OR, R: WE MAKE AN IDOL OF OUR FEAR AND CALL IT CHOICE. Just a reminder that I’m speaking at the Yale Political Union at 7.30 pm this Tuesday, in Davies Auditorium, keynoting a debate on “R: Your Twenties are not for Experimentation.” That wasn’t my phrasing, but it will allow me to talk about vocation and how our identities are reshaped by love. Facebook event page is here. Read more

A PRIEST CONTEMPLATES GAGARIN’S FEAT. Via TKB. Read more

CREEPY SKATING FOR HALLOWEEN. Must be seen to be believed. Read more

TENTACLE POT PIE! Read more

I had long been haunted by the Russian conception of the humilated Christ, the lame Christ limping through Russia, begging his bread; the Christ who, all through the ages, might return to the earth and come even to sinners to win their compassion by his need. Now, in the flash of a second, I knew that this dream is a fact; not a dream, not the fantasy of a devout people, not the prerogative of the Russians, but Christ in... Read more

CUSTODIAN OF SOULS: Without meaning to make any specific claims about the law of the “ministerial exception” to certain employment-discrimination statutes, I did want to note something which has struck me. Stanley Fish (via dotCommonweal) puts it in his parenthetical: If the ministerial exemption is to have any bite, there must be a way of distinguishing employees central to a religious association’s core activities from employees who play only a supporting role (the example always given is janitors). (link) Why... Read more

The Persecution & Assassination of Charlie Brown as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of St. Paul Under the Direction of Lucy van Pelt—Jesse Walker pitches a play; via VJ Morton Read more

STRONGER AT THE BROKEN PLACES: I’ve been thinking a bit about the use of language of “brokenness” in discussions of Christianity and homosexuality, and why I rebel against both that language and other people’s reaction against it. I’ll try to just briefly make some tentative points; tomorrow I’ll have an even more tentative post soliciting alternative ways of discussing or describing the Church’s prohibition on gay sex (rather than the alternative vocations open to gay people, where I feel much... Read more

CATS AND KITTENS: SOME MOVIE NOTES. Recently watched: Sweet Smell of Success: This is still one of my very favorite movies. Ferocious and scathing and sad. Tony Curtis is unbelievably charismatic in his sordid, humiliated role; Burt Lancaster is terrifying. Glorious stuff. This time around, I especially noticed how often little sister Susie slipped in some candy-coated cruelty–she may lisp a bit, but she’s clearly related to her brother, acidic and even calculating. Friday Foster: Pam Grier thwarts a race-war... Read more

AND SO I CAME TO CARTHAGE…: I will be keynoting a Yale Political Union debate next Tuesday, November 1, time and place TBA. The resolution is, “Your Twenties are not for Experimentation.” Come and stick pins in! Read more