Far far away.

otherspoon will be quiet for the next week as I head off to Lake Desolation to escape the internets and to finish my book. I'll miss you. A

My Other Hat.

There's a reason otherspoon has been quieter than usual. I'm the new editor of a publication that was founded by journalist Jeff Sharlet for NYU's Center for Religion and Media: The Revealer. We've been spending the past two months getting ready for a relaunch, and here it is.

Want to know more? Of course you do! Stop by the site and be sure to tell me what you think!

The Revealer is reborn! We're back with a new site, a new editor (that's me), and new staff, but the same dedication to religion in the media. Visit the site at TheRevealer.org

Imagine this! Or Can a Church hierarchy become a Catholic community? by Angela Zito

Eight years in Catholic school, from which I liberated myself at the age of fourteen into public junior high, has put me into a Facebook flurry right now among former Catholic school kids now grown up. The slow-burning scandal of child-abuse covered up, which started in the minds of many as an American brush fire in 1985 in Louisiana (and which was, in the words of Hendrik Hertzberg in the New Yorker this week: “dismissed as an epiphenomenon of America’s sexual libertinism and religious indiscipline”) has burned right up to the Vatican’s door. Like a horrible slo-mo tennis match, we’ve had new accusations served and returned with ever-more ridiculous attempts by the Church hierarchy to defend the indefensible. (And for a comic round-up of the Church’s “blame game,” visit Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon.)

The critics refuse to approach the problem as the Vatican has, “one sinning priest at a time,” and look instead for structural reasons for the abuse of kids, and for its cover-up. They have attacked hierarchy, the exclusion of women, and celibacy. But in searching for reasons and reforms, they often conflate the problems of abuse and cover-up, thus conflating the psychological and individual with the bureaucratic and communal. I’d like to try to untangle that knot just a bit. Continue reading....

Also:

Piper and Warren, Sittin’ in a Tree

Dear Emergent Church Movement,

The Revealer publisher, Angela Zito, talks to NPR about 3D TV and religion

Mary Valle: Brady Fischer's Problem is Now America's Problem

Religious Laws, Hit Search

Giving Full Scope to People's National Feeling

Cleaning the Crucifix

Upcoming Events:

April 23, Screening/Discussion: "Operation BabyLift," Sponsored by NYU's Center for Religion and Media

May 1, Panel: "The Prison-Spirituality Complex," Sponsored by Killing the Buddha

Matrimonial Fools.

Holidays are for memories. And if April Fool's day signifies anything for me, it is a reminder of my dear, odd, steadfast and enduring grandparents, Aaron and Florence. They married on April 1 a bazillion years ago and celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary well before they died, in 2004 and 2005.

As a child, they were my rock and foundation when my own father and mother struggled in and out of marriage and parenting. What I wouldn't give for an hour of their company sometimes, I can't say....

UPDATE: For almost 40 years, my immediate family has gathered at my father's house to celebrate Easter. Our tradition is to come together over ham loaf, amish crackers or whatever my father, when alive, found fit to kill and cook over an open fire. Then we stand in a circle and pray, eat, then hike back through the glen to the Susquehanna river. It's a tradition that's lost much of its holy symbology but one that we value as a family. While some were sadly not present this year - a inexplicable, very unfortunate trend that commenced since a number of deaths in our family - we kept to the tradition and made it about half way to the river. A glorious day complete with a new baby, a meal outside, and brilliant community. It was also a great time to ask about some family history: my grandparents were married in 1934.

A Busy Holy Week.

Hello All,

I've been quiet for the past few days, off my usual religion/end of life/patients' rights beat. Two back-to-back conferences and a new endeavor are stretching my mind and taking up usual time resources.

On Thursday and Friday I attended the Digital Religion conference at New York University's Center for Religion and Media; two days packed with scholars, journalists, activists and lots of discussion about religion online.

Yesterday, I was downtown at a conference sponsored by Women, Action and Media, NYC, honing my media and reporting skills in the company of some amazing women.

And this coming holy week I'm busy preparing for the relaunch of The Revealer, founded by journalist Jeff Sharlet back in 2003 and published by NYU's Center for Religion and Media. You'll find the new site much the same as the old site - but reinvigorated and easier to read, with all the analysis of religion in the media you can handle. We plan to relaunch on April 1.

Busy is good! I'll keep you apprised of my doings as the week goes on.

Blogging Hospice.

Don't miss Judi Chamberlain's blog, "Life as a Hospice Patient" for a unique perspective on hospice care, one that we seldom seen blogged.

via PalliMed.

Hey Y'all.

Sorry for the quiet today. I'm just finishing up a story on hospital mergers that I promise to post as soon as it's life.

Otherspoon on Twitter.

Follow my tweets @otherspoon.

Las Vegas in the Rear View Mirror.

My friend Angela is out in Vegas and responded to an email with tales of swimming pools in the desert and weddings in the sun.





From my reply to her reply:



Ah, my very favorite drive in the world is from Vegas to LA at about 3 in the morning. Nothing compares to ascending out of the desert bowl that Vegas slumps and primps in, albeit brightly, and climbing into the high desert. All those lights and glitz in the rear view mirror?! And then just straight empty dry dark desert for miles and miles until you hit Joshua Tree where the climbing is good and the ground is covered with granite kitty litter. And then Palm Springs where the architecture is good and the sprinklers keep every lawn artificially emerald. Ah, then you pass the dinosaurs on your right and the outlets on all sides and then the crazy 10 drops your disoriented ass into the belly of LA. Or rather, incorporates you into one of her vital arteries. It's a trip I will always love!

Vegas has been an oasis to me at times. Even while living here and visiting LA, I've flown to Vegas for the cheap flight and rental car - and the drive. I was in Vegas - at the Flamingo actually! - when Frank Sinatra died. And more than once I've skipped out of life and dropped into a Motel 6 there. Air conditioning, take out, TV. Better than anywhere else I have yet found, you can contemplate your own loneliness when holed up in Vegas without being lonely. All those people around you, filling up that desert bowl, even when your shades are drawn and you can't see them, having a glorious time or a shitty time, losing money, winning money, getting married, hustling, getting hustled. Artificial lights 24 hours a day. It's a microcosm of all human drama. And then when you've learned something about yourself or run out of money for the hotel room, or just tired of trying to make sense of anything, you hop back into your car and head back over the mountains to the edge, the Pacific, the sprawling city with red air and broad thoroughfares.

It's no secret that I've been west coast home sick all spring, summer and now fall. Maybe I need to check fares to Vegas? I do have a birthday coming up (think Marfa, TX last year). Anybody else in?

Gimme a Break, September!

And happy to have survived two days of stomach flu. What next? Bed bugs? Computer virus? Loss of a friendship? Come on! I've been good all summer!

Atoning for the Sins of Others.

Yesterday my computer gave up the ghost, whose name, as it turns out, is Dr. Watson Postmortem Debugger.

The screen looked just fine but behind the usual desktop facade lurked the evil intent of a virus, a couple of worms and some phishing scams about to obscond with my identity. I usually like my evil to be tangible: a burglar, an infestation of bugs, an untimely bill with an upcoming due date, a kaput transmission. These little unseen destroyers of my internet life were cunning and hard to eradicate.

Yet, nothing a few hours, buckets of sweat, and some anxious conversation with a Norton specialist couldn't solve. Now I'm back to plucking away at the keys, my four year old vaio better than ever. Whatever they say about the redemption of suffering....

The great news is that I got to watch the oral hearings in the Baxter v Montana appeal case to their conclusion before the crash came. Proof that the ghost wasn't so undiscerning or completely devious. Expect a full recap of the oral hearings in a few hours.

In the meanwhile, otherspoon is back.