In the News: Wendy Vitter Refuses to Affirm Support for Brown v. Board in Federal Judgeship Hearing; Americans Display Appalling Ignorance of History of Evangelicals Vis-a-Vis Slavery

Two stories in today's news I'd like to share with you, both showing the effects of religious thinking and influence on the political and cultural life of the U.S. The first has to do with federal judge nominee Wendy Vitter of Louisiana, the second with recent findings about how little of the real history of American evangelicals and their relationship to slavery even well-educated and liberal Americans actually know.

The Roseanne Débacle: Time to Talk About Roseanne's Roots in Salt Lake City and Mormon Culture?

Literally all that Roseanne had to do was NOT call a black woman a monkey and she... just.... couldn't 😂😂

White supremacy is a hell of a drug.

— Ijeoma Oluo (@IjeomaOluo) May 29, 2018

Quote for Day: Michael Gerson on Selective Biblical Inerrancy of Christian Republicans

Michael Gerson, "Trump Exposes the Hypocrisy of Christian Republicans":

Baptist Pastor-Theologian Molly T. Marshall: "Biblical Inerrancy Was a Mere Tool for the Preservation of Patriarchal Power and White Male Privilege

Molly T. Marshall, "The peril of selective inerrancy":

I contend that biblical inerrancy was a mere tool for the preservation of patriarchal power and white male privilege.

Theologian Tina Beattie on Irish Abortion Referendum: "It Can Be Seen As the Assertion of the Common Good Over and Against a Corrupted and Dysfunctional Institutional Church"

Tina Beattie's reflection on the results of the Irish referendum on abortion is, in my view, exactly right — balanced, thoughtful, theologically dense and well-informed:

Quote for Day: How American Religious Right Tried to Sway Ireland's Abortion Vote

The Guardian, "Irish Abortion Referendum: Official Results Show Big Lead for Yes"

Sarah Jones, "How American Christians Are Swaying Ireland’s Abortion Referendum":

Ireland Apparently Knocks Down Abortion Ban; Children Being Taken from Parents by ICE; Pope Francis Does Usual Two-Step with LGBTQ Humanity and LGBTQ Lives: My Commentary

What does it mean to be pro-life if you defend the life of a child in the womb, but not the life of a child on the border?

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 25, 2018

Father James Martin tweets the above (as it happens, on the day that the predominantly Catholic nation of Ireland votes overwhelmingly, election results are suggesting, to strike down its draconian anti-abortion law — and see here), and all hell breaks loose. All hell breaks loose from so-called "pro-lifers," who issue ugly insinuations about immigrants being in thrall to organized crime outfits — so that it's justified for ICE officials to rip the children of immigrants from the arms of their parents, these "pro-lifers" want to maintain.

Week's-End Commentary: "The Judgment of God Has Come"; "The American Gospel Is Garbage. Something Toxic and Perilous Is Going on in Our Churches. Save Your Soul"

Phillip Bump, "The group least likely to think the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees? Evangelicals":

Pew's new research includes a fascinating detail: No group agrees less with the idea that the United States has a responsibility to accept refugees than white evangelical Protestants.

"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

"In Every Case, 'Wives Submit to Your Husbands' Appears in the Same Context As 'Slaves Obey Your Masters'": A Twitter Conversation for You

In every case, "wives submit to your husbands" appears in the same context as "slaves obey your masters." And yet I'm constantly told we need to consider context & culture with the latter but not the former...

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) May 9, 2018

I don't mean to shortchange this blog, but I sometimes find that, instead of making statements here, I'm using Twitter instead to engage in at-the-moment conversations about the kinds of issues that interest us at this site. 

LGBTQ Catholics and the Conversation About Staying or Leaving: 15 More Theses About Truths That Need to Be Heard in This Conversation

My last posting was an attempt to tell truth that is, in my view, often obscured and even barred as Catholics discuss the "problem" or "challenge" of welcoming LGBTQ people within Catholic spaces, or as LGBTQ Catholics discuss the question of staying in or leaving the church. As that posting indicated, some of us who are LGBTQ and Catholic have never had any choice in the matter: we were shoved from the church when our vocations were shattered without explanation, our livelihood removed, our daily bread taken from our mouths, our healthcare coverage yanked from us — as we were shown the door and it was slammed in our faces.

LGBTQ Catholics Are Asked, Why Stay in the Church? My 15-Question Response

A recent conference at Boston College asks LGBTQ Catholics, Why stay? Why do you stay in the Catholic church?

In the News: "Religious Freedom" and "Right" to Discriminate; Roots of Evangelicals' Idolization of Trump; Shifting Religious Landscape re: LGBT Rights; SBC and Misogyny

Religion-themed news from the past several days that has caught my eye, and which I'd like to share with you:

Paul Ryan and the House Chaplain: Gospel According to Ayn Trumps Gospel of Jesus Christ

If they fired Fr. Conroy for praying for God’s politics in the House, they will also have to get rid of Moses and Isaiah, Deborah and Jesus, Frederick Douglass and Francis Perkins, Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King. https://t.co/3u6jiSWz29

— Rev. Dr. Barber (@RevDrBarber) April 28, 2018

Elizabeth Dias and Shirley Gay Stolberg, "Firing of House Chaplain Causes Uproar on Capitol Hill":

Asking a Favor of You, Please

May I please ask a favor of readers of Bilgrimage? If you have made a comment here through the Disqus system, have seen it show up in the thread in which you made the comment, and then have seen that it vanished, would you please send me an email to let me know that has happened?

I do try to monitor occurrences like this — by checking the spam folder for comments here daily — but sometimes forget to do that on a daily basis. It would help me keep track of this problem, and immediately rectify it, if you would let me know when a comment you've made, which showed up here after you made it and then disappeared, has vanished.

Thanks to you all. I'll be grateful for any assistance you can give me as I monitor this issue.