On McCloskey's & Opus Dei's "Outsize Impact on Policy & Politics," & Attempt of Right-Wing Religionists & Journalists to Veil That Influence

In the statement by Terry Mattingly to which I linked yesterday, a statement which argues that the media have been much more focused on the story of Opus Dei priest John McCloskey's fall from grace than they have been on the fall from grace of Cardinal McCarrick, Mattingly states,

Opus Dei Reveals It Paid Nearly $1 Million to Settle Suit vs. D.C. Superstar Priest John McCloskey: Questions We Should Ask

One of today's big stories: Opus Dei has revealed that it paid nearly $1 million in 2005 to settle a sexual misconduct lawsuit filed against the superstar Opus Dei priest John McCloskey. Michelle Boorstein broke this story in Washington Post last evening. As she reports, McCloskey has been well-known in religious and political circles due to his close association with such luminaries of the political right as Newt Gingrich, Sam Brownback, and Larry Kudlow, all of whom he ushered into the Catholic church.

U.S. Catholic Church in Snapshots from Twitter, as Georgetown Prep Grad Kavanaugh Is Seated as a Supreme

.@newtgingrich and I congratulate our new Supreme Court Justice. pic.twitter.com/LDlDsUhL4k

— Callista Gingrich (@CallyGingrich) October 6, 2018

Religion (and Politics) Stories in the News: Evangelicals, White Supremacist Marches, Callista Gingrich, Knights of Columbus, Jim Bakker and Antichrist

Some things I have been reading/listening to/sharing in the past few days, which may interest many of you:

Responses to Cardinal Dolan on What Gay Folks Are Entitled to: Truth Wins Out and Dan Savage

I've seen several good statements about the comments Cardinal Dolan made on Easter day regarding pastoral treatment of LGBT human beings by the Catholic church, about which I blogged yesterday:

New York Times on NOM's "Poisonous Political Approach" (and Other Commentary)

Commentary continues about the hidden face that the National Organization for Marriage has just shown the world through the documents released in Maine recently.  As the New York Times says in an editorial statement today, NOM persists in asking permission to flout laws requiring full disclosure of its donors because it claims to be a social service organization.  But the documents released last week show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the organization is political to its core.

Amanda Marcotte on the Newt as the Living Id of the Republican Party: Entitlement and More Entitlement

Amanda Marcotte offers insightful analysis of the double standard used by American conservatives (and the mainstream media and religious right) to assess the sexual infractions of political leaders: if he's a rich, powerful white man with right-wing views, adultery and serial marriages don't matter at all, even if he's mouthing pieties about traditional family values while cheating on a string of wives:

Political Commentary on Southern Themes (and the Newt): Abby Zimet, Ernest Dumas, and Gene Lyons

This report by Abby Zimet at Common Dreams fairly well encapsulates for me what's gone incredibly awry in the political (and cultural, and religious, and ethical) priorities of many Americans today: Zimet notes that while governor Steve Beshear of Kentucky is cutting his state's budget for education and other basic services to the bone, he continues to earmark a $43 million tax break for a creationist-themed amusement park with a honking big replica of Noah's ark.

South Carolina Votes, and the Race Heads into the Gutter

The New York Times judges that Mr. Gingrich "pulled the [Republican presidential] race into the gutter" in South Carolina.  And it worked for him.  Big-time.

Religious Right Redivivus: Commentary on the Newt's Ascendancy

Good commentary in the past two days on how the Newt has managed to reinvent himself as the religious right's latest, best go-to boy, despite his spectacularly sordid past and his history of egregious failure as a Republican party leader.  This may well be the political story of the year--an illuminatory narrative about the extent to which a highly refracted, politically charged religiosity--of a sort--continues to drive the political future of the nation with the soul of a church.  And about the bottomless pit of cynicism from which that highly selective political religiosity of a sort emanates.

More Commentary on Newt's Infidelities: Ablow and Sullivan

Dr. Keith Ablow, Media Matters' "LGBT Misinformer of the Year," offers a Bluebeard argument for how the Newt's multiple woman make him eminently qualified to be POTUS: if three women in a row fell for him, two of those knowing he was married, he must be full of "emotional energy and intellect."

Politics, Strange Bedfellows, the LDS-Catholic Alliance, and Mr. Gingrich

Well, maybe I spoke too soon when I noted previously the irony of the  Catholic-Mormon alliance to defend the "traditional" model of family.  As I said, the Catholic and Mormon understandings of what makes family tick couldn't be further apart, when the former preaches the one-man, one-woman, for-life model, and the latter has roots going back to its very foundations that have comprised polygamous models of marriage.

Newt Spotting in South Carolina

Red-Spotted Newt

With his star ascending in the Palmetto state, the Newt is back in the news in a big way this morning.

In the News: The Kiss, the Newt, and Stinky Right-Wing Bedfellows of U.S. Catholic Bishops

Tidbits of news from the past several days--items that caught my eye:

1. Truthdig gives its Truthdigger of the Week designation to Marissa Gaeta and Citlalic Snell, whose reunion kiss last week has become an iconic depiction of the post-DADT world in which we're now living.  The political and religious right in the U.S. predicted that the skies would fall if openly gay soldiers were permitted to serve in the American military.  Chasms would open and entire cities fall through them.  Birds would drop from the skies.

Meghan Daum on Newt's Marital History: A Hot Mess

A follow-up to what I wrote earlier today about Thomas Peters' absolutely incredible attempt to spin the Newt as a good Catholic candidate strong on marriage issues: here's Meghan Daum's take in the Los Angeles Times: 

Newt's Train Picking Up Speed: Evangelicals on Board, (Some) Catholics Buying Tickets

Two interesting tidbits (interesting to me, at least--and I hope to readers of this blog) about the Gingrich race for the presidency: at Salon, Steve Kornacki thinks the now solidly GOP South is loving us some Newt.  Mitt?  Not so much.

Newt and Fellow Conservatives: Hardly a Love Fest

How is the current ascendancy of the Newt being received by his fellow conservatives, Gene Lyons asks at Salon?  Not so well.  

As Gingrich Takes Center Stage, Questions about Spirituality and Politics Emerge

On the political front in the U.S.:

Jaweed Kaleem labors mightily (and well) to get a fix on Mr. Gingrich's spirituality and the meaning of his spirituality for his politics.

In the News: Siri, the Newt, Democrats as Anti-Catholic, and Bachmann's Inanity

In the news right  now:

The controversy about the Siri phone app continues, with the news media reporting that petitions are circulating online asking Apple to address the app's apparent gender bias as it provides information to users.  Cecile Richards thinks the disparity between how Siri answers questions about male health care needs and how it deals with women's questions illustrates the decisive tilt of our health care provision system in a male direction.  Jill Filipovic thinks* Apple is likely not a misogynistic organization, but "they're just reliant on too many dude programmers."  With technology (including the internet), we get what programmers decide to make accessible--and those programmers have social locations and social biases.

Nate Silver on Cain Story: One Accuser Away from (Allegedly) Harassing More Women Than Newt Has Married

A tweet I wish I'd tweeted:

Nate Silver @fivethirtyeight about 4:30 P.M. CST, 2 November: