US Bishops Launch Major Offensive to Protect Religious Liberty

From Catholic World News

With a strong new statement on religious freedom, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a nationwide campaign to protect “our most cherished freedom.”

“It is the first freedom because if we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile,” explain the US bishops in their statement, entitled Our First, Most Cherished Freedom. The USCCB statement, lengthy and strongly worded, signals the beginning of a major drive by the hierarchy to alert Americans to current threats to religious liberty.

Who Is Mitt Romney?

By Stephen Stone, President of RenewAmerica

As the Republican establishment redoubles its efforts to anoint Mitt Romney the GOP presidential nominee (an outcome likely to ensure a second term for Barack Obama), the need to understand Mitt Romney increases.

What makes Mitt the kind of person he is — ruthlessly opportunistic, dishonest, insincere, willing to say anything for advantage, lacking in conscience, preoccupied with appearance, etc., on the one hand, yet squeaky clean, family-oriented, disciplined, boring, and predictable, on the other?

My new e-book, A Mormon Story, sheds light on the culture that produced Mitt Romney.

The book reveals a value system that ultimately has no absolutes, other than the need to conform to deep-seated, highly-controlling authoritarianism that pervades LDS culture.

That culture emphasizes a Mormon tradition known as "eternal progression" — undoctrinal spiritual evolution in which even God is changing. It also emphasizes the notion that the latest words of governing church leaders trump the Word of God found in the scriptures (including LDS scripture). As a result, Mormons have little incentive to inform themselves about what the scriptures call the "doctrine of Christ" (since they consider that doctrine subject to change); or to rely directly on God to know His will in applying that doctrine to their lives; or to sacrifice their security, comfort, or needs to do what is right, above all else.

In such a system, truth is relative, LDS leaders become the only reliable authority, and individual members are subservient.

Outwardly, as is well known, Mormons appear upright — but that is due largely to intense pressure to conform to the norms of Mormon society, and to uphold the Mormon church's nurtured image of conventionality. Inwardly, Mormons are less independently moral, principled, and informed than they may seem (something LDS scripture quotes God Himself as saying about them). They are trained to be dependent on church authorities to tell them what to think and do, in ways non-Mormons would have difficulty relating to. They behave much like a "cult" — one centered in obedience to powerful, dictatorial leaders.*

As a culture, Mormons therefore tend to lack moral courage — of the sort that would enable them to rise above such social pressure and truly lead out in solving the problems and paradoxes of real life. They are inclined to exemplify not firm leadership, but timidity masquerading as normalcy.

Watch Mitt in the debates. There's fear behind his practiced façade.

Sound intriguing? You bet (as Mormons would say). To read A Mormon Story, click here.

It's time for the culture of Mormonism — its relativistic, authoritarian values and traditions — to receive the kind of scrutiny often reserved for controversial elements of LDS doctrine. Americans deserve to know.

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*To be fair, I should stress that my characterization of "Mormons" is just broad enough to create a clear picture of the traditions, values, and tendencies that do — in fact — permeate Mormon culture. I don't mean to imply there aren't exceptions among sincere LDS people. Indeed, I counted myself as an exception — before I was excommunicated for "disobeying" church leaders who illegally demanded I abandon my political livelihood. I know several LDS members who have fundamental integrity, and who therefore struggle with the undoctinal demands and contradictions placed on them by LDS culture.

South Carolina’s K-12 Online Programs Provide Viable Education Alternatives for the Future

By Estelle Shumann

For parents looking for alternatives to America’s public schooling system, the future has finally arrived in the form of public magnet and charter schools as well as innovations in online education. Online schooling, K-12 education in particular, holds out real possibilities for educational choices that are responsive to individual needs and schedules, can offer high quality education, flexible study plans, and student success. South Carolina students and parents have numerous programs to choose from, all of which are tuition free to residents through the State’s Charter School Program.

Over 3,500 Adults Received into the Church in England and Wales

From The Catholic Herald (UK)

By David V. Barrett

Members of the Croydon ordinariate group with Mgr John Broadhurst (Photo: Personal Ordinariate)

More than 3,500 adults were received into the Catholic Church in England and Wales last week.

They included 1,397 catechumens, who had prepared to be baptised, and 1,843 candidates, who had already baptised in another Christian tradition.

The largest numbers were in the dioceses of Westminster (734), Southwark (481), Brentwood (333), Birmingham (255) and Portsmouth (206). The total of 3,695 also included those who had joined the ordinariate. Easter is the traditional time for reception of new members of the Church through the Rite of the Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), the liturgical and catechetical process for adults joining the Church.

The Outing of Deep Throat

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35 Shocking Statistics That Prove Things Have Gotten Worse in America

The Obama Family off for another vacation on Martha's Vineyard

Americans may face a disspiriting choice for the presidency in 2012, but the following shocking statistics prove that the important work begun with the 2010 elections by the TEA Party movement and other concerned Americans must continue.  Whether we vote for a presidential candidate or not, the hope and promise of America can only be restored when the Congress becomes laser-like in representing the best interests of WE THE PEOPLE.

 

#1 Median household income in the United States is down 7.8 percent since December 2007 after adjusting for inflation.

Cardinal George Pell and Celebrity Atheist Richard Dawkins Debate on Australian Television

 

 

Dawkins and Pell battle it out in one hell of a debate

From The Sydney Morning Herald

By Leesha McKenny

It was a match-up made in Q&A heaven: two pugilists of opposing convictions going head-to-head in a debate about the existence of God.

Australia's highest-ranking Catholic and Sydney's archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, spent an hour with evolutionary biologist and celebrity atheist, Professor Richard Dawkins taking questions covering everything from evolution, resurrection and eternal damnation.

Frustration and something bordering on barely concealed mutual disdain boiled over more than once during the ABC television show.

Clashing ideologies … Tony Jones, centre, plays the referee to Richard Dawkins, left, and Cardinal George Pell on Q&A last night. Photo: ABC TV

Charles Darwin was claimed as a theist by the cardinal, because Darwin ''couldn't believe that the immense cosmos and all the beautiful things in the world came about either by chance or out of necessity'' - a claim disputed by Professor Dawkins as ''just not true''.

Cardinal Pell won applause when he shot back: ''It's on page 92 of his autobiography. Go and have a look.''

The clergyman remained unmoved on gay marriage and climate change, but he said evolution was ''probably'' right, and that atheists could ''certainly'' get into heaven. Professor Dawkins declared he was ''trying to be charitable'' by suggesting there was no way Cardinal Pell meant the body would literally be resurrected.

The clergyman's view that people would return after death in some kind of physical form earlier had been dismissed by Professor Dawkins. ''The brain is going to rot, that's all there is to it,'' he said.

Cardinal Pell said: ''Mr Dawkins, I don't say things I don't mean.

''I believe it because I believe the man who told us that was also the son of God. He said, 'This is my body, this is my blood'. And I'd much prefer to listen to Him and take his word than yours.''

On the Q&A vote, 76 per cent of the audience decided religion did not make the world a better place.