A Reader Writes: "In History, This Sort of Gender Binary Essentialism Has Been an Important Support to Nazism, the Taliban, and Various Theocracies in the West"

In response to my posting on Thursday about the lack of socioeconomic analysis of family and what it takes to sustain family at the Vatican colloquium on gender complementarity this week, Mark writes an eloquent, profound essay, to which I can add nothing at all, since it speaks so powerfully for itself: 

More Translations of Recent News Reports: Regnerus's Latest, Gays and Religion, Archbishop Sartain and LCWR, More News about Archbishop Nienstedt

More translations of recent news stories (see my explanation of what the term "translation" means here in what I posted about this issue yesterday):

New "Secret, Shadowy Version of NOM" Formed: Continuing Thick Ties of National Organization for Marriage to Secret, Shadowy, Rich and Powerful Catholic Group Opus Dei

Interesting news about the National Organization for Marriage, which is staging the "March for (Some People's) Marriage" in Washington, DC, today: Jeremy Hooper of the Good as You blog site has obtained a copy of an invitation to a meeting of what Hooper calls "some sort of secret, shadowy version of NOM (Super NOM?)" called the Princeton Group hosted on June 13 by NOM dignitaries. These include NOM president Brian Brown, co-founder Maggie Gallagher, board chair emeritus Robert George, founding board member Luis Tellez and, oh — surprise! — none other than the archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, whose determination to attend NOM's "March for (Some People's) Marriage" today has proven so controversial.

Mid-Week News Items: Marriage Equality and Religious Groups

More mid-week news tidbits, these focusing on religion and gay issues (the Cincinnati story discussed below does focus on gay issues, since it's about the attempt of Catholic institutions to weed out and control employees who show any support at all for gay people or gay rights):

End of Week News Clips: World Vision and Marriage in Michigan

Elizabeth Drescher, "World Vision Rescinds Decision to Employ LGBT Marrieds":

On the Increasingly Wild Claims of Religious Right That It's Being Ghettoized by the Gays: Case of Mark Regnerus

Frank Strong on the absurd (and growing) meme of the anti-gay religious right, as it claims that bullying gays are ghettoizing "Christians":

John Corvino, What's Wrong with Homosexuality?: "Man on Man, Man on Dog, or Whatever the Case May Be"

I was reminded of John Corvino's book What's Wrong with Homosexuality? (NY: Oxford UP, 2013) as I read Erik Eckholm's report this past weekend in the New York Times about the ongoing efforts of the religious right to depict tolerance of gay folks as the first step onto a slippery slope that will lead God knows where. Corvino takes the cue for his chapter discussing this slippery-slope argument from Rick Santorum's infamous statements to an AP reporter in 2003 that tolerance for homosexual people will lead everywhere--everywhere bad--in any society that extends such tolerance to gays. Corvino entitles the chapter "Man on Man, Man on Dog, or Whatever the Case May Be."

Churches and Gays: Stephen Fry on Ex-Gay Therapy, Becca Morn on Exporting of Anti-Gay Hatred, Rowan Williams on Appalling Anti-Gay Violence of Many Christians

It's worth watching Stephen Fry's stylish, humane look at ex-gay therapy* for his observation (at about the 8.24 mark) that Joseph Nicolosi could well pass for a gay man, a metrosexual. The look on Nicolosi's face as Fry delivers the observation is priceless.

Final Two Installments in Miranda Blue's Series on Globalizing Homophobia and Role of U.S. Religious Right

Miranda Blue has now published the final two installments in her Right Wing Watch series about the role of the religious right in globalizing homophobia (especially in Russia). I blogged about the first two essays in the series several days ago. I'm grateful to reader Chris Morley for pointing out in a comment responding to that posting that the other essays in the series have now been published.

Recommended: Miranda Blue's Series at Right-Wing Watch on Globalizing Homophobia and Role of U.S. Religious Right

Matthew 28:19-20, The Great Commission

We have known for some time now that the fingerprints of the American religious right are all over the increasing hostility, the outright violence, toward gay citizens of various African nations. When the astroturfed demonstrations against marriage equality in France got underway, and when they also elicited outright violence against gay folks in France, I noted that the fingerprints of the American anti-gay group National Organization for Marriage (NOM) were all over those astroturfed demonstrations, and I predicted more of same, more exporting of American-style faith-based homophobia to more parts of the world, as marriage equality is enacted in more and more states in the U.S.

In News: SCOTUS on Dignity and DOMA, Chris Hedges on Edward Snowden, Regnerus Cavils, Pam's House Blend

At dotCommonweal, John McGreevy suggests that Andrew Sullivan may be the most influential lay Catholic in the U.S. in the past fifteen years, noting that his liveblog about the SCOTUS decision on DOMA stressed Justice Kennedy's emphasis on human dignity, as Kennedy struck the unconstitutional law down. McGreevy quotes Sullivan:

Fellow Sociologist on Regnerus Study: "Key Measure of Gay and Lesbian Parenting Is Simply a Farce"

"The key measure of gay and lesbian parenting is simply a farce."

Footnotes to Previous Discussions: Mark Regnerus and Margaret Thatcher

Brief glosses today on two items about which I've written recently:

New Evidence Corroborates Conclusion That Regnerus Study Was Politically Driven

Also in the news this week, and not unrelated to the "this was a week" posting I just published: Sofia Resnick published an important exposé article this past week in the American Independent which adds significantly to the growing body of evidence that Mark Regnerus published his widely discredited study of "gay" parents for political and not research reasons.

In News: Maciel Legacy and Papacy, Vatican and Violence Against Women, Regnerus Study

In news not unrelated to the papal conclave and the future direction of the Catholic church:

Rob Tisanai at Box Turtle Bulletin: "Dear Dr. Regnerus"

And now, in non-"Dancing with the Stars" news as the weekend arrives:

Tribalism as Illuminating Category for Discussing American Catholicism and Evangelicalism: Carrying on the Conversation in 2013

As 2012 ended, I began compiling a list of religion-politics-culture discussions from the year that seemed worth continuing in 2013. Then I thought better of posting it, though, because much of what I had to say by way of commentary as I put the list together seemed to be a downer. (Yes, believe it or not, I do sometimes curb my tongue and suppress postings I've drafted if they seem excessively negative or doleful.)

Mark Regnerus Back in News: Straight Men Who Support Marriage Equality Consume More Porn

Also not to be missed as the year turns: Mark Regnerus, the author of this year's widely criticized study about "gay" parenting that Regnerus himself admits wasn't really about gay parenting at all, is back in the news again. His latest foray into scholarship demonstrating that the notion of marriage equality is unsound: an article at the Witherspoon Institute website claiming that straight men supporting marriage equality tend to watch more porn than do other straight men. 

Weekend News: Regnerus Study Again, More on Sally "Ad Multos Annos" to San Fran!

In the news as the weekend gets underway:

The Regnerus study, which an auditor of the processed used by the journal Social Science Research chose to vet the study calls "bullshit."  Peter Montgomery has a summary of the auditor's report at Religion Dispatches, citing a Chronicle of Higher Education article by Tom Bartlett.

Regnerus Study Appears June 10, Is Cited in Amicus Curiae Brief by Christian-Right Group on June 11

The deeply flawed, pseudo-scientific Regnerus study, which is being interpreted to "prove" that "gay parents" are poor parents, was published by the scholarly journal Social Science Research on June 10.

Guess what study got cited on June 11 by a right-wing group called the American College of Pediatricians in an amicus curiae brief in the Golinski v. United States Office of Personnel Management federal lawsuit seeking to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act?