No one can be rightly coerced by the state to be directly complicit in the commission of a wrong. This goes for any businessman, employer, insurance company, or individual, regardless of faith. After three weeks of outcry from religious leaders regarding its Health and Human Services contraception insurance mandate, the Obama administration announced a “compromise” […]
Give Barack Obama credit: The man has chutzpah. How else do you describe a president who uses his executive authority to unilaterally manufacture a government mandate for contraception coverage — a mandate with no conscience protection for the vast majority of religious institutions to which it applies — and then, when confronted with bipartisan backlash, […]
Barack Obama may have just lost the election. He has foolishly gone to war in an election year with tens of millions of Catholics, Protestants and Jews – Democrat, Republican and independent alike. He has thrown down a radical feminist gauntlet and dared the Church to pick it up. They’ve picked it up. From running […]
On January 31st 2012, the third section of the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgment in the case of Sindicatul Pastorul cel bun c. Roumanie (no. 2330/09) whereby it determined that the refusal to register a trade union established within the Orthodox Church was contrary to freedom of association guaranteed by Article 11 […]
When it comes to 21st-century environmental and energy debates, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Especially when what little knowledge you may have is incorrect. And most especially when could be a lie. That’s the conclusion of documentary filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, who are on a quest to shed some light – […]
Last Friday, President Obama responded to Catholic bishops’ concerns over his controversial mandate compelling Catholic institutions to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing pharmaceuticals. Many media sources reported Obama’s action as an “accommodation,” with some describing it as a “reversal.” It is hardly that. Many Catholics find it arguably worse. Without dissecting the president’s action, the […]
Obama and Sebelius sittin’ in a tree K-i-s-s-i-n-g First comes sex without marriages Then come empty baby carriages The teasing little rhyming ditty familiar to children for generations, of which the above is a parody, bespeaks that even children know something very fundamental about the natural and right order of things – that first comes […]
In response to President Obama’s announcement of a government compromise over the new controversial mandate requiring employers to pay for abortion-causing drugs and other services, over 300 academics have signed a statement entitled: “Unacceptable.” “This is a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand,” state the scholars. “It is an insult to the intelligence […]
When asked to comment on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ rejection of the so-called HHS “accommodation,” White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, said, “I would simply note with regard to the bishops that they never supported healthcare reform to begin with.” Apparently, either Mr. Carney’s memory is failing or his trousers are ablaze. […]
Al Mohler absolutely dismantles Nicholas Kristof in this new piece. The cause of this skewering? Kristof’s “Beyond Pelvic Politics” column in The New York Times. Mohler notes, After asking his most pressing question, “After all, do we really want to make accommodations across the range of faith?,” he makes this amazing statement: “The basic principle of American life is that we […]
From Damascus to Tehran, a test for world leadership is underway. Daily, the Syrian military—well-armed, highly trained thugs whose current mission is to keep dictator Bashar Assad in power—kills up to 200 or more of its own citizens. Protests from Washington, the withdrawal of the U.S. ambassador, and an effort to condemn Syria in the […]
Perhaps the title is a bit alarmist. The decision by the state legislature to redefine marriage may not actually be the death of reason, but more evidence of it. What’s interesting is that a body of legislators who have, presumably, told their own children that “I want it” is not sufficient reason, have been completely bamboozled […]
Resistance to a new bill aimed at limiting foreign law in Pennsylvania courts serves as a case study of how Islamists and their allies operate: peddling falsehoods about Shari’a, painting Muslims as victims, and denying that anyone seeks to institutionalize aspects of Islamic law — even as they vigorously promote that very agenda. With similar […]
Ann Coulter was on The Sean Hannity Show with guest host Mark Simone today. She bragged about Romney, her candidate, winning the CPAC Straw Poll, and how she swayed the crowd. She pointed out the weaknesses of Rick Santorum in a recent interview with Chris Wallace: He always gets nervous about providing a sound bite that […]
Getting the U.S. economy back on a path to solid growth and the job creation engine jumpstarted is dominating the headlines, talk shows and policy debates in Washington right now. Many of the legislative prescriptions focus on the dismal unemployment woes of newly separated military veterans, whose rates outpace the civilian population. The troubling figures […]
Amidst the hoopla, cheers, and ear-piercing whistles of enthusiastic approval for Republican presidential nominees at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, several themes emerged. The most important of these centered on the conflict between what may be titled American foundationalism versus contemporary progressivism. Foundationalism embodies a family of concepts ordered hierarchically from God, the Declaration […]
The American bishops have, with alacrity, rejected President Obama’s proposed “accommodation” on the contraception mandate in no uncertain terms. Their response came before the sun had set on the very day of his announcement. Noting that the “proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of […]
The newspeak and apologetics of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius came straight out of George Orwell’s 1984. After pretending that President Obama allegedly reversed his mandate (his mandate that persons of good will should be forced to pay for abortifacients, sterilizations, and contraceptives), newspeak Kathy explained: “The President reached-out to religious groups.” It seems this Barack […]
I’ve gotten some very interesting emails regarding President Obama’s mandate commanding Roman Catholics (and many evangelical Protestants) to violate their consciences by providing mandatory contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing pharmaceuticals. The emailers noted that Obama’s action will force Catholics to challenge the president in court, particularly given that bishops are saying they will not comply with […]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has acted to reverse the democratic decision of the people of California to confine marriage to its traditional parameters of a man and a woman. In making this decision, the court decided that it could overturn the will of the people of California on the basis of what is […]
The family’s limited participation in the manufacturing of medium to large-scale goods appears to present us with a challenge. Large-scale industry is needed to accommodate the production of heavy machinery, automobiles, and other technologies we use everyday. To the skeptic, Distributism seems unresponsive to these needs and incapable of fitting into our modern framework. In […]
A quiet, closed-door meeting in Washington next month will be of crucial importance in shaping the Church’s response to the nation’s biggest church-state crisis in decades. When some 40 bishops of the administrative committee of the national bishops’ conference gather March 14-15 at conference headquarters, they’ll be looking at the Obama administration’s January mandate to […]
Certainly by now you’ve heard that the present Administration, through the Health and Human Services Department, is mandating that all employer healthcare insurance plans provide coverage for procedures which violate the beliefs of the Catholic Church, and Catholic institutions. Basically, the new rules require the Church, and the institutions operating faithfully under the aegis of […]
Sometimes, an outside force attacks the Catholic Church in such a way that it creates a swathe of very public unity amongst Catholics. These attacks are rare in this country. However, the Obama administration, with the inexplicable boorish tenacity we’ve come to expect from them, has truly risen to the occasion. Back in December, PRI […]
