A Sound of Sheer Silence

As  I have mentioned before, when I am not writing this blog, I work as a lawyer.  I try to keep those two worlds separate, but every once in a while something crops up that bridges the gap that is interesting and worth talking about.  One such issue is the recent decision in State of Washington v. Arlene's Flowers , a copy of which you can find here from the Washington Supreme Court .  What I would like to do in this piece is to talk about the legal issues at stake here, because I think that the way this is being talked about misses a big part of what the key issues at stake are in this case, and similar cases that are surely coming down the pike. Arlene's Flowers is a floral shop owned by Baronelle Stutzman.  Ms. Stutzman refused to sell flowers to Robert Ingersoll for his wedding, because Mr. Ingersoll was intending to (and in fact did) marry a man, Curt Freed.  Ms. Stutzman and Arlene's Flowers were sued by both Mr. Ingersoll and the State of Washingt...

1.  No one will mistake Ohio for Colorado or the Alps, but neither is it the same as the seemingly endless table-like flatness of the center of North America.  No, the most accurate description of Ohio is that it rolls, almost like a wave in the ocean that has been stopped in time.  And nowhere can this be seen better than taking Interstate 71, the highway that bisects the state on a diagonal from the northeast to the Southwest, connecting the three biggest cities of Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.  If you drive on I-71, especially the part between Cleveland and Columbus, it almost feels like you are riding on a rollercoaster than has been stretched out, as you roll along the modest but noticeable undulations. I took that trip this weekend, back and forth to Cleveland under a picture-postcard worthy summer sky.  With the rolling terrain and low-lying whispy clouds, I had a sense of being firmly rooted in place, comfortably situated between earth and sky. ...

We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all That you can't trust freedom When it's not in your hands When everybody's fightin' For their promised land -- Civil War , Guns N' Roses It always starts with something small.  On July 30, 1419, a rock thrown from a window by some person unknown to history led to the Hussite wars, a terribly bloody conflict in central Europe that set the stage for the Protestant Reformation.  The seeds of the American Revolution began when the British government decided, not to raise taxes on the American colonies (that came later), but to actually collect  taxes on sugar and molasses that had been on the books for a long time but had never been enforced. The reason, I think, that it always starts with something small is tied up in the power of marginal changes.  The mind-bogglingly complex system that is human culture works because of a nested series of equilibria.  These equilibria can be stable for a long time, but ...

1.  Two weeks ago, the Episcopal Church voted to give general authorization for same sex weddings to be conducted in Episcopal Churches.  Having followed this story as an outsider, the outcome was not a surprise--all of the commentary I had read suggested it was going to pass.  What was surprising, at least for me, was the margin of victory.  Out of 160 Episcopal bishops, only 26 voted no, with five abstentions; it other words it passed with an 64 percent margin of victory, which is an enormous number.  But it is actually even bigger than that--if you take out the retired bishops, the assisting and auxiliary bishops, and the the bishops from places outside the United States that are part of the Episcopal Church (all of whom are included in the vote), you end up with only eight  dicocesan bishops voting no out of 99 dioceses in the 50 States.  That's a land slide in by any measure. I also found the reactions from the other elements of the Anglican ...

Now that we've gotten this climate change thing sorted out , it's time for all of us to refocus our attention back to where it belongs--sex!  Yes my friends, this summer, and into the fall, are going to bring us a number of events that are going to place the attention of many on who is doing what to whom and under what circumstances.  The first domino fell on Friday, in the form of the Supreme Court ruling on the gay marriage cases.  But it's not over yet, not by a long shot.  Observe: Last week,  we got the prepatory document for Synod on the Family Part II, Electric Boogaloo . [Ed. Note:   Official English translation here ]. If you have been following this story, you will not be surprised to hear that it is a mixed bag!  For example, it calls out "a certain vision of feminism that considers maternity a pretext for the utilization of women and an obstacle to their full realization."  (Boo!).  But then it follows up with praise for "[a] s...

The Supreme Court of the United States, a few minutes ago, said that same sex couples have the right to be married in all 50 states . The Te Deum was traditionally sung in celebration of some event, an expression of thankfulness for a source of great joy.   Today is a day for celebration!  I know this will be really stick in the craw of lots of Catholics, but I don't care. Special congratulations to my friends Neil and Mike .  I could not be any happier for you. I would also like to say something to those out there who are in the process of putting on sackcloth as we speak.  In particular, I would like to direct your attention to what Richard Beck calls "Orthodox alexithymia."  Beck, from the perspective of a psychologist, makes a simple but profound claim--rationality without an emotional component is not a pure form of reason; it is sociopathy.

I said I wasn't going to do anymore on this topic, and when I said it I had every intention of following through.  But a couple of days ago I stumbled onto something that is directly relevant to the themes and issues I was working on in the series, so I decided to break my self-imposed ban and direct your attention to a piece written by Thomas Bushnell .  It is relatively short, and utterly worth your time. As a bit of context, Bushnell's piece is written in response to an essay by Father Craig Uffman  of the the Diocese of Rochester (New York) in the Episcopal Church.  The overall topic is a proposal before the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to amend its canons (basically church law) in several ways to facilitate blessing of same-sex unions by clergy in the Episcopal Church.  As you might expect, these proposals are controversial--some are opposed to the Church recognizing same-sex marriage altogether, others frustrated by what they perceive ...

I am not Irish; I was born here (well, in the United States--New York City, to be exact).  I have never lived in Ireland, and so I am not really equipped to analyze and parse all of the reasons that the people of Ireland overwhelmingly voted to change their constitution to allow same sex couples to get married.  For that kind of analysis, you should look to Irish sources-- the Irish Times has had typically excellent coverage . I have a feeling, though, that I know the reason.  While I am not Irish, the vast majority of my family originates from Ireland.  There is some German blood on my paternal grandfather's side (Hinler-- not  to be confused with notorious Nazi mass murder Himmler, as my father is quick to point out), and my maternal grandfather was born in England, originally of Welsh descent (Jones).  Otherwise, it is all Irish--Boyle, McDonald, McGonigle.  So, while I am not Irish, I think can see the echoes of the traits common to the people of...

I mentioned this in passing in yesterday's post , but it bears a closer look.  The Catholic Church is Germany is putting down its marker in preparation for the October Synod on the Family, along several dimensions.  First, this week, it approve changes to its internal labor guidelines, clarifying the status of people in non-canonically recognized relationships, either straight or gay.   A rough translation of the press release : The renewed civil marriage after a civil divorce is to be seen as a serious loyalty violation [and thus cause to be fired]  if that behavior on the specific circumstances is objectively likely to attract a significant nuisance in the service community or the professional sphere of activity and affect the credibility of the Church. The same applies to entering into a registered partnership [i.e. a recognized same-sex union] . These actions thus must be considered under the circumstances and therefore only in exceptional cases are rel...

A friend of mine had an interesting experience today, one that struck me as relevant to the debate about gay marriage.  A good friend of his is engaged to be married to a woman who is currently living here in the United States, but it is not an American citizen.  Her visa is about to expire, and so the couple (and my friend) went to the courthouse so that they could get a civil marriage.  This way, she could stay in the country so that they could plan their real (in this particular case, Jewish) wedding, scheduled for a year from now. He made the comment that attending this event at the courthouse was a very ambiguous experience.  The woman's immigration lawyer evidently had made it very clear that the parties present had to do everything possible to make it look like a "real wedding"--take pictures, have vows, etc.  But everyone recognized that the "real" wedding wasn't going to happen for another year.  So, according to my friend, it had this strangely...

As I've said before, while I don't agree with Ross Douthat on many things, I think he is by far the most worthwhile and thoughtful conversation partner on the right.   His post from yesterday is an example of why I think he brings a lot to the table. Douthat hits on the spectre that floats around the gay marriage discussion in the United States, and that is the Civil Rights Movement.  On January 14, 1963, upon his inauguration as Governor of Alabama, George Wallace gave his infamous "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" speech.  Eighteen years later, the United States Supreme Court stripped a private religious college in nearby South Carolina, Bob Jones University, of its tax-exempt status for mandating segregation among its students.  In eighteen years, the notion of overt segregation between black and white went from a mainstream part of political discourse in the South to so beyond the pale that it was completely unacceptable to be advoca...

Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, wants to run for President of the United States.  In doing so, he is going to be asked about gay marriage.  But, Governor O'Malley has a problem--he's a Catholic.  So, he is going to be asked about how the Catholic position of the question impacts his own views. He gives a typically political, mealy-mouthed answer .  And, equally typically, he gets slammed for it by people like Deacon Kandra.  Indeed, Kandra cites to some document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which purports to outline obligatory standards for what Catholic politicians should do in the context of the gay marriage debate.  And this document is unambiguous: When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic law-maker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favour of a law s...