Pope Francis on Women Priests and Related Recent News Items: "I do not know whether to laugh or cry at Pope Francis’ suggestion about women’s position in the Church"

Altar of Veit Stoss, descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, St. Mary's Church, Krakow, Poland, photo by Robert Breuer at Wikimedia Commons

As Virginia Saldanha, "Why I find pope’s ideas on women priests disturbing," notes, Pope Francis recently nonsensically (and all over again) said that men in the Catholic church are meant to follow a "Petrine principle" that allows men — but not women — to be ordained, run things, and mirror Christ. Women are called to follow a "Marian principle" and mirror the feminine church, not — heaven forfend! — the male Christ. (Translation: women are called to serve). 

Cameron Altaras's "Voice of the Residue": The Intergenerational Trauma of Growing up Female in a Patriarchal Religious Context

In the past, I have shared here some of the valuable work of Cameron Altaras, a scholar working to combat sexual violence based in patriarchal religious traditions. Cameron speaks from the experience of someone who has roots in the Amish-Mennonite tradition. I have shared her work here and here.

Now I'd like to share another statement by Cameron pointing to a new project on which she is working, and to a website she has set up to share material for the project, which is linked below. I hope readers of this blog may be interested in Cameron's work and her new site. Here's her essay:

Ruth Krall, Prolegomena: An Act of Re-Thinking (Part 2)

This posting is a continuation of an essay by Ruth Krall, the first part of which I posted several days ago. As that previous posting notes, Ruth's essay, entitled "Prolegomena: An Act of Re-Thinking," invites readers to re-think how we've come to view the phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people in religious contexts. Ruth urges us to consider applying terms and concepts from the realm of public health to this phenomenon. Is this abuse an epidemic in religious contexts today? Is it endemic in religious structures? Is it pandemic?

Because the essay belows continues (and links to) the first part published previously, the endnotes begin at xvi rather than 1. Here's the second part of Ruth's valuable essay:

Ruth Krall, Prolegomena: An Act of Re-Thinking

Ebola Virus Isolation Unit — A Visual Metaphor to Ponder (i)

I'm very pleased to be able to share once again an outstanding essay by Ruth Krall. In this essay about re-thinking how we've come to view the phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people in religious contexts, Ruth urges us to consider applying terms and concepts from the realm of public health. Is this abuse an epidemic in religious contexts today? Is it endemic in religious structures? Is it pandemic? Because Ruth's essay is dense and long, I've broken the essay into two parts. The second part will follow in a day or so, and will link to this first half. Here's Ruth's essay:

Tara Westover's Educated: "What my father wanted to cast from me wasn't a demon: it was me."

Having finished reading Tara Westover's Educated several weeks ago, I've been thinking about what I'd like to say as a concluding statement about it. I've blogged about Educated previously — here and here — noting that Westover grew up in a survivalist Mormon family in Idaho. Educated recounts the story of her attempt over the course of years to emerge from the prison in which her upbringing put her. It tells us about her father's wild delusions of grandeur, his belief that he was directly guided by God and watched over by angels — and of his danger-courting and relentless attempts to control his daughter with threats of damnation when she sought to move beyond his control.

Miriam Toews' Irma Voth and Tara Westover's Educated: On Patriarchal Religion and Misogynistic Violence

It's by accident — or synchronicity — that I happen to have read Miriam Toews' novel Irma Voth at the same time that I'm reading Tara Westover's Educated. Toews' book explores the lives of several young women and girls in a Mennonite family in Mexico, which previously had roots in Manitoba (and before that in Russia). Westover focuses on her experiences growing up in a survivalist Mormon family in Idaho.

Kavanaugh Hearing and Catholic Abuse: Overlapping Narratives — Same Catholics Who Support Viganò's Allegations Dismiss Kavanaugh's Accusers

Today I'm thinking of how many students, over the course of my teaching career, have recoiled, outraged at the thought that a woman's testimony had historically and biblically been deemed unreliable unless corroborated by a man's.

— Natalia Imperatori (@nimperatori) September 27, 2018

Right-Wing Christian Support for Kavanaugh & Dismissal of Male Violence Towards Women: Fight to Keep Patria Potestas as Foundation of "Christian" Culture

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

David Badash, "'Not Relevant': Franklin Graham Says Alleged Kavanaugh Assault Just Something 'He Did as a Teenager'":

What Do Discussions of the Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church Have to Do with the Kavanaugh Hearing? A Lot

Ellen interviews Shelly Fitzgerald, who is threatened with firing by Roncalli Catholic High in Indianapolis for her same-sex marriage.

As I said yesterday, how the abuse situation in the Catholic church is discussed — with an obsessive focus on homosexuality, with little attention at all to the overwhelmingly dominant social (and ecclesial) problem of male abuse of vulnerable women — is not in the least disconnected from the conversations now going on about Brett Kavanaugh as a potential Supreme. Here are some statements that, to my mind, need to be read side by side, if we're going to gain a glimpse of the bigger picture facing us in these discussions:

Ruth Krall's Risking the Collective on the Space We Make for Violence Against Women and Children, and the Metaphor Systems Legitimating It

Here's another illuminating passage from Ruth Krall's new monograph Risking the Collective, about which I blogged yesterday. Ruth argues (cogently) that, for sexual violence against women and children to be widespread and endemic in one society after another, there has to have been a prior society "making space" for such violence. As she observes, powerfully,

Ruth Krall's Risking the Collective: Commitment of Religious Institutions to Dominant Male Privilege at Root of Abuse of Women and Children

Theologian Ruth Krall has just published a new monograph at her website. It's called Risking the Collective. I'm reading it now, and will be sharing excerpts as I read. 

Ruth's work in the field of sexual violence, and her combined background as a nurse-therapist and theologian, make what she has to say extremely important for those seeking ways to respond to endemic sexual abuse of women and children in our society and its institutions. This book could not be more timely, in light of the Philadelphia grand jury report.

Daughter of Argentinian Priest Speaks Out: "When Carlos Gamboa and the Church He Represents Talk About 'Yes to Life,'" What Do They Mean by That?

The following is the testimony of Agustina Maria Gamboa Arias, a young woman who was fathered by — but never supported or acknowledged publicly by — an Argentinian priest, Carolos Gamboa, who recently went on Argentinian television to speak out against a bill to legalize abortion, stating, "Every life is worthy," and that all children who are alive deserve support:

Story Links to Story: In Recent News, Female Church Member Accuses Megachurch Pastor of Sexual Assault, Catholic Women Come Forth to Tell Stories of Assault, Political and Religious Right Keeps Pinning Abuse on Gays

Pieces of commentary I've read in the past few days that are, in my view, much more illuminating when read side-by-side:

Theologian Tina Beattie on Irish Abortion Referendum: "It Can Be Seen As the Assertion of the Common Good Over and Against a Corrupted and Dysfunctional Institutional Church"

Tina Beattie's reflection on the results of the Irish referendum on abortion is, in my view, exactly right — balanced, thoughtful, theologically dense and well-informed:

"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. 

In the News: "Religious Freedom" and "Right" to Discriminate; Roots of Evangelicals' Idolization of Trump; Shifting Religious Landscape re: LGBT Rights; SBC and Misogyny

Religion-themed news from the past several days that has caught my eye, and which I'd like to share with you:

Mark Labberton to Fellow White Evangelicals on Collusion with Trump: "Such Collusion Has Been Our Historic Habit"

The following is from a statement that Fuller Seminary President Dr. Mark Labberton gave to the "evangelical consultation" at Wheaton College on 16 April 2018. This event was a highly publicized invitation-only gathering of evangelical leaders to share concerns about what (white) evangelical Christians in the U.S. have done to themselves and the evangelical brand by hitching their star to one Donald Trump: Mark Labberton told those gathered for this meeting, 

Toronto Van Attack: We "Continue to Find Any Reason for Violent Misogyny Besides Violent Misogyny"

Emer O'Toole, "If incels' violent misogyny had a role in Toronto, we mustn't downplay it":

Cameron Altaras, "Mennonite Harvey Weinsteins, or #MeToo in the Mennonite World"

I'm honored today to share with you another essay from the Mennonite world, one making powerful connections between the #MeToo movement and the recovery of the voices of Mennonite women who have experienced sexual abuse at the hands of church leaders. "One stops one's voice in an effort to preserve one's life," Cameron Altaras writes, summing up the shattering pain women who have experienced sexual abuse in a religious context live with when they are told not to speak out, that they have deserved their abuse, that they are without worth, and on and on. What follows is Cameron Altaras' stellar essay:

Commentary on Manchester Terrorism: "Women [and Girls] Are the Canaries in the Coal Mine for Male Violence"

Thought-provoking commentary I have read on the Manchester terrorist bombing as in all likelihood an attack quite specifically targeting girls: