Respect Life Radio

John Martignoni: Helping Catholics learn and defend their faith

"First and foremost, my target are the Catholics because Catholics don't know their faith as well as they should, on average," said John Martignoni, founder of Bible Christian Society, longtime former host of EWTN Radio's Open Line and author of Blue Collar Apologetics (Sophia Institute Press), as well as director of the Office of New Evangelization and Stewardship for the Diocese of Birmingham, Ala. "I use the hook of, 'Hey, I can teach you how to answer those questions that you've been getting from your non-Catholic brother-in-law or your neighbors or your coworkers.'"

For more, see a recent EWTN Bookmark show with Martignoni and his Bible Christian Society Facebook page.

Katherine Beck Johnson: Optimism that Roe v. Wade will fall

The U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming review of a 2018 Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks "very much has the potential to undo all of the damage that Roe (v. Wade) and Casey (v. Planned Parenthood) have done and we are incredibly optimistic about it," said Katherine Beck Johnson, an attorney who is research fellow for legal and policy studies at the Family Research Council. 

Beck's recent commentaries include "Explainer: What is Happening with Texas' New Pro-Life Law" and "Mississippi Boldly Leads the Fight to Overrule Roe." Follow her @_katherinebeck on Twitter.

The Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council also has available a publication, "The Best Prolife Arguments for Secular Audiences." 

More than 62 million "Babies Have Been Killed in Abortions Since Roe v. Wade in 1973," according to LifeNews.com, based on estimates from the National Right to Life Committee.

Timothy Gordon: A Christian feminist is a contradiction in terms

The patriarchy "is Christianity in a very real sense. So, when feminists say they want to do away with the patriarchy — down with it — or Marxists say this, of any stripe, they're talking about Christianity. And the funny part is, Christians and Catholics and conservatives being the great losers we are...culturally...we don't know it that when they say, 'Hey, down with the patriarchy,' they're talking about Christianity. But they do," said Timothy J. Gordon, author of "The Case for Patriarchy" (Sophia Institute Press).

 

Follow him @timotheeology on Twitter.

 

 

Frank Cronin: How to know that God exists, without exception

"The truths of the Church are truths, they're not just 'the Church truths.' They have worked this out, not only from a faith standpoint, but from a factual standpoint. One of the startling realities can be that: not only do I know that God exists, but I can prove it...factually and without exception. When you hear the case, you cannot disagree with this. All you can do is deny it. It's right there. It's so clear," said Frank Cronin, author of "The World According to God: The Whole Truth About Life and Living" (Sophia Institute Press). Learn more about Cronin's book and his reversion to the Catholic faith by watching his interview on EWTN's "The Journey Home."

Andrea Picciotti-Bayer: Civil liberties hinge on religious freedom

"Our civil liberties hinge on our respect for religious freedom," said Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, an attorney focused on civil rights and director of the Conscience Project. "These ideologies demand conformity; they don't allow for dissent. And in that respect, it's very contrary to the American tradition of pluralism and allowing for vibrant debate and disagreement on a range of issues. If you don't allow that, and if people's voices who are inspired by faith are silenced, we've really got a totalitarian situation brewing right now."

Picciotti-Bayer is a legal analyst for EWTN News and columnist for the National Catholic Register, with which the Conscience Project has launched the "Religious Freedom Matters" podcast. Follow her @BayerPicciotti on Twitter.

Fr. Brian Mullady: Receiving and retaining God‘s grace

"For a person to be fully alive, as a human being, grace is absolutely necessary," said Father Brian Mullady, O.P., author of books, including "Grace Explained: How to Receive — and Retain — God's Most Potent Gift" (Sophia Institute Press). "One of the reasons I wrote the book is because [in] giving parish missions around the country, I found out that most Catholics are clueless now as to what sanctifying grace means for them...The Council of Trent was very clear that said justification by grace means the forgiveness of sins, yes, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior person. So they don't realize they can have a relationship or friendship with the Holy Trinity."

S.K. Baskerville: What it means to be a gentleman

"There's always been over the centuries attempts to infuse the definition of a gentleman with new meaning, and it usually means some kind of ethical and moral meaning that is perceived to be lacking," said S.K. Baskerville, Ph.D., author of "A Gentleman’s Guide to Manners, Sex, and Ruling the World: How to Survive as a Man in the Age of Misandry – and Do So with Grace" (Sophia Institute Press). "Is a gentleman a wealthy man, a high status man, or is a gentleman a man who behaves properly? Those are questions which we need to continuously ask ourselves." Follow him at StephenBaskerville.com. 

James Carafano: Pres. Biden‘s “unmitigated disaster” in Afghanistan

“It's an unmitigated disaster for one reason: because the decision the president made. And all of the decisions the president made; made it harder to get out and more dangerous,” said James Jay Carafano, vice president of The Heritage Foundation's Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. “And where are we? The answer is: we're in the same place when we started. Our interests in the region haven't changed. It's just now we have endured a lot of misery, an enormous amount of expense; we've gotten people killed. And doing the things that we would need to do to protect America's interests? They're just way, way harder than they were five weeks ago.”

Listen to a previous episode of Carafano on Respect Life Radio: Chaos in the streets is organized violence. Follow him @JJCarafano on Twitter.

Connor Semelsberger: Your tax dollars are funding abortions

A few months into his Administration, not only has Pres. Biden "rerouted money to Planned Parenthood, he's now reverting back to the Obamacare law...and they're going to bill abortion and Obamacare subsidies together, collect them together. And they're not going to let the American public know whether these plans cover abortion or not," said Connor Semelsberger, director of Federal Affairs, Life and Human Dignity at Family Research Council. "It's just important to know that our taxpayer funds are funding abortions through Obamacare."

Analysis by Semelsberger's includes a letter objecting to proposed federal rules, a research paper titled, "America's Direct Deposit to Planned Parenthood" and commentary, "When It Comes to Federal Abortion Funding, Biden Is the All-Time King." Family Research Council and the Charlotte Lozier Institute also have a website, "ObamacareAbortion.com," which provides details on that issue across the country.

Follow the Family Research Council @FRCdc on Twitter.

Meg Kilgannon: Is God calling you to run for school board?

"This is a spiritual war, this is a cultural war. And we are largely fighting over our children and the future," said Meg Kilgannon, a senior fellow for education studies at Family Research Council, which recently launched a School Board Boot Camp. "We're trying to harness this energy that's out there right now around schools and channel it into, maybe some folks running for office and changing the balance of power on some school boards around the country."

 

Kilgannon said that, "The fight over Critical Race Theory has really galvanized people in an unexpected and wonderful way. So, to sort of harness that energy and to channel it into — really prayerfully, thoughtfully considering — if God is calling you to run for office? Is God calling you to run for school board?"

 

Videos of the School Board Boot Camp are online. Follow Kilgannon @meg_kilgannon on Twitter.