reports: Families have paid thousands of dollars in “protection money” to inmates, gangs and guards to keep their loved ones from being harmed or killed behind bars. Days before last Christmas, Janet Stewart got a telephone call, asking if she wanted to see her son alive again. The caller wanted $400 and identified himself as an inmate at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility — the same prison where her son was serving time. She took the threat seriously. Gang members... Read more
writes: The Archbishop of Jos has stressed that the Catholic Church in Nigeria is opposed to any discrimination of gay people. Earlier this year, Nigeria adopted a law that hands out 14-year sentences to anyone entering a same-sex union and bans public displays of affection between homosexual couples. At the time, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama announced the Church’s support for the legislation. The move was widely seen has giving Catholic support to punitive discrimination of gay people. But speaking at a... Read more
Where will you be? (I hope you’re visualizing that in scary Jack Chick flame-letters.) The conference is at Trinity School for Ministry, near Pittsburgh. It features Wesley Hill, Melinda Selmys, Mark Yarhouse, and me. It starts Friday night. I’ll be doing two presentations Saturday, one on “Sacrifice and Sublimation: Understanding Same-Sex Desire,” and one on “Discipleship Is a Journey, Not a Destination,” plus I’ll be on the wrap-up panel at the end. Check out the other topics here! And register... Read more
blog: …Currently, post-prison reentry programs, such as halfway houses and day reporting centers, are largely run by local nonprofit organizations or, in some cases, smaller for-profit companies. Hininger notes the small, local nature of reentry services in his speech — and then claims that CCA can use its size and resources to “provide consistency and common standards” in different facilities, rapidly make new arrangements with multiple agencies “on an as-needed basis,” and “scale” (i.e, grow rapidly). These claims — bigger,... Read more
A few times here I’ve used this phrase “sexualization of gay Christians,” and I think by now it’s fairly clear what I mean by it: Lots of well-meaning people of many different beliefs focus on sexual problems when they think about gay people. This post from Sarah at A Queer Calling is my favorite example: …After hearing the names of these two saints repeated one after the other for weeks, I finally asked someone, “Why do you think so many... Read more
writes: Last week The Atlantic published the article “Why I Hope to Die by 75” by Ezekiel Emanuel, a former adviser to President Obama on health care and one of the primary designers of the Affordable Care Act. In it, Emanuel outlines his reasons for deciding he will no longer accept most kinds of medical treatment when he reaches age 75. Chief among those reasons is his conclusion that once someone starts to slow down in his mind and body the value... Read more
Well, let’s start spooky movie season with a series of horrifying bangs. All I knew about Martyrs going in was that people argued about whether it should be considered “torture porn,” and that the title ended up playing a big, religiously-inflected role. I’m glad I didn’t know anything else about it; I was totally unprepared for its genre shifts and plot twists. I got a lot out of it and am convinced that the movie does not treat torture pornographically–there’s... Read more
My best friend just had a baby! And so she sends me this poetic thing, which she says accurately reflects her experience: During early days with your baby, when you’re not trying to manage a work schedule, enjoy the floating quality of time. Nurse your baby whenever he or she is restless or fretful, without counting minutes or even really giving any thought to time. more Read more
blogs: Since I’ve arrived at my parish (July 2013), all the weddings I’ve celebrated have been of members of the Spanish-speaking community, I’d say nearly a dozen or more.* Almost all of these have been convalidations. The trend in the Mexican community goes something like this: start dating early, then move in together, live for several years in a union libre [i.e. shacking up], have kids together (3 or 4 is the norm), get a civil marriage once it looks... Read more
because it’s boring? But no, this is a great reason for both friends and governments not to immediately leap to, “Maybe you have a problem and need help,” when somebody has their first realization that they have maybe strayed into 1 Party 2 Many territory. I’ve made the over-interventiony mistake at least once (I think it’s fairly normal for those of us who actually did need to completely quit drinking/using) so it’s worth keeping in mind that most people who... Read more
Eve Tushnet
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