Doctors and Policemen

Last updated on: December 5, 2014 at 4:04 pm By Eve Tushnet

From now on whenever I do or say something awful to somebody I’m gonna tell them, “But it’s a form of therapy!” Story #1, from last year: “To Stay Out of Jail, Must Nonviolent Offenders Submit to Medical Diagnoses?” Last week, those favoring reductions in prison populations and their associated costs applauded Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement that he’s seeking an end to mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenders. For administration critics who feel drug war reforms have been... Read more

Hey Look, I’m Doing Two Workshops at the Gay Christian Network Conference!

Last updated on: December 5, 2014 at 3:27 pm By Eve Tushnet

Here’s the schedule. Sign up today!! (Like, really today, I think the price goes up after today.) Both of my workshops will have a lot of audience participation; they’re intended to help you figure out the next steps to take in your own life. Friendship as a Form of Kinship Presented by Eve Tushnet “Greater love has no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.” This workshop will explore friendship in Scripture and Christian history... Read more

Jason Byassee on Christians and “Christian”

Last updated on: December 5, 2014 at 3:16 pm By Eve Tushnet

This is the part that really irks me the most on eschewing “Christian.” It’s as though we get off scot-free for historical Christian sins (the crusades, racism, you name it) by just calling ourselves something else. Christians believe there is a way to forgiveness and purity—but it passes through confession, restoration, and repaired relationship. The much more costly way to disassociate from those who have done ill in Christ’s name is to set about loving as fanatically as they hated.... Read more

“Church of Gay Abandon”: I’m Interviewed by the Sydney Catholic Weekly

Last updated on: December 4, 2014 at 8:03 pm By Eve Tushnet

Some headline writer was having a long day there. Anyway I thought this turned out well: …What do you like about being Catholic? The central thing for me is the Eucharist, including Eucharistic adoration and processions like Corpus Christi. Also the saints and artists: St Francis, St Aelred, Dorothy Day, Oscar Wilde, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, El Greco, Dali. I like the fact that there’s a saint for everything, St Lydwina the patroness of figure skating etc, and the gallows humour of... Read more

“Obama’s Big Idea: Let’s Hike Federal Cop Subsidies”

Last updated on: December 4, 2014 at 4:17 pm By Eve Tushnet

Walter Olson at Cato: President Obama’s newly announced police-reform package lives up to one’s worst expectations. He flatly refuses to curtail the federal police militarization program, instead calling for a big hike in federal spending on aid to local departments with the usual micromanaging strings attached. These strings will predictably make departments more responsive to Washington, and lobbies with clout there, as distinct from their local communities. As USA Today notes, one powerful interest group has been especially active behind the scenes: “The... Read more

A Very Kind Review of “Gay and Catholic” at Shored Fragments

Last updated on: December 4, 2014 at 3:35 pm By Eve Tushnet

plus some other book, apparently other people also write books (why?): I try to keep up with books addressing human sexuality from a theological/Christian perspective. The general flow of publications reminds me of an exchange from an old BBC Radio 4 drama: ‘He made pork pies the way Wagner wrote semiquavers.’ ‘You mean they were good?’ ‘Not often. But there were an awful lot of them…’ A minority of the books published simply repeat already well-rehearsed arguments and so contribute... Read more

Hey Look, It’s the Prayer My Spiritual Director Warned Me About!

Last updated on: December 2, 2014 at 5:25 pm By Eve Tushnet

Nathaniel Torrey on the Litany of Humility, which I super love although I also appreciate the fact that almost every reference I see to it includes some kind of Grizzled Local Tells Teens Not to Go in the Woods kind of warning. For me it helps me trust & rely solely on God–it reassures me that even if all my own schemes and people-pleasing strategies fail, God will love me. I think the worry is that the prayer can be... Read more

Listen to an Interview with Wesley Hill and Me

Last updated on: December 2, 2014 at 4:16 pm By Eve Tushnet

With Beyond Words Radio. We delve into our conversion/deepening of faith stories, reparative therapy, and what gay Christians can offer our churches. I’m consistently unable to remember that most people aren’t gay. I do these shows and I act as if the majority of listeners are themselves gay. That’s a useful approach–speaking as if the margins are the center and just letting the actual majority see the world through that lens–but it does mean I often speak to a fantasy... Read more

Lisa Hendey Interviews Me About “Gay and Catholic”

Last updated on: December 2, 2014 at 3:52 pm By Eve Tushnet

here you go! …Q: Your book offers some very practical and helpful advice for gay Catholics who desire a full and fruitful relationship with the Church. If you could offer one major point of advice (along with my advice that they BUY the BOOK!), what would it be. You can kind of hear it in my answer above: honesty. It’s really hard to be honest with yourself and with God. We often confuse self-criticism and even self-hatred with humility and... Read more

From the Letters of St Gregory of Nazianzus to St Basil

Last updated on: December 2, 2014 at 3:04 pm By Eve Tushnet

What I wrote before about our stay in Pontus was in joke, not in earnest; what I write now is very much in earnest. O that one would place me as in the month of those former days, Job 29:2 in which I luxuriated with you in hard living; since voluntary pain is more valuable than involuntary delight. O that one would give me back those psalmodies and vigils and those sojournings with God in prayer, and that immaterial, so to... Read more