and we need to outlaw blood and sperm donations by them. And if they die in car ac…