‘To legalize marriage between two people of the same sex would enshrine in the law the principle that mothers and fathers are interchangeable or irrelevant.’ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/21/archbishop-cordileone-gay-marriage-catholic-church/2001085/ Read more

What happened yesterday at the courthouse matters, and we must keep up our witness to the truth about marriage, by word and deed, until it is safely beyond judicial overreach. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/06/10455/ Read more

In Leon Kass, author of the magisterial The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, the Orthodox Jew discovers a fascinating intellectual anomaly. On the one hand, unlike many traditionalist Jews, Kass believes that the Bible can be read and understood on its own, as a self-contained text without the mediation of the rabbinic tradition. On the other hand, unlike many non-rabbinic Jewish readers, Kass approaches the Bible with a deep reverence for the ideas contained in it. http://mosaicmagazine.com/supplemental/2013/06/the-decalogue-and-the-identity-of-god/?utm_source=Mosaic+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=1342004e52-Mosaic_2013_6_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b0517b2ab-1342004e52-41159925 Read more

If our military is to lower its rate of sex crimes, it must limit its members’ consumption of pornography and educate them about its risks. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/06/10360/?utm_source=RTA+Smyczek+and+Arts+Porn+in+Military&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

It is time for the churches in the West to stop fooling themselves and their congregations into believing that the horrifying reduction in numbers of Christians in the Middle East is somehow the fault of the Jewish State. The future for Christianity in the land of its birth is grim indeed as long as Western Christians avoid holding Palestinian leaders responsible for what happens to Palestinian Christians on their watch. http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2013/06/palestinian-islamists-are-cleansing.html Read more

Redefining marriage will make it harder for our children to develop their self-understanding and will sanction procreative methods that treat children like commodities. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/06/10344/?utm_source=RTA+Smoot+Children+Need+Marriage+Tradition&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

Mark Graham and I are leading a 12-day tour of Israel and Jordan. The dates are Dec. 30 – Jan. 10. That’s right– December 2013-Jan. 2014. Cost: $4400 (all taxes, fees, 2 meals a day, airfare and bus from Roanoke, and tips included). If you are interested, please contact me immediately ([email protected])–before spots fill up. Here is the itinerary: (more…) Read more

During the course of recent debates in the British Parliament over the proposed legalisation of gay marriage, it has gradually become apparent that the proposal itself is impossible. For legislators have recognised that it would be intolerable to define gay marriage in terms equivalent to “consummation,” or to permit “adultery” as legitimate ground for gay divorce. Thus, despite the telling squeamishness in much contemporary conversation on homosexuality, which invariably steers away from its physical aspects, the legislators have been forced... Read more

The central event in the national founding of the Israelite people is the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. The “Ten Commandments” (Exodus 20: 1-14), pronounced there by the Lord God to the assembled and recently liberated children of Israel, constitute the most famous teaching of the book of Exodus, perhaps of the entire Hebrew Bible. Prescribing proper conduct toward God and man, the Decalogue embodies the core principles of the Israelite way of life and, later, of what... Read more

After the French protests against same-sex marriage, we can no longer speak of redefined marriage as inevitable or enlightened. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/06/10293/?utm_source=RTA+Lopez+Myths+Same-Sex+Marriage&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more