As previously noted, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said those who oppose killing embryos are "theocrats." The next day, Democratic Senator Tom Harkin accused President Bush of being a "moral ayatollah" for vetoing a bill expanding embryonic stem cell research. On the same day, Democratic Representative Diana DeGette tried to convince her colleagues to override the president's [...]
Comedy Central re-ran the "South Park" episode "Bloody Mary" on August 2. Comedy Central officials had previously said the episode would not air again. On December 29, 2005, we received a phone call from Tony Fox, the executive vice president for corporate communications at Comedy Central, informing us that there were no plans to rerun "Bloody [...]
Over the summer, a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times survey disclosed that 37 percent of Americans said they would not vote for a Mormon as president (Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts governor, is a Mormon and possible presidential contender). Some pundits, without looking at the disaggregated data, immediately assumed that conservative Christians were driving the numbers upwards. They were wrong. [...]
A coalition of hundreds of public notables released a statement on July 26 titled "Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families & Relationships" that takes issue with gay activists who are limiting their efforts to legalizing same-sex marriage. The coalition's goal is total societal recognition of "families and relationships" that "know no [...]
Senator Barack Obama spoke before a Call to Renewal conference on June 28 imploring Democrats to reach out to people of faith. "Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square," he said. There is much in Senator Obama's address that the Catholic League welcomed. For [...]
The New York State Court of Appeals ruled on July 6 that denying homosexuals the right to marry does not violate the state's constitution. That same day, Georgia's Supreme Court upheld a 2004 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. On July 13, a Superior Court judge in Connecticut ruled against eight same-sex couples who were seeking the [...]
A coalition of religious leaders in Massachusetts who are in favor of gay marriage recently accused Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley and other Catholic leaders of religious discrimination for opposing same-sex unions. The coalition requested that the Catholic leaders stop campaigning for laws that protect the institution of marriage. United Methodist minister Tiffany Steinwert, who works [...]
Maurice S. Owens, a Washington lawyer, filed a complaint with the IRS against the Missouri Catholic Conference alleging "illegal political interference." The Catholic group was urging candidates for state office to return contributions received from an organization, Supporters of Health Research and Treatment, that promotes embryonic stem cell research and human cloning. The ruthlessness of this [...]
On July 31, eight women proclaimed themselves priests and four other women anointed themselves deacons in a "ceremony" in Pittsburgh. Contrary to some news reports (like the ABC television report on the Pittsburgh "ceremony" that we told you about in the July-August Catalyst), this was not the first time that this make-believe game had been played. In [...]
Provincetown, Massachusetts, a small resort town on the tip of Cape Cod, was once a sleepy Portuguese fishing village. In recent years, it has become popular with homosexuals, both for year-round dwelling and as a summer vacation spot. Gays say they feel comfortable in Provincetown, which was honored by the Anti-Defamation League as worthy of the [...]
