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The history of Christianity is one of debate. As the Gospels reveal, Jesus was challenged right from the start. Rival schools like the Pharisees and Sadducees posed pointed questions to him, trying to trap him in his words and even to get him in trouble with the authorities. Some of Jesus’ most famous statements were responses to challenges from his critics: “What God has joined together, let man not put asunder.” “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” &ld …

      Transgender Advice For Your Younger Children One day, I took some of the younger boys to get haircuts (yes, another lesson at the salon), and the stylist who took the boys’ names was clearly attempting to “transition” between the two sexes. This person was friendly and gave a great haircut. We did not say a word of judgment or derision, nor did we exchange glances that might have made this stylist uncomfortable, but simply went about …

Christians Borrowed Christmas and Easter from Pagans Every spring just before Easter, major news organizations run stories “debunking” one of the central tenets of the Christian faith—Jesus’ resurrection. Some take the form of an interview with a supposed biblical expert who puts forth reasons to doubt the Gospels’ veracity concerning the Resurrection; others breathlessly report some archaeological “discovery” that supposedly disproves the Resurrection, …

Is everything the Church teaches infallible? How can you tell what is and what isn’t? Just how much weight are we supposed to give to particular teachings? As Catholics, we trust that the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church, and much of the time, we do not have a pressing need to determine the precise level of authority of a particular statement in a magisterial document. But sometimes we do, particularly in apologetic contexts: Liberal dissenters may try to dismiss teachings that are infa …

In recent days, former First Lady Michelle Obama admitted in an interview that she had her daughters through in vitro fertilization (IVF). In this excerpt from her new book Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Tough Moral Issues, co-author Leila Miller looks at what the Church teaches about IVF.In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)Years ago, I was listening to Ron Reagan, Jr. advocate on television for embryonic stem cell research. He was strongly in support of using "excess" human embryos from IV …