Phoenix Catholic Diocese Bishop Thomas Olmsted set off a firestorm last month after he responded swiftly  to word that an abortion had taken place in late 2009 at Catholic-affiliated St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.  His response was not just his anger that the abortion had been authorized in contradiction to church tenets but that a veteran nun had been part of the decision-making through the hospital’s ethics committee.
The decision to terminate the pregnancy came when doctors determined …

Tolerance is tricky and problematic. During my decades in newspaper work, I have followed the rules to give balance to all sides in news stories and not interject my personal observations, beliefs or prejudices.

Meanwhile, during many of the 17 years I focused on religion, especially, I was given the instructions and freedom to write columns, commentaries and blogs that were clearly identified as opinion. I didn’t shrink from that role. I estimate I have produced more than 5,000 commentaries of one sort or another. Columns ran in the same section …

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gets well-deserved scrutiny and disdain in the documentary “8: The Mormon Propo$ition,” which opened in limited theaters Friday. We saw it at Harkins’ Camelview in Scottsdale.  It chronicles the painstaking effort of the Mormon Church to overturn same-sex marriage in California when Proposition 8 was put on the November 2008 ballot.
The  activism and money by Mormons turned the tide and got the measure approved 52 to 48 percent.  While only 2 percent of California’s population is LDS, it appears that 71 percent …

Legalism is especially brutal when it is applied to religion. Stern, absolute, human-crafted rules are handed down with pontification as if they with divine sanctions and dictates. Cocksure religionists rarely have justice or people’s welfare in mind as they confer their detailed rules, be they how many “hail Marys” must be recited or what foods are abominable to an observant believer or that a Mormon missionary can only call his mother on Mother’s Day and Christmas. Never expect rules to be reasonable.
The Jewish weekly “The Forward” this week carries an …

The momentum continues strong to “normalize” homosexuality as part of God’ creation. The greater society has largely come to terms with the fact that a segment of humanity is gay and that it is not a choice that our sisters and brothers are attracted to their own gender and want to experience and share love with a same-sex partner. The apparent move in Congress to end the military don’t-ask, don’t tell policy that keeps outstanding people out of the military for being authentic about their sexuality is long overdue.
Given the …