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Happy Holidays from The Brandt Standard via Newseum Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial September 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole … Continue reading
via Lauren McGaughy, New Orleans Times Picayune Gov. Bobby Jindal said oral contraceptives should be available over-the-counter in a Thursday evening op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. The self-described “unapologetic pro-life Republican” governor of Louisiana said this would lower health-care costs, prevent government intrusion into citizens’ lives and fight the influence of big pharmaceutical companies. … Continue reading
via Lucy Sherriff, The Huffington Post A university’s Christian society has banned women from speaking at events and teaching at meetings, unless they are accompanied by their husband, it has been revealed. The Bristol University Christian Union (BUCU) had originally decided women would be allowed to teach at meetings after their international secretary resigned in … Continue reading
via Lila Shapiro, The Huffington Post Continuing its efforts to fight same-sex marriage in four ballot measures around the United States, the Catholic Church is now the top donor to the cause among religious institutions, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign. This fall in Washington, Maryland and Maine, voters will decide … Continue reading
via Tara Culp-Ressler, ThinkProgress The Episcopal Church, which is already well-known as one of the most LGBT-inclusive denominations — the church confirmed its first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson in 2003 and has supported same-sex marriage since 2005 — is taking steps to codify LGBT equality into its liturgy at its General Convention this week. … Continue reading
via Manya Brachear, Chicago Tribune Seeking to heal historical rifts between religious congregations and the gay community, organizers of this year’s Pride Parade have moved the faithful closer to the front lines. More than a dozen religious organizations — Protestant, Jewish and, for the first time, Mormon — will lead the 2012 Pride Parade down … Continue reading
via Guy Adams, The Independent Declaring that “life must always be protected”, a senior Vatican cleric has defended the Catholic Church’s decision to excommunicate the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old rape victim who had a life-saving abortion in Brazil. Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that … Continue reading
via Laura Bassett, The Huffington Post Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Catholic institution in Ohio, has decided to drop its entire student health insurance plan as of the fall semester 2012 because of the new federal rule requiring contraception coverage under most employee and student health policies. While a number of religious colleges have filed … Continue reading
via Nicole Brodeur, The Seattle Times The Little Rascals had the “He-Man Woman Haters Club.” We’ve got The Catholic Church. Just a few weeks after the Vatican started looking into the activities of the umbrella group representing some 57,000 American nuns, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) showed it had smaller fish to fry: … Continue reading
via Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing Today I want to write about something that has bothered me for the better part of a decade. I’ve carved out no fewer than a dozen drafts of this post, all strangely unalike, all ultimately failing to accomplish the job I’ve set out to do. Truth is, I’ve been … Continue reading
via Darius Dixon, Politico Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz fired back Wednesday at Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch’s claim that Democrats would attack Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith in the fall election, saying the charge was “nonsense” and that the issue of religion was off-limits. “That is just preposterous,” the Florida Democrat, who chairs the Democratic National Committee, … Continue reading
via Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune Noah Millman of the American Conservative asks us to perform a thought experiment: Pretend it’s not the Catholic Church at the center of the current controversy over the rights of religious institutions to exercise moral judgments regarding their employees’ health care plans. Instead, Millman suggests in a recent commentary, pretend … Continue reading
via Rep. Mike Quigley, The Huffington Post On January 20th, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that most employers will need to cover contraception in their basic benefits packages. Bearing in mind the religious objections of some to contraception, the administration also included an exemption that will allow religious institutions that exist for … Continue reading
via Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune In a case involving a teacher fired by an Evangelical Lutheran school in Michigan, President Obama’s Justice Department climbed way out on a limb in arguing that the teacher could sue for the loss of her job. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court took a sharp saw to that branch. It’s … Continue reading
via The AP, WBEZ Leaders of one of Chicago’s oldest Roman Catholic churches are objecting to a newly-proposed route for the city’s annual gay pride parade, saying the event will draw large crowds outside the church entrance and block access to Sunday Masses. The parade that has run through parts of Chicago’s North Side for … Continue reading
via Dinesh Ramde, The Huffington Post More than two decades after Scott Anderson told his California congregation that he was gay and therefore must resign as its pastor, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) is preparing to welcome him back with mostly open arms. Anderson will be ordained Saturday in his new home of Madison, Wis., as … Continue reading
This week, a judge once again shot down an appeal by Catholic Charities, which wants to continue handling adoptions and foster care applications in Illinois while refusing to place children with same-sex or unmarried couples. The state decided to end its contract with the charity–and now Catholics are fighting back against the “gay agenda” in … Continue reading
The Supreme Court on Wednesday (Oct. 5.) will hear one of most important religion cases in decades, centered on the degree to which religious institutions should be exempt from anti-discrimination laws. The case started at a Lutheran elementary school in Michigan where a teacher claimed she was fired in violation of the Americans With Disabilities … Continue reading
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