I do not find it that interesting really. And the reason is because I suspect an academic steeped in the general *woke* mood. Sorry, that is too vague a word. This does not mean that I would not read her article (and others like it) but rather that I have found it beneficial to step a few paces back and make an effort to understand her particular bias position, her objectives, and her general commitments.
It is hard to understand Pope Francis and indeed many traditionalist Catholics are extremely confused by his words and by some of his encyclicals.
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
The problem of the traditional position of the CC on homosexuality, and really other all forms of sexual expression, is a real one and I admit it is difficult indeed. Formerly, I tended to a very liberal position. Now I am less certain of what is the proper attitude to take.
Lisa McClain writes: As a scholar specializing in the history of the Catholic Church and gender studies, I can attest that 1,000 years ago, gay priests were not so restricted. In earlier centuries, the Catholic Church paid little attention to homosexual activity among priests or laypeople.
I am interested in her research and how she arrived at this assertion. But I will repeat that there are many reasons to be suspicious of academics and academia generally. And sensing her *agenda* I admit to a certain concern.
Yet I do want you to know that I recognize that she and people like her carry the present forward with their ideological activism. It is really what is going on and, from the look of it, there is no stopping it (and by that I mean a great many things). It is not precisely that I oppose their intentions (I have lots of reservations though) and more that I seek to understand the causal chain that moves from one orientation to another one, and radically different.
In short she is an activist within academia and as such (I assume) she is supported and carried by the university and those who are educated by her.
Dr. Lisa McClain is a Professor of History and Gender Studies and has been on faculty at Boise State University since 2001. Her fields of specialty include the history of religion and the intersections of gender, religion, and popular culture. She is the author of the books Divided Loyalties? Pushing the Boundaries of Gender and Lay Roles in the Catholic Church 1534-1829 (Palgrave MacMillan, 2018); Lest We Be Damned: Practical Innovation and Lived Experience among Catholics in Protestant England 1559-1642 (Routledge 2004); a chapter A Companion to Catholicism and Recusancy in Britain and Ireland: From Reformation to Emancipation (Brill, 2022); a chapter in the book Women during the English Reformations: Renegotiating Gender and Religious Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); and articles in journals such as Church History, Sixteenth Century Journal, the Catholic Historical Review, the Journal of Religious History, and Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature.
McClain serves as an expert on gender with the Inclusion Crowd, an international Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Think Tank made up of academics, social media influencers, authors, and industry leaders across five continents, brought together to address issues of inclusion across a variety of identity categories and intersections, especially in the workplace. The Inclusion Crowd is “focused on ensuring fairness, opportunity and representation for everyone within society; irrespective of background or characteristic.”
Her public history articles on the intersections of religion, gender, and sexualities for The Conversation, an editorially curated, nonprofit news organization with a monthly readership of 18 million and reach of 42 million through Creative Commons, have garnered over 327,000 reads.
