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August 2018

August 28, 2018

A Good Reason for Suspending Judgment on The Accusation Against Francis

On the basis of the evidence of past action, it does not seem to me...

August 16, 2018

Yes, There Is An Institutional Problem: Power

The problem is power. Any concentration of power in a single demographic will lead ultimately...

August 14, 2018

On The Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal, Scapegoating, and Justice

It’s important to distinguish between scapegoating and the pursuit of justice, and not to try...

July 2018

July 28, 2018

I Spent NFP Awareness Week In Conversation With Questioners

In an intellectual arena where Catholic speakers and writers feel comfortable openly mocking the church’s...

July 04, 2018

I Won’t Be Trying To Say God Next Year: #MeToo and Catholic Writers – UPDATED

it’s clear that women writers have an uphill battle still, when it comes to being...

June 2018

June 04, 2018

Intelligent Catholics Need to Stop Taking Far-Right Reactionaries Seriously

We should regard them as theological equivalents of flat-earthers.

May 2018

May 17, 2018

“I’ll Eat You Up, I Love You So”: Religion Where The Wild Things Are

There’s a long tradition of Catholics being accused of cannibalism, eating our own God, and...

May 14, 2018

Where Are the Poor in the Spectacle of the Church?

If there was any scandal in the Met Gala, it is that when the world...

May 01, 2018

Merton’s Mona Lisa Smile

My friend Cassidy Hall is one of those wonderful humans who still write letters,...

April 2018

April 22, 2018

About That Church Militant Article Going Around, and That Alumni Letter…

If objecting to racism, sexism, and theological dissent is seen as an “attack” on conservative...

April 20, 2018

The Toxic Spirituality of Fetishizing Suffering

The failure to understand the nature of suffering means that one fails in spiritual discernment...

March 2018

March 19, 2018

So You Have a Problem With Diversity….

Do you see the presupposition behind this? It’s that non-diversity is natural, organic, and better.

February 2018

February 06, 2018

The Virgin Martyrs of the Early Church: Witnesses to Radical Christian Egalitarianism

Each one refused a forced marriage, and was violently punished for refusing to follow Roman...

January 2018

January 03, 2018

Our Lady of Righteous Anger

until women are the ones leading the conversation about sex, gender, and equality in the...

December 2017

December 20, 2017

God in the Grotesque: a Nativity Scene

here was God, Creator of the Universe, playing with a kraken like a puppy

December 04, 2017

Every Day an Apocalypse

Maybe when I turned away from the dreary end-times prophecies it wasn’t because I rejected...

October 2017

October 11, 2017

On NFP: Conversations that Need to Happen

"I did it, you can too," is never a viable response to someone who is...

September 2017

September 16, 2017

Join us in the Revolution of Tenderness

I believe literature is by its very nature interdisciplinary, and creates a space in which...

August 2017

August 29, 2017

Why the Pro-Life Movement Needs to Be Rebuilt

In recent weeks, I have observed an alarming uptick in tolerance for racism among Catholic...

July 2017

July 21, 2017

Women’s Literature: The Stories That Are Not Told

The radical idea that women are people too still hasn’t entirely caught on.

July 20, 2017

A Defense of Game of Thrones

Admitting that I am a fan of the hugest TV hit series of the moment...

July 06, 2017

When I Try to Say “God,” Strange Sounds Come Out

I had tried to make them overtly religious, failing to recognize that every one of...

June 2017

June 20, 2017

When Priests Display Misogyny, They Subvert the Persona Christi

The real heart of the problem with this anti-woman approach is not just tacky style,...

June 01, 2017

With the Paris Accord, Listen to our Popes – Not Trump

Why can we not see how our sinfulness mars the very soil on which we...

May 2017

May 29, 2017

When the Right Supports the Burning of the Flag

But there are some things no power, state or federal, has a right to decree.

May 26, 2017

Pro-Life Sexual Ethics Without Punishment or Shame

Bottom line: there is no excuse for Christians to fail to be merciful toward sexual...

May 24, 2017

Abortion: the Most Important Moral Issue Ever….Except for When it’s Not

Let that sink in. A young woman in a crisis pregnancy chose life, but Christians...

May 08, 2017

the power of negative thinking

Convenient amnesia about one’s own past failures: drop-outs, firings, unplanned pregnancies, delinquencies? Never happened. Mind...

April 2017

April 27, 2017

my other problem with the “Benedict Option”

If students are being proselytized and shielded from any alternative views, they will not acquire...

April 24, 2017

When Christian Women Tell You What We Hear

"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" is taken as an...