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Evangelist Franklin Graham and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have responded to Pope Francis’ endorsement of same-sex civil unions, calling it “unthinkable in light of the Word of God” and explaining that no pope or priest gets to “define sexuality or the family.”“For Pope Francis to attempt to normalize homosexuality is to say that Holy Scriptures are false, that our sins really don’t matter, and that we can continue living in them,” Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on Facebook.“If that were true, then Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection wouldn’t have...

Pope Francis is calling for the passage of civil union laws for same-sex couples. This is a significant departure from the position of the Vatican’s doctrinal office as well as the pope’s predecessors on this issue.His remarks came as part of a documentary that premiered last night and reflects on pastoral care for those who identify as LGBT. “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it,” Pope Francis said in the film. He then...

This morning, the world has been greeted with headlines proclaiming that ‘Pope Francis blesses gay marriage’. It stems from hysteria related to use of older comments in a new documentary about the pope, entitled ‘Francesco’. As with many other similar instances of controversy in the papacy of Francis, such as the ‘Who am I to Judge?’ fiasco, a mix of Francis’s ambiguous speaking style and deliberate lies by the mainstream media are to blame, though this time there is the added aspect of the strange nature of Frances’s documentary. We must also lay some of the blame at the feet...

Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage on Wednesday, but suggested in a newspaper interview that it could support some types of civil unions. The Pope reiterated the church's longstanding teaching that "marriage is between a man and a woman." However, he said, "We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety." States, for instance, justify civil unions as a way to provide economic security to cohabitating couples, the Pope said in a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily. State-sanctioned unions are thus driven by the need to...

A significant number of evangelicals believe both that homosexuality is a sin and civil unions for same-sex couples should be legal, according to research recently presented at the American Sociological Association annual meeting. These evangelicals find themselves in the "messy middle," Baylor University researchers Dr. Lydia Bean and Brandon Martinez argue, due to competing notions about how to engage with homosexuals: both wanting to show love and compassion for their gay neighbors, and wanting to remain loyal to the teachings of their faith. Those in the "messy middle," they find, are more similar to conservative than liberal evangelicals. Evangelicals sustain...

NEW YORK — A long-serving Air Force chaplain has left the Southern Baptist Convention after the conservative denomination publicly questioned his attendance at a same-sex civil union ceremony at his base in New Jersey. The chaplain, Col. Timothy Wagoner, is remaining on active duty and has affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which holds more moderate views on homosexuality and some other issues than the Southern Baptists. "I find very little that is more important and nothing that is more exhilarating than providing for the religious freedoms and spiritual care of all service members and their families — and will...

More than 400 people, including a U.S. senator, witnessed the first same-sex civil union in Delaware on New Year's Day. Lawyers Lisa Goodman and Drewry Fennell were joined in the union by the Rev. Patricia Downing, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Wilmington, where the Sunday afternoon ceremony took place. Goodman and Fennell have been partners for 14 years. Goodman is a lawyer who led the advocacy group Equality Delaware's fight for the civil union law. Fennell heads the state Criminal Justice Council and formerly led the ACLU's Delaware chapter. U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., delivered the sermon and Lt....

RUTLAND, Vt. — First-grader Isabella doesn’t yet understand all the big decisions that judges here in Vermont and Virginia have made about her life.But her mother, Lisa Miller, knows how profoundly those court orders will affect her 6-year-old. Miller’s attorneys even petitioned this landmark custody case she’s fighting with her former lesbian partner to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court declined to hear it.Isabella has been the subject of a five-year battle that has pitted conflicting state marriage statutes and drawn competing claims from federal laws.“It’s rather like the two women claiming one baby before Solomon. One is the...

Where the Boys Are by: Emily Ham, June 18, 2008 After the state Supreme Court’s June 5 decision to discard the requests of attorneys general from some ten states to stay the May 15 ruling allowing gay marriage within the state, thousands of homosexual couples are expected to tie the knot in California as soon as the new legislation takes effect. But many people are seeing confusion in the horizon as questions are beginning to arise about how long the state’s new court ruling will be in place.This uncertainty began with the June 2 ruling in which the California Supreme...

How to Commit Marriage by: Malcolm A. Kline, May 13, 2008 A couple of professors from the University of Chicago think they have found a way out of what they see as a national impasse over state marriage laws. “To respect the liberty of religious groups while protecting individual freedom in general, we propose that marriage, as such, should be completely privatized,” Richard A. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein write in Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness. “Under our proposal, the word marriage would no longer appear in any laws, and marriage licenses would no longer be offered...

U.S. Christian Camp Loses Tax-Exempt Status over Same-Sex Civil-Union Ceremony By John Jalsevac OCEAN GROVE, N.J., September 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced on Monday that it was stripping the Methodist Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association of its tax-exempt status for part of its property. The Methodist camp made the news earlier this year after it refused, for religious reasons, to allow a lesbian couple to hold a "civil-union" ceremony at a pavilion on the camp's property. The pavilion, said Scott Hoffman, the camp's chief administrative officer to LifeSiteNews, "is a facility we...

Prominent UK Tory Politician Says Support for Civil Unions "Insults Intelligence" of British Critical of Tory leader Cameron's attempt to shift party to left and re-brand it as "heirs to Blair" LONDON,  September 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - One of the most senior MP's in the UK's Tory party, Michael Ancram, Member of Parliament for Devizes, has criticized the government's policy of treating homosexual partnerings as the equivalent to marriage. In a pamphlet published by the Daily Telegraph, Ancram calls on the party to remember its "conservative soul." With the possibility of a snap general election still being discussed, the Conservatives...

Malawi Officials to Challenge Appointment of Pro-Gay British High Commissioner Say pro-gay history "dangerous" to Malawi, where homosexuality still considered felony By Meg Jalsevac Malawi, August 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The appointment of the next British High Commissioner to Malawi has provoked government officials of the African nation to speak out against his suitability for the job in the conservative nation considering his record as a proponent of gay rights in his previous position in the Scottish Government.  Former Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell was tapped to assume the position beginning in 2011 but opposition to his appointment is already...

Methodists Sue New Jersey over Attempt to Force Gay “Marriage” at Church Owned Camp By Hilary White TRENTON, August 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In another case of a clash between Christian traditional values and the new secular sexual morality, the United Methodist Church group that owns a private campground retreat are suing the New Jersey government, saying its rights of religious freedom are being violated. The state is investigating a discrimination charge brought against the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association by a pair of lesbians who wanted to use the private retreat campground for a “civil union” ceremony. The federal...

OCEAN GROVE, New Jersey (LifeSiteNews.com) - A New Jersey lesbian couple has filed a civil rights complaint against a Christian seaside retreat association that refused to facilitate their "civil union."Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster filed the complaint June 19 with the state attorney general's office on the grounds of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation after the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association declined the use of their Boardwalk Pavilion for their civil union ceremony, planned for September. Bernstein and Paster demanded "whatever relief is provided by law" including unspecified "compensatory damages for economic loss, humiliation, [and] mental pain." New...

The northern state of Coahuila, a mining and ranching region south of Texas, approved gay civil union Thursday, becoming the second area in Mexico to give legal status to homosexual partnerships. Legislators in the state Congress voted 20-13 for a bill that gives gays greater rights than a similar law backed by Mexico City last November. “It is more like a civil marriage,” said Silvia Solis, a gay rights activist in the capital. She said Coahuila would grant social security benefits to both members of a homosexual union, an important demand of gay campaigners. The law was promoted by Coahuila's...

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — A lesbian couple who entered into the nation's first same-sex civil union officially split up Wednesday. Carolyn Conrad and Kathleen Peterson, both of Brattleboro, had entered a civil union shortly after midnight on July 1, 2000, the day Vermont's first-in-the-nation law went into effect. Conrad, 35, filed to end the union in October and later obtained a restraining order against her partner, saying Peterson punched a hole in the wall during an argument and threatened to harm a friend. A judge granted the request for a dissolution Wednesday. "It's a heartbreaking situation for any couple," Conrad told...

A LESBIAN couple has become the first in the British army to tie the knot under the country's new civil partnership laws. Sonya Gould, 19, and Vanessa Haydock, 18, both privates in the Royal Logistics Corps, exchanged vows before friends and family at the register office in Chippenham, Wiltshire in the west of England, The Sun newspaper reported today. "It was wonderful to get married and being the first was the icing on the cake. We want to be together forever," said Haydock, pictured in The Sun kissing Gould in uniform – albeit not smack on the lips. While they...

TROUTDALE (AP) - This quiet, tourism-oriented town east of Portland could become a battleground as gay rights activists prepare a campaign to topple a Republican legislative leader who thwarted a move to allow civil unions for same-sex couples. Troutdale is in the heart of the district represented by GOP House Speaker Karen Minnis, who enraged gay rights backers this summer by refusing to let the House vote on a civil unions bill that had been passed by the state Senate with the blessing of the Democratic governor. State and national gay rights groups are targeting Minnis for defeat in 2006...

Homosexual civil-union, divorce and a 3-year-old LES KINSOLVING 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Those members of the Vermont state Legislature who voted to approve same-sex civil unions are now faced with a consequence that should merit every one of them being voted into retirement. The New York Times devoted half a page to reporting from Vermont's state capital of Montpelier: Judges in Vermont and Virginia have different ideas about what is best for Isabella Miller-Jenkins, 3, born to a woman who had a civil union with another woman in Vermont. The relationship ended two years ago. Now each woman...