Faith leaders call for religious protections ahead of gay marriage hearing

Citizens rallied on the steps of the Supreme Court on Monday (June 30), after it sided with the evangelical owners of Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., ruling 5-4 that the arts-and-crafts chain does not have to offer insurance for types of birth control that conflict with company owners’ religious beliefs. RNS photo by Heather Adams This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

(RNS) As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on Tuesday (April 28) that could wind up legalizing gay marriage nationwide, dozens of Christian leaders have issued a call to civil authorities to preserve “the unique meaning of marriage in the law” — but also to “protect the rights of those with differing views of marriage.”

The open letter “to all in positions of public service,” released Thursday (April 23), seems to reflect a growing recognition by same-sex marriage foes that they may be on the losing side of the legal battle to bar gay marriage and need to broaden their focus to securing protections for believers.

Gay marriage opponents are also losing the battle for the hearts and minds of their own flocks: Polls show that American believers, like the rest of the public, are growing much more accepting of same-sex relationships, or at least much less inclined to invest time or resources into waging the fight against legalizing gay marriage.

This week’s statement, “The Defense of Marriage and the Right of Religious Freedom: Reaffirming a Shared Witness,” was signed by 35 religious leaders representing Catholic, evangelical, Pentecostal, Orthodox and Mormon churches. The only non-Christian signatory was Imam Faizul Khan of the Islamic Society of Washington Area.

The leaders forcefully reiterate their shared belief that marriage is “the union of one man and one woman” and argue that apart from religious doctrines, the state “has a compelling interest in maintaining marriage” for the good of society and the “well-being of children.”

But they add that “this commitment is inseparable from affirming the equal dignity of all people and the necessity of protecting their basic rights” if, for example, the high court rules that all states must recognize gay marriage.

“No person or community, including religious organizations and individuals of faith, should be forced to accept this redefinition,” they write. “Government should protect the rights of those with differing views of marriage to express their beliefs and convictions without fear of intimidation, marginalization or unwarranted charges that their values imply hostility, animosity, or hatred of others.”

Arguments over how or whether believers must accommodate gay people have become a flashpoint in the culture wars and a source of political and legislative debates.

That was vividly demonstrated earlier this month when owners of an Indiana pizzeria who announced they would not cater a gay wedding because of their Christian belief became the focus of threats, and a rallying point for opponents of gay rights.

The state legislature later amended the religious freedom law that the pizzeria cited to make it clear the law could not be used to discriminate. A religious freedom law in Arkansas went through a similar revision. Both steps were seen as defeats for religious freedom advocates, even though Republicans deemed friendly to the cause were in power in both states.

Increasingly, some have been pointing toward a new law in Utah as an example of where religious freedom champions should put their energies. That law, passed in March in a deeply conservative state with the support of Mormon leaders, grants statewide protections against housing and employment discrimination for gay and lesbians as long as those measures safeguard religious freedom.

Among the statement signers are: Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; the Rev. Matthew Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers, III, president of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies; George O. Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God; and Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

YS/AMB END GIBSON

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Pope's mission to revive faith clouded by scandal

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Benedict XVI always cast himself as the reluctant pope, a shy bookworm who preferred solitary walks in the Alps to the public glare and the majesty of Vatican pageantry. But once in office, he never shied from charting the Catholic Church on the course he thought it needed — a determination reflected in his stunning announcement Monday that he would be the first pope to resign since 1415.

While taking the Vatican and world by surprise, Benedict had laid the groundwork for the decision years ago, saying popes have the obligation to resign if they get too old or sick to carry on. And to many, his decision was perfectly in keeping with a man who had dedicated his life to the church, showing his love for the institution and a courageous acknowledgment that it needed new blood to confront the future.

"This decision, even though it fills us with surprise — and at first glance leaves us with many questions — will be as he said for the good of the church," said Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, who is a leading contender to succeed Benedict.

The German theologian, whose mission was to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe, grew increasingly frail as he shouldered the monumental task of purging the Catholic world of a sex abuse scandal that festered under John Paul II and exploded during his reign into the church's biggest crisis in decades, if not centuries.

More recently, he bore the painful burden of betrayal by one of his closest aides: Benedict's own butler was convicted by a Vatican court of stealing the pontiff's personal papers and giving them to a journalist, one of the gravest breaches of papal security in modern times.

All the while, Benedict pursued his single-minded vision to rekindle faith in a world which, he frequently lamented, seemed to think it could do without God.

"In vast areas of the world today, there is a strange forgetfulness of God," he told 1 million young people gathered on a vast field for his first foreign trip as pope, World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany in 2005. "It seems as if everything would be just the same even without Him."

With some decisive, often controversial moves, Benedict tried to remind Europe of its Christian heritage and set the Catholic Church on a conservative, tradition-minded path that often alienated progressives and thrilled conservatives.

The Vatican's crackdown on American nuns — accused of straying from church doctrine in pursuing social justice issues rather than stressing core church teaching on abortion and homosexuality — left a bitter taste for many American Catholics.

But conservatives cheered his championing of the pre-Vatican II church and his insistence on tradition, even if it cost the church popularity among liberals.

As he said in his 1996 book "Salt of the Earth," a smaller but purer church may be necessary. "Maybe we are facing a new and different kind of epoch in the church's history, where Christianity will again be characterized more by the mustard seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly insignificant groups that nonetheless live an intensive struggle against evil and bring the good into the world — that let God in," he said then.

Yet his papacy will be forever intertwined with the sex abuse scandal.

Over the course of just a few months in 2010, thousands of people in Europe, Australia, South America and beyond came forward with reports of priests who raped and molested them as children, and bishops who covered up the crimes.

Documents revealed that the Vatican knew well of the problem yet turned a blind eye for decades, at times rebuffing bishops who tried to do the right thing.

Benedict had firsthand knowledge of the scope of the problem since his old office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which he had headed since 1982, was responsible for dealing with abuse cases.

He met with victims across the globe, wept with them and prayed with them. He promised that the church must "do everything possible" to ensure such crimes never happen again. The Vatican updated its legal code to extend the statute of limitations for cases and told bishops' conferences around the world to come up with guidelines to prevent abuse.

But Benedict never admitted any personal or Vatican failure. Much to the dismay of victims, he never took action against bishops who ignored or covered up the abuse of their priests or moved known pedophiles to new posts where they abused again.

And hard as he tried to heal the church's wounds, Benedict's message was always clouded by his personal style. No globe-trotting showman or media darling like John Paul, Benedict was a teacher and academic to the core: quiet and pensive with a fierce mind. He spoke in paragraphs, not sound bites. In recent years, his declining health made him seem increasingly fragile and somewhat disengaged in public. And he was notoriously prone to gaffes, though that was perhaps more a fault of his advisers than the pope himself.

Some of Benedict's most lasting initiatives as pope — the actions he will be remembered for — focused on restoring traditional Catholic practice and worship to 21st century Catholicism. It was all in a bid to correct what he considered the erroneous interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the Catholic Church into the modern world.

His conservative vision is a direction his successor will likely continue given that the bulk of the College of Cardinals — the princes of the church who will elect the next pope — was hand-picked by Benedict to guarantee his legacy and ensure an orthodox future for the church.

Hans Kueng, a one-time colleague-turned-critic, said he respected Benedict's decision to resign but that he hoped that the pope "will not exert influence on the election of his successor."

In comments to the dpa news agency, Kueng said it would be hard to find someone "who could lead the church out of its many-layered crisis."

Benedict relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old, pre-Vatican II Latin Mass. He reached out to a group of traditionalist, schismatic Catholics in a bid to bring them back into Rome's fold. And he issued an unprecedented invitation to traditionalist Anglicans upset over women priests and gay bishops to join the Roman Catholic Church.

In doing so, he alienated many progressive Catholics who feared he was rolling back the clock on Vatican II. He also angered some Jews who equated the pre-Vatican II church with the time when Jews were still considered ripe for conversion and were held responsible collectively for the death of Christ.

Yet like John Paul, Benedict had made reaching out to Jews a hallmark of his papacy. His first official act as pope was a letter to Rome's Jewish community and he became the second pope in history, after John Paul, to enter a synagogue.

And in his 2011 book "Jesus of Nazareth" Benedict made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Christ, explaining biblically and theologically why there was no basis in Scripture for the argument that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus' death.

"It's very clear Benedict is a true friend of the Jewish people," said Rabbi David Rosen, who heads the interreligious relations office for the American Jewish Committee.

During his trip to Poland, Benedict prayed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp — a visit heavy with significance for a German pope on Polish soil.

"In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent?" he asked.

His 2009 visit to Israel, however, drew a lukewarm response from officials at Jerusalem's national Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial who found Benedict's speech lacking. His call for a Palestinian state also put a damper on the visit.

Jews were also incensed at Benedict's constant promotion toward sainthood of Pope Pius XII, the World War II-era pope accused by some of having failed to sufficiently denounce the Holocaust. And they harshly criticized Benedict when he removed the excommunication of a traditionalist British bishop who had denied the Holocaust.

Benedict's relations with the Muslim world were also a mixed bag.

He riled the Muslim world with a speech in Regensburg, Germany in September 2006, five years after the terror attacks in the United States, in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

Much of the outrage that ensued from Benedict's interfaith missteps was due to the Holy See's communications problems: The Vatican under Benedict suffered notorious PR hiccups, constantly finding itself slow to react to news and then reacting with muddled messages that required two or three clarifications before getting it straight.

Sometimes Benedict himself was to blame.

In 2009, he enraged the United Nations and several European governments, when en route to Africa, he told reporters that the AIDS problem couldn't be resolved by distributing condoms. "On the contrary, it increases the problem," he said then.

A year later, he issued a revision that seemed to placate liberals while maintaining church teaching opposing contraception: In a book-length interview, he said that if a male prostitute were to use a condom to avoid passing on HIV to his partner, he might be taking a first step toward a more responsible sexuality.

It was a significant shift given the Vatican's repeated position that abstinence and marital fidelity were the only sure ways to stop the virus. Benedict repeated that line and stressed that sex outside marriage was immoral, but his comments nevertheless marked the first time a pope had even acknowledged that condoms had a role to play in stopping HIV.

When he was elected the 265th leader of the Church on April 19, 2005, Benedict, aged 78, was the oldest pope elected in 275 years and the first German one in nearly 1,000 years.

As John Paul's right-hand man, he had been a favorite going into the vote and was selected in the fastest conclave in a century: Just about 24 hours after the voting began, white smoke curled from the Sistine Chapel chimney at 5:50 p.m. to announce "Habemus Papam!"

Though clearly intending to carry on John Paul's legacy, Benedict didn't try to emulate his predecessor's popular acclaim. His foreign trips were short and focused. His Masses were solemn, his homilies dense and professorial.

And he wasn't afraid to challenge John Paul's legacy when he believed his predecessor had erred.

In one remarkable instance, he essentially took over the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative religious order held up as a model of orthodoxy by John Paul after it was revealed that its founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least three children.

Under John Paul, who had been a fierce supporter of Maciel, the Vatican's investigation into the Mexican priest had languished. But a year after Benedict became pope, Maciel was sentenced to a lifetime of penance and prayer, and in 2010 the order was essentially put under receivership by the Vatican because of a host of spiritual, financial and other problems.

He wrote three encyclicals, "God is Love" in 2006, "Saved by Hope" in 2007 and "Charity in Truth" in 2009. The latter was perhaps his best known as it called for a new world financial order guided by ethics that was published in the throes of the global financial meltdown.

Benedict's call, however, would strike some as hypocritical when a year later the Holy See's top two banking officials were placed under investigation in a money laundering probe that resulted in the seizure of millions of euros from a Vatican Bank account. The money was later released after Benedict, the Vatican's top legislator, amended the city state's legal code to comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing.

The Vatican's finances though also came under scrutiny when Benedict's own butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested in May 2012 and charged with stealing the pope's personal correspondence and leaking the documents to a journalist. Gabriele told Vatican investigators he did so because he thought the pope wasn't being informed of the "evil and corruption" in the Vatican and thought that exposing it publicly would put the church back on the right track. Gabriele was eventually sentenced to 18 months in prison, though Benedict later pardoned him.

As soon as he was elected, Benedict moved decisively on a few selected fronts: He made clear early on that he wanted to re-establish diplomatic relations with China that were severed in 1951. He wrote a landmark letter to the 12 million Chinese faithful in 2007, urging them to unite under Rome's wing. But tensions with the state-backed church remained with several illicit ordinations of Chinese bishops without papal consent.

Within his first year, Benedict also signed off on a long-awaited document barring most gays from the priesthood in a move that riled many in the American church. But in a document welcomed by liberal Catholics, he also essentially abolished "limbo," saying there was hope to think that babies who died without being baptized would go to heaven.

And in one of his most popular acts, he beatified his predecessor in record time, drawing 1.5 million people to Rome in 2011 to witness John Paul move a step closer to sainthood.

Benedict favored Masses heavy in Latin and the brocaded silk vestments of his predecessors. His fondness for Gregorian chant and Mozart — he was an accomplished classical pianist — found its way into papal Masses and concerts performed in his honor, some of the only times the workaholic Benedict was seen relaxing and enjoying himself.

He had a weakness for orange Fanta, small animals and his beloved library; when he was elected pope, he had his entire study moved — as is — from his apartment just outside the Vatican walls into the Apostolic Palace.

"In them are all my advisers," he said of his books in the 2010 book-length interview "Light of the World." ''I know every nook and cranny, and everything has its history."

He fed the goldfish in the pond at the papal summer retreat each day during his vacations, and once, when some lion cubs were brought to an audience at the Vatican, he bent down to pet one — no easy feat for a man of his age.

Years after he had left, colleagues from his days at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith spoke wistfully, even nostalgically of his tenure setting the course of Catholic doctrine and discipline and presiding over the creation of the monumental "Catechism of the Catholic Church" — a synthesis of key Catholic teaching.

His presentations at monthly department meetings were "magisterial," they said, worthy of the church's permanent teachings. They said he fostered a "family" inside the hallowed yellow halls of the Holy Office, once known as the Inquisition.

"It was not easy to succeed Pope John Paul II, but he managed to fulfill what he had said he would do at the start of his pontificate — be himself," said Maltese Bishop Charles Scicluna, who worked under Benedict at the Congregation as the Vatican's chief sex crimes prosecutor.

Benedict's real family consisted of his brother Georg, also a priest and a frequent summer visitor to Castel Gandolfo. His sister died years previous.

His "papal family" consisted of Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, his longtime private secretary who was always by his side, another secretary and four consecrated women who tended to the papal apartment.

They shared meals, celebrated daily Mass together and at the end of the day watched DVDs, especially of Benedict's favorite show "Don Camillo and Peppone," a black and white comedy from the 1950s about the pastor of a small Italian town and its Communist mayor.

Benedict was born April 16, 1927 in Marktl Am Inn, in Bavaria, but his father, a policeman, moved frequently and the family left when he was 2.

In his memoirs, Benedict dealt what could have been a source of controversy had it been kept secret — that he was enlisted in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He said he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood. Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper. He deserted the German army in April 1945, the waning days of the war.

He called it prophetic that a German followed a Polish pope — with both men coming from such different sides of World War II.

Benedict was ordained, along with his brother, in 1951. After spending several years teaching theology in Germany, he was appointed bishop of Munich in 1977 and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI.

John Paul named him leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981 and he took up his post a year later. Following John Paul's death in 2005, he was elected pope.

If there were any doubts about Benedict's priority to reinvigorate Christianity in Europe, his choice of a papal name was as good as any indication.

Benedict told cardinals soon after he was elected that he hoped to be a pope of peace, like Pope Benedict XV, who reigned during World War I. But the first Benedict — St. Benedict of Norcia — was also an inspiration.

The 5th and 6th century monk is a patron saint of Europe and inspired the creation of the Benedictine order, the main guardian of learning and literature in Western Europe during the dark centuries that followed the fall of the Roman Empire.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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Obama campaign taps young adviser, Michael Wear, for faith outreach - Articles

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President Barack Obama speaks at Intel's Fab 42 in Chandler, AZ on January 25, 2012. RNS photo courtesy Intel Photos/Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/intelphotos/6763303437/)

WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama's re-election campaign has tapped a 23-year-old executive assistant in the White House faith-based office to head up its outreach to religious communities.

Michael R. Wear, who has worked in the White House for the past three and half years, will move to Chicago to become the campaign's Faith Vote director next week, White House officials confirmed on Monday (May 14).

"It has been an honor working with Michael Wear to create positive faith-based and nonprofit partnerships to serve people in need," said Joshua DuBois, executive director of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Wear was DuBois' executive assistant. 

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Wear was an intern during Obama's 2008 campaign, specializing in outreach to religious groups.  He helped arrange candidate Obama's appearance at a presidential forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California as well as a meeting between Obama and prominent Christian leaders in Chicago. 

After organizing the prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral following the president's inauguration, he went to work for DuBois, who himself headed religious outreach for the campaign before assuming the directorship of the faith-based office.

At the White House, Wear has been involved in a wide range of religious issues, with particular responsibility for adoption and foster care. He also sought to build connections with young evangelicals, including those involved in the campaign to capture Ugandan guerilla leader Joseph Kony.

"Michael has spent a number of years in the faith-based office so he knows the territory," said Amy Sullivan, author of "The Party Faithful," a book on religion and American politics. "But the Republicans would put somebody senior with years and years of experience and a big Rolodex in that position. And I guess that tells you something about how Democrats still view faith outreach and its importance."

Wear graduated from George Washington University with a B.A. in political science in 2011. He turns 24 on Wednesday.

(Daniel Burke contributed reporting.)

DSB/AMB END SILK

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Faith voices cheer Planned Parenthood cutoff

Faith voices and anti-abortion rights groups cheered Wednesday after the Susan G. Komen Foundation anounced it would no longer provide funds for breast cancer screening at 19 U.S. Planned Parenthood affiliates.

The last hurrah, however, may go to Planned Parenthood. Tait Sye, a spokesman for the agency, said Wednesday afternoon that "more than $400,000 from 9,000 donors came in the last 24-hour period." Add that to a $250,000 "Breast Health Emergency Fund" from Texas oil executive Lee Fikes and his wife, Amy, and the group is closing in on the $680,000 it received from Komen in 2011.

But that won't quell the excitement among Komen supporters who oppose Planned Parenthood. Bound4Life's website Wednesday urged continued action:

Komen has received 2,000 email condemning their move to defund PP, only 64 supporting. Contact news@komen.org to thank them."

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The deeply conservative Catholic Answers website had been calling for a boycott of Komen since last fall. No word on whether that will now be lifted.

Few seem to recall the scene where Nancy Brinker, founder of the foundation named for her late sister, Susan G. Komen, met with Pope Benedict in 2008 when he blessed a basket of pink ribbons.

Planned Parenthood is a "tarnished brand" said Melinda Delahoyde, president of Care Net, a pregnancy support agency, who formerly headed educational outreach for Americans United for Life.

Delahoyde said Wednesday,

It's under congressional investigation and consequences follow from that.

She cheered Komen's move to separate the relationship because, "Komen's mission is one that affects every woman... We fully endorse and applaud that mission." Delahoyde says the monies that once went to Planned Parenthood will move now to other groups and "women will continue to be helped."

At the core of religious groups' contention is that money is fungible.

Even if every cent donated by a church-sponsored walk or a Bible sale went to breast cancer screening, the argument went, that donation freed Planned Parenthood to spend more of the funds it raised -- privately or from taxpayers -- on abortion.

When LifeWay Christian Resources came out with a pink Bible for breast Cancer awareness, pledging to raise at least $25,000 for Komen, Bound4Life branded it as "Bibles for abortion," according to Bob Smietana at The Tennessean.

LifeWay announced in October it would recall the Bibles, although some were still on shelves in Christian bookstores. One of the first statements thanking Komen for tanking Planned Parenthood funds came from Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay, husband of a Breast cancer survivor.

Rainer said Wednesday, that even though the original research behind the Bible donation plan included assurances from Komen that no funding would go toward abortions offered by Planned Parenthood,

We ultimately decided we didn't want to be affiliated with this, even indirectly.

Now, said Rainer, as thousands of pink Bibles are piling up in the publisher's warehouse, "we will reconsider what we will do with them."

This same concern about "cooperation in evil" has driven Catholic actions to pressure Planned Parenthood's funding sources, private and public.

Based only on the idea that Komen one day might support embryonic stem cell research, forbidden by Catholic views on life, Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, told schools in his diocese last year not to join Komen fund-raising efforts.

Blair said in a letter to the diocese:

In order to avoid even the possibility of cooperation in morally unacceptable activities... fundraising activities carried out under Catholic auspices, including our schools, should be channeled" elsewhere.

Andrea Radera, spokesperson for the national foundation in Dallas, told Catholic News Service at that time that they are "very clear that we do not fund embryonic stem cell research." However, Radera also added, "We do not want to preclude that possibility, so we do not shut that door."

According to the liberal Catholic weekly, National Catholic Reporter, in October, a dozen Catholic dioceses took similar action, urging Catholic organizations not to support Komen, although individuals were still free to choose to march with the pink forces.

Other Catholic conferences that took the same stance (and offered local breast cancer screening groups as alternatives for support) included bishops in St. Louis; Lafayette-in-Indiana, Ind.; Charleston, S.C.; Phoenix; and Baltimore, according to NCR.

The foundation's tax returns show Komen also gives funds to Catholic agencies, reporter/writer Zoe Ryan confirmed Wednesday. Last fall she wrote:

To date, it has given $17.5 million in grants to a Catholic Charities, Catholic hospital, health center, multicultural center, medical centers and Georgetown University in Washington.

Meanwhile, the fight against Planned Parenthood is just gathering steam as faith-based groups turn to Congress.

Last year the defunding amendment cleared the House but died in the Senate. However, since then, CT writes, 11 states eliminated or decreased funding to Planned Parenthood.

According to Christianity Today's lead story Wednesday, the next big fight is a rematch of the 2011 effort to defund Planned Parenthood -- again, based on the line that funding is fungible.

The $1 billion-a-year organization said in its most recent annual report that it performed 329,445 abortions in 2010. $487 million, 46 percent of its revenue, came from government health service grants and reimbursements. The organization cannot legally use taxpayer dollars for an abortion. But, pro-life activists allege, the agency does not segregate funds as it should, effectively resulting in taxpayer support for abortion.

The impact was ...

crippling… Twelve Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas closed this summer after the state legislature eliminated $58 million from Planned Parenthood over the next two years. Six of Minnesota's twenty-four clinics closed after Congress cut funds to Title X. Five more in central Indiana closed.

Not all faith voices were arrayed against Planned Parenthood, however.

Marcie Natan, president of Haddassah, the Women's Zionist Organization, said Wednesday,

As a two-time winner in the battle against breast cancer myself, as a supporter of both Komen and Planned Parenthood, and as an advocate for reproductive freedom, I am disappointed... There is no time to waste in our commitment to the fundamental issues of women's health, breast cancer and a woman's right to choose.

and Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, said

As Catholics, we are called by our faith to show solidarity with and compassion for the poor... In addition, we believe in the primacy of individual conscience in matters of moral decision making... Komen should be ashamed of itself.

DO YOU THINK... Planned Parenthood will survive another round of attacks? Should it? Does the agency's work clash with your beliefs on your life choices?

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Bachmann, Perry faith inspires -- and frightens

Who has dominion over defining 'dominionism'?

It's the word of the month right now. Washington Post blogger/columnist Lisa Miller accused progressives and media of using it as a scare tactic to demonize evangelicals and beat up unfairly on Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. Then the associate editor for the progressive voice, Religion Dispatches, whaled into Miller.

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Miller writes, in part, that "Evangelicals generally do not want to take over the world" and broadly describes "Dominionism" as...

... a Christian's obligation to be active in the world, including in politics and government. More narrowly, some view it as Christian nationalism.

... Extremist dominionists do exist, as theocrats who hope to transform our democracy into something that looks like ancient Israel, complete with stoning as punishment. But "it's a pretty small world," says (Mary) Worthen (who teaches religious history at the University of Toronto).

Mark DeMoss, whose Atlanta-based public relations firm represents several Christian groups, put it this way: "You would be hard-pressed to find one in 1,000 Christians in America who could even wager a guess at what dominionism is."

Peter Montgomery, an associate editor for Religion Dispatches and a Senior Fellow at People For the American Way Foundation, bites back:

Dominionism refers to a theological tenet at the core of the religious right movement -- that Christians are meant to exercise dominion over the earth...

It may be true, as evangelical leader Mark DeMoss says in Miller's story, that "you would be hard-pressed to find one in 1,000 Christians in America would could even wager a guess at what dominionism is." But it's certainly not true of the leaders of the religious right political movement. Their followers are hearing dominionist teaching whether they know it or not.

In Montgomery's piece there's plenty to fear as, he says, :

... a broad swath of conservative evangelical leadership to adopt a shared set of talking points, if you will, to unite theologically disparate elements in common political cause to defeat the Satanic/demonic enemies of faith and freedom: secularists, gays, liberals, and the Obama administration.

Can we set aside the question of "dominion" -- being in charge -- to look at a related set of questions? Here are mine:

Do you see anything wrong with being a political activist on behalf of God? Wouldn't human rights activists, peace activists and anti-poverty activists say they, too, are trying to carry out God's work on earth?

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Fathers: Key to Their Children's Faith

Instead, many have succumbed to modern cultural caricatures-encouraged by feminist psychology-and the primitive label of hunter-gatherer, and thus assume that this is their main contribution to the family. As a result too many men, including professing Christian men, express their role as father exclusively in terms of financial provider. The fact is children are not looking for financial provision; they are looking for love, guidance, and a role model for what it means to be a man.

During the colonial period in America men defined themselves by their level of community involvement and fatherhood. Marriage and fatherhood were seen as being among the highest aspirations in a man’s life. Today the highest aspirations of men seem to be career success and personal leisure; and against these they seek to balance marriage and family.

The lack of actively involved fathers has produced societal conditions necessary for the intervention of government. It is a sobering fact when the government is compelled to respond to the failure of such a fundamental institution as family! In 2001 the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services under President Bush launched its Fatherhood Initiative with this statement:

The President is determined to make committed, responsible fatherhood a national priority … [T]he presence of two committed, involved parents contributes directly to better school performance, reduced substance abuse, less crime and delinquency, fewer emotional and other behavioral problems, less risk of abuse or neglect, and lower risk of teen suicide. The research is clear: fathers factor significantly in the lives of their children. There is simply no substitute for the love, involvement, and commitment of a responsible father.

While the research confirms that paternal absence (whether it is physical or emotional) is a significant contributing factor in almost every category of societal ill, my concern is the spiritual consequence. Like us on Facebook

A rather obscure but large and important study conducted by the Swiss government in 1994 and published in 2000 revealed some astonishing facts with regard to the generational transmission of faith and religious values. (The full title of the study is: “The Demographic Characteristics of the Linguistic and Religious Groups in Switzerland” by Werner Haug and Phillipe Warner of the Federal Statistical Office, Neuchatel. The study appears in Volume 2 of Population Studies No. 31, a book titled The Demographic Characteristics of National Minorities in Certain European States, edited by Werner Haug and others, published by the Council of Europe Directorate General III, Social Cohesion, Strasbourg, January 2000.) Sounds like a page-turner right?

In short, the study reveals: “It is the religious practice of the father of the family that, above all, determines the future attendance at or absence from church of the children” (Emphasis mine).

The study reports:

1. If both father and mother attend regularly, 33 percent of their children will end up as regular churchgoers, and 41 percent will end up attending irregularly. Only a quarter of their children will end up not practicing at all.

2. If the father is irregular and mother regular, only 3 percent of the children will subsequently become regulars themselves, while a further 59 percent will become irregulars. Thirty-eight percent will be lost.

3. If the father is non-practicing and mother regular, only 2 percent of children will become regular worshippers, and 37 percent will attend irregularly. Over 60 percent of their children will be lost completely to the church!

What happens if the father is regular but the mother irregular or non-practicing? Amazingly, the percentage of children becoming regular goes up from 33 percent to 38 percent with the irregular mother and up to 44 percent with the non-practicing. This suggests that loyalty to the father’s commitment grows in response to the mother’s laxity or indifference to religion.

In short, if a father does not go to church-no matter how faithful his wife’s devotions-only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. If a father does go regularly, regardless of the practice of the mother, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will become churchgoers (regular and irregular). One of the reasons suggested for this distinction is that children tend to take their cues about domestic life from Mom while their conceptions of the world outside come from Dad. If Dad takes faith in God seriously then the message to their children is that God should be taken seriously.

This confirms the essential role of father as spiritual leader, which I would argue is true fatherhood. Fathers are to love their wives as Christ loves the church, modeling the love of the Father in their most important earthly relationship. Fathers are to care for their children as our Father in heaven cares for us and finally, fathers play a primary role in teaching their children the truth about reality. It is the father who should instruct his children in their understanding of the world from a consciously and informed Christian worldview. It is the father who is essential for sending his children forth with a biblical view of reality and a faith in Jesus Christ that is rooted in solid understanding.

It is time for fathers to return to honorable manhood and reconsider their priorities and realign them with God’s commands, decrees, and laws, teaching these things to your children “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:7 NKJV).

Have a happy Father’s Day!

S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture. Michael is the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress). Michael's ministry is dedicated to renewal within the Church and works to equip Christians with an intelligent and thoroughly Christian approach to matters of culture in order to demonstrate the relevance of Christianity to all of life. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, visit: www.battlefortruth.org. Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.

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Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith

That was just who my dad was-a man of unwavering faith whose life and ministry were shaped through overcoming adversity and great challenges. As a boy, he grew up in the Great Depression poverty era with next to nothing. Later in life, he told me that "having been raised with nothing to eat and holes in my clothes, I determined in my heart that my children would never experience the same." And so we watched his determination and faith in God set the tone for our lives and the lives of the countless he ministered to.

My dad's message was simple: With God all things are possible; you can rise higher, and you can overcome. But he didn't just talk about it, he lived it. He knew no limits and accomplished great things for the kingdom of God.

The beauty of my father's life was that he was a man of integrity. He always kept his word. He was the same at home as he was at church. His sincerity had tremendous impact on me and my brothers and sisters. Daddy was a constant source of inspiration to us. He always believed the best about people and would always try to draw the best out of them.

So many people today didn't have a father like I did. They didn't have anyone to pattern their lives after. I am so grateful and humbled that I had his example and wisdom imparted into me. It is my great honor to now share his message and impart his wisdom into you through the newly released book, "Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith." My heart is that through this dynamic compilation of my father's sermon transcripts and writings, you will feel your heavenly Father whisper in your ear, "You can make it. You were born for such a time as this. You have what it takes." Always remember, what God began in you He will complete in you. His goal is to see you become a person of unwavering faith, too!

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Joel Osteen is the Pastor of Lakewood Church, which according to Church Growth Today is America's largest and fastest growing church.
If you would like to receive a daily e-votional by Joel Osteen directly to your inbox, register online at www.joelosteen.com
Copyright © 2011 by Joel Osteen. All rights reserved. Used by permission. International copyright secured.

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College World Series: Players, Coach Talk Faith

(Photo: The Christian Post / Lee Warren)Ed Hearn, who played catcher for the New York Mets when they won the World Series in 1986, speaks at the 12th annual 9th Inning Ministry breakfast in Omaha, Neb., June 18, 2011.(Photo: The Christian Post / Lee Warren)Ed Hearn, who played catcher for the New York Mets when they won the World Series in 1986, speaks at the 12th annual 9th Inning Ministry breakfast in Omaha, Neb., June 18, 2011.

Clement, a former player who went on to serve in various coaching capacities, told the audience he wasn’t always motivated by his faith. Instead, he said he was driven by the thrill of competition and the opportunity to win.

“At one point in my coaching career, the Lord sort of pushed me up against the wall and really asked me to check myself and see why I was doing what I was doing,” Clement told the audience.

“I had a lot of coaches in my life who made a great impact on me, but there were also some coaches, like there are everywhere, who didn’t make a great impact on me,” he continued. “They talked about how many girlfriends they had, how much tobacco they could fit into their mouth, how many beers they were going to drink and the Lord just told me, ‘If those coaches can tell you that as a player … then you can share with the players … the impact that Jesus Christ has made on your life.’”

He says he has tried to do that ever since and he encouraged the crowd to do so as well.

“Go out. No matter who you are – a parent, an 8-year-old little leaguer – my charge to you is spread the word of Christ,” Clement said. Like us on Facebook

Jacob House, a junior first baseman for A&M, spoke about a similar experience. When he was a freshman at Arkansas in 2008 (he played for the Razorbacks his first two years before transferring to A&M), he came to the plate as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning in a game against South Carolina. He drove the ball out of the park for a game-winning, grand slam home run. Ironically, he learned that day that home runs cannot satisfy the soul.

“I go back to my apartment and I feel nothing,” House explained. “I was completely empty. That was it. That’s about as high a level in baseball as you can get, and I felt nothing.”

During his sophomore season at Arkansas, a senior teammate approached him and they got into the Bible together and that helped lead to his turnaround. Knowing the power of fellowship and accountability, House encouraged young baseball players in the crowd to take advantage of the fellowship opportunities they have.

“I’ve really found some true men of God and they really poured into my heart, and I really poured into them,” House said. “Enjoy the fellowship you have. The games are great, but there is so much more to the game than the actual game.”

Freshman A&M backup catcher Troy Stein said when he was in high school (in Texas), the FCA set him on the right path. They lived by 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” After that, he said, God and baseball just went together.

“It really helps you handle failure,” Stein said about his faith. “If you can’t handle failure, you can’t play baseball. You are going to walk to the plate and one out of every three or four times, you might get a hit. Having faith in God and having Him support you, and knowing that He supports you, it’s a big relief on how you get through the day.”

Ed Hearn was the keynote speaker for the event. He played catcher for the New York Mets when they won the World Series in 1986. He was traded to the Kansas City Royals in 1987. A shoulder injury ended his career pre-maturely. Six months after it ended, he was diagnosed with three serious health problems. He had a bout with cancer, three kidney transplants and a sleep disorder. Today, he takes as many as 50 pills a day.

Life hasn’t turned out the way he expected, but that hasn’t stopped him from using the platform God has given him to tell others about Christ.

He told the crowd he always loved sports and his parents, who were Christians, did a very smart thing.

“My parents, in their tremendous wisdom, gave me required reading,” Hearn said. “It was fun stuff … they gave me Fellowship of Christian Athletes magazines. So it was about guys who had a passion for Christ who also played sports.”

It made him want to play sports even more, but when he got into high school, he said he put God in his back pocket. He kept Him there until his days in Kansas City, when God used a teammate to confront him about his misplaced priorities. Throughout his talk, he asked the crowd not to put God in their back pockets.

Afterward, Hearn spoke with The Christian Post about what motivates him to speak at an event like this.

“There’s just so many connections between the game of baseball and the game of life,” Hearn said. “For folks who don’t know Him, that’s number one. We want to get them on the team. That’s an eternal team. But, in this audience, there’s probably a lot of people who know him, but they were like me and kept Him in their back pocket. And maybe like me, they’ve faced some curves and challenges … if they’re like me, they’ve asked, ‘Why me God?’”

“We all face curves,” he added. “We all face challenges. We’re all condemned because of sin. And only through Jesus Christ do we have that opportunity to spend eternal life with our Creator. That’s what it is all about. That is not difficult to share. It’s the best message in the world.”

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Churches in More Than 500 Cities Nationwide Going All-In This Fall, Planning Massive andquot;Invitationandquot; to Consider the Christian Faith

Ralph Reed Taking Faith Movement in New Direction

This weekend throngs of conservative Christian voters are attending the Faith & Freedom conference in Washington, D.C. – and a half step behind them are a number of aspiring candidates eager to become the next President of the United States. In fact, more GOP candidates are attending this conference than will be at the upcoming South Carolina and New Hampshire forums.

If any of the candidates are seeking to flex their Christian credentials, they are certainly in their element, and attendees are looking to see how each candidate plays to Reed.

Reed has always been involved in grassroots politics and began his meteoric rise to prominence at the University of Georgia and as executive director of the College Republican National Committee. After graduating in 1985, he went on to earn a doctorate from Emory University in 1989, the same year he was selected to lead the Christian Coalition, a group comprised of evangelical voters and founded by noted evangelist Pat Robertson. Six years later, Reed made the cover of Time magazine, which referred to him as “The Right Hand of God.”

With a trunk full of political success, Reed left the Christian Coalition just after reaching the pinnacle of success in 1997 and moved to Georgia to open his own consulting firm, Century Strategies. Candidates looking to appeal to the “Christian right” eagerly sought out Reed’s counsel and advice, and Reed worked as a “senior advisor” to George W. Bush in both the 2000 and 2004 election cycles. He also served as chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and attempted to parlay his statewide connections by running for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2006.

In what some thought to be his entry into elected office, Reed suffered a heartbreaking loss because of accusations of his close relationship to Jack Abramoff, a high-powered Washington lobbyist who was later convicted of fraud and sentenced to federal prison. Like us on Facebook

The loss was devastating for Reed and he seemed to withdraw from the spotlight for a few years. However, he continued to grow his consulting business while finding time to write two novels, Dark Horse (2008 ) and The Confirmation (2010).

While time may have passed by, Reed’s passion for the pro-family movement has not diminished. After taking a back seat, but closely keeping tabs on the pulse of Christian voters, Reed emerged again to form the Faith and Freedom Coalition, viewed by many as a key element to a Republican winning the White House in 2012 and making President Obama the first Democratic, one-term president since Jimmy Carter.

In a 2009 interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Reed described the Faith and Freedom Coalition as “a grassroots coalition of people of faith, small businessmen and women, and like-minded citizens dedicated to promoting sound public policy at every level of government.”

So what is the difference between the Christian Coalition and the Faith and Freedom Coalition? Reed’s statement to U.S. News and World Report summed it up in no uncertain terms.

“This is not your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” said Reed. “It’s got to be more brown, more black, more female, and younger. It’s critical that we open the door wide and let them know if they share our values and believe in the principles of faith and marriage and family, they’re welcome.”

One thing is for certain: conservative candidates for national office still make time for Reed and his strategies of mobilizing voters in the southern and midwestern states, strongholds of evangelical voters.

Phil DaCosta, Georgia resident who traveled to Washington for this weekend’s conference summed up the sentiment of many voters attracted to Reed and his coalitions, telling The Huffington Post, “I vote on Jesus first.”

Reed and like-minded supporters such as DaCosta will be watching – and listening closely to what the candidates are saying and doing in the months ahead.

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