Yeah that's kind of how I see it. There definitely have been people from Black origins who constructed whole double lives so they could live as whites for all the social advantage that brought, but it was an escape from oppression, not just a preference. I agree too that the disturbing part of the Dolezal story is…

Some "real black people" can switch when they want to and do so. I don't have a stance on this question, but since you seem to have a strong one what do you think is the difference, if any, with a black person passing as white or simply being generally perceived as white?

Yeah pretty much, but there are borderline cases. Like maybe a totally white looking, white passing person whose parents are black would normally not be told "Sorry, you can't be black because [white] people don't see you as black". Or the famous recent video where Jay Smooth was presumed to be a black-acting white…

I just watched it last night and I'm still recovering from my hate for the wooden acting and stilted writing of the first hour. So that was supposed to be like that. Ok, but I'm not sure "half my movie sucks because it was written by one of the characters who was faking a trite backstory" is any more than over-clever…

Sparhawk has spoken about the fact that he smokes weed.

Well, not in anger anyway.

Glassticles

So what's the insider term for marble? You know how like ultimate frisbee guys call them discs and hacky sack guys call them footbags, everyone has a non-colloquial term to prove insider status. What's a marble to a marble freak?

This comment applies to every AV Club article.

If you are really not hurting anyone then the Catholic Church is wrong and you are committing no sin. There is no sin that "offends" God himself. All sin is sin only because it either hurts someone or prevents someone from realizing the fullness of their potential good. If the Church is right and you are hurting…

One year old sister, and Dunham clearly implies the funny business continued past that event. But it's not equivalent to what Duggar did, no.

Your concern for the victims is truly noble. Please continue to publicly identify them and speculate about all aspects of their experience and reaction and private life, for that will truly bring them the healing they've needed all these years.

Catholicism just doesn't look at sin and damnation that legalistically. Sin is more like an illness or injury than an offense against God. The pope has said he wants the Church to be like a field hospital, healing spiritual wounds. Just as no good and loving doctor would say, "You smoke cigarettes so you deserve to…

I don't doubt that the number of Catholic will diminish for the reasons you cite but I expect the Church that remains will be more 'conservative' because that's where the energy is.

The pope/Catholic Church do not believe you deserve eternal torment. He and the Church would say that, being created in God's image, you deserve eternal life and infinite joy. Their contention would be that you would be happier and closer to eternal life now if you lived according to their moral teaching. Some gay…

They just ignored that stuff. JPII wrote an encyclical Centisimus Annus that condemned laissez faire capitalism and communism as twin evils. Benedict said that European style social democracy was most in line with Catholic social teaching. American conservatives and liberals just totally ignored anything the popes…

Demographic trends in vocations are the opposite. What we're going to lose in 20 years is the Vatican II generation and all their flabby nonsense. Priests coming up now in the US tend to have an orthodox and traditional leaning but worldwide vocations are coming most in developing nations which tend to be conservative.

EDIT: What @roswulf said.

You're both right - Benedict and John Paul were just as radical on econmics, just as traditional on sex, as Francis. It's the media who have painted them as opposite. But the fact remains, the popes have been to the left of every serious US Democratic presidential candidate.

Holy shit this is like someone made a sitcom just specifically for me. Love Gaffigan and love seeing faith taken seriously and joked about at the same time. From the inside, but not in group perspective. Too often religion is the butt of the joke made by someone far removed from it or it's a patronizing bit of niche…