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How (and Why) A Determined Sit-In Worked

By Daniel Schultz

…monitoring the progress of the Congressional Democrats’ sit-in last night mostly by Twitter. Still, what I saw was fascinating, and frankly, inspiring. It’s hard not to admire a 76-year-old John Lewis using the same tactics he used in the campaign against segregation for a new kind of liberation. We’ll come back to his determination later. First, to answer your questions: Was the sit-in a publicity stunt? Yes, and a successful one at that. The De…

Book Bannings Are Bad Enough, But Where Those Involved Are Considered Demonic, the Stakes Could Get Much Higher

By Frederick Clarkson

…33, some 40,000 people gathered to watch the Nazis burn about 25,000 books—mostly taken from public and university libraries—and to hear Joseph Goebbels declare “No to decadence and moral corruption!” Book burnings, American style There have been many religiously motivated burnings of the Qur’an and many other books in the US so far this century. Anti-abortion leader Rev. Flip Benham, for example, staged burnings of the Qur’an, the Rainbow flag, a…

Giving Up God—Not Just a Spiritual Stunt

By Becky Garrison

…al marketplace? Linn Marie Tonstad suggests that I am participating in a postmodern marketplace of religious ideas, choosing my “beliefs” from a smorgasbord of options. But then in the last sentence she seems to suggest that there might be a “marketplace” motive to my actions—that I might stand to benefit in the marketplace from my yearlong experience of atheism. First of all, I’m not sure what the marketplace of religious beliefs and practices ha…

US Names Int’l Envoy for LGBT Rights; Marriage revolution spreads in Mexico; Scott Lively Warns World of Anti-Christ; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…view last week. “In the two years [since], we have succeeded in covering almo*]}*st the entire country. Even some LGBT rights supporters are a little mystified that marriage equality rulings haven’t sparked a national backlash. The fight over Mexico City’s 2009 marriage equality law brought strong opposition from the country’s Catholic hierarchy. Yet while some state bishops have condemned marriages between same-sex couples in the past few years, ther…

Safety Not Guaranteed

By Jeanne Carstensen

…ike the woman I met in front of Jacob Riis, who lived unequivocally in the most dangerous area but felt she couldn’t leave, no matter what the risks, the map must have meant something different, something like “duh.” It showed her what she already knew—that she lived in the evacuation zone—but offered no easy solution. * Almo*]}*st a week after Hurricane Sandy I know the neighborhood much better than before. Sheens remained open throughout four days…

The Environmental Politics of Vodou, New Orleans Style

By Joseph Laycock

…en I ask my students to list their associations with Vodou, “scary” is the most common response. American fear and fascination with Vodou is also closely intertwined with issues of class and, especially, race. This matrix of associations is evident in the example of phone psychics like “Miss Cleo,” who uses an affected Caribbean accent. We also saw it in Pat Robertson’s gaffe following the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, when he claimed…

Will a Video Game Make Sense of Qaddafi’s Death?

By Rachel Wagner

…g a violent attack close up. The horrifying footage shows the dictator’s last moments, complete with flashes of faces splattered with blood, punctuated with off-screen shouts of “Allahu Akbar,” and revealing glimpses of Qaddafi’s pummeled and resigned visage blunted by repeated beatings. While the footage itself seems to bleed with the desperation and anger of a people who have felt powerless for too long, from the gamer’s perspective, this is mer…

US Offers Help For Investigation of Bangladesh Killings

By Peter Montgomery

…d while there were occasional attacks in the past, the LGBTQ community was mostly left to itself. But no longer: Two years ago, the Kyrgyz parliament followed the lead of its powerful near-neighbor Russia and introduced a series of amendments outlawing the promotion of same-sex relationships. Popularly known as the ‘anti-gay propaganda law,’ it has unleashed a campaign of violence and intimidation against the LGBTQ community, with a near 300 perce…

Australian Church Leaders See Marriage Vote as Battle for Soul of Australia: Global LGBT Recap 10/30

By Peter Montgomery

…’s Prayer is still recited in the Australian Parliament when it meets, and most top schools are controlled by religious orders or churches, which receive generous tax breaks. Bishops and archbishops have high social status. Their influence is threatened by changing attitudes toward religion — a trend evident across most of the Western world. The decline in religiosity in Australia is clear in polls. In 1966, 88 percent of Australians described the…

To: Discovery Institute;
Re: Creationist Tactics Pre-Dating the Exposure of ID as a Fraud

By Lauri Lebo

…ligent design was exposed as nothing but revamped creationism. (One of the most problematic elements of intelligent design is its proponents’ argument that those searching for proof of God’s existence no longer need faith, since ID provides scientific evidence. But, as ID defender and scientist Michael Behe testified during the Dover trial, the evidence only takes one so far and, in the end, one really does need faith.) Still, West is correct. Dis…