The National Association of Evangelicals May 20 launched an initiative to reduce abortions by promoting a "Theology of Sex" for churches and pledging to find common ground with opponents on abortion.
"There's a sense that, whatever our laws are, abortion is a problem because of the underlying issues of how we treat sex," said Galen Carey, director of government affairs for the Washington-based umbrella organization.
Looks like Joe Feuerherd doesn't like me ("Billy the bully is bad for the church," May 11). Let's go through his gripes, one by one.
Commentary
It’s good to be William Donohue, president of the “Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.” For one, there’s money in fighting bigotry: Donohue earned $372,501 in salary and deferred compensation in 2008, according to the group’s most recent IRS disclosure report.
Plus, no heavy lifting. Produce serious research on the impact of antichurch prejudice on the lives of the nation’s 70 million Catholics? No way. Despite assets exceeding $22 million, no one could fairly accuse the Catholic League of engaging in such laborious, potentially useful, but expensive endeavors.
A campaign to educate Americans on Catholic contributions to the country and the culture? Get serious. The league’s efforts, such as they are, remain focused largely on highlighting intrachurch squabbles, silliness such as “the war on Christmas,” and defending the indefensible.
BATON ROUGE, La. (RNS) A bill that would have allowed people to carry concealed weapons to their places of worship died in the Louisiana House on Thursday (May 6).
Lawmakers voted 45-39 for the bill, eight votes short of what is needed to get a bill through the lower chamber.
Rep. Henry Burns, a Republican, said he will bring the bill back for reconsideration.
WASHINGTON -- Jesus' admonition to care for "the least among us" is a philosophy she tries daily to bring to the work of Congress, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi May 6, speaking to participants in a Washington briefing sponsored by the National Catholic Reporter and Trinity Washington University.
She also urged priests and bishops to speak from the pulpit about the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
"The cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops that come to me ... say, 'We want you to pass immigration reform,' and I said, 'I want you to speak about it from the pulpit,'" Pelosi told a session of the conference gathered at the Capitol. "Some (who) oppose immigration reform are sitting in those pews, and you have to tell them that this is a manifestation of our living the Gospels."
HONOLULU -- Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle has until July 6 to sign or veto a bill that would permit same-sex couples to receive all the rights and benefits of marriage in Hawaii under the designation "civil union."
The Diocese of Honolulu had joined Hawaii evangelical Protestant churches and others in a vigorous fight against the passage of the bill.
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A year after the fractious conflict over the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite President Barack Obama to be its commencement speaker and give him an honorary degree, some protesters still face charges.
However, a majority of the demonstrators arrested while protesting Obama's commencement address at the Indiana school have been offered the option of a pretrial diversion program, which, if successfully completely, would lead to dismissal of the charges.
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A Columbia attorney has resigned from the board of directors of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina because he disagrees with the Cleveland-based Sisters of Charity Health System's stand on health care legislation.
Kevin Hall, a member of St. Joseph Church in Columbia, served on the board for seven years, including two years as president.
WASHINGTON -- Despite a Wisconsin federal judge's ruling that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, this year's observance of the day will go forward just as it has since 1953.
The White House said the ruling does not affect plans by President Barack Obama to issue a proclamation for the day, May 6, as mandated by law.
Analysis
WASHINGTON -- Along with Congress’s narrow passage of national health reform in late March came a new level of political influence on Capitol Hill for at least two groups: pro-life Democratic members of Congress, and national Catholic organizations that are both pro-life and active on social justice issues.
“Pro-life Democrats can expect to be taken more seriously in the Democratic Party,” said Jesuit Fr. John Langan, a Christian ethics professor at Georgetown University in Washington.
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