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Fr. John Dear, Dismissed from Jesuits: “It Is So Strange to Be Hated by So Many Church Leaders”

By Megan Sweas

…hn Dear announced his dismissal from the Jesuit order in his NCR column in January—a “divorce” (as Joshua McElwee put it that same week) that seemed to many to have been inevitable, if deeply regrettable. Dear, a widely respected peace activist, has been arrested over 75 times for civil disobedience, but it was his “obstinate disobedience” toward the directives of his Jesuit superiors that resulted in his dismissal. He talks here with RD about his…

Global LGBT Recap: Ugandan Law Unleashes Vigilantes, Anti-Gay Americans Want to Boost Homophobia Exports

By Peter Montgomery

…opulations, like sex workers, and gay, bisexual and transgender men. Since January, however, the group that was surprisingly driven underground is now being unearthed and actively pursued for punishment and persecution by murderous marauding gangs of their fellow Muslim brothers…. With Nigeria’s passing of the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, murderous marauding homophobic gangs in the Christian south will continue to chase LGBTQ citizens from…

Is the Satanist Behind 10 Commandments Challenge Sincere?

By Joseph Laycock

…ly persona gets a lot more hate mail than Lucien Greaves,” he explained In January 2013 the Temple’s campaign began with a rally to support Florida governor Rick Scott, who signed a bill allowing religious “inspirational messages” to be read before assemblies in public schools. This was followed by the aforementioned “Pink Mass” at the gravesite of the mother of Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps, a service that would turn the woman’s spir…

Ex-Mormons Shouldn’t Proselytize Mormons… Really?

By Holly Welker

On January 30, 2014, Newseek published a 3,100 word article entitled “When the Saints Go Marching Out” about the difficulties of leaving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I read it and liked it—I even tweeted the author, Hannah Miet, and told her so. I thought it provided relatively balanced, insightful coverage of a few of the many, many challenges post-Mormons face when they outgrow their Mormon beliefs and community, including:…

Global LGBT Recap:Culture War Exports, Mob Violence and Kidnapping as Weapon of Homophobia

By Peter Montgomery

…and trials in Shariah courts in the wake of President Goodluck Jonathan’s January 7 signing of a draconian anti-gay law there. Last Thursday, Associated Press reported, “Thousands of protesters threw stones into the Shariah court in a north Nigerian city Wednesday, urging the speedy convictions and executions of 11 men arrested for belonging to gay organizations.” This week, Agence French Press reports that two Islamic courts “have been forced to…

Pigging Out: What ‘Radically Unkosher’ Jewish Foodies Like Michael Pollan Are Missing

By Jonathan Schorsch

…ollan, both Jewish, appeared together at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan in January, 2008 they each gleefully opened their remarks before the heavily Jewish audience with a personal pig story. Food writer Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan even described the event as including “many a joke about Jewish boys liking artisanal pork.” Indeed. Pollan devotes an entire chapter of his most recent project, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (Penguin Press…

Egypt Goes After Gays to Silence Islamist Critics; South Africa’s ‘Open Mosque’ is Closed; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…that this is not just an Africa problem,” said Kerry Kennedy during a telephone interview from New York. “It’s a problem wherever it happens in the world.” From the story: Uganda is among the more than 70 countries in which homosexuality remains criminalized. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in January signed a draconian bill into law that, among other things, punishes those who enter into a same-sex marriage with up to 14 years in prison. Th…

RIP: Bishop Otis Charles and Rev. Robert Nugent

By Peter Montgomery

…ert Nugent, a Catholic priest and co-founder of New Ways Ministry, died on January 1 at age 76. The Washington Post carried Kevin Eckstrom’s Religion News Service obituary of Nugent, which notes that Nugent had been silenced by the Vatican for his work with LGBT Catholics. In many ways, the scrutiny of Nugent’s activism symbolized the Vatican’s approach to all talk of homosexuality under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI — what one gay Catholic…

Netanyahu’s (Republican) Esther Moment

By Sarah Posner

…n for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the release of his book last January, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a lobbying organization intended, he says, to be a Christian version of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee. With CUFI, which Hagee has said will cause a “political earthquake,” the televangelist aims to put the political organizing muscle of the conservative evangelical movement behind his grand pl…

Why Don’t Republicans Want to Allow Pastors to Endorse from Pulpit?

By Daniel Silliman

…nt their pastors to be able to endorse political candidates. An increasing number of Americans say they want more religion in politics. Pew reports that nearly half of Americans say churches should express their views on political issues. There are still many who support the idea of separating church and politics, of course, but it’s not like this law is actually working. One doesn’t have to look further than Houston to find pastors engaged in pol…