A Few Good Links (vol. 21)

For those who do not know, I am being promoted to Associate Chair of my department, effective August 1 of 2015. My duties in that capacity commence then, but I've been fairly busy trying to learn how to do some of these ahead of time from our outgoing associate chair. On to the links:

1. Here's a roundup of a few Catholic reactions to the disastrous Supreme Court ruling from Friday.
2. And a few more reactions. It is a "tragic day for America's children." And not, coercion does not lead to love.
3. Rod Dreher's Benedict Option is looking pretty good these days.
4. Getting "gay marriage" is not enough. You must be made to celebrate. To quote the leadership of "Believe Out Loud" (a "gay Christian" organization), "As we look ahead to a movement beyond marriage equality, we know that the work of affirming Christians is not yet finished. It’s now time for churches to move beyond simply accepting what we understand, to affirming LGBTQ people as they are." They are not alone in hoping to go after the Church, other ecclesiastical communities, and other religious organizations. 
5. There's also more than a few who are happy to twist, corrupt, distort, or ignore Christianity--Scripture, Tradition, historical Christianity as practiced, and even the authority of the Church--to somehow "make gay ok." They might as well ask, "Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?"
6. It's been corrected by now, but this was originally a very awful job of "reporting"/framing the issue concerning the Church and so-called "gay marriage." As in, appallingly bad (and you can still get a sense of it from the first few comments posted there, and for that matter from the parts of the article which aren't edited). Now it is merely "pretty bad," or "average lazy newsreporter bad," complete with the original title "Austin Catholic church will conduct same-sex weddings." The article has been updated to clarify that this is an "American Catholic" (that is, Anglican) church. The leading photo was originally of Bishop Vasquez. The oppening line is "As Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, bishop of the Diocese of Austin, says he is 'deeply saddened by the Supreme Court’s decision to require States to recognize same-sex marriages,' another catholic church — with no affiliation to the Roman Church — in the Austin-area will be officiating a same-sex wedding mass on Saturday." The bold color change represents what they added in after the fact. Agenda? What agenda? (N.B. the article was published June 26 2015 at 2:59 PM and "Updated" by 4:10 PM on the same day)
7. This would be a fairly welcome "side-effect" of the SCOTUS Obergefell decision would be the enforcement of concealed carry reciprocity for all 50 states + DC. But, I suppose it is probably too much to ask for the Court to be consistent.
8. Some inconvenient facts (including US murder rates) for the gun-grabbers, which will of course be roundly ignored.
9. A defense of memorization as one of the important aspects of education. To be honest, memorization is the first step in a good education--and as such, it is a crucial step. This includes training oneself on how to remember facts and other information.
10. Here's a long post about propaganda.
11. A lot of people were making fun of that pro-marriage pastor,Rick Scarborough, who threatened to set himself on fire if the Supreme Court legalized "gay marriage" (a threat which turns out to have been a bit of an exaggeration). They often would argue that this shows how darned nutty everyone on the "Traditional marriage" side was. As far as I know, he never set himself on fire. But tragically another pastor in Texas did immolate himself. This pastor was actually in favor of "gay marriage," and while his last note does not explicitly say that he did this to promote "acceptance" of "gay marriage," it's not a stretch to read that into his actions.
12. A few states--so far Oklahoma and Alabama--are considering completely nullifying all side in the "marriage" debates by ceasing to issue any marriage licenses at all.
13. Here are 5 Things Jesus Might Say to the Gay Community. It is a Protestant perspective, but I agree with quite a bit of it. They even managed to catch that Jesus does, in fact, have something to say about/against "gay marriage" (Matthew 19:4-6). I don't like the (accidental?) contrast between being rejected by "the church" and yet embraced by Jesus, so I would reiterate that the Church does not "reject" anybody, and that Jesus is ultimately found in the Church and with her, since she is His bride. 

Sometimes hatred is charming, while love must show itself severe (St. Augustine).