In one of the three post-concussion Gay Catholic Whatnot interviews I’ve done so far, my interlocutor asked me, “So what do you think about… pride?” Me, probably getting a little bit too much Jeeves in the face: “Pride, the mortal sin? Or Pride, the thing where they throw beads?” But no, it’s in fact a great question, because it implies an underlying question of what a Christian model of gay (and I think also women’s) lib would look like. Pride,... Read more
Hello all. I’m very happy to announce that an anthology I’m editing, with the working title Staying Catholic When You’ve Been Hurt in the Church, is on its winding way from Wipf & Stock’s Cascade Press imprint. The anthology includes theology, poetry, hagiography, and personal essays, and touches on a wide range of harms people can encounter in Catholic institutions, from abuse to theft to gossip to racism. I don’t know of any other collection like it. I hope it... Read more
excellent metaphor and accurate insight at the heart of this piece from a scholar of antiquity: When I was a boy, my upbringing as a Christian was forever being weathered by the gale force of my enthusiasms. First, there were dinosaurs. I vividly remember my shock when, at Sunday school one day, I opened a children’s Bible and found an illustration on its first page of Adam and Eve with a brachiosaur. Six years old I may have been, but... Read more
So a week ago yesterday I fainted and concussed myself. It’s all fine, they know now why it happened and it’s a truly minor medical condition for which the only lasting treatment is, “Drink more water,” but I have manfully restrained the urge to whine on social media and my manfulness is at its end. This is what my week has been. WEDNESDAY I saw a movie called Demon, a Polish joint about a man marrying into a (formerly?) Jewish... Read more
A little while ago I used a Michigan case about videoconference sentencing to explore the theology of the body of the defendant. Here Mississippi attempted–and then retracted–some wrongheaded theology of the family of the incarcerated: Family and friends of Mississippi state prisoners were surprised and alarmed by a new policy announced Wednesday that bans all but immediate family members from visiting. According to a memo posted in state facilities, “this excludes ALL friends, pastors girlfriends, fiancés, cousins, nephews, nieces aunts... Read more
reviewin’: For over twenty years Will Allen was the in-house videographer for the Buddhafield—a religious group, eventually numbering over a hundred members, that mixed meditation, ecstatic experience, and ballet. In 2007 the group shattered amid accusations of emotional and sexual abuse. The title of Allen’s new documentary shows which side he ended up on: It’s called Holy Hell. Holy Hell confirms some stereotypes of cults and challenges others. The Buddhafield offered much that our churches don’t offer but should; it... Read more
doin’ my thing! (a much more personal, less Charles Williams-y version of my Charles Williams piece): …For a long time after my conversion I focused almost exclusively on accepting church teaching. But there is another struggle for acceptance, which for many gay Christians will be even more challenging: the struggle for self-acceptance. The self too is a gift from God. Your life, with all its weirdnesses and inexplicable longings, is a gift that it is your duty to receive with... Read more
Come and picnic on Saturday, Oct 1, with Always God’s Children, the ministry of St Matthew’s Cathedral to gay and lesbian Catholics and our families and friends. I will be there & there will be others from a wide range of beliefs and personal situations. Basically if you’d like to meet people who will understand where your questions are coming from, and meet you with empathy no matter where you’re at, consider picnicking with us. We’ll meet outside the Rock... Read more
A few weeks ago I got a chance to see the Mountain Goats in concert. Let me tell you to do this thing if you get the chance. The Mt Goats is sort of one guy, John Darnielle, and the people he gets to help him make narrative, terrifically-structured indie music; I’ve yapped about their stuff here and here among other places. I super love them but am wary of live music for whatever dumb reason, so when I finally... Read more
profile: “People say to me sometimes, ‘We don’t go to you because you bury those people’ – the poor people,” Peter Stefan tells me in the second-floor office of his Worcester, MA funeral home. “I say, ‘Then don’t come. We don’t need you.’ You bury who you bury.” That statement might serve as a motto for Stefan, whose weathered appearance seems wholly apropos for a man who, for 41 years, has made a living burying those whose bodies have nowhere... Read more
Eve Tushnet
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