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Pope Denounces Gender Colonization; Indonesian Court Considers Islamist Request To Criminalize Homosexuality; Egypt’s Grand Mufti Says No One Has Right to Harm Homosexuals; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…n sport” since 1928. The shortlist for the UK’s sixth annual Polari First Book Prize, which is awarded to a writer “whose first book explores the LGBT experience, whether in poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction,” has been released. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marched in the Vancouver pride parade, where a gay Syrian who received refugee status in 2014 was the grand marshal. Catholic Church: Pope Francis decries ‘ideological colonizatio…

Is Army’s New “Humanist” Designation Just Semantic Hooey?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…rstand their surroundings and their place in the newly created world. So, too, the renaming of Abram as Abraham (Gen. 17:1-14) expresses his new, covenantal relationship to God and marks the future trajectory of his lineage. Indeed, in many religions, choosing a name that expresses a close coherence between self-identity and religious identity and affiliation (or having one conferred) is a defining ritual feature, as in the Sikh Nam Karam ceremon…

Naked Jihad

By Kate Blanchard

…ver, that at 19 she intended to invite death threats, such that she would soon be feeling the need to leave her home country. Not surprisingly, a number of Western women felt moved to show their support for Amina. An international movement called Femen staged bare-breasted protests in European cities, in which the writings on their chests echoed Amina’s, along with “Freedom for women” and “Fuck your morals.” (Be warned: photos contain nudity and s…

American Sin: Why Pope Francis’ Mercy is Not Our Mercy

By Kaya Oakes

In The Name of God Is Mercy , Pope Francis’ new book, the pontiff does more riffing than writing. The book is based on a series of interviews he gave to Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli, and it showcases his famous tendency to go off script with the press. Francis’ famous quote about gay priests—“Who am I to judge?”—occurred on a trip from Brazil to Italy, and footage from Vatican press events often shows him joking around with journalists. Fr…

The Progress of Christ in Commercial America: A Review of Chris Lehmann’s The Money Cult

By Peter Laarman

…nal cornering of markets trafficking in private access to formerly public goods,” the big money corruption in our politics, and (most of all) the meek resignation with which Americans simply accept this state of affairs. The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream Chris Lehmann Melville House May 18, 2016 In my view, the greatest single virtue of Lehmann’s approach is his firm rejection of reductionism, his ref…

‘Cult’ Is an Inaccurate, Unhelpful and Dangerous Label for Followers of Trump, QAnon, and 1/6

By Catherine Wessinger

…nities, where people are controlled and not permitted to leave when they choose. Such totalistic institutions range from some unconventional religious or political groups to prisons, concentration camps, and authoritarian governments of nations. Americans generally agree that they’re abusive. Currently it’s fashionable to use the word “cult” to describe all sorts of groups and movements that people don’t like. It’s said that people who support for…

Religion and Other Animals

By Paul Waldau

…seen “worshiping the sun and stars, and purifying [themselves] at the new moon, bathing in the river, and invoking the heavens.” Today, scholars such as Harvard’s Kimberley C. Patton provide theologically informed readings of many traditional claims about the religious awareness of other beings. Patton deals, for example, with “ways in which animals are believed to possess a unique awareness of holiness,” noting that “in many religious worlds…mutu…

No Conspiracy Theories Needed: Abortion Foes Cry Racism

By Kathryn Joyce

…s an anti-abortion champion.) Though the bill has now expired, and never stood much of a chance, the fact of its introduction marked the mainstreaming of a once-fringe argument. Anti-abortion activists routinely compare Roe v. Wade to the Dred Scott decision to further an “abortion as slavery” analogy—akin to the controversial but commonplace language of an “abortion Holocaust”—comparing their fight to the struggle for civil rights or abolition. L…

Evangelical Pastor Argues for Full LGBT Inclusion: “I Think It’s Inevitable”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ures. Paul’s ancient answers to congregational controversies inform a new book written by Ken Wilson, an evangelical pastor in Michigan. In A Letter to My Congregation Wilson argues that the ancient issues of food and Sabbath are analogous to today’s moral struggle over the rightful place of LGBT people in both church and society. As a pastor in a conservative denomination, Wilson’s journey from a “consensus” approach to full acceptance for LGBT p…

Islamic Intellectual Leadership at a Crossroads

By Amina Wadud

…tivism vis-à-vis the promotion process for most US academies. If you play too much of a role in the day-to-day lives of Muslims at every level—but especially where the majority abide, which is rank and file—then your credentials as an intellectual are questionable. For women, that is. For men there are no such constraints. So even if these three men did not approach matters of political office or community leadership, they had the privilege of ski…