Updating You on My Own Spot: Here's Some of What Has Happened in Steve's and My Life As a Result of the Obergefell Ruling

In the Religion Dispatches interview with Sara Moslener to which my last posting links, Moslener states, "I’m a big believer that most academics are really writing their own stories. The more authentic we are with those stories, the more people connect to the histories we are trying to uncover."

Sara Moslener on How "Purity Work and Rhetoric Has Emerged at Moments When Socially Conservative Evangelicals Seek to Assert and Maintain Their Political Power"

Religion Dispatches interviews Sara J. Moslener about that inspired her to write her new book Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence (Oxford UP, 2015): when asked what's the most important take-home message of her book, she replies: 

"Just Who Do We Think We Are?": Real People with Real Lives Affected (Really!) by Marriage Equality

Every time something like this happens, somebody says we have to have a conversation about race. We talk a lot about race. There’s no shortcut. And we don’t need more talk.  (Loud applause.)

~ President Obama eulogizing Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 26 June 2015  

Commentary on the Dissenting Obergefell Statements of the Supreme Catholic Men, Noting their Highly Selective Concern for Constitutional Literalism

For your consideration, a selection of commentary I consider very valuable, re: the dissenting statements of the four Supreme Catholic men in Obergefell, much of it centering on the theme that the claim of those four justices that the majority opinion stretches the Constitution to recognize the rights of LGBT citizens is distinctly . . . odd . . . given how those very same gentlemen have bent the Constitution entirely out of shape in rulings like Citizens United v. FEC and Shelby County v. Holder when the rights of elites and corporations are at stake:

Duggars Praying, Satan Dancing: White Evangelicals Respond to Obergefell — What Does Church Mean When Love Wins Everywhere Except in Church?

The Duggars are praying, y'all — for all of the rest of us, it appears, though it seems not for themselves.

"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."

Note to My Esteemed Readers: Falling Behind in Thanking You for Your Comments — My Apologies

Dear Esteemed Readers,

As you have probably noticed, I'm in one of those phases in which I'm struggling to keep up with acknowledging your very welcome comments here. As always, I want you to know that I read and appreciate them.