A pair of recent decisions from two of the southern federal Circuit Courts of Appeals should be alarming us all. Instead, they’re only alarming a handful of us – because, overall, our community still clings to the inexplicable belief that religion can be our friend or, at least, a friend that we will be able to use to defend ourselves from certain others who also claim religion to be their friend.

Of the two recent decisions, only one has a direct LGBTQ component. Even so, it is truly difficult to say which one is the more disturbing, though the non-LGBTQ one, United States v. Brown, probably deserves the nod.

The Brown in question is Corrine, a former member of Congress from Florida, convicted on a slew of counts, the specifics of which are strangely irrelevant for purposes of what makes one of the opinions in her case problematic.

What does matter is that she was convicted by a jury. On appeal she took issue with the trial court’s decision to not allow “Juror 13” to contribute to rendering a verdict.

Shortly after deliberations began, “Juror 8” informed the judge that “13” had said, “A Higher Being told me Corrine Brown was Not Guilty on all charges” and that he “trusted the Holy Ghost.”

Do those sound like the words of someone who is going to make a decision based on earthly evidence?

What the LGBTQ community has never learned is that, when religion merges with government and science is reduced to having no more standing than faith, our religions and faiths and beliefs (or lack thereof) will never be recognized when they conflict with the particular religion and faith and belief of those who have seized power – legitimately or otherwise.

Once religion enters the government picture, everyone loses – at least everyone not sitting at the table of power.

Sexual activity is only acceptable within the marriage of a man and a woman — so says a new document issued by the Church of England.

That’s not a new stance for the church, which is considered the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the much more liberal U.S. Episcopal Church is a member. But the Church of England is putting out the guidance because the British government has made civil partnerships, which are not quite equal to marriage, available to heterosexual couples, The Guardian reports.

Few topics arouse the passions of Americans like god and government and whether the twain shall meet.

This was demonstrated by the many “friend of the court” briefs filed ahead of tomorrow’s hearing at the US Supreme Court, where the justices will consider arguments on a major case that could have implications for the separation of church and state.

A flurry of 44 filings—a number rivaled only by similarly contentious cases on inflammatory issues like gun rights, abortion, or immigration—urged the court to consider the cultural consequences of the matter. The justices’ decision will either hamper religious freedom or erode the precious barrier between church and state, depending on which side the brief writers support.

A commercial pilot has been charged with criminal mischief after allegedly writing racist and pro-Trump graffiti at the Tallahassee, Florida, airport, court documents show.

Police charged James Ellis Dees, now a former Endeavor Air employee, with nine counts of criminal mischief after he admitted he wrote such slurs as "#MAGA =NO N**S =NO SP**S" -- derogatory terms toward African Americans and Hispanics -- multiple times, according to court documents. The graffiti was found mainly in airport bathrooms and the parking lot elevator.

Airport police approached Dees and asked about the graffiti earlier this month. When police told him he was identified as the writer after a camera was installed in the parking lot elevator where the graffiti was discovered, the court document said, Dees admitted to writing some of it.

The memories come to her in fragments. The bed creaking late at night after one of her brothers snuck into her room and pulled her to the edge of her mattress. Her underwear shoved to the side as his body hovered over hers, one of his feet still on the floor.

Her ripped dresses, the clothespins that bent apart on her apron as another brother grabbed her at dusk by the hogpen after they finished feeding the pigs. Sometimes she’d pry herself free and sprint toward the house, but “they were bigger and stronger,” she says. They usually got what they wanted.

As a child, Sadie* was carefully shielded from outside influences, never allowed to watch TV or listen to pop music or get her learner’s permit. Instead, she attended a one-room Amish schoolhouse and rode a horse and buggy to church—a life designed to be humble and disciplined and godly.

Rapper Kanye West announced he will appear at Awaken2020, a stadium-sized prayer rally hosted by some of the nation’s most anti-LGBTQ religious conservatives.

Now one of the organizers of the event has announced he will join an upcoming anti-LGBTQ “freedom march.”

Related: If you’re boycotting Chick-fil-A, why aren’t you protesting Adidas & Kanye West?

Pastor Lou Engle will join “former homosexuals” in Boston to help lead a “rainbow revival.” Engle has said America has become like Nazi Germany because of gay rights. He helped fan the flames of hate in Uganda at a time when this nation was debating whether to enact the infamous “Kill the Gays” bill.

An open relationship means you still have one primary partner but both can have other sexual partners. Polyamory means you have multiple relationships that are both emotional as well as sexual. There is no primary.

I grew up like you. Thinking you find your “one”, exchange vows, make babies, and live happily ever after. This person is your best friend and soulmate. Your forever and one and only. This is what love looks like and what everyone wants.

If I look at this through a biological lens, we are not designed to be with one person forever. That is a social/societal construct with a shame fence that keeps us from straying. Our bodies crave diversity. We are curious creatures. We have fantasies and imaginations. We are hardwired this way.

My conclusion with “the obvious.”

A San Antonio gymnastics and cheerleading coach has been accused of sexually abusing his teen student — once while his own child was playing in the same room where the alleged assault took place.

Robert Thomas Kotara, 33, is facing a charge of sexual assault of a child after one of his longtime students, now 18, reported the coach had been regularly having sex with her since she was 16 years old, police said, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

The sexual abuse allegedly began when Kotara asked the 16-year-old to help supervise a sleepover at the cheer gym for other students, according to court documents obtained by KENS. But after the teen arrived at the gym, she told authorities Kotara asked her to accompany him on an errand and drove her to a hotel instead, where he allegedly plied her with alcohol and sexually assaulted her.

“The culture war, better yet the war for the soul of man, is definitely heating up,” reads a message on the organization’s website. “1MM will keep fighting because souls are at stake. This LGBTQ spirit is the same spirit we read about in the Bible that confronted Lot. It's relentless but the good news is we serve the God who is King of kings, Lord of lords, and will not be mocked. Hallmark, Zola, etc. and all that make up those companies will ALL bow to the Lord.”

The man who set fire to an Iowa church’s rainbow flag has received a 15-year prison sentence.

Martinez previously told KCCI, the CBS affiliate in Des Moines, he had no regrets over the crime.

“This was about homosexuality?" a reporter for the station asked him.

"Yes, yes, yes. Exactly," Martinez replied. "I burned down their pride, plain and simple … I'm guilty as charged.” And in court, just before receiving his sentence, he said he was "living by God's laws" and would never cease to do so, the Tribune reports.

Authorities in Tennessee have confirmed the deaths of a mother and her 12-year-old son were the result of a murder-suicide.

On Tuesday night, the bodies of Rachel Narancich, 43, and her son Asher Narancich were found inside their Franklin home by a family member.

Parents of students at a St. Louis elementary school are calling for greater cultural sensitivity after a fifth-grade teacher handed out an assignment asking students to “set a price for your slave.”

The teacher at Blades Elementary School has been placed on paid administrative leave amid outrage over the assignment, which was meant to teach students about market practices, a spokeswoman for the Mehlville School District Superintendent confirms to PEOPLE.

The prompt went viral on Facebook after it was shared by Lee Hart, who said her friend’s child had brought the assignment home from school.

“It’s because you have foreign blood in you, that’s why you live 350 miles from home,” my uncle says to me. Noah* is sat next to me. Embarrassed, I look down into my dinner and mumble “well, what about my brother? He’s always lived close by.” I try and disrupt his logic. “Well he’s different, isn’t he?” My uncle carries on talking. I stop listening. I’m angry. Why has no one interrupted him? Why is no one sticking up for me?

It’s Easter Sunday, 2018. I’m at my parents’ house for a family gathering with both sides of my family. My uncle is white. My dad is white. My mum is brown. I’m mixed race. My mum was born in Mauritius, she moved to the UK when she was a baby in the ‘50s. My parents, who have been together since the ‘80s have never addressed the issue of race. I think they just wanted to keep their heads down in the hope that things would get better. Racist comments like those from my uncle are commonplace at my family gatherings.

Noah is my partner. He’s white. His family are racist too.

A Florida man is accused of child neglect after leaving a child alone at night outside a police station because he thought the boy might be gay, police said.

Haines City police didn't say in an arrest report whether the boy was the son of Evenaud Julmeus, 30. The child's name, age or relationship to Julmeus wasn't included in the report.