Word: churches
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...while the ruling has encouraged campaigners, it has sparked some of the most hostile comments toward gays in recent years from social conservatives and church officials. Cardinal Norberto Rivera, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mexico City, described the law as immoral and abhorrent: "It has opened the doors to the perverse possibility that these couples will adopt innocent children and not respect their right to a mother and father with the consequent psychological damaged provoked by this injustice." In the neighboring city of Ecatepec, Bishop Onesimo Cespeda said bluntly that the idea of gay marriage was "stupidity." And Armando Martinez...
...clashing rhetoric is a symptom of Latin America's ongoing culture wars. For a long time, a virtual feudal domain of conservative Roman Catholicism, the region has also spawned some of the most influential leftist movements on the planet - and ideas that are now in a contest with the Church for dominion over Latin America. The leftist Democratic Revolution Party or PRD has controlled Mexico City since 1997, and passed a wave of other reforms, making the capital into what advocates say is a beacon of social progressiveness. The changes have been possible because of Mexico's federal system, which...
When North Korean authorities caught Jeong Young Sil helping Christians escape to China seven years ago, they did not take her transgression lightly. First, they pulled out her teeth and fingernails to get information about her underground church in the country's northeast. Then, they threw her in prison for four years. "They demanded to know who was helping me and where they were," says Jeong, an evangelist in her 50s now living in South Korea, who uses an alias to protect her family back home. Despite their efforts, the Northern officials could not stop her. After she fled...
...Though the country's constitution does grant freedom of religion to all citizens, North Korean authorities don't seem to pay the idea much heed. The government also monitors other religions - such as Buddhism and Cheondoism, a popular Korean belief system that combines elements of several faiths - but underground churches are particularly feared by authorities because they're estimated to have helped some 20,000 North Koreans defect to China. As a result, the regime routinely imprisons and executes Christian religious leaders who teach their faith without state approval, according to a U.S. State department report. Official figures...
...spent a quiet Christmas in Hawaii last year, staying in their rented house on Christmas Eve and visiting with soldiers stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Christmas Day. They may miss singing carols and reading the Christmas story in the book of Luke, at least in a formal church setting, but after entertaining 50,000 house guests, all the First Family must really want for Christmas is some peace and quiet...