Religion

/ / / /

Italy blocks hate crime bill after unprecedented opposition from Vatican and far right

,

Italy has voted down a bill to tackle hate crimes against women, LGBT+ people and those with disabilities, all in the name of religious freedom. The bill – known as the Zan bill after the Democratic Party lawmaker and LGBT+ rights activist Alessandro Zan, who proposed it – was approved my the Italian parliament’s lower house last year. The Zan bill, which would protect Italians from violence, hate speech and discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability, has caused a divide in the country since it was introduced, with critics insisting that it would infringe […]

/ /

Christian groups to investigate impact of ‘toxic’ anti-LGBT+ church rhetoric

,

A vital new research project will examine the impact of “the increasingly toxic rhetoric around sexuality and gender identity” on LGBT+ Christians. A survey will be launched on World Mental Health Day (10 October) to measure how safe “increasingly vulnerable” LGBT+ Christians feel. The vital research, looking at the wellbeing of LGBT+ people in religious spaces which “can cause significant harm and trauma”, is being conducted by a consortium of nine Christian LGBT+ organisations. It draws on the theme of government’s international LGBT+ conference to be held next year: Safe to be Me. The survey was instigated by Jayne Ozanne, director of the Ozanne Foundation, who […]

/ / / /

‘Saint of 9/11’ and ‘Hero of Flight 93’: They lived very different lives but share a legacy in death

Twenty years ago, on one of America’s darkest days, two planes flew into the twin towers, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania. But even during the tragic early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2001, there were heroes. People like Mark Bingham, who was aboard United Airlines Flight 93 when it went down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. And the Rev. Mychal Judge, who was tending to victims in the World Trade Center’s north tower when debris from the collapsing south tower killed him and many others. On the face of it, the two men couldn’t […]

/ /

Court rules Catholic school wrongfully fired gay substitute

A gay substitute teacher was wrongfully fired by a Roman Catholic school in North Carolina after he announced in 2014 on social media that he was going to marry his longtime partner, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn ruled Friday that Charlotte Catholic High School and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Charlotte violated Lonnie Billard’s federal protections against against sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Cogburn granted summary judgment to Billard and said a trial must still be held to determine appropriate relief for him. “After all this time, I have a […]

/ /

Pope Francis invited trans people to Vatican to get COVID vaccines

,

Pope Francis invited a group of transpeople to the Vatican to be vaccinated against COVID-19 at Easter, it has been revealed. The pontiff welcomed 50 people to the Vatican on 3 April to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and they returned later that month to receive their second dose, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski confirmed to the National Catholic Reporter. Trans people from a parish in Torvaianica were among those who travelled to the Vatican to receive vaccines after Krajewski reached out to local priest Fr Andrea Conocchia, who has been ministering to the local trans community for some time. Others who […]

/ /

Russian minister claims ‘Western schools’ are teaching children that Jesus was bisexual

,

Russia’s foreign minister has made the unlikely claim that schools in a number of Western countries are teaching children that Jesus was bisexual. Minister Sergei Lavrov, 71, painted the improbable picture in an essay for the Russian Kommersant newspaper titled “The Law, Rights, and the Rules,” published Monday (28 June). In it he delivered a sweeping critique of “boundlessly permissive” liberal democracies which he believes “encroach on human nature”, starting with Jesus’ sexuality. “Attempts by reasonable politicians to shield the younger generation from aggressive LGBT propaganda are met with bellicose protests from the ‘enlightened Europe,’” he said. “All world religions, the genetic code of the planet’s key […]

/ /

Powerful archbishop admits Vatican made ‘mistakes’ with attack on LGBT+ rights bill

A top Italian archbishop has spoken out against the Vatican’s unprecedented decision to interfere on Italy’s proposed anti-homophobia law. The Vatican sparked widespread outrage after issuing a nota verbale opposing the bill – which would extend anti-discrimination protections to women, LGBT+ people and those with disabilities – on the basis that it would supposedly breach a 92-year old treaty with Italy. Speaking at the Be pop! cultural review in Rome, archbishop Vincenzo Paglia admitted that the Holy See’s resistance to the bill was a “mistake” and acknowledged that homophobic discrimination is “obvious” to see. “That the problem exists is obvious; that it must be fought is even more obvious […]

/ /

Methodist Church to perform same-sex marriages after historic, landslide vote

,

The Methodist Church has voted to allow same-sex marriage, and will now define marriage as between “two people”, rather than between “one man and one woman”. In 2019, the Marriage and Relationships Task Group presented a report to the church’s annual conference, titled “God in Love Unites Us“. The report put forward proposed resolutions same-sex marriage, and these were approved by all but one of the local Methodist synods. On Wednesday (30 June), the 2021 conference gave final considerations on the resolutions, and officially voted to allow same-sex marriages to be conducted in Methodist churches. The conference voted overwhelmingly for marriage […]

/ /

LGBTQ youth of faith pray, bond at ‘Beloved Arise’ group

Jessika Sessoms grew up in a conservative Black evangelical family, attended Christian schools and often heard that being gay was an abomination, until she understood that she was queer while studying to become a missionary.  The 23-year-old from Florida came out publicly last year and has found healing and a sense of community after joining Beloved Arise, a Christian nonprofit dedicated to celebrating and empowering LGBTQ youth of faith.  Maria Magdalena Gschwind, 20, from Germany, credits the U.S.-based group for inspiring her to study Protestant theology in college at a time when she had doubts about whether her sexuality would conflict […]

/ /

Pope Pens Letter Praising Pro-LGBTQ Jesuit Priest

Religion News Service reports: Pope Francis sent a letter praising the work of a Jesuit priest who has been an outspoken advocate for more respectful treatment of LGBTQ people within the Catholic Church, in which the pontiff described Father James Martin’s work as imitating the “style of God.” The letter, written in Spanish and dated June 21, was in response to a communique sent to Francis by Martin that referenced the Outreach LGBTQ Ministry Conference, a gathering focused on Catholic LGBTQ issues hosted virtually by Fordham University this weekend. Read the full article. As you may know, Martin has long been a […]

«‹ 9 10 11 12›»