Religious Traditionalists Resist Marriage Equality, Artist Questions What Is “Un-African” & More in This Global LGBT Recap
ILGA notes that some women in more than 50 countries went on strike on Wednesday’s…
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Festivus, Atheist Santa, and the Invention of Blasphemy
A Q&A with S. Brent Plate
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New Reports Reveal Global Persecution of Nonbelievers
Almost half of the world’s countries have laws or policies that penalize blasphemy, apostasy, contempt of religion, or religious “hate speech.”
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What Does the ‘Traditional Family’ Have To Do with Pussy Riot?
Much of the Pussy Riot trial has focused on the shifting role of the Church from the Soviet era, but what’s less well known is the Church’s efforts to mute dissenters outside of Russia.
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Pussy Riot Members Sentenced to 2 Years for Offending Russian Orthodox Church
In short: for “hooliganism.”
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An Open Letter to CEO Jeff Smisek On United Airlines’ Blasphemous Safety Video
Please, for the love of the primordial, preliterate covenant of sound: leave George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” alone.
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‘Religious Freedom’ for Atheists
A state that attempts to use the force of law to stop blasphemy must select certain identities for protection to the exclusion of others.
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United Nations Affirms the Human Right to Blaspheme
The message of General Comment No. 34 is not only a clear condemnation of the blasphemy laws of countries such as Pakistan, which despite having ratified the ICCPR in 2008, continues to impose the death sentence for blasphemy and “defiling” the name of Prophet Muhammad. The Comment equally repudiates the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which has upheld Austrian, British, and Turkish laws against blasphemy and religious insult by invoking a sui generis right to “respect for the religious feelings of believers.”
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Blasphemy and Betrayal: The Murder of Salman Taseer
Taseer’s assassin shot him multiple times at point blank range in a public market and then waited to be detained, allegedly expressing pride in his actions to the media that quickly surrounded him. It is the issue of blasphemy and the symbolic nature of a much-publicized case involving Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of maligning the Prophet Muhammad, that brought Taseer so centrally into the public eye in recent weeks.
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Wojnarowicz’s Ant-Covered Jesus: Blasphemy or Religious Art?
It doesn’t take much to realize the main theme of A Fire in my Belly is death. More specifically, it is the vulnerability, penetrability, and perpetually possible disintegration of the human body. This fleshly mortality became especially real to Wojnarowicz in the still emerging AIDS crisis of the time. Thus, by necessity it is a deeply human and deeply religious artwork. Which does not mean these images are pleasant and easy to look at. No warm and fuzzy pop spirituality this.
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