AP: Evangelicals feel alienated, anxious amid declining clout

Liberal-leaning Protestant groups, such as Presbyterians and Lutherans, started shrinking earlier, but some evangelical churches are now in decline. The conservative Southern Baptist Convention lost 200,000 from its ranks in 2014 alone, dropping to 15.5 million, its smallest number in more than two decades.

The trend is reflected in the highest reaches of public life. The U.S. Supreme Court is now comprised completely of Jews and Roman Catholics. In the 2012 presidential election, the Republican nominees were a Mormon, Mitt Romney, and a Catholic, Paul Ryan. [...]

Politically, old guard religious right organizations such as the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition are greatly diminished or gone, and no broadly unifying leader or organization has replaced them. In this year's presidential race, the social policy issues championed by Christian conservatives are not central, even amid the furor over bathroom access for transgender people.

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BBC: The cross-dressing gents of Victorian England

Had you been sitting in the Royal Strand Theatre one evening in April 1870, you might have noticed a giddy young woman in a low-cut cerise silk dress, larking around in a box before repairing to the ladies’ lavatory. If you had looked a little closer, you would have realised this was no lady after all: rather, a 22-year-old man by the name of Ernest Boulton. Or, to give her the name she preferred, Stella.

The question of what gender you have to be to use which toilet is, depressingly, still capable of causing uproar today – witness the ongoing furore over North Carolina’s controversial ‘bathroom bill’. And in the Victorian era, a cross-dressing young man popping into the ladies’ lavatory was absolutely scandalous. On leaving the theatre, Stella and her fellow cross-dressing companion Fanny were arrested on the charge of sodomy. [...]

“Because of the extraordinary work that trans and non-binary people are doing at the moment to make us more aware that gender identity categories are often imprecise and useless, that there are as many genders as there are people, I think we can see stories like Stella’s in a new light,’” suggests Bartlett. “For Stella, identity was never a destination – it was a journey, a constant transformation. And that’s an idea we’re now very open to.”

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The Huffington Post: Gay, Catholic and Proud

But really what was there to be proud of when it came to sexuality at all? It is an uncontrollable fact bestowed upon each of us. It’s like celebrating my red hair or freckles. Those don’t bring me a sense of pride. They’re just facts. I’m proud of accomplishments. My graduation from college, my job, the relationships I’ve built with those around me, my dedication to watch all of season 2 of True Detective no matter how bad it got. Those required work. [...]

I would like to think the Catholic Church will one day change its mind, but it’s almost irrelevant because the Catholic Church has been wrong about a great many things. I grew up in a time when Boston was littered with sexual abuse victim stories daily. I know the Catholic Church would rather people in Africa die of AIDS than give them contraception. I know the Church is still incredibly and shamefully sexist in almost every regard. [...]

That is why I’m proud: I reached back. I have incorporated my sexuality into my whole being. It does not define me. I am proud to be gay and Catholic. That is not simply a fact. It is an accomplishment. In spite of my surroundings, I proclaimed that I want to find happiness with a man. In spite of the world, I maintained my faith. I did that, and I am proud.

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The Guardian: Russian court frees radical performance artist Petr Pavlensky

A Moscow court has freed Russia’s most notorious performance artist, who was jailed for setting fire to the headquarters of Russia’s security services last year.

The court fined Petr Pavlensky just 500,000 roubles (£5,319) for damaging the cultural site and ordered him to pay a further 481,000 roubles to compensate for the cost of repairs. [...]

Many expected the state to imprison Pavlensky, 32, following the example of punk group Pussy Riot, two of whose members were jailed for two years after a performance in a Moscow cathedral in 2012.

Pavlensky’s lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, has previously said the performance artist will likely ignore the fine out of principle, which could eventually see him land in jail anyway.

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The Huffington Post: In Poland, U.S. Should Emphasize Link Between Rule of Law, Civil Society, Security

Polish civil society, including KOD, have also expressed concern over another new law that consolidates the government’s power over the media, a draft law that would allow police to shut down public protest at any time, and the apparent rise in hate crime since the new government took power. One KOD supporter noted that the government’s actions put Poland at risk for “Russian influences,” meaning bigotry and xenophobia. Said Morton, “We want to create... a sense of community, a way of being Polish that isn’t based on hate.” [...]

Timmermans and the European Union should hold steady in their support for civil society and the rule of law. The E.U. should keep up pressure on Poland to reform policies that threaten these foundations, such as the law hampering the Constitutional Tribunal, the proposed law that would allow law enforcement to prohibit peaceful protest at any time, and a draft anti-terrorism law that would make all foreigners potential targets of surveillance and suspicion. These measures threaten the very stability and security that Poland seeks to develop through its partnerships with the European Union and the United States.

The United States should support the E.U. in its fight to maintain rule of law and human rights standards. President Obama this week announced his intent to attend the NATO Summit in Warsaw on July 8-9 and to meet with government officials there. He should consider conditioning any face-to-face meetings with Polish officials on whether the government has made progress on its rule of law promises. American officials in Warsaw should also point out to their Polish allies the risks that recent legislative proposals present to the very thing Poland seeks to shore up at the NATO Summit: its own security.

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Nerdwriter1: Edvard Munch: What A Cigarette Means

The Guardian: Ex-CIA officer faces extradition to Italy after final appeal rejected

A former CIA officer who was accused of taking part in an illegal counter-terrorism programme said she is facing imminent extradition to Italy from Portugal after a high court in Lisbon rejected a last-minute legal appeal.

Sabrina de Sousa, a 60-year-old former CIA officer who was convicted in absentia in Italy in 2009, faces a four-year prison term for her alleged role in the kidnapping of a radical Egyptian cleric named Abu Omar, who was grabbed off the street in Milan by CIA officials in 2003 and sent to Egypt, where he was imprisoned, interrogated and allegedly tortured. [...]

The De Sousa case been criticised by some conservative media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which accused the Obama administration of abandoning one of its operatives and sending a “demoralising message to all who serve in the shadows, even as the war on terror enters a dangerous new phase”.

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The Guardian: How far is too far? The distance workers commute to cities – mapped

Where does a city begin and where does it end? Alasdair Rae at the University of Sheffield analysed point-to-point commuter data from the ONS in an attempt to build a truer picture of the economic footprint of cities in England and Wales, one which goes beyond simple local authority boundaries. He tweets @undertheraedar

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DW: China's Xinjiang Muslims 'require DNA samples' for travel documents

Now the authorities have mandated that the residents of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture provide DNA samples, fingerprints, voiceprints and a "three-dimensional image" in order to apply for passports. Separate documents will be issued to the residents for travel to the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macao, as well as the self-ruled Taiwan, according to the official newspaper "IIi Daily."

The new policy came into effect just before Ramadan with rights activists accusing Chinese authorities of a discriminatory attitude towards the country's minority group. Those who fail to fulfill the requirements will be refused documents. [...]

The Uighur issue is generally viewed as an internal Chinese security problem, but some experts argue it should also be looked at in the context of global jihad and Islamic fundamentalism. The crucial point, the analysts say, is that the Uighur case is being increasingly hijacked by the jihadi movements, particularly in Afghanistan, where a number of Uighur militants are reportedly fighting alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda.

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DW: Frosty with Obama, Netanyahu warms to Putin

Netanyahu is cozying up to the Kremlin chief at a time when relations between Russia and the West are at one of their lowest points since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Despite Israel being the largest recipient of US foreign aid - more than $3 billion (2.65 billion euros) per year, much of it military - Netanyahu appears to have few qualms with engaging a country currently facing US and EU sanctions for Moscow's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and its role in the continuing separatist movement in eastern Ukraine. [...]

Both Putin and Netanyahu figure to gain from this new relationship. The difference is that while the boss of the Kremlin has virtually nothing to lose, the same cannot be said of his Israeli counterpart. Mekelberg says the prime minister is playing with fire.

"The risk for Netanyahu is compromising relations with the United States. He risks crossing the line," Mekelberg said. "At the end of the day the US supports Israel militarily, economically and politically in a way that Russia will never do."

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