The Roman Catholic Church says its doctrine that only men can be priests is infallible, which in Catholic teaching means that it is irreversible and without error. See a Nov. 19, 1995, New York Times story about the statement, issued with then-Pope John Paul II’s approval by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was headed […]

Read an undated explanation of why the Southern Baptist Convention’s Faith and Message was revised in 2000 to say, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” The explanation was written by the executive committee of the SBC, the largest Protestant denomination in […]

Read a discussion posted on FreeSpeechDebate.com about whether or not it was acceptable for Tom Cruise to threaten to sue South Park over an episode making fun of Scientology.

Sean B. Tipton is a president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research which represents universities and health advocates and supports research cloning.

Andrew Fergusson is president and CEO of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, a nonprofit group founded by Christian bioethicists. The group has issued a statement on stem cell research.

Douglas Johnson is legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, which opposes embryonic stem cell research. He says bills such as one New Jersey passed in 2003 legalizing embryonic stem cell research promote fetus farming. Contact Megan Dillon.

Judy Norsigian, co-founder of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and co-author of the classic feminist book Our Bodies, Ourselves (Touchstone, 2005) and its updates, testified in 2004 in favor of the House ban on therapeutic cloning, saying it takes advantage of women’s bodies to harvest their eggs.

The Genetics & Public Policy Center of the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., “works to help policy leaders, decision makers, and the public better understand the rapidly evolving field of human genetics and its application to healthcare.” The Center studies the ethical, social and legal implications of genetic technologies, including PGD, surveys public opinion on genetics, […]

E. Christian Brugger is J. Francis Cardinal Stafford Professor of Moral Theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. He wrote the essay “Embryos, Clones and Stem Cells” for the New Oxford Review (October 2003).