“Who Are the Gay Evangelicals?”: Molly Worthen

Last updated on: February 27, 2016 at 6:02 pm By Eve Tushnet

in the NY Times: …Exodus’s collapse was a media spectacle. It was a huge blow to those who insist that same-sex attraction can be “cured,” and an encouragement to the growing number of evangelicals, particularly millennials, who support L.G.B.T. rights. But some young Christians resist the notion that embracing queer sexuality as an identity — not a disease — permits them to embrace homosexual relationships. These dissenters proudly call themselves gay or queer or bisexual. But they have turned to... Read more

“A Paleocon, An Otherkin, And a Saint Walk into a Bar”: Kate Havard

Last updated on: February 27, 2016 at 1:12 pm By Eve Tushnet

reviews my novel–and gets off some great lines of her own in the process: Eve Tushnet’s wonderful debut novel Amends takes place during the first and only season of a doomed reality television show about alcoholism. The show—also called Amends—follows a group of miserable weirdos through a one-month spell in rehab. The book is also a brutal satire of both the conservative cultural journalism crowd and the “Everything is a Problem” social justice crowd. What sticks with you, though, are the serious things... Read more

Which Films Show the “10 Obscure Gospel Moments Most Jesus Films Miss”: Peter Chattaway

Last updated on: February 27, 2016 at 1:02 pm By Eve Tushnet

with some excellent service journalism at Christianity Today: Ten years ago, I compiled a list of my ten favorite Jesus movies for CT. Several new Jesus films have released since then, with more coming out this year: Risen (February 19), The Young Messiah (March 11), and a new version of Ben-Hur (August 12). But I’ve never felt a need to update the list. The original still holds up pretty well, I believe. That said, while none of the newer films... Read more

“Out in the Fields with God”: I vvatch “The VVitch”

Last updated on: February 26, 2016 at 11:56 am By Eve Tushnet

for AmCon: “What went we out into this wilderness to find?” With that resounding, iconic opening line, The Witch announces that it may not be what you were expecting. Writer/director Robert Eggers’s “New-England folktale” may have been marketed as a horror movie, but horror is only one of its genres–and not the most prominent. The Witch is a family tragedy and a religious drama, and these elements are even more successful than the horror-show aspect. more (and here is a…... Read more

“The Saints You Missed in Sunday School”: Check Out This Great Project

Last updated on: February 25, 2016 at 5:56 pm By Eve Tushnet

from the Orthodox Church in America. My only caveat is that although the site is beautifully-designed, some of the write-ups of saints’ lives can get pretty dry or full of jargon and historical detail. You want somebody to go through these and draw out what’s most intriguing or relevant for random people who want to learn more about their faith and deepen their participation in the communion of the saints. But what a great idea. Read more

The Unprotected: Stuff That Happens to Celibate Gay Christians (Too)

Last updated on: February 25, 2016 at 5:39 pm By Eve Tushnet

So after the “Three False Gods” presentation I did another one, called “The Radical Challenge of Gay Celibacy.” There was a lot of overlapping material, but here I want to highlight a section that was only in the second one. I wanted to point out the ways in which both halves of the term “gay celibacy” are challenging to our churches and to American culture. So I decided to just give a list, of stuff that has happened to gay... Read more

If You Don’t Honor Celibacy…

Last updated on: February 25, 2016 at 4:46 pm By Eve Tushnet

This is a more tentative section of my “three false gods” presentation. It’s about what we lose when marriage crowds out the practice of celibacy. Catholics have marriage as an image of Heaven–the wedding feast of the Lamb. But we also have celibacy as an image of the life of Heaven, where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage. Putting marriage in its proper place means not only renewing other forms of “horizontal” love, but also a rediscovery of... Read more

The Three False Gods of Marriage, Freedom, And Morality

Last updated on: February 25, 2016 at 4:15 pm By Eve Tushnet

So I spent a long weekend in Holland, MI, the heart of Dutch Reform USA and home to Hope College. I was there to talk about Gay Catholic Whatnot, in a variety of settings–a mix of public and private, etc–organized by the St Benedict Forum, the college’s small but growing papist posse. It was a fantastic experience. I’d esp like to note the way aesthetic concerns surfaced throughout the trip. Hope College people really care about sacred architecture and music;... Read more

The Toast Presents: “The Desert Fathers”

Last updated on: February 25, 2016 at 3:01 pm By Eve Tushnet

pretty great: ANTHONY THE GREAT: spiritually I don’t even want to talk about any food that isn’t bread the greatest prayer of all is shutting up more Read more

“Five Thoughts on Loving the Church”: John Cavadini

Last updated on: February 24, 2016 at 5:03 pm By Eve Tushnet

some lovely stuff here: 1) The closer you get to the Catholic Church, the closer you get to the Wounds of Christ. The Church is a communion in the blood of Christ. Contemplating the mystery of the Church is contemplating the blood of Christ, for “the Church is born primarily of Christ’s total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the Cross” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 766). “The origin and growth of... Read more