Deals 1 800-299-7264 Cheap Flights from Shanghai to San Francisco – United Airlines | Search Results | Religion Dispatches

Come Hell or High Water: How the Melodrama of Disaster Leaves Us Vulnerable

By Noah Berlatsky

…at this melodramatic theater of the apocalypse, the whole genre of disaster-as-entertainment, actually makes it harder for citizens and governments to take the steps they need to prepare for catastrophe. The problem is that people don’t want dull disasters—or, at least, many parties benefit from the excitement caused by catastrophe. “[M]edia has a strong incentive to sell copy or images,” Dercon told me by email. “This means that the early stages…

US Offers Help For Investigation of Bangladesh Killings

By Peter Montgomery

…void a runoff, which will be held on June 5. She is reportedly running neck-and-neck with her opponent Pedro Pablo Kuckynski. Dominican Republic: Evangelical leaders decry outside support for LGBTs, tell pastors to ‘guide’ voters Evangelical leaders urged political candidates to resist what they said were efforts by foreign groups to force abortion and gay rights on the country. From Acento.com, with English via Google translate: The Christian Act…

UCC First Church to Sue State Over Gay Marriage Ban

By Peter Montgomery

…sley and Cathy McGaughey, two of his congregants who have been together for 14 years. “My denomination — the United Church of Christ — authorizes me to perform these ceremonies, but Amendment One denies my religious freedom by prohibiting me from exercising this right.” The United Church of Christ, which has nearly a million members, in 2005 approved a resolution endorsing marriage rights for same-sex couples. The story quotes Jonathan Martel, a l…

When Violence is Inevitable: Club Q and the Success of the System

By Heron Greenesmith

…etwork, a volunteer-run opposition-monitoring shop in the UK; or the health-care crowd-raisers who gather five dollars here and ten dollars there from other low-income queer and trans people in the hope of funding gender-affirming care that can cost tens of thousands; or to the patrons at Club Q who stood up to the shooter, disarmed and subdued him. The networks are there. The evidence is there. The stories have been told. The conversations have b…

RDPulpit: Israel in Gaza: Right but not Smart

By Rabbi Michael Lerner

…Palestinians? The first step is for the world to demand an immediate cease-fire. That cease-fire should be imposed by the United Nations and backed unequivocally by the United States. Its terms must include the following: A. Hamas stops all firing of missiles, bombs, or any other violent action originating from the West Bank or Gaza, and cooperates in actively jailing anyone from any faction that attempts to break this cease-fire from territory c…

Obama’s Jewish Problem

By Rabbi Michael Lerner

…ives is beginning a campaign for a Global Marshall Plan that would allocate 1-2% of the American GDP every year for the next twenty, to once and for all end domestic and global hunger, poverty, homelessness, inadequate education, inadequate health care, and repair the global environment. This kind of initiative is far more likely to dry up the cesspools of hatred against the United States from which terrorists are able to recruit suicide bombers….

Contraception Isn’t Meat

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…s for some Jain institutions say, “Wait, now we have to facilitate the meat-getting by our non-Jain employees? This is an outrage! We’re being forced to violate our religious principles!” Their critics reply, “Oh, please. Nobody’s asking you personally to eat meat. Anyway, you didn’t have any qualms about hiring these people, and you’ve entered into contracts with lots of non-Jain companies. If you want to be a religious organization, fine, but th…

Stupak Forming Fault Lines in Left-Leaning Faith Groups?

By Sarah Posner

…ctive amendment to ensure passage of the final bill. As a coalition of hard-right anti-choice groups (known as Stop the Abortion Mandate) worked with the USCCB and Democrats for Life of America to push Stupak over the finish line, decisions made months earlier by pro-reform faith coalitions not to address the abortion question left them flat-footed. Leading pro-choice, pro-reform religious groups are now vowing that history will not repeat itself…

Donald Trump Scares LGBT People Worldwide and More, in This Week’s Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…eports teleSUR. The country does not provide any legal recognition for same-sex couples, but the right-wing ARENA party, along with “Catholic and Protestant leaders” are pushing for a constitutional change to restrict marriage to a man and a woman. Taiwan: Religious opponents of marriage equality rally in opposition With Taiwan potentially on the verge of becoming the first Asian country to legalize marriage by same-sex couples, religious hardline…

Trump Election Could Threaten LGBT Rights Globally

By Peter Montgomery

…frican Group effort. Romania: Orthodox Church helps spearhead push for anti-marriage-equality amendment The Romanian Orthodox Church “dramatically” demonstrated its influence, according to LifeSiteNews, when its priests and bishops “helped spearhead” a petition drive that gathered three million signatures for a referendum on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex couples from marrying: Romanian Patriarch Daniel said the faithful — who constitu…