Catholic Commentary re: McCarrick Doubling Down on Calls to Bar Gays from Priesthood: Why This Red-Herring Solution Is Not a Viable Solution to the Abuse Problem

1) I see Catholic commentators on Twitter saying — all over again —in light of the McCarrick story that the solution to the abuse problem in the church is barring gay men from the priesthood.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

Here's a Twitter thread I wrote today, that I'd like to share with you in light of my postings yesterday:

Mary Hunt on Next Phase of Abuse Revelations: "Adult Women Who Have Been Sexually Involved with Priests Represent the Third Element of This Complicated Problem"

What Mary Hunt says here is so critically important to be heard, as the hateful, homophobic Catholic right works overtime — once again — to frame the abuse story in the Catholic church as a narrative that's all about homosexuality, in light of the McCarrick story:

Catholic Right Goes All In on Gay-Bashing Analysis of McCarrick Story — As Stories Break of Nuns Abused by Priests and Priests Fathering Children

As Sarasi points out in a comment here this morning, the homophobic Catholic right is having a field day now trying to exploit the Cardinal McCarrick story to attack what it sees as the sexually louche culture of the 1960s, which gave women access to increasing control of their reproductive lives and opened the door for gay folks to come out of the closet. The Catholic right wants women back in their kitchens baking Betty Crocker confections for their hard-working men, and gay folks shut fast back in their dark closets.

When a Story About Chewing Gum Is Not About Chewing Gum: Transgender Teen Denied Communion in Charlotte, North Carolina, Catholic Church

Was she denied Communion because she’d been chewing gum — or because she’s transgender? https://t.co/cm8rjukgYx

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2018

 

With all the really challenging things going on in the world around us right now, my choice to focus on this story might appear baffling. It's a "little" story, perhaps, compared with ones like the raging fire gobbling up a big portion of California, or the (shocking but unsurprising) revelation that the parents of many children snatched from their parents by the U.S. government at the nation's borders cannot be located and there are reports that some of these children are being sexually abused. 

More Reports on Shared Goal of Putin and U.S. White Evangelicals: Deconstructing Democracy

The story reported by Peter Montgomery, which I shared with you on Friday — that the neo-Confederate League of the South, classified as a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center, is inaugurating a Russian-language section on its website — has now been reported by other venues including Newsweek and The Hill. As Peter Montgomery reports (and this is echoed in the other two articles I've linked; I'm also repeating what I posted Friday),

God, Guns, and White Supremacy: More Valuable Commentary about U.S. White Evangelicals' Infatuation with Strongman Putin and What's Driving It

I keep trying to think of a historical explanation for the nonchalance of GOP leaders and voters about treason at the highest levels of government now, after the Southern strategy gave the GOP a solid base of white evangelical voters from the Old Confederac—

Oh, wait.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 17, 2018

Here's some more commentary for you that I've read today, which shows the clear connections between the white supremacist nationalism that binds together white evangelicals in the U.S. and Russia, as white American evangelicals look to Putin's authoritarian assault on democracy as a model for an American society in which a religious minority will be, they hope, permitted to impose their moral and religious ideas on the majority by force:

More National Prayer Breakfast Commentary: "The [Republican] Party Needs to Face That Element Within Them, Which Is Essentially a White-Supremacist Element That Putin Is Playing"

More good commentary about the connection of the National Prayer Breakfast to the treasonous behavior of the political party now controlling the U.S. federal government — this commentary has come to my attention since I posted my collection of other pieces early today: