Happy Halloween!!!

Lego BaptizedPagan

Thought that you might find this amusing... BaptizedPagan as a lego-person. Thanks to CafeteriaCatholic for this link to ReasonablyClever.

Continuing Conflict in Boston

There's an discussion over at Sacramentum Minimum (formerly Exiled Catholic) on the recent events in Newton over Fr. Walter Cuenin's removal; just in yesterday, from the Boston Globe, is a report on two church musicians from St. Gabriel parish in Brighton, Mass., and their responses to a weekend sermon calling on Catholics to sign the Massachusetts petition against gay marriage. The organist walked out, and the cantor briefly spoke from her microphone against the petition. The latter was immediately fired, and the organist resigned in solidarity. One wishes that we had some good social scientific data to determine how that congregation, or lots of other congregations like it, are taking the recent R.C. push against same-sex marriage in the state. Are they more likely to be running out to help support the initiative, or are they likely to be more like the elderly woman described in the article as thanking Colleen Bryant, the cantor, for saying something? All I have is anecdotal evidence, which only goes so far...

Here in Massachusetts, the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry has been collecting signatures for a Roman Catholic Statement Supporting Marriage Equality to provide an alternate voice to the Massachusetts Catholic Conference. Past readers of this blog will know that I'm constitutionally (nice pun, eh!) wary about institutionalizing or absolutizing divisions within the Christian community in general and within my Catholic church in particular; the danger of polarization, of mutual demonization, and of forgetting our communion with people with whom we sometimes disagree looms large, but I think that this petition's tone and its rootedness in Catholic social teaching goes far in attempting to avoid that problem.

James Alison's Website

So, it's not his official website, but's it close; the website "James Alison. Theology." has many of James' texts, some from talks and lectures, and some from his past publications.
Also, if you want to see a lecture that James gave in person at Boston College two years ago, there's an audio file and a video file available at B.C.'s "Front Row" server.

He's still probably my favorite theologian, and has done more to help me grow spiritually as a Christian and a gay man than almost any other writer. Check out what he has to say.

Back in the Saddle

Thanks for some of your kind messages...
No, I'm not missing, I've just been wicked busy...I know not an excuse...perhaps more importantly, I've actually been out of the habit of writing on here, which can easily become a problem.

I don't know if other people experience their blogs extrovertedly or introvertedly, that is, whether they see their blogging as primarily a public event and imagine their audience while writing, or as a private event, in which they are writing mainly for themselves, and others just happen to be looking over the shoulder of their psyches.

In my experience, blogging is a very extroverted event. I can't help but imagine others' reactions, attempt to be just a little more erudite or witty in their virtual presence -- basically, when I'm writing on here, I'm "on". Previously, this was not a problem, since I spent large portions of my day alone at my desk, and so even virtual contact was better than no contact. Now, however, I live with 400 19-21-year-olds, and spend much of my day in their company. Even my time with my bf has changed; no longer can we have nice, relaxing meals sitting next to eachother reading the New Yorker and the Atlantic, with the occasional harumph crossing the table; instead, we have students to the right of us, students to the left of us (students in front of us, volley and thunder...). I'm definitely enjoying it, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job of being a mentor and role model (none of my students has become an axe-murderer or a Republican donor...yet), but it has been far more emotionally draining than I thought it would be. The greatest surprise of this change has been remembering how much of a constitutional introvert I am. More to follow...I'll try to keep including the rest of y'all at the table...