credit: Salon

After Dr. George Tiller’s murder on Pentecost Sunday, much has been written about late-term abortion. Among the many comments are two you might not have run across, both from former abortion doctors, Bernard Nathanson and Mary L. Davenport.

Bernard Nathanson has previously been interviewed by Julia Duin, religion writer for the Washington Times, so in the wake of Dr. Tiller’s murder, she decided to re-interview Dr. Nathanson, a former abortionist who was at the heart of the pro-choice movement in the sixties and seventies:

Soon after late-term abortion doctor George Tiller was killed, I called one of his mentors, Bernard Nathanson. The former Jewish atheist who presided over 75,000 abortions - including that of his own child - in the 1960s and 1970s left the abortion industry upon the advent of ultrasound technology.

His now-classic video “The Silent Scream” shows an unborn child recoiling from a vacuum abortion device before being sucked to…

Young women at Imam Academy Morocco

Someone once said “For God’s sake if you have something to say begin at the end”. Well that is what the title does but now I need to backfill why this is a solution to improving present day Muslim society. When asked about women rights Muslim’s proudly point to the emancipation of women under Islam. In 700 AD the Islamic system of government, as mandated by the Qur’an, gave women rights unheard of in other societies for 800 years or more. Women had property rights and rights of inheritance and they had freedoms not known before (and some not known today). Some women took it upon themselves to travel alone over vast distances to visit Makkah (something no woman would consider today). Many women took the opportunity to become scholars and women were heavily represented among early Muslim scholars. So that is great but what…

Women for Faith & Family’s sister organization, Adoremus, just published a preview of the upcoming English-language Roman Missal that will soon replace the vernacular we Catholics have been accustomed to since soon after the end of  Vatican II.

Do click on the link above to read this fascinating, well organized article. You will find samples of the word changes and the reasons for those changes, and if you are like me, you will find yourself nodding your head.

Why a new Missal?

Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, explains in the June/July Adoremus Bulletin:

In May 2002, the publication of the Missale Romanum marked an historic moment in the life of the Church in our day. It gave an impetus to the great liturgical renewal set in motion when Vatican II issued Sacrosanctum Concilium as its first document. With Vatican II,

began … the great work of renewal of the liturgical books…

Bountiful harvest www.partnerone.biz

OK admittedly the title is a bit tongue in cheek. But we should ask the question: Why did the Creator create Sin? (this is a bit of a diversion but I prefer the attribute Creator instead of the word God, (although in some cases language dictates using God) in that it is a bit more gender neutral. The word Allah would be even more preferable (if it did not connotate so many misunderstanding in so many people) because it is not only gender neutral but plurality neutral, i.e., there is no Allahs form of this word. The ‘Al’ is the ‘The’ in Arabic :) (four the’s in a row eh). ‘La’ in Arabic means ‘no’ but I haven’t been able to find what ‘lah’ would mean although it has to be close to ‘la’. Etymology suggests the meaning ‘The Undefinable’ for ‘Al Lah’ which does capture the deepest sense…

I don’t want this to be just another blog ranting about gun control, so let me state my bona fides up front: I come from a hard-hunting, gun-toting family.  Long-haired, dope-smoking, anti-government Harley riders on one side and country club-lunching, single malt-drinking duck hunters on the other, but gun owners all around.

Having grown up around guns and knowing lots of good people who not only own them but love them, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would have to write an opinion piece stating my opposition to bringing guns to church.  I thought this might have been self-evidently a bad idea.

But then I read this article about a pastor in Kentucky who is encouraging people to bring guns to church tomorrow, June 27.  According to the Associated Press, Pastor Ken Pagano of the New Bethel Church is “inviting people to bring their guns to church to celebrate the Fourth…

One thing most religions seem to agree on lately is that we have to do a better job at taking care of our environment.  Whether you believe that God made the Earth or that it evolved through natural processes (or both, or something else), it’s up to us to take care of it and our natural resources.

I love to garden–even when I hate to garden (you gardeners know what I mean). For me, weeding is meditation and therapy, and caring for plants gives me a sense of connection to all life.

Two things I have done this year to make my gardening more environmentally sound is to get a couple rain barrels, so that this week I’m watering my plants using water from last week’s deluge, and to plant more edibles, especially those that come back each year.

This month I have been enjoying eccentric but delicious backyard salads of mint, chives,…

Simon Critchley, in action

Philosopher Simon Critchley writes a thought-provoking reflection on happiness on the “Happy Days” blog on nytimes.com. The ancient Greek proverb above is his launching point into thinking about happiness, death, and the prospect of an afterlife.

In short, Critchley explicates the proverb to talk about “my” happiness as something centered in others, in the lives of those outside me, and that “my” happiness cannot be considered as a whole until after I’m dead-and-gone. Thus, we can’t really consider our own happiness without in some way thinking about our own afterlife. An excerpt:

But why should we assume that the question of the afterlife must always be answered with reference to me? Isn’t that just a teensy bit selfish? What is so important about my afterlife? Why can’t I believe in the afterlife of others without believing in my own?

A skeptic might object that I am simply dodging the question. Of course, they…

June 20th will go down as a historic return to St. Louis, Missouri for  Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It’s been 51 years since the 300 voice choir performed here.

The choir’s day started early in the morning, 6 a.m. sharp with a photo shoot at the Gateway Arch for a documentary film – learn more, click here.

True confession here, while I am very proud of our church’s premiere choir, I am not a groupie of the choir. I am appreciative and humbled by the way the choir brings the Christ’s spirit to our world-wide church conferences. But I don’t follow their weekly broadcasts. 

Many at the St. Louis concert, however, were groupies who have listened to the choir for years. I was tickled by their enthusiasm.  

James Dobbs, an older gentleman who was ushering at the venue, grabbed my arm to stop me and share his delight, “they sang one of my favorite songs!” Dobbs beamed. 

Dobbs explained that he has retired from his ushering duties but came back just for this…

So, I get an email the other day asking if I am planning to start posting again or am I officially out. The problem is that I have been feeling a bit uninspired. A few months ago, I would have a conversation, see a movie, read an article, etcetera, and I would think, OK. There’s a post.

Since I’ve been MIA for several months, let me remind you that I am: a) not the most “religious” person (my oldest friends were shocked that I had anything to do with a blog let alone one about religion), b) I am a mother of two small children, work Monday through Thursday, facilitate youths groups for Jewish teens, act as the president of the preschool parents committee, yada yada yada, so I have limited free time. And by “limited”, I mean none. And, c) because of my “limited” free time in which to blog…

Giotto's "Saint Francis preaching to the birds"

This is my very first Father’s Day as both a son and a father. Other than the blazing heat that feels more like August than June, it has been a very good day.

When we found out we were expecting, a good friend and fellow writer who is also a father urged me to write down thoughts and events as much as possible, as a kind of fatherly discipline. I haven’t been as faithful in the discipline as I’ve wanted. But, in the spirit of the day, here is what I wrote for February 1, 2009.

Saint Francis on a Sunday Morning

This morning you sat in my lap while we sat in church. And I found myself watching you during most of the service. Your back is getting stronger, and with help you are beginning to sit up on your own. You have discovered your own…