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Archaeologists claim that they have identified the deadly dance floor where John the Baptist...was sentenced to death around A.D. 29. The Bible and the ancient writer Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-100) both describe how King Herod Antipas, a son of King Herod, had John the Baptist executed. Josephus specified that the execution took place at Machaerus, a fort near the Dead Sea in modern-day Jordan. ...Herod Antipas was set to marry a woman named Herodias, both of whom had been divorced — something that John the Baptist objected to. At Herod Antipas' birthday party, Herodias' daughter, named Salome, performed a dance...

We do not generally celebrate the birthdays of saints. We celebrate the date of their deaths, because how we end our lives is more important than how we begin them. However, St. John the Baptist is one of the two exceptions to this rule. We celebrate both the conception and the birth of St. John as well as the Theotokos, because these two people are the holiest of the saints. St. John was, we are told in the Gospels, filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb (Luke 1:15), and so he was a great saint,...

A Christian man was executed during the night by a high-profile ruler after making an uncompromising defense of real marriage. The Christian, who was renowned for his holiness, had told the ruler in public that his relationship with his partner was “against the law” of God. The Christian’s words enraged the ruler’s partner who successfully plotted to have him permanently silenced. John the Baptist was first imprisoned before he was beheaded. The Catholic Church honors him today, August 29, as a martyr and saint. While John’s death happened a little less than 2,000 years ago, his heroic stance for real...

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has responded that, despite criticism from political leaders in his home state, he will attend the March for Marriage this week, because his position requires him to act as a defender of the Catholic faith. In a letter released today, Cordileone wrote that he is required “as a bishop, to proclaim the truth—the whole truth—about the human person and God’s will for our flourishing ... especially the truth about marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife,” Cordileone wrote. “That is what I will be doing on June 19th.” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone Political figures...

Today being Palm Sunday prompts me to pick a film based(very loosely) on a story from the Gospels. Despite some glaring inaccuracies(the most notorious being the daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod Antipas in an effort to SAVE rather than to behead John the Baptist. Not how it happens in the book, folks), this film manages to entertain thanks to the villainy of Charles Laughton and Judith Anderson and, most of all, the loveliness of Rita Hayworth. I also like how instead of "THE END" appearing at the finale, the film shows the Sermon on the Mount with "this was...

For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. – Mark 6:18-20 We have been tracking the shift for some time. To simply say what the Bible says — as one who believes what it says, of course, not as some...