Mark Silk Responds to Ross Douthat on Polygamy and Same-Sex Marriage: What Were You Saying Again About Religious Freedom, Mr. Douthat?

Mark Silk responds to Ross Douthat on same-sex marriage and polygamy (see my earlier posting about this) at Mark's "Spiritual Politics" blog — "The Polygamists Are Coming!" As he notes, the argument that same-sex marriage will open the door to polygamy is a longstanding slippery-slope argument of religious conservatives, so it seems . . . odd . . . that Douthat wants to reprise that argument now (obviously, in light of what has just taken place in Ireland and in anticipation of a soon-to-come Supreme Court ruling in the U.S.). 

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Sharp Drop in Religious Affiliation in Northeastern U.S. Due to Catholic Abuse Crisis and Bishops Shielding Child Molesters

This is a Catholic birdcage dropping in that it addresses Catholic issues: as Fred Clark points out at his Slacktivist site today, yesterday at his Spiritual Polticis site, Mark Silk looked at the story of religious decline in the northeastern U.S. Mark notes that Rod Dreher recently asked for help in understanding why there's such precipitous decline in religious affiliation of late in that region of the country.

Lines I Wish I'd Written: Now, When Popes Demote a King-Making Prelate, "We'll Say He's Been Burked"

In the lines-I-wish-I'd-written category, here's Mark Silk commenting on Cardinal Burke's excellent new Maltese adventure: