Reading Time: 9 minutes American hardliners in Catholic leadership are dragging their religion closer and closer to schism. They absolutely despise Pope Francis, and lately they’ve been ramping up their defiance of him. The hardliners’ defiance hit a fever pitch last month at a big conference, which makes schism even more of a possibility. Meanwhile, the rank-and-file Catholics in […]
Catholicism
Posted inPolitics
Nancy Pelosi’s swan song implies America is a Christian nation
Reading Time: 3 minutes US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s epoch-ending, gavel-passing speech Thursday on the floor of the House demonstrated—the Founding Fathers’ vision of secular governance notwithstanding—how casually and normatively embedded Christianity remains at the summit of American government. Speaker Pelosi’s “swan song” as the revered, two-decade leader of Congressional Democrats and final arbiter of House public-policy priorities was […]
Posted inReproductive rights
Catholic extremist: When politics fails us, violence ‘must always be an option’
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yesterday, Michael Voris, the founder of the right-wing Catholic website Church Militant, told his followers that violence “must always be an option” in the political arena. He added that any suggestion that violence should be avoided went against Catholic doctrine: “Remember the Crusades?” Now we are in a pitched battle in the political arena—the last […]
Posted inReligion
Catholic leaders are now demanding more personal evangelism
Reading Time: 14 minutes A couple of years ago, a new trend emerged in Catholicism: demands for more personal evangelism from the flocks. Personal evangelism is that person-to-person type that most of us know and loathe, not the big arena-evangelism events spearheaded by the likes of Billy Graham. And while few Christian laypeople like this odious sales task, Catholics […]
Posted inLeaving Religion
Collapse: Inside Ireland’s stunning rebuke of Catholicism
Reading Time: 9 minutes The speed and conviction of Ireland’s repudiation of the Catholic Church is without precedent in the world—and for good reason.
Posted inDeath & Dying
Secular grief: How I learned to cope without heaven
Reading Time: 4 minutes Shortly before my mother went in for surgery to correct an issue with her bowels, I drove up to her rural northern California home to help her prepare. I sat on the piano bench in her living room and waited for her to retrieve something she just had to show me. She returned from her […]
Posted inCulture
The real meaning behind ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’
Reading Time: 5 minutes A few years ago, I watched a documentary about a remote Amazonian tribe whose sexual practices were far different from our own in contemporary, mainstream America. A young indigenous woman on camera described a previously normal practice of her tribe to thoroughly enjoy each other with unrepressed enthusiasm at once-a-week communal sex orgies. But that […]
Posted inReligion
Dear Christians: Please stop using Jesus to spread hate
Reading Time: 3 minutes I am tired of people advocating for the rights of the “unborn” at the expense of the living, especially when those affected are predominantly women, those socialized as women, and people with uteruses. Statistic after statistic of the real implications and harms of anti-choice restrictions continues to be ignored, not to mention the disproportionate effect […]
Posted inReligious News
Nancy Pelosi and Communion: Revealing a rift in Catholicism
Reading Time: 7 minutes Communion is a big deal to Catholics in America. But about a month ago, a Catholic archbishop in America barred Nancy Pelosi from being able to take Communion because of her vocal position on abortion rights. The Vatican clearly didn’t agree with this decision, and she herself clearly didn’t either.
Posted inLGBTQ
To bi or not to bi?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Growing up in Orange County California, where money was king, Reagan was God, and Rush Limbaugh his prophet, that was the question. Homosexuality was not an appropriate discussion topic. Ever. Gays were icky, and we should just pretend they don’t exist at all. Especially if you’re Catholic, or pretending to be. By the time I […]