The case will now go through the Tenth Circuit, which granted an expedited briefing schedule for the state’s appeal. Utah’s successful request for a stay of Shelby’s ruling restores the same-sex marriage ban in Utah until the appeal process is complete. More than 900 gay and lesbian couples have already married since the ruling. The... Continue Reading

Fathers play an important role in protecting their children from threats in the larger environment. For instance, fathers who are engaged in their children’s lives can better monitor their children’s comings and goings, as well as the peers and adults in their children’s lives, compared to disengaged or absent fathers. Of course, mothers can do... Continue Reading

I love to help my kids out. But there’s a fine line between helping and aiding bad behavior. If my child forgets their lunch every day and I bring it every day, there’s really not a reason for them to ever be responsible. My kids expected us to give them money for a gift for... Continue Reading

These discoveries illustrate the important work that goes on at excavations across Israel every year, and just scratch the surface of what has been found in 2013. Quite possibly a decade from now, with added perspective and more digging, the most important discoveries of 2013 may look different than this list.   Biblical Archaeology discoveries... Continue Reading

Whig politician and statesman Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Whatever the root cause of Western Christian silence on the matter of global Christian persecution—be it the silence of the media, the culture wars, economic concerns, busyness, lack of global awareness, a passive... Continue Reading

Persecution of Christians in the Islamic Middle East has intensified in recent years, and the fear now is that Christianity may be becoming extinct in the area where it has existed for two millennia. They are criticized, absurdly, as Crusaders, or as colonialists associated with the West, or as infidels. The exception, and the only... Continue Reading

The Freedom of Religion and Conscience bill, sponsored by Meretz MK Zahava Gal-on, aimed to block discrimination on religious grounds and allow for civil marriage regardless of race, sex, citizenship, and religion.   A bill that aimed to formally separate between religion and state in Israel was rejected by a 56 to 21 margin in its... Continue Reading

Gary Brown raises the natural law question. Is homosexuality so much a reversal of the natural order—including the way that God made men and women—that it cannot stand? Did Phil Robertson upset GLAAD so much because he stated in his blunt way some physical truths that the gay lobby cannot gainsay?   We’re getting lots... Continue Reading

Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a Shi’ite party that has sometimes allied with and sometimes opposed Maliki, rose after the sermon and spoke of tolerance, forgiveness and peace, saying Jesus Christ was an example. Then he turned to al Qaeda. “They target you like they target us. There are people in... Continue Reading

“The government doesn’t have the right to decide what religious beliefs are legitimate and which ones aren’t,” said Eric Rassbach, Deputy General Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and lead attorney for East Texas Baptist and Houston Baptist Universities. “In its careful opinion, the Court recognized that the government was trying to move... Continue Reading