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Will San Francisco Ban Circumcision?

By Shalom Goldman

…ocal politicians and Jewish groups. Jews represent only two percent of the American population, but over sixty percent of American males are circumcised—and Jews are not the only religious group that practices circumcision. American Muslims do as well. Six years ago, in a similar challenge, the Association for Genital Integrity, a Canadian advocacy group, sought public funding to initiate a campaign to outlaw circumcision in Canada. As the Canadia…

A Boundary-Busting Memoir of Love, Mental Illness, and Being Muslim in America

By Haroon Moghul

…Islam, yeah, but also through being the child of immigrants, growing up in New England, going to school in New York. The specifics are different for each person, but any person can find something of herself in this story, and that’s why I wrote this. To say we aren’t that different after all. What alternative title would you give the book? How To Be A Human: A Muslim Story. How do you feel about the cover? I love it. It took a few tries to get the…

New Study: Motivation Doesn’t Improve Group Success

By Arri Eisen

…erage or maximum individual intelligence’ in that group. There’s something new, some emergent property, about being in a group—if the group works. That’s a big if. We’ve all been in groups—whether religion-based or otherwise—that drive us nuts. What makes for a group that works, a group with high collective intelligence? Woolley and friends find that some of the kinds of things you’d expect to improve collective intelligence don’t (including the m…

Searching for Moral High Ground While Houston Drowns: A Perspective on the Lakewood Church Controversy

By Joshua L. Lazard

…e in the Great Recession. This correlation highlights how certain veins of American Christianity function so closely with some of the core American ideals around free-market capitalism, wealth and consumerism. Prosperity gospel, for instance, only makes logical sense in a system of free-market capitalism. Those core American ideals have come under assault in very public ways when measured against the yardstick of liberation theology and faith-base…

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ent government to ward off criticism from Islamist factions. This week the New York Times’sErnesto Londoño covered the phenomenon. He writes: In some ways, Egypt’s new government has become even more repressive and intolerant than the regime that was overthrown in early 2011. One disturbing example is the incarceration of dozens of gay men, a crackdown that has vilified a community that had hopedthe popular uprising in 2011 would bring minorities…

Seattle ‘CultureMaker’ Nathan Marion: We Need New Abbeys in America to Foster Community, Arts

By Jesse James DeConto

…nding pastors there wanted the building to be used by the community. They knew that they wouldn’t really have a lot of use for it, besides Sundays anyways. So they helped create that nonprofit and establish the basic mission, and then I got involved with it, to take it on and really build it from the ground up. It’s a great mixed model. The Abbey Arts (our nonprofit) leases the building. The church is still active in the space. They have services…

Was Blind But Now I See: The Debut of a New Anti-Abortion Strategy

By Kellee Terrell

…cessary” mentality I didn’t know what to expect from a day-long meeting of new converts offering the faithful behind-the-curtain peeks at what they call the “abortion industry.” After making my way past tables of swag in the Crowne Plaza O’Hare Hotel’s lobby (rosaries, pictures of aborted babies and Romney campaign fliers), I caught the opening statements, hosted by the Pro-Life Action League, which was celebrating the morning’s “big win.” An appe…

Jerusalem Countdown: Christian Zionists and the New Israeli Government

By Bill Berkowitz

…iles. Now, those long-range missiles would have the ability to hit London, New York, and Jerusalem, and right now Israel. Iran is trying to get their hands on nuclear weapons and if they can put nuclear warheads on these missiles, can you imagine, Glenn, a world where London, New York, and Jerusalem have been hit by a nuclear missile on the same day. That’s the nightmare scenario that Ahmadinejad is trying to put together and he’s dangerously clos…

New Doc Claiming Columbus was Jewish May Have Some Accuracy Issues — But There’s a Far Bigger Issue We Need to Reckon With

By Samira K. Mehta

…after publicly and privately embracing Catholicism. In other words, if we knew for certain that the remains were Columbus’ (which we don’t), and if we knew that the remains belonged to a Sephardic Jew (which we also don’t), we still wouldn’t know anything about Columbus’ religious life, beliefs, or identity. Doctrines and discoveries What we do know, however, is that Columbus’ royal patrons expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492 (the same year that…

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

By Peter Montgomery

…arrested in the southwestern district of Kushtia, Munirul Islam, head of a newly formed police counterterrorism unit, told a news conference. He did not give any further details. There have been a series of recent attacks targeting atheists, moderates and foreigners in Bangladesh. Only one of 15 such killings has been prosecuted since 2013. Shihab reportedly told police he had committed the murders under orders from his group’s leaders. Bermuda: R…