It's the summer solstice, and in much of the country, it's a skahcha (to channel my Boston-born-and-bred grandparents. If you don't read colloquialism, I meant to say "scorcher."). In case you missed 4th grade Earth science (no judgements. Maybe you did!), the CS Monitor explains why today's the longest day and the days get shorter from now until December (sad face).
Florida Governor Marco Rubio is or isn’t being vetted as a potential running mate for Romney. It’s one or the other, though. In this interview with Christianity Today, one that’s clear—at least according to him—is that he’s a Roman Catholic, not an evangelical, though he goes (or went to) to an evangelical church. But he agrees with the theology (there’s only one, you know) of the Catholic Church. Also, clear: whether he thinks same-sex marriage should be considered legal by the state. Wait... Between Rubio and Romney, voters will at least know they’re voting for charming (?) smiles. Something our current White House seriously lacks, amirite?
The National Labor Relations Board denied a religious liberty exemption to Duquesne University, which claimed that thanks to the First Amendment has the right to keep its employs from unionizing. Did any of that previous sentence make sense to you? Me neither. Commonweal agrees that using a religious freedom argument to keep employees at a Catholic institution from doing something that is considered a right under Catholic social teaching, is ludicrous.
Steve Thorngate at the Christian Century argues that we need more sob stories, not less as Senate candidate Eric Hovde argues. And the idea that the media is giving us too many? Wrong again. (Unless you count this tear-jerker from the Times Real Estate page.) You know, some Catholics might even say that every Sunday, when we gather to celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we’re listening to a sob story (with a happy ending) and reflecting on how its meaning and message is lived in our personal lives and our communities. But that’s just some of us.
CNN asks if “true Catholics” can support same-sex marriage. One of the things that bugs me about these sorts of articles: Rarely is there a distinction between church marriage and state-recognized marriage. That might make a big difference for a lot of people. Marco Rubio, for example. Anyway, the majority of Catholics (59% according to Pew) support same sex marriage.
The nuns continue to rally in support of those experiencing poverty and in opposition to the Ryan Budget and Liz Lefebvre asks whether acknowledging that severe (actual) threats to religious liberty exist across the globe helped their “religious liberty” campaign.
