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Why I Support Religious Liberty In Arizona

March 7, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Why I Support Religious Liberty In Arizona

By STATE SEN. AL MELVIN (Editor’s Note: Al Melvin is a Republican Arizona state senator and candidate for governor. He was the only Republican candidate to publicly support SB 1062, the religious freedom measure that the Arizona legislature sent to Gov. Jan Brewer for consideration in late February. Gov. Brewer vetoed it. Below is State Sen. Melvin’s commentary on why he supported SB 1062.) +    +    + Arizona’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) has been law since 1999. SB 1062’s sole purpose was to update two sections of it. First, to clarify the definition of “person” to include all types of businesses and legal entities. Arizona laws largely conform to that, but more clarity was best. Second, to address the…Continue Reading

Erwin Jöris… A German With Many Years In Hitler’s And Stalin’s Prisons

March 7, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Erwin Jöris… A German With Many Years In Hitler’s And Stalin’s Prisons

By MAIKE HICKSON Part 2 (Editor’s Note: In this three-part article, Dr. Hickson details the life of the late Erwin Jöris, a prisoner of totalitarian regimes, and explains how his life offers lessons for us today. In the conclusion, part three, she comments on how his experiences show the need to resist gradual violations of our privacy and freedom of thought and speech, before they are further eroded or effectively destroyed. (Maike Hickson holds a doctorate in French literature from the University of Hannover.) +    +    + Erwin Jöris stayed with his parents, even though they lived in the Eastern Zone of Berlin which was, of course, taken over by the Soviets. This was a great threat to him, and…Continue Reading

How Freedom Dies

March 6, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on How Freedom Dies

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN “Religious Right Cheers a Bill Allowing Refusal to Serve Gays.” Thus did The New York Times’ headline, leaving no doubt as to who the black hats are, describe the proposed Arizona law to permit businesses, on religious grounds, to deny service to same-sex couples. Examples of intolerance provided by the Times: “In New Mexico, a photographer declined to take pictures of a lesbian couples’ commitment ceremony. In Washington state, a florist would not provide flowers for a same-sex wedding. And in Colorado, a baker refused to make a cake for a party celebrating the wedding of two men.” At the time this was written, February 24, the question that Gov. Jan Brewer was facing? Should Christians,…Continue Reading

What Seems To Be . . . A Morally Mandated Public Policy Position May Not Be

March 5, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on What Seems To Be . . . A Morally Mandated Public Policy Position May Not Be

By STEPHEN M. KRASON (Editor’s Note: Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic” column appears monthly [sometimes bimonthly]. He is professor of political science and legal studies and associate director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also co-founder and president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. He is the author of several books including The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic [Transaction Publishers: 2012], and most recently published an edited volume entitled Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Child Protective System [Scarecrow Press: 2013]. This column originally appeared in Crisismagazine.com. All rights reserved.) +    +    + Two recent newspaper articles — one in the Catholic and the…Continue Reading

Solving The Church’s Internal Warfare

March 4, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Solving The Church’s Internal Warfare

By REY FLORES There is a war going on internally within our own Church. It is a war with no winners; only losers. Is this really what we want to do? Is this really what many of our priests, bishops, and many of our Catholic brethren want for us? Why on earth then do we have a parish in Washington state whose pastor hosts annual political fairs where he allows Democratic Party political parasites to invite ardent pro-abortion, pro-homosexual “marriage” politicians? Why are the leaders of the Milwaukee Archdiocese failing to stop the implementation of the Common Core curriculum in archdiocesan schools? Why did a Catholic radio station pull back from allowing ads that — rightfully — criticize the Common…Continue Reading

How Freedom Dies

March 3, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on How Freedom Dies

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN “Religious Right Cheers a Bill Allowing Refusal to Serve Gays.” Thus did The New York Times’ headline, leaving no doubt as to who the black hats are, describe the proposed Arizona law to permit businesses, on religious grounds, to deny service to same-sex couples. Examples of intolerance provided by the Times: “In New Mexico, a photographer declined to take pictures of a lesbian couples’ commitment ceremony. In Washington state, a florist would not provide flowers for a same-sex wedding. And in Colorado, a baker refused to make a cake for a party celebrating the wedding of two men.” At the time this was written, February 24, the question that Gov. Jan Brewer was facing? Should Christians,…Continue Reading

Keep An Open Mind On ADHD

March 2, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Keep An Open Mind On ADHD

By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK In the January 23 edition of this column, we featured a discussion of the increased tendency to label students with the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We quoted from a column by National Review editor Rich Lowry, who argued that there has been an over-diagnosis of ADHD “concocted to justify the giving out of medication at unprecedented and unjustifiable levels,” that has become “a national disaster of dangerous proportions.” Lowry calls it a situation that “has run wildly out of control on the promise of an easy pharmaceutical fix to the natural rambunctiousness of childhood.” Lowry placed much of the blame on pharmaceutical companies seeking to protect a “$9 billion-a-year business with alluring ads…Continue Reading

Erwin Jöris . . . A German With Many Years In Hitler’s And Stalin’s Prisons

March 1, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Erwin Jöris . . . A German With Many Years In Hitler’s And Stalin’s Prisons

By MAIKE HICKSON Part 1 (Editor’s Note: In this three-part article, Dr. Hickson details the life of the late Erwin Jöris, a prisoner of totalitarian regimes, and explains how his life offers lessons for us today. In part three, she comments on how his experiences show the need to resist gradual violations of our privacy and freedom of thought and speech, before they are further eroded or effectively destroyed. (Maike Hickson holds a doctorate in French literature from the University of Hannover.) +    +    + Erwin Jöris, a former Communist activist and frequent political and military prisoner of two 20th-century dictatorships, recently died in Cologne, Germany, at the age of 101. The author of this article and her husband came…Continue Reading

Reconnecting With Mary… Devotion To St. Joseph In The Church

February 28, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on Reconnecting With Mary… Devotion To St. Joseph In The Church

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY This final article in the series about St. Joseph will look at more recent devotion to him, which by the 19th century had become very widespread in Catholic circles, to the extent that, in 1847, Pope Pius IX, who was personally very devoted to the saint, extended the feast of his patronage to the whole Church. In 1870, he declared him the Patron and Guardian of the Universal Church, and further raised the status of his feast day. At first glance, this might seem excessive, but if we consider that in relation to Christ, Joseph acted as His foster father and guardian, then, in the economy of salvation, he holds the same position in a spiritual…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . A Metaphysical Depth Enhanced By The History Of Philosophy

February 27, 2014 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . A Metaphysical Depth Enhanced By The History Of Philosophy

By JUDE DOUGHERTY Belo, Catarina. Averroes and Hegel on Philosophy and Religion. Burlington, Vt., Ashgate Publishing Co., 2013; 225 pages. The orientalist, Ernest Renan, author of Averroes et l’averroisme, writing in 1852, noticed the similarity between Hegel’s view of religion and that of the medieval Islamic scholar Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), better known in the West as Averroes. Renan found that G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831), much like Averroes, defended the idea that philosophy and religion have the same content even though they express that content in different ways, i.e., religion through imagination and representation, philosophy in a conceptual, logical, and rigorous way. Taking her cue from Renan, Catarina Belo sets out to examine at length the relationship between philosophy and religion in…Continue Reading