President Obama: Does he support efforts to silence Christian opposition to homosexuality?

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), a former judge, is warning that the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1913) - also known as the Matthew Shepard Act - could potentially lead to the arrest* of Christian pastors (and others) who speak out against homosexuality. The Obama administration supports the Matthew Shepard Act: see here.

Related reading here.


"As a Catholic and by my Catholic Faith, I am bound in conscience to no human, theological, or philosophical opinion, however well founded it may be, and still less to any judgments on contingent or worldly matters, or to any temporal power. Nor am I bound to any particular form of culture or civilization, and still less of race or blood. I am bound uniquely to what is universality itself and super-universality: to the Divine, to the words and precepts of Him who said, 'I am the Truth, I who speak to you.'"

- Jacques Maritain


* Read here.

John 3:16

"Your heart is broken, the heart that did not know hatred, revenge, resentment, jealousy or envy but only love, love so deep and so wide that it embraces your Father in heaven as well as all humanity in time and space. Your broken heart is the source of my salvation, the foundation of my hope, the cause of my love. It is the sacred place where all that was, is and ever shall be is held in unity. There all suffering has been suffered, all anguish lived, all loneliness endured, all abandonment felt and all agony cried out. There, human and divine love have kissed, and there God and all men and women of history are reconciled. All the tears of the human race have been cried there, all pain understood and all despair touched."

-Henri Nouwen

Bishops take stand against Reiki at convents and retreat centers citing "danger of malevolent forces."

Michael Brown has warned of the dangers of Reiki in the past. So have I. In fact, as I mentioned in this post written back in 2005, the La Salette Missionaries have offered Reiki at their Center for Christian Living in Attleboro.

And as this website explains, Patricia Warren, who has been voted "most recognized Reiki Master in Massachusetts," by Spirit of Change Magazine, has developed the "Touch of Compassion" - a "Christian Approach" to Hands on Healing, which she offers at Ruah Spirituality Institute, Adelynrood Conference Center, La Salette Center for Christian Living, and numerous Episcopal and Unitarian churches.

Ms. Warren apprenticed with Guru Sewak Singh Khalsa and practiced reflexology and energy massage while studying kundalini yoga, numerology, meditation and the Sikh religion. She has also studied Transcendental Meditation and hatha yoga.

The Ruah Spirituality Institute is, in reality, a New Age organization which offers Centering Prayer, Reiki, and "Eco-Spirituality." According to the Institute's website (go here), it will be offering An Evening with James Carroll, the former Catholic priest and Boston Globe columnist who has come under fire for his anti-Catholic views and his revisionist history regarding the record of Pope Pius XII. See this Catholic League article for example.