Collect

Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity

O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal; grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Triple Reblog Score!

I have read a little brace of blog posts recently that I found quite excellent and should like to share with you all.

First, there is 10 Things We Wish Our Church Family Knew, from the recently minted blog A Queer Calling, by a celibate couple of my acquaintance. Side B relationships, as they have been nicknamed by the Gay Christian Network, are same-sex partnerships that don't include sex. If that idea breaks your brain, fascinates you, or whatever, read their blog!

Second, I have long been embarrassed by my more or less total ignorance of transgender issues. I don't know what to think, I don't know what the Church thinks, or whether she thinks anything specific as yet -- no formal definitive statements have been made on the subject (though it has been touched on, and naturally the soldiers of the kulturkampf have expressed their views in the strongest possible terms, because the internet). However, Aaron Taylor, a contributor to Spiritual Friendship and Ethika Politika, recently put up this blog post by a transgendered Catholic, discussing exactly the subject of what the Church thinks on this subject. Admittedly the answer is "We're not sure yet," but she puts it way better than that and deals intelligently with objections to that answer -- and, in a rare move for a blogger, cites her sources. Dang.

Third (one of these things is not like the others), there is this delightful rant from Cole Webb Harter, author of The Andalusian Peafowl. (No, I have no idea why it's called that.) He touches on a lot of my own pet peeves about contemporary Christian art, those pet peeves mostly being about how shitty it usually is, in pretty much every medium. When art has to be clean and nice, have a happy ending, have a respectable moral, &c., to be considered Christian, saccharine sentimentalism is more or less bound to trump not only honesty but even good craftsmanship.

5 comments:

  1. Andalusian Peafowl... Isn't that a Flannery O'Connor reference? She was a peacock fancier and I believe her family estate in Georgia was called Andalusia. And the kitschy, sentimental state of most religious art and writing was one of her going concerns.

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  2. Gavin is exactly right. Since Flannery O'Connor is the woman to whose intercession I entrust my writing and creative energy, I felt the title of my blog should honor her in some way. I wanted a name mysterious enough to be intriguing but obvious enough for some people to get the reference. Not unlike "Mudblood".

    Cole Webb Harter

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    Replies
    1. Hang on people. This gives every appearance of being a civil and informative combox discussion. Is -- are we still on the internet?

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  3. I know. This is the second one I've had this week!

    Cole Webb Harter

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