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It Gets Better: Gay Mormons Hold Conference in DC

By Joanna Brooks

…headlines last year after having been called to a leadership position in a San Francisco LDS congregation. They’ll gather as local Mormon conservative activists in Maryland also organize this weekend—acting individually and without involvement from LDS Church headquarters—gathering signatures in support of a ballot initiative to overturn a recently-passed marriage equality law. But for this group of pioneering LGBT Mormons a key focus rather than…

American Bishops Pushed Rome on Nun Crackdown

By Sarah Posner

…s elected Pope. He quickly appointed the then Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco to his old post as CDF prefect. Significantly, the soon-to-be Cardinal Levada was also chairman of the doctrinal committee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). According to sources in Rome and Washington, his successor at the conference’s doctrinal office – the then Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut – was the man who formally petition…

Is Football a Pro-Life Sport?

By Marian Ronan

…taining long-term brain injuries if he continued playing. On May 2, former San Diego Charger’s linebacker Junior Seau died in a suicide strongly resembling the 2011 suicide of former Chicago Bear’s safety Dave Duerson. Duerson intentionally shot himself in the chest, not the head, so his brain could be examined for a degenerative disease he feared he had contracted from multiple concussions. Subsequently he and twenty other former NFL players were…

New Resource for LDS Families with Gay Children Links Acceptance and Health

By Joanna Brooks

Last week, the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University released new materials designed to provide LDS families with a clear picture of the connections between family acceptance or rejection of gay young people and the kinds of health outcomes and life chances those young people will experience. The booklet has been designated as a “Best Practice” resource for suicide prevention—the only one of its kind for LDS people—by the Su…

The Truth in Transgender: Will the Episcopal Church Amend Its Rules?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…ll, a transgender woman and a recently ordained deacon from the Diocese of San Joaquin who is featured in the film puts it, “There comes a time in history when you’re called to make things happen. It’s not a matter of generating controversy. It’s a matter of all of us being fully who we are. It’s just that simple. Now is the time to act on that in the Church—to make a serious attempt to imitate Christ.” If the Episcopal Church decides to clearly a…

‘Religious Freedom’: Constitutional Principle or Electoral Politics?

By Frances Kissling

…heir wrists, are more lauded for their courage than Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent nearly 15 years under house arrest. Months before the election is the perfect time for the CHA to press its case for an exemption from the policy, which would not only allow it freedom from following the law on contraceptive insurance, but also to assert without scrutiny that any number of health services violate its religious beliefs. In her intervi…

Obama Administration Gives Free Pass for Faith-Based Groups to Discriminate

By Sarah Posner

…n in employment decisions by grantees.” After the 2011 hearing, Scott told San Francisco Chronicle reporter Bob Egelko that Holder was “obviously ‘embarrassed to try to explain the policy’” and that Obama could repeal the OLC memo via executive order but had made no effort to. The responses to Scott’s question finally reveal the straightforward answer CARD has long sought. Although it was unclear at the time exactly how the Obama administration wa…

How Will We Teach About Sikhism After the Tragedy?

By Laurie Patton

…oting not by shutting their doors, but by opening them. The Sikh temple in San Jose held an open house and gave out free head coverings. Over five hundred people gathered for a vigil at the gurdwara in Plymouth, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. This weekend, many Sikh temples have issued an open invitation to all to come and worship, in a concerted effort to welcome and educate America about their traditions. Hospitality is a key element o the Sikh…

Are You Doing Your Part in the Baby War?

By Katherine Stewart

…e direction. Founder of Seattle’s Mars Hill megachurch Mark Driscoll, whom Sandler wrote about in a previous book, said, “We are in a city with less children per capita than any city but San Francisco….and we consider it our personal mission to turn that around.” What that means for the women in his church, who are instructed to assume a “submissive” role within marriage, is predictable. “My life is much harder, not easier,” says a woman named Jud…

Is the Episcopal Church a Bain Capital Investor?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…s described it as “deceiving.” Romney’s, according to fact checkers at the San Jose Mercury News, the Washington Post, and USA Today, was only slightly less mendacious; the continuing falsehood about cuts to health care providers spun by the Romney campaign as cuts to Medicare beneficiaries noted as among the larger whoppers propagated in the speech. It seems unlikely that the GOP candidate would flat-out lie about investment by the Episcopal Chur…