Blogosphere Roundup

It's been a very long time since I posted three times in the course of a week.  Don't count on that pace continuing, but it does feel good to be back in the saddle (with shoulders that are feeling better than they have for the last two and a half years - whatever my physical therapist earns, it's probably less than he's worth).

There's more than enough commentary being posted already over the Supreme Court's big gay rights decisions yesterday, and I don't feel like I have much to add to that.  But here are a few links related to various things that are worth not missing:

1. Christine is back in the blogosphere, at least for the moment, and she has a thoughtful take on the closure of Exodus International that I haven't read elsewhere.

2. This wonderful post from a straight ally is not to be missed.  If we had more people like her in our churches, we might not have the problems highlighted in #3:

3. Since it apparently still needs saying, here is a quick recap of the religious right's legacy to American Christianity.

4. Finally, a quote shared by a friend of mine on Facebook.  It's a timely reminder that our current situation is not so different from the conflicts faced by previous generations.

"The tree of abolitionism is evil and only evil - root and branch, flower and leaf, and fruit; that it springs from, and is nourished by an utter rejection of the Scriptures. When the Abolitionist tells me that slaveholding is sin, in the simplicity of my faith in the Holy Scriptures, I point him to this sacred record, and tell him, in all candor, as my text does, that his teaching blasphemes the name of God and His doctrine.”

-Rev. Henry van Dyke, Princeton-trained theologian and minister, 1860

The more things change, the more they remain the same...

(A shorter version of this statement was quoted by Rachel Held Evans a few months back.)