inside the cow with six stomachs and a ten-acre digestive tract: Why the delays? My understanding is that publishing houses have changed a lot in the past forty years, partly because they’ve been scooped up by mega-corporations who regard books as product units, meant to gain instant profit or be dropped. And at minimal cost at their end, which means no more editorial staffs: editors are doing what used to be three and sometimes four people’s full time jobs, which... Read more
over at Theology in the Raw. Up-front about the suffering they’ve experienced; also challenging to the churches: We’ve received a lot of well-meaning advice that has turned out to be very harmful, but possibly the worst is to avoid other LGBT people. The assumption and fear is that if Brian befriends another gay man, of course he’ll cheat. While there is wisdom in maintaining some physical, emotional, and relational boundaries, isolating oneself completely is extremely harmful. Brian’s friendships with other... Read more
and other people, should they exist: Several months after I’d stopped seeing my first spiritual director because he’d been transferred to a different parish, I saw that he’d be giving a talk on Catholic understandings of homosexuality. Since I knew I wasn’t his only gay spiritual directee—in fact, he’d been recommended to me by another gay Catholic who, like me, was trying to live in accordance with Catholic teaching—I was excited to hear his perspective. I ended up sharply disappointed... Read more
Would you like a giant Hitchcock head? Would you like two? WOULD YOU LIKE FOUR? (via Ratty) Read more
In 1957 a national sample of Americans was asked what they would think of a person if all they knew about him was that he was not married. Several options were presented, and about one-third of the respondents chose “mentally ill.” Read more
…which I totally missed. But there’s always next year (if the Messiah tarries): I don’t know how you might choose to mark Aelred’s feast day today, or if you’re even comfortable marking saints’ feast days, but I’d encourage you to try something, be it small or large. I myself am planning to make a simple dinner for my housemates to give thanks for their company tonight. Perhaps you would want to start planning an “anniversary of friendship” trip to celebrate... Read more
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last,... Read more
Easy to navigate. Here you go. Read more
Now I take a more lenient view of many things, but that’s because I too am guilty. When I was young and innocent I was a harsher judge. We keep learning all our lives–but God help us what we learn. To understand everything is supposed to mean to forgive everything; if so, then may God spare me from those people who forgive too much. That’s merely something we say to console ourselves when life starts to leave its mark on... Read more
A second small post in my intermittent series about things people have asked me in interviews about Gay and Catholic. I did a long, fascinating interview, which I hope I’ll be able to share with you all fairly soon, in which the interviewer is a secular progressive. He found aspects of my book intriguing, but at one point he said, “Look, I need to push back on you a bit here. You talk a lot about the need for the... Read more
Eve Tushnet
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