tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58599427385062474332024-02-19T10:34:39.064-06:00Bilgrimagesharing my journey to hope's horizonWilliam D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.comBlogger7167125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-67799855985385240872023-03-13T11:17:00.002-05:002023-03-13T11:17:28.885-05:00On the Canonization of John Paul II and Survivors of Clerical Sexual Abuse, John Allen and Thomas Reese Spectacularly Miss the Point<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNKqHlLnRJVn4qaY0XrW67s9-D4Dt_kDtzUByx6AyNdFGaz-55J4Mt24xZ7t1U7qOQYuvAaKIccRHzP5HWwFHIIl8zcF-ZKOiV6J_7Xtu2Q2f4Rb0raA-I7y4-DWK2sixzpHjV-57wIfZQ7Qm49jm6UDCeihvYFsnO5t83v9jzmBpJ46Guga-iWw/s843/Kollwitz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Käthe Kollwitz, "Mothers" ("Mutter"), 1919, lithograph in Princeton University Art Museum" border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="843" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNKqHlLnRJVn4qaY0XrW67s9-D4Dt_kDtzUByx6AyNdFGaz-55J4Mt24xZ7t1U7qOQYuvAaKIccRHzP5HWwFHIIl8zcF-ZKOiV6J_7Xtu2Q2f4Rb0raA-I7y4-DWK2sixzpHjV-57wIfZQ7Qm49jm6UDCeihvYFsnO5t83v9jzmBpJ46Guga-iWw/w400-h301/Kollwitz.jpg" title="Käthe Kollwitz, "Mothers" ("Mutter"), 1919, lithograph in Princeton University Art Museum" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Käthe Kollwitz, "Mothers" ("Mutter"), 1919, lithograph in <a href="https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/15584">Princeton University Art Museum</a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-paul-ii-former-pope-sainthood-debate-accusations-protecting-pedophiles-poland/'">John Allen and Thomas Reese appear not to understand</a> what it means for the Catholic church to declare someone a saint — as it did so with reckless speed when Pope John Paul II was canonized immediately after his death, to the consternation of not a few Catholics who thought that John Paul's papal legacy was more than a little mixed. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As we're now finding out, it appears very clear that, as archbiship in Krakow, he covered up sexual abuse of minors by priests. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Allen and Reese say that, well, canonization doesn't mean the saint wasn't a sinner like the rest of us.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the CBS News report I've linked above, Anna Matranga writes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Allen said canonization was "a finding that despite whatever human failures or limitations in judgment his papacy may have reflected, there was nevertheless a genuine holiness of life about the person of the pope. Undoubtedly, supporters of John Paul II will say the same thing vis-à-vis his record on the abuse crisis."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And she quotes Reese to say,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Canonization does not mean that the person was perfect, that they never did anything wrong, that they never sinned. They are people of their times with many of the blind spots and even prejudices of their times. Many aspects of their lives can be admired and imitated while at the same time recognizing that they made mistakes and even sinned.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">But none of this is the point. We <i>all</i> know that every saint is a sinner just like us, and that canonization doesn't imply that the one made a saint was not a sinner. This is, however, not the point about the furor that John Paul II was made a saint — immediately. The point is that canonization holds the saint up to all of us as a model for the Christian life.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In what sense is a man a saint when he has a position of authority that allows him to protect minors from abuse but protects their abusers instead? We're told repeatedly that <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/10/28/saints-want-be-our-patrons-role-models-and-companions">the saints are our role models</a> in the Christian life. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In what sense is a pastoral leader who has the ability to protect children from abuse but protects their abusers instead a role model for the Christian life?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That's the important question at stake here.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What is the Catholic church communicating to those sexually abused as minors by religious authority figures when it canonizes John Paul II? What is the church communicating to all of us who care about those abused in this way, and about the church itself as it harbors child molestors?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What are John Allen and Thomas Reese communicating to abuse survivors? To those who care about abuse survivors? Whose interests does their analysis serve?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Why are these the voices that, over and over, are allowed to posture as "the center" in Catholic conversations and as the Catholic church communicates its values to the public square? What has the Catholic church communicated to the world in canonizing John Paul II, and what are John Allen and Thomas Reese communicating to the world about Catholic values in defending this canonization></p><p style="text-align: justify;">These questions are very much worth asking, it seems to me.</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-51905486761416226582023-03-07T16:46:00.002-06:002023-03-07T18:35:34.101-06:00"Pope St. John Paul II Knew about Sexual Abuse of Children by Priests and Sought to Conceal It": Pope SAINT John Paul II?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P4GlC0C2Wpc" width="320" youtube-src-id="P4GlC0C2Wpc"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;">News outlets are now reporting that Polish television broadcaster TVN24 has just aired a report stating that "<b>Pope St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland."</b> This statement is from Monika Scislowska in an AP report picked up by <i>National Catholic Reporter </i>with the title "<a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/polish-tv-report-john-paul-ii-knew-abuse-archbishop">Polish TV report: John Paul II knew of abuse as archbishop</a>."</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">See also <i>Le Monde </i>and <i>Agence France-Presse, </i>"<a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/religions/article/2023/03/06/john-paul-ii-covered-up-child-abuse-while-cardinal-polish-television-says_6018368_63.html">John Paul II covered up child abuse while cardinal, Polish television says</a>"; and Derek Scally in the <i>Irish Times</i>, "<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2023/03/06/late-pope-john-paul-ii-accused-of-covering-up-child-abuse-by-priests/">Late Pope John Paul II accused of covering up child abuse by priests</a>." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As these reports state, Michal Gutowski, whose investigative reporting lies beyind the Polish television report, states that <b>"Karol Wojtyla, as he then was, knew of cases of paedophile priests within the church while still a cardinal in Krakow.</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>He transferred the priests to other dioceses -- one as far away as Austria -- to ensure no scandal ensued."</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Gutkowski reports that the Krakow archdiocese has not permitted him access to its archives. The Polish bishops are, of course, pushing back against his report, claiming — typically — that the Catholic church is under attack by leftists, secularists, and others out to tarnish the reputation of Pope St. John Paul II. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">American priest Father Thomas Doyle, long an outspoken advocate for those sexually abused as minors by Catholic priests, says that Gutowski's report is "groundbreaking." It shows that St. John Paul II knew that the problem of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests existed even before he became pope, Father Doyle notes. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Though claims have been made for years now by apologists for John Paul II as he failed to admit and address the problem of clerical sexual abuse of minors that he was significantly unaware of this serious problem in the Catholic church….</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Gutkowski's report comes on the heels of a similar report by Polish-based Dutch journalist, Ekke Overbeek, who has a book on this topic, <i>Maxima Culpa</i>, coming out this week. As Derek Scally states, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">TVN investigative reporter Michal Gutowski and Dutch-based journalist Ekke Overbeek, working independently of each other, say they have spoken to dozens of victims of Polish paedophile priests, their families and former church diocese employees.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And I'm going to return now to Monika Scislowska's statement with which I opened this posting: <b>"Pope St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland.</b>"</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Not: Pope John Paul II sought to conceal sexual abuse of children by priests.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But: Pope <i>Saint</i> John Paul II sought to conceal sexual abuse of children by priests.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What kind of saint knows children are being abused, has the authority to stop that abuse and protect those children, but protects their abusers instead — putting <i>more</i> children in harm's way?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does sainthood mean any longer in the Catholic church now that John Paul II has been canonized, declared a saint? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What are those of us preached to and preached at by the Catholic hierarchy who has made John Paul II a saint now supposed to understand by that word, "saint"? What are we supposed to aspire to as we seek holiness? Now that it seems increasingly obvious that Pope <i>Saint</i> John Paul II knew children were being abused by priests, had the ability to protect those children, and chose to protect their abusers instead….</p><p><a href="https://www.snapnetwork.org/as_a_cardinal_pope_john_paul_covered_up_child_molestation_according_to_a_report_snap_responds">As SNAP states</a>, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>The fact that abuse by Catholic clergy is now being examined from 1950 to the present, basically throughout his entire priesthood and beyond, is not a coincidence. It should not be shocking that the Pope moved abusers around while he was a cardinal. It was done by Pope Benedict, and we worry that Pope Francis may have done this as well. …</p><p>What Pope John Paul II helped to enable is a multigenerational deception, where the mother church established policies of secrecy that evolved into the "Bishops' Playbook." </p></blockquote><p>What does sanctity mean any longer in the Catholic belief system? </p><p>If Pope John Paul II is a saint…?</p><p><br /></p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-91967962879756141942023-02-22T15:39:00.004-06:002023-02-22T15:39:49.566-06:00Understanding the Threat of White Christian Nationalism: Important New Report from PRRI and Brookings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Udv_0vY85_Q" width="320" youtube-src-id="Udv_0vY85_Q"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">On 8 February, Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and Brookings Institution released the results of an important national survey entitled "<a href="https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/">A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture</a>." As PRRI's press release announcing the report states,<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">A major <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/">new national survey</a> conducted jointly by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the Brookings Institution finds nearly two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants qualify as either Christian nationalism adherents (29%) or sympathizers (35%), and more than half of Republicans are classified as adherents (21%) or sympathizers (33%). This is a marked contrast from the 1 in 10 Americans as a whole who adhere to the tenets of Christian nationalism and the 19% who are sympathetic.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">The survey finds that white evangelical Protestants are significantly more supportive of Christian nationalism than any other religious group.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The report opens by stating,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The rising influence of Christian nationalism in some segments of American politics poses a major threat to the health of our democracy. Increasingly, the major battle lines of the culture war are being drawn between a right animated by a Christian nationalist worldview and Americans who embrace the country’s growing racial and religious diversity.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Here's valuable commentary I've read about this new report:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/white-evangelicals-are-three-times-more-likely-than-americans-in-general-to-support-christian-nationalism/"><b>Jeff Brumley</b></a> succinctly sums up the key finding of the PRRI/Brookings report on white Christian nationalism published this week:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">New research shows white evangelical Protestants and Republicans are increasingly embracing the ideology of Christian nationalism at much higher rates than the general U.S. population.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://robertpjones.substack.com/p/a-virtual-roundtable-on-the-threat">Robert P. Jones</a>, </b>PRRI head, writes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Christian Nationalism does not exist in a vacuum. It is strongly linked to other ideologies swirling on the right. Anti-Black racism, anti-immigrant views, antisemitic views, anti-Muslim views, and patriarchal views of gender roles are each positively associated with Christian nationalism. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"> And:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Adherents of Christian nationalism are nearly seven times as likely as rejecters to agree that "true patriots might have to resort to violence to save our country" (40% vs. 16%).</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/09/prri-poll-christian-nationalism/"><b>Jennifer</b> <b>Rubin</b></a> notes: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">[A]ccording to a Public Religion Research Institute-Brookings Institution poll <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/">released</a> Wednesday, Christian nationalists in fact harbor a set of extreme beliefs at odds with pluralistic democracy. The findings will alarm you.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">She adds:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">And because Christian nationalists adopt their views as articles of religious faith, they might be far less willing to reexamine them. The task of inculcating American values of inclusion, democracy and rule of law will have to come, in all likelihood, from within church communities.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/02/09/what-is-black-history-month-in-a-white-christian-nation/">Andrew Whitehead</a></b> says,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The PRRI/Brookings Christian nationalism survey adds to a host of research that demonstrates the historical repercussions of this powerful cultural framework. It shows that Christian nationalism can serve to rewrite history so that racial injustice and those responsible for it are rendered almost invisible. …</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These findings underscore why many social scientists add "white" when talking about "Christian nationalism." The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Taking-America-Back-God-Nationalism/dp/0197652573/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1626112935&sr=1-1">desire</a> to see a particular expression of Christianity privileged in the public sphere and preserved by the government operates differently for white and Black Americans.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Another reason to add "white" before Christian nationalism is that it was white Christian denominations and religious institutions that created the narrative of a 'Christian nation' and sustained it throughout American history. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/White-Too-Long-Supremacy-Christianity/dp/1982122870/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1675695576&sr=1-1">Recent</a> historical <a href="https://www.amazon.com/White-Evangelical-Racism-Politics-Morality/dp/1469661179/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1675695625&sr=1-1">work</a> demonstrates that white Christians "baptized" slavery, Jim Crow and later iterations of racially inequality as God’s will for this Christian nation.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://jemartisby.substack.com/p/a-virtual-roundtable-on-the-threat">Jemar Tisby</a></b> states, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">While it is often unspoken, the word "white" should be presumed as a prefix of Christian nationalism. Racial bigotry is inherent to and inseparable from this belief system.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">To give one example, the most notorious racist terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan operates from a white Christian nationalist framework. The founder of the second major wave of Klan activity, William J. Simmons, <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/03/19/103582854.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0">wrote</a> in 1922, "[The KKK only admits] 'native born, white, Gentile, Protestant Americans…'”</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The white Christian nationalist view of "true" Americans has always centered on people deemed white and has labeled anyone else—Jews, Blacks, immigrants—as "other." ...</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">White Christian nationalism not only the greatest threat to democracy and the witness of the church, it is the greatest threat to a <i>multiracial and inclusive</i> church and democracy. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/a-virtual-roundtable-on-the-threat">Kristin du Mez</a> </b>indicates:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">From historical sources, I discovered that ideals of Christian patriarchy and support for a rugged ideal of Christian manhood went hand in hand with a larger commitment to Christian nationalism. The nation—God’s nation—needed strong men to defend it against foes, foreign and domestic. Christian men needed to fight to defend faith, family, and nation. During the 1960s and 1970s—the crucible of the modern Christian Right—feminism, the antiwar movement, and the civil rights movement all threatened the status quo for conservative white evangelicals, and the assertion of white patriarchal authority was the answer to all of these challenges. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The deep story of Christian nationalism is one rooted in a sense of loss, the loss of a (mythical) Christian ideal that must be restored. At the center of this story resides a stark us vs. them mentality. You are either with us or against us. And since God is on our side, those who are against us are against God. In this way, fighting one’s enemies, real or imagined, is always justified. And the ends will always justify the means. ...</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Because Christian nationalists believe that God is on their side and that the fate of Christian America is at stake, among staunch adherents there is <b>no space for compromise</b>. And for many, aligning the country with God’s laws trumps any commitment to democratic practices. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/the-girls-are-not-okay">Diana Butler Bass</a></b> correlates the PRRI/Brookings findings with the findings of a r<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/fact-sheets/healthy-youth/sadness-and-violence-among-teen-girls-and-LGBQ-youth-factsheet.html">ecent CDC report</a> that "teen girls are confronting the highest levels of sexual violence, sadness, and hopelessness they have ever reported to YRBS." She notes what media reports about these CDC findings are missing: </p><p style="text-align: justify;">They do not make a connection between the fact that girls are not okay and the recent PRRI/Brookings report that two-thirds of white evangelicals are white Christian nationalists.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yet the PRRI/Brookings report finds this:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Christian Nationalists (the majority of whom are white evangelicals) believe women must submit to men, society is diminished when women have more opportunities to work outside of the home, men are being "punished" for "acting like men," and America has become "soft" and "feminized."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Built into white Christian nationalism are strong assumptions about gender and the roles of men and women. White Christian nationalist ideology comprises a notion called complementarianism developed by right-wing Christians in response to the rise of feminism in the latter half of the 20th century.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Complementarianism stresses that males and females have complementary roles, and the female role is to be subordinate to males. Bass notes, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">This religious history is a significant factor contributing to <i>why</i> girls and LGBTQ teens are in crisis. Today’s teens have grown up amid the success of religious and political movements intent on taking away their freedoms, rights, and futures. The goal is to force them into their "complementary" assigned roles in kitchens and closets. Complementarianism and Christian Nationalism are twinned impulses, and neither wants girls, women, or LGBTQ teens to thrive.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Bass concludes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">I don’t think the two studies side-by-side are unconnected or simply coincidental. There are threads between them. They are of a piece, a single, smothering cloth.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is no fun watching people undo your liberation, especially when you are young.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://us.cnn.com/2023/02/14/politics/gop-voters-evangelicals-trump-2024-fault-lines/index.html">Ronald Brownstein</a> </b>writes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Probably the biggest surprise in Trump’s march to the GOP nomination in 2016 was the large number of votes he attracted among White evangelical Christians, who many analysts expected to resist a twice-divorced New Yorker who had earlier expressed support for abortion rights.\</p><p style="text-align: justify;">If anything, those blue-collar evangelical Christians may be even more important to Trump’s prospects in 2024.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">As he notes, <a href="https://www.thebulwark.com/exclusive-bulwark-poll-most-republicans-want-to-move-on-from-trump/">Whit Ayres finds</a> that white evangelicals constitute almost two-fifths of the likely 2024 Republican primary electorate. And the PRRI/Brookings survey shows that Trump’s favorability rating is a “striking 17 percentage points higher among the non-college white Republican evangelicals than among those with a degree.” In addition, the PRRI/Brookings survey finds "that huge majorities of those non-college White evangelical Republicans express many of the cultural and racial anxieties Trump has tapped throughout his political career."</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/14/1156642544/more-than-half-of-republicans-support-christian-nationalism-according-to-a-new-s">Ashley Lopez</a> </b>comments:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Long seen as a fringe viewpoint, Christian nationalism now has a foothold in American politics, particularly in the Republican Party — according to a <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/">new survey</a> from the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Researchers found that more than half of Republicans believe the country should be a strictly Christian nation, either adhering to the ideals of Christian nationalism (21%) or sympathizing with those views (33%).</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Lopez cites Robert P. Jones:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">[I]t's a sizeable minority that is not only willing to declare themselves opposed to pluralism and democracy — but are also willing to say, "I am willing to fight and either kill or harm my fellow Americans to keep it that way."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/02/14/church-at-the-super-bowl-football-jesus-and-fascism/">Chauncey DeVega</a></b> warns that the White Christian Nationalist project now controls the Republican party and intends to control the whole nation — if Americans permit this. He states,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Today's Republican Party and "conservative" movement constitute a type of religious politics where reason, facts, reality, and the truth are secondary to obtaining and keeping political power. In essence, this is a type of faith where White Christianity plays a very important role in structuring the ideology, belief system, behavior, and the social cognition of its followers.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Christian right and its followers truly believe that they are on a mission from God in their attempts to tear down multiracial secular pluralistic democracy.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-18-2023">Heather Cox Richardson</a></b> states,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Since the 1990s, Republicans have had an ideological problem: voters don’t actually like their economic vision, which has cut services and neglected infrastructure even as it has dramatically moved wealth upward. So to keep voters behind them, Republicans hammered on social and cultural issues, portraying those who liked the active government as godless socialists who were catering to minorities and women. “There is a religious war going on in this country,” Republican Pat Buchanan told the Republican National Convention in 1992. “It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America.” </p><p style="text-align: justify;">A generation later, that culture war has joined with the economic vision of the older party to create a new ideology. More than half of Republicans now reject the idea of a democracy based in the rule of law and instead support Christian nationalism, insisting that the United States is a Christian nation and that our society and our laws should be based in evangelical Christian values. Forty percent of the strongest adherents of Christian nationalism think “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country,” while 22% of sympathizers agree with that position. </p></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://robertpjones.substack.com/p/a-virtual-roundtable-on-the-threat-c2b">Robert P. Jones</a> </b>offers the following helpful run-down of what he sees as the salient points made by the PRRI/Brookings report:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;">● By a margin of two to one, Americans overall reject the tenets of Christian nationalism. This is good news for the country and for our churches.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">● However, Christian nationalism has commandeered one of America’s two political parties and one of our mainstream religious traditions.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;">○ Most Republicans—a party that today is overwhelmingly white and Christian—lean toward supporting Christian nationalism.</div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;">○ Among white evangelical Protestants—among whom two-thirds are either Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers—Christian nationalism has essentially come to be the default orientation.</div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">● Christian nationalists are not just so-called “Christians in name only” (CINO). The data reveals a strong positive correlation between church attendance and Christian nationalist attitudes. The more likely one is to go to church, the more likely one is to affirm the tenets of Christian nationalism. In other words, rather than mitigating these dangers, churches are facilitating and promoting this ideology.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">● Christian nationalism does not exist in a vacuum but is comfortably part of a broader worldview that includes anti-Black racism; anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and antisemitic views; and patriarchal understandings of gender roles.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">● Christian nationalism is not just a “white” thing. But whiteness and white racial identity bend Christian nationalism in more dangerous directions. Compared to Christian nationalists of color, white Christian nationalists are far more likely to hold anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim views.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most troublingly, Christian nationalism is positively correlated with a willingness to resort to violence to resolve personal disagreements and support for acts of political violence to “save the country.”</div></div></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-49984982084223629942023-02-02T17:32:00.003-06:002023-02-02T17:33:28.171-06:00Report on Jean Vanier: Vanier Founded L'Arche "Primarily as a Cover for a Secretive Religious Sect with Exploitative 'Mystical-Sexual' Beliefs and Practices"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtf3LFZYTg3rFX5dfMHqPIT0EicuV1_uMOqdj7JqWhLNV_o8KGtd7z7M8djIxinQvUw1lfp5DLNbiPXo0eZ9kyOu75PE0bO4r_t5mVEYErifJigw7bh6YOeKlz6o0M55gtqJZxVoOFu0uW3T3Qcy8yuWvwCwfrLbHE447FkKytj4z6obQVy1lg0g/s1198/844px-Jean_Vanier_(2012,_cropped).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Photo of Jean Vanier by Kotukaran, at Wikimedia Commons" border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="844" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtf3LFZYTg3rFX5dfMHqPIT0EicuV1_uMOqdj7JqWhLNV_o8KGtd7z7M8djIxinQvUw1lfp5DLNbiPXo0eZ9kyOu75PE0bO4r_t5mVEYErifJigw7bh6YOeKlz6o0M55gtqJZxVoOFu0uW3T3Qcy8yuWvwCwfrLbHE447FkKytj4z6obQVy1lg0g/w225-h320/844px-Jean_Vanier_(2012,_cropped).jpg" width="225" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Photo of Jean Vanier by Kotukaran, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean_Vanier_(2012,_cropped).jpg">at Wikimedia Commons</a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">On 30 January, a study commission convoked by L'Arche International to look into the question of reports of sexual abuse of vulnerable women by L'Arche issued its report. Vanier founded L'Arche as a ministry supporting physically and mentally challenged people. <a href="https://commissiondetude-jeanvanier.org/commissiondetudeindependante2023-empriseetabus/index.php/en/home-english/">The report</a> produced by an interdisciplinary group of French academics after lengthy probing and study of the evidence, found the following, <a href="https://sojo.net/articles/jean-vanier-began-l-arche-cover-abusive-mystical-sexual-practices-finds-report">as Michael Atencio reports</a>:<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">A report released today concluded that Jean Vanier — a Catholic lay leader and founder of L’Arche, a worldwide network of communities supporting adults with intellectual disabilities — founded the first L’Arche community primarily as a cover for a secretive religious sect with exploitative “mystical-sexual” beliefs and practices.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The report also found Vanier sexually exploited at least 25 nondisabled women from 1952 until just before his death in 2019, far more than previously known.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">According to <a href="https://commissiondetude-jeanvanier.org/commissiondetudeindependante2023-empriseetabus/index.php/en/home-english/">the report</a>, the sect used L’Arche as a “screen” to secretly reunite around their leader, Thomas Philippe, a Dominican priest who had previously been investigated and disciplined by Catholic authorities for his abuse and his manipulative theology. ...</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Their findings expose a much wider scale for Vanier’s abuse and lies than was previously known: While not all 25 nondisabled women described their experience as “abuse,” [Tina] Bovermann [executive director of L'Arche USA] told Sojourners “all of the women qualify their experience on some continuum of control, transgression, all the way to abuse.”</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"> As Michael Atencio also states,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The report carefully examined the history of l’Eau Vive, a center Philippe founded outside of Paris in 1946 that offered training in the contemplative life and the theology of Thomas Aquinas. In 1950, after serving in both the Canadian and English navies, Vanier joined l’Eau Vive; he was 22.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The new report reveals that within l’Eau Vive, Vanier and others became students of Philippe and were “initiated” into Philippe’s perverse sexual practices.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In 1956, Philippe was investigated and barred from ministry by the Catholic Church after two women reported Philippe’s sexual abuse to his superiors. The 2020 report outlined how church officials disbanded l’Eau Vive and gave its remaining members “definitive prohibition of its reformation in another place.”</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet letters excerpted in the 2020 report show Vanier maintained contact with Philippe and even helped Philippe “meet clandestinely with the women of Eau Vive,” despite being informed by church officials that they condemned Philippe’s theology and Vanier should not participate in any activities of l’Eau Vive. The new report further confirmed that Vanier and others were following Philippe’s instructions from 1956 through the founding of L’Arche in 1964.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Throughout the early days of L’Arche, Philippe was a spiritual adviser to the community. He died in 1993.</div></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/confusion-control-and-abuse-report-offers-new-details-about-jean-vaniers-secret-sect-and">Katie Collins Scott writes</a>,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;"> Bovermann said the new report has led her to reflect upon the interplay of gender, power and charismatic leadership</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"In the wake of the Me-Too movement, I would be hard-pressed to find a charismatic woman" who inflicted abuse in the manner of Vanier, she said. There are many such men, she said.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"What is it about the power that these perceived spiritual, saintly men hold and are given that allows for hidden, manipulative and distasteful behavior?"</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-can-larche-escape-the-twisted-legacy-of-its-own-founders/">Michael W. Higgins writes</a>, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The rot was extensive, insidious, encased in secrecy and ruthless in nurturing a culture hidden in plain sight. And Mr. Vanier was fully onside. He wrote in his autobiography that Père Philippe “loved me and accepted me the way I was. It was liberating for me. It is wonderful to be seen, to be recognized as a person who has a destiny and a mission.” That destiny and mission were, in great measure, defined by Père Philippe. ...</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Both Père Philippe and Mr. Vanier drew on their self-invoked privileged relationship with the divine to channel their lust as they perfected their seductions in sacral terms: “It’s not us, it’s Mary and Jesus” and “Jesus and I are not two, we are one … and it is Jesus who loves you through me” – two phrases that appeared in some of the victim testimonies. Mr. Vanier at one point describes his genitals as a “sacrament of love.” </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">All this, and as Higgins writes, Jean Vanier has, until the revelations of the last few years, been seen as "a living saint in our time." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And that's what stands out for me as I read this story in light of <a href="http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2023/02/as-cardinal-pell-is-buried-hes.html">news about the funeral today of Cardinal George Pell</a>, who was acclaimed by Tony Abbott at the funeral "a saint for our times" — and Abbott is echoing what a number of pieces of commentary in the mainstream media have also said about Pell after he died. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What does sainthood mean any longer in the Catholic tradition? I ask myself. One big reason lay ecclesial movements like L'Arche have played such a prominent role in the Catholic church in the latter half of the 20th century is that Pope John Paul II loved them, encouraged them, gave them perks and privileges. Many of these movements tend, after all, in a papolatrous direction, and John Paul II frankly liked that penchant. They also commonly espouse a fundamentalist reading of Catholic doctrine and moral teaching.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was one of the lay ecclesial movements, Focolare, that astroturfed an immediate appeal for John Paul II's canonization following his death. Signs prepared before his death — <i>Santo subito! </i>— popped up in St. Peter's Square, making it appear that there was widespread acclamation of John Paul II's sanctity among the people of God. These were prepared for, bought and distributed by Focolare. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Many of us thought that the immediate canonization of John Paul II was a huge mistake. Now we're hearing people call George Pell, with his history of hateful treatment of LGBTQ people in the name of the church, and with the Australian Royal Commission report on abuse exposing him as protecting clerics sexually abusing minors, a saint. As Jean Vanier was long called a saint, until now….</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Honestly, what does sanctity mean any longer in the Catholic tradition? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And you know who has <b>not </b>been declared a saint? Mychal Judge.</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-15614550947260606232023-02-02T10:38:00.004-06:002023-02-02T18:23:12.546-06:00As Cardinal Pell Is Buried, He's Acclaimed a "Saint for Our Times," While Abuse Survivors and LGBTQ People Protest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-6DOr6dbFng" width="320" youtube-src-id="-6DOr6dbFng"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/police-ask-court-ban-protest-cardinals-sydney-funeral">As Rod McGuirk reports</a>, as Cardinal Pell's funeral is held today, police have refused to permit LGBTQ-rights protesters outside the Catholic cathedral in Sydney, and have sought a court injunction against them.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Pell famously refused to meet with his lesbian cousin, a former nun, to discuss Catholic teaching that LGBTQ human beings are "intrinsically disordered." "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve," he said as he refused communion to a gay activist.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/protest-grows-heated-outside-cardinal-george-pells-sydney-funeral">As AJ McDougall and Barbie Latza Nadeau report,</a></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">One protest organizer told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/01/lgbtq-group-protest-george-pell-funeral-nsw-police-court-order"><i>The Guardian</i> </a>that it was "pretty grotesque that someone who’s an arch defender of homophobia, sexism, who said abortion is a worse moral scandal than priests abusing children, gets to have a celebration of his life."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And, as protesters decry Cardinal Pell's hateful approach to LGBTQ human beings and his complicity in protecting priests sexually abusing children, which the Australian Royal Commission report exposed, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/02/australia/cardinal-george-pell-funeral-intl/index.html">former Australian PM Tony Abbott calls Pell "a saint for our times."</a> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/every-sex-abuse-survivor-ribbon-tells-a-story-the-church-tried-to-silence-20230201-p5ch2p.html">Simon Hunt writes</a>,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Like many, I was disgusted by the history-erasing hagiographies that followed the death of Cardinal George Pell – declaring his actions to be saint-like; comparing him to a crucified Christ who had died at the hands of "political correctness"; claiming that he had gone to jail for having had the temerity to "talk back to the culture". Akin to the worst, two-bit fairground magic act in history, these op-eds simply focused on the High Court setting aside Pell’s personal conviction for child abuse, and completely ignored his decades-long enabling of paedophile priests through a career-long inaction, as documented and summarised in the final royal commission report.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/02/cardinal-george-pell-funeral-sydney-australia">Ben Doherty reports</a>,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">At the conclusion of the three-hour [Pell funeral] mass, 275 priests and 75 seminarians led the processional out on to the contested ground of College Street. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">These 275 priests and 75 seminarians were all men, almost all of them white men. For whose interests did Pell stand, one has to ask? as one weighs the symbolism here.</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-20369511664285045112023-01-20T19:07:00.004-06:002023-01-21T09:05:56.976-06:00Abusive Anti-Gay French Priest Tony Anatrella Sanctioned by Vatican; Survivors Say They Expected More<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibttz6EUo-ktZX2AOr2ruCrdjAfBb12OP0-oQCuP9QOtHeCL8b6e6wGbD67LoKxSN1Kss6oFx6RHAtMx37FybIdx_wbRxm3xZjjouKpNNK8lKV_jQZh7IEi1FItW_F9XjlkfjDsbIqSRqER-17dUyxyCR3LcXw1_5sYm0nM_wwS3xnDsF9haeLVg/s1338/Screenshot%202023-01-20%20at%207.04.19%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Catholic Church Tells Bishops They Are Not Obliged to Disclose Child Sex Abuse: Report" border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="1338" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibttz6EUo-ktZX2AOr2ruCrdjAfBb12OP0-oQCuP9QOtHeCL8b6e6wGbD67LoKxSN1Kss6oFx6RHAtMx37FybIdx_wbRxm3xZjjouKpNNK8lKV_jQZh7IEi1FItW_F9XjlkfjDsbIqSRqER-17dUyxyCR3LcXw1_5sYm0nM_wwS3xnDsF9haeLVg/w400-h256/Screenshot%202023-01-20%20at%207.04.19%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<a href="https://time.com/4216974/vatican-guidelines-sex-abuse-bishops-training/">Catholic Church Tells Bishops They Are Not Obliged to Disclose Child Sex Abuse: Report</a>," <br /><i>Time </i>(11/2/2016)<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Earlier this week, <a href="https://dioceseparis.fr/communique-de-presse-a-propos-de-l.html">the Catholic archdiocese of Paris</a> announced that after investigation of charges made against influential French priest Tony Anatrella, a previous sanction of Anatrella remains in place and and he continues to be banned from celebrating Mass publicly or hearing confessions. He is also forbidden from continuing his work as a psychotherapist.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Multiple credible allegations were made by young men Anatrella counseled about sexual advances he made against him, even as he claimed to be helping them move beyond their homosexuality and become "normal."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Anatrella has played a prominent role at the Vatican, advising Catholic officials about issues of sexuality and urging the Vatican to bar gay men from the priesthood. He was a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Anatrella">Wikipedia's entry for him</a> provides a good summary, with documentation — and for more, you can click his name in the tags here, since I have commented about him previously on this blog. for a summary: </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As my friend Jean-François Garneau wrote on his Facebook page (in a public posting) when the archdiocese of Paris made its announcement about Anatrella earlier t his week: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">This guy has been one of the 'intellectual" authorities behind the most outrageous statements made by JP2 and B16. For it is only beginning with those two reactionary popes (and with this sexual abuser behind as an intellectual caution), that even homosexual tendencies and, indeed, homosexual people were declared intrinsically disordered. Before those two reactionary popes, only homosexual acts, together with any non-procreation oriented heterosexual acts were deemed intrinsically disordered (whatever that means --but at least that was the tradition not what JP2 and B16 fantasized). The Vatican is now forced to recognize that this supposed authority they used was all along homosexually abusing his patients while providing his antigay pronouncements!</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">As theologian James Alison wrote in an article entitled "<a href="https://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/14068/homosexuality-among-the-clergy-caught-in-a-trap-of-dishonesty">Homosexuality among the clergy: caught in a trap of dishonesty</a>," several years ago, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Would it shock you to know that the leading force behind the term "gender ideology", and the campaign against it, was a gay cardinal? Or that a gay priest wrote the official 2005 explanation as to why gay men could not be priests?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I learned of the (now dead) Latin American cardinal’s reputation for violence towards the rent boys he frequented from a social worker in his home town, and later discovered that this and other outrages were open secrets in both his homeland and Rome. Paris-based Mgr Tony Anatrella was a Vatican expert on homosexuality, one of very few authors the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recommended on the subject, alongside Drs Joseph Nicolosi, Gerard van den Aardweg and Aquilino Polaino, gay-cure proponents all. Anatrella had long been reported to have engaged in inappropriate touching with seminarians and others who came to him for help in dealing with their so-called 'same-sex attraction' As recently as this June, and after many years of shameful ecclesiastical obfuscation in France and Italy, those reports have been found to be credible, and Anatrella has been suspended from public ministry. If it does shock you that such paragons of homophobia-dressed-as-Christianity might have been 'protesting too much', prepare yourself for a rough ride over the next few years. ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In all these cases, in as far as the behaviour was adult-related, plenty of people in authority sort-of-knew what was going on, and had known throughout the clerics’ respective careers. However, the informal rule in the Catholic Church – the last remaining outpost of enforced homosociality in the Western world – is strictly 'don’t ask, don’t tell.' Typically, blind eyes are turned to the active sex lives of those clerics who have them, only two things being beyond the pale: whistle-blowing on the sex lives of others, or public suggestions that the Church’s teaching in this area is wrong. These lead to marginalisation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Given all this, it seems to me entirely reasonable that people should now be asking: "How deep does this go?" If such careers were the result of blind eyes being turned, legal settlements made, and these clerics themselves were in positions of influence and authority, how much more are we going to learn about those who promoted and protected them? Or about those whom they promoted?</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Survivors of clerical sexual abuse in France are unhappy, by the way, that he retains his clerical state (and its perks and privileges). <a href="https://apnews.com/article/vatican-city-sex-and-sexuality-psychotherapy-religion-f89f7cba4f0497ec0784d51615b62b38">As Nicole Winfield reports</a>, survivors of Anatrella's abuse are unhappy that, despite "several well-documented complaints against him," in disciplining Monsignor Tony Anatrella, the Vatican has chosen to restrict his priestly functions, not defrock him. Winfield quotes Nadia Debbache, attorney for the victims, who says that the Vatican decision not to defrock Anatrella disappoints the victims because he abused them in a therapeutic context. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://international.la-croix.com/news/religion/vatican-bans-priest-advisor-from-psychotherapy-practice-over-sex-abuse-allegations/17192">Héloïse de Neuville writes</a>, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The Vatican has banned one of its longtime priest-advisors on sexual and moral issues, <a href="https://bit.ly/3WgVI7y">Tony Anatrella</a>, from practicing psychotherapy, following longstanding allegations that the Paris cleric abused male adult patients.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The decision, which was taken last month by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) and announced Tuesday by the Archdiocese of Paris, left Anatrella's accusers deeply disappointed. They had hoped the priest – who will be 81 next month – would be removed from the clerical state.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Paris archdiocese said the DDF "ordered the interested party to immediately renounce any professional activity as a therapist". But the DDF did not place any restrictions on Anatrella's priestly ministry. The archdiocese had already done that in 2018.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It was announced on Tuesday that Archbishop Laurent Ulrich has reinforced those earlier sanctions, forbidding Anatrella from exercising "any activity related to psychotherapy" or "publication of work"; banning him from "presiding or public concelebration" of the liturgy and removing his "faculties to hear confessions". Archbishop Ulrich has also confined Anatrella to "a life of prayer in a more remote daily life".He is also banned "from all participation in colloquia, public meetings, conferences, etc.", due in part to his February 2022 attendance at a symposium on the family at the Vatican. ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"It's a disappointment," said Nadia Debbache, the plaintiffs' lawyer. "We thought there were enough elements for Tony Anatrella to be dismissed from the clerical state. We are talking about serious, repeated acts of sexual assault," she told <i>La Croix</i>.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Anatrella remains a man with powerful connections. I'm told that Anatrella was photographed in the Vatican during Benedict's lying in state, praying beside Benedict's body, though I have no proof of this and want to note that it's hearsay. But I have seen the photo in question and, as with a number of others who saw it, I think the man in the photograh is, indeed, Anatrella.</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-7965130095922428882023-01-17T15:50:00.004-06:002023-01-17T15:50:51.979-06:00The U.S. Has a White Christian Problem, and It's Imperiling American Democracy: My Commentary on New PRRI Report re: American Attitudes Towards Immigrants<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3RATU6A02qPNPQxrBCncAH6QpVhbUZfP3t5oIOP6qCCOQFrKm0PNNlcDA1J3aNb1i0ND7x0lsS6KJyXYI4z57zbvznBnl1T07ISKjaVlDHv6XIgwV5AF9cRdwJA9HjZhX291SL6Y5NQ0h4LidsV0S9E1Ruw6RTp5YnVwpNMkviYz7_-Nzhv_vQ/s1052/Screenshot%202023-01-17%20at%203.48.06%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="1052" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3RATU6A02qPNPQxrBCncAH6QpVhbUZfP3t5oIOP6qCCOQFrKm0PNNlcDA1J3aNb1i0ND7x0lsS6KJyXYI4z57zbvznBnl1T07ISKjaVlDHv6XIgwV5AF9cRdwJA9HjZhX291SL6Y5NQ0h4LidsV0S9E1Ruw6RTp5YnVwpNMkviYz7_-Nzhv_vQ/w400-h338/Screenshot%202023-01-17%20at%203.48.06%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Today, Public Religion Research Group (PRRI) published results of a study it has just done entitled "<a href="https://www.prri.org/research/are-immigrants-a-threat-most-americans-dont-think-so-but-those-receptive-to-the-threat-narrative-are-predictably-more-anti-immigrant/">Are Immigrants a Threat? Most Americans Don’t Think So, but Those Receptive to the 'Threat' Narrative Are Predictably More Anti-immigrant</a>." Some key findings of this report:<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">A majority (55%) of Americans say that immigrants strengthen American society. But (I'm quoting now from an emailed précis of the report PRRI sent out today:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Most Republicans (69%) and at least half of white Christian groups, including 65% of white evangelical Protestants, 53% of white mainline Protestants, and 50% of white Catholics think immigrants threaten traditional American customs and values. Additionally, three in ten Americans (30%) completely or mostly agree with the statement “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background,” while nearly two-thirds (64%) completely or mostly disagree.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Majorities of Republicans (55%) and white evangelical Protestants (51%) believe that immigrants are invading the United States; a majority of Americans who most trust conservative media outlets (70%) also believe in this replacement theory.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">America has a white Christian problem, a white Christian <b>nationalist </b>problem. We learned this in the two elections in which Trump ran for president. In both elections, more than half of US white Christians across the board voted for Donald Trump. The figures of Americans reporting to PRRI that they regard immigrants as a threat are roughly the same percentages of votes cast for Trump in two elections by white Christians — white evangelicals, white mainline Protestants, and white Catholics.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These citizens represent a minorty of Americans, but they have the powerful backing of the Supreme Court and are richly represented in the Republican-dominated Congress.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As PRRI founder and president Robert P. Jones writes in his book <i>White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity</i> (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2020):</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The historical record of lived Christianity in America reveals that Christian theology and institutions have been the central cultural tent pole holding up the very idea of white supremacy. And the genetic imprint of this legacy remains present and measurable in contemporary white Christianity, not only among evangelicals in the South but also among mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast (p. 6).</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">The United States has a white Christian problem. And that problem is imperiling American democracy. </p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-41106605651376868062023-01-16T15:39:00.006-06:002023-01-16T15:39:35.833-06:00Telling Truth about Benedict's Legacy re: Clerical Sexual Abuse of Minors, and Commentary on Cardinal Pell's Legacy re: Abuse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJZ4gJMHDrUqsTeNbv2vDXJEIKe-TZqdLOoOzFH_EgcQw_LMk5jZbgx29b_wxuM3SW2cAV6Zx6pHEJnCXS1qKN6t2uvdOuzfY4cNvRJB2ax42EF9NlBrZ0yKZ9zqV9ZkGJSwfAwqypMcqNWzHQ9y5LKfNfGSxYR53ftHr2W-aG6vM3Klc7fZoPEg/s1910/Screenshot%202023-01-16%20at%203.35.48%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="1910" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJZ4gJMHDrUqsTeNbv2vDXJEIKe-TZqdLOoOzFH_EgcQw_LMk5jZbgx29b_wxuM3SW2cAV6Zx6pHEJnCXS1qKN6t2uvdOuzfY4cNvRJB2ax42EF9NlBrZ0yKZ9zqV9ZkGJSwfAwqypMcqNWzHQ9y5LKfNfGSxYR53ftHr2W-aG6vM3Klc7fZoPEg/w400-h229/Screenshot%202023-01-16%20at%203.35.48%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.adamhorowitzlaw.com/blog/2023/01/doing-better-than-your-predecessor-is-good-but-not-their-best/" style="text-align: justify;">Adam Horowitz offers one of the best pieces of commentary</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> I've seen on how far too many Catholic journalists and academics have chosen to falsify the legacy of Pope Benedict vis-a-vis the abuse crisis, by claiming that he was somehow a champion of addressing the problem of clerical sexual abuse of minors — when he decidedly was not. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Horowitz notes that one Catholic commentator after another — all of whom should know better — has been saying, following Benedict's death, "Maybe Benedict didn’t do as much as he could have, but he did more than any other pope had up until that point.” </span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Horowitz writes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Without getting down in the weeds, let’s assume this is true. Let’s assume that on abuse, Benedict ‘did more’ than his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups. But that’s not saying much. And that expectation – that the following official only needs to do ‘more’ at protecting kids than their predecessor. If the deceased or retiring CEO or bishop or school principal mishandled 95% of all abuse reports and if his or her successor mishandled only 90% of all abuse reports, then should the successor be praised?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That can’t be the standard of judgment when it comes to the well-being of children – that the current boss ‘did more’ than the old boss did regarding kids’ safety, so everything’s fine? ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In over 25 years as the most powerful religious figure on the planet, John Paul II did almost nothing to safeguard kids worldwide. He repeatedly and effectively brought his unparalleled global influence to bear on other crucial issues but ignored or promoted stunningly complicit church officials. So Pope Benedict may indeed have ‘done more’ on abuse than his predecessor. But did he do BETTER than his predecessor? Not likely. And did he do EVERYTHING THEY REASONABLY COULD HAVE DONE to safeguard innocent children? Absolutely not!</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And while we're on this topic, permit me to quote Christopher Knaus writing recently about the legacy of Cardinal George Pell, who died several days ago. In an article entitled "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/12/george-pell-what-the-five-year-royal-commission-into-child-sexual-abuse-found">George Pell: what the five-year royal commission into child sexual abuse found</a>," Knaus writes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The child sexual abuse royal commission in 2020 released a bombshell un-redacted report examining the failings of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/george-pell">George Pell</a> during his time as an assistant priest, bishop, auxiliary bishop and cardinal in Australia.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/un-redacted_report_of_case_study_28_-_catholic_church_authorities_in_ballarat.pdf">report</a> found he both knew about child abuse, particularly within the Victorian diocese of Ballarat, and failed to take proper steps to act on complaints about dangerous priests.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The findings – which Pell always disputed – were arrived at after an exhaustive, five-year royal commission.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Then Knaus goes on to offer the entirely damning details and documentation found about Pell's role in ignoring and covering up sexual abuse of vulnerable people by Catholic clerics, as this information is compiled in the report of the Australian Royal Commission.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As Robert Mickens <a href="https://international.la-croix.com/news/letter-from-rome/pope-francis-fiercest-opposition-the-churchs-clerical-workforce/17171">notes recently</a>, it has come out that <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/cardinel-pell-named-as-author-of-memo-critical-of-pope-francis/101857622">Pell authored a vicious anonymous attac</a>k against Pope Francis last year, in which he called Francis' pontificate a "disaster" and lambasted Francis for just about every shortcoming under the sun, including watering down the "Christo-centricity" of Catholic teaching. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">(My interjection here: when I hear the name "George Pell," Jesus and the gospels are <i>never </i>what comes first to my mind. In fact, to be brutally honest, I have long had great difficulty connectingn anything about Pell with the Jesus I encounter in the gospels.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mickens' focus as he discusses Pell is to highlight his and other anti-Francis Catholic leaders' entrenched determination to uphold the all-male, ostensibly celibate clerical system at all cost. This is a large part of what lies behind resistance to Francis.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As Mickens notes, this determination remains strong in the Vatican Curia. In my view, it may lead to the election of another super-reactionary pope following Francis.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What Mickens doesn't mention, but deserves attention, I think, is that the anti-Francis attacks are largely funded by wealthy Catholic right-wingers in the US and Europe, who are allied with Steve Bannon. They are determined to take Francis down because he has rehabilitated Catholic social teaching.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As James Carroll states in his book <i>The Truth at the Heart of the Lie: How the Catholic Church Lost Its Soul</i> (NY: Random House, 2021), this is tragic not just for the Catholic church but the whole world, due to the moral influence the church wields. Mickens writes", At the most practical level, a reformed, enlightened, hopeful Catholic Church is essential to the thriving — even to the survival — of the human species" (p. 304).</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">As the human species flirts with its own self-extinction, whether through weapons of mass destruction or environmental degradation, the world urgently needs this global institution to be rational, historically minded, pluralistically respectful, committed to peace, a tribune of justice, and a champion of the equality of women. That Vatican II occurred at all is enough to validate, if not belief in the Holy Spirit, the hope that this great institution can survive the temporary moral collapse of its leadership (p. 272).</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">But: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">When Pope John's successors — Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI — adamantly refused to alter anything having to do with the patriarchal and deeply misogynistic structure of Catholic power, and when they shored up a broad Catholic suspicion of every erotic impulse, the Church sacrificed the ongoing project of a humanely reformed Catholicism. Even under Francis, the us-against-them bipolarity that John XXIII stood against remains firmly in place, and it is still epitomized by men against women (p. 172). </p></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-14912980154610606772023-01-09T14:49:00.003-06:002023-01-09T15:06:03.947-06:00On Benedict's "Kindness" and What Eulogies About His "Kindness" Say to LGBTQ Catholics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sMbIF26ZgC20v9yjDsesJRcjxHEs16gHkvg1RaSBk39FfiSlDDpBjwnv1UQz2JPCuVfKjxAiq2tJ1BdhWBjgpGGcqKSOpryEF-ofLLj-pfkbmhWDbUvK5Y5eXVscDHS7E7JMBAliocjayXGlvWJJzkIKVEvCmTuTIitHW4j-U-u4UtrWubwZkQ/s910/E3h706gWQAAJwoA.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="910" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sMbIF26ZgC20v9yjDsesJRcjxHEs16gHkvg1RaSBk39FfiSlDDpBjwnv1UQz2JPCuVfKjxAiq2tJ1BdhWBjgpGGcqKSOpryEF-ofLLj-pfkbmhWDbUvK5Y5eXVscDHS7E7JMBAliocjayXGlvWJJzkIKVEvCmTuTIitHW4j-U-u4UtrWubwZkQ/s320/E3h706gWQAAJwoA.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I've refrained until now from commenting here about the death of Emeritus Pope Bendict, because...well, to be honest, I'm not sure what more I might say about Ratzinger/Benedict than I've already said here in the past.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Much that's being published about Benedict now is predictably adulatory, and, in my view, often downright obfuscatory, particularly when his track record in dealing with the abuse horror show in the Catholic church is being examined. The usual big-name Vaticanologists and Catholic media gurus have been busy doing their usual thing, weaving nice narratives about a deceased former pope in which narrative sleights of hand prevent us from seeing what we'd otherwise see about his legacy — especially if we happen not to be, like these professional Catholic or papal interpreters, highly-placed heterosexual white men, the sort who rank at the top of Benedict's hierarchical worldview.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some commentary I've read about Benedict's death that's worth reading, in my view: </p><p>Celia Viggo Wexler, "<a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/01/05/rip-pope-benedict-xvi--but-lets-not-ignore-all-the-harm-he-did-the-church-and-its-people/">RIP Pope Benedict XVI — but let's not ignore all the harm he did the church and its people</a>" </p><p>SNAP, "<a href="https://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_reacts_to_the_death_of_pope_benedict_xvi">SNAP reacts to the death of Pope Benedict XVI</a>" </p><p>DignityUSA, "<a href="https://www.dignityusa.org/news/lgbtq-catholics-recall-pope-benedict-xvi’s-reign-painful-time-caused-“tremendous-damage”-lgbtq">LGBTQ+ Catholics Recall Pope Benedict XVI’s Reign as a Painful Time That Caused 'Tremendous Damage' to the LGBTQ+ Community</a>" </p><p>Jason Berry, "<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-benedict-xvi-failed-as-a-reformer">Pope Benedict Was a Law and Order Pontiff, Who Failed As a Reformer</a>" </p><p>Patsy McGarry, "<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/world/2022/12/31/how-pope-benedict-ignored-vatican-responsibility-for-child-sex-abuse-in-ireland/">How Pope Benedict ignored Vatican responsibility for child sex abuse in Ireland</a>" </p><p>Bernárd Lynch, "<a href="https://www.wearechurchireland.ie/pope-benedict-s-legacy">Pope Benedict's Legacy</a>"</p><p>My brief bit of commentary: following Benedict's death, Pope Francis characterized his predecessor as "<a href="https://www.euronews.com/2022/12/31/noble-and-kind-pope-francis-pays-tribute-to-late-benedict-xvi">noble and kind</a>." The word "kind" stands out for me.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In what moral universe is it an act of kindness to characterize an entire group of human beings, as Benedict did, as born "disordered" and as "disordered" human beings in their affective lives? Not only did Benedict innovate that analysis of queer human beings as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul II, he assured that this dangerous, eminently hateful way of defining non-heterosexual human beings was inscribed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, becoming in the minds of many Catholic official and quasi-infallible teaching.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">From hateful language about others, hateful consequences follow. From the time Benedict began his crusade against LGBTQ human beings — and that's what it was — we who are queer and Catholic were made, as a group, to feel unwelcome in the Catholic community, in Catholic institutions. We have watched as our bishops and groups like Knights of Columbus have amassed huge sums of money to attack us and try to block our rights or rip rights from us.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We've seen one queer Catholic after another fired in Catholic institutions. We've seen our church represented in the public square by bishops and political leaders who identify Catholicism with disdain for and even outright hatred of queer human beings. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In what universe is any of this kind?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The adulation of Benedict in one remembrance of him after another being written now by Catholic journalists and commentators who represent themselves as "centrist" or even "liberal," the suggestion that his legacy was one of kindness, is a slap in the face of the LGBTQ community, and tells us just how little we continue to be welcome or regarded with respect by the Catholic community.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That's how I see it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ek1bnBevDKC4ibGI0s9B6SiB3lPwrqpWdCMfjpacIlJwBGSQAowbpFM5fBD3XPTvblXAkeCzMXIgIXulx-w6sMq-IpW3QCYCAptYZnIp5tGRodnHcCWDu9dBai9XctQoozci82p4Opp7o8co0yxPDYI1qzYSXJyWHi7ZrlCC8ia37HLx_PmVeQ/s1500/3_28+Podcast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ek1bnBevDKC4ibGI0s9B6SiB3lPwrqpWdCMfjpacIlJwBGSQAowbpFM5fBD3XPTvblXAkeCzMXIgIXulx-w6sMq-IpW3QCYCAptYZnIp5tGRodnHcCWDu9dBai9XctQoozci82p4Opp7o8co0yxPDYI1qzYSXJyWHi7ZrlCC8ia37HLx_PmVeQ/s320/3_28+Podcast.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-28413952416182023342023-01-01T12:17:00.003-06:002023-01-01T12:17:25.558-06:00Happy 2023!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLOMB3EVlvE7Ywa_MVzUdIkMWsh7u5ZDEoq3jwwZLe2hFqLOdJqYqub4OuaiQdsEx3xGD58kwZZh5YAJbqV6184AjeAwQ0Tqew8ToxDc0b_6J3DjNlr8OxHCuvY6iyqdL8FYl3e96qhuTsZzC7nwt3bBo3O57Oau4rMsqzGdLKVU1RFteWNnsI0A/s4032/IMG_0001.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLOMB3EVlvE7Ywa_MVzUdIkMWsh7u5ZDEoq3jwwZLe2hFqLOdJqYqub4OuaiQdsEx3xGD58kwZZh5YAJbqV6184AjeAwQ0Tqew8ToxDc0b_6J3DjNlr8OxHCuvY6iyqdL8FYl3e96qhuTsZzC7nwt3bBo3O57Oau4rMsqzGdLKVU1RFteWNnsI0A/w320-h240/IMG_0001.HEIC" title="Photo of bluffs across the Arkansas River from Little Rock, a day or two before New Year's day 2023" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Photo of bluffs across Arkansas River at Little Rock a day or two before 1 January 2023</div><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Wishing you all a very happy 2023, and apologizing that I have been absent from this blog. My spouse Steve had surgery on 19 December, then Christmas came along as he recuperated and I did nursing duties, and I have been stretched — though still posting routinely <a href="https://toad.social/@wdlindsy">at my new Mastodon account</a>, where you can find my "real time" commentary on various items I've been reading and want to share. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">For anyone looking for music to listen to as you celebrate the new year, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUODZFusB6LhW0LsEDW0l4hhZY-iQs-Dj">here's my YouTube playlist for New Year's day</a>, developed over a number of years.</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-58083970140720826882022-12-18T10:56:00.003-06:002022-12-18T10:57:04.884-06:00Recent Religion + Politics Commentary: "Pro-Life" Movement, Christian Nationalism, Southern Baptists and United Methodists, Leonard Leo and New USCCB President<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVSu65Z5Em65fxbIUAELHumYvFOWy_HqXe9ulBdG3qDOoEOHwwlvDSdjDknV1LQ5im_pdYVzG-J5iuW3bGix9H-kYb1DTm0akObnebJnjq5mcZZEJ6hzF4h6TUQe67eqr4AKMda9qb6BBZGv0c0_h4hJdftNy8z0PXH8hPFT7FP76fTfazspN8g/s424/Church-and-state-sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="424" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVSu65Z5Em65fxbIUAELHumYvFOWy_HqXe9ulBdG3qDOoEOHwwlvDSdjDknV1LQ5im_pdYVzG-J5iuW3bGix9H-kYb1DTm0akObnebJnjq5mcZZEJ6hzF4h6TUQe67eqr4AKMda9qb6BBZGv0c0_h4hJdftNy8z0PXH8hPFT7FP76fTfazspN8g/s320/Church-and-state-sign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here are some valuable articles I've read in the past week or two about religion and politics and their intersection:<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In "<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/169461/anti-abortion-movement-antisemitic-conspiracy">The Anti-Abortion Movement Is More Conspiracy-Addled Than Ever</a>," Audrey Claire Farley takes a close look at where the "pro-life" movement has ended up and concludes that, "[f]rom rampant antisemitism to groomer panic, pro-life activists are knee-deep in the far-right fever swamp." She writes:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The “pro-life” movement has gone full groomer. Scroll the Twitter feed of the movement’s darling, Live Action founder Lila Rose, and you’ll find as many recent posts about <a href="https://twitter.com/LilaGraceRose/status/1585741497278033920?s=20&t=7HrR7IDNtDJTCaaqtZaGxw">the</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LilaGraceRose/status/1547805701807828994?s=20&t=vzq1TbVuT8reBxbVj8h18Q">sexualization</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LilaGraceRose/status/1547805701807828994?s=20&t=vzq1TbVuT8reBxbVj8h18Q">of</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LilaGraceRose/status/1597275732669247488?s=20&t=TMmeFZGZPpfxf8QkXnZE1w">children</a> as you will see missives that are singularly about abortion. Take a gander at the feed of Students for Life, and you’ll find people <a href="https://twitter.com/StudentsforLife/status/1599608552104116224?s=20&t=_4_WIBga9huIVKYFLRXxmA">calling</a> Planned Parenthood staff “groomers.” Turn the television channel to EWTN, a staunchly anti-abortion Catholic network and the largest religious broadcast in the world, and you’ll find hosts <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo5rs0MCTOY">decrying</a> Disney’s “transgender grooming” of kids.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The alarm couldn’t appear more disingenuous. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Jeff Brumley reports, "<a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/amanda-tyler-testifies-before-congress-against-christian-nationalism/">Amanda Tyler testifies before Congress against Christian nationalism</a>," on testimony Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, gave oin 13 December at a U.S. congressional hearing on the rise of anti-democratic extremism. Tyler stated:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The problem of white Christian nationalism exactly fits with our mission of defending and extending religious freedom for all people. And that’s because Christian nationalism strikes at the heart of the foundational ideas of what religious freedom means and how it’s protected in this country, and that is with the institution of separation of church and state.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">She also stated:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Christian nationalism is a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to fuse American and Christian identities. It suggests that "real" Americans are Christians and that "true" Christians hold a particular set of political beliefs.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Brumley notes: "But the Christianity presented by the movement is more of an 'ethno-identity' than a religion, she said." And then Tyler stated:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Opposition to Christian nationalism is not opposition to Christianity, and a growing number of Christians feel a religious imperative to stand against Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism uses the language, symbols and imagery of Christianity — in fact, it may look and sound like Christianity to the casual observer. However, closer examination reveals that it uses the veneer of Christianity to point not to Jesus the Christ but to a political figure, party or ideology. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">In "<a href="https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/pastors-guilty-of-sexual-abuse-should-never-be-restored-to-ministry/14443.article#.Y5NhGgzCqHM.twitter">Pastors guilty of sexual abuse should never be restored to ministry</a>," Beth Allison Barr comments on the story of Johnny Hunt, Southern Baptist pastor and former Southern Baptist Convention president, who was credibly accused of sexual abuse of a wife of another pastor. In 2021, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution stating that pastors credibly accused of sexual abuse should be "permamently" removed from ministry.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Yet recently, four pastors — all white men like Johnny Hunt — declared that Hunt was fully qualified to resume ministry. Though the current SBC president Bart Barber has asserted that the abuse charges against Hunt are credible…. But Barber says he has no authority to act in the case of Hunt's restoration to ministry, since each SBC church is autonomous.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Beth Allison Barr tells Barber what women hear when they hear his words: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">What women hear is the 1250 Southern Baptist (mostly male) leaders who thought it more important to stand against women as pastors than to stand against pastors who abuse women.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What women hear are male pastors more interested in protecting their friends than protecting women in their congregations from men like Johnny Hunt.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What women hear is the cacophony of churches that care more about supporting male pastors and male headship than helping female victims.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What women hear is that men like Johnny Hunt matter more than we do.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">While I appreciate Bart Barber’s words, I hope he - and all the male pastors like him - hear me when I say that their words are not enough.</p></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: justify;">In "<a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/everybodys-doing-it-united-methodists-ignoring-their-own-rules-as-break-up-continues/">‘Everybody’s doing it’: United Methodists ignoring their own rules as break-up continues</a>," Cynthia Astle reports on the splintering of the United Methodist Church over the issue of welcoming and including queer people in UMC churches. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She points to some glaring injustices that are occurring in UMC circles as the splintering takes place. To wit:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;">In October, Gregory S. Neal wed his fiancé, Kade Rogers, at 200-member Lakewood United Methodist Church in Dallas where Neal serves as pastor. In so doing, Neal broke three United Methodist rules: 'coming out' as a gay man who is ordained, legally marrying his same-gender partner, and holding their marriage ceremony in a United Methodist church. Since that fateful ceremony Oct. 1, Neal has been suspended from ministry — a punishment deemed excessive at this time when South Central Jurisdiction delegates centrists and progressives recently voted overwhelmingly to urge their regional conferences to refrain from pursuing complaints against those who transgress anti-LGBTQ laws while the UMC’s future remains murky.</div></div></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the same time that Gregory Neal was coming out, marrying his partner, and then being stiffly punished by the church as he was removed from ministry, Arthur Jones, senior pastor of 6,500-member St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano (a wealthy Dallas suburb), announced that his church was leaving the UMC (the issue of inclusion of LGBT people in UMC churches looms large in this decision) and would not follow UMC exit rules as it did so. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jones has <b>not</b> been punished by the UMC as Neal has. His father Bishop Scott J. Jones is, after all, an influential UMC leader in Houston who has been spurring the exodus of UMC churches who refuse to welcome and include LGBTQ people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Go figure.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In "<a href="https://international.la-croix.com/news/signs-of-the-times/the-us-bishops-conference-and-the-napa-institute/17046 ">The US bishops' conference and the Napa Institute</a>," Massimo Faggioli writes,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the four weeks or so since members of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) <a href="https://bit.ly/3PvbGsP">elected their new leaders</a>, the worst fears of many "people in the pews" have been confirmed. Initially, there were worries over the choice of Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Military Ordinariate since 2008, as the conference president. They stemmed from the former Vatican diplomat's controversial stances on a variety of issues, from blaming the abuse crisis on homosexuals to supporting those opposing the Covid vaccine</div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">But now it has emerged that Archbishop Broglio, who will soon be 71 and ineligible for re-election, recently dined in Washington, D.C. with the leaders of the Napa Institute. This is a conservative Catholic organization with lots of money that has consistently pushed an ecclesial-political agenda opposed in almost every way to Pope Francis' vision for the Church and the society. Among those at the table were the institute's founder, Timothy Busch, and the co-chairperson of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo.</p></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Faggioli concludes,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;">[T]here is a parallel between the USCCB leadership cozying up with hard-right conservative groups and the deterioration of American democracy and its growing vulnerability to authoritarian challenges. The overwhelming influence of corporate money is not just a threat to American democracy. It is also a threat to the Catholic Church. American oligarchs threaten to destroy their own country's democracy; American Catholic oligarchs could do the same to Catholicism in the US – but, as usual, in the name of saving the faith from its enemies. </div></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And as you consider the preceding report and its conclusion, consider as well Andy Kroll, Andrew Perez, and Aditi Ramaswami's recent exposé of Leonard Leo in "<a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/conservative-activist-poured-millions-into-groups-seeking-to-influence-supreme-court-on-elections-and-discrimination">Conservative Activist Poured Millions Into Groups Seeking To Influence Supreme Court On Elections And Discrimination</a>." They write,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Flush with money after receiving the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-leonard-leo-barre-seid">largest-known political advocacy donatio</a>n in U.S. history, conservative activist Leonard Leo and his associates are spending millions of dollars to influence some of the Supreme Court’s most consequential recent cases, newly released <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23437428-85-fund-990-for-2021">tax documents obtaine</a>d by ProPublica and The Lever show.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The documents detail how Leo, who helped build the Supreme Court’s conservative majority as an adviser to President Donald Trump, has used a sprawling network of opaque nonprofits to fund groups advocating for ending affirmative action, rolling back anti-discrimination protections and allowing state legislatures unreviewable oversight of federal elections.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">As Massimo Faggioli notes, the new head of the US Catholic bishops' conference, Timothy Broglio, is <i>directly connected </i>to Leonard Leo and other hard-right Catholic influencers and shakers with deep pockets, who pose a threat to American democracy and are determined to undermine Pope Francis as he seeks to rehabilitate Catholic social teaching. Leo is not only Catholic: he belongs to the secretive, wealthy Catholic cult called Opus Dei, which has explicit theocratic aspirations. At the Federalist Society, Leo has for some years now been the Supreme Court kingmaker. The bloc of right-wing Catholics now controlling the court include several with close ties to Opus Dei.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And the money Leo is using to influence the direction of the Supreme Court is, Kroll, Perez, and Ramaswami underscore, money flowing "mostly through so-called dark money groups, which don’t have to disclose their donors. They are required to reveal the recipients of their spending in their annual tax returns, which are released to the public, but often those are also dark money groups or other entities that have minimal disclosure rules."</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-55569431542207399982022-12-16T10:39:00.004-06:002022-12-16T10:40:17.915-06:00The Ongoing Musk-Twitter Story: A Compendium of Commentary — "Glaringly Obvious Silencing Campaign Against Credible Journalists" and Brain Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X15t7lFBeFE" width="320" youtube-src-id="X15t7lFBeFE"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So much to say about the ongoing débacle that is Twitter under Elon Musk's ownership. As with Donald Trump, the minute you think he/it has gotten the worst that is possible, a new low arrives — with Musk and Twitter yesterday, shutting down the accounts of journalists who have dared to criticize him. I'm chronicling the Musk-Twitter story on <a href="https://toad.social/@wdlindsy">my new Mastodon page</a>, where you're welcome to follow me if you wish. Here's a selection of items I've shared there:<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@DavMicRot@mastodon.social/109503905343054052">David Rothschild</a></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">For a brief moment Twitter was a unique platform where thought leaders in politics, academia, journalism, business, came together to yell at each other, dialogue, and engage with voters, customers, anyone with an idea they wanted to share. It was not always civil, it was not always productive, but it gave people a voice, it inspired as much as it infuriated. I am so sorry that Elon Musk burned it down, but hopeful that new platforms will emerge that learn & grow from Twitter's ashes.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/">Charlie Warzel</a>: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Whether intentionally or not, Musk has, in effect, been governing Twitter using the classic Frank Wilhoit <a href="https://slate.com/business/2022/06/wilhoits-law-conservatives-frank-wilhoit.html">maxim</a>: "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Put differently, the billionaire has been advancing a long-running right-wing political project <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/legal-right-to-post-free-speech-social-media/672406/">described recently</a> by my colleague Adam Serwer as a "belief in a new constitutional right. Most important, this new right supersedes the free-speech rights of everyone else: the conservative right to post." ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Musk is interested in preserving the political values and systems that keep him on top as a revered member of culture. It’s a philosophy that the writer John Ganz has <a href="https://johnganz.substack.com/p/the-emerging-tech-lash?s=r">described</a> as "bossism" or "bosses on top." For Musk, right-wing activism serves that role.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And a predictable outcome of what Musk is doing on Twitter: after he smeared Twitter's former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth — who is openly gay and Jewish — with filthy insinuations about pedophilia, Roth had to flee his home due to threats he received. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/12/tech/twitter-files-yoel-roth/index.html">Here's Donie O'Sullivan at CNN</a>, whose account Musk shut down last evening, reporting on that story recently. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-child-porn-qanon/">Joseph Menn</a> notes that in smearing Yoel Roth, Elon Musk used QAnon tactics and placed Roth's life in danger. Menn writes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Several internet safety experts said that Musk’s comments put Roth at grave risk. Roth, who is openly gay, worked past Musk’s October takeover. He then resigned and said Musk’s hands-off approach to moderation was increasing danger to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/29/tech/yoel-roth-twitter-elon-musk">users</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"He’s putting Yoel’s life in danger and he knows it," tweeted Alejandra Caraballo, an instructor at Harvard Law School. Roth did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In imputing nefarious motives to Twitter’s former managers and saying a <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601275244710621184?s=20&t=wUsxjE6Vk-9rZAjdG3cWDg">crime</a> had been committed, Musk adopted techniques used by the QAnon conspiracy movement, which falsely claims that Democrats and elites are running child sex abuse networks.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://popehat.substack.com/p/goodbye-twitter">Ken White of Popehat</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The last straw was Elon Musk sending lunatics and bigots against former employees and leaning into conspiracy theories. So I’m exercising my free speech and free association and leaving, and shuttering the account.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://gregolear.substack.com/p/a-bridge-too-far-right">Greg Olear</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">In the last six weeks, Trump has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/story-trumps-explosive-dinner-ye-nick-fuentes-rcna59010">broken bread with grotesque anti-Semites</a>, Kanye West has come out as a full-on Hitler apologist, and Musk has done almost every single terrible thing I said he’d do. "It’s inescapably, incontrovertibly clear now that Elon Musk is a bad actor, an agent of chaos. If he’s not working on behalf of hostile foreign powers—either knowingly or as a useful idiot—he is one of the world’s biggest assholes.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/anti-lgbtq-hate-has-increased-twitter-elon-musk-officially-acquired-company">Media Matters has found</a> that prominent anti-LGBTQ accounts' “groomer” rhetoric has exploded in reach since Musk's takeover – retweets of their use of the slur have increased over 1200%. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/12/12/1142399312/twitter-trust-and-safety-council-elon-musk">As AP reports (via NPR)</a>, on 12 December under control of Elon Musk, Twitter shut down its Trust and Safety Council. This was an advisory group of about 100 independent civil, human rights, and other organizations whom Twitter convoked as a group in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm, and other problems on the platform.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://cdt.org/insights/joint-statement-on-the-disbanding-of-the-twitter-trust-and-safety-council/">Center for Democracy and Technology</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">We, who are former members of the Twitter Trust & Safety Council, condemn the dramatic changes to, & arbitrary enforcement of, content moderation policies & practices at Twitter, including the abrupt disbanding of the Council on Monday night….</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@philmyboots@mastodon.social/109523050486716705">Phil Lee</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">This is significant ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The German office for data protection and freedom of information hosts the official #Mastodon server for government departments </p><p style="text-align: justify;">They are now calling for all ministries on the server to put their focus on Mastodon</p><p style="text-align: justify;">They are also asking ministries which are not yet on Mastodon to join as soon as possible</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@MeidasTouch@mstdn.social/109513822100532522">Meidas Touch</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;">In the past 24 hours, Ukrainians have been been blocked from signing up for Twitter using their phone numbers and using 2FA and accounts tracking Russian oligarchs' jets have been suspended.</div><p style="text-align: justify;">What happens on Twitter can seem like a sideshow, but Elon Musk's actions are a direct threat to democracy.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@saint_rebel_ukraine_@mastodon.world/109522462540280593">Rita Armstrong</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Dear fellow Mastodon users,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">in the light of recent bans of Ukrainian accounts on #Twitter, I’ve joined this platform to continue spreading breaking news about #Ukraine. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">🚨Follow for updates on the Russian war on Ukraine. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@tomwatson@newsie.social/109520986670496494">Tom Watson</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">It's time for the US Federal government to exit Twitter. It cannot publish on a censorship/disinformation channel. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@MikeSmith@spore.social/109501305263930800">Bill Comeau</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">PSA: Twitter is no longer an acceptable platform for science or moderation of views. I will be increasingly posting from mastodon and reducing my twitter presence.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> My goal is to leave twitter by end of January at latest, after I have done my best to inform Canadians about the ⤵️</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/16711629099853c5d8d4f0191/raw">Oliver Darcy</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The bans also raise a number of serious questions about the future of the free press on Twitter, a platform that has been referred to as a digital town square. <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Will news and media organizations remain on the platform, while Musk hastily bans their reporters without explanation? Will they pull their reporters? Their content? And what will major advertisers such as <b>Apple</b> and <b>Amazon</b> do?</span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://cjr.org/podcast/the-tow-centers-emily-bell-musks-twitter-is-openly-hostile-to-journalists-what-should-we-do.php">Emily Russell</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">“It’s a bit like a bad developer moving to your town and changing everything without actually asking the people who live there,” Emily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, said about Musk’s Twitter takeover on this week’s <i>Kicker</i> episode.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Musk’s ownership of Twitter, Bell told Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of the <i>Columbia Journalism Review</i>, creates serious problems for journalists who rely on the site for developing sources, finding stories, and driving readership. It’s not safe to do journalistic business on the platform anymore. Twitter’s Trust and Safety Team is being “eviscerated,” Bell noted in an <a href="https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/elon-musks-twitter-what-does-it-mean-for-journalists.php">article</a> for CJR; direct-message inboxes, a convenient arena for chatting with sources, are no longer protected from nefarious breaches of privacy, and there’s no board to keep a watchful eye on Musk’s operations. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@kandersonus@mastodon.social/109520933816773518">Kyle Anderson</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">A glaringly obvious silencing campaign against credible #journalists and the valuable coverage they provide just happened.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Is it time to consider staying on #Twitter complicity through silence?</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X15t7lFBeFE">CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan</a>, whose Twitter account was shut down with no explanation yesterday, tells Anderson Cooper, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Musk seems to be just stamping out accounts that he doesn't like.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://joycevance.substack.com/p/silencing-the-journalists ">Joyce Vance</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">[T]he action Musk took [in shutting down accounts of journalists critical of him] is about suppressing free discussion of ideas and about democratic values in a society where advancing technology offers unprecedented opportunities for expressing ideas, but also, at least in the case of private ownership of an entity like Twitter, for one man to silence anyone he wants to, on a whim, and without any obligation to disclose why.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/16/tech/musk-censors-press/index.html">Sally Buzbee</a> of <i>Washington Post</i>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The suspension of Drew Harwell’s Twitter account directly undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech. Harwell was banished from Twitter without warning, process or explanation, following the publication of his accurate reporting about Musk. Our journalist should be reinstated immediately.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@MrMeritology@infosec.exchange/109521005587361139 ">Russell Cameron Thomas</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Reporters who have tweeted about tonight's suspensions (bans) are now getting suspended themselves, including @w7voa Steve Herman, Chief National Correspondent at Voice of America</p><p style="text-align: justify;">(The Night of Elong Knives is not over.)</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/in-banning-journos-elon-musk-continues-to-show-exactly-who-he-is">David Kurtz</a> concludes that in banning journalists, Elon Musk continues showing us exactly who he is:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Broken, petulant, emotionally stunted rich white men are nothing new. What might be new is that decades of regressive tax policy, feckless anti-trust enforcement, and market worship by policymakers have created an untethered and unaccountable new billionaire class.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/11/2141291/--Prosecute-Fauci-Musk-aligns-himself-with-the-far-right-and-Twitter-is-now-dangerously-unsafe">Hunter</a> mocks media narratives about Elon Musk which suggest he's a "complicated" man whose motives at Twitter re murky:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Musk may spend the majority of his days engaged in obsessive self-promotion, but his politics are materially no different from the politics of the Koch brothers or other billionaire political gadflies. Musk's politics are "the government should do things that help me make money, and should not do things that might cost me money." ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">His politics are not in doubt: He seeks to promote misinformation by the far-right while using his authority as Twitter's owner to "expose" the supposed liberals inside Twitter who sought to keep the most dangerous misinformation off the platform.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The two brands of conspiracy theorists he has most favored, pandemic hoax promoters and election 'fraud' conspiracy theorists, are both responsible for violence and deaths.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://aaronrupar.substack.com/p/elon-musk-chappelle-booed ">Aaron Rupar and Noah Berlatsky</a> dissect the faux populism of Elon Musk. It's about punching down at the marginalized to assert his "right," as the man on top, to control despised others and not be checked by them. They write,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Musk, as a rich white man, sees himself as rightfully at the top of a traditional hierarchy of power. Nothing he does, or can do, is overreach.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">If his employees criticize him, and he fires them, swarms of reactionary accounts on Twitter will race to his defense, insisting that workers who are not completely subservient to their corporate overlords deserve to be destroyed. If he targets trans people over and over, noted <a href="https://www.them.us/story/dave-chappelle-ricky-gervais-transphobic-comedy-netflix">transphobe</a> Dave Chappelle will trot him out on stage as a hero.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Chappelle and Ye are both Black, but they can bond with Musk and his fanbase over their deserved elevated status as Christians, as cis people, as wealthy men. In contrast, marginalized people who dare to speak up for themselves, or who simply want to live their lives without being insulted, tormented, or brutalized, are pilloried as vaunting elitists who must be confronted, overthrown, destroyed."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Black athletes like quarterback Colin Kaepernick and basketball player Britney Griner who protest police violence against Black people are labeled as entitled and ungrateful. LGBT people are pilloried for their 'lifestyle' choice, as if being queer is a luxury good. In fact, <a href="https://www.irp.wisc.edu/resource/the-complexity-of-lgbt-poverty-in-the-united-states/">LGBT poverty rates are higher</a> than those of cis straight people — as you’d expect, since LGBT people are stigmatized, discriminated against, and may not have support from homophobic family members.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://jimstewartson.substack.com/p/inflicting-stupid">Jim Stewartson</a> offers powerful insight into what Elon Musk is about with his acquisition of Twitter. Stewartson notes <a href="http://southsidemessenger.com/bonhoeffer-on-stupidity-entire-quote/">a letter</a> the German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer sent to friends on the 10th anniversary of Hitler's becoming chancellor of Germany.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Bonhoeffer wrote,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this to happen to them."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">It's not, in many cases, that people are born stupid: the problem is that people are <b>made</b> stupid or that they choose to allow themselves to be made stupid.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Stewartson proposes that Elon Musk is banking on this human characteristic of deliberately choosing stupidity, with his recreation of QAnon on Twitter — and this is why he acquired this influential international opinon-making and information-spreading network. He's all about making as many of us stupid as he possibly can.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And it will work if we allow it to work, if we allow Musk to keep doing this to all of us.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-files-elon-musk-shadowbanning-censorship/">Katherine Alejandra Cross</a> notes, Musk and others claim that his release of the "Twitter Files" constitutes radical transparency. In truth, it's transparency theater, meant to distract us from how he's consolidated power at the platform, and how capriciously he exercises it.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/13/2141585/-Elon-Musk-is-about-to-learn-that-liberals-not-his-new-deplorable-pals-buy-Teslas">Kos at Daily Kos</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Elon Musk has decided to literally destroy his personal brand—and Tesla’s along with it—in his bizarro turn toward the QAnon dark side.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/15/1065013/twitter-brain-death/">Abby Olheiser</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>People don’t die in an instant. Death is, instead, a process of shutting down</b>. You stop breathing; your organs stop working, bit by bit. Your brain ceases to function. Brain death is permanent, but your heart can still keep beating on its own for a time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The state of Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover feels like this sort of brain death: the processes that keep it online are somehow still beating, but what Twitter was before Musk is never coming back.</p></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-83833356806577082192022-12-08T10:40:00.001-06:002022-12-08T10:40:31.004-06:00Pope Francis on Women Priests and Related Recent News Items: "I do not know whether to laugh or cry at Pope Francis’ suggestion about women’s position in the Church"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBXJLuirPLlobE62Z66bb0Zx_pScl48qg_T8GXjpXlfnJ-BYJr6MO4ILJ_gh_hb5moKYaivvNnCdsJ1xM7qSnnu3xzQ6DFW8Ht14gfHt7X5XXc2J5Y56gvbNRaLQ4coLwIYEd_MlYRYZUdXAqNd6SB6gpnooQX3U5KI2R0jlnjP2PZeQXJGwjWCg/s2240/20061006-03-032-Altar-12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1680" data-original-width="2240" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBXJLuirPLlobE62Z66bb0Zx_pScl48qg_T8GXjpXlfnJ-BYJr6MO4ILJ_gh_hb5moKYaivvNnCdsJ1xM7qSnnu3xzQ6DFW8Ht14gfHt7X5XXc2J5Y56gvbNRaLQ4coLwIYEd_MlYRYZUdXAqNd6SB6gpnooQX3U5KI2R0jlnjP2PZeQXJGwjWCg/s320/20061006-03-032-Altar-12.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Altar of Veit Stoss, descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, St. Mary's Church, Krakow, Poland, photo by Robert Breuer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veit_Stoss_altarpiece_in_Kraków#/media/File:20061006-03-032-Altar-12.JPG">at Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As Virginia Saldanha, "<a href="https://www.ucanews.com/news/why-i-find-popes-ideas-on-women-priests-disturbing/99625">Why I find pope’s ideas on women priests disturbing,</a>" notes, Pope Francis recently nonsensically (and all over again) said that men in the Catholic church are meant to follow a "Petrine principle" that allows men — but not women — to be ordained, run things, and mirror Christ. Women are called to follow a "Marian principle" and mirror the feminine church, not — heaven forfend! — the male Christ. (Translation: women are called to serve). <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">She writes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">As a woman, I do not know whether to laugh or cry at Pope Francis’ suggestion about women’s position in the Church. How can an institution that is ruled solely by men be "woman"? How can such an institution be the "spouse" of Christ? … When Pope Francis says "we need to come up with a theology on women," does he mean the male leaders come up with a theology of women?</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">I'm afraid that's exactly what Francis <i>does</i> mean. When he talks about women, he's every bit the octogenarian ordained man who has spent his life in all-male clerical circles and who does not understand how silly and wrong-headed the gender thinking and official thinking about sexuality of his church is. Nor does he understand that the clock has run out for protecting and making excuses for priests who abuse minors. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Been there, done that, and people are going to keep walking away if it continues — as they absolutely <i>should</i> do. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">If the pope wants the reform of the church he claims he wants, it has to start with the core of the problem: the clericalist system, which places all power in the hands of ordained men, excludes women from ordination, teaches nonsense like men are called to rule and women are called to serve, and tries to force the complex reality of human sexuality into a ludicrous little "natural law" box that makes sex all about procreation and privileges heterosexual people over queer ones.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This Catholic discussion about the place of women in church and world is absolutely not unrelated to one Mallory Challis offers recently in <i>Baptist News Global. </i>In<i> "</i><a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/why-these-christian-men-believe-women-shouldnt-have-the-right-to-vote/">Why these Christian men believe women shouldn’t have the right to vote</a>," Challisreports on men (you'll be shocked— not! — to learn they're straight white pastors) who think the right to vote should be taken from women, and why they think this:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">It is becoming increasingly clear that there are sects of men who would like to repeal the 19 Amendment because, since women are coming to the polls more consistently than men, women have an increasing impact on election results.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, women are making it harder for men to easily get what they want. Further, women who vote for Democrats are getting in the way of Republican victories.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And as these discussions roll on and on — again, not unrelated — Trevor Project finds the following with its <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2022/assets/static/trevor01_2022survey_final.pdf">2002 national survey on LGBTQ youth mental health</a>:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"> And:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Rates of suicidal thoughts have trended upward among LGBTQ young people over the last three years. </p></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">This, as the right-wing (and Catholic) bloc on the Supreme Court signals that it wants businesses to be allowed to discriminate against and violate the human rights of LGBTQ people if their owners claim "sincere religious belief" as their warrant for doing so….</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-11048993873092428502022-12-07T10:52:00.002-06:002022-12-07T10:52:33.634-06:00Jemar Tisby's "White Nation Under God" Series: Final Two Episodes Now Available<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Ta8zdN1ZNw" width="320" youtube-src-id="6Ta8zdN1ZNw"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The final two segments of Jemar Tisby's valuable "White Nation Under God" series discussing white Christian nationalism and its role in U.S. political life now have been placed online. Episode 4, entitled "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ta8zdN1ZNw&t=7s">How Christians Can Resist White Christian Nationalism</a>," features Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Amanda Tyler focuses on how white Christian Nationalists use Christianity as cover for their anti-democratic and repressive ideology, in that way challenging other Christians to resist this misuse of their religion. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://jemartisby.substack.com/p/wnug-ep-4-how-christians-can-resist">Jemar Tisby comments</a>: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about white Christian nationalism—the threat to democracy, how it harms the witness of the church, the violence that supports it exclusionary visions—but we are not helpless in the face of this dangerous ideology.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">People of conscience and people of faith can resist white Christian nationalism. We can learn how to identify it. We can point it out to others who may not be aware. Most of all, we can present in our words and our lives a better way to live and love our neighbors.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">In episode 5 of the series, Chuck Armstrong, who formerly collaborated closely with right-wing radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, addresses the topic, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPzDKsryyrY&feature=emb_logo">How I Escaped the Web of White Christian Nationalism</a>." As the synopsis of this video at YouTube states, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">White Christian Nationalism is not merely a set of beliefs, it is a net that ensnares real people. At one time, Chuck Armstrong, a dedicated Christian, worked closely with far-right radio host and Congressional Medal of Honor winner (under Trump), Rush Limbaugh. As Armstrong matured in his faith and had more contact with marginalized and oppressed people, he realized he had been deceived into following a pernicious belief system. This is his journey into and out of White Christian Nationalism.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://jemartisby.substack.com/p/wnug-ep-5-how-i-escaped-the-web-of">Jemar Tisby adds</a>, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">In episode 5 and the finale of our “White Nation Under God” series, you’ll hear Chuck Armstrong candidly and vulnerably talk about his upbringing, his rise to the heights of influence in conservative talk radio, his time as a staff member at a mega church, as well as the profound changes in life and vocation he has experienced in the past several years.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Chuck’s story is one of hope, courageously standing for one’s principles, and the possibility of escaping the web of white Christian nationalism.</p></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-42023070449231646062022-12-07T10:34:00.004-06:002022-12-07T10:34:55.216-06:00In News: No Joy in Trumpville, Warnock Victory, Why Right Needs Hunter Biden, and Hate Speech on Twitter<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj5odczPFXdEaj5mb4q4Is24PAA88PZQ4F5a3Pe_In0dkyuELKVRrlscgi75izKyJ3jKEOkuQbEEwRJrRgu11MITTXJ8B_xRr3ykMbIyu4XONpSMlMrSoim3O8dfskSvTMsy7H2d8qVE1yYZWDOxqpZ2-SDEwiZTfHiURJIm9tsjvI9nAXtuuAwg/s320/A_stack_of_newspapers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj5odczPFXdEaj5mb4q4Is24PAA88PZQ4F5a3Pe_In0dkyuELKVRrlscgi75izKyJ3jKEOkuQbEEwRJrRgu11MITTXJ8B_xRr3ykMbIyu4XONpSMlMrSoim3O8dfskSvTMsy7H2d8qVE1yYZWDOxqpZ2-SDEwiZTfHiURJIm9tsjvI9nAXtuuAwg/s1600/A_stack_of_newspapers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_stack_of_newspapers.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jay Kuo, "<a href="https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/there-is-no-joy-in-trumpville">There Is No Joy in Trumpville</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">This has been a disastrous week—one for the record books, truly—in Trumpland. Three separate calamities went down this week, and we would be remiss to focus on just any one of them.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@rbreich@masto.ai/109469198407794036">Robert Reich quoting Kyle Griffin</a>: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">THE TRUMP CORPORATION:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">1 SCHEME TO DEFRAUD IN THE FIRST DEGREE - Guilty</p><p style="text-align: justify;">2 CONSPIRACY IN THE FOURTH DEGREE - Guilty</p><p style="text-align: justify;">3 CRIMINAL TAX FRAUD IN THE THIRD DEGREE - Guilty</p><p style="text-align: justify;">4 CRIMINAL TAX FRAUD IN THE THIRD DEGREE - Guilty</p><p style="text-align: justify;">5 CRIMINAL TAX FRAUD IN THE FOURTH DEGREE - Guilty</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Lauren Gambino, "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/06/trump-organization-guilty-verdict-tax-fraud">Trump Organization guilty of tax fraud, New York jury finds</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">A jury in New York has convicted the Trump Organization of criminal tax fraud in a major blow for the former president.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</a> was not personally on trial, prosecutors insisted he was fully aware of the 15-year scheme in which they said executives were enriched by off-the-books perks to make up for lower salaries, reducing the company’s tax liabilities."</p></blockquote><div><p style="text-align: justify;">Robert Reich, "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/06/georgia-senate-runoff-warnock-walker-robert-reich">The Georgia Senate runoff is a referendum on Trump’s zombie grasp on America</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The biggest loser in a Warnock victory won’t be his Republican rival, Herschel Walker.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It will be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</a>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Walker’s entire candidacy was a Trump creation – not unlike Trump University, Trump Airline, Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks.</p></blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Tom Nichols, "<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/12/herschel-walker-is-the-new-normal/672377/">Herschel Walker Is the New Normal</a>":</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Walker’s candidacy is a reminder of just how much we’ve acclimated ourselves to the presence of awful people in our public life. Although we can be heartened by the defeat of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/a-pennsylvania-lawmaker-and-the-resurgence-of-christian-nationalism">Christian nationalists</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/17/kari-lake-refuse-concede-arizona-governor-election-republican">election deniers</a> and other assorted <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/16/politics/kristina-karamo-michigan-secretary-of-state-candidate/index.html">weirdos</a>, we should remember how, in a better time in our politics, these candidates would not have survived even a moment of public scrutiny or weathered their first scandal or stumble.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Mona Charen, "<a href="https://www.thebulwark.com/why-the-right-needs-hunter-biden/ ">Why the Right Needs Hunter Biden</a>," writes that the right needs the Hunter Biden story to assuage its guilt at excusing and promoting Trump, throwing away integrity by bucketloads as Trump keeps going even lower than anyone imagined possible. She states,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The right has a deep psychological need for the Hunter Biden story. They desperately want Joe Biden to be corrupt and for the whole family to be, in Stefanik’s words, 'a crime family' because they have provided succor and support to someone who has encouraged political violence since his early rallies in 2015, has stoked hatred of minorities through lies, has used his office for personal gain in the most flagrant fashion, has surrounded himself with criminals and con men, has committed human rights violations against would-be immigrants by separating children from their parents, has pardoned war criminals, has cost the lives of tens of thousands of COVID patients by discounting the virus and peddling quack cures, has revived racism in public discourse, and attempted a violent <i>coup d’etat</i>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">They know it. It gnaws at them. That’s why the Hunter Biden story is their heart’s desire.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Daily Kos, "<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/2/2139685/-Initial-research-confirms-hate-speech-skyrocketing-on-Twitter-and-you-ain-t-seen-nothing-yet">Initial research confirms hate speech skyrocketing on Twitter ... and you ain't seen nothing yet</a>," states,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">As reported by Sheera Frengel and Kate Conger for <i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/technology/twitter-hate-speech.html#commentsContainer">The New York Times</a></i>, research conducted by multiple organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and the Center for Countering Digital Hate confirms that since Musk took over the social media behemoth, hate speech on the Twitter platform has surged to unprecedented levels. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Frengel and Conger write,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Before <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/technology/elon-musk-twitter-plan.html">Elon Musk</a> bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Seth Abramson, "<a href="https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/major-breaking-news-twitter-no-longer">Twitter No Longer Has a Content Moderation Policy—and Appears to Be Hiding First Amendment Violations By the Trump White House While Viciously Targeting Twitter’s Progressives</a>":</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">What Trump’s historic, pro-<b>Sedition</b> outburst <i>did</i> ... was open up a can of worms at Twitter—revealing the dark story of how content moderation at Twitter has now collapsed in service of a far-right partisan agenda that Elon Musk (for his own, eldritch reasons) seeks to advance posthaste.</p></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-11016942548114714432022-12-05T09:58:00.003-06:002022-12-05T09:59:14.895-06:00So the Former US President and Current GOP Candidate for the Presidency Calls for a Coup and the End of US Democracy — And?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSxWPMR-G13JPWTUtY90Q-fAHPpjvdzsm4uZuMEf_ZgKfDEHgTHaIefTXMtDu6jnscc0f6exwL7VgY7Qdt1jImC_34s8poiLoosOk0nqOA10fQ6ZowFHbzAL_JXP3rFF_rciD3KTL3fkWDBHNZ0HrNXJ6foOnUmaIsP_DtdJG8bGj06AVUPXBMQ/s1118/President_Donald_J._Trump_embraces_the_American_flag_at_CPAC_2019.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1118" data-original-width="544" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSxWPMR-G13JPWTUtY90Q-fAHPpjvdzsm4uZuMEf_ZgKfDEHgTHaIefTXMtDu6jnscc0f6exwL7VgY7Qdt1jImC_34s8poiLoosOk0nqOA10fQ6ZowFHbzAL_JXP3rFF_rciD3KTL3fkWDBHNZ0HrNXJ6foOnUmaIsP_DtdJG8bGj06AVUPXBMQ/w195-h400/President_Donald_J._Trump_embraces_the_American_flag_at_CPAC_2019.jpg" width="195" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Donald J. Trump 2 March 2019, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD; official White House photo by Tia Dufour, <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/President_Donald_J._Trump_embraces_the_American_flag_at_CPAC_2019.jpg">at Wikimedia Commons</a></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Heather Cox Richardson, "<a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-3-2022">Letters from an American: December 3, 2002</a>":</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The leader of the Republican Party has just called for the overthrow of our fundamental law and the installation of a dictator. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Joyce Vance, "<a href="https://joycevance.substack.com/p/are-the-frogs-boiled">Are the Frogs Boiled?</a>":</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Trump is calling for a coup. Again. He’s calling for the end of American democracy.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is, of course, nothing new from him. But it is done here in a precise manner. It is not open to a benign interpretation. His intent is clear. It’s in print.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the real question today is for elected officials in the Republican party. Do you still support Trump? We’re entitled to know. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Mark Sumner, "<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/3/2139823/-Trump-calls-for-a-termination-of-all-rules-even-the-Constitution-to-install-him-as-dictator">Trump calls for a 'termination of all rules … even the Constitution' to install him as dictator</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">There’s a huge danger in dismissing any of this as "oh, that’s just Trump. Ignore him." Because no one has done more to normalize racism, misogyny, xenophobia, anti-science, anti-journalism, anti-facts language than Trump. Every time he speaks like this and it doesn’t generate a powerful backlash, Trump has succeeded in moving the line for 'political speech' a little further toward having 'Kill them all, let God sort them out' as the platform of the Republican Party.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">As Steven Beschloss, "<a href="https://america.substack.com/p/when-the-danger-is-plain-to-see">When the Danger is Plain to See</a>," writes, dismissing what either Donald Trump or Kanye West says by shrugging and saying they're mentally unwell is highly dangerous: both men know exactly what they're doing and what they intend to do with their inflammatory words. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's far too easy — and irresponsible — to laugh and shrug and say, "Well, what can you expect from people who are unhinged?" We let them and also <b>ourselves</b> off the hook when we do this, since what they are saying and doing requires pushback from us, not laughter and shrugs.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@dangillmor@mastodon.social/109458112884192669">Dan Gilmour writes</a>: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The top editors at the NY Times and Washington Post don't think a former president's (and very possible next president) attack on America's political system this week is all that noteworthy. Oh they covered it, in "Nothing to see here, move along" fashion.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Democracy got a reprieve in November, but Big Journalism remains relentlessly unwilling to defend it. Understand: This is not going to change.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Ronald Brownstein, "<a href="The GOP Can’t Hide From Extremism">The GOP Can't Hide from Extremism</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Robert P. Jones, the president and founder of the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute and the author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/white-too-long-the-legacy-of-white-supremacy-in-american-christianity-robert-p-jones/13737642?ean=9781982122867"><i>White Too Long</i>,</a> a history of Christian nationalism, … believes Christian-nationalist beliefs are spreading more widely among Trump’s followers because they believe "they are at a kind of 'last stand' moment" for their vision of a white-Christian-dominated America.'The unwillingness of party leaders, time and time again, to denounce Trump for giving these voices support and cover has allowed them to move into the center of the GOP today," Jones wrote to me in an email. "I would be surprised if we didn’t see increasing numbers of GOP party leaders openly associating with these voices in the future, particularly leading up to the 2024 presidential election."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Aaron Rupar and David Lurie, "<a href="https://aaronrupar.substack.com/p/trump-bannon-antisemitism-globalists-soros">How Bannon and Trump normalized antisemitic bigotry</a>":</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Even if Trump recedes from the political stage, the GOP is all but certain to remain poisoned by bigotries that Trump introduced into the mainstream of Republican ideology for the foreseeable future. The normalization of antisemitism within the Grand Old Party is a particularly noxious case in point.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Peter Beinart, "<a href="https://peterbeinart.substack.com/p/antisemitism-is-rising-because-bigotry">Antisemitism is Rising because Bigotry is Rising</a>":</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">I’m a little concerned that the conversation about antisemitism has had a tendency to exceptionalize antisemitism and disassociate it from other questions of bigotry against other people. ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I think the central lesson that we need to understand from the major incidents of antisemitism that have taken place in recent years in the United States is that most of the time antisemitism comes as part of a package of bigotry, a package of hatred, a package of fundamental worldview that denies the basic humanity and equality of different groups. ... </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Antisemitism arises as part of a larger stew of bigotries based on a fundamental disrespect for the humanity and equality of a whole range of groups that are seen as threatening White male Christian straight dominance. It’s always been that way.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://toad.social/@andrewstroehlein@mastodon.social/109442695711664321">Andrew Stroehlein writes</a>,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The Holocaust did not begin with killing; it began with words. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Genocides do not start with mass murder. That's where they end up. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Genocides & other mass atrocity crimes begin with words - specifically, with powerful people dehumanizing a minority. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Once they are seen as less than human, anything is possible, even mass murder. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">👉 You can speak out loudly today for the rights of others, or you can stay silent & wait for tomorrow, when your rights will be taken away too.</p></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-32242103427364511882022-12-02T16:57:00.001-06:002022-12-02T16:57:15.087-06:00I'm Now on Mastodon — Please Feel Free to Connect<p style="text-align: justify;">I've now succeeded in setting up an account on Mastodon.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">My handle there is @wdlindsy@toad.social</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Please feel free to connect to me there if you wish. I'm hoping to reconnect via Mastodon to as many of the friends and conversation partners I had on Twitter, with whom I've lost touch after I left Twitter when Musk acquired it. I'm a total novice at Mastodon and don't yet fully understand how it works, but I'll try to get up to speed quickly. Hope to connect there with readers of this blog who are on Mastodon.</p><div><br /></div>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-21320016776314177712022-12-02T15:24:00.003-06:002022-12-02T16:03:02.186-06:00Lawrence O'Donnell on Kanye West: "Vile, Deep, Relentless Hatred of Jewish People and Public Praise of Adolph Hitler — Who Donald Trump Was Having Dinner with Last Week"<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/egZ_6CeDslQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="egZ_6CeDslQ"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Lawrence O'Donnell states,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the day when every apologist for Kanye West, everyone who blames his medication, everyone who blames Kanye West's claimed mental health issues which have never actually been medically documented — this is the day those people are out of apologies for Kanye West. No more pleas for sympathy for mental health issues that have never been medically documented publicly by anyone. No medical records, no physicians, no one who has treated him has ever spoken publicly about these conditions. If you believe he has mental health conditions, you believe Kanye West. That's who has told you that he has mental health conditions, and these mental health conditions that he claims under no circumstances cause antisemitism.</div></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-16806918967318563862022-12-02T10:19:00.004-06:002022-12-02T10:19:49.015-06:00Trump, Fuentes, West, White Nationalists and Anti-Semites: "Don't Normalize This"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTOYiMJiQLpYrm0PeNt8p7-GI7ychbeZlTsHZBAPNG4OkCGxWr3iKVtCtSPijoE832kScI7nrWuiR5DgrdW7QypHKRWbIWfBlC4gCPbWs1lwBLtQ_jIuq_XKAo70npr1nQdnwSv9S8fvo6TaMI-FdZzryUT9TtggW4gwWOoqjjv_-o1LVBPv-Dw/s1538/Screenshot%202022-12-02%20at%2010.17.56%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1538" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZTOYiMJiQLpYrm0PeNt8p7-GI7ychbeZlTsHZBAPNG4OkCGxWr3iKVtCtSPijoE832kScI7nrWuiR5DgrdW7QypHKRWbIWfBlC4gCPbWs1lwBLtQ_jIuq_XKAo70npr1nQdnwSv9S8fvo6TaMI-FdZzryUT9TtggW4gwWOoqjjv_-o1LVBPv-Dw/w400-h143/Screenshot%202022-12-02%20at%2010.17.56%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/normalize">Merriam-Webster dictionary</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Heather Cox Richardson, "<a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-1-2022">Letter from an American, December 1, 2022</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Today, Ye, also known as Kanye West, appeared with right-wing white supremacist Nick Fuentes on Alex Jones’s show InfoWars, and was so vile even Jones began to push back. Eventually, Ye praised Nazis and Adolf Hitler. Then, and only then, did the Twitter account of the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee delete its tweet of October 6, 2022, that read: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.”<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Charlie Sykes, "<a href="https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/kanye-clarifies-a-few-things">Kanye Clarifies a Few Things</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>Alex Jones</b>: "You're not Hitler. You're not a Nazi."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>Kanye West</b>: "Well, I see good things about Hitler… I love everyone, and Jewish people are not gonna tell me ‘You can love us and you know what we’re doing to you with the contracts, what we’re pushing with the pornography.’</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>But this guy that invented highways, invented the very microphone I use as a musician. You can’t say out loud this person ever did anything good, and I’m done with that. I’m done with the classifications. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>Especially Hitler</b>.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">And Nazis?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"They did good things too. We have to stop dissing the Nazis all the time.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"The Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the interview moved forward, Kanye said he doesn't like the word "evil" associated with Nazis, adding: "I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>So, how the hell is <i>your</i> week going?</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Historians will note that all of this occurred while the dinner companion of the former President of the United States was appearing on conspiracy monger Alex Jones’s <i>InfoWars</i> show, <i>wearing a black stocking face mask</i>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, the guy is barking mad. But it was, nevertheless, a clarifying moment. The House GOP decided that, on second thought, it was unwise to celebrate this bizarre bigot as a giant of the New Conservatism.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Philip Bump, "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/01/gops-bet-kanye-west-has-gone-very-bad/">The GOP’s bet on Kanye West has gone very bad</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">[T]he Twitter account of the House Judiciary Committee’s Republican caucus — an account weirdly focused on engaging in culture war fights — quietly deleted the tweet it had offered in October praising three men then seen as important anchors of the political right.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">“Kanye. Elon. Trump,” that tweet <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20221014023117/https://twitter.com/judiciarygop/status/1578174670854975491?lang=en">said</a>, referring to Ye, the then-new owner of Twitter and the former president. The goal of the tweet, very obviously, was to claim the popularity of those individuals as their own. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Peter Baker, "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/us/politics/trump-extremism-candidacy.html">Trump Embraces Extremism as He Seeks to Reclaim Office</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Analysts and strategists see Mr. Trump’s pivot toward the far right as a tactic to re-create political momentum that the former president may be losing, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/briefing/trump-presidential-announcement.html">at least some polls</a> showing him trailing Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida for the Republican nomination in 2024. ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Trump has long flirted with the fringes of American society as no other modern president has, openly appealing to prejudice based on race, religion, national origin and sexual orientation, among others. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Aaron Rupar and Noah Berlatsky, "<a href="https://aaronrupar.substack.com/p/trump-fuentes-ye-dinner-gop-2024-primary">The Trump/Ye dinner suggests the GOP primary will be worse than you think</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The buffoons, the neo-Nazis, and the narcissistic grifters aren’t easily denounced, because the buffoons, the neo-Nazis, and the narcissistic grifters are a significant chunk of the GOP. Trump is their creature, but he didn’t birth them. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that he can’t necessarily control them.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Jonathan Chait, "<a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/donald-trump-nick-fuentes-ye-white-nationalist-nazi-anti-semite-ron-desantis.html">Trump Brought Nazis Into the GOP. DeSantis Won’t Expel Them. White nationalism is not just a Trump problem</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Trump’s most passionate supporters include many white nationalists and people who feel solidarity with white nationalists. If DeSantis attacks them, he loses the support of a vital faction within the party.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">His supporters wish to pretend this isn’t the case, and reliably depict any criticism of DeSantis as a bad-faith plot to prop up Trump. This is how they rationalize DeSantis’s courtship of every far-right faction: the election deniers, the anti-vaxxers, the white nationalists. The need to win justifies anything. Working from that premise, they project their own bad faith onto DeSantis’s critics. They must maintain Trump’s authoritarian and racist coalition intact, and they must have a story to tell themselves about how this choice was forced upon them by the liberals.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Thomas Zimmer, "<a href="https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/far-right-extremists-assemble">Far-Right Extremists Assemble</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The American Right will not break with Trump over this – nor will the Republican Party, even though some GOP elites have come out with critical statements. Just like Trump himself, they understand that this would alienate a good chunk of the base. As always, it is really worth listening to what Republicans think animates the conservative base, what drives their coalition. Whatever else we want to say about the current state of the Republican politics: The GOP is a party in which white nationalism and white supremacy are such powerful forces that hanging out with Holocaust-denying, leading white power activists will not get you ostracized.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Francine Prose, "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/02/trump-dinner-antisemites-nick-fuentes-kanye-west">Trump had dinner with two avowed antisemites. Let’s call this what it is</a>": </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">A 2024 candidate broke bread with Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist, and Ye, who has praised Hitler. Don’t normalize this.</p></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-88138473111440283152022-12-01T15:53:00.003-06:002022-12-01T15:54:58.391-06:0050+ Colorado Springs Clergy Issue Letter Calling for End to Religion-Based Homophobic Hate Speech — No Catholic Clergy Sign the Letter<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDMYODOUkiypc6LR_x_tKy5LeTXOCyNxVwCp0pcSAfumknCKFH3RzNIFgHdqJqKyCT2oxtRdAYOnbaRDBZ2R2_r86i6gR0Iq3Tz7-0zKSwnVRL5dIxMUYcthvlxVyltKcgQbFfq-HMLyTzRD5BmGfhiCe6HGcSFPLsgAUcXQAhLgv5X7_gnzTrCw/s1300/Weyden,_Rogier_van_der_-_Descent_from_the_Cross_-_Detail_women_(left).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="980" data-original-width="1300" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDMYODOUkiypc6LR_x_tKy5LeTXOCyNxVwCp0pcSAfumknCKFH3RzNIFgHdqJqKyCT2oxtRdAYOnbaRDBZ2R2_r86i6gR0Iq3Tz7-0zKSwnVRL5dIxMUYcthvlxVyltKcgQbFfq-HMLyTzRD5BmGfhiCe6HGcSFPLsgAUcXQAhLgv5X7_gnzTrCw/s320/Weyden,_Rogier_van_der_-_Descent_from_the_Cross_-_Detail_women_(left).jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from Rogier van der Weyden's "Descent from the Cross," 15th century, Prado Museum, Madrid, at <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weyden,_Rogier_van_der_-_Descent_from_the_Cross_-_Detail_women_(left).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mark Wingfield writes, "<a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/colorado-springs-clergy-speak-out-against-religious-hate-speech-that-leads-to-violence/">Colorado Springs clergy speak out against religious hate speech that leads to violence</a>":<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">In a city mainly known as home to highly influential evangelical ministries that preach against the LGBTQ community, more than 50 clergy have co-signed a letter calling for an end to religious hate speech.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">He adds, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">[N]ot all Christians in Colorado Springs follow that gospel of fear and exclusion. The clergy who signed the letter expressing support for the Colorado Springs LGBTQ community come from diverse congregations ranging from Baptist to Mormon to Lutheran and Episcopalian and Methodist and nondenominational."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">The clergy letter with signatories' names <a href="https://gazette.com/opinion/letters-a-letter-from-local-clergy-on-the-club-q-shootings/article_28ca93ca-6c67-11ed-b1a5-0b414d2f5506.html?fbclid=IwAR0TqYn9Zsv3RDz4sLZEz6K1F-465nOd0Wf11XnK6KdbbBsPKWRkUcPMKG8">appeared in the Colorado Springs </a><i><a href="https://gazette.com/opinion/letters-a-letter-from-local-clergy-on-the-club-q-shootings/article_28ca93ca-6c67-11ed-b1a5-0b414d2f5506.html?fbclid=IwAR0TqYn9Zsv3RDz4sLZEz6K1F-465nOd0Wf11XnK6KdbbBsPKWRkUcPMKG8">Gazette</a>.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>NOT A SINGLE CATHOLIC CLERGYMAN SIGNED THIS LETTER </b>— though the Catholic bishop of Colorado Springs <a href="https://www.newwaysministry.org/2022/11/23/after-colorado-shooting-bishops-responses-muted-other-catholic-leaders-speak-out/">issued a statement focusing largely on the need for gun safety laws</a>. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued no statement, other than to republish the statement of Colorado Springs Bishop Golka.</p><div style="text-align: justify;">To repeat: <b>NOT A SINGLE CATHOLIC CLERGYMAN SIGNED THIS LETTER.</b></div>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-92212792667025443352022-12-01T08:44:00.002-06:002022-12-01T08:44:20.375-06:00As Respect for Marriage Act Passes Senate, Religious Groups (Even Mormons) Support it — But Not U.S. Catholic Bishops<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG0xhiSwLNXGir-1xOzszN0kzJx9DUJFibd_QYcZFYRhXOblSvaAHCEKgJfL4ERgCddel-dwGHaGeBYJUYJJ_eP9UwA9_PkOdj8A4_WTQ83pXMUCvS0HUpl9JI81Msc-eLTsS8XwL63Xi7AuBH4ij9do6IpdoUWh7cb0qW08iAJMV5SntyFLj5ow/s1930/Screenshot%202022-12-01%20at%208.40.42%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="1930" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG0xhiSwLNXGir-1xOzszN0kzJx9DUJFibd_QYcZFYRhXOblSvaAHCEKgJfL4ERgCddel-dwGHaGeBYJUYJJ_eP9UwA9_PkOdj8A4_WTQ83pXMUCvS0HUpl9JI81Msc-eLTsS8XwL63Xi7AuBH4ij9do6IpdoUWh7cb0qW08iAJMV5SntyFLj5ow/w400-h176/Screenshot%202022-12-01%20at%208.40.42%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PRRI, "<a href="https://www.prri.org/press-release/new-survey-shows-strong-support-for-lgbtq-rights-championed-in-the-equality-act/">New Survey Shows Strong Support for LGBTQ Rights Championed in the Equality Act</a>"<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">As the Respect for Marriage Act gained Senate confirmation, Shawna Chen wrote ("<a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/28/same-sex-marriage-religious-groups">Over 20 religious groups call on Senate to codify same-sex marriage</a>") about the more than twenty religious groups that urged the Senate to protect same-sex and interracial marriages. Chen ended her report by stating, <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also notably <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/16/mormon-church-same-sex-marriage-law">expressed support for</a> the bill.</p></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Even the Mormons</i>: the religious groups calling on the Senate to codify same-sex marriage included even the Mormons, who do not appove of same-sex marriage but want the rights of LGBTQ people respected, they say.</div><p style="text-align: justify;">Mormons vote heavily Republican.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Even the Mormons told the Senate that there are strong religious reasons to protect the rights of same-sex couples.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>But not the U.S. Catholic bishops.</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">They continue to lobby to have LGBTQ people stripped of rights, though a large majority of Catholics support LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Why do they behave this way? Scapegoating LGBTQ people diverts attention away from the bishops' horrendous moral and pastoral failure in the abuse crisis.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The bishops also dance to the tune of wealthy right-wing Catholics who want to attack and undermine Pope Francis because of his rehabilitation of Catholic social teaching — and scapegoating the LGBTQ community is a big part of the agenda of those wealthy right-wing U.S. Catholics.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This is a disgrace for U.S. Catholicism. Nick Fuentes, an outspoken white supremacist and anti-semite Holocaust denier who dined with former president and now presidential candidate Donald Trump recently, <a href="http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2022/11/as-former-us-president-and-now.html">is a Catholic and has stated</a> that his toxic political views are rooted in his Catholicism.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Will the U.S. Catholic bishops speak out about him? I am not holding my breath until they do so.</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-39632469344812609002022-12-01T08:18:00.000-06:002022-12-01T08:18:21.274-06:00Commentary on the Train Wreck That is Twitter and Musk: Rich White Men and the Thrill of Breaking Good Things<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkvzh5w_w081m2e1QbS_j8kTYJ9fnY_CGQCwHlcOzdDLrGmGp3xVK0ifIGdXT2bJQzFSaFE_YZeSi-sMlLTgOfrFgQjPqbCxwkDoudLZk9cIQMBfLsYkehvGTj4NyMwbRL1ZuO-KKh6nfu5aLVM1da73pvDohM0SeyvQsysmrx51UxFw0eGavfNA/s320/Kapten_Grants_barn_1910_David_Ljungdahl_069.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="320" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkvzh5w_w081m2e1QbS_j8kTYJ9fnY_CGQCwHlcOzdDLrGmGp3xVK0ifIGdXT2bJQzFSaFE_YZeSi-sMlLTgOfrFgQjPqbCxwkDoudLZk9cIQMBfLsYkehvGTj4NyMwbRL1ZuO-KKh6nfu5aLVM1da73pvDohM0SeyvQsysmrx51UxFw0eGavfNA/s1600/Kapten_Grants_barn_1910_David_Ljungdahl_069.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption">David Ljungdahl illustration in 1910 Swedish edition of Jules Verne's "Captain Grant's Children," from <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kapten_Grants_barn_1910_David_Ljungdahl_069.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">I've deliberately held off sharing commentary on the train wreck that is Twitter — and Elon Musk — because 1) rich white men like him are allowed to suck too much air out of the room of public discourse as it is; 2) I refuse to let myself become obsessed with Musk's nonsense and the endless psychoanalyzing of him by commentators trying to figure out why a developmentally stunted narcissist with a hugely inflated ego seems to enjoy destroying a promising if flawed institution permitting valuable public discusssions and information sharing.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I miss Twitter. I have no Schadenfreude at watching what Musk is doing to it — and doing so quite deliberately. I see what's happening as tragic. I find Mastodon opaque and my several attempts even to sign up at one of its servers have all come to mysterious dead ends. Maybe this is a sign that I'm just too old to be fussing around trying to talk to people about politics, culture, and religion online. It's not as though my feeble voice counts for that much anyway.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">But since I do read news daily, I've been keeping track of some commentary about Twitter and Musk that seems important to me, and want to share that commentary now: a number of commentators including Alejandro Caraballo of Harvard Law's cyberlaw clinic (cited by Taylor Lorenz, "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/24/twitter-musk-reverses-suspensions/">‘Opening the gates of hell’: Musk says he will revive banned accounts</a>") are noting the price to be paid by all of us, but especially vulnerable communities, by Musk's decision to throw the Twitter gates wide open to trolls, haters, and liars. Caraballo states,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">What Musk is doing is existentially dangerous for various marginalized communities. It’s like opening the gates of hell in terms of the havoc it will cause. People who engaged in direct targeted harassment can come back and engage in doxing, targeted harassment, vicious bullying, calls for violence, celebration of violence. I can’t even begin to state how dangerous this will be. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Lucian K. Truscott, "<a href="https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/this-is-all-you-need-to-know-about">This is all you need to know about the odious Elon Musk</a>," points to the dangers those relying on Twitter for information now face after Musk chose to stop enforcing its COVID misinformation policy:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Twitter has stopped saving lives and is now actively engaged in helping to kill people. It took one year and nine months and the insane ego of one man: Elon Musk. He’s the difference between these two headlines from the Associated Press. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Dateline March 1, 2021: Twitter cracks down on COVID vaccine misinformation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Dateline November 29, 2022: Twitter ends enforcement of COVID misinformation policy.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Lies are loose on Twitter about COVID, folks. Stuff like vaccines will kill you, the disease is a conspiracy against white people, wearing a mask is fascism. It was out there before, and it’s out there again, and people will die because of it.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">As Deion Scott Hawkins notes ("<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-twitters-expected-demise-would-make-it-harder-to-publicize-police-brutality-and-discuss-racism-195146">Black Twitter’s expected demise would make it harder to publicize police brutality and discuss racism</a>") Black Twitter is an important information source for African Americans, one in five of whom are on Black Twitter — 28% of Twitter's users are African American — and Musk's destruction of this information network and of regulations that prevent sharing of disinformation and incitement of violence will have direct effects for the African-American community:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">A world without Black Twitter is a world void of robust, rapid and authentic information sharing on police brutality within the Black community. As a result, it is my belief that the community will be systemically silenced and exposed to increased levels of police-related violence.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">This is why <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/30/twitter-elon-musk-black-women-resistance/">Karen Attiah says she's not leaving Twitter</a>: for Black women, there are <i>already </i>far too few safe spaces around, too few public spaces to have important conversations with each other. She's staying to fight for the safe if very fragile space Black women have constructed on Twitter to talk together and share information important to the Black community and Black women in particular.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, Jelani Cobb (also African American) of Columbia Journalism School has left Twitter: in "<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-i-quit-elon-musks-twitter">Why I Quit Elon Musk’s Twitter</a>," he explains:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Participating in Twitter—with its world-spanning reach, its potential to radically democratize our discourse along with its virtue mobs and trolls—always required a cost-benefit analysis. That analysis began to change, at least for me, immediately after Musk took over. His reinstatement of Donald Trump’s account made remaining completely untenable. Following an absurd Twitter poll about whether Trump should be allowed to return, Musk reinstated the former President. The implication was clear: if promoting the January 6, 2021, insurrection—which left at least seven people dead and more than a hundred police officers injured—doesn’t warrant suspension to Musk, then nothing else on the platform likely could.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Musk’s ownership is markedly different from the one that preceded it. He took the company private, and Twitter is no longer a publicly traded entity. In a sense, the users whose tweets drive what remains of its shrinking ad revenue are his most important employees. My sepia-tinted memories of what Twitter was—or could possibly have become—dissolved at the prospect of stuffing money in the pocket of the richest man on the planet. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Marcy Wheeler wrote several days ago ("<a href="https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/11/26/flipping-the-bird-social-media-update/">Flipping the Bird: Social Media Update</a>") about why she had locked her Twitter account, possibly temporarily and perhaps permanently, and was now focusing on Mastodon:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">As a number of people have noticed, I locked up my Tweets the other day. That was a response to my inclusion on a list that fascists are attempting to deplatform on Twitter. I’ve heard from a number of people who don’t have an account and who only check Twitter for my Tweets. At least until the fascist campaign ends, and possibly for good, I plan to primarily post my journalistic tweets at Mastodon. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Keep in mind that Musk is doing all of this — driving people from the platform, tearing up safeguards against hate speech and dissemination of toxic lies — <i>despite </i>serious obstacles from significant institutions like the EU: as Laura Kayali and Mark Scott write, "<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-twitter-elon-musk-covid-disinformation-thierry-breton-brussels-europe-pandemic/">Europe warns Musk he’s top of their watch list</a>," </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Twitter’s <a href="https://transparency.twitter.com/en/reports/covid19.html#2021-jul-dec">decision</a> to stop enforcing its COVID-19 misinformation policy has put another bullseye on Elon Musk's back. ...</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Since Musk’s takeover of the social media platform in October, almost all of the company’s content moderation and public policy teams have either been fired or left the company. EU and national regulators have fretted Musk no longer has enough staff to enforce the bloc’s current and future content rules.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">And, as Musk has to know, advertisers are fleeing the platform, too, because Musk's decision to flood the zone with s—t, to cite Steve Bannon, is quite simply bad for business: as Hannah Murphy, Alex Barker, and Arjun Neil Alim, "<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/126219c4-5ac0-4c8b-996c-307c24a4cd61">Twitter’s $5bn-a-year business hit as Elon Musk clashes with advertisers</a>," report,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Multiple top advertising agencies and media buyers told the Financial Times that nearly all of the big brands they represent have paused spending on the social media platform, citing alarm at Musk’s <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1cfad930-d712-4ca6-bf57-f4632b6c6db1">ad hoc approach</a> to policing content and decision to axe many of its ad sales team.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Why is Musk doing all this, tearing up an important if admittedly imperfect public space for safe exchange of information and ideas, cutting off his own economic nose to spite his economic face? In my view, he's doing so because he <i>can. </i>For super-rich men who vastly overrate their importance to the world and their intellect, while remaining stuck in adolescence, there's simply the thrill of breaking things and making people who have been mean to those men wince and cry. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And he's doing so because, like many of his tech-bro peers, he's been tracking rightward politically for quite some time now, and we haven't paid attention until he got his hands on the Twitter toy: as Zachary Basu, "<a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/12/01/elon-musk-twitter-republican-conservative-politics">The Republicanization of Elon Musk</a>," writes,</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Musk <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/26/elon-musk-ron-desantis-election/">revealed last week</a> that he would vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if he runs for president in 2024, calling the GOP rising star a "sensible and centrist" option.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">• The day before the midterms, Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589639376186724354?s=20&t=f-aNYTjlXhWD7MP_XZQLHg">urged</a> "independent-minded voters" to vote for Republicans, citing the need to "balance" a Democratic presidency.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">• The billionaire <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1596083744728928257">insists</a> he is "neither conventionally right nor left" — but he also <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1597405399040217088?s=20&t=qdV8CSHBOk33nwH1dUtgJw">says the threat to free speech</a> allegedly posed by Democrats has triggered a "battle for the future of civilization" that trumps all other policy issues.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">• COVID restrictions, high taxes and regulations in California also spurred an ideological shift right, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/07/tesla-moving-texas-elon-musk-california">a physical move to Texas</a>, now the home of Tesla's headquarters.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">• Musk's disillusionment with the Democratic Party has only accelerated — or at least, it has become more public — since his acquisition of Twitter.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">As long as our society gives such power and reverence to men — notably white ones, especially heterosexual ones — who happen to own a lot of stuff, we'll continue seeing and suffering from behavior like Musk's. And Trump's.</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-20327387715315480992022-11-30T17:39:00.002-06:002022-11-30T17:39:09.577-06:00Kristin Du Mez's Response to Jay Green on her "Illiberal" Positions: More Nonsense from the "High Priests of White Dude (Increasingly Reactionary) Centrism"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmx__Fhx2Bw4OduUm2DGBLeFKt9FdBoz99bThoNaL6DBnfLbSXyOCQ8l9IcCKd-HIPWxhtusPAe-rJkK23tg7AIfYHumbB2UW7TwD8uwQ2LgplWzbhB3oVvXw_8y1HxJ4Zh1yY3TJRNZrxazlulOS0DAWz0g1Lk8UrO1aqbGfrGndvWjxOjb_n-A/s2250/Clever,%20but%20schoolteacher%20whipped%20him%20anyway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="2250" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmx__Fhx2Bw4OduUm2DGBLeFKt9FdBoz99bThoNaL6DBnfLbSXyOCQ8l9IcCKd-HIPWxhtusPAe-rJkK23tg7AIfYHumbB2UW7TwD8uwQ2LgplWzbhB3oVvXw_8y1HxJ4Zh1yY3TJRNZrxazlulOS0DAWz0g1Lk8UrO1aqbGfrGndvWjxOjb_n-A/w400-h78/Clever,%20but%20schoolteacher%20whipped%20him%20anyway.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I am glad that <a href="https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/on-why-i-dont-think-im-illiberal">Kristin Du Mez has responded</a> con gusto to the charge of Jay Green of Covenant College that she, Jemar Tisby, Shane Claiborne, Danté Stewart, and Beth Allison Barr are illiberal religious thinkers who represent the left-wing equivalent of Rod Dreher, R. R. Reno, Eric Metaxas, Dinesh D'Souza, Charlie Kirk, and the crew at The Daily Wire. She writes,<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Excuse me, but <i>what the hell?</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jemar, Shane, Danté, Beth, and I are the equivalent of Metaxas and Kirk? We have embraced a "whatever it takes" mentality, abandoning any principled commitment to liberalism, tossing aside the rules of liberal democracy? We prefer coercion to persuasion?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I'm sorry, but the guy who spends his days protesting state-sponsored executions, embraces poverty, and lives by an ethic of nonviolence is your model of an authoritarian-leaning Maximalist? Shane Claiborne doesn't have a coercive bone in his body.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Apart from Shane, the rest of us are, coincidentally, not white men. And we happen to write about race and gender.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Two black men, two white women, and Shane Claiborne, who is a white male: in the false-equivalency, both-sidesist game Jay Green is playing, this group "balances" the likes of Reno, Metaxas, D'Souza, Kirk et al. Jemar Tisby <a href="https://jemartisby.substack.com/p/maximalists-for-love">also issued a powerful response to Green</a> today, noting, essentially, that he appears to know almost nothing about the Black church and the prophetic role it has played for a very long time in promoting "liberal, multi-racial, inclusive democracy," <i style="font-weight: bold;">not </i>illiberalism.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Du Mez and Tisby have defended themselves eloquently, and I have nothing to add to what they say, except that I am beyond tired of seeing white men (like myself), usually straight ones, set themselves us in our intellectual and journalistic life as arbiters of (self-serving) "objectivity" and (self-serving) "moderation" and (self-serving) we-see-both-sides-clearly.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Who anointed these men as such omniscient, disinterested and objective demi-gods who live above the fray and set up the definitions and classificatory systems for the rest of us, never acknowledging the unmerited privilege they derive from their gender, complexion, and sexual orientation? I'd like to <a href="http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2022/11/thomas-zimmer-on-scourge-of-both-sides.html">point again to</a> Thomas Zimmer's recent commentary that Parker Molloy captures in a posting entitled "<a href="https://www.readtpa.com/p/thomas-zimmer-twitter-thread?utm_source=substack&publication_id=2282&post_id=86782756&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true">The Self-Important Arbiters of Reason and the Scourge of 'Both Sides</a>,'" Zimmer takes to task the </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">type of pundit [who] operates from the conviction that he is capable of superior judgment across a wide variety of fields and subjects - from pandemic response to American history, from the climate crisis to how (not) to tackle racism.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These self-proclaimed Arbiters of Reason owe much of their prominent status to the idea that they are unbiased, dispassionate truthtellers, all about data, all about objectivity, brave enough to give us the unvarnished facts in a heroic effort against conventional wisdom.</p></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">And then he states, absolutely correctly, it seems to me, </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: justify;">That’s a big part of why these white male pundits are obsessed with pointing out supposed fallacies of leftwing activism and spend much of their energy on scolding “the Left”: To their own elite status, these lefties constitute more of a threat than rightwing authoritarians.</div></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This kind of "objective" "centrist" analysis in journalism and in sectors of the academy are a large part of why we are where we are in the U.S. now, with the hard right normalized and normalized again, as the supposedly dangerous "woke" left is castigated repeatedly by what Zimmer rightly calls "the high priests of white dude (increasingly reactionary) centrism."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Enough. It's long since time that for this nonsense — only straight white men see the world objectively, and the entrance of women, black people, and LGBTQ people into the public square, with perspectives enriched and not distorted from their historical experiences represents a threat to objectivity and balanced centrist analysis that sees "both sides" clearly? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please.</div>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-38278394443558911282022-11-30T10:31:00.000-06:002022-11-30T10:31:01.068-06:00Conviction of Oath Keepers Militia Leader Stewart Rhodes for Seditious Conspiracy: Commentary<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEfKqolxYIoFxolkiKXfPOk3YksUXqpy8j4Q5sk2eWwl1eoAkUUOSo4anGn6qoI4_QDW6oJk2VIzp3DxkOD9ZFqCyWdPyMz_Z9XsbigJHaOK1K4P8ymemLA-wVpEf75UworktIu-7kcPv13spvACKdVsK6hGrc0ii0Sm4DAQdN6idx7KVNoxwog/s1266/Screenshot%202022-11-30%20at%2010.29.21%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="1266" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEfKqolxYIoFxolkiKXfPOk3YksUXqpy8j4Q5sk2eWwl1eoAkUUOSo4anGn6qoI4_QDW6oJk2VIzp3DxkOD9ZFqCyWdPyMz_Z9XsbigJHaOK1K4P8ymemLA-wVpEf75UworktIu-7kcPv13spvACKdVsK6hGrc0ii0Sm4DAQdN6idx7KVNoxwog/w400-h108/Screenshot%202022-11-30%20at%2010.29.21%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sedition">Merriam-Webster dictionary</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Significant news in the U.S. yesterday as a federal jury yesterday convicted Oath Keepers militia leader Stewart Rhodes and one of his subordinates of seditious conspiracy for leading the Oath Keepers in their attack on the capitol in D.C. on 6 January 2021. Alan Feuer and Zach Montague write, "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/29/us/politics/oath-keepers-trial-verdict-jan-6.html">Oath Keepers Leader Convicted of Sedition in Landmark Jan. 6 Case</a>":</div><span><a name='more'></a></span><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Seditious conspiracy is the most serious charge brought so far in any of the 900 criminal cases stemming from the vast investigation of the Capitol attack, an inquiry that could still result in scores, if not hundreds, of additional arrests. It carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Nestler stated during the trial, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">They claimed to wrap themselves in the Constitution. They trampled it instead. They claimed to be saving the Republic, but they fractured it instead. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Oath Keeper Graydon Young testified, </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">I guess I was acting like a traitor against my own government.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Charlie Sykes, "<a href="https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/it-was-a-conspiracy-and-it-was-sedition">It Was a Conspiracy. And It Was Sedition</a>," comments: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">[T]he government now has a stiff wind at its back, and the walls of Mar-a-Lago are likely smeared again with ketchup.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Politically, the verdict also resets the frame for the January 6 Committee by underlining the gravity of the attack. It was not, after all, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/565223-gop-rep-defends-description-of-normal-tourist-visit-on-jan-6/">“a normal tourist visit”</a> or a largely peaceful protest of Constitution-loving patriots. <b>It was a <i>seditious</i> assault on the very foundations of the Republic.</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>And the chief conspiracist is still at large </b>(emphasis in original).</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Heather Cox Richardson writes in her <a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-29-2022">Letter from an American today</a>: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">That a jury has now found two people guilty of seditious conspiracy establishes that a conspiracy existed. Former federal prosecutor Randall D. Eliason, who teaches law at George Washington University, told reporters Spencer S. Hsu, Tom Jackman, and Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: “Now the only remaining question is how much higher did those plans go, and who else might be held criminally responsible.” </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Pilar Melendez and Kelly Weill, "<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/oath-keepers-seditious-conspiracy-stewart-rhodes-trial-ends-with-verdict">Oath Keepers Boss Guilty of Sedition—and His Fam Celebrates</a>," report:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;">Rhodes’ estranged wife, Tasha Adams, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday she is “beyond happy” about the verdict.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">“He has absolutely never had to face a consequence in his entire life. This will be the very first time,” Adams added. “He's spent his life making others pay this was past due for him.” ...</p><p style="text-align: justify;">After the verdict was read, Rhodes’ son took to Twitter to respond to the conviction—by posting a link to a YouTube video titled “Happy New Year to you....IN JAIL!”</p><p style="text-align: justify;">“So much weight is off now,” Dakota Adams, who along with his mother and siblings has previously <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/05/12/exclusive-oath-keepers-leader-stewart-rhodes-children-speak">described attempting to escape an abusive life at home with Rhodes</a>, added in another tweet.</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">In my view, this analysis of Trump's choice to dine with white supremacist anti-Semite Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes is related: In "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/28/trump-dinner-nick-fuentes-mar-a-lago-white-supremacy/">How Trump is handing white supremacists huge propaganda victories</a>," Greg Sargent interviews historian Kathleen Belew, who has authored important work on white power movements. Sargent writes:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">By breaking bread with Fuentes, Trump handed white supremacists and white-power activists a major propaganda coup. It will be read by them as another sign that they are successfully infiltrating the far-right flank of mainstream GOP politics. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Kathleen Belew states:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: justify;">I think that is a significant and different step forward for the white power movement. It’s not just one person, it’s not just this cult of personality thing, it’s not just the Trump administration. That says the white power movement has become a permanent force within the GOP in some sense. It’s important enough an ideological current that other candidates won’t or can’t distance themselves.</p></blockquote>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859942738506247433.post-57519487820292010132022-11-29T11:58:00.003-06:002022-11-30T10:12:12.695-06:00Thanksgiving Dinner with the Forebears: Questions I'd Love to Ask<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaKiqrSrZZt2AMla-y45bnW8BZIOdIm4CVyWqLI9HgWJvQ7zcAb2V0wpkZbrG3ZDKzSZlw4qB6W8tRr-3U_UZFfY0X2DFvRNGlan7eiE9VkwFu-ZTOH06tIWzrpI2cgUpHqt50D25Oquq8aR3C6W8pnuQsJNVhwfkcCs8iMI2nsTTDnU1QqTNJIQ/s2274/Screenshot%202022-11-30%20at%2010.07.39%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="2274" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaKiqrSrZZt2AMla-y45bnW8BZIOdIm4CVyWqLI9HgWJvQ7zcAb2V0wpkZbrG3ZDKzSZlw4qB6W8tRr-3U_UZFfY0X2DFvRNGlan7eiE9VkwFu-ZTOH06tIWzrpI2cgUpHqt50D25Oquq8aR3C6W8pnuQsJNVhwfkcCs8iMI2nsTTDnU1QqTNJIQ/w400-h168/Screenshot%202022-11-30%20at%2010.07.39%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">A wild change of subject from my usual political-religious analysis (some might say rants): I don't want U.S. Thanksgiving to recede too far in the past without sharing some of my obsessions from another aspect of my life, researching my family tree. I offer this first tidbit because it amuses me, and will perhaps offer amusement to others. It shows how precise the focus of DNA research is becoming for those engaged in genealogical study — if, that is, you believe in the validity of this kind of analysis.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It hasn't really been a secret — to me, at least — that my Lindsey family's DNA connects in some way to the DNA of the ancient Irish high king Brian Boru. From the time male membersw of my Lindsey family including me began submitting our Y-DNA for analysis, we've known that our DNA has a genetic signature identifying us as what's called Irish Type III: our DNA shows decisively that we belong to a set of families called the Dalcassians who were closely associated with and had kinship ties to Brian Boru. This places our family roots back in southwest Ireland by the early medieval period.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Researchers who know more about the Dalcassians and Irish Type III families than I do have concluded that my Lindsey family, which was back in time a Lynch family, descends from what are called the O'Lynches of Thomond, kinsmen of Brian Boru lived in Brian Boru's period around Castleconnell in County Limerick and in the barony of Owney and Arra just across the county line from Limerick in Tipperary. Castleconnell is a bit under nine miles from Killaloe where Brian Boru was born.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">All this to say that just recently, I happened to click at the FTDNA site to see if there are any updates to that site's report regarding my Y-DNA results, and found that FTDNA has created a graphic appended to my Y-DNA results report showing exactly how I'm related to Brian Boru (see above).* The American immigrant ancestor of my Lindsey family is a Dennis Linchey who seems to have been born around 1700, and who came to Richmond County, Virginia, from Ireland in 1718 as an indentured servant. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Linchey is a variant spelling of Lynch, both being anglicized renderings of the Irish surname Ó Loingsigh. The spelling O'Linchey appears in the Richmond County, Virginia, court record showing my ancestor Dennis Linchey being indentured soon after he arrived with a group of other young Irish men from Ireland on a ship, the <i>Expectation</i>, that had sailed from Bristol, England, with English servants from the West Country, and had stopped along the coast of Ireland to pick up young Irish servants. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The surname spelling morphed from Linchey to Lindsey in Virginia. The given name Dennis passes down again and again in my Lindsey family right to me: it's my middle name, as it was my father's, his father's, my grandfather's uncle, that uncle's grandfather, and so on back to Dennis Linchey the young Irish indentured servant who arrived in Virginia in 1718, from where in Ireland, we do not know, except that we do know that our family's roots back in time are in southwest Ireland where Brian Boru and his Dalcassian relatives lived in Counties Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I have never done genealogical research because I want to find famous or aristocratic forebears, so the fact that DNA experts now think they can confidently show exactly how my Lindsey family connects to Brian Boru means nothing to me on that score. As we track our lineages back in time, <i>many of us </i>connect to so-called aristocratic forebears, since the gene pool from which we all descend becomes smaller and smaller and the odds of our descending from one of those folks increases.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In any case, did I say "indentured servant"? My Lindsey forebear came to America as a servant, and that means he was not likely born into a well-heeled or prominent Irish family, rather one that was economically deprived — or why else risk so much by sailing to America as a young man of likely around 18 years old to spend time working as an indentured servant on a plantation in Virginia before claiming his freedom and marrying and setting himself up on his own place?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">All this as prelude to sharing a little something I wrote right before Thanksgiving and shared with friends, which I entitled "Thanksgiving Dinner with the Forebears." As I wrote when I shared this piece, some weeks back, a a distant cousin of mine — but a cousin nonetheless: we who were shaped by the now waning traditional Southern culture don't do removed cousins — asked me, "If you could choose one ancestor to sit down for a meal and conversation with you, who would that be?"</p><p style="text-align: justify;">At the time, I couldn't really answer that question. I'm not sure I'd <i>like</i> a lot of them, to be honest. And above and beyond that, what is it I'd want to talk with any of them about? Where would be the common ground, so that we could even understand each other?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">At Thanksgiving time, <a href="https://america.substack.com/p/what-special-visitor-would-you-like/comments">Steven Beschloss asked that same question</a> at his Substack blog, telling his readers they'd 'be permitted to invite one or at most two ancestors to Thanksgiving dinner and for a cozy chat. Since I had now been invited twice to think about this matter, I decided play, and I wrote this little piece. I chose only direct ancestors, not siblings of direct ancestors who, in my family tree, are often more interesting than the family member from whom I descend. Here's my list and what I would have asked these ancestors if I could have hosted them at my dinner table this Thanksgiving:</p><p style="text-align: justify;">1. <b>Valentine Ryan and Bridget Tobin</b>: Did you really speak Irish when you came to this country in the early 1850s, as your grandchildren who reported their mother's native language on the 1920 census state? And what was it like to arrive in New Orleans on Christmas day 1852, Valentine, and in March 1854, Bridget — a world away from Inchacarran in County Kilkenny, Ireland?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">2. <b>Benjamin Green</b>: Who are you? Where did you come from? Where were you before you suddenly appeared on Long Cane Creek in Abbeville County, South Carolina, in June 1768 having land surveyed by Patrick Calhoun? Did you have some connection with the Calhouns, and is this why your son John, my ancestor, married Jane Kerr, niece of John Ewing Colhoun, and Jane and John managed John E. Colhoun's Keowee plantation and John's brother Benjamin tutored John E. Colhoun's children?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">3. <b>David Dinsmore</b>: Were you born in Ballymena in County Antrim, Ireland, as I've deduced? Why did you take the British side in the Revolution, and what happened to you after you found yourself exiled from South Carolina to Nova Scotia for that choice, then sold your Loyalist land grant, bought more land, and just vanished?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">4. <b>William Henry Snead</b>: Who are you? Where were you before you just appeared out of the blue in 1836 in Greene County, Georgia, marrying Caroline Scoggins and enlisting for the Creek War? Why do I find no DNA matches to Sneads who are not descended from you and your children? Is there some mystery your descendants have tried to hide, re: your ancestry?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">5. <b>Moses Batchelor</b>: Were you disfellowshipped from your Baptist church on the last Saturday in June 1872 in Hot Spring County, Arkansas, because you were drunk or because you were drunk in "<b>publick</b>," as church minutes say? And what did your second wife, Louisa Waters, the widow Robertson when you married her, whose father was a Baptist minister, think about that?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">6.<b> Robert Leonard</b>: What made you leave your British military unit and take the same rank of sergeant in a Frederick County, Maryland, militia — causing you then to die as a sergeant in the battle of Camden, South Carolina, as a Revolutionary soldier fighting against your own British soldier-compatriots?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">7. <b>Catherine Montgomery Calhoun</b>: What was it like, coming as a young wife and mother from County Donegal, Ireland, to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, then having your husband die there and trekking with your children up the Valley of Virginia to Wythe County, then down to Abbeville County, South Carolina, where you met a gruesome end at the age of 76, being massacred by the Cherokees in the Long Cane massacre?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">8. <b>Jane Brooks Lindsey</b>: How did you do it, cope with your husband's death at the young age of 42 (you were 39), nurse both of your parents in their deaths in the next two years, raise the 9 children left when your husband died in addition to the two older ones who had married, one of those children a newborn infant when your husband died? Where did you find the strength for such a life? In 1877, your daughter Sarah Lindsey Speake in Alabama wrote her sister Margaret Lindsey Hunter in Louisiana, saying, "I think often of what I used to hear our dear mother say she wanted, to live to see her children grown and after they were grown, she wanted to live to see her grandchildren grown." This makes me think you were a strong woman with a positive outlook on life. I also note that at your husband Dennis Lindsey's estate sale, you bought four volumes of the Methodist Magazine, a volume of John Wesley's sermons, a life of Wesley and notes, and two other lots of books — and I wonder if you were grounded in the strong Methodist faith of your father Thomas Brooks, a Methodist minister, and if this helped you remain strong.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">9. <b>Samuel Oldale</b>: Did you really have carnal knowledge of your step-daughters Anne and Betsey Hartley (and, allegedly, of Mary Chamberlaine), resulting in your being publicly whipped with Anne in Burlington County, New Jersey, on 20 February 1690 and losing your mill there — or were the accusations a ruse for Joshua Newbold to get his hands on that mill? You came to New Jersey from Handsworth, Yorkshire, England, with a bunch of Quakers; were you a Quaker, too?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">10. <b>John Lauderdale</b>: What petty larceny had you committed that caused you, a Revolutionary soldier, to be whipped at 1 o'clock in the afternoon on 27 June 1792 in Anderson County, South Carolina, serving on a county jury the very day you were sentenced (!)? And why did your Mauldin in-laws force you three years later to deed land to your children, claiming that you were wasting their inheritance from their Mauldin grandfather? Were you, as one Lauderdale researcher has surmised, "a mean old drunk"?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">11. <b>John Manning</b>: What's the real story of the July 1657 court hearing in Lower Norfolk County, Virginia, in which neighbors testified that you went to your tobacco house where your wife Mary had gone to fetch herbs to make a poultice for Mr. Davis's servant Bess, and found Mary on the floor with her skirts tossed up and James Danby "struggling" with her?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">12. <b>Francis Posey</b>: Minutes of Bridwell prison in London show you being sent by the Court of Governors to Virginia in 1628. Were you in that facility as one of the "disorderly poor," a petty offender, or a homeless child? And how did you rise to the status of a member of the House of Burgesses in Maryland after you came to the colonies?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">13. <b>Elizabeth Nottingham Monk</b>: Were Obedience Roberts and Elizabeth Church telling the truth when they testified in Northampton County, Virginia, in 1734 that you were cohabiting with Thomas Church, a free man of color? Yet the will of your husband William Monk in September 1749 appoints you, his "Loving Wife," executrix of his estate….</p><p style="text-align: justify;">That's enough for one Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe I ever host such a gathering of my forebears, I just won't show up but will print out this list of questions and have them all sit together at table and wrestle with the questions while I watch and listen on video monitor — with lots of wine and spirits to lubricate the conversation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">* FTDNA's report of my Y-DNA results has a share button attached, so I'm not divulging private DNA information in sharing this report — and, in any case, I'm sharing information from my own DNA report and no one else's, so I'm breaching the confidentiality and privacy of no one else.</p>William D. Lindseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07246026074693891965noreply@blogger.com0