A Reader Writes: Chris Morley on Forthcoming Marriage Referendum in Ireland and Response of Catholic Hierarchy

In a comment here this weekend, Chris Morley has kindly posted a report about the forthcoming referendum on marriage equality in Ireland. So that as many readers as possible may take advantage of Chris's report, I'm going to post it as a freestanding posting: Chris writes,

More Things I'm Reading at Week's End: Baltimore, Racism, White Privilege, Recognizing African-American Contributions to American Culture

More stuff I'm reading as this week ends — these resources are about what's happening right now in Baltimore, about the need of white Americans to understand and address racism, about the manifold (and often unacknowledged) contributions of African Americans (including LGBTQ ones) to every facet of American life, etc.

Things I'm Reading at Week's End: Marriage, Bible, Catholics, Women's Rights, Recovering from Religious Trauma, Pope Francis and Women

Things I'm reading as this week ends — these items all connected in that they talk about issues of religion in the public square:

Peter Isely on the Resignation of Bishop Finn, Abuse Survivors, and Persephone's Pomegranate Seed

A valuable piece of commentary from Peter Isely of SNAP Wisconsin, in his Facebook feed recently, about the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn and the pomegranate seed: Peter notes that the leaders of the Catholic church are divided into two teams, team Benedict and team Francis, one the "traditionalist tough guy" team, the other the "moderate" team. And because teams vie to be winners, making other teams losers, and because winners and losers continuously shift, there's a whole lot of politicking and image-making and face-saving going on.

Why Antonin Scalia Found the Outburst of a Nutcase Shouting about Hell and Abomination at Yesterday's Supreme Court Hearing "Refreshing"

In his commentary in the New Yorker today on the arguments in yesterday's Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court hearing about same-sex marriage, Jeffrey Toobin zeroes in on a "shocking, ugly moment" that occurred when a spectator stood up and shouted, 

A Lull in Conversation

From one side, I have people throwing rocks at me and accusing me of being unfair to poor Bishop Finn and to the Catholic clergy in general — accusing me of having an anti-Catholic animus that places me beyond the Catholic pale. 

Baltimore Burns: Limits of Rhetoric of Non-Violence in Face of Systemic Violence Practiced by Powerful vs. Vulnerable

Two takes this morning on what's happening in Baltimore that I find illuminating: