Poll: Americans Split Evenly on Requiring Business Owners to Serve Same-Sex Weddings

Predictably, people who attend religious services tended to want to protect religious liberty more than others. So in the end, once again, we do not have a political problem so much as a religious one.

Americans are closely divided on the question of being compelled to celebrate same-sex marriages, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. Those surveyed split evenly on whether wedding-related businesses should be required to provide services to same-sex couples, regardless of religious objections the business owners might have. A total of 49 percent agreed, while 48 percent disagreed.

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Frankensteining Babies With DNA From Three Parents Is A Terrible Idea

Once you accept that life is disposable, monkeying with it isn't that big of a jump.

Scientists have announced the first birth of a child born with DNA from three parents. The procedure was developed to prevent a mother from passing to her baby a serious and fatal genetic mutation. This might sound like good news. It is not. Because the procedure has not been approved in the United States, the U.S. doctor who performed it, John Zhang, did so in Mexico. “There are no rules there,” he said.

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The US Bars Christians, Not Muslim Refugees from Syria

Everyone is outraged that Donald Trump suggested banning Muslim refugees but the Obama administration has effectively barred Christian refugees from Syria from entering the US.

Up to a million Syrian Christians have fled Syria, and the US has accepted just 56.

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Young priest whom Pope encouraged in battle against cancer dies

Prayers.

A man of God. Someone who endured illness with faith and fortitude until the end. This is how those who knew Father Francisco Rencoret remembered him. The 35-year-old Chilean priest died of cancer early August 13. Ordained in 2013, Fr. Rencoret had been studying Canon Law at the Gregorian University in Rome. He was forced to return home to Chile in order to receive cancer treatments after his diagnosis.

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The Story Behind St. Maximillian Kolbe

Beautiful tragic.

"I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me - a stranger. Is this some dream? I was put back into my place without having had time to say anything to Maximilian Kolbe. I was saved. And I owe to him the fact that I could tell you all this. The news quickly spread all round the camp. It was the first and the last time that such an incident happened in the whole history of Auschwitz. For a long time I felt remorse when I thought of Maximilian. By allowing myself to be saved, I had signed his death warrant. But now, on reflection, I understood that a man like him could not have done otherwise. Perhaps he thought that as a priest his place was beside the condemned men to help them keep hope. In fact he was with them to the last." -Testimony of Franciszek Gajowniczek,for whom Maximilian Kolbe offered himself at Auschwitz

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Sheila Liaugminas on party platforms, conventions, candidates and veeps

Questions. Lots of questions.

Who are they, and where do they stand? In the course of the past week, we saw the entire Republican convention play out with the formal nomination of Donald Trump and his acceptance speech laying out his vision and plans if elected. And we’re about to see the Democratic convention unfold, as Hilary Clinton is officially nominated candidate and formally accepts on the final night. These are historic events, we’ve often been reminded in this election cycle. But while there’s a certain ‘first ever’ historic nature in the two candidates, the reality of their party platforms and their individual visions for America—what, at the end of the day, they actually stand for and they would actually do in the Oval Office—is what America must (or should) consider now that we’ve heard Trump and prepare to hear Clinton.

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At WYD, Vatican releases teen sex-ed program that leaves out parents and mortal sin

Whoops.

"More souls go to hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason," Our Lady of Fatima warned the three young seers in 1917. But this message, unfortunately, is entirely absent from the Vatican’s newly released sex-ed program for teens. Instead, sexual sins are not mentioned at all. The 6th and 9th commandments are ignored while sexually explicit images and immoral videos are used as springboards for discussion. The program titled “The Meeting Point: Course of Affective Sexual Education for Young People” was released last week by the Pontifical Council for the Family to be presented this week to young people at World Youth Day in Poland.

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Dannenfelser: The Democrat Party is More Extreme on Abortion Than Ever

An unreported horror in the DNC's platform changes:

On Monday night the Democratic Party ratified a platform custom made to reflect Hillary Clinton’s policy agenda. And just when you thought the Party couldn’t get more extreme on abortion, think again.

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Jonah's with Ted

Standing against the faux outrage against Ted Cruz.

There are two things to say about that. First, many of these people are willingly buying into Manafort’s stagecraft. The Trump team knew about the speech beforehand. The outrage on the floor may have ended up being genuine, but it started out manufactured. I understand that Chris Christie will spew whatever fake outrage his masters instruct, like a trained seal barking for another herring. But I don’t see why so many supposedly seasoned political observers are volunteering for service. Second, what the Hell are people talking about? This is part of the corruption of Trump. He called Ted Cruz a liar every day and in every way for months (it used to be considered a breach in decorum to straight up call an opponent a liar, never mind use it as a nickname). The insults against his wife, the cavalier birtherism, the disgusting JFK assassination theories about his Dad: These things are known. And yet the big conversation of the day is Ted Cruz’s un-sportsmanlike behavior? For real?

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GOP Strengthens Pro-life Stand at Platform Meeting

Some good news from The SBA List:

This afternoon the RNC Platform Committee voted on and approved the 2016 language which is expected to be ratified in Cleveland next week. The platform significantly strengthens the party’s stand on pro-life issues. Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser responded to the news saying:

“The Republican platform has always been strong when it comes to protecting unborn children, their mothers, and the conscience rights of pro-life Americans. The language passed by the platform committee this afternoon takes that stand from good to great. Firstly, it is reflective of Donald Trump’s pro-life policy commitments to appoint pro-life Justices, to advocate for and sign into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and to defund America’s largest abortion business Planned Parenthood.

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Life Ain't a Box of Chocolates, It's More Like Horseradish Sauce

Personally I don't like horseradish sauce but I love Sherry Antonetti's writing:

This weekend, I traveled to Buffalo to witness my Godson's wedding. I ate well. It was an odd experience, being sans children. You would think having time without household chores or people to serve, I'd have written something but alas, I discovered, my time management skills are worse than I thought, for I am a sufficient reason to not get to the keyboard. While at the hotel, the Taste of Buffalo filled the street outside the lobby. I enjoyed wine ice cream and fried risotto and even took a turn at Karaoke. Mercifully, the video my mom took is too long to upload so my teens won't have to suffer having their mom's warbling preserved forever in internet amber. It's good to know it's there though, sort of like a plausible threat of mutually assured destruction. They don't want it out. I don't want it out. They behave, I retain a hint of dignity online, if not in reality.

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To the Red Haired Girl at the Splash Pad

This is the most beautiful story on the internet today. Go read it.

I saw you with your frizzy red pigtails, freckled face and your soaking wet yellow dress. I saw you watching my daughter. I saw you sitting near her, not too close, but close enough to watch her expression as she concentrated on watching the buckets fill with water and then pour down. Most kids would be standing under that water. Mine likes to watch from a distance. I saw you smile at her. And then I saw you look up at me.

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Evelyn Waugh’s forgotten battle to preserve the Latin Mass

The Catholic Herald reports:

Considered one of Britain’s greatest novelists, and widely regarded as one of the prominent Catholics of his time, Evelyn Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited, died 50 years ago this year. While he will be remembered for his great works of fiction, many Catholics will be unfamiliar with his connection with the Latin Mass and his association with the beginnings of the Latin Mass Society (LMS). In the 1960s, Waugh had grave concerns about Vatican II and the liturgical reform that was happening. He wrote many articles on the subject and recorded in his diaries and letters how aggrieved he was about, particularly about the earlier 1955 Holy Week reforms, the Dialogue Mass, which was becoming more common, and Mass in English.

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John Wayne Films For the Fourth of July

Liberty and patriotism never goes out of style.

This Fourth of July long weekend is made for a trip down American history courtesy of John Wayne films. Wayne was an American original. Thirty seven years after his death, in the annual Harris poll of favorite actors he ranked number four overall, and number one among men voting. In his day he was never shy about declaring his love of country, and he did so when patriotism was fashionable and when it was unfashionable. An American icon, the deathbed convert to the Catholic Church is a symbol of this nation, instantly recognizable around the globe. Here are some of his films set in the history of this land.

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Women are Harmed by Abortion Clinics. Liberal Justices Don't Care

Edel Finegan of the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia is pulling no punches.

The most infuriating part of the decision is the Court's reference to the “right to abortion.” There is no right to abortion because “the procedure” takes the life of unborn child. There is no basis in the moral, natural or US law for denying the humanity of the unborn child. Legal abortion allows an industry built on fear and exploitation to thrive, while women are harmed.

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Yeah the Supreme Court Hates Pro-Lifers But There's Reason for Optimism

Michael New of Ave Maria University says there's real reasons for optimism. I pray he's right.

Pro-lifers have every reason to be disappointed with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. In the wake of the Kermit Gosnell trial, Texas took the lead in enacting legislation to protect both women and their unborn children. HB2, which was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry in 2013, requires that abortion facilities have the same health standards as ambulatory surgical centers and that physicians performing abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. This ruling strikes down that law.

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Sherry Writes Another Wonderful Piece "Something Else, Something More

Sherry writes:

My parenting skills run between the urgent, "We need to do something!"and the slothful, "Do we have to do something?" with my reaction to most events in life being something like, "We should have done something more." and "Why didn't we do something?" and when the kids do something spectacular, being in awe and thinking, "I've done nothing to merit this." "They're something. They're something special." Yesterday, they were something.

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Rep. Franks: Research Shows Kids Do Better with a Traditional Family

It's funny to mark the moment when common sense becomes controversial.

U.S. House Representative Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who formerly headed Arizona’s subcommittee on Child Protection and Family Preservation as a state lawmaker, said the research shows that children are in the best position to succeed in life if reared in a traditional family with a mother and father, not with same-sex “parents” or divorced parents.

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German Jesuit Says Catholic Church Should Fight for Homosexuality as a Human Right

Oh my.

On 25 May 2015, the official website of the German bishops, katholisch.de, reported on an interview given by the notable German Jesuit, Father Klaus Mertes. In his interview, originally given to the German newspaper, taz, Mertes claims that it took the Catholic Church in the West 200 years to get “where we are now” with regard to the question of homosexuality. He continues: “In Africa or South East Asia, people are still at a very different point. The fight for the rights of the homosexuals is a world-wide project for which it is thus worth remaining in the Church.” In order to make the way free to a new assessment of homosexuality, Mertes proposes that the Magisterium “reflect upon sexual morality in light of charity, and not in light of a notion of nature which considers the marital act in an isolated way, without taking into account the different [sic] contexts.” In his eyes, Catholic sexual morality “is stuck in a fixation.”

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Planned Parenthood Celebration Jolted by Abortion Survivor

She sings the anthem to applause, then her secret is revealed to stunned silence.

I want to share with you an awesome experience I had in the Colorado House of Representatives on May 8. It is a humbling experience to look back and realize that God used me to play a role in His divine orchestration. I was leaving the House chambers for the weekend when our Democrat speaker of the House announced that the coming Monday would be the final day of this year's General Assembly. He went on to state that there were still numerous resolutions on the calendar which we would need to be addressed prior to the summer adjournment. Interestingly, he specifically mentioned that one of the resolutions we would be hearing was being carried by the House Majority Leader Alice Madden, honoring the 90th anniversary of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

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