Like most evangelical Christians, I love personal testimonies. This is one of the best traditions of our anti-traditional religious tradition. We get up in front of each other and we tell our stories. Personal testimonies aren’t sermons or arguments. They are our stories — the stories that tell who we are. They are our own stories — the stories we own and the stories that own us. They belong to us and we belong to them. As Alise Wright wrote... Read more

1. This Is Old News. President Barack Obama’s policy on health insurance for contraception is not a departure from current law. It does not deviate from the established rules. And Catholic institutions have been abiding by these same rules for more than a decade. So when the clerical lobbyists suddenly jump up screaming that this is a brand new cause for outrage and alarm, then they just look silly. And transparently dishonest. Anyone pretending this is a brand new thing... Read more

So, OK, after two long posts about something that makes me angry, here’s a quick and not-at-all anger-inducing topic to cleanse the palate. The Yorkshire terrier-poodle mix in our family tends to be friendly and curious. Her response to other dogs, other people, deer, chipmunks, mice and groundhogs tends to involve lots of tail-wagging and intent, up-close sniffing. For Willow, regardless of size or species, a stranger is just a friend she hasn’t met. The only exceptions to this so... Read more

Lots being written and reported on this manufactured ballyhoo. Here’s some of it. Kay at Balloon Juice cuts through the fog to explain just what would be covered by the guidelines the bishops are condemning: Here’s the services that have to be covered with no out-of-pocket cost to the employee: Well-woman visits, screening for gestational diabetes, HPV testing, STD counseling, HIV testing and counseling, breastfeeding support and supplies, contraception, and screening and counseling for domestic violence. Most Americans think that’s... Read more

People Who Don’t Listen To Women have been in the news quite a bit recently. We had John Piper, with his silliness about a “masculine” God and wanting the church to have more of a “masculine feel.” And then we had the weeklong trainwreck of Pink Ribbons Inc.’s partisan attack on a vital, irreplaceable institution for women. And finally we have the U.S. Catholic bishops declaring that the core of their religion is opposition to gynecology in all its forms.... Read more

This week slipped away a bit, so Monday’s post on the Tribulation Force movie will be postponed until Friday. Sorry about that. In the meantime, here’s Leslie Kaufman and Kate Zernike of The New York Times, reporting on how tea-party activists have come to think of themselves as a real-life Tribulation Force battling against the evil forces of Nicolae Carpathia and the Antichrist-bureaucracy of the United Nations: Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against... Read more

Just think of the names: Canon Crisparkle, Charity Pecksniff, Noddy Boffin, Durdles, Horatio Fizkin, Thomas Gradgrind, Mr. Grimwig, Mr. Murdstone, Mrs. Gummidge, Mr. Snagsby, Dr. Slammer, Inspector Bucket, Captain Swosser and Professor Dingo, Milly Swidger, Dismal Jemmy, the Artful Dodger, The Vengeance, Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, Uriah Heep, Luke Honeythunder, Wackford Squeers. Wonderful. Anyway, Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday is yet another excuse for me to yet again post a bit of George Orwell’s classic essay on Dickens: His radicalism is... Read more

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today struck down California’s Proposition 8, which forbid legal recognition for the marriages of same-sex couples. Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote: Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. And you’re not allowed to have a law that “serves no purpose, and has no... Read more