from GQ Magazine

In honor of the olympics, our friend Jeff Sharlet has a wonderful read at GQ titled “Being Gay in Russia.” The Nation has a piece on U.S. Evangelical influence on Russia’s “Pro-Family” Right. While at Guernica, Meara Sharma interviews Masha Gessen on “Putin, anti-queer campaigns and the ‘personal catastrophe’ of exile.

In memory of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, here is one of our favorite clips from The Master (2012), where Hoffman plays Lancaster Dodd, a fictional rendition of Scientology leader L. Ron Hubbard.

Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master”

Speaking of Scientology, watch the Scientology video ad that aired during the Super Bowl here.

At The Atlantic, Emma Green writes on a “Texas man’s lawsuit over the right to put up a religious billboard in a Lubbock county football stadium.” The ad, which features a tattooed Jesus (the word “Outcast” is inscribed on his chest), was produced by advertising firm RD Thomas and also features a website, Jesustattoo.com, where viewers can watch video testimonials on practicing Christians explaining their thoughts on their faith.

The NYTimes has a piece on the United States’s first Muslim fraternity. Also at the Times, Slawomir Sierakowski writes on the Polish Church’s problem with gender.

While speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama listed religious freedom as one of the primary tenets of U.S. foreign policy, the NYTimes also reports.

Didn’t watch the televised creationist vs. evolutionist debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham? Neither did we. Here’s a short recap from Time on what we missed.

Aljazeera has a great read on Hindu mythologies and their role in Indian T.V.

In Right Wing news, Pat Robertson explained “divine genocide” on this week’s The 700 Club, Jesse Lee Peterson, president of The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (an American religious non-profit organization), referred to Obama as the “Son of Satan,” and talk show host Kevin Swanson condemned the Grammy’s as a “Satanic Pagan Orgy.”

On a lighter note, Vice published a photo-shoot titled “Sisters” which features “Nuns Decked out in Latex and Lace.

  **Keep an eye out for our February issue, out next week!**