Telling My Story (Follow-Up to OUTWORDS Interview) 2

As I think about the interview that OUTWORDS did with me on Saturday, it's impossible to disengage what I said in the interview from the attack my relative made on me on my Facebook page a few days before the interview, in which she said to me, "You queers make me sick," and then went on to talk about Jesus and the bible. As embodied beings, we think within a real-world, social context that involves human relationships, and our thinking is shaped by our interactions within that real-world context.

Telling My Story (Follow-Up to OUTWORDS Interview)

I thought that if I performed brilliantly in school, I could carve out a safe niche for myself in a hostile world, so that when the wrath came, it would not find me in my hidey-hole. I was mistaken.

A Twitter Thread in Response to Franklin Foer on What's Wrong with the Democrats

No mention at all of the significant role played by gerrymandering and voter suppression to lock in GOP control, as a minority. 1) https://t.co/PYX2jepDyW

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) June 21, 2017

This is a Twitter thread in response to Franklin Foer's "What's Wrong with the Democrats?" in the latest issue of The Atlantic. 

"If There's a Single Worst Actor in This Drama, It Is Ryan": Time for White Catholics to Face Responsibility for Trump

Jamelle Bouie writes, 

The GOP’s passage of Trumpcare is one of the most callous things the party has ever done.

Commonweal Editorial Slams "Illiberalism" That Would Shut Down Free Speech of Trump Fans: Implications for Commonweal's Discussions of LGBTQ Lives?

As I noted yesterday, the leading "liberal" Catholic journal in the U.S., Commonweal, has just published an editorial statement which maintains that "illiberal" forces in American democracy are seeking to shut down the free speech of anyone who is not a member of a minority group. The editorial (which, unfortunately, came out only a day after a 15-year-old girl was pepper sprayed in the face by protesters at a rally in Paul Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, as Trump supporters screamed "Nigger lover!" and "Bitch!" at her) points to the actions of anti-Trump protesters to combat racism and misogyny as evidence that "illiberal" groups are now working to suppress the free speech of those with whom they disagree.

Remembering John McNeill, As Doors Slam Shut on Thousands at World Meeting of Families

As several of you have noted in comments here in the past few days, on the day on which Pope Francis arrived in the U.S., noted theologian and former Jesuit priest John McNeill died at the age of 90, with his partner of 46 years, Charles Chiarelli, at his side. Many of you will know quite a bit about John McNeill, so I don't think it's necessary for me to say more about his life than to remind readers that he was expelled from the Jesuits in 1987 when he refused to stop his ministry to LGBT people, and to cease his theological work in the area of sexual ethics. He attracted the animosity of Pope John Paul II and that pope's theological watchdog Cardinal Ratzinger, later Benedict XVI, and was ordered by Ratzinger to choose between his ministry to LGBT persons and his Jesuit vocation.

A Week of Amazing Grace, and of No Grace at All: Reading the Testimony of the Mother Emanuel Martyrs Alongside the Dissenting Obergefell v. Hodges Statements of Four Supreme Catholic Men

What's a church for?, President Barack Obama asked the American people on the day on which the highest court of the land struck down barriers to legal civil marriage for same-sex couples What's a church for?, President Obama asks us as he delivers a deep-souled eulogy for the martyred pastor of Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, South Carolina, that will go down in history as one of the most significant orations made by any U.S. president.

Droppings (and Sprinkles) from the Catholic Birdcage: "If You Cannot Find Christ in the Beggar at the Church Door, You Will Not Find Him in the Chalice"

Abby Zimet at Common Dreams, in commentary entitled "The Un-Francis: I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food, I Was Thirsty and You Gave Me Drink, I Was Homeless and WTF You Drenched Me With Sprinklers To Drive Me Away":

Ferguson and Who Gets to Do What to Whom: One Day, Three Videos

Novelist Sue Monk Kidd on Empathy and Seeing World from Bottom Up: Echoes of Pope Francis on Center and Peripheries

Pope Francis has stated (pdf file),

Pope Francis and the Clerical System: Jerry Slevin on Lay Catholics and Making a Mess, Colleen Baker on Seeing from the Margins and Interpersonal Relationships

Yesterday, I asked about Pope Francis and his reform of the Catholic church: "Will he continue the disastrous decision of his two predecessors to hinge the future of the Catholic church on the maintenance of the clerical system at all cost?" I realize that Francis has said quite a bit that's critical of clericalism.

Provocative One-Liners from News, First Week of 2014

Provocative one-liners from smart news commentary or articles I read this past week:

Theology: Gustavo Gutierrez on Marginalization, Frida Berrigan on Catholics in Waiting, Adam Ackley on Churches and Gender, Bill Tammeus on Theological Education

And following on the heels of what I've just posted about Bishop Robert McElroy's essay "A Church for the Poor," more theology-oriented articles that have caught my attention in the last day or so:

Bishop Robert McElroy, "A Church for the Poor": Reframing the Catholic Moral Conversation in Light of Pope Francis's Insistence on Primacy of the Poor

At America Magazine, Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Francisco offers an essay entitled "A Church for the Poor."  Bishop McElroy views Pope Francis's stress on the primacy of the poor in Catholic thinking and the Catholic practice of faith as a profound challenge to the way in which many Americans, including American Catholics, think about political issues. Francis's call to orient our thinking about matters of faith and our practice of faith around the poor is an "invitation to cultural conversion."

Quote for the Day: White Churches and Deafening Silence about Zimmerman Verdict

Jeffrey Weiss for CNN:

Father Bryan Massingale on Trayvon Martin Story: A Sacrifice at the Altar of White Fear

As Bryan Massingale, a Catholic priest and theologian who is African American, processes what happened with the George Zimmerman trial, he comes to the same conclusion that President Obama has also reached as an African-American male: 

Trayvon Martin, From Lament to Rallying Cry: "Time Is Now to Commit to the Revolutionary Project of Living Our Lives Out Loud"

Mychal Denzel Smith sees hope amidst the darkness of a society and legal system that are capable of the following:

Thomas Roberts and Melissa Harris-Perry: To Fix a Broken Social Contract, We Need an "I Am Other" Agenda

In response to the George Zimmerman verdict, Thomas Roberts and Melissa Harris-Perry conclude that the American social contract is broken, and propose that the American media begin focusing for a change on those construed by the mainstream as threatening "others," and on letting those others have voices and tell their stories. Roberts states,

Pope Francis: A Progressive's Dream Come True or Ersatz Pope? Recent Media Discussions of the Issue

It's interesting to see glimmers of a meme now developing in the secular media regarding Pope Francis. A few days ago, at the Talking Points memo site, Sahil Kapur posted an article about why liberals are enchanted with the new pope. Here's how Kapur sums up the case:

The Poster Project: A Reflection on the Response to It

This isn't really another posting about the "He Ate with Outcasts" poster project re: which I've blogged a number of times previously. It's a reflection on the response to those postings. I'm fascinated--and, I'll say frankly, moved--by the number of interesting stories that have come my way from that response.