Today's Guardian on Growing Backlash to Appeals to Cease Religious Gatherings, Fueled by Top GOP Leaders

Since it appears some people just do not intend to get what's going on with some communities of faith — churches, notably — in the US during the pandemic, and the serious dangers some behaviors are posing to all of us, I'm glad the media keep hammering away at the backlash movement to keep churches open where they are now open and hosting meetings, or to reopen them where they have been closed. This is a largely American phenomenon, and it speaks volumes about the kind of American Christianity, especially "pro-life" white Christianity, that placed Donald Trump in the White House.

This Has Happened: What to Make of Recent Chain of Events from Opus Dei-McCloskey to Cardinal Burke to Peter Steinfels to Archbishop Viganò?

So this has happened:

1. Jan. 7: Washington Post breaks Opus Dei-McCloskey story.

2. Jan. 8: Cardinal Burke mounts an attack on Pope Francis on German t.v., saying his response to the abuse crisis is "confusing." /1

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) January 14, 2019

Abuse of Vulnerable People and Churches: Recent Reports, from Baptists to Nuns Raped by Bishops and Priests to Jesuits to a German Princess Saving the Church

This is a collection of reports on the abuse situation as it is unfolding in various churches now. These are all recent statements, and not by any means a representative report on all that is happening on the sexual abuse front in religious groups right now. Stories are breaking on that front fast and furious — this is only my own selection of reports that have drawn my attention recently, for reasons that will be apparent as you read:

Mark Shea on What Viganò, Burke, and Bannon's Anti-Francis Gay-Bashing Is About: "This is About the Rich Seizing Control of the Church, not About the Protection of Victims"

Kavanaugh Has Exposed the Savage Amorality of America's Ruling Class https://t.co/PgdtZykKrw

— Mary Aktay (@maryaktay) October 6, 2018

Mark Shea, "1 Percenters attempt to buy control of the Church," hits the nail right on the head:

Latest Viganò Commentary: "Vatican Receives a Letter in *November 2000* Detailing a Mess of Allegations Against McCarrick. Three Months Later, Instead of Sanctions, St. JPII Gives McCarrick a Red Hat"

The Viganistas have an obvious timing problem. The secret sanctions was the clever solution to bridging the gap, but it may have been too clever by half. pic.twitter.com/xlI9xAFY6T

— Polycarpio✝️🙏 (@SuperMartyrio) September 6, 2018

In case you haven't been following every last bit of news about the Viganò story, I've done you the service of gathering a selection of recent commentary that updates what we've already discussed here. The story continues to develop right up to the present, with the denial published yesterday by Napa Institute co-founder Timothy Busch that he was involved in drafting Viganò's statement — Napa Institute, which gave shelter to disgraced St. Paul-Minneapolis archbishop Nienstedt after Viganò sought to shut down investigation of allegations that Nienstedt had been involved in activities very much like those for which Viganò is now scoring McCarrick. Here's more commentary:

Mary McAleese on "Fake Hetero Homophobes" Within the Clergy, and the Terrible Damage They Do

Stephen McDermott, "'I find them terrifying': Mary McAleese wary of gay priests and nuns who preach anti-LGBTI message":

End-of-Week Articles on Religion and Politics in Era of Trump: "Communities Devoted to Authoritarian Ideologies Are Grounded in Abuse"

More material on religious issues and politics in the era of Trump, which I've read in the past few days and want to recommend to you:

Things I've Read Recently About Religion and America Under Trump: "Dear White Christian Trump Supporters: We Need to Talk"

This is perfect. pic.twitter.com/IdUvMS5Fzc

— Jessi (@lovelyjessij) February 14, 2017

Things I've read in the past day or so, commenting on the dangerous political situation we're now living through in the U.S. and the world at large, and the role of religion and religious groups in this situation — statements I'd like to recommend to you:

Steve Bannon's White Ethnonationalist Worldview Undergirded by Alliance of U.S. Catholic Bishops with Right-Wing Evangelicals

In the Rachel Maddow video that I featured in a posting yesterday, did you notice Tim Russert grilling George W. Bush on 13 February 2000 about what Bob Jones, founder of Bob Jones University, publicly stated regarding his university's religious beliefs and why the university had banned interracial dating — while continuing to hold its hand out to receive federal funds prohibiting racial discrimination? I've captured the quote from Bob Jones that Russert read to Bush in a screen shot above.

Steve Bannon's Thick Ties to Cardinal Raymond Burke and Trumpist Catholicism: Recent Commentary

Since last October, When the BuzzFeed site provided a transcript of Steve Bannon's statements to a Vatican conference organized in 2014 by the Human Dignity Institute (the comments are captured in a YouTube video) we've known that Bannon's white ethnonationalist ideology links to white supremacist groups globally who want a bloody "holy war" against Islam in the name of Christendom. Bannon told the Vatican conference,

As White U.S. Christians Go to Church Today . . . .

Lauren Markoe at Religion News Service 

Another scrapbook item (above) to show the next generation when they ask (and they will ask: they have a right and obligation to do so), "Where were you and what did you do when Donald Trump rose to power?" and "Why did white Christians choose a man so eminently unqualified for the presidency, whose election released a torrent of hateful incidents directed at minorities?"

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: "I Look Forward to the Day When He Is President and My White Maleness Automatically Propels Me to the Front of the Line"

In response to Maureen Fiedler's National Catholic Reporter article about Trump voters as "nostalgia" voters (they want their white Christian hegemony back), nic brilliantly sends up said "nostalgic" Trump voters:

Reader Writes: "In the Masculinist Agenda It Is Axiomatic That Men Are Justly Privileged Because Men Alone Are the Accurate Image of God"

And another stellar comment from the last day or so: Mark 13 Fs responding to my posting about Kate Clinton's send-up of Cardinal Burke and his emangelization crusade: 

Why Do We Have to Dress Up Like Mommy in Order to Act Like Daddy? Strange Irony of the Catholic Emangelization Project (with Thanks for All Your Comments)

This has been a lively several days of discussion at Bilgrimage (133 comments and counting now, on my previous posting about Cardinal Burke and his emangelization initiative!), and I confess I'm having a bit of trouble catching up with comments. I cherish all of your remarks. I may not have time to acknowledge each of them individually, however. 

Comedian Kate Clinton on Cardinal Burke's Solution to the "Man-Crisis" in the Catholic Church: #Feminism

Yesterday, I linked to Dara Kelly's article in Irish Central reporting on an recent interview* that Cardinal Raymond Burke gave to Matthew James Christoff at the New Emangelization Project website.

Sun Rises, World Continues on Its Way: Things That Continue, from Today's Newsfeed

Cardinal Burke continues to emangelize.*

Skyrocketing Incidence of Mass Shootings in U.S.: Link to "Aggrieved Entitlement" of Males Who Feel Masculinity Is Under Siege

In an online essay published yesterday at the Society Pages site, Tristan Bridges and Tara Leigh Tober ask why it's men who commit the mass shootings in the United States. Here's Fred Clark commenting on the essay:

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: When "Pro-Life" Is Anything But — Robert Mickens Comments on National March for Life in Rome

At National Catholic Reporter Robert Mickens comments on the American-style "pro-life" march, the National March for Life, that took place in Rome last Sunday. As he notes, Cardinal Raymond Burke attended the rally, and Cardinal George Pell addressed a group gathered on Saturday in anticipation of the conference, assuring these traditionalist Catholics that the synod on the family won't do a blessed thing won't change any of the "tradition" that Pell and other traditionalists imagine is written in stone and derived from the gospels, though much of it is a late development in the history of Catholic thought.

Yesterday, Indiana, Today, Arkansas: Recent Commentary on Anti-Gay "Religious Freedom" Legislation in U.S.

Yesterday, Indiana, today, Arkansas: yesterday, Governor Pence of Indiana signed into law that state's new anti-gay "religious freedom" legislation; today, similar legislation was voted through the Arkansas senate by a wide majority of members. Some commentary that has caught my eye in the past two days:

Cardinal Burke Throws Down the Gauntlet: "I Shall Resist" (Is This Cordileone's Message, Too?)

The new insert added by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to the faculty handbook of employees of Catholic high schools in the San Francisco archdiocese: all administrators, faculty, and staff of these schools are to