Religion Dispatches
…d appeared the year before, and Mark Zuckerberg was feverishly writing the code that would become Facebook. YouTube was just an idea, and wouldn’t appear online in any form until 2005. John Paul did embrace social media as it existed then. He was the first pope to use SMS to send out a daily message to Catholics in 2004, after brokering a deal with Verizon—one of the first troubling commercial agreements between the Vatican and communications comp…
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…sponsibility.” So she’s irresponsible for getting pregnant eight times because she not using the contraception that you say she can’t use? But Francis has an answer for that: God gives you methods to be responsible…This is clear and that is why in the church there are marriage groups, there are experts in this matter, there are pastors. I know so many, many licit ways that have helped this. So many licit ways? How many ways are there to say natura…
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…e Dobbs decision was in a sense the end of the beginning of the pro-life cause. Now comes the real fight, in state houses across the country, to outlaw completely the barbaric practice of killing the unborn.” This would, of course, mean making abortion a crime—and jailing women and their doctors for murder, a crime which in some states is still punishable by death. Davidson’s totalitarian dream would also entail finding a solution to what he calls…
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…re August 2001. Many conservative Christians oppose stem-cell research because they are harvested from embryos left over from fertility treatments. Because the process destroys the embryo, they argue that it’s akin to abortion. In signing the executive order, Obama disagreed: “In recent years, when it comes to stem-cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and…
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…as guides during an experience itself. Most of the discussion, however, focused on how chaplains might help users understand and integrate their experiences in light of pre-existing faith commitments. As trained caregivers, chaplains could play an important role in the newly-emerging psychedelic landscape, providing guidance to those who may choose to incorporate the use of psychedelics into their own spiritual journeys. We could perhaps think abo…
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…moral types of behaviour. Should the Church teach that a rapist must never use a condom because otherwise he would additionally to the sin of rape fail to respect “mutual and complete personal self-giving and thus violate the Sixth Commandment”? Of course not. What do I, as a Catholic priest, tell AIDS-infected promiscuous people or homosexuals who are using condoms? I will try to help them to live an upright and well-ordered sexual life. But I wi…
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…aception as, “characteristic of a less than fully human way of acting, because it diminishes the need for reason and the use of the will to make responsible and truly loving decisions about how to use one’s God-given gift of sexuality.” As a moral theologian and sexual ethicist, I completely disagree. The ability of a young person to make a decision about any sexual behavior that includes protecting one’s self and partner from disease or pregnancy…
Read More…s have played in promoting conservative policies and the political tactics used to advance them. The report discusses the right’s use of “gender ideology,” which it describes as a “pseudo-scientific term” that “is used as a political tool to curtail further development of sexual and reproductive health and rights.” From the report (with source citations removed): This strategic attempt by Catholic church to redefine cultural and political debate r…
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…have been following it closely. Sinauer Associates is a small publishing house that publishes college-level science textbooks, some of which are used in high school advanced placement classes. Sinauer, along with W.H. Freeman jointly published Hillis’ Science of Biology and Molecular Systemics. President Andrew Sinauer said his company would never consider inserting anti-evolution language into a textbook to make a sale to creationists. “We simply…
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…n that was never shared. As my progeny, Karis possesses some of my genetic code. Furthermore, since we live in the same house and share daily experience, I also have contributed to her cultural DNA. Even as relatives who share so much, Karis and I must exercise patience if we are to genuinely hear, and be heard by, the other. If an abiding commitment to patience is necessary for healthy communication between blood relatives, how much more patience…
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