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

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

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

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

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

The Guardian on Abuse in Church of England in Peter Ball Case: "A Reputation Deservedly Damaged"

Not to be missed: the Guardian editorial yesterday on the cover-up in the Church of England of Bishop Peter Ball's abuse of minors, including Neil Todd, who committed suicide after he was unable to get a hearing for his story among the powers that be in the Church of England. The Guardian writes:

"All I Hear in These Conversations Now Is Death": Queer People Continue Engaging World Religious Leaders and Their Institutions in Light of Orlando

.@JamesMartinSJ on solidarity w/#LGBT community in wake of #Orlando shooting | https://t.co/k58PvyCGhL pic.twitter.com/Ny6Ye1Uaan

— Ignatian Solidarity (@IGsolidarityNET) June 13, 2016

In what I just posted about Garrard Conley's book Boy Erased, I noted that one of the important developments both in the U.S. and internationally following the Orlando atrocity is that a significant conversation has developed about the interplay between toxic conservative religious ideas and anti-LGBTQ violence. As Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry said several days ago (I discussed these comments here), 

Diarmaid MacCulloch on Historians, Silence, and Sexual Orientation: "As a Gay Child and Teenager, I Also Effortlessly Developed . . . An Observer Status"

A few days ago, I made some connections between Diarmaid MacCulloch's book Silence: A Christian History (NY: Penguin, 2013), which I had just finished reading, and the silencing of abuse survivor Peter Saunders by the Vatican abuse commission, which has expelled him for speaking out about the inaction of Pope Francis vis-a-vis clerical abuse of minors and its cover-up. An interesting theme of Silence, and of MacCulloch's work as an historian in general, is how his growing up gay (and the son of an Anglican parson) informs his work as an historian.

United Methodists Discuss Anglican Communion's Sanctioning of Episcopal Church USA for Support of Same-Sex Marriage: Implications for UMC Future?

Robert Schotter writes, 

In the News: ACLU and Colleges Discriminating Against LGBT Students; Anti-LGBT Bills in State Legislatures; Pakistan Censors Gay Times Photo; Anglican Leaders Out of Touch; Dancing Priests and Nuns in Italy

Here's an omnium gatherum of stuff — related in my strange head, but perhaps it won't appear that way to you — that has caught my magpie's sharp eye in recent news: 

Recommended: Joe Biden on LGBT Rights, Catherine Wallace on Gay Marriage and Anglican Anxiety, Patricia Miller on What Pope Benedict Knew When

God bless Joe Biden (the section I've transcribed from his recent remarks at the World Economic Forum begins at about the 1.55 mark):

When Tea and Sympathy Are No Longer Nearly Enough: A Response to Archbishop Justin Welby's Apology to LGBT Community

On Sunday, at his Winsome, Lose Some blog site, Anglican priest Reverend Richard Haggis published an open letter to Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Here's its conclusion:

Diarmaid MacCulloch on Anger of Heterosexual Men Driving Religious Conservatism, and Mess Anglican Leaders Have Made for Themselves

I've shared these observations with you in the past. I think it might be helpful now to gather them together in one posting, following the recent decision of Primates 2016 to discipline the Episcopal Church USA for its full embrace of LGBT human beings as children of God equal to other children of God. These are three incisive statements by a member of Oxford's Faculty of Theology and Religion, historian Diarmaid MacCulloch. MacCulloch grew up in the household of an Anglican parson. He also happens to be openly gay.

Defining Christianity by Exclusion of LGBT Human Beings: "If This Is the Christianity They Want, Perhaps It Is Time for That Christianity to Die"

Thinking back this morning to Kaya Oakes's post-Obergefell essay last November: as she points out, anti-LGBT right-wing Christians have really lost the battle to exclude LGBT people from the circle of humanity and the church. But the more they recognize the futility of continuing this losing battle, the angrier — and more exclusionary — they become. 

Anglican Communion Sanctions Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop of ECUSA Responds: Commitment to Be an Inclusive Church Based on Outstretched Arms of Jesus on the Cross

As Chris Morley has reported to us in several comments, at its Primates 2016 meeting in Canterbury, the Anglican Communion chose yesterday to sanction the Episcopal Church USA for supporting same-sex marriage. For Episcopal News Service, Matthew Davies reports what the presiding bishop of ECUSA, Michael Curry, told his fellow bishops as they moved towards sanctioning ECUSA for supporting LGBT people and their rights:

Footnote to Previous Posting about "Furious Religion": Portland, Oregon, Evangelical Church Excluded for Welcoming LGBT Christians

Mark 1:41, Describing Jesus's Healing of a Leper

Earlier today, I wrote with regard to the pastoral letter issued today by the bishops of the Church of England and Pope Francis's homily to a consistory of cardinals last Sunday, 

Bishops of Church of England on "Furious Religion" and Scapegoating of the Other, Pope Francis on Jesus and Lepers: Where Is There Good News for Gay People Today?

Luke 5:13, Jesus's Healing of a Leper

It's interesting to read the pastoral letter that the House of Bishops of the Church of England published today side by side with Pope Francis's homily this past Sunday to the consistory of cardinals gathered in Rome as the pope made twenty new cardinals. In significant ways, what the bishops of the Church of England are saying overlaps with what Francis says in his recent homily to cardinals.

Gay Rights and the Challenge of 2015: The Price Gay Citizens Pay for Continued Foot-Dragging on Marriage Equality

Something else that matters to me as the turbulent year of 2014 ends and a new year begins: the challenge of combating deeply entrenched injustice against LGBT people in religious communities and the wider society. Here are some articles I've read in the past few days that strenghten my resolve to keep caring about this issue and struggling for justice along with others working to that end:

A Re-Posting from Christmas 2010: "Welcoming Churches and Homeless Wayfarers"

I first posted the following meditation on the day after Christmas 2010. I also posted it at my travel blog site, Never in Paradise, with the title "Welcoming Churches and Homeless Wayfarers." It seems to me appropriate to re-post this brief meditation now, as a statement about the discussion taking place in my Catholic church at present, regarding whether the church can or should welcome those who are gay. I wrote this from London on Christmas eve 2010:

Church of England's Choice to Accept Female Bishops: What Will Be the Effect on the Roman Catholic Church? Some Musings

As the Church of England votes at long last to accept women bishops, Catholic News Service, the USCCB's Pravda, is already (and predictably) complaining that this decision will impede ecumenical relations between the Roman and the Anglican churches. Interestingly, the New York Times today carries both an article by Stephen Castle noting that the step the Church of England is now taking will help move society in the direction of gender equity, and a lament by Cadence Woodland noting that the decision of the top men in the LDS church to crack down on open conversation about women's issues has led to the closing of what had been called "the Mormon moment," a moment of seeming openness to free discussion of women's and gay issues.

They Gave a Schism and Nobody Came: Commentary on Christian Right's Loss of Culture War vs. Gays in Europe and America, Transfer of Battle to Africa

This tells me that discussion of the anti-gay politics of the U.S. religious right has gone mainstream (and thank God for that development): for ABC's "Top Line" and Yahoo News this past week, Olivier Knox and Rick Klein interview Roger Ross Williams about his new movie, "God Loves Uganda." Williams tells Knox and Klein,*

Archbishop of Canterbury Admits Churches' Defeat in Culture War v. Gays: My Response

In his first address to the General Synod of the Anglican church, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby notes the "absurdity and impossibility" of the continued attempt of some sectors of the Christian churches to pretend that "overwhelming" changes in cultural attitudes about homosexuality have not taken place. He states, "We may or may not like it but we must accept that there is a revolution in the area of sexuality."*

Diarmaid MacCulloch on How Same-Sex Marriage Is Leaving the Bishops Behind

Diarmaid MacCulloch, "Same-Sex Marriage Leaves the Bishops Behind":

Angry Anglicans Swim Tiber to Rome: Maureen Fiedler and Lisa Fullam Examine Their Motives

At National Catholic Reporter and Commonweal, Maureen Fiedler and Lisa Fullam take a careful look at the implications of the Vatican decision to create a new "ordinariate" for  disaffected Anglicans/Episcopalians.  Both note that a primary motive of those Anglicans crossing the Tiber to Rome is their resistance to women's ordination and their refusal to accept the ordination of openly gay clergy.