Dreher expects the La Repubblica report—describing a group of gay prelates blackmailed from outside criminal elements—is onto something. Charles P. Pierce derides Dreher’s term, “Lavender Mafia,” and is skeptical of the rumors: What gives me a little pause is that the “secret gay cabal” theory is an old favorite among those curial powerbrokers for whom … Continue reading The Red Prada Shoe Drops? Ctd
Last week, Entertainment Weekly ran a story on an emerging trend: gay people in public life who come out in a much more restrained and matter-of-fact way than in the past. In many ways, it’s a great development: we’re evolved enough not to be gob-smacked when we find out someone’s gay. But it does matter … Continue reading Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I’m Gay.”
Good headline, huh? But I’m not talking about Eliot or David, but Robert and Paul. They both have had a major impact on the discussion of homosexuality. Spitzer is an extraordinarily accomplished psychiatrist with an ornery streak. He published a study lending some legitimacy to reparative “cure” therapy for homosexuals, depending on their own self-descriptions. … Continue reading Spitzer Recants; Cameron Comes Out
It's a fascinating turning point. Senator Michael Bennet is using the gay issue to his advantage against his Republican rival in Colorado. Buck recently compared being gay to being born with a tendency to alcoholism. The issue emerged in the debate: “The homosexuality question occupied all of maybe 20 seconds of the debate, and yet … Continue reading Bennet And The Gay Issue
By all accounts, David Laws is a decent, brilliant, capable and humane public servant, and had been given a critical role in the new coalition government in Britain: cutting spending. Laws is of my generation, but has been caught, as others have been, by the riptides of social change and the pace of his own … Continue reading Why The Closet Must End In Public Life
The tea-party is beginning to get serious. Knocking off Specter – now Crist, with possibly McCain to follow – it was inevitable they'd get around to Lindsay Graham eventually. And – not that they're intolerant or anything – Graham's ambiguous sexual orientation (like Elena Kagan's) is a big fat target. What's fascinating to me is … Continue reading Beleaguered Butters
A reader writes: Reading your post about Thiessen, complete with the statement from the conference of Catholic bishops, makes me wonder about something. Patrick Kennedy was barred from communion for thinking abortion ought to remain legal. St. Louis Archbishop Burke forbade John Kerry from taking communion while campaigning in the area in 2004. During the … Continue reading The Silence Of The Bishops
I should say up-front that I’ve learned a lot from reading Ross’s and Larison’s challenges to my alleged connection between disorienting economic and social change and the rise of religious fundamentalism. I also learned a lot from the latest Teixeira/Abramowitz study on the working poor and the Democrats. I think the evidence does indeed complicate my previous inferences and connections. What have I gotten wrong? Fundamentalism obviously appeals to the wealthy as well as the poor; it may even, in certain circumstances, appeal more to the wealthy than the poor (I haven’t denied that, but my emphasis has obscured it). And it has done very well in prosperous suburbia and among more educated white voters. The question is whether a sense of economic and cultural alienation has fueled fundamentalism as well. I still think it does, but less powerfully than I did before. On abortion, for example, Teixeira notes the GOP has had more success in appealing to upper-middle class whites than to working class ones. That’s an important insight. But it remains true nonetheless, as Teixeira also notes, that the working class white vote is still more pro-life than the middle class white vote (43 percent to 33 percent).
The number of young people who do not consider themselves Christians is growing, as is the hostility toward Christianity expressed by the next generation of non-Christians, claims a new book from David Kinnaman of Barna.org. Money quote: The study shows that 16- to 29-year-olds exhibit a greater degree of criticism toward Christianity than did previous … Continue reading Losing A Generation?
The Dish 