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In the wake of a federal court decision legalizing same-sex “marriage” in North Carolina, at least six judges in the state have resigned rather than be forced to officiate such unions. All stepped down, since October 10, because they believe marriage is a union between one man and one woman. They are: John Kallam Jr. (Rockingham County), Gilbert Breedlove (Swain County), Bill Stevenson (Gaston County), Tommy Holland (Graham County), Gayle Myrick (Union County) and Jeff Powell (Jackson County). The decision wasn’t easy for Stevenson, whose family depends on his $50,000 per year salary as their primary income. "I prayed about...

The Department of Theatre and Media Arts is releasing the first public screening of the student film “Pride and Faith” on Oct. 24. The documentary, written and directed by BYU alumnus Scott Raia, explores the complex lives of two LGBT students as they reconcile their identity and faith. Raia filmed “Pride and Faith” during his senior year for his capstone project as a film student. He hoped to become an ally of the LGBT community after broadening his awareness on the subject. “As I prepared for graduation, I looked to my future and some of my friends and their futures,”...

A highly intelligent woman, who doesn’t particularly follow ecclesial politics, surprised me the other day. Hearing about Cardinal Dolan’s acceptance of gays marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, she said casually, “there’s going to be a schism in the Church.” An overreaction, to be sure, but she’s far from the only one to be shocked.A priest – steady of judgment – writes to me that since the announcement last week, “I’m meeting a lot of angry people.” The constant challenges to the Church’s teaching authority and countercultural truth-telling produces anger. Real anger. And internal Church weakness – especially in...

Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Christian-owned bakery, closed its doors earlier this year after its owners Aaron and Melissa Klein were found guilty of violating gay people's rights by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.The Kleins refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple in 2013, which resulted in the complaint against them.However, the bakery, now called "Sweet Cakes," continues to exist as an online business.According to The Advocate, the bakery recently posted a picture on its Facebook page of some goods that it recently made for the Restored Hope Network, an ex-gay organization, and added...

New Zealand’s first same-sex “marriage” is shaping up to become the country’s first same-sex divorce. Less than a year since they became the poster girls for the country’s new legal definition of marriage (last August) the NZ Herald reports that Melissa Ray, a former Ferns football player, and Natasha Vitali, a sales rep, are “believed to have split”. The main source of the story appears to be Ms Vitali’s Facebook page on which the following poem appeared yesterday: Drink it down, laugh it off, Avoid the drama, take chances, And never have regrets Because at one point everything you did...

To be clear, in America's polite upper-middleclass circles, gay domestic violence is the hatred that dare not speak its name. Ditto "progressive" Australia. For the media class, at least, would prefer to talk about white picket fences, rainbow flags and same-sex wedding cakes. The message: Think pretty things. Still, even MSNBC can't wish away ugliness. As one underreported UCLA study found: Although reported incidences of intimate partner violence, or IPV, are widespread, especially among women and certain ethnic groups, reported IPV was surprisingly high among lesbians, gays and bisexuals in California, who are almost twice as likely to experience violence...

The modern day LGBT movement wants you to believe that the people featured in the new documentary “Desire of the Everlasting Hills” really don’t exist. They are figments of the fevered imaginations of the Christian right.Meet Dan, Rilene and Paul, all refugees from deep enmeshment in the LGBT life, each finding a home in sexual sobriety and, not incidentally, the Catholic Church.It is impossible to watch this important documentary without tears, and not sad tears either, but happy ones, tears that come from a joyful movement of the spirit.These are people who have been deeply wounded by the choices...

One thing that you can say for ISIS, the Middle-East terrorist army, is that it doesn’t have a recruitment problem. Young men are streaming to Syria and Iraq from all over the world to join the cause. And they come not just from the Muslim world, but also from England, France, Sweden, Australia, and the U.S.Perhaps hoping to put a dent in the appeal of ISIS, some Western newspapers have made much of the expensive stolen watch visible on the wrist of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during his first public appearance at the Grand Mosque in Mosul. According to...

SINGAPORE – In a pastoral letter addressed to Catholics with same-sex orientation issued on July 3rd, the Archbishop of Singapore William Goh apologized if he had hurt anyone with the way he expressed himself in a previous pastoral letter on the family, which had also addressed homosexuality. However, he again strongly reaffirmed the Church's teachings on sexuality, and announced the formation of a new ministry dedicated to helping individuals with same-sex attraction to live a sexually chaste lifestyle. "I apologize if my initial statement conveyed insensitivity as, from your feedback, I have come to realize that there is much...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- President Barack Obama's administration has taken the U.S. gay rights revolution global, using American embassies across the world as outposts in a struggle that still hasn't been won at home. Sometimes U.S. advice and encouragement is condemned as unacceptable meddling. And sometimes it can seem to backfire, increasing the pressure on those it is meant to help.With gay pride parades taking place in many cities across the world this weekend, the U.S. role will be more visible than ever. Diplomats will take part in parades and some embassies will fly the rainbow flag along with the...

Cardinal Baldisseri discusses the working document yesterday (CNS) The Vatican has released the eagerly awaited instrumentum laboris, or working document, of the family synod in October. The 73-page text, which takes about an hour to read, consists of 159 numbered paragraphs, divided into three sections. The first is devoted to “the Gospel of the Family”, the second to challenges to family life, and the third to “openness to life” and parental responsibility.The document is based on responses to questions in the synod’s preparatory document, released last November. It’s written primarily for the select group who will take part in October’s...

I've been posting about Manhattan's homosexual parish, St. Francis Xavier run by the Jesuits. (See here, here, here, and here.) It's a scandal, but Cardinal Dolan seems to have no problem with it. No discipline for the priests there promoting homosexual acting out. In fact, he cheered them on at the parish rededication. Nope! Cardinal Dolan saves discipline for orthodox priests like Fr. Justin Wylie of Holy Innocents parish who dared to say in a Sunday homily that the diocese appears to be the abandoning the flock who desire the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). Holy Innocents is the only parish...

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in Rome on June 28, 2013. Credit: Lauren Cater/CNA. San Francisco, Calif., Jun 17, 2014 / 04:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has rejected California politicians’ criticism of the March for Marriage, stressing his duty to teach “the truth about marriage” even when it may not be popular. The June 19 March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., is “not anti-anyone or anti-anything,” Archbishop Cordileone said in a June 16 letter to political leaders, religious leaders, and leaders of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activist groups. “Rather, it is a pro-marriage march,” the archbishop...

<p>At a recent rally, a large group of black pastors voiced their strong opposition to gay marriage.</p> <p>The rally was held against the backdrop of the current battle being fought in Michigan, where a state ban on gay marriage was overturned by Federal District Judge Bernard Friedman in March.</p>

“This is a group of people that are generally homosexual activists,” said Liz Theiss, an opponent of the ordinance. “And they have obviously found someone in power in Mayor Parker to forward this bill and force it on the traditionalists in this city.”

David and Jason Benham were to have hosted the HGTV show Flip It Forward. Charlotte, N.C., May 10, 2014 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Twin brothers David and Jason Benham have said they are “saddened” that their reality show about giving houses to poor persons was cancelled following controversy over their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. “With all of the grotesque things that can be seen and heard on television today you would think there would be room for two twin brothers who are faithful to our families, committed to biblical principles, and dedicated professionals,” the two said in...

In Making Gay Okay, Robert Reilly says the ascendancy of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) started with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s victory over Aristotle and that once philosophy fell the triumphant march through the institutions was quick and maybe even inevitable.Reilly explains that the debate centers on the question of what is natural and not, and how to distinguish between right and wrong. He describes how the Greeks fell in love with reality when they discovered nature and that the purpose of things was knowable and unchangeable even by the whim of gods.The author writes, “A dog wagged his tail because that was the...

All of us sincerely intend, when we take our wedding vows, to live up to the ideal of ‘til death do us part.’ But not all of us are able to see it through.Life is hard. And it just keeps on coming, ready or not. Somewhere inside me, I guess I thought that life in “retirement” would be more peaceful, easier somehow. But I am also not naïve enough to believe it for long.Recently, my partner and husband of 25-plus years and I decided to get divorced. While the details of our situation will remain appropriately private, I am...

Northern Ireland's Assembly BELFAST, Northern Ireland, May 5, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) –– Once again, a measure to introduce same-sex “marriage” into Northern Ireland has failed, making it the only jurisdiction in Great Britain to have resisted the trend to redefine the institution of marriage. It is the third time in the past 18 months that the Northern Ireland Assembly has rejected same-sex “marriage” legislation. The bill was last introduced in the Northern Ireland Assembly last April, when it lost by a 53-42 vote. Six months before that, in October 2012, it lost 50-42. The Sinn Féin Party introduced the motion, which...

Elaine Huguenin, co-owner of Elane Photography in Albuquerque, N.M. Photo courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom. Washington D.C., Apr 8, 2014 / 04:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to weigh in on a case involving a small Christian-owned photography business that declined on religious grounds to shoot a same-sex commitment ceremony in 2006. The court announced its decision April 7. It did not give a reason for declining to hear the case. “Only unjust laws separate what people say from what they believe,” said Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence of Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Elaine...