Brother Daniel Horan's Dating God Blog on Vatican II and Equal Rights of All People

At his Dating God blog site, Brother Daniel Horan notes that while there's a lot of talk about Vatican II, much of this talk is ill-informed, because it fails to focus on what the council actually said.  Horan suspects (and I think he's right) that many of those talking about Vatican II have not even read its documents, let alone studied them with care.

Walking, Talking Pathology of Catholic Officials and "Orthodox" Catholics Responding to Marriage Equality: A Postscript

A short addendum to my posting earlier today about the seemingly voracious appetite of some of my fellow Catholics (and fellow Christians and fellow citizens) to imagine what I do in my bedroom: Steve and I have a friend who is one of three sisters.  Our friend and one sister are whatever the opposite of homophobic is.  They have a wide range of gay and lesbian friends, artist friends, black friends (these are white women), Latino and Latina friends: you name it.  Their circle of friends is Kooks R Us, everyone welcome.  And I'll be writing down the road about a story one of these two women has just shared with me about her niece.

Reaction of Catholic Officials and "Orthodox" Catholics to Marriage Equality: Pathology Walking, Pathology Talking

And it's not just race that's energizing the haters and dividers following the re-election of the nation's first African-American president last week (I'm alluding in this opening sentence to what I just posted about the non-post-racial America in which we Americans still live).  For Catholics of a certain stripe, the issue eliciting hate and the desire to divide the church continues to be homosexuality.  The victory of marriage equality in Maine, Maryland, and Washington, and the choice of the voters of Minnesota to reject an ugly, divisive, hate-oriented amendment to their state constitution targeting a vulnerable minority group, have a certain group of Catholics up in arms right now.

A Post-Racial America? Think Again

They're talking secession again.  The Southern states, that is, along with a handful of other states most of which are in the deep-red swath of the heartland.  I frankly cannot remember a time since the 1960s when the rhetoric about race was this overheated in my part of the country, though, admittedly, much of the rhetoric streams forth sub rosa, under the guise of (self-) righteous complaints about welfare moochers demanding Obamaphones and Obamacare from hard-working righteous white Christians.  

Fred Clark's Christian QUILTBlogs: Recommended Gay Christian Blog Sites

I'm certainly grateful to Fred Clark at Slacktivist for including Bilgrimage in his list of "the 66 Very Best Blogs by LGBT Christians in the Entire World."  And, of course, I'm smiling wryly as I type that hyperbolic description.

Father Tom Reese's Advice to Bishops As They Meet: Start by Listening?

As the Catholic bishops gather for their annual meeting in Baltimore this week, Jesuit father Tom Reese (and former editor of America) has advice for them: "Clearly the political strategy of the bishops is not working."

Geoffrey Stone on Why GOP Won House with Minority of Popular Votes

At Huffington Post, Geoffrey R. Stone explains how the Republicans won the House of Representatives last Tuesday--though more than half a million more votes were cast for Democratic House candidates nationwide than for Republican ones.  And though the Republicans ended up with 55% of House seats, while only 48% of votes nationwide were cast for the Republican presidential candidate Romney.