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Bloggers

Meet the Faith & Family bloggers. We invite you to join us in encouraging and helping the Faith & Family community grow in faith!

Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her work, the two …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com and the author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also enjoys speaking around the country, is employed as webmaster for her parish web sites and spends time on various …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son, and twin boys born May 2011. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is a 30-something, single lady, living in Connecticut in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law and six kids ... and two doors down are her parents. She received her undergraduate degree from …
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DariaSockey

DariaSockey
Daria Sockey is a freelance writer and veteran of the large family/homeschooling scene. She recently returned home from a three-year experiment in full time outside employment. (Hallelujah!) Daria authored several of the original Faith&Life Catechetical Series student texts (Ignatius Press), and is currently a Senior Writer for Faith&Family magazine. A latecomer …
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Guest Bloggers

Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
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Lynn Wehner

Lynn Wehner
As a wife and mother, writer and speaker, Lynn Wehner challenges others to see the blessings that flow when we struggle to say "Yes" to God’s call. Control freak extraordinaire, she is adept at informing God of her brilliant plans and then wondering why the heck they never turn out that …
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Say A Little Prayer

a point of personal privilege

My home state of Maryland is one of several where same-sex marriage is being debated in the legislature.

Call it “no good deed goes unpunished,” but a column I wrote arguing that the debate over marriage is another front in the battle over religious liberty garnered the attention of the Maryland Catholic Conference.

I’ll be one of those testifying in defense of marriage before committees of the Maryland House of Delegates this Friday.

“Committees,” plural, because the process is being manipulated.

A similar measure was defeated in the judiciary committee last year, so this year the bill is being brought before a double committee in an effort to get it voted out for a floor vote.

The legislators are not very kind to marriage defenders, and I will admit I am anxious. (Though, since I’m not the head of any group, I’m not all that likely to draw fire.)

Say a little prayer, therefore, will you—for me and for all the witnesses?

May we be calm and our words gentle, but may they travel like arrows to the hearts of our delegates.

It would be nice if Maryland, founded as a refuge of liberty for Catholics, would refrain from turning the law into a cudgel to beat us all down.


Traditional Christians Are Unfit Parents

Perhaps you recall the case of Owen & Eunice Johns from a post last March.

They’re the couple in Britain who were banned from being foster parents for refusing to say there was nothing wrong with practicing homosexuality.

Mind you, they were not crusaders on the issue. They weren’t planning to bring it up.

They simply told regulators in all honesty that if the issue came up they could not in conscience equate homosexuality with traditional marriage. For this they were deemed a threat to children.

The Johns appealed the decision, and in London, the High Court has ruled that Christians with traditional opinions about homosexuality indeed pose a threat to children and may not serve as foster parents, as this news story explains.


Can "Reparation Therapy" Work?

sometimes...but there's hope, even when it doesn't

My intent was to publish something about the Triumph of the Cross, today’s feast.

I decided this reflection on same-sex attraction provides an exemplar of how a cross can lead to triumph.

Responding to homosexual scoffing at so-called “reparation therapy,” a chaplain for the Courage apostolate wrote this in his local paper.

The plain truth is that people with same-sex attractions experience them... READ MORE 


Unique For A Reason

USCCB resources for defending marriage

The Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee in Defense of Marriage has a host of useful resources on that topic.

Links to Church documents, videos, the latest news about Church positions on state issues—

—and a very good “FAQ” section, with answers not only from a religious perspective, but arguments that can be used when you are discussing these issues with anyone.


"Just" Your Conscience

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58294452@N00/2961421827/

My hometown’s City Council is poised to shut down many Catholic charities within the District of Columbia’s borders.

It’s doing so through a measure with the Orwellian title the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009.”

The proposed law does preserve the right of religious groups not to provide goods, services or facilities in violation of their religious beliefs.

Unless... READ MORE 


How Could It Hurt?

what has same sex marriage to do with me?

Prof. Hadley Arkes has a nice piece on same-sex marriage over at The Catholic Thing.

Particularly valuable is his refutation of the argument, frequently heard, “How does my relationship hurt your marriage?”

The main point is that the law is a moral teacher. Anything which is “a right” it is wrong to oppose. And therefore acknowledging a “right” to same-sex marriage is precisely the same act as declaring... READ MORE 


Stumbling Onto The Truth

Signatures are being collected for a ballot initiative to ban divorce in California.

The move is entirely sarcastic, as the accompanying t-shirt indicates.

Behind it is a homosexual activist who wishes to showcase the hypocrisy of defenders of one man, one woman marriage. He is “retaliating,”
as he sees it, for Proposition 8.

It is sad to see how much this gentleman actually hates marriage as an institution (note the come on for the t-shirt at the link).

Yet, as we have discussed previously, he’s stumbled onto a truth, hasn’t he?


No Family, No Peace

AP-Yonhap

Weeks ago I promised a further look at this quotation from Pope Benedict XVI.

”...everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of a new life, everything that obstructs its right to be primarily responsible for the education of its children, constitutes... READ MORE 


Marriage Is The Maine Topic

My colleague Tim Drake has an update on an effort to “citzen veto” same sex marriage in Maine.

Here’s the first ad from a group called Stand for Marriage Maine.

On the same topic, but more broadly, here’s a column from Fr. Thomas Berg on the topic, occasioned by the introduction in our House of Representatives of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

What is Marriage? Part I—body and soul... READ MORE 


Mommy, What's A Lesbian?

Says You: protecting innocence while bearing witness

What do you do when your children befriend kids whose home life is significantly different than yours—in ways that could be harmful to your children?

Here’s a wonderful essay detailing how one Christian mom handled the issues posed when the child of lesbian neighbors came knocking.

First it will just break your heart—as in this exchange overheard between the new neighbor girl and the author’s own... READ MORE 


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