Marriage

Sheree Whitfield, a former cast member of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," is giving the show's newest cast member Porsha Stewart advice about the recent announcement of her pending divorce.

While Stewart's estranged husband Kordell Stewart is a former NFL player, so is Whitfield ex-husband Bob Whitfield. Although Sheree's last season of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" was during season four, she gave the season five cast member some advice about the divorce process.

"As a woman my heart goes out to her. Stay positive, stay strong and keep moving forward," Stewart told Rumorfix.com recently. "It's not easy. It's not easy for anyone, but it will get better." more >>

The writer Upton Sinclair, commenting on his loss in the 1934 California gubernatorial election, wrote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Sinclair's quote came to mind after reading a piece entitled "The World Can't Hear Us On Marriage" by theologian Peter Leithhart. It was the second of two pieces about the "difficulties that Christians have, and will continue to have, defending a biblical view of marriage to the American public."

These difficulties don't arise from a lack of good, even compelling, arguments for the idea that true marriage is the union of one man and one woman. It's that the culture is increasingly incapable of hearing these arguments, much less making sense of them. more >>

Religious liberty groups are mobilizing to defend the chaplain of George Washington University's Newman Center after gay students launched an effort to have the priest fired because he preaches against homosexuality and abortion.

"It's discrimination against Catholics," said Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society. "Secular colleges are fast becoming a very unsafe place for Catholics who hold true to their faith. This is a very, very sad situation."

Two gay students at George Washington told the GW Hatchet student newspaper that they want Father Greg Shaffer removed from campus over his anti-gay and anti-abortion views. more >>

During the arguments before the Supreme Court over same-sex marriage last week, it struck me that what may end up mattering most in the dispute in these two cases over gay unions was addressed the least.

The real issue for people who hold a Christian worldview may well be the extreme lengths to which they could be penalized if the High Court gets it wrong. The audacity of the arguments to legitimize homosexual marriage, and the apparent receptivity of Justices Ginsberg, Sotomayor, Kagan and Breyer, is an example of the federalization of American culture – the ever-expanding grasp of secular federal power over issues that historically have belonged to the states and to their citizens. Implied in this debate also is the privatization of religious expression and rights of conscience – the drastic shrinking of that sphere within which people of faith are allowed to express and live out their beliefs. In fact, I would suggest a corollary here: as federalization increases, religious liberty decreases.

In the Proposition 8 case, lower court federal judges vetoed the popular ballot initiative of the people of California who overwhelmingly supported a traditional definition of marriage in their state. more >>

"Love Free or Die," the documentary film about Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in a major Protestant denomination, has been denied the "family approved" seal by the Dove Foundation, one of the biggest family movie and video review websites on the Internet.

"There are not many people who take middle ground when it comes to the debate on homosexuality and its place in the church. Although conservative voices speak up in this documentary, it is slanted toward the acceptance of gay leaders in the church, a stand which many of our Dove conservative viewers will have a hard time swallowing," Dove explained in its review of the movie, which runs at 82 minutes and won the "Special Jury Prize for an Agent of Change" at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

The film chronicles the now retired bishop's life and challenges. The synopsis states: "Gene Robinson confronts those who use religion as an instrument of oppression, and claims a place in the church and society, not just for LGBT people, but for all." more >>

A well-known atheist leader recently argued that he believes atheists in the United States can learn many lessons from same-sex marriage proponents regarding societal acceptance for their cause.

Herb Silverman, founder and president emeritus of the Secular Coalition for America, a widely-known atheist advocacy group, recently commended proponents of same-sex marriage for their efforts in promoting their cause, and suggested atheists take a similar approach to be more accepted by American society.

"The most obvious and effective lesson atheists are learning from gays [including all LGBTs] is to come out of the closet," Silverman, who is also a professor emeritus at the College of Charleston, wrote in a recent op-ed piece for The Washington Post. more >>