Religion Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

The Guatemalan Congress voted to ban same-sex marriages on Tuesday, March 8.The Conservative-dominated congress passed the “Life and Family Protection Law” by 101 to eight votes. The law also sentences women to a minimum of five years in prison for seeking an abortion and bans the teaching of sexual diversity in schools which it defines as “promoting in children and teenagers policies or programs that tend to lead to diversion from their sexual identities at birth.”The law goes on to state that teaching “anything other than heterosexuality is normal” is prohibited. Congressman Walter Felix, left-wing opponent of the law, said, “The human rights of significant parts of the population are being violated.” In order to be passed into law, it must be signed by Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei.Lucrecia Hernández, a lawmaker opposed to the law, stated that the “law stigmatizes people, discriminates and foments intolerance and hate speech and crimes.” She has urged Giammattei to veto it. Conservative Giammattei is expected to approve the law.© Star Observer 2022 | For the latest in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTIQ) news in Australia, be sure to visit

gushed with praise for Vladimir Putin this week after the Russian dictator unleashed a military invasion against Ukraine. While somewhat shocking given the timing, Witzke’s admiration of Putin’s “Christian nationalism” has a long precedent among U.S.

running for Congress in her home state of Ohio.When Porter ran for state office in Ohio in 2016, we exposed her long history of radical right-wing extremism:For years, Porter used her daily radio program and weekly column to promote a variety of conspiracy theories surrounding President Obama’s birth, alleging that his election was the result of a massive communist conspiracy. After her prayers failed to prevent Obama from taking office and subsequently cursing America, Porter went to work warning her fellow conservatives that Obama would orchestrate food shortages in order to starve them to death, use a swine flu outbreak as an excuse to lock them up in concentration camps, and use Obamacare to deny them healthcare and eliminate them.Porter has also long warned that increasing acceptance of gay rights will turn Christians into criminals who will eventually be rounded up and tossed in jail, going so far as to try and prevent the Supreme Court from ruling on the issue of gay marriage.

New Zealand has voted to protect LGBTQ youth from so-called “conversion therapy.”In an almost unanimous vote, the New Zealand Parliament voted 112 to eight in favour of banning the controversial  practice. So-called “conversion therapy” is the discredited and dangerous practice that is intended to change, often by force, a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. The New Zealand Herald reported that it is now an offence to “perform conversion practices on a child or young person aged under 18, or on someone with impaired decision-making capacity. Such offences would be subject to up to three years’ imprisonment, and up to five years where it has caused serious harm, irrespective of age.”Leader of End Conversion Therapy NZ Shaneel Lal tweeted, “The ban on conversion therapy is a win for humanity, not just the queer community.

Hemant Mehta posted this short clip video from Sunday, February 7:On Sunday, Baptist preacher Danil Kutsar was telling his congregation that he hates gay people… when he went on a quick tangent to remind them that he really, really hates gay people.Just vile stuff… pic.twitter.com/swLIGnONem— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) February 10, 2022Mehta says Kutsar doubled down this past Sunday.“Praise God,” Kutsar says. “I’m happy” that “sodomites” commit suicide.“I hope that every sodomite dies,” Kutsar says in this new clip.

Hundreds of people rallied in the rain at Sydney’s Town Hall against the Religious Discrimination Bill on Saturday afternoon.Organised by the Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR), speakers included NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge, Sydney Girls High year 10 student Sumaya, and CARR’s co-convenor April Holcombe.Sumaya, who identified as a queer Muslim, rallied the crowd with a passionate call to action, saying, “the Bill means that queer people across all areas of public life must live in fear. At the very best, we hide who we are. At the very worst, we lose everything.”Holcombe spoke of the continuing threat of the Bill, which was indefinitely shelved by the government on Thursday. “It might have been shelved this week, but it is not dead.

dangerous and possibly unconstitutional “Don’t Say Gay” bill gathers nationwide attention and condemnation – making it more likely to be passed and signed into law by Republican governor and rumored 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, another Republican is dusting off his own “Don’t Say Gay” bill to push his “Christian values” agenda.Tennessee state Rep. Bruce Griffey says if schools are forcing him to teach Christian values at home because they won’t teach them in the classroom, they should not be allowed to “promote” what his legislation calls “LGBT issues or lifestyles.”“The state of Tennessee is not allowed to teach my daughters Christian values that I think are important and they should learn, so I teach those at home,” Rep.

Sister Janet Mead was an Australian Catholic nun who had an international hit single in 1974 with “The Lord’s Prayer.”Mead began combining her love of music and her Christianity when she was still a teen, forming a rock band to perform at her church’s weekly Mass. She joined the Sisters of Mercy, where she taught music in local schools as well as continuing to offer rock music in worship services, one of the first to do so in Australia. Her 1974 recording of “The Lord’s Prayer” became a hit in Australia, the U.S., and Canada, making it to No.

Deutsche Welle reports.The OutInChurch initiative, which launched on Instagram last week, has launched a Change.org petition celebrating the diversity of its members and offering a number of ways the Catholic Church can modernize its approach to LGBTQ Catholics.“Our group is diverse. It includes people who in the past have courageously and often single-handedly dared to come out in an ecclesiastical context,” the petition states.“But it also includes people who have only now decided to take this step and those who cannot or do not want to take this step for various reasons.

Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican cleric, outspoken opponent of apartheid and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.Born Oct. 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, South Africa, Tutu grew up in an era of systematic racial segregation that eventually became the official government policy known as apartheid.

came to Washington, D.C.

rejected a request for a religious exemption for health care workers refusing to comply with New York State’s vaccine mandate. The state is requiring all health care workers to be vaccinated against the deadly coronavirus.

Reuters reported. “Sins of the flesh are not the most serious,” the 84-year-old religious leader said regarding sex outside of marriage. Top transgressions instead include pride and hatred, according to Reuters.Francis’ rankings of the worst wrongdoings followed the resignation of a Paris archbishop, who quit over a relationship with a woman earlier this month.

running for Congress in South Carolina, is an unabashed Christian nationalist who openly declares that “any policy that is contrary to the word of God” needs to be made illegal.MAGA pastor Mark Burns, who is running for Congress in South Carolina, says that “this is a Christian nation and any policy that is contrary to the word of God, we need to remove it from mainstream America and make it illegal.” pic.twitter.com/4j8oxoavhg— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) November 18, 2021Burns appeared

Coming Out Colton (★★★★☆), a new reality show on Netflix, that feel like a Public Service Announcement for the struggles and rewards of admitting to everyone in your life that you’re a member of the LGBTQ community. This is not at all a bad thing, as the engaging, meticulously crafted, six-episode docu-series may help a closeted youth living in the middle of nowhere feel less isolated.

broke the story that lawyers for religious-right legal giant Alliance Defending Freedom bragged at an anti-choice conference that the 15-week abortion ban that had been introduced in Mississippi was based on ADF’s model language. ADF lawyers said the law was the next step in the group’s strategic plan to “eradicate” Roe v.

Phil Saviano was a survivor of childhood clergy abuse whose work to help other survivors and uncover predatory behavior in the church was featured in the Oscar-winning 2015 film “Spotlight.”Saviano was sexually abused by a priest at St. Denis Catholic Church in Douglas.

John Eastman wasn’t the only right-wing attorney urging former Vice President Mike Pence to effectively throw the election to former President Donald Trump by rejecting Electoral College votes from battleground states Trump lost. ABC News journalist Jonathan Karl reported Sunday that Jenna Ellis, a Trump attorney, had written her own memo essentially calling for a coup.

Come From Away,” the Tony-nominated actor is suing the show’s producer, Kiss The Cod Broadway, and its management company, Alchemy Production Group — alleging he was let go due to his religious beliefs.Last November, Kimball unwittingly stirred up a storm of controversy when he tweeted his unhappiness over a COVID mandate in his home state of Washington that limited religious services and forbade worshipers from singing in church.“Respectfully, I will never allow a Governor, or anyone, to stop

a 120-page study from a Christian University reveals nearly four in ten young adults count themselves as LGBTQ.Religion and culture researcher, evangelical pollster, and now professor at Arizona Christian University in Phoenix, George Barna‘s Cultural Research Center has just published a report focused on Millennials.Among its findings: 39% of those 18-24 identify as LGBTQ, and 25% of those 25-37 do as well.

Bostock v. Clayton County, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ workers.U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, appointed by President George W.

reported that Rick Scarborough, a self-described “Christocrat,” strident anti-LGBTQ activist, and longtime critic of public education, had begun raising money through his group Recover America to fund an effort to elect right-wing candidates to school boards in three Houston-area school districts.Earlier this month, Scarborough spoke at the Katy Christian Chamber of Commerce Breakfast in Houston, where he said that if they are successful in taking over these three school boards, he plans to

Friendly Atheist’s Hemant Mehta reports.“People who will have a violent attitude towards the f****ts and sodomites will be reported as having committed hate crimes,” Alvarez lamented, calling it “a mixed-up justice system” that “needs to be called out.”“If they were to.

Sister Megan Rice was a Catholic nun and a well-known activist against nuclear weapons.Rice joined the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus when she was 18 years old. She taught elementary school for several years before beginning a long-term mission to Nigeria and Ghana, where she taught for decades.

Christian nationalist Republican Lt. Gov.

Lt. Governor Mark Robinson to resign after video of remarks he made in June, calling LGBTQ people “filth,” went viral this week, as NBC News and others are reporting.Robinson, who is also a conspiracy theorist, climate change denialist, anti-abortion activist, and NRA board member, is not only refusing to resign, he’s now claiming he is the one being attacked because of his political beliefs.“We will not be intimidated.

Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Vermont, according to local news reports.Evangelical anti-LGBTQ activist and former Trump advisor Franklin Graham this week jumped on the right wing conspiracy theory that wrongly claims the U.S. Dept.

mobilizing angry mobs to yell at school board members that parents have the right to control what their children are taught, evangelical pollster George Barna told religious-right activists at the Family Research Council’s “Pray Vote Stand” summit Thursday that it is their duty to try to indoctrinate other people’s children into a “biblical worldview.”Barna, one of the first senior fellows at FRC’s recently established Center for Biblical Worldview, specializes in studying what he calls “SAGE

Blue Virginia first reported. And on Friday, the Republican hopeful will speak at the Pray Vote Stand Summit hosted by the Family Research Council, another anti-LGBTQ organization so extreme the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed it a hate group.Youngkin appeared at the Family Foundation event alongside GOP candidate for lieutenant governor Winsome Sears and the hard-right Virginia state Sen.

scandal–plagued Australian megachurch Hillsong, will plead not guilty to charges of concealing child sexual abuse.Authorities in New South Wales, Australia, in August charged the 67-year-old pastor with concealing child sex offenses committed by his late father, the Pentecostal pastor and pedophile, Frank Houston.

Right Wing Watch reports.Failing to cite any sources or statistics, Christmas claimed that the shame of being gay led people to die by suicide.“Can I tell you how my heart goes out to the homosexual community because there are so many of them,” Christmas said. “Suicide amongst the homosexual community is one of the highest rates of suicide of anything in the Earth.“In part, it is because of the guilt.

Pat Robertson announced on Friday he is stepping down from his role as host of “The 700 Club.” And while his Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is calling it “60 Years of History-Making TV Ministry,” many others are applauding the decision.For more half a century Robertson, a former ordained minister, waged what he saw as a religious war against the LGBTQ community.

according to the Wrap.“My replacement will be my very capable son, Gordon, who will take over as full-time host of the program,” he added of his 63-year-old son, who has been the show’s co-host and executive producer for the past two decades. Robertson began hosting “The 700 Club” in 1966, six years after founding CBN. The program’s name was inspired by a 1963 telethon Robertson hosted in which he asked 700 viewers to pledge $10 a month to the network.

HBO Max‘s “The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin,” the first three episodes of which debut today, follows the rise and fall of Shamblin’s Remnant Fellowship Church, which has been called a cult and implicated in the death of at least one child.

conversion therapy, which claims to change a person’s sexuality or gender identity, Christmas said that rather than tell LGBTQ people that they are “scum,” he was going to “change” them.“We’re not gonna tell ’em they’re going to hell, we’re not gonna tell ’em they’re scum. We’re gonna tell ’em that they’re born of God, that God will set them free, and change them by the power of the Holy Hhost,” he said.“We’re going to put them on our platform to sing that our God is an awesome God.

Catholic Church won’t bless same-sex marriages, calling it a divine sacrament that the church cannot change.Speaking to reporters last week, Francis was asked if he approves of European countries passing laws recognizing marriage equality, the Associated Press reports.“I have spoken clearly about this, no? Marriage is a sacrament. Marriage is a sacrament,” the Pope replied.