Objections and Additions to “A Closeted Subculture”

Last updated on: August 24, 2018 at 6:33 pm By Eve Tushnet

I’m still thinking about the point I tried to make on Monday, about how talk of an abusive “homosexual subculture” in the Church usually ignores the fact that these subcultures are, specifically, closeted subcultures. That post invites three pretty obvious objections. The first objection is that the closet is a peripheral issue, or even a distraction, when the real problem in the Catholic Church is the same problem as everywhere else: power. After all, the closet is not an especially... Read more

My Top Nine Underrated Vampire Movies

Last updated on: August 20, 2018 at 11:04 pm By Eve Tushnet

Fang flicks for fun chicks. I did a very short (~12 mins) interview with Doxacast, the podcast of the Christian sf/f/horror convention Doxacon. (EARLY BIRD TIX STILL AVAILABLE! Do you know who both R.A. Lafferty and the Theotokos are? Do you want to know whether our God is a trickster God, or why the Eucharist is not a werewolf? GET YOUR DOXACON TICKET TODAY.) Anyway, we began with a brief riff on what might interest a Christian in horror films,... Read more

A Closeted Subculture

Last updated on: August 20, 2018 at 1:08 pm By Eve Tushnet

Many discussions of the sexual-abuse crisis within the Catholic Church have used the phrase, “a homosexual subculture.” That phrase obviously overlooks the abuse of women and girls; however, it does seem to describe some of what’s been going on, in some parts of the Church, and fully addressing our crisis will require, at some point, coming to terms with this subculture (or these subcultures) and the ways it has distorted priestly formation and Catholic witness. But what very few people... Read more

Public Penance and the Abuse Crisis

Last updated on: August 13, 2018 at 3:53 pm By Eve Tushnet

A week from today, Monday, August 20, St Matthew’s Cathedral here in DC is dedicating their usual monthly Eucharistic Holy Hour to prayer “for the healing of all affected by clergy sexual abuse, especially the survivors, and for the Holy Spirit to guide the Church in acting to bring greater accountability on the part of bishops for addressing and reporting sexual abuse by clergy members at any and all levels of Church leadership.” You can find more information, as well... Read more

Doxacast Annotated: My Top Ten Underrated Horror Films

Last updated on: August 6, 2018 at 4:18 pm By Eve Tushnet

I spoke with Doxacast, a Christian sf/fantasy podcast (tied to Doxacon, a Christian sf/fantasy convention, woot!). You can listen here. It’s just under eleven minutes, so I figured I’d link you all to reviews if you want more on why I love these films and why you might too. 10. Urban Ghost Story, which, as I note, will especially interest people who liked my Doxacon presentation last year about what kind of person is typically a source of authority in... Read more

Reckless Love: Notes on Revoice ’18

Last updated on: August 1, 2018 at 1:26 pm By Eve Tushnet

# I asked a lot of people what had been the highlight of the conference for them, and everybody gave the same two answers. Most people mentioned the worship services first. I totally agree. I don’t cry, y’all–even the first ten minutes of Up just make me misty–but I was wiping away tears during the final worship service. To see all these people who had worshiped and praised our God for years, for decades, in churches where they didn’t know... Read more

Her Mistress’s Hand

Last updated on: July 31, 2018 at 4:03 pm By Eve Tushnet

Hello! I’m back from Revoice, it was amazing!!!, more on that in a bit. I gave the first keynote address and it was uh… let’s just say I was revising it literally minutes before I stepped up to the mic. So it was even more chaotic than my usual. But it touched on what I think is ultimately the central issue for gay Christians–and all Christians–and so I’d like to try to give you a more coherent presentation here. Because... Read more

A Nuclear Eden: Return to Angela Carter’s “Heroes & Villains”

Last updated on: July 22, 2018 at 8:31 pm By Eve Tushnet

Man, remember how I said Anna Karenina was the most heterosexual novel I’d ever read? I must have forgotten this bristly little gem. Heroes and Villains is relatively early Carter, from 1969 (see here for some notes on her first and last novels). It tells the story of Marianne, a Professor’s daughter who lives in a literal ivory(-colored) tower, and Jewel, the Barbarian she first encounters as he’s killing her brother. It’s a fairy tale and a piece of Bible... Read more

I Review “Sorry to Bother You”

Last updated on: July 17, 2018 at 7:25 pm By Eve Tushnet

for America magazine: If I had to sell you “Sorry to Bother You,” the corporate satire/horror film from writer and director Boots Riley, I would say it’s like if “Brazil” starred the lead in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Or should I say it’s like “Get Out” with a touch of “BoJack Horseman”? Like “The Stuff,” but with slavery instead of killer yogurt? If all these mashups give the impression of a disjointed, howling, passionate and sharply observed adventure that skids... Read more

Pride and Prejudice: Short movie reviews

Last updated on: July 13, 2018 at 7:20 pm By Eve Tushnet

…Sorry for the title. Anyway, since I am backward in all things, I waited until the end of June to watch some films about lgbt lives. In order of when I watched them. Transamerica: This movie made me think a bit about the difference between stereotypical characters and iconic ones. I think Julia Serrano may even name this movie specifically in Whipping Girl when she’s talking about the tropes filmmakers use to distance their audience from trans characters: The very... Read more