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An American Muslim Abroad, Or, Things I Saw in Dubai

By Haroon Moghul

…h buildings, starting right around the same time. Talk about luxury on the cheap; it’s hard to deny a feeling of similarity. (The tower is to the Burj as a certain toupee is to hair: might the Trump Tower inadvertently mimic an Islamic motif?) The regal twin palm trees in the foreground are the world’s tallest, at some 3,500 feet each. Recently a falling coconut crushed an entire apartment complex, punching a massive hole that has filled up with…

Evangelicals ‘Crossing the Tiber’ to Catholicism

By Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

…d a difficult time finding a church that was similar to his home church in San Diego. The churches that he attended in New York, even the evangelical ones, often were a bit more structured and incorporated some liturgical elements into their services. In time, Dunn realized that these liturgical practices, which had been all but absent from his church life to that point, were quite rich. When he asked his parents why their church didn’t have a ben…

For Clergy Who Ministered Through the AIDS Crisis Covid is Both Eerily Familiar and Puzzlingly Different

By Lynne Gerber

…hes have long had to create rituals to counter that exclusion and make the sanctification of queer life feel real. This has translated into creative experimentation with making virtual church feel real. Flunder’s church has grown since the epidemic. “We’ve had all kinds of ritual online,” she said, including different sacraments from the African-American Christian church and the indigenous spiritual communities that make up her congregation. They’…

Religious Affiliation, ‘Mankind’: India’s Anti-Corruption Activist Leads Second Freedom Struggle

By April L. Bogle

…good move. When I got to the lobby another something told me to dig out my phone and check it for messages. Sure enough, I had one from an unfamiliar number. A woman’s voice said Bedi was still sleeping, exhausted from the previous day’s overseas flight, and needed to reschedule our interview for that afternoon. I called the number back, convinced the opportunity was lost. “I’m here at the hotel now, but I’m booked solid this afternoon—” “Hold on,…

When the Church’s LGBTIQ Loss is the World’s Gain

By Mary E. Hunt

…t. She continued her ministry through the Metropolitan Community Church in San Francisco and then developed the Spectrum Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns in the Bay Area that she directed for a decade. All of this was during the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 1991, she accepted a call to co-pastor the Downtown United Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY. Heterosexism reared its ugly head and she was eventually barred…

RIP: Bishop Otis Charles and Rev. Robert Nugent

By Peter Montgomery

…pal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusettss. Egelko reports that Charles came out in 1993 shortly after announcing his retirement, divorced his wife of 42 years, and moved to San Francisco. He ran a gay ministry there and at age 76 he met Felipe Sanchez-Paris, who he later married. Sanchez-Paris died in July. Charles is survived by five children, ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled at 2 p.m. Jan….

Burma Bans Time Magazine’s “Buddhist Terror” Issue

By Alan Senauke

…ession. Many of us were heartened by this change and by the return of Aung San Suu Kyi to political life. Hundreds or thousands of political prisoners, 250 of them monks and nuns, remained in Burma’s jails. Along with many others I pressed the new government to release these men and women, who had contributions to make in the rebuilding of society. Several of us were also able to go to Burma and begin to set up training programs in basic skills of…

Openly Gay Mormon Appointed to LDS Church Leadership Position

By Joanna Brooks

…n LDS congregation in San Francisco. Before receiving his call to serve in San Francisco, Mayne had been attending an LDS congregation in Oakland, where Mormons have been especially active in efforts to repair damage to interfaith and LDS-LGBT relations since the LDS Church’s heavy involvement in California’s 2008 Proposition 8 campaign. Mayne was also in a committed, monogamous relationship with his male partner. About a year ago, Mayne decided t…

What the Lost Finale is Really About

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…soul) damned.” To be lost is not merely a geographic problem for marooned airline passengers, or for men unwilling to stop and ask for directions—it’s a spiritual and moral condition. These days a google search turns up over 500,000,000 hits (that’s half a billion); not too surprising for a basic and often-used term. Similar numerical results come from google searches on terms like “run” and “hide.” Meanwhile, “found” yields over 1.3 trillion hit…

The Religious Implications of Nudity

By Steve A. Wiggins

…ance-enhancing drugs. The sense of freedom and fun (and free food, even if airline food) was exhilarating. The airport has now become a place of horror. Do they have full-body scanners? I wonder as I’m herded into a long, bovine line. Abattoir or boudoir? Why is this bothering me so much? Don’t Touch Me There Even cursory reflection reveals my embodiment issues are buried deep in my religious upbringing. I was a teenage fundamentalist. That remark…