News Catch-Up: Philadelphia Gay-Bashing Story, Bondage Illustration for Vatican Gathering on Women, and Band of Brothers Dominating Vatican News Coverage

This is one of those end-of-week posts in which I try to catch you up on stories about which I've blogged in the past, which have a sequel:

Quote for Day: Oklahoma Legislators Providing Signal That "It Is Open Season on Expressing Prejudice and Discrimination Toward Any or All Minorities"

Following the online circulation of the video to which I linked in my previous posting, in which members of a fraternity at University of Oklahoma chant racist taunts en route to a frat party, Faith in America has asked Oklahoma lawmakers to reconsider "legislation that gives a green light to discrimination when justified with religious teaching or belief." As I've noted here previously, the Oklahoma legislature is considering a slew of bills that deliberately target LGBT citizens of that state, with claims that those citizens represent a threat to the "religious liberty" of Christians in Oklahoma.

Jesuit Education and the "Band of Brothers" Back in the News: University of Oklahoma Race-Baiting Incident Has Link to Jesuit High School

Racism is alive at The University of Oklahoma. @President_Boren pic.twitter.com/eAvnPD8jxA
— Unheard (@OU_Unheard) March 8, 2015

(The video above is from an 8 March 2015 tweet of the University of Oklahoma group Unheard: warning — OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE).

Remember that posting I wrote at the end of January? It talked about how commentators on Pope Francis as a reformer seem oblivious to what a mixed bag his Jesuit heritage is, and, in particular, to the militarism with its attendant misogyny woven through much of that heritage. I told you a story about a graduation Steve and I attended in 2003 at a Jesuit high school in Texas from which the son of one of my cousins was graduating.

Frank Bua on How Movement for LGBT Rights Must Not Leave Southern LGBT People Behind

Another quote for today, this one directly related to my first posting this morning, which speaks of my decision in 1965 to leave my family's Southern Baptist church and join the Catholic church: Frank Bua maintains that the movement for LGBT rights in the U.S. is not yet over the rainbow and cannot yet claim victory in this struggle, noting,

Quote for Day: Derrick Jensen on How Long-Held Hatred Propped Up by Religion, Tradition, Economics Appears "Normal" Until Those Props Are Removed

As Derrick Jensen notes, long-held hatred masked by tradition, religion, economics, etc., often appears "normal" until its religious, economic, or other props are knocked down. Then it's unmasked as what it always was: plain hatred. (Thanks to Fred Clark for posting this quote today at Slacktivist).

(If you click the graphic, it should become larger for easier reading.)

Selma, Catholic Support for the African-American Struggle for Rights, and LGBT Catholics Today — The Pain of Familial Repudiation

Before I fell silent for a period of time at the end of February and in early March, I blogged about my decision to choose the Catholic church as a church home in the 1960s. As that posting indicated, I have long been predisposed to view this decision to leave my childhood family of faith for another family of faith in familial terms: I was choosing a new church family when I left behind my family's Southern Baptist church, in which I had been raised, for the Catholic church.

A Story for You on a Cold Sunday in Lent: I Go to Mass, I Start to Fall, a Stranger Catches Me — You Draw the Moral

Stories sometimes demand to be told, and as they form in our minds, we aren't entirely sure why they want to be heard. The following is one such story.