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Religion Round-Up: What’s Going on in Religion Around the World

By Diane Winston

…ndings are worth remembering: A growing number of urban, educated, 20-something Chinese men and women are increasingly interested in the topic. More on religion: a story last week from the Columbus Dispatch reported that United Methodist congregations “could share pastors and combine churches with a Lutheran denomination under a partnership approved by the denomination last week.” (The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will need to okay the a…

RDPulpit: Israel in Gaza: Right but not Smart

By Rabbi Michael Lerner

…ccept 30,000 Palestinian refugees back into Israel each year for the next thirty years, a number that would not seriously endanger the population balance, apologize for its role in the 1948 expulsions of Palestinians (known as al Naqba), and offer to coordinate a worldwide effort to raise funds to compensate Palestinians for all that they lost during the Occupation; 4. Recognize a Palestinian state within borders already defined by the Geneva Acco…

A Reforming Tradition Struggles With Change

By Brent Hege

…sider what happened in Minneapolis and to map some of the trajectories of this historic vote. A Fundamental Injustice? Discussions of sexuality, ordination practices, and related issues have been a regular feature of the the church’s conversations since before the merger of its predecessor bodies in 1988. Numerous studies have been conducted to determine how the ELCA might faithfully minister to LGBTQ persons while remaining faithful to scripture,…

New Poll Reveals Jews May Be Open to Change in Israel Policy

By Benjamin Weiner

…o a complex series of failures on both sides). The 69% of respondents (the number is even higher among Jews under 30) opposed to Avigdor Lieberman, the ultra-nationalist politician who has advocated the “transfer” of Israeli Arabs and will most likely be taking up a minister’s portfolio in the new Netanyahu government, further emphasizes the survey’s dovish tilt. But an important question to ask is: what does it mean that so many American Jews sup…

Will Pope’s African Tour Change Attitudes on Divorce and LGBTQ Among African Catholics?

By Kaya Oakes

…rian studying at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, has witnessed this problem first hand. His own mother was divorced, and because of cultural pressure, “she had to be silent about it.” She refrained from taking communion at church for twenty years, until “a young priest came and helped.” In Kenya, Momanyi says, “divorce puts all of the stigma on the woman,” and the church is contributing to that stigma by barring women from communion. Th…

Pussy Riot Members Sentenced to 2 Years for Offending Russian Orthodox Church

By The Editors

…owed by military service. Socrates was accused of corrupting youth through his philosophical discourses and of not recognizing the gods of Athens. Socrates had a connection to a divine inner voice and was by no means a theomachist, something he often said himself. What did that matter, however, when he had angered the city with his critical, dialectical and unprejudiced thinking? Socrates was sentenced to death and, refusing to run away, although…

Wesolowski Sexual Abuse Case a New Approach or Same Old Same Old?

By Mary E. Hunt

…ake its course. It did not have to secret this man away before the news of his crimes hit. But it could, so it would, and it did. This latest twist about lifting immunity is meant to convince that they were really doing the right thing all along. It rings suspiciously hollow. A certain slime factor hovers over this case—evil so deep and enduring that few people want to talk about it. The sheer number of victims and their willingness to come forwar…

Trump’s Pathological Devotion to Border Walls Isn’t Political, It’s Theological

By Alana Massey

…e that this personal commitment had been so wounded by a terrorist attack while watching it unfold from my own country—which was not under attack—until I saw the commitment reflected back, with such firm resolution, by someone whose country actually was. On the night of the attack, then-candidate Donald Trump tweeted the uncharacteristically solemn (if toothless) message: “My prayers are with the victims and hostages in the horrible Paris attacks….

Cafeteria Cockroaches and Synagogue-State Relations in Israel

By Shalom Goldman

…f many of their fellow citizens, the cafeteria owners, Yaron Menashe and Oshik Ben Shitrit, expressed their dismay about the ethical standards of their parliamentary representatives: “The payment ethic of private citizens who eat at the cafeteria is of a higher standard than some of the MKs.” As luck (or fate) would have it, the cockroach in the rice appeared on the dinner plate of the secretary of the Ultra-Orthodox Shas Party. Sitting with him a…

LGBT Editor In Bangladesh Murdered by Islamists—and More, In this Week’s Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…nize their relationships. From Human Rights Watch: The Colombian Congress shirked his obligation to pass legislation to give effect to the judgment of the Constitutional Court of Colombia and ended with the arbitrary discrimination of the rules on marriage in the country, ” said José Miguel Vivanco , Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The decision of the Court to recognize all Colombians, regardless of their sexual orientation, the right to…