The next essay, the book, and fundraising to destroy the hierarchy
The G.O.T.H.S. book is now available, with all proceeds going to supporting three "dissident" Catholic groups
Or donate to an organization listed below: all of my profit will be donated there
Hi all - I just finished the next G.O.T.H.S. essay, titled “Twenty-First Century Schism Man”, and focusing on the past ten years of ministry of two especially dumb Catholic bishops, Robert Barron in California and Joseph Strickland in Texas. This should be the last one that goes up before the election. It’s a big ambitious piece, about 1.5x the length of a regular G.O.T.H.S. essay, and I’m very proud of it. It covers the 2018 abuse crisis, the ongoing pissing matches between right-wing bishops and the Pope, how it all poisoned the bishops’ involvement in the 2020 presidential election, and more generally why bishops should not be allowed to have an internet connection. It will be out in two weeks.
BUT, if you want to read it right now, you can, since it's included in the G.O.T.H.S. book that is now available at Amazon or at Smashwords (an ebook website for people who hate Amazon). I put the book together because I wanted a hard copy of my work over the past year and a snapshot of the church in this very tumultuous year pre-election; the book includes all of the essays from the past year, in revised and expanded form, since these people all keep doing stupid stuff and I had to build out their essays even more. It’s important to me that all of the G.O.T.H.S. essays stay available to everyone for free, so if you don’t want to pay for the book, just wait two weeks and you’ll be able to read the new essay as you normally would. The print version is currently in the works and will be ready in the next few days, but the ebook version will be cheaper.
BUT, writing is not my day job and it’s not about to be, so I’m not planning to keep any of the money from the book sales. If you buy a book, I will donate every penny of profit to these three groups fighting for change in the Catholic church today, people who remind me that there are others who want to change the church:
Call to Action, founded in 1976, appeals to the institutional church to reform and renew its structures, using an explicitly anti-racist, anti-oppression framework. CTA fights on many different fronts, including pushing for greater lay involvement in church governance and selection of bishops, women’s ordination, and financial transparency in all levels of the church. The EWTN-owned National Catholic Register called CTA a “dissident” group in 2017, which is the best endorsement of their activity I can imagine.
DignityUSA, founded in 1969, envisions and works for a time when Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Catholics are affirmed and experience dignity through the integration of their spirituality with their sexuality, gender identity and gender expression, and as beloved persons of God participate fully in all aspects of life within the Church and Society. The church’s treatment of queer Catholics directly affects things like whether people have jobs or health insurance or are allowed to go to Catholic schools, so it’s an area where we need to fight hard.
Women’s Ordination Conference, founded in 1975, is a feminist organization fighting for gender equality in an inclusive and accountable Catholic church, including the ordination of women at all levels of the hierarchy. We’ve needed women priests since roughly 34 AD.
This isn't the only way to fight for the change in the church, of course, but these organizations have all been around for decades, and I’ve known people personally in each of them and I know they're doing good work. Again, all of my profit will be split between these three groups. If you don’t want Amazon or Smashwords to take their cut, you can also just donate any amount directly to one of these groups, DM me your receipt (@imaxafterlife on Twitter), and I will email you a PDF version of the book or a Kindle version directly to your Kindle device.
If you are a subscriber, I will soon do a giveaway of a few print copies to subscribers who donate to one of these groups. Probably the best way to get the print version, since it is a lot more expensive than the ebook once you factor in costs. But, the print version is 636 pages, which means that if you know anyone in your life saying “check out this letter from Archbishop Vigano”, you can also use it to smack that person in the face. If you’re not a subscriber and would like to be for the print giveaway, well, I think there’s a way to remedy that at the bottom of this post.
The first year of this project blew past my expectations for what it grew into, how many people read it, and, most importantly, how much people enjoyed it. I need to take a little break from writing it so I don’t lose my mind watching terrible YouTube videos, but I hope to bring it back soon. I mean, I doubt I’m going to run out of material.
-TG