• So Target has announced that it will no longer distinguish between toys “for boys” and toys “for girls.” Good for Target. This may mean that boys might start playing rugby too, but I suppose that’s OK.
This would have been a bold step in, say, 1955. In 2015 it’s (at least) a generation overdue, but still welcome. It ranks up there as one of Target’s better decisions along with their hiring Maria Bamford and the Danielson Famile for their advertising.
Well … it’s welcome to anyone who isn’t standing athwart history and Pentecost and yelling “Stop!” Like, for example, the boys at The Gospel Coalition, who are still sure that God loves boys best. (The Bible clearly teaches that boys are made of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails, and thus clearly have dominion over sugar and spice and everything nice. I forget the exact biblical reference for that, but you can look it up.)
Franklin Graham is also apparently irked and bothered. By Target, I mean … Franklin Graham is always irked and bothered. That’s his thing.
Well, his other thing. He’s also always wrong. Irked, bothered and wrong — that’s pretty much all Franklin Graham, all the time. Is he always wrong because he’s always angry? Or is he always angry because he’s always wrong? It’s a mystery.
• Heard “Police and Thieves” Saturday and it led to this:
• When seeking economic ideas, many politicians turn to Adam Smith. Ben Carson has chosen, instead, to turn to Joseph Smith.
• “Petty tyranny” is redundant. All tyranny and all tyrants are petty.
• News Item: “Pope urges compassion for divorced Catholics who remarry”
Pope Francis’ call Wednesday for a church of “open doors” that welcomes divorced Catholics prompted speculation over whether he was signaling support for easing the ban on Communion for couples who remarry without a church annulment.
… Under Catholic teaching, unless a marriage is annulled, or declared null and void by a church tribunal, those who remarry cannot receive Communion or other sacraments because they are essentially living in sin and committing adultery. …
The pope, speaking at his weekly general audience at the Vatican, underscored Catholic teaching on divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment, saying, “the church knows well that such a situation contradicts the Christian sacrament.” But he emphasized, “these people are not at all excommunicated.”
“They always belong to the church,” Francis said. The church, he said, must be one of “open doors.”
Hear that all you millions of remarried former Catholics? You’re excluded from communion, but technically not excommunicated! And while the door to the altar and the sacraments will still be slammed in your face, the door to the offering plate is wide open.
Reached for comment, one remarried former Catholic (the one who happens to be remarried to me) muttered something unprintable.
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