Laura Miller: Gender Gap in Literature Continues

One more posting following up on themes from the past: back in October 2009, I noted that when Mr. Obama went on vacation in the summer of 2009 and published his vacation reading list, it struck me that every author on the list was male.  And since I happen to think that the world might be a more humane place if leaders of various societies and institutions did more to incorporate the viewpoint of women into their governing perspectives, when Huffington Post then invited its readers to submit suggestions for other works the president might bring along with him, I suggested a number of important literary works by women.

German Theologians' Petition to Rome: More Commentary

 

Another follow-up posting that continues discussions about which I've blogged recently here: I've blogged a number of times (most recently here, with links back to previous postings) about German theologian David Berger's book The Holy Illusion: Being a Gay Theologian in the Catholic Church.  As I've noted, Berger was once the darling of restorationist Catholic circles in Europe, but is now under strong attack from his former friends after he came out of the closet as a partnered gay man and has exposed some of the seamier secrets of the restorationist bunch within the Catholic church.  

Religious Right Continues to Claim Right to Discriminate Against Gays

I'm still here, gentles.  And I apologize for the several days' delay in posting.  I'm thinking through a situation involving people near and dear to me in which there's quite a bit of pain right now.  And that makes focusing on anything else an uphill battle.

German Theologians' Petition to Rome: A Translation

As an addendum to what I have just posted about the inability of key sectors of American Catholicism--notably, the theological community at the center of the church in the U.S.--to embody welcoming attitudes to some of their brothers and sisters (especially those of us who are gay or lesbian), and also to what I posted yesterday about the reform petition of a third of Germany's Catholic theologians to the Vatican (and see also Terry Weldon's good discussion of this document):

Inviting Strayed Catholics Back Home and Continuing the Gay Bashing: Can We Have Both?

Michael O'Loughlin (implicitly) asks the right question at America magazine's "In All Things" blog: if the Catholic church is serious about inviting former Catholics back home, why are the pastoral leaders of the church continuing to invest so heavily in attacks on the humanity and rights of gay and lesbian persons?  O'Loughlin links to an article in which Robert Putnam and David Campbell summarize the findings of their recent book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.

Readers Write (about Euteneuer Story): "I'd Like to Investigate the Growth of Exorcism"

Again, fascinating discussions taking place here in the past few days on the threads discussing the Euteneuer story.  And as with the previous posting in which I lifted material from the comments section to the blog, I think some of this discussion is so important that it deserves wider attention.  And so I'm excerpting the following pieces from yesterday's discussion of Matt Abbott's "final word" on the Euteneuer case.

Fissures Developing in Catholic Restorationist Project: Survey of Recent Stories

 

Lots of interesting analysis in recent days that indicates the growing fractures in the project of restorationist Catholicism dear to the hearts of the last two popes, John Paul II and Benedict.  Restorationist Catholicism wants to "reform the reform" of Vatican II, to turn the clock back in key respects to a pre-Vatican II mentality and pre-Vatican II practice.  In short, it wants to stop in their tracks the reforms implemented by all the bishops of the Catholic church at its last ecumenical council, Vatican II.