There’s an item making the rounds of the internet purporting to express the reaction of Henry VIII, founder of the Anglican Church, to Church blessings of same-sex unions: "Henry VIII, and his wife Catherine, and his wife Anne, and his wife Jane, and his other wife Anne, and his two wives named Katherine, are appalled at this attack on the sanctity of the institution of marriage!"
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Author Archives: Sheila
Witness
My religious tradition does not have a counterpart to the Christian concept of’ ‘witness,’ but as I understand it, witnessing implies an obligation to stand up for righteousness and truth. To bear witness is to speak out against injustice, to call attention to wrongs, be they civic or moral. It is an effort to bring us back to first principles.
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Labels
Periodically, someone will respond to a column I have written with a statement beginning "well, you liberals always…" Being dismissed as a liberal always amuses me, because I hold precisely the same political values I held in 1980, when I was the Republican nominee running for Congress against Andy Jacobs, and a fair number of voters found me "too conservative." The only thing that has changed is the label.
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Charitable Choice
Charitable Choice was intended to encourage government contracts with “faith-based organizations” to provide social services to welfare recipients, and to remove legal obstacles discouraging participation by religious providers.
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The Time Has Come
Current Indiana law does not protect people from being fired, or denied housing, simply because they are gay or transgendered. When this fact comes up in one of my classes, it usually stuns my students, most of whom were born after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They regard civil rights laws as part of the natural order of things, and even those who are disapproving of homosexuality are appalled that people could actually lose their jobs or homes because they are gay.
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