Current high profile topics in the U.S. -- with a religious component:

Of the hundreds of religious topics saturating the news, the following appear to have the highest profile right now. It is interesting that 5 out of the 6 are related to human sexuality and/or gender -- major topics -- perhaps the major topics -- of concern to many faith groups:

	Same-sex marriage: What rights and protections should same-sex couples and their children have? Should couples be allowed to marry, or be only registered in civil unions / domestic partnerships, or be legally considered "legal strangers" -- only as roommates?
	Abortion access: In what situations should informed women be free to choose to have an abortion: all, none, or some? What is the best way to reduce abortions: by restricting access or by making childbirth more feasible. Will educating sexually active youth in how to prevent pregnancy and STIs help or hinder?
	Islamophobia: This involves fear, anger, hatred, discomfort, and/or discrimination directed against Muslims. Some target the 19 perpetrators of 9/11; some a group of violent radicals within Islam; some against all of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims.
	Religious freedom:  This term has two very different meanings. In the past it referred to people being free to believe as they wish, assemble with others of the same religious tradition, engage in different religious practices, proselytize freely, etc. However, it is now often used to mean something very different: to use religious freedom to oppress, denigrate, and attack women and minorities -- particularly sexual minorities.
	Roman Catholic "Fortnight for Freedom" campaign:  A massive clash of religious freedoms: This was a major campaign by the Church against a Health and Human Services mandate that requires almost all employee health insurance policies -- including those used by Catholic hospitals, universities, agencies, etc. -- to offer free access to birth control to the employees.  The church feels that it is their religious right to limit their employees' access to contraception. Many of their Catholic and non-Catholic employees beg to differ. The campaign ended on 2012-JUL-04, but the battle over whose religious freedom gets respected will continue.
	"Federal Defense of Marriage act (DOMA):" This prevents same-sex married couples and their children from obtaining any of the approximately 1,100 federal benefits that are automatically given to as special privileges to opposite-sex married couples. The Obama administration has decided to not oppose court actions seeking to have DOMA declared unconstitutional. Many federal courts, including one Court of Appeals, have so far declared DOMA in violation of the U.S. Constitution on multiple grounds. Many more lawsuits pending. One or more are expected to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

This web's most popular sections:

Over a third of a million unique visitors come to this web site each week. However, about 97% of our visitors bypass this home page entirely and go to sections dealing with specific topics.

Recently, the most popular section is World religions' beliefs & practices, followed by Buddhism, Islam, Wicca, a neopagan religion, Hinduism, Homosexuality in the Bible, Human embryo & fetal development, Same-sex marriage, Christianity, Sharia law, Data about world religions, The Amish, Taoism, Our group's statement of beliefs, Naturist info., and Homosexual orientation/LGBT topics.
 

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Footnotes:

1. Countdown clock supplied by http://www.december212012.com
   
   
2. The six religions on these navigation bars include the three largest faiths in North America and the three most visited faiths on our web site.
   
   
3. According to Google, our home page's page rank is currently: out of 10.
   
   
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