Respect Life Radio

Brad Wilcox: The ripple effects from marriage

“Kids raised by their own married biological parents are markedly less likely to have teenage pregnancy and they're markedly more likely to do well in school, go to college, graduate from college; less likely to be arrested, incarcerated,” said Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. Wilcox also described the “community story” of families that “ripples out and affects our neighbors, our communities and even our country, of course.”

Willis Krumholz: A revolutionary Higher Ed plan

"The reality is that the government — the taxpayers, people listening to this program — you guys subsidize all the stuff that goes on" in higher education, said Willis Krumholz. "It's not just even hiding anymore how anti-Christian, anti-American, pro-Marxist a lot of the teaching is in higher education. It's a real problem."

Krumholz, a fellow at Defense Priorities, wrote an article for The Federalist, titled, "The Right Needs To Adopt This Revolutionary Higher Ed Reform Plan Now."

Helen Raleigh: Standing up to Communist China

"Hong Kong is really the only free place in China," said Helen Raleigh, an author who grew up in Communist China and now lives in Colorado. "People are naturally concerned that should this (extradition) bill pass, Beijing will demand that Hong Kong hand over human rights activists and all the other dissidents. So that's why people took to the streets" in Hong Kong.

Raleigh, who recently wrote an article titled, "China’s ultimate goal is to control American culture, and companies should resist it," also discussed how the National Basketball Association, Apple, Marriott and other U.S. businesses bend to Chinese interests. She also criticized the Vatican's agreement with China on the appointment of bishops, and its effect on the underground Catholic Church there.

Raleigh is a business owner, senior contributor to The Federalist and an immigration policy fellow at the Centennial Institute. Her website is HelenRaleighSpeaks.com and her Twitter handle is @HRaleighspeaks.

Daniel Blomberg: Defending "Religious Liberty for All" at Becket

Becket "is a non-profit law firm that represents people of all faith backgrounds to defend religious liberty for everyone," said Daniel Blomberg, senior counsel at Becket. "From our perspective, if anyone is being denied their religious liberty by the government, then everyone is losing an important part of what religious liberty is. We represent people from all different faith backgrounds, from Anglican to Zoroastrian and everyone in between.

"I personally have represented Muslims and Protestants and Catholics and Sikhs and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Folks from all different backgrounds. The thing that unites them is that they want to serve their God as best they can. In some way, or for some reason, the government is preventing them from doing that."

Blomberg discussed the ongoing case of the Little Sisters of the Poor fighting  against the prior Obama Administration's contraceptive mandate, as well as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship vs. the University of Iowa.

Brian Black: Forming young Catholic men for life and work at Harmel Academy of the Trades

"Harmel Academy of the Trades is a men's Catholic, post-secondary, residential trade school in Grand Rapids, Michigan," said Brian Black, president and co-founder of the new school. "It's open to high school graduates — and young men will enter a program that teaches them a skilled trade, and at the same time, they'll continue to be formed in their humanities education and in their Catholic faith. It's meant to be a college experience but with a trades program training in the mix."

The school, on the Kuyper College campus, is named after Leon Harmel, who "was a successful French Catholic industrialist who led a movement to recognize the dignity and rights of industrial workers," according to the Harmel website. The school is encouraging pre-registration interest at this link, in advance of its admissions process for its first class in the fall of 2020.

"The need for well-formed young men working in the trades is very high," said Black. "The timing is good. But really what we're doing is fleshing out a new mission for the Church."

Jared Staudt: Launching Our Lady of Victory High School

The establishment of Our Lady of Victory High School was "something that was really grass roots, driven by the desire of parents to give their children a fuller education," said R. Jared Staudt, Ph.D., president of the Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Victory High School. Staudt is also the Director of Formation at the Archdiocese of Denver. 

"We are at the St. Louis school building in Englewood," said Staudt. "We have 20 students, so we actually maxed out for our first year here."

Staudt noted the classical school's emphasis on reading the Great Books and Socratic dialogue, as well as experiential learning, such as the freshman class taking a three-day backpacking trip.

"We really want to emphasize this kind-of hands-on experience of Catholic education, and Catholic culture, more generally. We emphasize spiritual formation, service and the fine arts very heavily," said Staudt of the high school, which is affiliated with the growing Chesterton Schools Network.

"We speak of the trivium and the quadrivium in classical education," said Staudt. "The trivium is just grammar, logic, rhetoric, that is, being able to read a text well and understand it; logic, to be able to think about it, comprehend it, to discern what's true, what's false; and then rhetoric, to be able to talk about it, to be able to write well, to speak effectively. The quadrivium is then applying this logic to the universe. You begin with arithmetic, geometry, extending this into space. Also, music, looking at the mathematical qualities of beauty. And then, astronomy, which is basically the foundation of the sciences, the application of math to the universe."

Made This Way: Authentic Femininity and Masculinity (Oct. 23, 2019 event)

Respect Life Denver presented "Made This Way: Authentic Femininity and Masculinity | Transcending the established norms of our culture" at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Broomfield, Colo., on Oct. 23, 2019.

Speaking at the event were Deacon Geoff Bennett, vice president of Parish & Community Relations at Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver, as well as the host of Respect Life Radio; Lynn Grandon, program director of the Respect Life Office; and Senite Sahlezghi, LPC, program director of Marisol Health in Lafayette, Colo. 

 

 

Tom Martinez: The path to Blind Faith Brewing

While planning to launch a brewery, "a major hurdle was thrown in my way and I lost my eyesight" in 2016, recalled Tom Martinez about his remarkable journey and the creation of Blind Faith Brewing. "When we talk about walking by faith, and not by sight, it's the willingness to take what comes, because you are going to have struggles in life. And sometimes they're unexplainable and you don't know why." Read more about Martinez in this 2018 article in the Denver Catholic. 

Hear dozens of previous interviews by Respect Life Radio host Deacon Geoff Bennett by going to RespectLifeRadio.com, with podcasts available on Podbean and Apple Podcasts. Respect Life Radio also airs every week on the Catholic Radio Network in Denver.

Cathy Ruse: Kids as lab rats in Sex Ed social experiment

"Leftists who run our nation’s public schools love to hide behind the skirts of the APA when it comes to crazy Sex Ed," wrote Cathy Ruse, referring to the American Psychological Association. She also noted, "Children are being used as lab rats in a social experiment."

Ruse, senior fellow and director of human dignity at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., explains on Respect Life Radio the damage being done to kids in schools.

"The lesson plan for 12-year-olds in California forces teachers — this is Sex Ed — to use the term 'partners' because the mandate says that terms like boyfriend and girlfriend are discriminatory because some 12-year-olds may be non-monogamous. God forbid we speak of spouse or husband or wife, that's long gone," said Ruse. "...You have to use the plural 'partners' because we may have non-monogamous, polyamorous relationships from these young teens. It's stomach-churning, really."

John and Keri Ebel: End late-term abortion in Colorado

"We believe that the people in Colorado are going to become informed about what's happening in our state with the late-term abortions — up to birth, for any reason — and vote to end this practice," said Keri Ebel in regard to Proposition 120, which needs 124,632 valid petition signatures by March 4, 2020, to go on the Colorado ballot in November 2020.

The initiative would prohibit abortions after 22 weeks in Colorado.

"People don't know that Colorado was the first state to decriminalize abortion, said John Ebel, referring to the 1967 law. "So we feel like this is a perfect battleground. We're going to start turning this around. And this is the time to do it."

John and Keri Ebel are part of the Coalition for Women and Children, which is promoting the initiative through the website "DueDateTooLate.com." The urgent need is for people to gather petition signatures, with a training process available to those who sign up on the website.

Respect Life Denver, the office of Catholic Charities that also produces Respect Life Radio, is helping recruit volunteers to gather petition signatures. If interested, send an email to life@ccdenver.org.

Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila, in a recent Denver Catholic column titled "Coloradans have a chance to rescue the unborn," wrote, "I urge all Catholics to get involved in this effort!"