"One of the Battles of Our Time Is About Who the Story Is About, Who Matters and Who Decides": Southern Baptist Leader Deposed, Chilean Bishops Resign, Pope Said to Affirm Gay Man

Why is #SWBTS trending? Paige Patterson, a prominent Southern Baptist leader, was removed as seminary president following controversial remarks about abused women https://t.co/J04SXsxL5x

— Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam) May 23, 2018

 

Before I went to bed last evening, I read Sarah Pulliam Bailey reporting in Washington Post, "Southern Baptist leader encouraged a woman not to report alleged rape to police and told her to forgive assailant, she says":

Why They're Furious About Bishop Michael Curry: Worldwide Platform to Proclaim "Ferociously Political Faith in the Radical Power of Christian Love"

Stepped into the hallway of my Chicago hotel this morning for a moment during the #RoyalWedding and through the closed doors of every single room I could hear Michael Curry preaching on love. ❤️

— Diana Butler Bass (@dianabutlerbass) May 19, 2018

The RNS article to which I pointed you yesterday, discussing Bishop Michael Curry's presence at the royal wedding: its title is "American bishop brings human rights focus to royal wedding." Here's a response to that title from a U.S. "pro-life," Latin Mass-promoting Catholic: 

At last! We’re focusing on the human rights of the unborn.

"When Love Is the Way, There's Plenty Good Room, Plenty Good Room, for All of God's Children": Showcasing Black Church Gospel Preaching at Royal Wedding

Here's the text of the sermon Bishop Michael Curry gave at the royal wedding today. In his book Silence: A Christian History (NY: Penguin, 2013), Diarmaid MacCulloch cites Canon W. H. Vanstone, who says that the church is like “a swimming pool in which all the noise comes from the shallow end” (p. 224, citing J.A. Vickers, Wisdom and Wit: An Anthology from the Writings of Gordon Rupp [London, 1993], p. 90, which anthologizes a conversation between Rupp and Vanstone in Methodist Recorder [25 July 1968]).

Hell of a Week: "Americans Who Mandate a Close, Symbiotic Relationship btw Christianity & Civil Society Are Deeply Opposed to Federal Gun Control Legislation"

With yet another tragic mass shooting, the #GunControl debate will yet again take center stage.

One reason for the intractable nature of this debate? Deeply held moral & religious schemas like Christian nationalism. 1/8@LandonSchnabel @PaulHRosenberg @jackmjenkins @JackSmithIV

— Andrew Whitehead (@ndrewwhitehead) May 18, 2018

Our working paper shows that Americans who mandate a close, symbiotic relationship btw Christianity & civil society are deeply opposed to federal gun control legislation. 2/8

Find the working paper here: https://t.co/1FzmpjZlxr@socarxiv pic.twitter.com/gFlHvYnHw3

— Andrew Whitehead (@ndrewwhitehead) May 18, 2018

It has been a hell of a week, and center-stage in each fresh hell are U.S. white Christians, notably white evangelicals. Here's some commentary:

This Week's Triptych: One Panel, High Times in Jerusalem; Opposite Panel, People Shot Down Like Dogs; In the Middle, White Evangelicals Jubilating

Left: #Jerusalem
Right: #Gaza

(Photos taken at the same time this afternoon) pic.twitter.com/8ZerjxRq3A

— Patrick Galey (@patrickgaley) May 14, 2018

A man who would not know religion or faith if they bowled him down is permitting a dwindling minority of American citizens — white evangelicals — to drive policy that affects the entire world. He's permitting that dwindling minority to impose its peculiar, eccentric biblical ideas on the entire world, destabilizing the world and causing bloodshed because it believes that such destabilizing is a precursor to the second coming of the Prince of Peace.

Quote for Day: Why Scott Pruitt Kept Opulent Dinner with Cimate Change Denying Cardinal Pell a Secret — "It Was a No-Brainer"

Rachel Olding in an article entitled "Why George Pell dined with under-fire EPA's Scott Pruitt in secret," on Cardinal Pell's secret opulent dinner with climate change denier and Trump's EPA head Scott Pruitt — and why Pruitt sought to keep the dinner secret:

Cardinal Accused of Sex Crimes Has Secret Dinner with U.S. Official Attacking Climate Change Findings and Federalist Society Members: Where's the Punchline?

Think about this - a leading curial cardinal, George Pell, is meeting secretly with those in the Trump administration whose main goal in life is to undermine climate action, which Pope Francis sees as one of the leading moral issues in the world today. https://t.co/TIwfxaooQf

— Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) May 11, 2018