Pope Benedict XVI delivered an address to a Vatican conference on organ donation in which he said that “where certainty has not been reached the principle of precaution must prevail.” Read about the address in an Nov. 7, 2008, article posted by Reuters.

Catholic teaching on the definition of death and the ethics of organ harvesting appears to be in flux. In the latter half of 2008 the issue came to the fore when the Vatican newspaper published a front-page column calling for a re-examination of the definition of brain death. Read an article about the letter posted by the […]

Read a June 2, 2011, Catholic News Service story about the mid-June meeting of the Catholic hierarchy at which a document officially condemning physician-assisted suicide was up for discussion.

Julie Nemecek, as the Rev. John Nemecek, was a Baptist minister and longtime professor at Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Mich. The school fired her in December 2006 after she had come out as transgender. She filed a discrimination claim that was later settled, and is now founder and head of a consulting company […]

The Rev. Drew Phoenix, who underwent sex-change surgery and changed his name from Anne Gordon, is executive director of Identity Inc., an LGBT advocacy group in Anchorage, Alaska.

Erin Swenson, a who lives in the Atlanta area and was ordained in 1973 as Eric Karl Swenson by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in 1996 openly changed gender while working as a pastor. She is a licensed marriage therapist in Atlanta, Ga., where she works with individuals and families on gender identity issues.

In 2005, a district court judge ruled in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that teaching intelligent design in public schools was unconstitutional. Many critics of intelligent design heralded the decision as the death knell for creationism, while ID proponents vowed to fight on. Read about it in an Oct. 17, 2008, article posted by the National […]

In 2006, the state of Georgia lost an appeal in federal court to keep stickers on public school science textbooks that described evolution as “a theory, not a fact.” Read about it in a May 26, 2006, story from The New York Times.

On May 3, 2007, during the first debate among the 10 Republican presidential hopefuls, they were asked: “Is there anyone on the stage who does not … believe in evolution?” Three candidates raised their hands: Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. The episode sparked much debate […]