Quote for Day: Intersectionality Is a "Lens, a Prism, for Seeing the Way in Which Various Forms of Inequality Often Operate Together and Exacerbate Each Other"

Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the powerful term "intersectionality," talks to TIME Magazine about what she intends with that term:

Roy Moore Defeated, But Polling Data Tell Us Why We Have Miles and Miles to Go Before We Jubilate — Fusion of White Nationalism and White Christianity Remains Potent Toxic Challenge

Roy Moore rides away on his horse after voting in the Alabama Senate election.

Here's what to watch in today's hotly contested race: https://t.co/iONlmtfGJd #alsen pic.twitter.com/WI2xoJbi6s

— POLITICO (@politico) December 12, 2017

Ezra Klein, "Why Doug Jones’s narrow win is not enough to make me confident about American democracy":

Michael Boyle on Princeton Seminary Controversy: "Progressive Christianity Only Has a Future if Progressive Christians Have the Courage of Their Convictions"

Because I think this conversation is essential — and important — I'd like to add one more statement to the set of reflections I've posted in the last several days about the controversy that ensued when Princeton Theological Seminary chose not to give an award to Rev. Tim Keller. I've discussed that controversy in three previous postings — here, here, and here. These three postings engage, in particular, Jonathan Merritt's claim that, in pressing for Keller not to receive an award from Princeton due to his opposition to the ordination of women and openly gay folks and his defense of a "complementarianism" that requires wives to be subordinated to their husbands, liberals are marginalizing people like Keller.

Anita Little Comments on Princeton Controversy: "Growing Trend to Cry 'Oppression' When the Opinions of Influential White Men" Are Challenged

In an essay entitled "The 'Marginalization' of Tim Keller: When Anything Short of Adulation Is Oppression," Anita Little, editor of the Remapping American Christianities initiative at Religion Dispatches, comments on Jonathan Merritt's insistence that Tim Keller is being "marginalized" by the liberals who objected to his receiving an award from Princeton Seminary (on this controversy, see my two previous postings, here and here). She writes, 

The Princeton Seminary Controversy: Concluding Thoughts About White Male Privilege and Intersectionality

The discussion about the furor regarding Princeton Seminary's decision to withhold its Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Witness from Presbyterian pastor Tim Keller continued at various internet sites yesterday. I blogged about the controversy yesterday morning, and about Jonathan Merritt's response at RNS to Princeton's decision.

Princeton Seminary Steps Back from Award for Pastor Who Promotes Female Subordination, Opposes Ordination of Women and Openly Gay Folks: Controversy Ensues

Yesterday, following controversy, Princeton Theological Seminary Seminary reversed a decision to give its Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Witness to Rev. Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian church in Manhattan. Keller has been vocal in opposing the ordination of women and openly LGBT people by the Presbyterian Church USA. He belongs to a conservative wing of that church, the Presbyterian Church in America, which is largely identified with and known for its opposition to full inclusion of women and LGBTQ people in Presbyterian churches. He also promotes the ideology of female subordination to males, using a theology of "complementarism" to justify this stance.

On the "Incorrect" "Homosexual": The Catholic Magisterium, Father Dwight Longenecker, and Asking the Wrong Questions in the Age of Trump (2)

There's a reason my previous posting built to a question about what kind of institution produces people who think about gender and sexual orientation at the puerile level of moral awareness exhibited by Catholic magisterial thought regarding these matters, especially when that institution professes to shape moral thinkers. My posting asked,

Richard Sipe on Why Benedict XVI's Sexual Orientation Matters and Must Be Discussed Honestly

In a 2012 essay at his website entitled "Is Pope Benedict Gay?," Richard W. Sipe maintains that "[t]he time has passed when popes are immune from observation of their humanity even their human sexuality." Then he goes on to argue, with reference to Pope Benedict XVI, the following:

On Laudato Si' and Its "Integral Ecology" and Themes of Relatioality: Helpful Commentary

When I first responded to Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si', I promised to provide you with some more reflections on the encyclical. These are not my own, but are from pieces I've read that strike me as valuable, since they zero in on the theme I wanted to point to in my own reflection — the theme of relationality. As I noted, the encyclical's stress on relationality, as it discusses the human connection to the environment and the need of human beings to acknowledge their own interconnection to address environmental crisis, is both its strength and its weakness.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: From Sodomites to Pansies, It's Getting Ugly at the Liberal Catholic Blog Sites These Days

What's going on out there, folks? At the start of this month, Wayne Sheridan slings around the term "sodomite" at the Commonweal blog site, and his comment is still standing. Sheridan writes in reply to a comment by Jim McCrea responding to a posting by Andrew Koppelman about religious freedom,

The "Because Freedom" Argument of (Some) American Catholics Justifying Denial of Goods and Services to LGBT Folks: A Consideration of Moral Parameters

So a man logs into my Facebook page to inform me that he and whatever business he wants to operate have every right in the world to choose to whom to sell or deny goods, to whom to provide or not offer services. This is America. It's a free country. Butt out of my business and my freedom.

Katie McDonough on the Pope and Rick Santorum: Why Is Rick Fighting with Frank When They Agree about Contraception?

At Salon, Katie McDonough notes that even though Pope Francis appears to be on his side about contraception, Rick Santorum can't stop grousing about the pope. She writes,

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Michael Sean Winters at National Catholic Reporter on "Gendergeist" Issues

As Michael Sean Winters reports that Harold Meyerson sees liberal leaders resurgent in many American cities, he adds:

Catholic Blog Sites and Homophobic Screeds: Made in Hell

What do you think might be going on when Catholics feel free--no, some Catholics apparently feel obliged--to post statements at Catholic blog sites characterizing entire segments of the human population as unfit to parent because "they" are given to "illegal drug use, sexual promiscuity, suicidal ideations, domestic violence," and are "'prone to spontaneous combustion' temper issues"?

Is the Pope Gay? Richard Sipe Dares to Ask

And another article this morning that seems to go hand in hand with the material about which I've written earlier in the day--this, as with the links in my previous posting, also recommended by an esteemed reader of Bilgrimage, Kathy Hughes:

Irenaeus on the Incarnation: "The Flesh Is Not to Be Excluded"

I really like the epigraph from St. Irenaeus (by way of Scott Cairns) Barbara Brown Taylor chooses for her book An Altar in the World (NY: HarperCollins, 2010).  The book's theme is that if we hope to find God anywhere at all in the world, our goal must be to become "more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world" (p. xvii).

More Commentary on Daniel Avila Story: Weekend News Roundup

So much interesting news in the last day or so relating to Catholic issues that it's hard to keep up with it all.  For readers following any of these stories, I thought I might assist by providing a miscellany of links grouped by topic.  I may break this end-of-week news summary into more than one posting, due to the number of links I've gathered and have to share.

Breaking News: Avila Resigns from USCCB Position

Breaking news: an email from Truth Wins Out containing this press release has just popped into my email inbox.  It states that Daniel Avila resigned today from his position as an advisor to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.   

The Gays + the Devil: More Resources about Boston Catholic Controversy (with Theological Reflections)

After I posted yesterday about the kerfuffle over Daniel Avila's recent gays + devil column in the Boston Catholic archdiocesan paper The Pilot, I found a lot of additional commentary on this story online, which I'd now like to recommend to readers.*  My first inkling of this story was from Dennis Coday's "Morning Briefing" column at National Catholic Reporter yesterday. This had disappeared from the NCR homepage by the time I posted my piece, and I couldn't locate it as I posted, so I didn't provide the link I've just given you crediting his column with bringing this story to my attention.

Wayne Besen on John Smid's Admissions: "Ex-Gay" Therapy Employs Cult-Like Mind Control

Because Wayne Besen's commentary about John Smid and his recent admission that "ex-gay" conversion therapy hasn't worked for him came out the same day I wrote my own piece about this, I didn't link to Besen's statement at Truth Wins Out.  Now that I've seen Besen's commentary, I want to take note of it.  It's impossible to overstate the importance of Wayne Besen to the movement to expose the fraud, lies, and malice of the "ex-gay" movement.  He's been tracking this movement for years, and what he has to say about it is of extreme importance.