1. How the LGBTQ Rights v. Religious Freedom Debate Affects Adoption and Foster Care
This year marked the passing of a new Michigan law allowing child placement agencies to avoid serving LGBTQ couples if it conflicted with their religious beliefs — as long as they referred the couples to another agency. Both Bethany and St. Vincent turned away the Dumonts for being a same-sex couple.
2. New Zealand’s Next Liberal Milestone: A Budget Guided by ‘Well-Being’
Under a revised budget policy, all new spending must advance one of five government priorities that promote the welfare of citizens. The political opposition dismisses the move as “slick branding.”
3. Persecuted Uighur Muslims Have a Long History in China
Uighur leaders and experts located outside China have warned that the situation could worsen, and “mass murder” could not be ruled out.
When Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term 30 years ago, it was a relatively obscure legal concept. Then it went viral.
5. Eight Thoughts About ‘Field of Dreams,’ 30 Years After its Release
The promise of Field of Dreams is that when we give ourselves to serving the common good at the place where our “deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet,” as Frederick Buechner writes, we don’t just help advance the healing of the people we touch, we also begin to heal our pain.
6. How Britain Tried to 'Erase' India's Third Gender
New research reveals how the British rulers targeted and tried to eliminate eunuchs in colonial India.
7. Christians Considering Surrogacy Encounter Conflicting Views
Regardless of how religious leaders advise their congregations, the majority of Americans seem to have already made up their mind about surrogacy.
8. Modi Says India's Minorities Are Living in World of Imaginary Fear. Muslims Disagree
Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term as India's Prime Minister after winning a landslide in elections and many Muslims are fearful of what another five years of BJP rule will mean for them.
9. Hate Groups Love Ancient Greece and Rome. Scholars Are Pushing Back
White supremacists, misogynists, and anti-Semites seek justification in the ancient Mediterranean. Classics scholars are signaling the alarm.
10. An Antiracist Reading List
Ibram X. Kendi on books to help America transcend its racist heritage.
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