#6: anonyreader: I’d like to offer this meditation-response on your article, “Sublimity Now!”, with some [relevance to “Romoeroticism”]. I am sorry that this is entirely too long and completely out of season. So feel free to edit as needed. … ————————————————– Eve Tushnet’s description of the bonfire scene at the beginning of the article “Sublimity Now!” reminded me of the great hymn of Pentecost, Veni Sancte Spiritus. “Come Holy Spirit and supernaturally send forth a ray of your light.”* Tushnet... Read more

#5: Miss Ogilvy again (see below): It seems to me that to win over the naysayers, you really ought to emphasize the “gay is a genre” point: how, for example, might the historical shifts in understanding sexuality speak to the question of renewing same-sex friendship-blessing? One could make a case that renewing this tradition would encourage skepticism about our culture’s primary way of understanding “the tangle of experiences we’ve decided to call being gay” (as you put it in a... Read more

#3: Miss Ogilvy: …But for now, on to “Romoeroticism” (my reaction is kind of lengthy). [Also, by way of identification: I’m also SSA, female, and a recent adult convert (well, grad student convert, which isn’t quite adult) to Christianity. I’m still trying to figure out the ethics of same-sex love.] One of the comments-boxers accuses you of “trying to see the world through the prism of same-sex attraction.” But I wonder if it might be more accurate to say that... Read more

#2, Philomena: I’ve been a lurking follower of your blog for some time now, and am just emerging from the shadows to comment on the comments on “Romoeroticism” at InsideCatholic (don’t really feeling like fighting it out amongst the commenters at the moment, but wanted to offer a positive review anyhow). I loved the piece for the same reason I enjoy all your writing: intellectually rigorous without being pedantic, orthodox beliefs which you don’t feel the need to constantly apologize... Read more

RESPONSES TO “ROMOEROTICISM”: Post #1, anonyreader. (this is a repost–accidentally posted it in a messed-up form earlier, which I hope nobody noticed! And it’s actually about my Commonweal piece, but I thought it was apropos.) I have just read your essay or reflections on Homosexuality & the Church in Commonweal. I liked your voice – but I ended up feeling confused… I remembered once, many years ago, I had my little niece visiting me – she was only three, four... Read more

ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY. It’s the feast of St. Martha. Read more

CANCEL YOUR OWN DAMN SUBSCRIPTION TO THE RESURRECTION! Read more

A MOCKERY KING OF SNOW: Some thoughts on what is either the season or the series finale of Kings. My first post on the crypto-Biblical show; my second. Spoilers, but not ultimate ones, i.e. I won’t tell you how it ends. I’ll just give you a rough sense of a couple things which happen on the way there. The most striking thing to me in this episode was the scene in which Jonathan realizes God didn’t choose him for the... Read more

HEAVEN IS NOT A FARM. I have a piece in the current American Conservative–basically vignettes from Dupont Circle. You can read it here as PDF; I’ll let you know if an html version goes up. Read more

“BEFORE VATICAN II, THIS SQUID WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO GROW BIGGER THAN SUSHI-ROLL SIZE.” Read more