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Marriage is for Everybody, Says Former Anti-Gay Evangelical

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…this arena where we can totally give ourselves to another person in body, spirit, and life and commitment and grow in that total gift of self which winds up being an image of Jesus’ total gift of himself for us. Critics say that marriage is more than that, though. What about procreation? The Bible consistently portrays procreation as a blessing from God and a gift, but there is no sense that it is essential for a marriage to be valid. Nowhere in…

What Pence and Kaine Reveal About Divides in Catholicism

By Patricia Miller

…And, as Jack Jenkins notes at Think Progress: …if this sort of dissenting spirit was unique among modern American Catholics, one could plausibly argue that the United States has created an environment that bifurcates Catholics in unusual ways. But it’s not: In 2014, a global survey conducted by Univision found that most of the planet’s Catholics disagree with the church on birth control, abortion rights, divorce, and priestly celibacy. But of cou…

Why Nobody Should Be Surprised That Pope Francis Made Problematic Comments About Judaism — And That He Remains Unapologetic

By Ilan Benattar

…does Christian canon typically assert that Jewish law is morally corrupt, spiritually insufficient, and overly concerned with ritual over feeling, but indeed, followers of Christ are in fact the “New Israel.” It’s in this sense that we can properly understand verses such as Galatians 3:29 which state that “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs to the promise.” Many, such as a fourth century North African bishop named Aug…

Eulogy, Corrected: Father Matthew Came Out as Gay 30 Years Earlier

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…red over, every winsome line he ever wrote. He grew up an Irish Catholic in Boston. The Irish know a thing or two about poetry, song and the drama of the divine. That Matthew’s spirit resides in that august light is a source of great joy, I sense, to those who knew him, and loved him, far better than I….

There’s Something Rotten in Ireland

By Haroon Moghul

…that does not honor and revere Jesus Christ as a Prophet, as the Word and Spirit of God; moreover, Muslims revere Jesus as the Messiah who is foretold to return in the end times. It would be very strange to suggest that Palestinians, Muslim or Christian, would want to attack a sacred figure whose return is expected. This is coming from an embassy in an historically strongly Catholic country, too—whose connections to Palestinians are numerous, and…

What Do You Think?: “Padre Oprah” Scandal Has Many Asking Whether Priests Should Be Allowed to Marry

By Frances Kissling

…s men friends. To be more “normal.” But still, celibacy was mandatory. The spirit of personal freedom that was part of the reform of divorce laws, women’s liberation, and the advent of the birth control pill, influenced Vatican II and awakened desires in Catholic men and women in religious life. Priests and nuns were restless. This too contributed to efforts to amend “priestly formation” so that men could better tolerate a celibate life. But, as t…

‘Pro-Life’ Theater, Open White Nationalism, and Virility Fear — Day 3 of NatCon

By Annika Brockschmidt and Ben Lorber

…ates, Talento declares that women control access to sex. If they “value it cheaply”—meaning, sex outside of marriage—no man would ever want to marry them, because he wouldn’t have to. In this view, men marry for sex, while women marry for economic security—a deeply depressing glimpse into the gender and marriage politics this movement seeks to impose on the rest of the nation. Have more children, but have them my way—A rift in the pronatalist-coal…

How Prince Set Fire to My Catholic Girlhood

By Anthea Butler

…ar, and his dancing was the uninhibited dance of possession—not by an evil spirit, but the spark of divinity. His moans, arcs, and cries in songs like “Darling Nikki” and “When Doves Cry” cut deep. His lyrics, even the most libidinous ones, pointed to a union of desire and the divine. No other artist tapped into spiritual truth and multiple orgasms at the same time the way Prince did. He didn’t even have to say the words—his moans said everything….

Trump with back to camera stands before a frenzied crowd with raised fist.

With ‘Vermin’ Remark Trump Crosses Fully into Nazi Territory

By Robert P. Jones

…ity of mercilessly rooting out everything that was opposed to the national spirit. While the flower of the nation’s manhood was dying at the front, there was time enough at home at least to exterminate this vermin.” Mein Kampf references the word “blood” nearly 150 times, mostly in the context of notions of purity vs. contamination or poison. It notably intermixes references to both ethnicity and culture. References to blood as ethnicity appear ri…

What’s Wrong with Wright’s Words

By Andrew Murphy

…storm of controversy over the comments by Barack Obama’s senior pastor and spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright (and the address on race that the comments prompted Obama to deliver on March 18) have stirred up a hornet’s nest of accusation and recrimination. But if Obama’s speech on race is as historically significant as many of us think, then perhaps the credit ought to go, in part, to Rev. Wright, for (unwittingly, to be sure) prompting the co…