Trump and the Christian Fascists, and What Trump Election Says About Us

compassion. is the longest emotion there is.

— . (@nayyirahwaheed) July 23, 2017

Speaking-truth-to-power sorts of statements I've read in the past day or so, that I'd like to pass along to you:

More Commentary on Tony Spence's Firing and Consequences for U.S. Catholics, Commentary on Norwegian Lutherans' Embrace of Same-Sex Marriage

More commentary on two stories that have been discussed here recently — the firing of Catholic News Service director Tony Spence after he tweeted criticism of the anti-LGBT laws recently passed in North Carolina and Mississippi; and the decision of the state church of Norway, its Lutheran church, to recognize same-sex marriage and to celebrate same-sex marriages in churches (the latter story has been discussed by Chris Morley in comments here lately).

William Saletan on Amoris Laetitia As Closeted Argument for Gay Marriage: Growing Cracks in Foundation of Catholic Approach to Same-Sex Couples

Another interesting piece of (non-insider) commentary on Amoris Laetitia to which I want to point you today: William Saletan at Slate. Saletan argues that the double standard between how the Catholic magisterium treats heterosexual couples incapable of procreation and how it treats homosexual couples — using the same moral norm in both cases — is growing insupportable, and that Amoris Laetitia may open the door to a change down the road in the official Catholic approach to same-sex marriage, as more and more people recognize just how insupportable (and invidious) this double standard is.

Marianne Duddy-Burke on Pope Francis' Intervention in Italian Debate About Gay Unions: "Pope Has judged Our Relationships, Our Marriages to Be Inconsistent with the Divine Plan"

As Marianne Duddy-Burke of Dignity-USA says in response to Pope Francis's recent public statement opposing marriage equality in Italy, what Francis appears to be attempting is to open a more pastorally affirming space for LGBT people in the Catholic church while continuing to uphold the (very recent) magisterial teaching that LGBT people are "essentially disordered." As she also maintains, you can't have it both ways: you can't claim to be welcoming and affirming while you promote teachings that make a set of fellow human beings less human than everyone else in the world, and while you argue on the basis of those teachings that these denigrated fellow human beings should enjoy fewer rights than other human beings enjoy.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Catholic Sister Responds to Pope re: Marriage Equality— "Paul May Not Have Thrown the Stones That Killed Stephen, But He Did Hold the Cloaks of Those Who Did"

Pope Francis makes a public statement opposing marriage equality, a step that is, as Francis DeBernardo notes at Bondings 2.0, "very disappointing," and Rosa G. Manriquez, IHM, responds:

Defining Christianity by Exclusion of LGBT Human Beings: "If This Is the Christianity They Want, Perhaps It Is Time for That Christianity to Die"

Thinking back this morning to Kaya Oakes's post-Obergefell essay last November: as she points out, anti-LGBT right-wing Christians have really lost the battle to exclude LGBT people from the circle of humanity and the church. But the more they recognize the futility of continuing this losing battle, the angrier — and more exclusionary — they become. 

"If I Believe It Sincerely Enough, I Have the Right to Deny You Rights": Religious Freedom Argument Remains Alive and Well in 2016

Religious freedom (as in, "If I believe it hard and sincerely enough, I have the right to deny rights to you: because my God tells me so!") remains in the news as 2016 begins, and in all likelihood, will continue to be in the news this year, especially as the election cycle heats up:

NCR's Editorial Naming Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon Persons of the Year: Word Count Revealing Preoccupations of Catholics Responding to NCR (Sin: 47 Mentions; Mercy: 7 Mentions)

As of 3:30 P.M. CST in North America, National Catholic Reporter's editorial naming Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon has garnered 310 comments. In typical fashion when any U.S. Catholic publication publishes an editorial calling for less Catholic cruelty to LGBT people, the editorial is now picking up the comments of the attack squads who monitor Catholic blog sites for such articles, and then inundate them with hateful comments.

NCR's Choice of Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon As Persons of the Year: A Pretty Big Deal (See SCOTUS Daily)

A footnote to what I posted yesterday about the editorial announcement of National Catholic Reporter that it has chosen as its 2015 persons of the year the Catholic couple Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon, lead plaintiffs in the Obergefell case: I subscribe to the more-or-less daily email newsletter of the Come to Terms Project. Come to Terms sends out an emailed newsletter entitled SCOTUS Daily. To my knowledge, issues of this emailed newsletter are not archives online (but if you're interested, it's very easy to go to the link I've just provided, click on it, and add yourself to the email list by clicking on "Supporters" and then following the instructions given there.

Looking Back at 2015 on Christmas Day: "The Light Around Us Remains, We Take Our Mercies As We Get Them"

More Christmas gifts I've unwrapped this morning, that I now want to give to you, my friends and fellow pilgrims around the world:

Frank Brennan, SJ, on the Australian Catholic Bishops and Marriage Equality: My Response and Critique of the Clericalist Closed-Circle Argument

I very much appreciate that Chris Morley recommended to us Jesuit Father Frank Brennan's recent article at Eureka Street noting the futility of the battle of some church leaders, the Catholic bishops of Australia included, against same-sex marriage in Australia. As Father Brennan rightly notes, there are compelling reasons — moral ones — for recognizing the right of same-sex couples to civil marriage. These include the protection of children such couples may be raising, the state's interest in supporting couples committed to each other who provide care for each other as they age, and the undercutting of homophobia, which, as he notes, has toxic social consequences.

Theological Roots of Bitter Battle of Some Christians Against LGBT Rights: The Bible Can't Be Wrong (We Can't Be Wrong, and Heterosexual Men Rule)

Here's a set of interlocking observations that, to my mind, share a common theme: 1) a comment an Episcopal priest made to me yesterday about why some streams of Christianity are so adamant today in their opposition to LGBT rights; 2) Diarmaid MacCulloch on the same topic and how it's all about shoring up the supremacy of heterosexual males; 3) David Marr's commentary on why the Australian Catholic bishops are bitterly opposed to legalization of same-sex marriage; and 4) Fred Clark's account of the baffling determination of some U.S. white evangelicals to continue, generation after generation, choosing the wrong side of the moral arc of history in battles for human rights:

"Spotlight": My Five-Point Commentary

Steve and I went yesterday to see "Spotlight." Most of you will already know quite a bit about this film, but in case anyone reading this blog doesn't have information about it, it's a depiction of the dramatic story of the gradual awakening of the Boston Globe's investigative "Spotlight" team to the massive ramifications of the abuse story in the Catholic church. It's the story of how, after having been alerted to this by abuse survivors like Phil Saviano of SNAP, the Globe ignored the situation until reports about a single monstrously abusive priest in the Boston archdiocese, John Geoghan, alerted Globe journalists to the fact that there were more abusive priests in the diocese — as many as 90 — hiding in plain sight, whose histories of abuse were known to all kinds of powerful people but above all to the diocese's chief shepherd Cardinal Law, but about whom no one with power to combat the abuse had done anything at all. 

Kaya Oakes on How "Whitest, Malest, Straightest, Most Educated" Representatives of Christianity Are Driving People from Religion

Kaya Oakes, writing yesterday at Religion Dispatches about the battle that Christians opposed to marriage equality have lost:

Fred Clark on Kim Davis: "57 Years to the Day After Other White Evangelical Christians in the South Defied a Court Order" Contradicting Their Religious Views

Fred Clark's neat summary of the parallel between the Kim Davis story and the Orval Faubus story: 

John Bijarney on Kim Davis and Her Supporters: Seeking License to Escape Change and Project Status Quo into the Future

This commentary by my Facebook friend John Bijarney on what Kim Davis and her supporters are really all about, at the core of their movement, is right on target, I think.

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

Kim Davis Goes to Jail for Contempt of Court

Judge: #KimDavis' "good-faith belief is simply not a viable defense. Oaths mean things." http://t.co/JsM6chMt70 pic.twitter.com/ioKiZSbxaQ

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) September 3, 2015

As Chris Morley has pointed out in a series of comments here a little bit ago, the breaking news is that the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk defying court orders to issue marriage licenses (to all couples in the county, apparently, though gay couples are the target) has been sentenced to jail for contempt of court. Steve and I have not had access to an internet connection much of the day, and I'm just seeing the news. Chris's links will be very helpful for those of you who haven't yet heard the news.

John Corvino on Kim Davis: "Willingness to Impose a Standard of Marriage on Gays That She Does Not Apply to Others, Herself Included" Reveals Her True Intent: Singling Out Gays for Discrimination

John Corvino on Kim Davis:

It's On in Rowan County, Kentucky (3): "Under God's Authority," Religious Freedom, and the Elite Commentariat

A YouTube user, 646guy, is uploading videos from today's events at the Rowan County, Kentucky, courthouse. The video above is more extensive footage than what I previously posted, showing Kim Davis denying a marriage license to a same-sex couple "under God's authority." It may be worth watching this YouTube page to see if 646guy uploads more videos today.