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My denomination is dealing these days with a pastor in California who reversed his position on homosexuality. The pastor said that his shift coincided with his 15 year-old son’s announcement that he is gay. This is a situation every Christian should think through, now. As I’ve said before, at stake on the issue of a Christian sexual ethic is the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what if, sitting across from you, is your child or grandchild? You will, without a doubt, have someone close to you in your family come out as gay or lesbian, if not already, then sometime...

Employees of Roman Catholic schools in Columbus are being required to sign updated contracts that include specific examples of immoral conduct that are prohibited. Examples of behavior that could get the workers fired include having sex without being married, having an abortion or publicly supporting abortion rights, and entering into a marriage not recognized by the Catholic Church. The changes also specify that workers must abide by Catholic Church teachings "both within and outside their employment duties" and regardless of their religious affiliation, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The Diocese of Columbus joined its counterparts in Cincinnati and Cleveland in...

If you want to teach at a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, regardless of your religion, you must be willing to sign a detailed morality clause that critics say focuses on "pelvic issues." The revised contracts forbid teachers from -- among other things -- living together or having sex outside of marriage, using in-vitro fertilization, a gay "lifestyle," or publicly supporting any of those things. The system's 2,200 current teachers must sign the agreement to stay on the job. "It is an embarrassment and a scandal, and will drive even more Catholics away from an institution so out...

I argued last week that Rick Santorum ought to drop any pretense of a long-shot 2016 presidential bid to focus on turning EchoLight Studios, the filmmaking outfit he runs, into the next blockbuster factory. That generated a bit of a discussion with Quin Hillyer, one of Santorum’s more well-known supporters (a summation of which can be found here)—but it’s worth exploring further how Santorum could make an impact upstream from politics. The primary reason conservatives are struggling at the ballot box, particularly in presidential elections that attract many low-information and less-engaged voters, is that liberals dominate the cultural media. Hollywood’s...

An archdiocesan spokesman discounts media criticism, noting that most teachers are happy with the contract’s guidelines about conforming to Catholic principles. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati says criticism of its updated school contracts for teachers amounts to hype from third parties, noting that teachers themselves have been largely pleased and receptive. “What the principals keep telling ... our superintendent is that it’s a non-issue, in most of these parishes,” said Dan Andriacco, communications director for the Cincinnati archdiocese. “Our sense is, it’s quite a tempest in a teapot,” he told CNA in a May interview.

Opponents of same-sex marriage are scrambling to find effective responses, in Congress and state legislatures, to a rash of court rulings that would force some of America's most conservative states to accept gay nuptials. Some gay-marriage foes are backing a bill recently introduced in both chambers of Congress that would leave states fully in charge of their marriage policies, though the measure stands little chance of passage. In the states, they are endorsing a multitude of bills — some intended to protect gay-marriage bans, others to assert a right, based on religious freedom, to have nothing to do with gay...

The Madison Project PAC, a group that supports conservative candidates across the country, endorsed Republican state Sen. Barry Loudermilk in Georgia’s 11th District, according to a release obtained exclusively by CQ Roll Call. “As an expert on the history of our founders and the founding documents, Sen. Loudermilk understands that the only path to fundamentally restoring our constitutional republic is over the heads of leadership in both parties,” Madison Project President Drew Ryun said in a release. Loudermilk is one of many in a crowded GOP field seeking to replace Rep. Phil Gingrey, who is running for Georgia’s open Senate...

Gay rights group Human Rights Campaign is blasting House Speaker John Boehner for scheduling a room on Capitol Hill for a meeting of individuals the organization accuses of supporting Russia's anti-LGBT "propaganda" law. Speakers from a variety of groups that support things like traditional marriage took part in a symposium on Friday by the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society – a traditional marriage group. The event was called "Family Policy Lessons from Other Lands: What Should America Learn?" Human Rights Campaign argued in a statement the event was used "to promote using Russia's anti-gay laws as a model...

The cloture vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) Monday drew the support of seven GOP senators. Eight other Republicans did not vote. Ken Cuccinelli II (Steve Helber / Associated Press) It is remarkable that so few Republicans would agree with the overwhelming number of Americans who disapprove of workplace discrimination. In September, a poll showed 68 percent of voters supported a law like ENDA. Among Republicans, 56 did. Those numbers go to 88/84 percent approval for this statement: “Companies should hire and fire based solely on a person’s qualifications not quotas — gay and transgender employees should have an...

Glenn Beck, who already didn’t like Mitch McConnell, found it beyond laughable how the Senate Minority Leader was able to place a two-billion-dollar earmark for a Kentucky dam in the bill to reopen the government. Beck brought Ann Coulter on his show for the second time this week and asked her point-blank, “You still in love with Mitch McConnell?” Coulter dismissed this “conspiracy theory,” and Beck, along with his co-hosts, groaned as Coulter attempted to defend McConnell by saying that 1) he didn’t write the bill, and 2) “if this dam bursts, you have basically another Katrina.” As Beck continued...

There is a misnomer in politics these days that favorability is a zero sum game: If your opponent is down, then you are up. What we are seeing again and again in polling, however, is that politicians are increasingly seen as one indistinguishable mass, a dislikable one at that. They may have starkly different views, but what they share is unpopularity. In the latest Fox New poll, for example, President Obama is underwater on overall favorability (45 to 49 percent) and everything from health care (45 to 51 percent) to Syria (38 to 51 percent). Voters also disapprove of Congress...

Barbara Bush, daughter of former President George W. Bush, wants Hillary Clinton to run for president. The 31 year-old CEO of the nonprofit Global Health Corps said she wants to see a Clinton run in 2016 in the upcoming Aug. 26 issue of People Magazine. During an interview that focused primarily on her volunteer work, Barbara Bush called Clinton "unbelievably accomplished." But a Clinton vote by the Bush twin, herself unaffiliated politically, is not guaranteed. "I don't know who she'd be running against," said the daughter of the Republican president.

Is there such thing as “class” in America? Not if you ask Rick Santorum. The once and possibly future GOP presidential candidate spoke to a Republican gathering in Lyon County, Iowa late last week and shared this piece of advice with his party: “Don’t use the term the other side uses.” That includes the “middle class.” Santorum proceeded to tear into President Obama for constantly invoking the term “middle class” in his speeches about the economy. “Since when in America do we have classes?” Santorum asked. “Since when in America are people stuck in areas or defined places called a...

Mitt Romney on Tuesday warned congressional Republicans against shutting down the government in an attempt to defund ObamaCare. “I badly want ObamaCare to go away, and stripping it of funds has appeal,” Romney said at a fundraiser in New Hampshire for the state’s Republican Party, according to prepared remarks. “But we need to exercise great care about any talk of shutting down government. What would come next when soldiers aren't paid, when seniors fear for their Medicare and Social Security, and when the FBI is off duty?” Speaking at the event in Wolfeboro, just miles from his summer vacation home,...

An outspoken and provocative conservative who emerged from Saturday's Republican Party of Virginia Convention as the party's nominee for lieutenant governor once compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and blasted African-Americans for their "slavish devotion" to the Democratic Party. E.W. Jackson, an African-American pastor and attorney from Chesapeake, made the comments in a self-produced "message to black Christians" posted on YouTube last year. "The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal...

The Republican National Committee has chosen a Karl Rove-linked voter data project called Liberty Works to help it compete with Democrats in the digital arena. Liberty Works will team up with Data Trust, whose chairman of the board is former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski confirmed to POLITICO. “Basically, RNC is going to provide the data, and then Liberty Works will build the platform, and Data Trust will manage it all,” Kukowski said. “This is kind of in the beginning stages. There are legal issues that we’re going to iron out.” Several data entities — one of...

On MSNBC's "Jansing &Co.," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said he has "no intention" to run for Florida governor next year. "Look, I have no plans to run for governor. I have no intention of running for governor," said Nelson, who won re-election last November. "I love this job as senator, except that I am very, very frustrated as we have discussed this morning -- that we can't get anything done because you can't get people together to build consensus." Nelson's statement comes after Roll Call quoted a "senior Democratic official" who said that the senator was considering challenging Republican Gov....

Nearly six months after losing a Senate race and becoming a political punch line, former Rep. Todd Akin weighed in again on his controversial remarks about rape and pregnancy, saying in a recent interview he has "relived" the episode "too many times." In an interview with CNN affiliate KSDK in St. Louis, the former Missouri congressman also hit back at Karl Rove, founder of the independent group American Crossroads, for his new group designed to recruit GOP candidates that won't make the same mistake as Akin. Facing one of the most vulnerable incumbent Democrats, Claire McCaskill, in last year's Senate...

The Mark Zuckerberg-backed organization pressing for immigration reform will launch its first wave of television ads Tuesday, in a move aimed at shoring up support for a large-scale immigration deal on the right, strategists for the group told POLITICO. FWD.us, the organization formed to push Silicon Valley’s priorities in Washington, will advocate for a new immigration law through a subsidiary group created specifically to court conservatives. Americans for a Conservative Direction will spend seven figures to run ads in more than half a dozen states, according to strategists who sketched out the organization’s plans. Continue Reading Text Size - +...

Pastor Rick Warren said Thursday that his son, Matthew, purchased an unregistered gun over the Internet. It was that weapon that he used to take his own life last week after years of battling mental illness. "Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun. I pray he seeks God's forgiveness. I forgive him. #MATTHEW 6:15," Warren tweeted Thursday. The Orange County Sheriff's Department told the Associated Press it is trying to identify the seller, but the gun's serial number was unreadable, making it difficult to trace the firearm.