Amy Coney Barrett is a former professor at the University of Notre Dame, a judge on the US District Court of Appeals, and President Trump’s likely pick to replace the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She’s also the single most controversial woman in politics at the moment – despite the fact that, technically, she’s not in politics at all. So why are people so worked up about Amy Coney Barrett? First of all, appointing a Supreme Court Justice this close to... Read more
Eco-Fascism is an extremist ideology, originating on the Far Right, which lays the blame for climate change on overpopulation. Eco-Fascists want to stop overpopulation through mass murder or forced sterilization of “undesirable” people. They usually define these people as immigrants, inhabitants of developing countries, or other marginalized groups. I’m not going to waste time explaining why this ideology is evil. If you can’t figure that out, you have an ethical issue that my blog simply can’t address. But there is... Read more
Football is not something you probably expected to see discussed on a blog about art and religion. If I were to travel back in time to my middle school self and tell her that starting around nineteen she would become a huge sports fan, I would have laughed in my own face. Sports, I would have said, are for the dumb kids. I like Shakespeare. I still like Shakespeare. A lot. I just don’t feel particularly superior about it. The artificial... Read more
I was crying when I left my apartment in Manhattan. The tiny studio where my husband and I hunkered down for months was strangely no longer ours. In reality, it never was ours. It was always intended to be a temporary situation, an adventure before the bigger adventure of children. And we had a wonderful time doing everything we intended to do: late nights at the piano bar, theater, impromptu museum visits. Of course, we never intended to spend five... Read more
September has always been a season of transition. The leaves begin to change and the days, though still warm, begin to shorten. The air is crisp. Children go back to school and leases end. My birthday is in September, as is my mother’s. This year, the changes will be even sharper. Children will return to schools that look dramatically different from the ones they left. My final lease is ending, and my husband and I are moving into our first... Read more
New York City isn’t dead, and anyone who says it is can go back to Ohio. (I am originally from Ohio, so I can say this.) I’ll see you in five years when you call me up to crash at my place. If you’re the type of person who hates listening to how much New Yorkers love New York please stop reading this now. Because I’m having a bit of a moment. In case you haven’t heard, we (as in the... Read more
There is a scene in the film Silence that I think about a lot. Father Rodrigues watches in horror from a distance as Father Garupe attempts to save the life of a young convert who has been condemned to death. Garupe desperately swims after the woman, who has been thrown in the ocean with her hands tied behind her. In the end, they are both dragged under and perish together. Father Garupe dies a martyr’s death. Ironically, his failure to save... Read more
Voting has never been easy for me. As a Pro-Life, Pro-LGBTQ, Pro-Reform Catholic, I can guarantee that every major candidate will violate my fundamental values in some way. It’s not a matter of small disagreements. It’s the sort of non-negotiable things that have to be, well, negotiated every time I go to the ballot box. I’ve voted for major party candidates and regretted it, I’ve voted for third party candidates and regretted it. I’ve voted for people I really liked... Read more
Repentance is a central doctrine of both the Catholic faith and the social justice movement. Since the inception of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and particularly since the death of George Floyd, many of us have felt called to a cultural repentance over the sins of racism, economic disparity, and oppression. As a Catholic, this process feels familiar. The cycle of repenting of a sin, being forgiven, and then going on to commit that same sin again, only to repent... Read more
Here we go again. As I’ve done a hundred (a thousand?) times before, I’m back on the hunt for a day job. Yes, this is because my pandemic insurance has expired. No, it’s not because I’m lazy. I have a job, in fact, writing for television. (You might think this would pay the bills. I’m not going to dive into that at this time.) It’s truly incredible that I can stage full-scale off-Broadway theatrical productions but I can’t land or... Read more
Femina Ferox
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