Michael Sean Winters Asks, "Can the Church Round the Corner in 2019?": My Response

"Can the church round the corner in 2019?" Michael Sean Winters asks in an end-of-year reflection published today. I consider that question, and have to admit: I find my imagination faltering.

Family Funerals, Immigrant-Bashing, and the Weaponization of American Catholicism: Place to Which "Pro-Life" U.S. Catholic Leaders Have Brought Their Church

At a Catholic funeral for a parent, is it normal or usual to print at the bottom of the funeral program that anyone not in communion with the Roman church is not welcome at communion — especially when the SSPX members of this family trot to communion? /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) December 28, 2018

A Christmas Story

Since Christmas is a time for telling ourselves stories….

The Christmas story is one we have to make way for against all odds.

Calling the Bluff of Those Who Maintain That Roots of Southern White Evangelicals Don't Run Back to Defense of Slavery

I'm not a white evangelical now, but I was raised in the Southern Baptist church, with two Baptist grandmothers (one Southern and one Missionary) — so I know more than a little about white evangelical culture in the American South. My father's brother and his wife spent their academic careers teaching and (in my uncle's case) doing administrative work in Southern Baptist colleges. Their two sons are Southern Baptist ministers, as was their maternal grandfather.

Father Prado on Pope Francis: Wants to Deny Access to Priesthood to Gays Because He's Catholic — I Have Questions

Father Fernando Prado, author of the book The Strength of Vocation, in which he interviews Pope Francis and gets the pope on record "worrying" about gay priests and opining that it's better to keep the gays out of the priesthood, recently spoke to Crux. In an article entitled "Pope doesn’t back down from skepticism about gays in priesthood," Inés San Martín reports about that conversation and about Pope Francis' view that, in Prado's words, "homosexuals" should not have "access to the priesthood." 

Headlines to Read Side by Side: Pope Tells Abusive Priests to Turn Themselves in to Criminal Authorities; Police Are Enabling Rampant Abuse in ICE Shelters

Bill Chappell, "Pope Francis Tells Abusive Priests And Bishops To Turn Themselves In"

Michael Grabell, Topher Sanders, and Silvina Sterin Pensel, "Police Are Enabling Rampant Abuse in Immigrant Children's Shelters"

Two headlines from yesterday that should, I think, be read side by side. The pope is telling abusive priests and bishops to turn themselves in to criminal authorities, since the church cannot, he insists, police itself and solve the problem of abusive priests and complicit bishops without help from outside authorities.

Death of 7-Year-Old Girl in U.S. Custody, a Family Funeral, and the Inexplicable Cruelty of Right-Wing U.S. Catholicism: An Advent Conundrum

Sometimes I follow threads in Catholic discussions on Twitter down rabbit holes. I know I shouldn't do this, because the holes inevitably turn out to be dark, claustrophobic, and stifling. 

Putting Christ Back Into Christmas: The Death of Jakelin Ameí Rosmery Caal Maquin

As Polling Data from 2018 Elections Shows Quite Specifically White Evangelicals Are Trump Base, Valuable Recent Commentary

This is a genius piece from @RonBrownstein. The Trump/GOP base isn't whites. It's white evangelicals. https://t.co/d4ityAc4yR pic.twitter.com/3ZfetIjU10

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) December 11, 2018

 

As an exit poll conducted by the Edison Research group in the 2018 elections shows that Donald Trump's base of support is not white working-class people in general, as is often suggested, but white evangelicals quite specifically, and as Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor and graduate of Arkansas' Southern Baptist university Ouachita declares that she will be remembered by history as "transparent and honest," an assortment of statements I've read recently about these issues:

Why Blaming Gay Priests for Catholic Abuse Situation Will Not Help Anything (Plus News about Cardinal Pell, Anti-Gay Hardliner)

As I posted my posting two days ago with an assortment of reports about the sexual abuse of vulnerable people in Christian churches, I had decided that I'd do a follow-up posting featuring some valuable commentary from Jamie Manson about Pope Francis' "worries" about gay priests. In my view, the critique/discussion of comments by top Catholic officials like the ones Francis has made to Father Fernando Prado about homosexuality and gay priests needs to go hand in hand with reports about abuse of vulnerable people in Christian churches. Where a plethora of reports from various churches, including the Catholic church, demonstrates plainly that the vulnerable people being abused by priests and pastors include females…. Demonstrating that the gays-are-the-problem analysis is a red herring if we really want to get to the root of sexual abuse of vulnerable people in faith communities….

Abuse of Vulnerable People and Churches: Recent Reports, from Baptists to Nuns Raped by Bishops and Priests to Jesuits to a German Princess Saving the Church

This is a collection of reports on the abuse situation as it is unfolding in various churches now. These are all recent statements, and not by any means a representative report on all that is happening on the sexual abuse front in religious groups right now. Stories are breaking on that front fast and furious — this is only my own selection of reports that have drawn my attention recently, for reasons that will be apparent as you read:

My Father at Pearl Harbor As It Was Bombed, and DNA Discoveries in Genealogical Research: An Account

My father, Benjmain Dennis Lindsey, Jr., at Pearl Harbor during WWII (on left).

This is one of those "personal" postings that seem to have become rarer as I maintain this blog. I'm not sure why I post less and less about my own personal history here, or my family's history. I think I may have been spurred to do so now by two fascinating statements I've read in the past several days about the use of DNA to discover one's ancestry or family history (here and here). As my posting  says, I had a DNA surprise some months back — that is, I learned some information about a family member close to me whom I knew very well as I grew up, which I never expected to find and never set out to find, but which I'm now having to process. In part, because this family member represents a staunchly evangelical — Southern Baptist, in particular — branch of my family, and what I have learned about his life and history complicates that picture to a large degree…. So here goes with the personal posting, about which I'm forewarning you if these aren't your cup of tea:

More on Missionary John Allen Chau: "You Go on a Beach, You Throw a Fish at Some People, You Holler at Them" — This Is Missionizing?

Several days ago, I posted some reflections about the story of American Christian missionary John Allen Chau, who was killed by the Sentinelese recently after he insisted on going to North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal to missionize them, though he had been warned that doing so would place him in grave danger. As my posting noted, this story has placed religious missionizing in the spotlight of the mainstream media. It raises serious questions about how Christians understand (or should understand missionizing) — a topic that has been fruitfully discussed for some time now in theology programs in which new understandings of mission are emerging.

"All" Francis Is Doing Is Calling Gay Priests to Keep Vows of Celibacy: A Rebuttal

People say Pope Francis' maliciously silly comments about gay priests are about underscoring that gay priests vowed to celibacy shouldn't be sexually active.

Fine. Priests both straight and gay who take vows of celibacy should not be sexually active, period. /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) December 3, 2018

Headlines Keep Pouring Forth: "Pope Francis Goes Full Homophobic"; "Pope Tells Gay Clergy to Quit" — Some Mercy. Some Hope. Some Welcome!

Newshub (New Zealand)

And the headlines just keep pouring out around the world: "Pope Francis goes full homophobic"; "Pope Francis doesn’t want homosexuals to join the priesthood"; "The Catholic Church is still homophobic"; "Pope Francis says gay life has become 'fashionable' and is hurting the Catholic Church"; "Pope tells gay clergy to quit"; "Gay people not welcome in clergy."

I Have a Dream: As Pope Francis Announces that Gay Men Shouldn't Enter Priesthood, as Advent Begins — "Leave the LGBTQ Community the Hell Alone"

This is a meditation for the first Sunday of Advent. It has specific reference to what Pope Francis said (or is said to have said: let the Catholic games begin!) in a book released in Italy yesterday, which is being represented widely in headlines throughout the mainstream media like this one today from The Guardian in London: "Gay people should not join Catholic clergy, Pope Francis says." Given that we know that there already are gay men in the Catholic priesthood and hierarchy — galore — this statement will rightly strike people with functioning consciences and access to much information at all as downright silly. As malicious….

Trifecta of Bad News for Man in White House Yesterday: "President's Longtime Personal Lawyer, Longtime Executive at his Business, Pled Guilty to a Cover-Up, a Criminal Cover-Up"

Donald Trump's day so far:

- Michael Cohen sells him out on Trump Tower Moscow
- Trump has meltdown on White House lawn
- Trump panics, cancels Putin meeting
- Deutsche Bank raided
- Trump's former tax attorney raided
- Cohen also sells out Trump's kids
- It's still only noon

— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) November 29, 2018

As More U.S. Catholic Diocesan Offices Are Searched by Police, Reports Continue That Lists of Abusive Priests Released by Bishops Are Incomplete

Two days ago, I wrote, 

One bishop after another is claiming that there have not been cases of abuse in his diocese for years now, and the lists being released are almost entirely names of priests who have been dead for some time. Many survivors are pointing out that they can testify that the lists being released are not complete, since they personally known of priests whose names are not on the lists being released.

Killing of John Allen Chau, Controversy re: Pope Benedict's View of Jewish-Christian Relations, Claim of Franklin Graham That Trump Defends the Faith: Idea of Religious Mission Now in News

With the killing of John Allen Chau on North Sentinel Island and controversy about EPope Benedict XVI's understanding of Jewish-Christian relations in the news right now, religious missionizing is unexpectedly in the spotlight of the mainstream media. In the current conversations about Christian mission, it would be short-sighted not to recognize that these conversations are taking place against the backdrop of great fear in some quarters that Christian cultures are being overtaken by Muslim ones, and that Christianity needs to compete with Islam in a way reminiscent of the "Holy Wars" period in the past.

Breaking News: Authorities Raid Offices of Galveston-Houston Catholic Archdiocese

A significant footnote to what I posted earlier today about how Catholic pastoral leaders have moved beyond the point of no return with the abuse horror show: this morning, criminal authorities are raiding the offices of the Catholic diocese of Galveston-Houston. According to news reports, they are looking for the secret archives that canon law mandates dioceses keep regarding abuse allegations.

This is a highly significant story because this is the diocese of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, current president of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference. As the news report at the head of the posting states, this is also unprecedented action in the U.S.

Point of no return, indeed.

German Catholic Bishops on Abuse: Church Is at "Point of No Return" and Has Been Exposed as "Perpetrator Organization" — What Now?

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, "Bishops must open archives to 'independent experts'":

"Scapegoating Gay Priests and Pining for a World in Which Most Catholics Agree with Church Teaching on Birth Control Is No Way to Confront the Abuse Crisis"

It needs to be said again: the call of some Catholic pastoral leaders and of some sectors of the church for "purification" & acts of penance (not to mention, showy reactionary piety) in response to the abuse crisis is embedded in analysis targeting queer people. /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) November 25, 2018

Donald Trump as Defender of "the" Faith: "These Children Are Barefoot. In Diapers. Choking on Tear Gas"

Huffington Post Lead Headline, 25 November 2018

Mike Allen, "Franklin Graham: Trump 'defends the faith'":

I never said he was the best example of the Christian faith. He defends the faith. And I appreciate that very much.

"Boy Erased" and the Destructive Effects of So-Called "Conversion" Therapy: Commentary on the Film

American Psychiatric Association, "APA Reiterates Strong Opposition to Conversion Therapy":

Commentary on U.S. Bishops' Meeting: "The Moral Credibility of Catholic Bishops in the United States Is in Tatters"

Barry Blitt's "Welcome to Congress" cover for New Yorker, 9 November 2018

Now if a knock-off cover could only be produced, showing all those whited-out men in suits as the Catholic bishops at their latest meeting….

Apologies for Being Slow to Blog: Our Never-Ending (but Now Almost-Ended) Kitchen Renovation Project

I'm sorry to have been relatively silent here of late — and, in particular, to have taken so long to acknowledge and answer your recent comments. Since the middle of the summer, we've been working at a major renovation project in our house: my husband Steve and his brother Joseph have completely remodeled our kitchen, removing the south wall of the room and extending it outward, putting a large, handsome new set of windows in on that side of the room, building new counters and workspaces, and so forth.

"Good, Conservative People Who Reject Liberalism": White Southern Evangelical Attack on Social Contract & Why We Are Where We Are Now

John Sharp, "Alabama just elected 'one of the most conservative governments we've ever had'":

Election Aftertakes: "Democrats Led Republicans by More Than 12 Million Votes in Senate Races" — And Vote Count Problems from Arizona to Georgia to Florida

Notice that the caravan totally disappeared as an issue as soon as the votes were cast -- not just Fox News, but mainstream media too. Guys, you really need to take a hard look in the mirror and ask why you're so easily played 2/

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 9, 2018

Sabrina Siddiqui:

Among the most eye-catching was a statistic showing Democrats led Republicans by more than 12 million votes in Senate races, and yet still suffered losses on the night and failed to win a majority of seats in the chamber.

More on White Evangelicals & Election: "Majority of This Country's Washed-in-the-Blood/Now-Whiter-Than-Snow Christians Supported the Peculiar Institution and Jim Crow and Segregation Forever"

As a companion piece to what I posted yesterday about the role that white evangelicals played (yet again) in Tuesday's election, please see the following:

"To the Extent There Is a Real Thing Called American Evangelicalism, It Is Deeply Damaged by Now": Commentary on White Evangelicals and the Elections

Three-quarters (75%) of white voters who describe themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians (a group that includes Protestants, Catholics and members of other faiths) voted for Republican House candidates in 2018 https://t.co/HwBSRKIOnK pic.twitter.com/RnWAGoMPc2

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) November 7, 2018

A Post-(U.S.) Election Poem

A poem I wrote some years ago — and I have to say as I share it, I'm not sure if the language of grace works for me any longer. Too old, tired, disheartened to be glib about using it now, I'm afraid.

The political life of this nation has broken my heart for the last few years now, and learning what I have had to learn about some relatives and some friends: rips the notion of grace entirely out of my heart. (Clicking the image will give you a larger picture of it.)

With the Catholic Bishops, It's Always Someone Else's Sin That's Responsible for the Abuse Crisis: A Response to the Bishops' Prayer-and-Fasting Regime

During the next seven days, bishops across the U.S. will dedicate themselves to intensified prayer and fasting. We pray for victims of clergy sexual abuse, the conversion and just punishment of perpetrators and concealers of sexual abuse, and the strength to be holy shepherds. pic.twitter.com/xGvHLSWoU7

— US Catholic Bishops (@USCCB) November 5, 2018

  

The preceding announcement is a prelude to the gathering of the U.S. Catholic bishops that will occur next week in Baltimore. Catholic News Service editor Julie Asher tweeted the following yesterday on behalf of the bishops:

"A Broad, Deep, Clerical Conspiracy" and "Bishop Accountability Has Proved a Contradiction in Terms": More Commentary

And there's more: here's another diptych from recent commentary that I want to offer for your consideration — about a totally different topic than the one discussed in the diptych I just provided in my previous posting:

"People Who Are Most Likely to Appear in These Kinds of Stories Are the Least Likely to Have a Say in How Those Stories Are Told": Lessons for Catholic Media Reporting on LGBTQ Community

A diptych for you today — news commentary dancing two-by-two which, in my view deserves to be highlighted, and which illuminates, I think, themes I've discussed here in the recent past:

National Catholic Reporter Addresses Wave of Catholic Hate Against Queer Community: My Response — Listening Means Listening

The hatred is breathtaking. Online and in person. I've been a Jesuit 30 years and it was only this year that I've had people (literally) screaming at me, poking their fingers into my chest, and calling me "heretic," "apostate," "false priest," "pansy" "faggot" and "sodomite." https://t.co/SAZzc9kuXM

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) November 2, 2018

For my starting point today, as I direct you to two statements at National Catholic Reporter yesterday decrying the wave of homophobic hate raging through sectors of the U.S. Catholic church now, I want to talk about the media and listening. To be specific: I want to talk about the mainstream media (including the Catholic mainstream media) and listening — or not — to members of marginalized minority communities.

Commentary: On Youth Synod Opening Door to LGBTQ Community (?!); On Latest McCarrick Revelations; On "Signs of the Times"

Some meandering thoughts and mini-rants this morning:

Liz Dodd on the Damage That Youth Synod's Game-Playing with LGBTQ Lives Does to Those Lives and to the Church Itself

Liz Dodd on the damage that the youth synod's game-playing with LGBTQ lives does to those lives and to the church itself, in "Synod's decision to drop 'LGBT' from its final document is a missed opportunity for the Church":

Bishop Gene Robinson to Matt Shepard: "Welcome Home"; Catholic Youth Synod to LGBTQ People: "You Will Not Be Named in Our Heterosexual Church" — Questions for Synod Participants and Voters

In his sermon at the interment of Matt Shepard, Bishop Gene Robinson says the following (these excerpts are from about 1:13:48 and 1:19:32 in the video above):

We / They: How Refusal to Include Queer Voices in Synodal Conversations Undercuts Claims of Church about Itself as Sacramental Sign of Redemption

“Christ made God manifest by making invisible people visible—the poor, women, all those deprived of their rights.”

~ Dorothee Sölle, "Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic for the Future," trans. Lawrence W. Denef (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1970), p. 163. https://t.co/0tXvupAKEc

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) October 26, 2018

In response to a question from Deborah Rose-Milavec of Future Church about how the Youth Synod is dealing with women's and LGBTQ issues, delegate Yadira Vieyra states,

Commentary: Political Fall-Out as Catholic Bishops Face Reckoning for Covering Abuse Crimes; German Catholic Discussion of Bible and Homosexuality

More commentary today that catches my attention, and is especially interesting when read side by side: 

Patricia Miller, "Is This Finally the Reckoning for the Catholic Church on Sexual Abuse?":

Commentary: McCarrick and Supposed "Gay Clique" in Hierarchy; Homosexuality Not Cause of Catholic Abuse Crisis; When Welcome Doesn't Really Mean Welcome

Things I've read in the last day or so that I'd like to pass along to you — with themes that, in my view, fit together, so that it's helpful to read this commentary side by side:

Where Do We Go from Here, as the Future Looks More and More Bleak for LGBTQ People in the U.S.?

So where do we go from here? I ask because I quite sincerely don't know the answer to that question.

My sense is that for queer people — especially in the U.S. — and for those who care about us and stand with us, things are going to get much worse, and more quickly than many of us realize.

What do we do with that probability? Or am I wrong to sense this, do you think? (See Brynn Tannehill's sobering predictions.)

Rolando, what can those of us gathered here in this particular dialogue community do to assist you in concrete ways? Please tell us, if there's something we can be doing in addition to offering you our support and sympathy.

Viganò Attacks Again: Even More Obsessively Focused on Homosexuality, as U.S. Catholic Church Continues Branding Itself as Homophobic Hate Machine

Pope accuser strikes back, blames "scourge of homosexuality" for abuse https://t.co/OSsgulPcOT

This — this hateful crusade against a minority community, hate dressed up as God — is how the U.S. Catholic church has chosen to identify itself in the public eye. /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) October 20, 2018

Married Gay Catholic Minister Hounded Out of Ministerial Job with Acts of Hate from Organized Catholic Hate Groups

I wish so much that this story had not flashed across my computer screen on the very same day in which I posted Rolando's testimony about what has been done to him and John. But here this additional story is, staring all of us in the face. Dan Morris-Young writes, 

"I Am Excommunicated from This 'Redemptive Institution' Because 3 Years Ago, John and I Formalized our 49-Years of Living, Loving and Ministering Together by Registering Our Civil Union"

The following is testimony that Rolando shared at Bilgrimage several days ago. This testimony deserves a wider hearing than it will receive if it remains in a combox; I'm posting it as a stand-alone comment for that reason. This story is just so painful — and it's one that is repeating itself over and over in Catholic institutions right now. 

Was Dietrich Bonhoeffer Gay? Diane Reynolds' The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the Biographical-Theological Evidence

Diane Reynolds, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Women, Sexuality, and Nazi Germany (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016)

When I reported to you (and here) a month ago regarding Charles Marsh's biography of theological Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (NY: Knopf, 2014), I mentioned to you that, as Marsh does, another recent biographer, Diane Reynolds, sees Bonhoeffer as a gay man in love with his colleague Eberhard Bethge. Reynolds' biography of Bonhoeffer, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Women, Sexuality, and Nazi Germany (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016), proposes that as a man aware that his erotic inclinations moved in a forbidden direction in the savagely homophobic culture of Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer lived a double life, often pretending to be who and what he was not (p. 4) — while he began to develop, especially in the latter part of his tragically truncated life, a "nascent queer theology":

Not Blogging Lately Because I Don't Think That I Have Much to Say That Will Make Much of a Difference

I'm not blogging much lately because I don't think, honestly, that I have much to say that will make much of a difference to any of the conversations going on around me. I appreciate readers who have contacted me to ask how I'm doing, and who have shared your similar sense that we're being overtaken by a huge cultural wave at a global level that is moving the global community to some very dark fascist places — and we have all too little power to change the direction of that wave right now.

Me, Talking Back to National Catholic Reporter and Michael Sean Winters re: Resignation of Donald Wuerl

Wuerl hounded from office for becoming face of abuse crisis https://t.co/N2pHeSpgcP via @ncronline

"He has been for 30 years a force of nature in the Catholic Church in this country, a workhorse for the conference and for the Vatican and for the dioceses he served." /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) October 12, 2018

"Only the Good Has Depth That Can Be Radical": Hannah Arendt on Banality of Evil — Critically Important Role of Thought and Imagination as Fascist Tide Rises

A key point of Hannah Arendt's analysis of the banality of evil is that evil is essentially stupid, as it manifests itself in the social arena. Evil lacks imagination. It does the same (misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, elitist, fascist) thing over and over, expecting always the same results — since doing the same  (misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, elitist, fascist) thing last time worked. So surely it will work again….

U.S. Catholic Church in Snapshots from Twitter, as Georgetown Prep Grad Kavanaugh Is Seated as a Supreme

.@newtgingrich and I congratulate our new Supreme Court Justice. pic.twitter.com/LDlDsUhL4k

— Callista Gingrich (@CallyGingrich) October 6, 2018

Mark Shea on What Viganò, Burke, and Bannon's Anti-Francis Gay-Bashing Is About: "This is About the Rich Seizing Control of the Church, not About the Protection of Victims"

Kavanaugh Has Exposed the Savage Amorality of America's Ruling Class https://t.co/PgdtZykKrw

— Mary Aktay (@maryaktay) October 6, 2018

Mark Shea, "1 Percenters attempt to buy control of the Church," hits the nail right on the head:

Commentary: How Kavanaugh's Confirmation Shows What We've Refused to Learn from Catholic Abuse Chronicle, Etc.

The Rep majority of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Com. @senjudiciary . Don't they look representative of America's people? If you're female, don't you want them having control of our S.C. & women's reproductive health decisions? @JeffFlake @SenSasse @SenatorCollins @Sen_JoeManchin pic.twitter.com/F9QhLMsDn8

— Diane Smith (@TheDiane0905) October 5, 2018

Marci Hamilton, "The Response to the Kavanaugh Allegations Exposes the Lessons We Failed to Learn from the Catholic Clergy's Abuse":

The Sole — Crucial — Lesson the GOP Takes from Orwell: Boot Stamping on a Human Face — Forever

The sole — crucial — lesson the GOP takes from Orwell:

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."

For Orwell, this was a cautionary tale about fascist abuse of power. For the GOP, it's a blueprint for the party's triumph.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) October 5, 2018

My new pinned tweet on Twitter….

Just Me, Mouthing Off About Crux and America and Large Investment of U.S. Catholic Intellectual Elites in Upholding Heterosexual Male Entitlement

I'm just an old poofter and what I have to say doesn't matter to anyone at all, but Jesum Pete: 

More Kavanaugh Hearing Tweets: "Why Are All These Men So Angry?" & "If You Can't Imagine What Toxic, Fragile Masculinity Looks Like, Turn on Your Television"

Why are all these men so angry?

— Sarah Posner (@sarahposner) September 27, 2018

Twitter Comments on Grilling of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford: "One of the Ugliest and Most Shameful Things I've Ever Seen"

Right now, the @GOP is willingly injuring all sexual assault victims a second time.

May we remember this in November.

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) September 27, 2018

Here is some real-time commentary as the crucifixion grilling of Dr. Ford takes place today — tweets that (for the most part: some have come into my feed today, but were tweeted earlier) are commenting in real time on what's happening, which I think are valuable to share:

Kavanaugh Hearing and Catholic Abuse: Overlapping Narratives — Same Catholics Who Support Viganò's Allegations Dismiss Kavanaugh's Accusers

Today I'm thinking of how many students, over the course of my teaching career, have recoiled, outraged at the thought that a woman's testimony had historically and biblically been deemed unreliable unless corroborated by a man's.

— Natalia Imperatori (@nimperatori) September 27, 2018

Again, My Apologies for My Relative Silence in Response to Comments Here — And I Don't Intend to Play Favorites in Responding to Select Comments

It occurs to me once again to leave a note here underscoring that I am not deliberately ignoring most comments left in threads here. They are all very welcome, and I am reading and benefiting from them all.

Crux on Cardinal McCarrick's "Sexually Deviant Behavior": U.S. Catholic Church Continues to Be Unsafe for LGBTQ People

I went to bed last night more than a little troubled by something Crux reporter Christopher White states in his report on a presentation John Carr has just given at Georgetown's Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. The presentation is entitled "Confronting a Moral Catastrophe: Lay Leadership, Catholic Social Teaching, and the Sexual Abuse Crisis." In his lecture, Carr, who was previously Director of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Department on Justice, Peace and Human Development, and who has been a friend of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, revealed that he had been sexually abused by priests as a minor seminarian. John Carr is a married Catholic layman with children.

More on the Jesuit Elite Boys' Club from Which Kavanaugh and Judge Emerged: Need to Rethink Jesuit Claims re: Inculcating Healthy Masculinity in Students?

1) There is a serious problem in American Catholic conversations that is glaringly obvious in the discussion of Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, and their "man for others" Jesuit education at Georgetown Prep.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) September 25, 2018

Emily Witt on the (Jesuit Elite) Boys' Club That Protects Kavanaugh: Need to Rethink Jesuit Claims re: Inculcating Healthy Masculinity in Students?

Mark Judge's Page, Georgetown Prep Yearbook The Cupola, 1983

Read the following statement by Emily Witt side by side with my posting yesterday, which suggested that there may be something more than a little flawed about the magical-mystical approach to militaristic masculinity — "We're men for others, a band of brothers!" — fostered by all-male Jesuit prep schools, which have long been breeding grounds for elite males who will step from their educational years into prestigious jobs tailor-made for men like themselves by other men like themselves.

Father Kalchik and the Rainbow Flag Burning: When Evil Work Is Dressed Up in Holy Clothes

I spent a good bit of time this weekend reading hither and yon about the rainbow flag-burning priest in Chicago, Father Paul Kalchik, who has now been turned into a holy icon by the homophobic Catholic hard right (they're pushing the same narrative about him that they pushed a few weeks ago about Viganò: has had to go into hiding as a martyr because of the evil homosexuals). I have a few thoughts I'd like to share about his story.

Recent Discussion of Brett Kavanaugh's Jesuit Prep-School "Man for Others" Training: Ambiguity of Jesuit "Band of Brothers" Ethos

John Gehring, "Improper Formation? Kavanaugh & the Prep-School Culture": 

Chicago Priest Burns Rainbow Flag with Easter Fire: Dangerous Weaponization of Catholic Symbols to Attack Queer People

Lighting of Easter Fire by Benedictines in Morristown, NJ, in 2009 

The Catholic priest in Chicago who had announced his intent to burn a rainbow flag to "exorcise" his parish did carry through with his plans, as I think many of you will already know (and Chris Morley helpfully posted a report about this in a comment here several days ago). Though archdiocesan officials had told Father Paul Kalchik not to do so, he went ahead and burned the flag, with parishioners assisting him. Robert Shine reported about this for New Ways Ministry this past week.

Charles Marsh's Biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Strange Glory, on Bonhoeffer's (Highly Contested) Homosexuality

Here's another set of excerpts I'd like to share with you from Charles Marsh's excellent biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (NY: Knopf, 2014). Marsh ruffled feathers of conservative Christians (and the ruffling goes on and has become even more agitated with Diane Reynolds' 2016 Bonhoeffer biography The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Women, Sexuality, and Nazi Germany) by concluding that Bonhoeffer was a gay man deeply in love with fellow Lutheran pastor Eberhard Bethge.

Note of Apology That I Am Not Finding Time to Take Part in Conversations Here of Late

I am very much enjoying the discussions in threads here, and want you to know that. I also apologize that I have not been able to find time to participate in them very much in the past several days. Important news seems to be breaking right and left, and the time I take to try to read it and think about it is taking time away from my time to comment here. Please know that I value the thought-provoking conversation very much, even when I'm not taking part in it.

Right-Wing Christian Support for Kavanaugh & Dismissal of Male Violence Towards Women: Fight to Keep Patria Potestas as Foundation of "Christian" Culture

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

David Badash, "'Not Relevant': Franklin Graham Says Alleged Kavanaugh Assault Just Something 'He Did as a Teenager'":

What Do Discussions of the Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church Have to Do with the Kavanaugh Hearing? A Lot

Ellen interviews Shelly Fitzgerald, who is threatened with firing by Roncalli Catholic High in Indianapolis for her same-sex marriage.

As I said yesterday, how the abuse situation in the Catholic church is discussed — with an obsessive focus on homosexuality, with little attention at all to the overwhelmingly dominant social (and ecclesial) problem of male abuse of vulnerable women — is not in the least disconnected from the conversations now going on about Brett Kavanaugh as a potential Supreme. Here are some statements that, to my mind, need to be read side by side, if we're going to gain a glimpse of the bigger picture facing us in these discussions:

Charles Marsh, Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, on the Sordid History of German Church's Response to Hitler: We Forget at Our Peril

I've just finished reading Charles Marsh's Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (NY: Knopf, 2014), and would like to share some passages with you. These all have to do with the ease with which the Lutheran church in Germany capitulated to Hitler and his propagandists' claim that he was reviving a manly-man Christianity that would rehabilitate Germany's tarnished reputation. Marsh focuses on the Evangelical (i.e., Lutheran) (and Confessing) church and not the Catholic church because Bonhoeffer was situated within the Lutheran world. 

Questions to Be Asked About Discussion of Sexual Abuse: Why Is Abuse of Vulnerable Females by Adult Males Shrugged Off So Easily?

Speaking from the vantage point of a "but half-woke" straight male, David Roberts writes, 

Once Again: Catholic Journalists Pushing Back Vs. Viganò's False Claims Are Not Pushing Back Vs. His Homophobia — See Austen Ivereigh's Recent Tweet re: Mary Hunt

In my last posting, I shared a Twitter conversation I had several days ago with Catholic Democrats. It was about his claim that there had been "tremendous push back" against the ugly homophobia now surfacing all through Catholic conversation circles following the McCarrick revelations and Viganò's accusations about a "homosexual network" in the church that is responsible for the abuse crisis. 

My Twitter Conversation with Catholic Democrats about "Tremendous Push Back" Against Viganò Crowd's Homophobia: Where Is That Push Back Taking Place?

Here's an exchange I had on Twitter yesterday with Catholic Democrats:

Joelle Casteix's Clear, Informed Response to Viganò Crowd: Feeds Old Stereotypes, Silences Victims, Minimizes Abuse, Encourages Cover-Up

Joelle Casteix has written the clearest, most informed response I've yet seen regarding the allegations of Viganò and his followers about the sexual abuse horror show in the Catholic church. Her essay, "'It’s a Gay Problem,' and Other Myths From the Catholic Church's Sexual Abuse Crisis," is at Religion Dispatches this morning. An excerpt:

Important Statement from Catholic Women Speak re: "Letter to Pope Francis from Catholic Women": Who's Promoting It and Why

This is an important statement from Catholic Women Speak in response to the "Letter to Pope Francis from Catholic Women" being pushed by EWTN and other hard-right homophobic Catholic media outlets and websites:

At Moment of Increasing Homophobia in Catholicism, Remembering Fr. Mychal Judge

9/11: Franciscan Fr. Mychal Judge, chaplain to the firefighters, was an early casualty. The image of his fellow firemen carrying his body to a nearby church became an icon of the day--an image of loving service and sacrifice, a contrast to messages born of fanaticism and fear. pic.twitter.com/XBfaZZZgJ3

— Robert Ellsberg (@RobertEllsberg) September 11, 2018

On the "Light Handed" St. John Paul the Great and the "Mild" Benedict: Anti-Francis Catholic Right and "Dinesh DeSouza School of Church History"

Lessons from the 14th Amendment: Every society is built on foundation myths, affirming the righteousness of the National project. But the stories with real power to redeem the National project are told by people left out (or on the margins) of the country’s foundation narrative.

— aderson francois 🇭🇹 14A (@abfrancois) July 27, 2018

Paul Moses, "Tackling the Wrong Problem: Pope Benedict XVI’s Removal of Bishop William Morris":

The "Why I'm Leaving" and "Why I'm Staying" Statements After Pennsylvania Report: My Theological Take on Them

There was an interesting discussion thread here several days back about the spate of articles after the Pennsylvania grand jury report with titles like "Why I'm Leaving" and "Why I'm Staying." American Catholics are openly discussing why they're leaving the Catholic church or why they're committed to remaining in it.

Latest Viganò Commentary: "Vatican Receives a Letter in *November 2000* Detailing a Mess of Allegations Against McCarrick. Three Months Later, Instead of Sanctions, St. JPII Gives McCarrick a Red Hat"

The Viganistas have an obvious timing problem. The secret sanctions was the clever solution to bridging the gap, but it may have been too clever by half. pic.twitter.com/xlI9xAFY6T

— Polycarpio✝️🙏 (@SuperMartyrio) September 6, 2018

In case you haven't been following every last bit of news about the Viganò story, I've done you the service of gathering a selection of recent commentary that updates what we've already discussed here. The story continues to develop right up to the present, with the denial published yesterday by Napa Institute co-founder Timothy Busch that he was involved in drafting Viganò's statement — Napa Institute, which gave shelter to disgraced St. Paul-Minneapolis archbishop Nienstedt after Viganò sought to shut down investigation of allegations that Nienstedt had been involved in activities very much like those for which Viganò is now scoring McCarrick. Here's more commentary:

Wave of Queer Bashing in U.S. Catholicism and Cheap-Grace Christianity: Further Reflections on What's Going on with Viganò's Cabal

Shared by Chiara Giaccardi on Twitter

The letter written by Fordham theologians Patrick Hornbeck and Bryan Massingale to their colleagues — I posted about it yesterday evening — states, 

Fordham Theology Professors: "We Categorically Condemn the Vile Slander That the Crisis in the Catholic Church Is Due to the Presence of Gay Men"

Andy Staron, who is an assistant professor of theology at Wheeling Jesuit University, has shared a letter written by two members of Fordham University's theology department, Patrick Hornbeck and Fr. Bryan Massingale, to their colleagues. Since Andy Staron has shared this in his public feed, and I see it now being shared on Facebook, I am assuming it can be shared here, too — and that he shared the letter with the permission of the authors. 

My "Final" Take on the Viganò Narrative: I Am Frankly Not Sure That Catholicism Can Be Cleansed of Hatred of Queer People

One possible explanation of Pope Francis's silence on Viganò: to respond to the accusations would require him to directly critique the conduct of his immediate predecessors.
For the record, I think that should happen. But one can see why he would want to think carefully first.

— Brian Flanagan (@BrianPFlanagan) September 2, 2018

Plus, one has been canonized as a saint, which makes it...complicated.

— Brian Flanagan (@BrianPFlanagan) September 2, 2018

I don't know about you, but I'm worn out from trying to make heads nor tails of the Viganò story — and most of all, from the cynical post-truth, fake news games being played by him and his co-conspirators, and the ugly use being made of his narrative by some very nefarious groups of people. Here are a few late-breaking tidbits for you to chew over: 

NCR Editorializes: John Paul II "Provided the Model for the Hierarchy's Approach to the Growing Scandal"

The National Catholic Reporter has made an editorial statement on the current crisis in the Catholic church following the McCarrick revelations, the Pennsylvania report, and the Viganò attack. It's entitled "Editorial: It's time to choose the painful path of purification." Here are some excerpts:

"It's All Rubbish": Emeritus Pope Benedict's Secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein on Viganò's Letter

Valuable commentary on the Viganò affair keeps churning out, and I feel obliged to crank the churn here and provide excerpts for you. Here are some things I've read in the last two days I think worth sharing:

Footnote to Previous Posting: On John Thavis' Testimony re: How Vatican Press Corps Cheered When Benedict Was Elected

A footnote to what I posted earlier today providing some recent commentary on the Viganò story: did you notice in the article by Michelle Boorstein John Thavis' report that there was a loud cheer in the press room of the Vatican press corps when Pope Benedict's election was announced? Thavis states that it has been revelatory for him to discover just how conservative many religion reporters covering Catholic matters and the Vatican really are, the grousing of these journalists about Pope Francis, their adulation of John Paul II and his successor Benedict.

Abuse Survivors Speak Out: Viganò Is "Just a Fanatic Who Blames Gays" — More on What Viganò's Attack Is Really About

SNAP, Survivors Denounce Archbishop Viganò’s Statements Conflating Homosexuality and Sexual Violence by Clergy

SNAP's position on what Viganò and his cabal are doing creates more than a tiny wrinkle for that cabal, doesn't it? Supposedly, they're all about addressing the sexual crimes of clergy and of the hierarchy, to assist survivors. Their proposed purge of gay priests and members of the hierarchy is premised wholly on the claim that they want to deal with the abuse horror show.