Media Hype Scrap of Papyrus Claiming Jesus Had a Wife | Media Research Center

The following excerpts are from Media Research Center:

• Does one fragment of papyrus “about the size of a small cellphone” contradict centuries of Christian tradition that hold that Jesus was not married? The credulous news media seem to think so – they are publishing stories with titles: “The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,’ “New Early Christian Text, Indicates Jesus May Have Been Married.”
• The New York Times reported that a scrap of papyrus “smaller than a business card,” translated by Harvard professor Karen King, includes this phrase: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife…’” The rest of the papyrus was cut off – but it was apparently enough for media outlets. CNN’s Belief Blog, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets blared headlines questioning Jesus’ marital status, including: “Text Reignites Debate: Did Jesus have a Wife?”
• These outlets downplayed the fact that the papyrus fragment in question (which some scholars have questioned the authenticity of), in King’s judgment, dates from the 4th century, and that Jesus lived in the 1st century. They also failed to mention that there are several places in the New Testament where the church is referred to as the bride of Christ.
• Despite these inconvenient facts, media outlets trumpeted the fragment, which King brazenly called “The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife.” The Washington Post’s Jeannine Hunter wrote: “The news reignited debate about scholarship focused on Jesus’s marital status and the veracity of early church documents.” The Huffington Post’s Jaweed Kaleem went even further, speculating: “A discovery by a Harvard researcher may shed light on a controversial aspect of the life of Jesus Christ.”
• The New York Times reported King’s words: “This fragment suggests that some early Christians had a tradition that Jesus was married. There was, we already know, a controversy in the second century over whether Jesus was married, caught up with a debate about whether Christians should marry and have sex.”
• But King appears to be confusing orthodox Christianity with Gnosticism, a loosely related group of sects which predated Christianity, fought against early Christians, and taught that “secret” knowledge was necessary for salvation. King failed to note that sects of Gnostics were the opponents of the institution of marriage, not Christians.
• King’s conflation of early Christianity and Gnosticism is unsurprising, given the fact that her areas of expertise are heterodox forms of Christianity and “gender studies.” Her bio on the Harvard website states that “Her particular theoretical interests are in discourses of normativity (orthodoxy and heresy), gender studies, and religion and violence.”

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Media Hype Scrap of Papyrus Claiming Jesus Had a Wife | Media Research Center

NBC Chief Medical Editor: 'If You're Anti-Abortion, You Should Be Anti-Pregnancy' | Media Research Center

The following excerpts are from Media Research Center:

• During the Today's Professionals segment on Tuesday's NBC Today, chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman applauded New York City schools handing out morning-after contraception pills to teenage girls without parental consent: "Parents aren't going to like to hear this, but teenagers are having sex....People want to be anti-abortion. If you're anti-abortion you should be anti-pregnancy....the reality is it's smart public health."
• Co-host Matt Lauer teed up Snyderman: "Let's remember that schools have been offering condoms for years now. Is this the next logical step, Nancy?" Moments after Snyderman praised the "smart" policy, advertising executive Donny Deutsch chimed in: "To me, if this stops unwanted pregnancies, this is a no-brainer, it's a fantastic idea."

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NBC Chief Medical Editor: 'If You're Anti-Abortion, You Should Be Anti-Pregnancy' | Media Research Center

THE RULE OF LAW REQUIRES A LEGAL SYSTEM BASED ON NATURAL LAW

Vatican City, 26 September 2012 (VIS) - In New York on 24 September, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States, addressed the United Nations High-level Meeting on the Rule of Law at the National and International Levels.

Archbishop Mamberti spoke in his capacity as Holy See delegate to the sixty-seventh Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Brief extracts from his English-language remarks are given below.

"Faced as we are by challenges old and new, the calling of the High-Level Meeting on the Rule of Law is an important opportunity to reaffirm the will to find political solutions applicable at the global level with the aid of a juridical order solidly based upon the dignity and nature of humanity, in other words, upon the natural law.

"This is the best path to follow if we wish to realise the grand designs and purpose of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which remain relevant by means of various treaties on human rights, disarmament, and the codification of the great principles of international law and in the gathering and progress made in the norms of humanitarian law.

"It will be possible to advance if, as well as working through ever more specialised organs, including in economic and financial matters, the United Nations remains a central point of reference for the creation of a true family of nations, where the unilateral interest of the most powerful ones does not trump the needs of the weaker ones. Such will be possible if legislation at the international level is marked by respect for the dignity of the human person, beginning with the centrality of the right to life and to freedom of religion".

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V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service.

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Bishop's Office Uses Obama Backer to Instruct Catholic Voting | LifeNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeNews.com:

• The office of a Catholic bishop in the battleground state of Ohio is coming under criticism from pro-life groups for having a staffer who publicly supports pro-abortion President Barack Obama instruct Catholics on how to vote.
• While, last week, referring to President Barack Obama, Archbishop Chaput said he couldn’t vote for someone who is pro-abortion, the office Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon is downplaying the importance of pro-life issues in the presidential election.
• Lennon’s office his holding “Faithful Citizenship” meetings purportedly designed to aid Catholics in properly forming their consciences according to the truths of the Catholic faith, which would then guide them in voting on the presidential election. Central among these truths in an election year is the Catholic Church’s teaching that intrinsic evils — actions that are fundamentally and in every circumstance morally wrong, like abortion — may never be supported by faithful Catholics.
• In fact, the Catholic Church terms abortion a “non-negotiable” issue, one which is a serious sin to endorse or promote in any way.

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Bishop's Office Uses Obama Backer to Instruct Catholic Voting | LifeNews.com