A history lesson in papal pettiness and misogyny

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 7:56 pm By Fred Clark

At National Catholic Reporter, Ken Briggs’ “They Took Leadership, Incurred Wrath” recounts the history of tension between American nuns and the Vatican. It seems the all-male hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church was aggrieved and threatened simply by the fact that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had the audacity to include the word “leadership” in the name of a women’s organization. The misogyny is that deep and that visceral: The grudge hardened in 1971 when the superiors of women’s... Read more

Tribalism and affinity scams

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 7:56 pm By Fred Clark

Here’s another downside to evangelical tribalism: It makes evangelicals more prone to being suckered by affinity scams. Two brothers ran a phony $6 million securities offering and Ponzi scheme that preyed on evangelical Christians tied to a private school, according to federal prosecutors. The SEC sued Usee Inc. and brothers Terry Wiese, 64, of Little Elm, Texas, and Scott Wiese, 48, of Temecula, Calif., and three relief defendants. The Wieses pumped Usee as a Dallas-area Voice over Internet Protocol company,... Read more

Earning their millstone necklaces

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 7:57 pm By Fred Clark

Matthew 18: 5-6 (KJV): “Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” First stop, North Carolina, where the religious right is crusading to pass Amendment One. Anti-gay discrimination is already part of state law, but Amendment One will make... Read more

A timely conversation from 1958

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 7:55 pm By Fred Clark

Just came across this while looking for something else.* Mike Wallace interviews Reinhold Niebuhr, April 27, 1958: WALLACE: Dr. Niebuhr, the first question I’d like to put to you is perhaps a very obvious one, but I would like a kind of a capsulized answer, if I may. We hear about the necessity for a separation between church and state. If religion is good, why should our society be based upon a separation between the church and the state? NIEBUHR:... Read more

Marilynne Robinson vs. evangelical tribalism

Last updated on: July 3, 2012 at 7:58 pm By Fred Clark

“We live in a time when the claiming of a religious identity has become more important than abiding in what that truth implies,” Marilynne Robinson said last month at the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College. That “claiming of a religious identity” and the elevating of it above the meaning, content or substance of that faith is what I’ve been describing as evangelical tribalism. Robinson, author of the novel Housekeeping and of the new essay collection When I... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: May 1, 2012 at 12:40 am By Fred Clark

Carol Howard Merritt: “(Re)Imagining Christianity“ Right now, on the 21st Century blogosphere, Christians argue whether women should keep silent in churches. That’s right. It’s 2012 and they believe that women are so subordinate that we should not even be allowed to ask questions in a Bible study. First Timothy explains that Eve tasted the fruit first, so two thousand years later, anyone with XX chromosomes should not open their mouths within the walls of a church. If that logic is... Read more

Do you know the way [around in] San Jose?

Last updated on: April 30, 2012 at 11:16 pm By Fred Clark

So the big family adventure coming up in May is a trip to sunny California for the “2012 Emirates Airline USA Rugby Girls’ High School National Invitational Championships.” Pretty cool — a big honor and a big opportunity for my daughters and the rest of the undefeated DRFC Dingoes. We’ll be in Stanford for the tournament, but we’ll also have a couple of free days out there to … well, we’re not sure what. We’ll be a short train ride/drive... Read more

‘Children of the Rainbow’

Last updated on: April 30, 2012 at 5:14 pm By Fred Clark

“Together we will live / every sister and every brother” “Imagine you find out later in life your daughter or son or niece or nephew or grandchild is gay and they remember, or are told, that you either voted for Amendment One or remained silent and did not protest the Amendment.” “The clincher for me is the lack of love and dual spirit of pride and condemnation that I hear in religious appeals to vote for Amendment One; this... Read more

Standing up to bullies is offensive, but legal discrimination is not?

Last updated on: April 30, 2012 at 2:26 pm By Fred Clark

So it seems a student journalism group invited Dan Savage to speak and then was shocked … shocked! … when Dan Savage showed up and spoke like Dan Savage. The advice columnist and “It Gets Better” video pioneer didn’t say anything new or unusual or unexpected, and nothing he hasn’t said before in more prominent public forums. But the audience at the Journalistic Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association apparently included some members of the IndigNation — the... Read more

Pass the offering plate: Congress wants every church to cough up $50,000

Last updated on: April 30, 2012 at 1:03 am By Fred Clark

Bread for the World: “Congress Wants Your Church to Spend $50,000” The House of Representatives just proposed to cut more than $169 billion from SNAP, formerly the food stamps program. Some representatives argued that feeding hungry people is really the work of the churches. These representatives are essentially saying that every church across America — big, small, and tiny — needs to come up with an extra $50,000 dedicated to feeding people — every year for the next 10 years... Read more

What does "Beersheba" mean?