Southern Baptist Abuse Report, Next Installment: "Preying on Teens"

The third installment in the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News investigation of abuse in Southern Baptist churches is out today. It's entitled "Preying on teens: More than 100 Southern Baptist youth pastors convicted or charged in sex crimes." An excerpt:

"In Every Case, 'Wives Submit to Your Husbands' Appears in the Same Context As 'Slaves Obey Your Masters'": A Twitter Conversation for You

In every case, "wives submit to your husbands" appears in the same context as "slaves obey your masters." And yet I'm constantly told we need to consider context & culture with the latter but not the former...

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) May 9, 2018

I don't mean to shortchange this blog, but I sometimes find that, instead of making statements here, I'm using Twitter instead to engage in at-the-moment conversations about the kinds of issues that interest us at this site. 

Two More Queer Catholics Fired, "Progressive" Evangelicals "Discern" Whether Queer Folks Should Be Treated Equally, CBF Discriminates Against Queer Employees: What's This All About?

Mark Guevarra writes,

"In early December 2017, a representative from the Archdiocese of Edmonton called me in for an investigation."

And we can stop Mark's painful testimony right there, at the opening line, can't we? Because we already see where this story of the firing of yet another LGBTQ employee of a Catholic institution — he was pastoral associate of a parish in Alberta, Canada — is going.

Alan McCornick on Cardinal Marx, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship on LGBTQ Employees, Heated Debate About Progressive Evangelicals and LGBTQ Lives: News

Trump's Statement on Alleged Abuser #RobPorter: 'Him-He-Him-Him-He-He-He-He-Him-He-He-He-He-He-He-Him-Him-He-He' - https://t.co/4r5XVaIB4s It's been a "tough time" for top aide accused of domestic violence, but nothing to say about ex-wives who suffered

— Common Dreams (@commondreams) February 9, 2018

I'd like to recommend today good commentary by my friend Alan McCornick about the story of Cardinal Marx and the case of the disappearing yes (aka, My God! No! We can't possibly bless you!).  Alan's commentary, entitled "The price of a blessing," is at his Hepzibah blog. Alan speaks German fluently and has an advantage many of us lack, when it comes to reading and summing up what the German media have been saying about this story.

"Excluding Women from the Gospel — in Jesus' Name": Twitter Hosts a Necessary Conversation Many Churches Don't Intend to Have

#T4G18 Excluding women from the Gospel - in Jesus’ name. pic.twitter.com/GIX8doKrPl

— Kate WallaceNunneley (@KateWallace1313) February 1, 2018

A set of tweets today (with a link to an article by Sarah MacDonald) that, in my view, all belong together. . . .They point to a necessary conversation that many Christian churches simply do not intend to have — no matter how many younger members walk away, no matter how many people are harmed by the exclusionary, clubby injustice, no matter how much the public witness of the churches is undermined by the lack of authentic catholicity at a moment in history at which this witness is desperately needed:

The Long and Short of It: Evangelical Mulligans and Idiot Winds — Religion in the News

“Family Research Council head says that evangelical conservatives are willing to overlook Trump’s past behavior so long as he delivers for them on policy” https://t.co/4I5tGy4WcZ

— Jonathan Merritt (@JonathanMerritt) January 23, 2018 

"We don't care how many women he has abused, cheated on, or objectified. We don't care how many black people he insults. We don't care how many refugees he turns away or non-American Christians he sends back to persecution, as long he helps US." US = white, American, men. https://t.co/h7HS0Drp1A

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) January 23, 2018

Rachel Held Evans on White Evangelical Roots of Trump's Decision to Ditch Paris Climate Agreement: My Response

I try not to blame white evangelicals for everything, but their rejection of mainstream science did the world no favors today.

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) June 1, 2017

Like Rachel Held Evans, I was raised in a white evangelical family in the South. Her approach to white evangelicals in this tweet is charitable, and I'd do well, I'm sure, to emulate her.

Rachel Held Evans Responds to Rev. Mike Huckabee's Defense of Trail of Tears: White Male Christian Leaders Pounce on Her

Hard to believe there are some like @GovMikeHuckabee who see the Trail of Tears as a bright spot in American history. https://t.co/4M9xEa8mJU

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) March 16, 2017

Trail of Tears went through my hometown. There are markers. @GovMikeHuckabee's nostalgia for that event is evil. He is no follower of Jesus.

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) March 16, 2017

Rachel Held Evans made the preceding two tweets yesterday after Southern Baptist minister Reverend Mike Huckabee had tweeted that he hoped Mr. Trump would treat the ruling of Judge Derrick Watson putting a hold on his anti-Muslim travel ban the same way Andrew Jackson treated the Supreme Court ruling declaring the eviction of the Cherokees from their homes unconstitutional. The result of Jackson's defiance of the Supreme Court was the Trail of Tears, on which some 4,000 of 15,000 Cherokees forcibly removed from their land and homes died.

Catholic "Liberals" Continue to Go on Record with Sympathy for Kim Davis — But Not for Her Victims: Continuing to Assess the "Francis Effect"

As I've predicted in several previous postings about the Kim Davis case, Catholic "liberals" are now steadily going on record to express their sympathy for Kim Davis and their consternation that the mean gays are doing their usual bullying act with Christians who are sincere in their belief that the gays cannot and should not marry. I pointed you several days ago to the comments in this thread at Commonweal responding to Bethe Dufresne's statement about the Kim Davis story. Add to the list today Michael Sean Winter's "sympathetic" essay in National Catholic Reporter.

Liberty Counsel's Faux Religious Liberty Stunt Involving Kim Davis: Commentary Worth Reading

No one's being jailed for practicing her religion. Someone's being jailed for using the government to force others to practice her religion.

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) September 3, 2015

Rachel Held Evans on Faux Persecution Complex of Conservative Christians, and Betraying the Gospel

Rachel Held Evans argues that when the Christian brand becomes assertion of the "right to refuse" service rather than serving, when it becomes standing against those suffering real oppression rather than with them, Christians shouldn't be shocked that large numbers of people are walking away from their "gospel" at this point in history:

"The Easiest Way to Make Oneself Righteous Is to Make Someone Else a Sinner": The Churches and LGBT People Today — Grace or No Grace?

"the easiest way to make oneself righteous is to make someone else a sinner." @rachelheldevans #searchingforsunday pic.twitter.com/H1Tfkq3E2h

— Joe Troyer II (@jtroyer2) June 25, 2015

The tweet at the head of the posting, which Joe Troyer tweeted last Thursday, captures a page from Rachel Held Evans's book Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015). As you can see, Joe zeroes in on the statement, "[T]he easiest way to make oneself righteous is to make someone else a sinner."

Thought for Day: "Jesus Didn't Die on the Cross to Preserve Gender Complementarity"

In a hard-hitting essay published last fall, Rachel Held Evans looks at the false gospel of gender binaries and how that false gospel, with its talk of gender complementarity that is all about upholding male-dominant gender roles, has become a "dangerous idol" in the Christian community. An idol, because it "conflates cultural norms with Christian morality and elevates an ideal over actual people" . . . . 

Same Day, Another Quote: Rachel Held Evans on How LGBT People Have a Lot to Teach Christians

Same day, another quote (for the day): evangelical blogger and author of the new book Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church Rachel Held Evans tells Candace Chellew-Hodge,