Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Not Just Chess: Atheists are Organizing High School Clubs, Too
posted on July 3, 2012Religion News Service’s Kimberly Winston reports that Secular Student Alliance, “a national organization of more than 300 college-based clubs for atheists, humanists, agnostics,” is helping to establish similar clubs in high schools. Some of the student groups have had trouble getting established because administrators have rejected the clubs for being “too controversial.” Winston writes that at a Houston high school “the principal denied students the use of the word ‘atheist’ because ‘it could disrupt the educational process.’”
Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I’m Gay.”
posted on July 3, 2012In an email to The Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan, CNN reporter Anderson Cooper stated that he is “gay, always have been, always will be.” Sullivan, who is also openly gay, asked Cooper, his longtime friend about whether or not the “visibility of gay people is one of the core means for our equality.” Cooper wrote of his reluctance to publicly acknowledge his sexuality: “I’ve always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly.” He went on to say, “In my opinion, the ability to love another person is one of God’s greatest gifts, and I thank God every day for enabling me to give and share love with the people in my life.”
Maiden Gay Cruise to Muslim Land Hits Morocco Snag
posted on July 3, 2012In what would have been the first visit of an “all-gay cruise” to a Muslim country, trip organizers “blamed Moroccan officials for the cancellation” of their scheduled dock at Casablanca, reports Reuters’ Souhail Karam. However, the Moroccan tourism minister “denied the ship was banned and said its passengers were welcome,” according to Karam. He notes that the country’s law “deems same-gender sexual relationships ‘lewd or unnatural’ and punishes them with six months to three years in jail.”
German Minister Moves To Calm Circumcision, Religious Freedom Fears
posted on July 3, 2012After a German state court ruled that “circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to bodily harm even if parents consent,” Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said, “The free exercise of religion is protected in Germany,” reports the Associated Press. In response, religious groups expressed skepticism towards the minister’s assurance. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, pushes the government “to exercise its authority and take a clear stand against this ruling and in line with the German constitution which guarantees religious freedom.”
Church Group Considers Israel Divestment
posted on July 3, 2012After the controversy around the Israeli army’s use of Caterpillar equipment, the Presbyterian Church (USA) will consider divesting from companies they find support Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The decision will come at their general assembly this week, reports The Jewish Daily Forward’s Nathan Guttman. While he notes that the Presbyterian Church (USA) seems “determined to pass a resolution divesting funds,” the “Methodist Church recently rejected a divestment resolution, as did the Episcopal Church.”
Despite Fights about Its Merits, Idea of American Exceptionalism a Powerful Force through History
posted on July 2, 2012CNN’s religion editor, Dan Gilgoff, posts the first in a series of articles “exploring the concept of American exceptionalism.” In this first article, Gilgoff examines the long history of the idea that America is a special, even heavenly sanctioned, governmental experiment. “The Puritans never used the word ‘exceptionalism,’ Gilgoff writes. “But they came to see Boston as the new Jerusalem, a divinely ordained ‘city upon a hill,’ a phrase Massachusetts Bay Colony founder John Winthrop used in a sermon at sea en route from England in 1630.”
Michelle Obama Urges Church Leaders in Nashville to Take Community Action
posted on July 2, 2012At The Tennessean, Bob Smietana reports that last week, Michelle Obama delivered a speech “that was part sermon and part call to get out the vote” to the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s (AME) general conference in Nashville. “Jesus didn’t limit his ministry to the four walls of the church,” the First Lady said during her half-hour speech. “He was out spreading the message of grace and redemption to the least, the last and the lost.”
Wiccan Denied Clergy Status in Virginia
posted on July 2, 2012At Patheos, Literata Hurley, a Wiccan priestess, writes about being denied “clergy status” in Virginia. Hurley had applied to a state circuit court seeking clergy status in order to perform legal marriage ceremonies. “The Arlington County Court refused to grant me the right,” Hurley writes, “apparently on the grounds that my ‘congregation’ does not own a building.”
The American Girl in the Bunker
posted on July 2, 2012At Tablet, Talia Lefkowitz writes about her experience as “a volunteer IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldier from New York City serving in an elite paratroopers unit” currently stationed along the Israeli border with Gaza and Sinai. Lefkowitz, the only woman “in a unit with 85 combat soldiers,” writes about coming under attack from rocket fire from Gaza, while reading about the same rocket attacks on her Facebook page. “I’m surprised, frankly, that the current attacks even made it onto Facebook,” Lefkowitz writes, “because outside of Israel, no one seems to think they’re newsworthy, much less an act of war. No big deal, right?”
The Family-Centered Purpose of Mortality
posted on July 2, 2012At The Deseret News, Linda and Richard Eyre, Mormons and bestselling authors, explain what they consider “the most distinctive and amazing insight or perspective of the Restoration [the LDS Church].” The Eyres believe that the concept of the eternal family is the most important aspect of Mormonism, and is what sets their faith apart from other Christian traditions. “In this everlasting perspective,” the Eyres write, “marriage becomes profoundly important as the beginning of a new family that will last forever and that will be a sub-set of God’s family. Thus, marriages performed in our temples are not till death do us part but for time and all eternity.”