Standing Freedom on Its Head: Bill Moyers and Michael Winship on Supremes' Defense of Citizens United

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship on the recent Supreme Court defense of "free speech" [by corporations, which are people, too] when the Supremes announced they won't reconsider Citizens United: 

It’s one big joke. Big enough to make you cry. Three things don’t go together: Money. Secrecy. Democracy. That’s the nub of the matter. This is all a sham for invalidating democracy in the name of democracy. It’s the trick authoritarians always use to hide their real intentions, which in this case is absolute power over our public life and institutions: the privatization of everything.

Leopards and Spots, Silk Purses and Sows' Ears: Exodus International and Reality as Reality

And speaking of media-hyped, market-driven re-branding (as Valerie Tarico does in her take on the Southern Baptist Convention's latest moves, about which I just posted): I think Zack Ford is right on target in his analysis of media coverage of the latest developments with Exodus International.  As Ford notes, the influential "ex-gay" organization is now stating that it repudiates the notion of gay-conversion or reparative therapy.  Because it doesn't work, and there's abundant evidence it doesn't work.

Valerie Tarico on Southern Baptists' New Marketing Strategy: Pitting Churches Against Moral Arc of History

I've said before, and I keep thinking, that the top leaders of the Catholic church have made a cynical, calculated decision to write off the majority of Catholics in the developed sector of the world for crude market-driven reasons.  At the urging of the super-rich handlers to whom the pope, the Curia, and the bishops answer more than anyone else these days, the leaders of the Catholic church are seeking to rebrand Catholicism as true blue old-time religion that appeals to the current growth market of Christianity in the developing parts of the globe.

Frank Cocozzelli on Bill Keller's "Shut Up and Go" Invitation to Catholic Dissenters: Stay and Fight

Not to be missed: Frank Cocozzelli's recent assessment of Bill Keller's invitation (à la Bill Donohue) to dissident progressive Catholics to exit the Catholic church.  Keller issued the invitation in an op-ed piece in the New York Times last month, noting as he did so that he was surprised to find himself agreeing with Donohue.  He notes that he agrees with Donohue that the Catholic church "is not about to change direction.  Not in this century."

Going to the Chapel: Straight Marriage Celebrations and the Gays

That letter a woman wrote Dan Savage back in June?  That was the first thing I thought of when I read that Brad Pitt's mother had sent a letter to the editor endorsing Mitt Romney--"a family man with high morals"--because Romney opposes marriage equality.  You remember the letter I'm talking about, I'm sure: a straight woman planning her wedding in a a state with no option for same-sex marriage wrote Dan to say she was busy sending out invitations to her straight wedding, and as she addressed the invitations to her gay friends, she felt "like a schmuck." 

Prof. Paul Harvey on Colorado Fires: Anything but a Natural Disaster

I blogged last week about how the horrific Colorado fires have particularly ravaged Colorado Springs, a bastion of religious conservatism sometimes called the "Protestant Vatican" because of its high concentration of right-wing evangelicals and right-wing evangelical institutions, including the rabidly anti-gay group Focus on the Family.  

Ugandan Situation with Kill the Gays Bill: Notes from Chris Morley

In response to what I posted yesterday about the situation in Uganda, as leading religious figures in that nation urge the nation's parliament to pass the infamous Kill the Gays Bill, Chris Morley left several important comments noting that he had covered much of this ground (with information I didn't include in my posting) at Terry Weldon's Queering the Church blog recently.  I hadn't seen Chris's statement, and am grateful to him for pointing readers of Bilgrimage and me to that statement.