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Marriage Equality Coming To Taiwan In Spite of Religious Objectors?; Anti-Gay Ruling Sought By Indonesian Islamists Threatens Women & Poor Couples; LDS Church Launches New ‘Mormon and Gay’ Site; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…about the court case, according to Santi Kusumaningrum, co-director of the Center on Child Protection at the University of Indonesia, is that only about half of Indonesian couples have been legally married, meaning that millions of couples with informal and ceremonial marriages will no longer be legally able to have sex. “This law, when enforced, will immediately exclude the poor, the marginalized, people who live in remote places in the margins o…

DREAMing of Faith

By Sarah Posner

…new Washington Post poll finds that 70% of white evangelicals support open service by gays and lesbians in the military (although this poll shows a wide differential from a Pew poll which found only 43% of white evangelicals support open service). Still, though, there are plenty of religious people and religious leaders who support repealing DADT. You could make just as strong a moral argument about that as about immigration or nuclear nonprolifer…

Death of a Self-Proclaimed God-Man: Sai Baba’s Controversial Career

By Andrea R. Jain

…poration (BBC) aired Secret Swami, a documentary featuring interviews with American male devotees who claimed that Sai Baba had coerced them as young men into sexual relationships. They described how he initiated them into such relationships by rubbing oil on their genitals and then proceeded to demand sexual favors, in some cases for years. One accuser described how Sai Baba threatened him, arguing that his failure to succumb to the guru’s demand…

Sacred&Profane: The “Cult” of Oprah Inflames Religious Right

By Gary Laderman

…s darkest hours after the 9/11 attacks. Oprah hosted the national memorial service after the tragedy, an intimate, familiar, trusted face who could lead Americans in the socially urgent rituals of death that did not exclude the expression of multiple religious traditions but, on the other hand, were sacred actions in their own right irrespective of the Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, and others who participated in the ceremonies. Oprah is on…

From Licking Floors to Praying for an Inept Government, Churches React to C-19

By Daniel Schultz

…found out the hard way. While many aren’t meeting at all or are streaming services, some churches that do meet feel like they need to support those who need it, in worship or otherwise. My mother’s congregation in Madison, Wisconsin elected to close for a week or two, but also voted to continue to allow Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs to continue to meet in their building, at those groups’ discretion. And some have a message t…

Asymmetrical Polarization and Common Ground

By Daniel Schultz

…f all, there wasn’t a broad middle concerned about abortion. A majority of Americans believe that abortion shouldn’t be covered in health care reform, but only 3% cited it as their primary objection to the reform plan. More to the point, recent shifts in public opinion on abortion has been driven by conservative radicalization, not moderates forging middle ground on the issue. Finally, only a small minority of Americans believe that abortion shoul…

Black Episcopal Congregation Celebrates Lesbian Marriage

By Rev. Irene Monroe

…e “Oh Happy Day” I turned to Sterling and asked what she thought about the service. “I’m feeling the history of the moment and what it must have been when black folks were able to marry.” Historically, as African Americans we have always focused on spiritual content of family. Alternative family structures, which we have had to devise as models of resistance and liberation, have always, by example, shown the rest of society what really constitutes…

Growing Up Gay in 666: Fred Phelps in Retrospect

By Scott Blaine Swenson

…religious leaders believe it’s about preserving sanctity at any religious service—and to some extent it is all of those things. But they’re missing the forest. No matter what happens in court, for Rev. Phelps it’s all about homosexuality. And the people who know Phelps best, his neighbors in Topeka 666 and some of his own children, will tell you it’s really all about Fred Phelps. The Attraction of Fear-Based Narratives “We were walking through th…

A Secret Family History Shows “Regular” Life Under the Reich: Sarah Wildman on Paper Love

By Sarah Posner and Sarah Wildman

…rful- and this was a blip, in some ways. The years of hardship were all in service of a different image. He believed in himself, or wanted to, and I think turning his back on the years of poverty and hunger was a means of creating the person he wanted to be. He certainly never spoke of it with his children, let alone his grandchildren. How much do you think your grandmother knew about Valy? Did your father or your aunt know anything at all? Well s…

Why I Joined Over a Thousand Faith Leaders in Masterpiece Case Brief

By Marie Alford-Harkey

…rred and should be celebrated.” While a wedding cake may, for some, be the centerpiece of their wedding reception, it’s hardly the “centerpiece” of a marriage celebration, especially from a religious perspective. Nor does the cake announce in any way that a marriage has occurred. It is the officiant, whether a religious leader or civil authority, who announces that a marriage has occurred. Indeed, the officiant must declare that the marriage has o…