Search for "More About Buddhism & Science"

World Congress of Families Blessed By Georgian Orthodox Patriarch and George W. Bush; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e Survivors The government announced that it will annul the convictions of about 50,000 men convicted between 1946 and 1969 under former laws banning gay sex, which dated to 1871. It will pay some financial compensation to those who are still alive. Russia: Who’s Killing Gay Journalists? The Daily Beast’s Anna Nemtsova asks, “Who’s Killing Gay Journalists in Russia?” “With two journalists dead at the hands of strange men—including a Hitler-loving…

It’s Not Yogaphobia, It’s Theology

By Kyle Garton-Gundling

Andrea Jain’s timely piece in RD sets Pope Francis’ recent inoffensive reference to yoga against a larger context of yogaphobia in Catholic thought. Of particular importance is her reading of “On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation,” a 1989 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that seeks to reckon with the rise in popularity of Eastern disciplines such as yoga and meditation. Jain writes that, “the CDF seeks to prevent Ca…

Killer Buddhists

By Joanna Piacenza

There are a bunch of Buddhist monks killing Muslims in Myanmar and no one seems to care. Prompted by the alleged rape of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men in June, violent clashes between the two groups keep popping up in western Myanmar. This sort of ethnic repression is not new; the Burmese have long viewed the Rohingya (members of the local Muslim community) as illegal immigrants, despite the fact that many belong to families that have resi…

Of Birds and Buddhists: Wildlife Rehab, NYC Style

By Jay Wexler

…he Buddhists started arriving at a quarter after two, and by three o’clock about forty had shown up, including a dozen monks in mustard-colored robes, most bearing cell phones. Their leader was the tall and soft-spoken Venerable Benkong Shi, a.k.a. Harold Lemke, a native New Jerseyite with a dry sense of humor who spent nearly thirty years in Asia and Africa working with HIV patients before returning to New York to take up residence as a monk at t…

What To Do About Southern Baptist President’s Call for End to Hate for LGBT

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…stians to do: don’t argue, maintain a loving tone, and stick to their guns about what they believe the Bible says. I’m naturally suspicious of the “friendship evangelism” that Wright is espousing, and have strongly criticized this position before, but, as I reflect on Wright’s words, I believe that if he is sincerely asking conservative Christians to cultivate not just a loving tone, but a truly loving attitude toward LGBT people—and not just use…

Alarming New Report Shows Attacks on Public Education Are Coordinated by Right-Wing Think Tanks

By Hialy Gutierrez

…ide to their students. These bills aim to create the language that talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion and talking about how to create more just education institutions are somehow these ideological political projects that so-called brainwash students. Thank you for that. In the report you focus on 11 think tanks, and specific constellations of think tanks. Can you describe how you came to identify major players in those different catego…

Two people on a podium with a board that reads "Project 2025 kills democracy"

Project 2025: How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism

By Peter Montgomery

…] Georgia Logothetis, “Article V: The danger to democracy you may not know about,” Common Cause, September 30, 2021, https://www.commoncause.org/illinois/democracy-wire/article-v-the-danger-to-democracy-you-may-not-know-about/. [84] Peter Montgomery, “Will Corporations, The Christian Right and the Tea Party Get to Rewrite the Constitution?” The Public Eye, October 16, 2017, https://politicalresearch.org/2017/10/16/will-corporations-the-christian-r…

Anti-Gay Celebration in Uganda; Weddings in England; ‘Francis Effect’ at the Vatican

By Peter Montgomery

…osition within his conservative party, celebrated the milestone by talking about his own marriage and saying “when people’s love is divided by law, it is that law that needs to change” More excerpts: “The introduction of same-sex civil marriage says something about the sort of country we are. “It says we are a country that will continue to honour its proud traditions of respect, tolerance and equal worth. It also sends a powerful message to young…

The American Right Hasn’t Adopted Children’s Rights — They’ve Redefined and Weaponized Them

By R.L. Stollar

…t not children—occurs throughout the book, meaning that nearly every story about a child is reported from the perspective of adults. The absence of children’s voices is both telling and meaningful. It’s telling because it reveals that, while Mandel and Markowicz may speak eloquently about advocating for children, they’re more interested in advocating for parental authority and control over children. They speak disparagingly, for example, of gentle…

What Most Critics Missed About Dustin Lance Black’s ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’

By Cristina Rosetti

…perience was finally seen.” Banner is one of many stories that can be told about Mormon fundamentalism, a religious tradition most often associated with the continued practice of polygamy. It’s also indicative of the growing reality that the term “Mormon” is increasingly separate from a single institutional identity. Mormonism encapsulates the over 400 religions that trace themselves to Joseph Smith, as well as the individual families whose belief…