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Catholic chaplains return to Walter Reed

Franciscan friars have returned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — one of the top U.S. military hospitals and the place where President Biden goes for his medical care — to provide Catholic chaplaincy services after a two-month hiatus. The Franciscans were under contract for 20 years at the medical center until the Defense Health Agency abruptly canceled the contract and gave it to a secular contractor, right before Easter. Critics noted that Catholic priests can work only for bishops, not private companies. The Most Rev. Timothy P. Broglio, archbishop for the Military Services, complained the switch denied Catholic patients and staff their religious free exercise by leaving the hospital bereft of enough chaplains. The Defense Health Agency canceled the contract, took new bids and brought the friars back. Archbishop Broglio lauded the move and praised Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Solhjem, the U.S. Army chief of chaplains who is an Assemblies of God pastor, for helping to bring in extra personnel during the interruption as well as making sure the new contract was handled properly.

Southern Baptists slam door on female pastors

This year’s business meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, held in New Orleans, left one famous Baptist pastor singing the blues. Saddleback Church, the southern California “megachurch” founded by Rick Warren — a fourth-generation Baptist preacher — had its request for reinstatement as an SBC congregation turned down by a vote of 9,437-1,212. The church was booted for hiring a woman as a “teaching pastor,” a role Southern Baptist doctrine says can go only to men.“We made this effort knowing we weren’t going to win,” Mr. Warren told reporters after the votes were tallied. “This is going to be an inquisition, and it will probably go on for 10 years,” he said. “And we will be the ‘Shrinking Baptist Convention.’”

Bishops slam L.A. Dodgers for supporting drag-queen ‘nuns’

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops cried foul when the Los Angeles Dodgers reversed their decision to un-invite a male drag-queen troupe, the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” for the team’s annual “Pride Night” celebration, The Washington Times’ Valerie Richardson reported. The “nuns” will receive an award for their charitable works, but the Catholic bishops say honoring the group promotes “blasphemy.” The bishops called for Catholics to “pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart, and make an act of reparation — an act offered to the Lord with the intention of repairing the spiritual damage inflicted by sin” on June 16. That’s the day the church observes the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and also the day the team planned the Pride event. Along with the prayer request, Catholic Vote and the Catholic League are both running ads in the L.A. area urging a boycott of the game. The Dodgers show no signs repenting for inviting the drag troupe a second time, but instead have brought back a “Christian Faith and Family Day” to be held July 30, which the team last held in 2018.

Want to start a faith-based nonprofit? Head to Alabama or Texas

Faith-based charities provide 40% of social safety-net spending in the U.S., studies reveal, and they receive 28% of Americans’ charitable giving. But running a religious nonprofit is far easier in Alabama and Texas than in Maryland or Michigan, a new analysis revealed. Alabama and Texas came in first and second overall in an analysis of how “friendly” state regulations are to religious nonprofits, according to the Napa Legal Institute, a Washington-based organization. In 50th place, Maryland was almost dead last, followed only by Michigan at number 51.  Maryland is “one of the worst” states for faith-based charities because of financial audit requirements to solicit donations, the lack of a state-level Religious Freedom Restoration Act and “no meaningful exemptions” to public accommodation rules relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. Those requirements may conflict with a religious group’s tenets, the legal group said.

Michael Catt, Baptist pastor and Christian movie pioneer, dies

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The Rev. Michael Catt was not the kind of movie producer who walked the red carpet or stood out at the Oscars, but the co-founder of Sherwood Pictures at his Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, changed the film industry nonetheless. Beginning 20 years ago, his low-budget films such as “Flywheel,” “Fireproof” and “Courageous” showed Hollywood that wholesome, family-focused entertainment could draw crowds. “Fireproof,” which starred Kirk Cameron, cost just $1 million to make but pulled in $33 million at theaters and sparked a raft of similar productions. Retired after 32 years as pastor at Sherwood Baptist, he battled prostate cancer and its complications before dying. His wife, two grown daughters and a granddaughter survive him.

Colton Dixon: My faith fuels my musical passion

The latest “Higher Ground With Billy Hallowell” podcast brings us an artist who credits faith with his love of music and propelled him toward success. Colton Dixon, a former “American Idol” star, also told Billy about how his moral compass helped him navigate the waters of sudden fame after succeeding on a reality TV show.

In our opinion

We’re not gonna take it. A new survey from Gallup finding that Americans are the most socially conservative they have been since 2012 should alarm progressives, Billy Hallowell writes. “The debate over critical race theory, gender madness, public schools and the general obsessive push for far-left values in Hollywood, media and universities has reached its climax,” he writes. “A notable cohort feels tired, frustrated and activated — and is starting to retract. From Disney to Bud Light and Target, brands that once thought it safe to wade into contentious waters are learning the hard way that the public will no longer remain silent and pretend the insanity isn’t happening.” Christian church is ‘normalizing sin.’ A relentless drumbeat of support of the LGBTQ agenda from some Christians is “normalizing sin,” columnist Everett Piper writes in what he called an “open letter” to the American church.  “Your ‘affirming’ mantra is not only bad theology, but it is terrible ontology and anthropology,” Mr. Piper writes. “When you accept the definition of the person as being “gay, trans, bi, queer,” or even cis, for that matter, you are admitting that you think those who have a given sexual appetite are defined by that desire.” Pushing the ideology that “love is love” departs from the clear message of Scripture, he writes. “Yours is not the good news of the Gospel. It is not the message of Christ. It is sin, and if Jesus were still in his grave, he’d be rolling over,” Mr. Piper said. Gratitude binds us together. Even though it can make us individually uncomfortable, columnist Michael McKenna writes, it’s important to recognize the value of gratitude to society as a whole. “Gratitude, however, is an acknowledgment of a debt, an obligation to someone,” he writes. “Indeed, even at this late date in the republic, it is not uncommon in the American West to hear the phrase ‘much obliged’ in the place of ‘thank you.’ Think about the phrase ‘much obliged’ for a moment, and you will understand the nature of gratitude and obligation.” Mr. McKenna says gratitude reminds us of our connections with other people and our many obligations to each other. “It is one of the small, beautiful and powerful sentiments that knit us together as friends, families, societies and nations,” he writes. How to know the ‘unknowable.’ In his “Ask Dr. E” column, Mr. Piper responds to a questioner writing that knowing about God is like seeing the contents of a “closed cube” that the desire to know about God shows the “cube” is not empty, but something must be in there. “If everything is relative, and if there is no such thing as a transcendent truth, then why spend any time trying to prove that your argument is true? Why contend that you’re right if there is no standard of rightness to prove I am wrong,” he asks.