The Presbyterian Outlook

(RNS) — Testifying in California in 1964 before the state Assembly, the Rev. William J. Kenneally, president of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, declared: “Women who do not want to become mothers should not engage in acts leading to maternity.” The Roman Catholic priest, who opposed the potential liberalizing of his state’s abortion law, added that abortion is a “betrayal of maternity and converts the womb into a human butcher shop.” At the time of Kenneally’s remarks, California, along with most other states, considered abortion legal only when necessary to preserve the life of a pregnant woman. Nine years later, the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade would change all that, extending a right to privacy that allowed women nationwide to choose to terminate their pregnancies within limits. On Wednesday (Dec. 1), the U.S. Supreme Court justices heard arguments in a closely watched case that some predict could again change the course of abortion law: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Religious supporters and opponents of abortion rights demonstrated outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday (Dec. 1), giving voice to competing faith-rooted views as justices heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case that could upend decades of debate over abortion policy. The demonstrations began earlier that morning at Washington’s Lutheran Church of the Reformation, where the National Council of Jewish Women, Catholics for Choice and other religious groups hosted an interfaith service featuring speeches from faith leaders and lawmakers in support of abortion rights. Many speakers condemned the Mississippi law before the court, which bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy — far earlier than stipulated in the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide and barred states from prohibiting the procedure before fetal viability, which is around 23 weeks. “We gather, we scream that we are human. We … [Read more...]

(RNS) — “Who was the most excited?” Nate asks Sutton, a beautiful woman with wavy brown hair. The couple are sitting on a couch with their living room in soft focus behind them. They look adoringly at each other. “Why don’t you tell us,” Sutton replies. “Yeah, I was probably more excited,” Nate says, smiling boyishly at the camera. It’s a vlog about the first time they both had sex — on their wedding night. Uploaded in September 2019, it’s been viewed more than 1.8 million times on YouTube. In November, a TikTok clip of popular pastor Mike Todd talking about dating went viral on Twitter. In it, the young pastor said: “Dating — the word — is not in the Bible, but the concept of what we call dating is honestly practicing divorce.” Sound familiar? It’s a take-two of Joshua Harris’ central message in 1997: Pursue a romantic relationship only for the purpose of marriage. On Page 23 of his wildly popular book, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," Harris wrote, “Try looking up ‘dating’ … [Read more...]