I’ve long wondered how fundamentalists justify certain stances. I can only conclude that it’s because they take Scripture literally but not seriously.

Consider this past week’s Gospel reading from Saint Mark:

If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

Fundamentalists often use this as a text to support their evidence for the Dante-esque vision of hell as eternal conscious torment in a burning lake. And indeed, that description is in the text as plain as day: a place of unquenchable fire and gnawing worms. In his essay on the matter in Four Views on Hell, SBTS professor Denny Burk points to precisely this passage in Mark 9 as proof of his argument that hell “is an experience of judgment that has no end.” Continue reading “Cutting Off the Hand, Plucking Out the Eye” →

Our modern political era can easily be traced back to a single heinous decision: when the newly-resurgent fundamentalist movement within Christianity decided to seek political power through an alliance with the Republican Party.  The Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer, a historian and Episcopal priest, gave a concise and well-researched presentation on the history of this movement that is well worth viewing.

The Moral Majority has been defined by its rigid defense of one particular sexual ethic. For over forty years now, pastors have taken to the pulpit and warn their flocks about the dangers of  the Gay Agenda™ and women’s rights. In the 1990s, these same leaders decried one Bill Clinton for repeated allegations of sexual harassment and an affair with a White House intern. Bill Clinton’s actions, these pastors said, disqualified him from holding elected office.

In 2016, these very same pastors were presented with a presidential candidate who bragged about committing sexual assault. Donald Trump has reveled in his numerous affairs and he faces at least one law suit for sexual harassment. The Moral Majority has embraced Donald Trump like it has no other president — not George W. Bush, not Ronald Reagan, and certainly not the famously devout Jimmy Carter. Continue reading “Immoral Majority” →

As #ChurchToo continues to unfold in what Whispers in the Loggia has dubbed “Crisis 2.0” (a reference to the major abuse cover-ups unveiled in 2002, most notably in Boston), most of the focus has been on the horrifying details of child sexual abuse.

A quieter narrative has focused sexual harassment and abuse of seminarians and younger clerics. Indeed, the key theme of Abp. Vigano’s “nuclear” letter is former-Cardinal McCarrick’s abuse of seminarians, which the former nuncio blames on a conspiracy of “homosexual networks.”

Cardinal Raymond Burke has furthered this line of thinking:

Now it seems clear in light of these recent terrible scandals that indeed there is a homosexual culture, not only among the clergy but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root.

Such claims ignore the evidence in favor of arguing for ecclesial partisan ideology.

First, they ignore the presence of celibate gay priests and deacons who have neither violated their vows nor abused their parishioners. Instead, hacks like Vigano and Burke would have us believe that all gay men are abusers. There is no evidence to suggest this is the case, nor is there evidence to suggest that gay men abuse children at higher rates than heterosexuals.

Second, these claims also ignore the rampant sexual abuse of women within the Church. While much has been said about abusive Protestant pastors, the scandal in the Catholic Church has quietly ignored the rampant abuse of women.

The heartrending report from Pennsylvania focuses primarily on child abuse but points out that the investigation also uncovered rampant clerical abuse against women. The Daily Beast has reported on several women who were assaulted, abused, and harassed by Catholic church leaders, including the horrifying allegation that one woman was assaulted during a private Mass. Just as in the case of abuse against minors, the hierarchy conspired to cover up these crimes.

What we see unfolding in the Catholic Church, as in so many other religious communities, is not some sinister cabal of gay priests. Rather, it’s an abusive power structure more dedicated to the institution than to the protection of its members.

Until bishops like Burke and Vigano can identify the real problem and stop blaming ideological bogeymen, the abuse will continue.