What We Are Now Living Through Creates a Serious Crisis of Religious Faith

In the video above, discussing the death of 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez in a detention center for immigrants this past May, Mika Brzezinski states that Nancy Pelosi is filling a leadership void and a moral void in this country. Joe Scarborough then states that evangelicals used to fill this moral void and no longer do so:

Southern Baptist Abuse Report, Next Installment: "Preying on Teens"

The third installment in the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News investigation of abuse in Southern Baptist churches is out today. It's entitled "Preying on teens: More than 100 Southern Baptist youth pastors convicted or charged in sex crimes." An excerpt:

Anthea Butler Responds to Pope's Statement re: Clergy Sex Crimes: "Stop Passing the Buck Onto the People of God Instead of the Catholic Hierarchy"

That's not the issue. The issue is, the cycles of revelation of the malfeasance of the church and the hierarchy in protecting their own at the expense of children and families is hypocritical in light of the theology of the body and sexuality.

— ProfB (@AntheaButler) August 20, 2018

Religious studies professor Anthea Butler responds to the latest papal statement about the abuse horror show, and, as ever tells the God's truth:

Valuable Commentary on Pennsylvania Report: "Spokesperson for the Vatican Reached Wednesday Morning Said It 'Has No Comment'"

Valuable commentary I've read in the past two days about the Pennsylvania grand jury report:

Standing Ovation at Highpoint Church, Memphis, for Pastor Who Sexually Assaulted 17-Year-Old Girl: Churches Still Not Intending to Get It

Church: When the prevailing word is boys will be boys,
then we are saying girls will be garbage.
And the church needs to not dismiss "incidents" --
but call it what it actually it is: a sexual assault on a minor. #MeToo #SilenceIsNotSpiritual #ChurchToohttps://t.co/CEMEuzQfDE

— Ann Voskamp (@AnnVoskamp) January 9, 2018

A week ago, Jules Woodson told a painful story of her sexual assault by youth pastor Andy Savage at Woodlands Parkway Baptist church in Houston. She was 17 years old when he drove her to a secluded place, unzipped his pants, pulled out his penis and asked her to suck it, and unbuttoned her shirt and fondled her breasts. As her account states, after this occurred, she notified church leaders about what had happened and met a stone wall until she told an all-women's discipleship group at her church what had happened.

Anthea Butler on Disarray Under Evangelical Umbrella Due to Trump

A valuable footnote to our discussion yesterday of Fred Clark's take on the shenanigans of those trying to rescue the white evangelical brand from Trumpism: in that posting, I cited a series of tweets by Anthea Butler in which she asserts that "for American Evangelicalism, Trump has severed and destroyed their message, movement, and future." Yesterday, The Guardian published an essay by Anthea Butler in which she develops this assertion.

Prof. Anthea Butler Goes on Tweetstorm: "For American Evangelicalism, Trump Has Severed and Destroyed Their Message, Movement, and Future"

1. It is unprecedented that Evangelicals are supporting the least patriotic, most critical candidate of America and democracy in 2016.

— ProfB (@AntheaButler) October 20, 2016

I fear I'm being verbose this morning. But there's just so much to be said after last evening's debates, isn't there? Anthea Butler, who is Graduate Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at University of Pennsylvania, has gone on a marvelous tweetstorm this morning, and because her tweets are about matters we've been discussing here (white evangelical support for Donald Trump), I want to point you to them (#1 is at the head of the posting): 

Opening Doors or Closing Them? Anthea Butler Comments on Pope Francis and Donald Trump

Anthea Butler, writing at Religion Dispatches today:

Quote for Day: "Why Is It an Animal Being Shot Gathers More Empathy Than Black People Being Killed for Nothing in America?"

Why is it an animal being shot gathers more empathy than black people being killed for nothing in America. #Iknowtheanswer #whiteracisttears

— ProfB (@AntheaButler) July 29, 2015

Anthea Butler of the department of religious studies at University of Pennsylvania, commenting on the widespread outrage of Americans at the shooting of Cecil the lion by dentist Walter Palmer . . . . 

Quote for Today: "The Sort of Bland Saluting of Forgiveness with Nothing Else Attached Is Empty"

The sort of bland saluting of forgiveness with nothing else attached is empty.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) June 21, 2015

And on the ways in which forgiveness (about which I posted yesterday) in the wake of an atrocity like the Mother Emanuel shootings can be a trap, a convenient cover for the refusal of those with power in their hands to do anything to change the conditions that produce such atrocities, there are powerful, fascinating, necessary conversations right now at Twitter. Here's a sampler of comments worth noting, which point out that there's a sentimental trope in American literature about master-slave relationships which exalts the forgiving nature of the slave, and that white Americans frequently co-opt the willingness of black Christians to forgive as a way of refusing to face the injustice of racism:

"What Good Fortune for Those in Power That People Do Not Think": Religion (of a Sort) and Justification of Police Brutality

Several observations culled from my file of notes from books I've read over the course of many years, which have helped me to see more fully and to understand better. To my way of thinking, what both of these authors have to say could well powerfully gloss discussions we've had here of late about the role of religion in the world — and the quandary religion often presents to LGBTI folks. Both Alice Miller and Philip Greven are addressing the strongly held belief of many Christian cultures that physical punishment is necessary for the right rearing of good children.

Michael Sean Winters Mounts Personal Attack Against Mary Hunt: My Reflections

As anyone reading Bilgrimage over the long run may know, I have a thing about National Catholic Reporter Michael Sean Winters's persistent attacks on mouthy, uppity women: I don't like these attacks.  As I noted last July, I've watched Winters  for some time now slam women with whom he disagrees in a particularly personal, particularly dismissive and disrespectful way, and have concluded that there's a pattern here: it's a pattern that's more than a little misogynistic.

Anthea Butler's Essay Responding to Zimmerman Verdict Elicits Outcry: God or god?

Several days ago, I pointed readers to Anthea Butler's latest essay at Religion Dispatches, which responds to the George Zimmerman verdict by asking how we continue talking about God in light of the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the Zimmerman verdict. Butler argues (compellingly, to my mind) that the loving, liberating God of biblical testimony and Judaeo-Christian faith is distinct from the maleficent, racist white god constructed by generations of white males who need a god made in their own image to bless a world they've built to serve their own interests at the expense of targeted others.

Anthea Butler Responds to Zimmerman's Acquittal: "God Ain't Good All of the Time"

And more powerful commentary today on the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman verdict--this from Anthea Butler at Religion Dispatches:

Christians v. Gays: Anti-Gay Behavior of Christians Seriously Damaging Christian Brand, According to David Gushee

Yesterday, when I recommended to readers a list of articles I'd read in the last day or so about how religious bodies are responding to the DOMA decision, I included David Gushee's recent statement at Religion Dispatches on the damage some Christians have done to the Christian brand in the painful period through which we've been living, in which many Christians have imagined they have a God-given duty to taunt, attack, belittle, scapegoat, and exclude some fellow human beings simply because they happen to have been born gay. I'd like to highlight Gushee's statement today.

Commentary about Response of Religious Bodies to SCOTUS Decision Striking Down DOMA

For those seeking commentary about the response of various religious bodies to yesterday's SCOTUS decision striking down DOMA, a wealth of good material has come online in the past two days, particularly at the Religion Dispatches site. Here are some links, in no particular order:

Here Comes Nobody: Bishops Keep Decreeing, Catholics Keep Talking

Maureen Dowd stands James Joyce's famous description of the catholic church--"Here comes everybody"--on its head in an op-ed statement this past Sunday, and Michael Sean Winters goes ballistic in response, with predictable over-the-top rage (remember his column on President Obama and the HHS guidelines, in screaming capitals resurrecting the Dreyfus affair: "J'ACCUSE!"?).  Michael's constant, recurring meme about Maureen (and uppity women in general: he's recently attacked Professor Anthea Butler of the Department of Religion of University of Pennsylvania, too) is that Dowd is stupid.  She doesn't know from stupid, Michael insists; she doesn't know what Michael and other beltway insiders with direct pipelines to the bishops know.

Anthea Butler Excoriates Attempt of Catholic Centrists to Give Cover to Anti-Semitism of Lefebvrists

At Religion Dispatches, Anthea Butler writes, "On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Catholic 'Liberal' Hails Return of Anti-Semitic Group."  Butler, who teaches religion at University of Pennsylvania, and whose work I've recommended here in the past (e.g., here), is commenting on Michael Sean Winters's article earlier this week at National Catholic Reporter carrying the headline, "Welcome Back Lefebvrists."

Anthea Butler on Philadelphia Trial: Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters

Anthea Butler says that, given how the hierarchy has handled the abuse situation, she's happy to be called a catholic, but no longer a Catholic.  And she puts an important question to Catholics who hang on and continue offering energy and support to the Catholic (as opposed to catholic) church:

Anthea Butler Blasts Racist Lies of White Faith-Based Conservatives

Anthea Butler speaks truth to (very corrupt) power, and tells "ahistorical white conservatives, white supremacists, and Quiverfull advocates" to knock off their maundering, totally insincere act of concern for black and brown babies, which is really hysteria disguised as concern.  It's hysteria about the fact that people of color are outpacing white people in producing babies, disguised as concern for the fate of African-American children.