Religion Dispatches
…financial experts is to stress that Jesus talked a lot about money—not because money makes a nice metaphor for spiritual rewards, but because, according to Hyman, “the carpenter from Nazareth was a shrewd businessman.” Throughout the hour-long video I kept wondering what the angle was; it finally came, of course, towards the end of the seemingly endless 60 minutes. Hyman is selling subscriptions to his monthly “Ultimate Wealth Report”—one year, al…
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…Organizers say the gathering, “The Future is Now: Preserving Values for a Better Tomorrow,” will promote “a biblical perspective of family.” David Gibbs III, who takes an anti-gay stand, is not quite as controversial as his father David Gibbs Jr but he has nevertheless spoken out at many public religious events in recent years about what he believes is an agenda or conspiracy by the liberal left to promote gay marriage and alternative lifestyles….
Read More…the past week, which has resulted in a church being attacked, and fighting between Egyptian citizens. The response of the country was unanimous, and I saw it play out on Friday, the first after this outbreak. Friday has become the day of prayer and protest in Egypt every week – and they do go hand in hand here. The sermons across the mosques are calling for national unity, and are castigating any Muslim who might think that Islam permits any actio…
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…ituals and sanctities and prophets” under articles 98, 160, and 161 of the Egyptian Penal Code. According to Egypt News Daily, the prosecution first sought to charge him in connection with disseminating Innocence of Muslims but when this accusation was proven false, they revised their strategy to target the content of Saber’s video blog. Though sentenced to three years and released on bail he was subsequently locked up due to a clerical error befo…
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…xample, that Britain’s embrace of openly gay diver Tom Daley should not be used to excuse some of its politicians’ Islamophobia. Belize: Court overturns sodomy law that had been defended by religious right Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin ruled on August 10 that the law criminalizing “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” violates constitutional protections for human dignity, privacy, and equality before the law. The case had been brought…
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…areness of the value of condoms in HIV prevention on the basis that condom use promotes promiscuity. There is some worry that the horrific wave of extrajudicial killings being carried out by government and vigilantes in the name of fighting drug trafficking could be turned against others, including LGBT people. Malta: Ban on conversion therapy adopted along with law ‘depathologizing’ gender identity Two pieces of legislation were adopted on Decemb…
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…his name in Greece; Jehovah is his Hebrew name; but everywhere he is the Causeless Cause, the rootless Root from which all things have grown. When men become afraid of God, and take him for a foe, they dress up other men in fancy garbs and call them priests… When man sees God as one with him, as father-God, he needs no middle man, no priest to intercede… (28: 16-22). On it goes. Jesus travels onward to Tibet (though curiously enough, “in Lassa he…
Read More…he petitioners were in effect asking the court to formulate a new criminal code because they feared parliament would took take too long to enact changes wanted by the Family Love Alliance. But, in a sign of the challenges that continue to face LGBT people, Associated Press reported on December 15 that a court “has sentenced 10 men arrested in a raid at a gay club and sauna to between two and three years in prison, an activist and a relative of one…
Read More…bill, asserting such involvement by government in the work of NGOs would abuse freedom of association and expression. Organizations are also worried that if the bill is passed in its current state, it will hinder Ugandans from freely working with any local or international NGOs, as some activities, like those helping LGBT persons, might be viewed as illegal by the government. Argentina: Government recognizes three parents The government of Argenti…
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…e of social and community values in pictures.” For the next 38 years, that code shaped Hollywood’s output. The Production Code insisted that movies were primarily “to be regarded as entertainment” that would “improve the race.” As such, movies should avoid explicit images that would be upsetting or play to “the lower and base element.” Those images included graphic violence, “excessive passion,” “white-slavery,” “scenes of actual child birth,” and…
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