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Obama Caves on (Another) Contraception Exemption

By Patricia Miller

…contraceptive mandate will be small. But imagine a scenario where a larger number of employers seeks to escape a costly mandate, such as equal access to in vitro fertilization procedures for straight and gay couples, for supposedly religious reasons and hundreds flood HHS with generic opt-out letters that don’t identify a specific insurer. Or a future administration that is less dedicated to contraceptive access. It’s not hard to see how the lack…

Pope and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Declare Shared View of Marriage & Family; Government & Muslim Officials Ramp Up Anti-LGBT Rhetoric in Indonesia; Australian Religious Leaders Ask Parliament to Act on Marriage Equality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…hts of members of the LGBT community but was concerned with the increasing number of television programs promoting or starring members of the LGBT community, such as the popular transgender actor and comedian Dorce Gamalama. Erlinda said the commission was concerned that many young boys were starting to cross dress or adopt feminine characteristics because they had been “brainwashed” by these television programs. “The KPAI has stated clearly we re…

Religious Leaders On Anti-Muslim Frenzy: “Silence Is Not An Option”

By Sarah Posner

…xious and fearful that their classmates “will look at them like aliens.” A number of religious leaders, including Mattson, spoke at the press briefing, which was one of the most highly attended press events relating to religion that I’ve seen — except for events hosted by religious right groups. Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, speaking to evangelical Christians engaging in or promoting anti-Muslim b…

Catholic ‘Soul-Searching’ as Ireland Votes on Marriage; Churches, American Activists Join Kenyan Anti-Gay Group’s ‘Family’ Confab; Indian Mom Seeks Spouse For Gay Son; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…irds of marriage ceremonies are celebrated in Catholic churches. While the number of Irish people who describe themselves as Catholic has fallen slowly to 84 percent, according to the 2011 census, churches began to empty before the abuse scandals and only around one-third attend church weekly. For the handful of priests who have said they will vote ‘Yes’, the church has missed an opportunity. “I think on this one, they’re doing themselves a lot of…

Raelians’ “Clitoraid” Met With Suspicion in Burkina Faso

By Joseph Laycock

…rci Bowers has worked with the program extensively. Clitoraid engaged in a number of fund raising projects, including an “Adopt a Clitoris” campaign and a number of partnerships with companies that make vibrators. This funding was used to recruit and fund a team of surgeons (who are not Raelians) and to establish a “pleasure hospital” in Burkina Faso. There is some controversy as to what percentage of women who undergo the surgery will be able to…

What Does Darwin Mean to You?

By Arri Eisen

…d how my evolutionist thinking cannot be in conflict with scripture. The answer to the first is easy—overwhelming evidence. Evolution explains a vast number of facts that, in its absence, would be mere curiosities: the pattern of change in the fossil record, the presence of identical, functionless pseudogenes in all primates, the subtle infidelity of songbirds. To the second question, I point out that all conflict with scripture evaporates when Ge…

Catholic Sex Teaching is No Laughing Matter

By Marian Ronan

…Ya think??? Trouble is, this stuff really isn’t funny. In point of fact, a number of official Catholic statements on sexuality—it’s invariably sexuality and gender they’re riled up about—are downright dangerous. Take, for example, the Ugandan Catholic bishops. As Peter Montgomery reported in RD this week, they joined recently with Anglican and Orthodox bishops “to speed-up the process of enacting the Anti-Homosexuality Law.” This is the bill which…

Religion vs. Science: America’s Perilous Fight

By Edward J. Larson

…ds of the earth with creationist programming, such as Ken Ham’s popular “Answers in Genesis,” which is heard on over 500 radio stations in all 50 U.S. states and over 20 different counties. Ham’s ministry also boasts a $30-million museum near Cincinnati featuring life-size exhibits of primitive humans playing amidst dinosaurs. Bible institutes and Christian colleges continue to grow in number and size, with at least some of them offering degrees i…

United By Hate for Proposition 8

By Jonathan L. Walton

…dominant evangelical orientation of the black church coupled with a large number of Catholic Latino voters may just provide the support Prop 8 needs—it has been said, “politics makes for strange bedfellows.” Yet I am hopeful that enough minority voters will view this amendment for what it is, state-sanctioned discrimination and a bible-based prohibition against exogamy, which is reminiscent of previous state bans on interracial marriage that defi…

Global Anti-Gay Forces Plot Against ‘Satanic’ Equality Movement

By Peter Montgomery

…not exist if people were strong in their religious beliefs. Mahathir was answering a question by a student who asked for a way to curb the spread of the LGBT movement in Malaysia. Mahathir said that one of the dangers posed by the LGBT community is that they cannot have children, despite religion prescribing sex for uses of procreation. “It is good that they are having gay marriages, very soon they will disappear,” Mahathir added. According to Gay…