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PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona judge on Monday set a September court date to try again to determine whether convicted murderer Jodi Arias will be put to death for killing her ex-boyfriend nearly six years ago, court officials said. Arias was convicted by a jury in May 2013 of murdering Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. He had been stabbed multiple times, shot in the face and had his throat slashed. But the jury deadlocked on whether the former California waitress should be executed or face life in...

According to 2009 data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41 percent of all births were to unmarried women. The percentage has risen steadily since at least 1980... In 1980, it stood at 18.4 percent. By 1990, it was 28.0 percent. And by 2000 it was 33.2 percent. In 2009, 17 percent of births to Asian-Pacific Islanders were out of wedlock, with non-Hispanic whites at 29 percent, 53 percent for Hispanics, 65 percent for American Indians and Native Alaskans and 73 percent for non-Hispanic blacks. These stark numbers reveal far more about the rapid state of decay...

In the Gospel for this Weekend’s Mass we are well into the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and today we cover a good deal of Chapter 5. In a way the Lord is drawing a picture for us of the transformed human person. He is presenting a kind of slide show of what sanctity really is. In understanding this rather lengthy text we do well to reflect on it in three parts.I. The Power of New Life in Christ – We have discussed before that an important principle of the Christian moral vision is to understand that it is...

Premarital sex is "immoral" and against the "tenets of every religion", a Delhi court has said while holding that every act of sexual intercourse between two adults on the promise of marriage does not become rape. Additional sessions judge Virender Bhat also held that a woman, especially grown up, educated and office-going, who has sexual intercourse on the assurance of marriage does so "at her own peril". "In my opinion, every act of sexual intercourse between two adults on the assurance of promise of marriage does not become rape, if the assurance or promise is not fulfilled later on by...

I want to discuss a very alarming new study that indicates that over 40% of children are born outside of marriage in this country. This situation is growing very serious and needs to be addressed in our parishes and homes. Here is a brief excerpt of the article:The number of children born outside marriage in the United States has increased dramatically to four out of ten of all births. Figures show that 41 per cent of children born in 2008 did not have married parents – up from 28 per cent in 1990. Researchers have concluded that although Christian values...

Many of you are aware that there is an Extraordinary Synod planned in Rome on the family.   There is surely no hiding the fact that the family is in real crisis, at least in the modern Western World, if not throughout many other parts as well. We do well to ponder the reasons and roots of this crisis, and develop strategies to begin to address the many problems.At the recent Bishops Conference Meeting here in America, Cardinal Sean O’Malley made some remarks that I would like to draw upon, even as I make some remarks of my own. Basing...

We’ve talked a good deal about the decline of marriage on this blog over the years. And our discussion must continue as the Synod on the family is planned in Rome.In my short 25 years as a priest I have experienced a major drop off in marriages. In my early years, I had about thirty weddings a year; now, about five or six. In this urban parish in which I have ministered for the larger part of 20 years, a beautiful and picturesque setting for a matrimonial sacrament, we used to have to turn couples away who were not members....

Have you ever heard the expression, “Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?” It appears that some women on college campuses have become “cows” as women sell themselves short, allowing casual sexual “hooking up” to dominate their relationships with male students.

Noting the comeback campaigns of Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner in New York, feminist author Hanna Rosin wonders why “50 years into the sexual revolution” women politicians lag so far behind men in the sex-scandal tally. She notes biological and evolutionary explanations only to reject them in favor of the idea that women are just too unused to power to abuse it in that way. She’s cheered, though, by surveys showing that younger women are cheating on their spouses almost as much as men, and confidently looks forward to the not-too-distant day when we’ll “find ourselves willing to look past...

<p>Tony Miano, a retired deputy sheriff from Los Angeles County, Calif., was arrested in London, England, earlier this week for preaching on abstaining from sexual immorality, both heterosexual and homosexual, in downtown Wimbledon. He was found to be in violation of Public Order Act Section 5, for "using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult," Miano said in a YouTube video posted on Wednesday. Preaching from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, Miano spoke about sexual sins for 25 minutes before being cut off by Metropolitan Police officers who said that although preaching in itself is not an offense, the specific part of the Bible he was preaching from was interpreted as homophobic by the woman who called to complain.</p>

On Monday, the Madras High Court weighed in on a spousal support case and inadvertently provoked a debate over what exactly defines a relationship between a man and a woman. The court had heard an appeal from a woman who was seeking financial support from the father of her two children and live-in partner of five years. A lower court had previously ordered the man to pay child support but ruled that because the woman was not his legal wife, he did not need to pay her anything. In overturning the lower court’s ruling, Madras High Court Judge C.S. Karnan...

NBA star Dwight Howard is expecting his fifth baby, reported Black Media Scoop on April 23. Sources say that Howard already has four children with four different women, although he has remained quite mum on the baby situation, trying instead to focus attention on his NBA basketball career with the LA Lakers. The news that Howard is expecting yet another child surprises some fans, as he has long professed his Christian faith, pledging to "raise the name of God within the league and throughout the world." This leaves some fans wondering whether multiple children from different mothers runs contrary to...

<p>On a drizzly evening in Tampa in 2006, 23-year-old Holly Jacobs was enjoying a typical date night with Ryan Seay, her boyfriend of a few short months. As the time to head home approached, he walked her to her car and reluctantly kissed her goodbye. She clung dreamily to the sweater Mr. Seay had given her earlier in the evening, when she’d said she was cold. As her car pulled out of Mr. Seay’s driveway, she noticed it: a little heart that he had traced in the raindrops collected on her rear windshield.</p>

Boston College officials threaten to take disciplinary action against Boston College Students for Sexual Health (BCSSH), a group of students who have been distributing condoms out of dorm rooms to other students. The group is not recognized by the university. “We go through almost 2,000 condoms every semester for students that need them. It is very much an important need here,” said Lizzie Jekanowski, who runs BCSSH. But now Boston College is threatening to punish the students if they don’t stop giving out condoms because it goes against Catholic values and traditions. “Our position is that we’re a Catholic university...

A proposal to repeal the crime of adultery from Colorado’s books has been signed into law. The legislation that Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Friday removes what Democratic bill sponsors say is an outdated 19-century statute. The bill also would repeal the rarely-used law of contributing to “sexual immorality” by providing a place, such as a hotel room, for unmarried people to have sex.

Every human institution and society has its own list of sins and virtues that contradict the law of God. With the rise of the Millennial generation in evangelical churches, a vice is creeping up into the realms of acceptance, indifference, or at least resignation: fornication (i.e. extramarital sex or unchaste living). A few decades ago, this was one of the main issues that evangelicals hammered in their social witness. The skeptical news cycle and entertainment industry mocked this often; they saw pleas for chastity as a laughable result of pietistic sexual repression and no small bit of hypocrisy. Theological leaders...

British MP George Galloway has created controversy in the UK for comments made about rape during a British radio broadcast. Galloway was discussing the sexual allegations against WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange in an episode of his "Good Night" podcast published on August 18th. The New Statesman has transcribed the controversial comments: Let's take woman A. Woman A met Julian Assange, invited him back to her flat [apartment], gave him dinner, went to bed with him, had consensual sex with him. Claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again. This is something which can happen, you know....

As we go about our lives, there is something happening around us that is not deemed “newsworthy” or “important” by many people. It’s toxic, troubling, and traumatic. It’s happening on college campuses. It’s happening next door to you. It’s the white elephant in the room that everybody notices, but does not want to address for countless reasons. It’s what our generation praises and feels empowered by, but refuses to let their parents know about. And shockingly enough, it’s happening at conservative conferences thanks to people who do not practice what they preach. So what is it? It’s the hookup culture....

It's another slogan that passes for thought among the thinking-averse: "Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality...." The rest of the sentence remains unspoken for fear that laughter might break out. "Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality; therefore He approves of it." First of all, that's what's known as an "argument from silence;" a logical fallacy. By this rule Jesus would be made to endorse rape, cannibalism and lots of other nasty stuff. Secondly, we cannot know whether Jesus, in His brief earthly ministry, ever mentioned homosexual sin specifically (see John 21:25), so the claim can't be substantiated. But the slogan...

Saudi religious police HQ targeted by sex maniacs Tried to create a sex video right in front of the police headquarter signboard By  Staff Published Sunday, November 27, 2011 Three Saudi men parked their car close to the headquarters of the Gulf Kingdom’s feared religious police late night, got out and started having sex with a woman accompanying them just in front of the massive police signboard. They were filming themselves with the aim publicising the shot to defame the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the Muslim nation....